Dakar 2013

[NordieBoy]

Looks like Honda is stepping up to the plate...

[Eddieb]

With what, a shady artists sketch of what an unbranded bike could possibly look like?

We need more than that Nordie

[Crim]

http://world.honda.com/news/2012/c12...ex.html?from=r

off the pig thread

[Night Falcon]

http://world.honda.com/news/2012/c12...ex.html?from=r

off the pig thread

The irony of it "Tetsuo Suzuki, President, Honda Racing Corporation"

[Brian d marge]

I work at Asakadai Honda Hrc on tuesday mornings , unfortuantly that part of the building is sealed of,,,big style ..bum

Stephen

[NordieBoy]

Honda has announced its intention to participate as a works team in the motorcycle class in the Dakar Rally to be held in January 2013 in South America, travelling north to south through Peru, Chile and Argentina.

The Honda team, to be called Team HRC, will include Portuguese rider Helder Rodrigues, who took third place in the 2012 Dakar Rally, and Brazilian Felipe Zanol, who brings a wealth of experience in motocross and enduro race events, as well as Sam Sunderland (United Kingdom) and Javier Pizzolito (Argentina).

The manufacturer will have its work cut out for it at Dakar if they are to make a dent into the dominance shown this year by KTM. Cyril Despres won ahead of fellow KTM rider Marc Coma and KTM motorcycles took seven of the top eight places in the class. New Honda gasser Rodrigues was the only man to break up the KTM party, finishing third on a Yamaha.

“The Dakar requires competitors to cover several hundred kilometers per day for more than two weeks. It needs a totally different type of vehicle from events such as motocross, trials and road races,” said Tetsuo Suzuki, President, Honda Racing Corporation. “Honda has put a great deal of effort into designing and building a powerful and winning machine. We are aiming for the championship from this first year.”

Honda competed nine times in the motorcycle class in the forerunner of the present Dakar Rally, the Paris-Dakar Rally, from 1981 through to 1989, and was a winner five times during that period. It has been 23 years since it last participated in the Rally.

They will ride a prototype machine developed and produced by the Motorcycle R&D Center at Honda R&D. The prototype machine is based on the CRF450X, the popular worldwide enduro racing model that combines ease of handling with superior competitive strength. Kit parts designed for use on the standard CRF450X model have also been developed and will be made available to a limited number of teams.

Some big names there...

[Night Falcon]

Honda have got a lot of work in front of them to get the new bike to match their expectations for dakar 2013. I thought one of the reasons they limited the race to 450's was to break KTMs dominance (that didn't work) and give other manufactures a chance. Its good to see honda step up to the challenge...albeit 3 years later. Maybe they will get seroius about a new adventure bike....700cc FI 150kg 75hp 25litre tank tuned suspension

[Brainflex]

Honda have experience of winning the Baja 1000, surely they are capable of challenging KTM in a longer race.

[NordieBoy]

Honda have experience of winning the Baja 1000, surely they are capable of challenging KTM in a longer race.

KTM have experience of winning the Dakar, surely they are capable of challenging Honda in a shorter race.

Kawasaki almost did it...

---------------------------------------------

Or to look at it another way...
Honda just have to make the bikes last 10 times longer than for Baja...



The amount of potential publicity at the Dakar should make all the manufacturers sit up and take notice.

[dino3310]

KTM have experience of winning the Dakar, surely they are capable of challenging Honda in a shorter race.

.

they have http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/511/83...am-Effort.aspx

[pete-blen]

KTM / Husky / GasGas build bikes for a smaller market the japs havn't
seriously wanted to play in.. but now that market is getting
big enough..I think they might deside it's time to jump into
there sand pit and play..
look what Honda managed to do to F1 in a couple of years then
dominate it for the next 10 years..
If Honda was to let there R&D department lose..
But they will try to build a bike to appeal to a bigger market
and it just won't work.. you will end up with a red Tenere type thing..

Yamaha have just built a 900 tenere.. I would have thought a 450 would
have had a bigger market appeal.. there new 250 tenere is based on the XT
the WR would have been a better base bike to start with..

What ever the japs try they will fuck it up..

[Brian d marge]

What ever the japs try they will fuck it up..

you dont know how true that is , not always ...but the case for the prosecution is looking pretty good

Stephen

[NordieBoy]

they have http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/511/83...am-Effort.aspx

They've tried for the last few years...

Neduro/Hilslamer/Pyndon on Ned's 950SE was probably the best result so far though

[Night Falcon]

The amount of potential publicity at the Dakar should make all the manufacturers sit up and take notice.

Manufactures and TVNZ/3!! The coverage of one of the worlds premier motor racing events with NZ represented by one of the worlds top enduro riders at this years race was frankly well below par. Those TV programmers need to seriously rethink the lenght of their sideburns for 2013 !!

[Brian d marge]

Ok news from HRC , I dont know if this has been posted before or is on the net.

The bikes have been under going testing in America and last week ish were shipped to Morocco ( five bikes for the Moroccan race) not sure of the exact line up a Portuguese ride ( remadez ??? something like that ) and a Moroccan rider ( i think )
yesterday the spares were shipped from HRC , so everyone here is really busy ( LOONG HOURS )

anyway thats all I know this end.

Stephen