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Less powerful motorcycles, ASO's solution to avoid fatal accidents on the Dakar
Less powerful motorcycles, ASO's solution to avoid fatal accidents on the Dakar

Video: Less powerful motorcycles, ASO's solution to avoid fatal accidents on the Dakar

Video: Less powerful motorcycles, ASO's solution to avoid fatal accidents on the Dakar
Video: Extended highlights of Stage 6 presented by Aramco - #Dakar2024 2024, March
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The motorcycle category is one of the most vulnerable in any competition, even more so if we get into raids of the stature of the Dakar or events such as the Rally of Morocco or Baja Aragón, all of these already under the mantle of the FIA and the FIM and with the ASO event prepared to open the new format of the Cross-country Rally World Cup in 2021.

Hence these organizations and the participating teams and pilots have come together to discuss what measures should be taken to reduce injuries in accidents in those who participate on these two-wheelers, damages that sometimes and unfortunately end with death as a result.

The 2020 Dakar had to mourn two deaths and many spectacular falls

Ricky Brabec Dakar 2020 3
Ricky Brabec Dakar 2020 3

That he toughest rally in the world It has not had its best edition this year, it is not something alien to anyone. Even the end of 19 years of KTM supremacy led by the victory of the Honda team and its rider Ricky Brabec was half celebrated, as no one had forgotten and will not be able to forget the passing of beloved Paulo Gonçalves.

Portuguese he left his life in the seventh stage of this harsh discipline after suffering a serious accident, dying practically on the spot and without the ASO doctors being able to do anything more for the Hero pilot.

And during the previous and subsequent stages the motorcycle riders continued to have scares and falls, like the one that left Adrian Van Bereven out of the race in the third stage, when his Yamaha was 'sinister'. The Frenchman fared better than Gonçálves but went home with a major hip injury and a fractured right clavicle.

Paulo Goncalves Dakar 2020
Paulo Goncalves Dakar 2020

Other participants in this category such as Laia sainz They saw very closely the sand and stones of the stages in Saudi Arabia, the country where the Dakar caravan made its debut after leaving South America.

With the pain for what happened with Paulo and after an eighth stage neutralized in the motorcycle and quad category, the riders had to get back on their saddles to complete the four days that remained ahead of them. a second part of the Dakar that many of the participants assured that it was being "too fast", with zones in which it was possible to roll full, which put in danger the security.

Straver Dakar 2020
Straver Dakar 2020

Edwin Straver was the second victim of the Dakar 2020, dying in the Netherlands days after his accident in the penultimate stage, in which he fell rolling at about 50 km / h, an accident so spectacular that it left him severely damaged.

Of course, they are not the only ones who have died running this extreme test, but since the caravan left Africa, there have been many voices that have been raised asking to return to the stages of so much navigation of yore. Of course, high speeds were also reached there, but deaths from falls of participants on a motorcycle is something that has not been remedied in recent years.

Laia Sanz Dakar 2020 Saudi Arabia
Laia Sanz Dakar 2020 Saudi Arabia

Of course stages that allow going at high speed are not the solution, as Laia Sanz herself assured in statements after the death of Paulo Gonçalves.

ASO wants bikes that run less, airbags and new navigation towers

With everything that happened in the 42nd edition of the Dakar, it is practically logical that everyone involved in the race, especially the motorcycle participants, wants to safer stages. Hence, at the meeting held in Lisbon they have taken a series of decisions that will be tested in the various appointments that take place until June.

Ktm Dakar Rally 2019 139
Ktm Dakar Rally 2019 139

On the one hand, it was decided to use a flange on the air intake that feeds the 449, 3 cc and approximately 70 hp engine that would have, for example, the KTM 450 Rally with which Toby Price, Matthias Walkner and Sam Sunderland have raced this year. In this way, the top speed of the motorcycles should be reduced, in this case below the 180 km / h that the Austrian model manages to reach, although it has not been specified how far the limitation will reach.

Another aspect to be dealt with has been the ' road book'or road book with which all the participants navigate but that those who pilot two-wheelers have to drive without help and while trying not to divert their attention from the route and the obstacles that lie ahead.

Ktm Dakar
Ktm Dakar

Add more navigation between the different check points and make it difficult for vehicles to reach high speeds by tricky tracks with dunes or other obstacles that make the drivers depress the throttle, especially in those moments in which they need to look carefully at the information that appears in the 'road book'.

In addition, there will be other changes for the good of the two-wheeler class at the Dakar, as work is underway on the development of a more advanced navigation system tower, which adds more acoustic and visual alerts that can warn the pilot of nearby dangers without him having to stop looking at the route he has to follow, a situation that would prevent many falls. They are also studying making the use of airbag vests mandatory, which are already proving their effectiveness as the 'neck brake' or cervical protector did in the past.

Hopefully all of this helps prevent more deaths in this popular test. Long live the Dakar and the legends that stayed in its path!

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