Sean Curnow: Welcome to the fifth update for the UAE Charity Challenge Team.
CHARITY
The Dubai Centre for Special Needs PR Coordinator (Delhna Cama) was a special guest on the second radio show we recorded with Dubai Eye 103.8 FM Speak Easy. Jeff Price also invited Delhna to appear on the show in the near future to further promote the Dubai Centre for Special needs.
We are still in the process of finalising the charity organisation we plan to support in Uganda. We will be making an announcement in the near future.
TRAINING
The UAE CC team made the 3 hr trip to Liwa for training during the first weekend in May. It is the region where much of the actual UAE Desert Challenge takes place. Out here in an area known as ‘The Empty Quarter’ the dunes can rise over 300m above the salt flats. The dunes here are not only substantially higher than those we are training in closer to Dubai but they are also substantially softer. The base camp at Moreeb is a massive slip face that can only be appreciated in real life (Check it out on Google Earth - 22°58'30.00"N / 53°47'17.00"E). We managed to get in two solids rides over the weekend that proved to be invaluable experience in regards to what we can expect to have to deal with come October.
The UAE CC team have also been out in the desert training most weekends during the months of May/June. The heat has really kicked in now with temperatures climbing to +40ºC during the afternoon. Hence we are tending to ride in the mornings as much as possible to take advantage of the milder temperatures (±30ºC). This usually means getting up at some time around 4:30am to ensure we have completed the training ride before the temperature climbs above 40ºC.
MEDIA
Monday 19th May 2008 – Jonathan and I appeared on Dubai Eye 103.8FM Nightline with Jeff Price to promote the UAE Charity Challenge and hopefully spread the word on what we are trying to achieve. Jeff ran a great show with calls to Mr. Mohammed Ben Sulayem (President of the Automobile and Touring Club for the UAE and founder of the UAE Desert Challenge) and Chris Kinsville-Heyne (part of the Search & Rescue Team for the UAE Desert Challenge).
Mr. Mohammed Ben Sulayem was particularly complimentary with regards to the amount of money the UAE CC Team had raised to date in sponsorship funding and also of our approach to combining the challenging sport of enduro racing with giving back to the community.
Chris Kinsville-Heyne provided some valuable insight into the workings of the Search & Rescue teams that ensure the highest safety levels are maintained with the shortest possible response times to actual incidents.
Sunday 2nd June 2008 - Jonathan and I appeared on Dubai Eye 103.8FM Speak Easy for a second show with Jeff Price to promote the UAE Charity Challenge. This time the show was limited to 30min, but we managed to make calls to Sean Linton (Founder of Gecko Motorcycles) and Delhna Cama (Public Relations Coordinator for the Dubai Centre for Special needs).
Sean Linton gave some background on his involvement with the UAE Desert Challenge and also highlighted the role Gecko will play in getting the UAE CC Team to the finish through setting up the bikes, training advice and technical support during the race.
Delhna Cama gave the listeners a brief explanation of the role the Dubai Centre for Special Needs plays in the community and explained the reasons behind our challenge of raising enough money to purchase a new bus.
Both shows will be on the website shortly – feel free to listen in.
SPONSORSHIP
It has been a relatively quiet few months for the UAE CC in terms of securing further sponsorship. We have all been extremely busy with work and other commitments which has limited out ability to chase down potential new sponsors. However, in the month of June we managed to secure our third Platinum sponsor.
Oil Search has joined the UAE CC as Platinum sponsor.
Oil Search Limited is an oil and gas exploration and development company that has been operating in Papua New Guinea since 1929. It is publicly listed on both the Australian and Port Moresby Stock Exchanges. It is PNG's largest oil and gas producer and operates all of PNG's producing oil and gas fields. Oil Search's major project is a 34% share in the PNG LNG Project which is operated by ExxonMobil. Oil Search also has exploration concessions in Yemen, Libya, Tunisia and Iraq (Kurdistan). Oil Search is committed to the highest standards of health and safety and prides itself on being able to work effectively with local communities and governments in the countries they operate.
We welcome Oil Search to the UAE CC team and thank them for their charitable support.
We currently have just in excess of 310,000 AED in committed sponsorship from our corporate and individual sponsors. We remain committed to achieving our final goal of raising 500,000 AED.
We are also in negotiations with some additional sponsors and hope to make some further announcements in our next News Update.
As always, we would like to thank our corporate sponsors for their continued support and all those people who have contributed personal donations to the UAE CC. (see your names listed in the Sponsors page)
TECHNICAL
Gecko Motorcycles has completed the first stage in the upgrading of the bikes from stock short distance rally bikes into race prepared long distance endurance bikes
The first stage of upgrade work involved changing out the fuel tanks, suspension and rear tires.
The existing 7 litre stock fuel tanks were removed and replaced with much larger 27 litre endurance fuel tanks. These larger fuel tanks increase the effective range of the bikes from ±60km to ±250km. It also increases the weight of the bike significantly from 119 kg to 137 kg (full fuel load) - something that takes a little getting use to.
They also changed out the existing suspension to a stiffer race suspension to accommodate for the additional weight created by the larger fuel load. It was necessary to change out both the front and rear suspension. Adjustments then need to be made to the suspension for each ride.
The last change has been to replace the Bridgestone rear tire (as supplied with the bike) with a Dunlop rear tire that is more suited to the desert terrain and in particular the soft sand.
There are still a lot more changes that need to be made. We will keep you updated and also look to capture these upgrades in the ‘Technical’ section of the website.
VOLUNTEER WORK
Matt Wilson (Wilson Griffin Design) suffered a major computer malfunction that saw his pride and joy spending several days with some IT specialists. However, he is now back up and running and continues to carry out his volunteer work keeping the website up to date and making improvements. Changes for the Month of May / June are as follows -
- The 5th News Update has been added to the ‘NEWS’ page
- Matt has added updated a Countdown Counter to the ‘HOME’ page.
- Photos from our trip to Liwa have been added to the ‘GALLERY’ page.
- Recordings of the two Radio Shows will be added shortly.
