This is just a short piece with the first major news for Dakar 2026. And I will make an announcement soon re Dakar 2026, so keep watch on the community tab or in the KoFi group, and try to remember to like the video and subscribe if you could.
Some of you will remember I posted about Hoto Moto’s new entry last year and the video is still on the Rumble channel, I just had to take it down from here.
Well, after another year, now with a Japanese engine designer on board and after winning the Taklimakan Rally for the 2nd year running, it seems Hoto are on a mission,
At Taklimakan they had a team made up of Martin Mishek, Arunas Gelazninkas and Chinese rider Shi Haoyu,
Now for Dakar they are making a step up, with their first Rally GP entry for Dakar 2026.
And the rider they have chosen is no stranger to the channel as the barebonesmc family will know.
Because after two years with Kove, Mason Klein will be riding the 2026 Dakar on a Hoto Moto Rally bike.
The Rally GP class is ultra competitive and a much more expensive endeavour than racing in Rally 2, and there are many things to consider, But having Mason on board to head the team into the desert gives them another world class rider with the ability to win.
This will be Hoto’s first try in the premier Rally GP class after last years trio of Rally 2 riders all reached the finish.
Founded less than 6 months before last years Dakar Rally. Hoto is another result of the break up of the original Kove Rally team.
While founder Zhang Xue departed and founded the ZX Moto brand, some of the rest of the Rally team chose a different path, and went on to work with Red Camel Racing to form Hoto Moto. They took many of the Kove personnel and have their headquarters in the home of the Chinese motorcycle industry in Chonqing .
Despite only being around for 6 months at the time, Hoto Moto entered three bikes and had a very successful Dakar 2025.
Team leader was Arunas Gelazninkas who is a 2 times Malle Moto champion, winning in 2021 and 2022. But it was ex Kove rider Xavier Flick who was their top finisher in 18th place in Rally 2. Gelazninkas finished in 22nd and Xiangliang Fang, another ex Kove rider finished in 28th, giving them 3 top 30 finishes in their very first year.
At Taklimakan this year they took the whole podium with Martin Michek first, Gelazninkas 2nd, and Shi Haoyu 3rd.
It was only Shi Haoyu second year at Taklimakan after picking up the Best Rookie title the year before. Now at 22, he is hoping he will be picked as part of the Dakar team.
That is the question right now to be honest. Who will the Hoto Moto Dakar team be in 2026.
Will they run a 3 man Rally 2 team with the 3 people that took Taklimakan? Or will one of the riders be dropped to make space for Mason Klein?
Mason had been to 2 Dakar’s as a Kove rider, first in 2024 on a bike he had literally not ridden before the start, and in 2025 he was given the brand new Kove EX as a gamble and to collect data for the team.
Obviously as we know the gamble didn’t pay off and despite leading stage 4 almost all day, he came back empty handed after tendonitis mean’t even holding onto the bars left him in extreme pain.
Having retired from both his Kove rides with mechanical problems, a third year was always questionable, and with the resignation of Zhang Xue, I think he no longer saw the passion that had sparked his interest initially.
Then in a Reddit post in May, Mason revealed that in 2025 the team hadn’t allowed him to use a better engine they had available because it was untested and that in his opinion, not much quality testing had been done prior to Dakar 2025.
It was at this point that he announced that he would not be racing for Kove again and wanted to find a reliable motorcycle that gave him a real chance of winning.
2026 will be his fourth Dakar and the Hoto Moto bike, which is still surrounded by rumours, has gone a long way to prove its reliability. But remember, so had the Kove.
If the rumour mill is to be believed the Hoto is basically a frame similar to the Kove with an engine derived from the KTM. But I have studdied the pictures and dug everywhere I can think of to get a categorical yes or no and I have to admit, that I still don’t know for certain it is a KTM engine.
Plenty have said it is a KTM engine, and there do look some similarities, but when asked how those people knew it was a KTM engine, the information has always come second hand and has never come from the factory or riders, so it is still conjecture in my opinion.
Looking at the bikes reliability, with 2 taklimakan wins and a 100% finishing rate at Dakar things would seem to look good. But remember, it is relatively easy for a bike to be reliable with a rider on board who can only take the bike to 8 or 9 tenths of its potential performance limit.
Mason pushes as hard as anyone and and will take a bike to its absolute limit and beyond, that is one of the things I love about him. That will test the Hoto Moto bike in a way it hasn’t been tested so far.
So will it be able to withstand the battering it will take at the hands of a rider who is driven like few others, and undoubtedly has the ability to win?
Or will it be a test too far for the Hoto Moto bike?
If Hoto Moto can put a fast team around Mason, that will help him for sure, and it looks like at least Gelazninkas will be with them at Dakar again.
Martin Michek would make a great team mate for Klein too, with 6 Dakar’s under his belt now and 3 finishes within the top 11, he has both experience and speed.
His 3rd best Rookie medal in his first year in 2020, as well as being the top privateer in the 2023 race, along with his win in Taklimakan have to make him a favourite to make the team for the 2026 Dakar.
But Xavier Flick has proven his worth already and being 7 years younger than Mickek has youth on his side, but I haven’t seen his name mentioned this year.
Shi Haoyu is even younger at just 22 years old, and this would be his first Dakar if he makes the team, so I think he may loose out this time unless a bigger team entry is planned.
Whoever the final team is, I am hoping that Mason and the Hoto Moto bike reach the finish in 2026.
News of Kove has been thin on the ground so far with the only confirmed entries being James Hillier and Neels Theric. I do expect that Sunier will be there again and I hope that Liansong Deng will be back in the Super Sun team.
Kove do have a habit of leaving announcements until the last minute.
However, looking at the bikes at EICMA, I don’t think the new Kove 450EX Rally looks much different from the 2025 bike, so I am not sure what progress has been made with development over the last year.
The World supersport championship win has overshadowed any efforts by the Rally team, and I have seen very little other than various exploits by the Kove Italia team this year.
I will keep you posted as I hear any more news.
Daniel Sanders has to be the favourite this year, but as we all know, anything can happen in the sand and Toscha Schareina has momentum on his side after a win at the Rally Du Maroc.
Ross Branch will be chasing hard after he came so close last year, and the rest of the team from Hero will be doing everything they can to give him better support this time around.
New to the team is Tobias Ebster who won the Malle Moto 2 years ago and came so close to a Rally 2 win last year. And of course Nacho Cornejo on his day is capable of beating anyone.
Bradley Cox joined Lorenzo Santolini and Harith Noah this year riding for Sherco in Rally Raid and I expect the team will run the same into Dakar 2026, so maybe, finally, we will get a good team performance from Sherco too.
One thing is for sure, although they may still be favourites, the big red and orange machines will not take the title without a fight this year.
Don’t forget to keep watch on the community tab and in the KoFi group for any announcements.
And thanks as always for your support.
Thanks for watching and try to remember to like the video and subscribe.
Here’s to a memorable Dakar 2026.
Keep your spanners close, and your keys even closer.
Ride free everyone.