By now, you may have seen Matt Spears' Ducati Panigale snowbike conversion before, but you probably haven't seen it tackle sand dunes like this. Once again, it's the lure of the forbidden, making this bike do things that the engineers back at Borgo Panigale probably never dreamed of. The question is, can it do those things anyway, if someone goes about it the right way?
Now, while it's clearly a mad undertaking, it's also equally clear that Spears has put some serious thought into making this effort succeed. Sure, he and his buddies are making wild videos for YouTube, but you aren't going to get very far doing that if you don't, well, get very far into the dunes.
While snow has the benefit of helping to keep your mechanical components cool, sand dunes don't. So, Matt has a big reservoir strapped to his back with a sprayer, all full of water and ready to cool down the track as it heats up under heavy use. He's also got a bunch of spare drive belts, tools, and other contingency plans in case things go wrong. Because it's all an epic test, and it's all about improving the build through what they learn from experience.
To start out with, there's another challenge to consider as well, and it's getting to grips with how this particular machine wants to be ridden. After a few false starts where it seems like steering is next to impossible, Matt realizes the key piece of information he needed: He just wasn't going fast enough. Once you really flog it and go faster, it's much easier to steer and make it go where you want. Nice!
Whether you're fixing something up or you're making something new, sometimes it isn't the things that you expect to go wrong that do, in fact, go wrong. Sometimes, it's something completely different, but then the next part of the story hinges on how you deal with that particular monkeywrench.
Do you let it stop you? Or do you get on the phone, find parts, develop a mad plan to race your bikes across the desert to get said parts and bring them back before the sun sets, and then do it?
If you've guessed that Spears and crew did the latter, you're correct. I don't want to spoil what broke for you, but give this video a look and see for yourself. And then, maybe keep it in the back of your mind next time a plan of yours doesn't quite turn out right.
You can't always find a way through, but a lot of times, you can. I think that's what I enjoy most about these videos, honestly; creativity and stubbornness just not letting this team give up. We don't know what we're doing? No worries, we'll laugh and figure it out. And maybe we'll fail a bunch along the way, but we'll learn, and we'll try again, and in the end, we'll make it better. That's good energy for life, not just crazy builds on YouTube.
