Hi guys - new to the board and just dropped in to see if you have any advice and to let you guys know what's happening other side of the world - in the United Arab Emirates.

Mid-January me and two bros are going to attempt to be the first people to ride Around the UAE Off-Road.

That's around 1200km of serious sand dune desert (crossing the northern-most corner of the Rub al Khali, largest sand desert in the world) of flat gravel plains and of stark mountains - no touching tarmac.



We've registered for a Guinness World Record, and hopefully we'll be able to get it accepted.

6-9 days of insane riding, guys! 8) - January 16-24, 2009

We're going to be filming a web-documentary with helmet cams and we've got the support of companies that believe in the spirit of adventure:

QUAD BIKES PROVIDED BY:



SUPPORT VEHICLE PROVIDED BY:


and the UAE exclusive distributor:




START/ARRIVAL CEREMONIES AND PRESS CONFERENCE LOCATION PROVIDED BY:



A "REACH YOUR DREAMS" ACTIVITY BY UGRU STUDENT DEVELOPMENT AT:



AND WITH THE PROUD SUPPORT OF THE MEMBERS AT DUBAI DESERT CLUB:



The adventure of a lifetime starts with organizations that understand the drive for accomplishment, and without sponsors it would be impossible to do.

If there's interest on the board, I'll be glad to keep you guys updated on how we're preparing, on what the route is, how we're organizing, and what difficulties we face and how we'll work to overcome them - your advice or comments or warnings are welcome!

If our adventure can inspire yours, then make us welcome!

 

Wow, that sounds pretty extreme, what kinds of machines and with what mods are you guys running? Also is your support vehicle carrying the extra gas, or are you guys strapping it on somehow?

 

Yeah man - it's actually pretty scary now that it's confirmed we're going. I've never done anything this big so hope you guys can help us with advice not only to make it, but also to make it BACK HOME... LOL

The quads are stock KTM (except for twist throttle and extended tank) and they absolutely rock. I review vehicles for a magazine for a living and the KTM are at the top at this moment in time, IMO. Check them out: http://www.ktmquad.com/


Support vehicle is a Ford Expedition, with lift and custom bumpers (I think, it's still being prepped), so that will give us plenty of room and towing power. It runs a 5.4L V8 Triton engine with an output over 300HP and enormous torque, so that beast will pull a 2-quad trailer loaded with all our stuff.

We will try not to strap anything on the quads as we need to move our butts around quite a bit on the slopes, and we plan to meet up with the Ford every three hours.

Ask away - make us think every detail through, guys!

 

Good luck!

 

Sounds like a great trip, ride safe. You should have it maped so we can follow your progress that would be cool. Go For It. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

For any of the navvy freaks out there, we're using mrsid sat images from NASA (bit dated, year 2000) in Ozi Explorer, which links to our Garmin GPS from a laptop in the Ford Expedition support vehicle without having to have internet connectivity. Plus 2 GPS on the quads themselves.

We also check up on Google Earth because they have recent sat maps, but we only use their free service.

Here's a screenshot of the southwestern part, coming down from the northwest corner and across the heavy-duty dunes of the Empty Quarter, called the Liwa area in the UAE - that's to the bottom right of the image.

The yellow waypoints show our intended route. I just put these at random to give an idea, as our own files are jam-packed with yellow markers.



This is what the Liwa dunes look like close-up:


Here is the continuation of the first image, from centre to southeast corner and then up north.


This is our final stage, but it's worrying from a navigation standpoint because it's sharp mountains we need to cross west to east. The yellow line shows the border between UAE and Oman.


And this is a close-up of those mountains - finding our way is going to be tough.


I have all sorts of details if anyone's interested in more on the route or terrain, or how we're running this.

 

Thanks for the pic's. again have a safe trip.

 

looks like a fun trip/ride, if i was their i would ride my quad at 100% throttle [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

LOOOOL

You most certainly can... on the uphill.

 

Awesome prossett!! That looks like it will be a lot of fun and quite a challenge. Good luck on it! I look forward to seeing some video of the trip.