SuperTen at the 2008 Pharaons Rallye

[Stormforce8]

Just wanted to share these pics...........

[Robster]

That is gorgeous!

Why doesn't on eof the big manufacturers just make off-the-shelf bikes like those? They'd sell squillions!

[Jenna]

there now baned on most the big events, so it would only used in the privateers hands... 9/10 of these guys cant afford to buy/run a bike that...

Breeze dont suppose there was any info on this bike?.. just wondered if this was Meoni's 'le cap' bike? was it on Franco's stand?

[Snaphappy]

Why are they banned Jen??

[Jenna]

nearly all the big FIA/FIM events have a cap'd engine capacity for the factory teams, its why more and more are switching to raid bikes built on WR450's.(and similar)... although privateers still can run big bikes ( to a greater degree) obviously the PR they get is minimal to big teams so it all sadly ends up a waste of time.

You can often see the old marathon builds on the non championship events where the rules are more open... but again low press coverage means few big teams and so no call for the bikes. Its also worth noting that these days for safety reasons top speed's have been slashed and the bikes no longer require the monster fuel carrying capacity as the event management schedule many more fuel dumps on route.

Less fuel and lower average speed mean a big bike like this is not as competitive as lighter and faster(top speed and acceleration) bikes.. add into that the hassles of servicing on route a monster like the YZE compared to WR and again its easy to see why they got phased out.

as a rough guide my lightest XTZ850 weighs in at 195kg (stripped out, and raid preped) with a fuel capacity of 36-38lts and 77hp at the wheel (2.5kg pr/hp.. a rally WR is a shade over 104kg and has a 44ltr fuel cap 48hp at the wheel (2kg pr/hp)...