China's Taklimakan Desert Rally - bring sunscreen and beach umbrella
Innovation comes through flogging your equipment against superior machinery. See what broke, what didn't, and to have the racers find out the design flaws quicker than the engineering department ever will.
Thankfully, the Taklimakan Rally is the perfect place for Chinese manufacturers to run with the big dogs - and this year they beat many of them!
For more than 10 days earlier this may, the Taklimakan Desert in Western China was the site of some pretty awesome racing. As far as I could tell, Shineray, Qingqi and XTR were represented here. (Last year, Jialing brought their JH600 bike to test in the rally - now that bike is available in China and many other countries)
If you browse these boards you'll notice some bikes that you've seen before. Supersignet's Shineray 200 (with massive 20 liter tank) and CrazyCarl's Qingqi 200 were well represented by factory backed teams. The star of the Chinese manufacturers was "XTR" with their XTR250F machine.
Let's take a look at some pics!
The Opening Ceremonies
http://www.moto8.com/fen/20080502_63...E6elToTsIz.jpg
One brave foreigner, Torben, took on all the other Chinese pilots. Entry fees are extremely reasonable when compared to those of the other international rallys.
http://www.moto8.com/fen/20080501_fb...nkYehooHNt.jpg
There's a Chinese bike underneath all the accessories.
http://www.moto8.com/fen/20080501_5a...MBc6uC5mbb.jpg
Shineray had many bikes there. THis is the one similar to Supersignet's ride. The front red numberplate/light looks pretty good on this bike.
http://www.moto8.com/fen/20080502_26...4cULzKPvIP.jpg
Is this Hyosung 200cc made here in China? I'm not sure but they are readily available here.
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/6255/hyosungiv0.jpg
The Qingqi 200cc, like CrazyCarl's bike I believe.
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/9173/qinqi2md8.jpg
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/4...ndqinqiil0.jpg
All of the above bikes were in the HT5 class. That's 249cc and below.
This is strange though- this Shineray 200cc is grouped in the HT6 class (250-399cc). Maybe they are testing out a new larger displacement engine?
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1...eray612th0.jpg
This Shineray has USD forks - hmmm interesting! Perhaps this will be a future model.
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/6...sdforksyz1.jpg
XTR250F (actually 230cc displacement) was screaming fast in the HT5 class.
They certainly had a very good rider but this bike also looked very comfortable running with the imported machines. In many stages this XTR beat quite a few of the big displacement KTMs and Yamahas.
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/802/xtr6cs6.jpg
Here is the bike that finished SIXTH OVERALL in the final standings - HT508 machine.
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/7838/xtrfu3.jpg
BRAVO!!! I hope to get my hands on one of these XTR250Fs someday (oh, by the way, the engine is actually 230cc stock so that's why they run in the small displacement HT5 class)
China's Taklimakan Desert Rally - bring sunscreen and beach umbrella
Anything is possible, but I doubt there is any importation of them gray market or otherwise. I could only imagine fellow Horizonsunlimited members bringing one up from a trip and selling it to you, or you going there yourself and bringing it up.
The other problem you might run into is EPA rules. In theory, one could register most anything with a minimum of street equipment in the state of Arizona, but I have yet to see Mexican market specific cars registered in Arizona, while I see plenty of them driving here with the various Mexican states' license plates (i.e. VW's Bug). There is obviously a reason for this, and this is a state where one could street register quads (US EPA-approved ones).
Since you mentioned Utah, I would look into Pitster Pro. They are a primarily pitbike related company, one of the best in the US, but they have recently added a full-size 250 dirt bike, enduro, and motard, built by Galaxy Moto of China. Ironically, Pitster Pro gets their bikes via Puzey of South Africa, so all threes' companies are the same bike. However, Pitster only uses the 25 hp liquid-cooled engine, while the Puzey uses air-cooled engines and offers the liquid-cooled engines as optional on their 250 lineup.
This bike, in 230, air-cooled trim, came in 6th place in last year's Talikaman rally, behind only some big named brands (bigger engines, too), and first in their class.
Re: China's Taklimakan Desert Rally - bring sunscreen and beach umbrella
MCM riders,
Lets finally do this.... I am in and I can help get bikes..... We can compete informally as the MCM team.....:deal:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CrazyCarl
Sweet! We should start taking serious tally of those people interested in participating next years rally and their backgrounds, interests, etc. This will make it easier to pitch a sponsorship ride to a manuf.
The numbers I hear on this vary from time to time so lets see who's in! Serious folks only!
:riding:
CC
Lets start be getting a list of serious participants together. I 'll start this ; send me a PM with brief info and Email and I will begin to organize some sort of meeting (maybe virtually).
Re: China's Taklimakan Desert Rally - bring sunscreen and beach umbrella
We had a little bit of energy going for this last one until it was canceled.:taz:
I think that would be one of the most bad-ass projects ever! Get some photo and video support and we'd really have something to write home about! :thumbsup:
CC
Re: China's Taklimakan Desert Rally - bring sunscreen and beach umbrella
On the same time as the Taklimakan Rally last year they held a 2 day Desert rally in Turlafan.The price was alot cheaper to enter which included all accommodation in hotel's and all meals and a free tour around Turlafan for your family or friends.It was for bikes only too.Strangely enough the person who organized this is a good friend of the people who organized the Taklimakan desert rally.The Turlafan desert rally was still run last year.
The Tulafan desert rally is more laid back.
Re: China's Taklimakan Desert Rally - bring sunscreen and beach umbrella
Please tell us more.... you can never get enough rally...
