When it comes to something as brutal as the Mexican 1000, simply finishing the race is a victory all its own. That victory was ours as the Motoworks / ICON Raiden Triumph Tiger 800XCs successfully crossed the finish line of the NORRA Mexican 1000. We didn’t win, yet we also didn’t expect to. This whole enterprise was about adventure. Tigers are adventure bikes, not desert race machines. Yet our two Tigers finished the race despite finding their mechanical limits. ICON tells the story:
Outright victory was never the goal, only finding the absolute limit of performance.
Well, we found it. After an absolute punishing pace on Tuesday, the Tigers began to show more wear and tear. It began with clutch woes on the white Tiger for Johnny and Mark. Soon, the yellow bike of Ernie and Joe would also show the same symptoms.
Overnight repairs would solve the transmission issues for exactly 5 miles on Wednesday. A quick repair was made to adjust the clutch on the yellow bike. Mark Vanscourt would soldier on with the white bike lodged in 6th gear – full pin, not a bother given.
Eventually, the white Tiger rode on and finished while the yellow Tiger fell to a broken bolt holding the counter shaft sprocket.
So there you have it. The race was run. We can chock it up to a massive shake-down ride for man and machines, because the bigger challenge is yet to come: 5000 miles across Canada to the Arctic Circle. The Alcan will be no more forgiving than Baja and it will present its own unique challenges. With 1,000 miles of racing under our belts now, it’s time to prep for that next challenge — time to shore up our machines, our men and our will to ride on.
Now it’s out of the frying pan and into the freezer.