by Jan Marc Staelens | photos by Lyndon Poskittdown in Laos and Lyndon ended up at my home in
Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he effected its repair.
So how did Lyndon come up with the unlikely idea of
Races to Places? “I realized something was amiss in my
life. Seen from the outside, I had no reason to complain.
However, I’d lost my drive and desperately wanted to feel
passionate about something again. And that something
came in the form of the ultimate challenge: the Dakar
Rally! In terms of the ultimate test for man and machine,
nothing comes close. It’s undoubtedly the world’s longest,
most grueling and unforgiving off-road race.”
Lyndon started prepping, and entered the Dakar in 2013
with his father, Robin, and friend Ivan as a support team.
In his first attempt he finished the Dakar in a respectable
46 th overall position and rode into the media spotlight
by crossing the finish line of Stage 8—as a rookie—in the
remarkable 9th overall position, one usually reserved for
factory team riders.
Then, he began preparing for the Red Bull Romaniacs Hard
Enduro Rallye, one of the toughest hard-core enduro races
in the world. To improve his fitness, he entered a marathon,
but collapsed just before the finish. About that experience,
Lyndon remarked, “If it wasn’t for the immediate intervention
of the medics, it would have been game over. While recovering
in hospital, I realized how unexpectedly life could have ended
right then and there. So, I decided it was time to embark on
my lifelong dream of seeing the world by motorcycle, going to
places that I’d always wanted to see.”
However, a plain vanilla RTW was not his idea of adventure.
“I was looking for an edge and found it in the idea of riding the
world off road as much as possible, which, to my knowledge, had
never been attempted before.”
But Lyndon also felt conflicted, “I was unable to decide which
was more important: racing OR riding around the world,”
Lyndon said of his quandary. “When I raised this dilemma with
Dave Lomax (Adventure Spec co-owner and fellow Salt and
Gold Sahara expedition member), his response was: ‘Why stop
racing?’ Which was of course as simple as it was brilliant!” And
that’s how the Races to Places project was born.
What kind of motorcycle can cope with the hardships of a
100,000+-mile off-road RTW trip and also be capable of racing
in rallies along the way? Enter “Basil,” a ’07 KTM 690RFR (Rally
Factory Replica), which had previously been raced in the
Dakar. Often mistaken for a heavily modified Enduro 690R,
Lyndon has re-engineered the bike well beyond anything
ever expected by an OEM. With an aerospace engineering
background and experience prepping race bikes, he rebuilt
Basil from the ground up. Among the many modifications,
Lyndon redesigned the camshaft profiles and fitted a newly
designed Nova Racing wide ratio gearbox which he also
helped develop. The goal was to make the KTM LC4 engine
more long-distance travel worthy.
Of the modifications, Lyndon explained, “Most of my
riding is off road in often remote areas without a support
vehicle. I need items like spares and tools as I do my own