In 1985 MBK Innovation with Jean Michel Basset in the lead made a very special machine for Paris Dakar around a Yamaha RD350LC engine. The project was all about achieving a particularly high weight to power ratio, and the MBK engineers definitely succeeded. On the scales the bike weighed only 135 kg and had a power of 65 HP at the wheel! To get an idea and a comparison, in those years the BMW GS was the fastest with a top speed of 180 km/h and the most powerful with approx. 80 HP with a 1050 cc engine. The engine of the Yamaha RD350LC offered the power necessary to reach 145/150 km/h on the sand. The second objective was to give its riders, Patrick Vallet and Pierre Marie Poli a light and easy to handle motorcycle. For this purpose, aluminum was used extensively for the creation of the oversized radiator, air box, fuel tank, oil tank (remember that the engine ran on a 3% mixture) and water tank. Achieving 135 kg dry weight was a high-level engineering feat for its time. But as history shows, numbers and ideas on paper don't go well with the harsh world of racing. Unfortunately the MBK Innovation 350 did not arrive in Dakar with any of the drivers.For more pics see
