
To win the Dakar Rally, you’ve got to have it all. Speed alone is not enough; driving and riding techniques go hand in hand with navigation and advanced mechanical skills. But how do you fix a complicated vehicle comprising thousands of parts?
Factory pilots rely heavily on the support of their teams, but they still need to know wrenching basics once they are in the desert or during the marathon stages, where assistance is not allowed.
“A small case located on the chassis contains all the necessary tools to disassemble a bike,” Monster Energy Honda Chief Mechanic Hide Hanawa explains. “A bike is basically made of around 2,500 parts fixed by bolts—they represent more than the half of the components—so most of the tools are meant to remove sockets, bolts, and screws.