Riding ahead of the pack
As well as riding, Rod Kirkpatrick was the official photographer and it was quite a challenge…
“With three weeks to go, I found a bike on Autotrader and hired a van. Bespoke Rallies did the deal on the phone and I took the bike to Hampshire to be prepped. The 42,000-mile 2010 Yamaha XT660Z, came fitted with panniers, a pair of plastic fuel cans, topbox, tankbag, heated grips, new Michelin Sirac 70:30 tyres, and fresh chain and sprockets. The owner said it had already been to Africa, hence the ‘Morocco’ sticker on the mudguard. It was a £3000 bargain. Stormy weather meant the support truck and a few of the riders had a call from Brittany Ferries requesting they all leave 48 hours earlier than scheduled. My bike was strapped into the truck and missed having any rally prep or even an oil change. I would ride it as it was. For the next three weeks I worked the little single very hard, riding ahead of the others most mornings, photographing them as they passed me and then rushing off to get ahead.
Aside from checking the oil and water – and oiling the chain once on our rest day in Marrakech – the only thing the Yamaha needed was a cabletie to stop the heated-grips grips cable fouling the throttle.
The road-biased Michelins worked well on most of the tracks, but were a little out of their depth in sand. I blame the tyres and not my lack of talent for dumping it once!
I was stunned by the bike’s ability to cope. I loved it so much I’m now thinking of buying it back.
‘I worked the little single very hard’