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Chap stranded in desert builds a motorbike from his broken car!


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The gist is he was doing a solo desert crossing and was turned back from a checkpoint trying to get into an off-limits area. He sneaked back and went off-road to bypass the checkpoint. He hit a big rock and bent a suspension arm and broke a sill. He was only a few dozen kilometers from a town and had the supplies to walk back, but didnt want to leave the car and his equipment.

from retro rides:

He cut down the chassis, mounted a single suspension arm for the front with the swivel hub. Dropped the engine and box on, jammed up one side of the diff output to force all drive to the other side. The power is transmitted to the rear wheel by a brake drum turning which rubs on the rear wheel. He has to drive it in reverse gear to make forwards progress. There are no brakes. He had to keep it stable with his feet due to it being poorly balanced and hard to ride. It weighs 200kgs and is hard to pick up when dropped.

 

By the time he left his camp, he only had 1.5 litres of water left. After an afternoons riding he camped by a track where he was found by the guards who recognised him from the checkpoint. He ended up being fined for various offences and was booted out of the country with the bike confiscated. A month later he drove back in another 2cv to collect the bike.

 

He sounds like a bit of a div to be honest. I'm sure he could have spent the time better in bodging the car enough to get it mobile and back to the town which was not very far away. Risked his life staying in the desert within walking distance of help in order to save a 2cv and his tools - ok the tools might have been valuable but not worth his life?- and besides, he only saved the engine etc and lost the bodyshell.

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The gist is he was doing a solo desert crossing and was turned back from a checkpoint trying to get into an off-limits area. He sneaked back and went off-road to bypass the checkpoint. He hit a big rock and bent a suspension arm and broke a sill. He was only a few dozen kilometers from a town and had the supplies to walk back, but didnt want to leave the car and his equipment.

from retro rides:

He cut down the chassis, mounted a single suspension arm for the front with the swivel hub. Dropped the engine and box on, jammed up one side of the diff output to force all drive to the other side. The power is transmitted to the rear wheel by a brake drum turning which rubs on the rear wheel. He has to drive it in reverse gear to make forwards progress. There are no brakes. He had to keep it stable with his feet due to it being poorly balanced and hard to ride. It weighs 200kgs and is hard to pick up when dropped.

 

By the time he left his camp, he only had 1.5 litres of water left. After an afternoons riding he camped by a track where he was found by the guards who recognised him from the checkpoint. He ended up being fined for various offences and was booted out of the country with the bike confiscated. A month later he drove back in another 2cv to collect the bike.

 

He sounds like a bit of a div to be honest. I'm sure he could have spent the time better in bodging the car enough to get it mobile and back to the town which was not very far away. Risked his life staying in the desert within walking distance of help in order to save a 2cv and his tools - ok the tools might have been valuable but not worth his life?- and besides, he only saved the engine etc and lost the bodyshell.

+ it's a 2CV at the end of the day.

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I'm sorry but there's three fundamental reasons why he's not a "Tony Stark" like genius.

 

1. He was driving a Citroen 2CV, a well established piece of shite even in the days of its original production.

 

2. He's driving alone across a desert and deviated from a route others probably knew about so as to enter a area potentially dangerous to his life

 

and last but very much not least in any terms....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. He's French.

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