How 'smashy smashy' the peistes?
 

I'm of to Maroc in late april next year and have turned my thought on to preping the bike.

It' not the usual kind of bike, but is very good off road. I can do a pretty good job on some of the harder green lanes in the UK and am thinking about toughening up the old girl with some steel bars and a mig welder.

I aim to be having a go at some of the harder trails in Chris Scotts book and know that falling off a lot is going to be part of the fun of it all, especailly with luggage.

I was wondering if anyone could give me sone sort of idea of the lumpieness of some of the routes like ME4, MH4 and MH1.

I quite enjoy boulder riding but wonder if I need to beef up the protection to the bottom of the engine if I am going to have a pop at some of the rougher peistes.

saying that I also want to keep the weight down and running on some rough trails the plastic engine guard has done a good job so far!

cheers

Dave

Of the routes you mention MH1 is the hardest, I did it last October and almost rolled the truck. I'm not a biker but I guess its slightly easier than in a 4x4. It took us 3 hours to do about 10km along river beds. It was oly a short section through. Just make sure you allow enough time, we tried it in a day and it was hard work

Also did MH4 last year the southern half is very easy driving not sure about the north as we branched off on another route.

ME4 we did in 2012, very straight forward but lots of washed out river crossings to negiotiate but no water in October. Make sure you stop a mengoub station, its fantastic. From here there is a route straight to Figuig rather than follow the route in the book. Also a dam has been built across the last section in the book

Depends on your ground clearance. I'm currently on a 2013 KTM 690 Enduro R (less clearance than pre-2012 models) and as yet I have not touched down on the bash plate despite doing some quite tough pistes. In fact I was so confident this would be the case I didn't bother to replace the plastic bash plate with the aluminium one I bought second hand.

The reason most people fall is because they are going too slow. You need momentum for the gyroscope effect of the wheels to keep you upright.

Whatever way I write piste, it never looks right. I am so sure of two e's... Should have listened harder at school.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I think I will stick with my own placky engine guard to keep weight down. It has taken a hammering in the past with only light damage.

Ground clearance is pretty good, I think I will get the engine guards though. not too bothered about cosmetic damage, but the engine is rather important!

Yet again it comes down to weight. I will have little chance to drop stuff off to do pistes, so we will keep on the weight saving programme!

cheers dudes

Dave

another question to all of you frequent visitors to morroco....

I want to go in spring 2015, but don't really need to set a date and can be quite flexible.

I want to (impossibly of course) balance, the best weather all around with it not being too hot in the arid south but with conditions in the Atlases being passable and also comftable to ride in.

I am looking at a month away, initially I thought of mid april to mid may with racing down to the arid areas first and then slowly heading back over the atlases.

any advice always most welcome. thanks

Dave

Your first thoughts are quite sensible. Weather in Morocco is never as predictable as people imagine. April could be cold. Or hot. Ditto May. All you can do is to keep an eye on the ten-day forecasts for various places, eg Ouarzazate, 13, Morocco 10 Day Weather Forecast - uk.weather.com

May is my favourite time as the daylight hours are so long. Morocco is on 'summertime' with dates of time changes coordinated with Europe, so both months will be summertime.