Video: Dakar 1978
<table cellspacing="0" align="left" border="0" width="110" cellpadding="5"><tr><td><div class="Pict"><img src="http://news.motorbiker.org/Videos.nsf/Dakar-1978.jpg" width="100" height="56" title="Video clip" alt="Video clip" style="border:1px solid white;"></div></td></tr></table><table cellspacing="0" align="right" border="0" width="110" cellpadding="5"><tr><td><div class="Pict"><a href="http://www.dakar.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://photos.imageevent.com/motorbiker/logos/Dakar-Logo.jpg" style="border:1px solid white;" width="83" height="101" border="0" title="Dakar logo" alt="Dakar logo"></a></div></td></tr></table>Here's a very interesting video clip of the very first Dakar race held back in 1978.
Starting from Paris, you can see how ill-equipped most of the motorcycles and riders were for such an adventure, but they still went.
So space-age suits, carbon helmets, carbon boots, just plain old walking boots, old helmets and big leather suits.
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http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/video-dakar-1978.htm