Notice that most of the bodywork is actually fuel tanks. The handguards look a little dodgy though.

While the bike is based on KTMs standard 690, when comparing the rally bike to the standard model, the differences, particularly if you begin looking beneath the surface, are striking.

From it’s carbon fibre skid plate, to the full WP suspension and 36l fuel capacity, this is a purpose built rally bike designed to compete in FIM Rally competition. It’s the very same machine ridden by Dakar front runners Marc Coma and Cyril Despres. Before you say “That’s it, I’m buying one, where do I pony up my $50,000?”, you’ll need an FIM license to get on the waiting list. This is also a very limited edition model, produced in sufficient numbers to meet FIM homologation requirements. You won’t find it at your friendly KTM dealer, in fact, there are only two of these bikes in North America!

After arriving in the shop at Duncan Motorsports, Don’s bike was shipped to Europe to allow Bernie to finish the prep work, then then off to South America. The bike has now arrived in Argentina, awaiting Don’s arrival.

With 70bhp and 57 ft-lbs of torque, we look forward to seeing Don ripping across the dunes on this baby!

Today’s stage was very tough due to the heat and dunes. Natalie provided the following update.

It was a very long stage, there are still guys out there in the dunes. We usually have a very full house for the dinner and briefing, but tonight there were a lot of empty spaces. Teams were straggling in looking pretty tired.

The stage started with a long off piece section with small dunes called dunettes (they are small but not easy to ride and difficult to navigate in). The big challenge of the day was the 20kms of absolute off piece dunes meaning there was no route through it – Don had to navigate through using cap headings. He made it through but he swears he climbed every dune in the 20kms. He said it was really quite a sensation to be in a dune field so large that you couldn’t see any end to them. Navigation was difficult but he got through. Don is still finding the bike a challenge to ride but is adapting his riding to the bike as best he can. At the last part of the stage there was 25 km’s of fech fech (fine silty sand with a thin crust) so Don was really glad to see the end of it.

As an observer at the stages and dinner table talk you cannot believe what happens to these guys in a day and they just continue forward. There are some amazing stories.

We have a little controversy going on at this time. It appears that Cyril, who is in the lead, did not hand his time card in at the end of the special. Apparently for good reason, he had gone back to assist another rider and in all the excitement forgot to hand in his time card. He rode really well today and would be a shame to see him lose the rally for a technicality like that (but then again that’s the rules)!.

Tomorrow is last day. We are all looking forward to it. Being part of the rally is such an exciting and amazing experience.

Good luck in stage 6 Don!