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Comment by zoidb | Hacker News Reader

would be awesome if it was true

I see no reason why it can't be true. He left equiped for a long distance desert trip (raid). He had water and food for more than two weeks. At no point was his life in danger.

His car broke down several dozen kilometers from a town, and he knew that. He chose not to go back on foot, because he didn't find that fun, and he wanted to have fun. He's a mechanic and tinkerer, went there on holiday, the military turned him around, so he found something else to do: build a motorbike.

In a subsequent trip he turned the same car model (Citroen 2CV) into a floating barge, just to cross a river. He could have crossed that river farther away in a multitude of ways, but this is his idea of fun.

tl;dr: guy can walk back to civilization in a day or two after his car breaks down in Morocco, he chooses to build a motorcycle from car parts instead.

Why? For fun.

Edit: I feel that reading the full story on the original site (in French) dispels much of the doubt.

Agree. The motorcycle may well exist, but it certainly wasn't constructed by a man stranded in the desert. Not plausible.

Yes. Also, would he really have bothered to attach a kickstand to it, in an emergency like that?

The thing weighted about 200kg, so the stand was there so that he would not have to lift it up.

Also, at no point it was really an emergency as he had ample rations.

It wasn't really an emergency. He had plenty of supplies, and was only a few kilometers away from the nearest town. This is as much of an emergency as your car breaking down on the trip from Dallas to Austin.

What makes you think it is fake ?

The motorcycle may be real, but the story is bull.

12 days. In the desert.

I doubt this dude keeps two weeks of water in his trunk.

This was near Tan-Tan in Morocco, a coastal area likely not completely dry (can see some trees on satellite photos).

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Tan-tan&ll=28.357568,-10....

One having 12 days of drinking water in his trunk is anything but shocking for the area.

Also the motorcycle ain't awesome at all, only one gear with a crappy transmission, making it a barely practical contraption.

It's very likely that it's fake. It's very difficult to survive in the desert for twelve days, even if you have adequate water, let alone survive and find the energy to build a motorcycle, as rudimentary as this one might be.

Finally, in a few of the pictures the supposed engineer of this contraption is shown in a thong. I don't know about you, but if I were in an arid place the last thing I would want is my skin exposed to sun and the air.

It may be a real motorcycle, and that's cool, but it's very unlikely it was built under the conditions discussed in this article.

"It's very difficult to survive in the desert for twelve days..."

My co-founder survived in the Desert for 52 days after crossing the Gobi Desert entirely on foot in 2011. Not all deserts are 50C every day and explorers can be quite hardy. Also, they often wear clothes to cover all extremities, including gloves to cover fingers.

Not all deserts are 50C every day, but all deserts are dry.

Deserts have water, but most of it is stored in plants and underground.

It's near a coast too: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4007858

He had supplies with him. He wasn't living off the land.

Yes, after eating his photographer he called the front desk to extend his stay until the licence plate and kickstand were assembled.

Deserts don't get much rain, but they still have rivers. Some rivers are seasonal[1], others permanent, and all you need is some chlorine tablets and you have a decent supply of water if one is nearby.

Also, if he was concerned about theft by the locals, that means that there were other people around from whom he could have obtained water and food.

EDIT: It seems that this did happen right next to a river [2]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henley-on-Todd_Regatta [2] http://chameaudacier.free.fr/bato1.html

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