Month: June 2018

How to not fall off a mountain.

Tim Ansell
This road here.

Going Downhill Fast     VERY SLOWLY….

 

“Steep” doesn’t begin to describe the road I had to drive down to return to the main coast road running between Sur and Muscat in Oman, from the Salma plateau where we’d been camped for a couple of nights to escape the high temperatures. “Very steep” and “very tight” would be more accurate, especially given TTT’s length, weight and large turning circle. A turning circle which, I discovered, could however be minimised – provided you were facing straight down a mountain and the rear axle, now with less weight on it, could slide gracefully round the corner after losing its grip on the concrete surface. Now I’m a big fan of Guns ‘n Roses, so as far as I’m concerned, Axl Rose is a good thing. Axle rose (and slid round)…..less so. Not so much Mr. Brownstone, more Mr. brown trouser.

From a physicist’s point of view this novel approach to swinging the back end of TTT round a corner whilst facing the drop off the edge of a mountain, was probably very exciting. From the driver’s point of view, I can assure you it was also a very unpleasant experience. But you can judge for yourself in the video below – the first of several ‘axle slides’ starts at around 9:30 but don’t just jump there – if you watch the earlier clips you’ll have a better idea of the altitude from which I’m descending, just how narrow the road was in places, and how much quicker a Land Cruiser pick-up, four tonnes lighter than TTT and driven by a guy who probably  navigates that road several times a week, can descend the same path.

We agreed before setting off that my friends Streaky and Manuel should go on ahead of me, because we all knew how slowly I’d have to negotiate the road, and that I’d consequently hold them up. That turned out to be wise move when you consider that it took me more than an hour to drive the steepest part of the route – a journey of, I think, less than five kilometres. (I wish I could be more accurate but forgive me, I was concentrating on the driving, not the odometer!). All I know is that G.O.I.N.G  S.L.O.W.L.Y. was the order of the day.

Should you wish to drive down the same road, (presumably because you have some sort of mental imbalance which requires you to do daft things even though you’ve seen the video!), you’ll have to negotiate your way to the following GPS coordinate: N 22.871113, E 59.177051. Good luck with that. Take a change of underwear.

Project Bob

Tim Ansell
Project Bob - crated

Whilst a post about my photos of Project Bob – the beautiful bobtailed, hand crafted motorbike seen here – may appear to have nothing to do with TTT, that’s not quite true. Because you can’t possibly embark on a project like building, or in my case adding modifications to, an overland truck, without assistance from friends every now and then. Recently, Alan Boyter of VR Customs, the craftsman behind this awesome bike, has helped me out with a couple of welding jobs which I needed doing by someone who understands ‘hand build speak’ and doesn’t ask for technical drawings – he just gets on and fabricates things, right first time.

Now friends with those skills and an “I’ll always help” attitude don’t grow on trees, so it was my turn to return the favour when Alan asked me to photograph Project Bob. Of course I didn’t hesitate to say Yes, but I also knew I’d have to pull all the stops out if the photos were to do the bike justice. I therefore went out and rented a couple of large Profoto studio lights and diffuser boxes, then spent a couple of days at my warehouse ( Al Thika Packaging ) shooting ‘Bob’ the best I could. This was quite the learning process as I’d only ever lit portraits with studio lights before, but I was pretty happy with the results in the end.

It seems a few on line magazines felt the same way since the story of the project build has now appeared on line in a couple of places, and we are hopeful that one or two more might yet use it. Enjoy the images. Oh and by the way – Bob is for sale if you’re interested…

http://bikemiddleeast.com/article/Project-Bob#

VR Customs Dubai Is Back With Its Latest ‘Project Bob’

Thank You Alan for your help with the bumper brackets and the fuel tank manifolds – I did mention the need for a pair of mud flap mounts didn’t I?

More details
Perfect from every angle
Craftsmanship
520 hours of craftsmanship
Bob in the Al Thika warehouse
Moody Bob
Project Bob details
The devil’s in the detail.
Ready to go. In style.
Photo-shoot set-up
All you need’s a warehouse, forklift, pallet, rented lights and a step ladder…

Trip to Oman – the S.W.M.B.O. video

Tim Ansell
Beehive tombs, Oman

Since the whole idea of a blog is to keep my readers / viewers updated as to the extent of my travels, I thought I’d better put together a good video covering my recent trip to Oman. My last, text only post was deliberately brief, since when I posted it I was well on my way toward finishing the video you’ll see below and since parts of the drive through Oman had been through incredible scenery, I felt a video would do them more justice.

However I definitely need to work on my video production skills – it’s taken me countless hours over almost a week to put this one together, and though I’m broadly happy with the result, clearly when I’m on the road full time I’ll struggle to spend as many hours creating every video so…..

In future I’ll try to shoot fewer clips, record more narrative when I’m driving, and not be quite so pedantic when editing the clips together.

In a day or two’s time there should be another video ready, one which specifically covers the rather hair raising drive down from the top of Al Hajar Ash Sharqi – a true test of TTT’s mechanical prowess and my own determination to make it to the bottom unscathed in a vehicle twice the length of that for which the road was intended!