Eisbein
Bachelor Dog
Finally it was that time of the year again.
A couple of guys that started off as forum acquaintances gradually and effortlessly changed into regular riding buddies and eventually into very close friends.
Last year was the 1st time we did ‘n big ride (more than a one-nighter) together.
Our resident map and back road encyclopaedia and all-round-nice guy (more on that later), Ektoknbike plotted a route for us and again (like last year’s Karoo trip) upon looking at the screen shots from his Mapsource we instantly knew that this was going to be a ride that would not only stretch some of our capabilities a little (albeit in a safe manner), but would plainly just be a ride where every kilometre and new piece of scenery would be taken in, savoured, thoroughly enjoyed and above all remembered for years to come.
The plan was:
Leave at Topbox’s shop the 22nd, ride up to camp next to the sea somewhere on the other side of Lambertsbay, go to Port Noloth, then across at Sendelingsdrift, get supplies at Rosh Pina, camp on the bank of the Orange River, head back into South Africa at Vioolsdrift, sleep over at Klein Pella then head to Verneukpan and then home.
Our plans did change a bit (as they always do), so we ended up leaving verneukpan until a later time and going from Brandvlei to Calvinia and from there via Wuppertal and Eselbank to Cederberg Oasis and back home.
Enter the myriad of merry motorcycling men (*groan*):
Ektoknbike and Piksteel on big KTMs, Topbox on his XR, Biesie on his 660 Tenere, CJ on his Africa Twin, Operator on a Djebel XC, ‘Klaing’ on a V-strom and finally me and Surf on the two big GS’ bringing up the rear.
Joining us for the 2 days was Highlander on his 1200GSA – Having just arrived back back from his Trans Siberian Express holiday sadly he had just enough ‘needed to be caught up on’ backlog at his office to keep him from joining in on the whole trip.
This was an interesting selection of bikes for a trip like this, but we were ready.
Ektoknbike did an amazing job of plotting the routes, planning the distances and finding the spots where we would stay over – taking into consideration the different types of bikes as well as the different levels of experience/skill of all our city boys.
This was going to be 6 days away from home – unsupported with camping as the main focus, so I needed to think about what I was going to need, what I wanted to take with and what there was space for.
I packed the bike the evening before we left and then took it to a little sandy spot close to my home where I wanted to get a feel for the bike and the weight distribution before I went on the trip. It was a good thing I did as I found out that the tankbag was too big (ok maybe that’s mah belly) for me to be able to stand ‘neutrally weighted’ on the pegs.
So I went back and then removed all but the tools from the tankbag (and let it collapse) and put some of the stuff in the back. I was actually very chuffed by how easily I got everything packed with relatively little space needed. I had the sleeping stuff (blow-up mattress and duvet) in the topbox, tools in the tankbag and the clothes and the rest in a bag on the pillion seat with the tent on top of it.
The next morning we arrived at Topbox’s place and the needle was deep in the red on the ‘excitometer’.
Even one of his ‘posties’ was ready ;D
Ready, steady …
We decided to go and have a look at the track day before we left.
Thought it would be cool to arrive with our fully loaded bikes and then leave on our trip, but when we arrived at Killarney there was no-one to be seen, so we left again, as breakfast was waiting at the Wimpy in langebaan ;D
Some of the worst chips I had in ages, but the company was excellent and the trip was ahead of us.
We went onto some very cool back roads on the other side of Dwarskersbos.
This was on one of those ‘loops’ on the way to Elandsbaai.
Enjoying the sea view
Surf being ‘chill’
Me enjoying the ride:
Somewhere on these roads I found out the hard way that you shouldn’t really pack your tireweld in the same bag as your clothes.
Somewhere where I got off the bike for a photo I saw this dripping at the back of the bike and on closer inspection I saw the foam coming through the side of my bag.
:
I decided that for my well-being (and to not hold up the group) I would rather not open the bag and deal with it when we stopped again.
As it turns out the can ruptured on the outside (lucky the can was in the corner of my bag) with almost no gunk on anything important in the bag. *phew*
Ektoknbike’s bike started to backfire, so having just replaced the battery the day before he suspected the terminals.
This was him fixing the terminals while showing the paparazzi what he thinks of their photodocumenting efforts... ;D ;D
Ektoknbike being good with his hands
So on we went.
This was taken at Doringbaai. There’s a maze of little roads between the tar road and the sea – this area will see me again.
Doringbaai
By the nature of how we travelled and where we were planning on sleeping we had to get all of our supplies in Lambertsbay. So we had extra water, drinks, meat and a bag of wood each now also strapped to the bikes. (The wood we got at Lutzville while filling up)
Down at the bottom of this hill was the right turn that put us onto the road that leads to ‘Gert du Toit se baai’, where we would spend the night.
I was pleasantly surprised by how it looked on this bit of coastline.
I wasn’t expecting cliffs and a lot of ‘ups and downs’ like we were greeted with.
To be honest, for someone who’s never been higher up the west coast than Strandfontein I didn’t know what to expect ;D
Very cool roads
Somewhere on this road we also met a fellow Wilddog (Motto – didn’t know he was a wilddog at the time)
Enjoying the scenery again
We knew we were going to shift some boundaries on this trip, but some of it came a little earlier than expected. I was never totally comfortable with sandy strips and ruts in it.
Somehow the mental barrier was always nagging in the back of my mind of the ‘big’ bike, its heavy weight and the 19” front wheel. We did go play a little in the sand about 2 weeks before the trip, but that was almost dune-like sand and the bike wasn’t loaded with extra braai wood on the topbox…
On this road we encountered a couple of sandy spots. Nothing serious, but with a couple of bikes having gone through it there were definite ruts snaking across it.
In a previous life that would have been enough to let me tap off the gas and get the duck feet out, but this time I decided that if everyone said the same thing, the theory might hold some truth…
So I got up, looked ahead, opened my legs slightly and gently accelerated.
It was the weirdest thing and a huge personal victory for me. After this my riding style changed. ;D
The bike snaked and twitched a little (waaay less than I expected), but I could feel it sniff the old ‘tracks’ and then (just as it felt like it was going to wash out sideways) I could feel that reassuring feedback from the bars that it was now busy carving out its own path through it.
Before I knew it I was through it and still upright.
I spoke to Surf and he felt the same thing.
Granted – this wasn’t ‘sand riding guru’ type of stuff, but for me it changed my mind about riding rutted sand and I know for a fact that there was one or two instances where I either would have paddled the bike, or where I would have risked a topple over. And this time I was gunning it through finding out that in riding sand speed really is your friend.
There was (this day and the next few) a couple of times where we arrived at a spot that was carved up by 8 bikes ahead of us leaving us with a couple of deep waving ruts and all we did was to look up, get up, open up and let the bike find its own way through it.
Even though it was still scary (to me anyway) it was also very liberating to know that putting the theory into practice had the results I was looking for: Get it over with quickly, efficiently and above all safely.
There was one bad spot where one of the guys in front toppled over and then panelbeated the spot quite badly, with another guy toppling over and doing the same.
By the time Surf and I arrived all guns blazing (around a corner nogals) we were greeted with a sight of bikes in front of us, so we had to slow down and pull away while still being in the sand. I almost toppled over where on pull away my front wheel took a rut and I could just put my foot down in time, parking the bike in the side of the road ;D
Surf followed the same rut (that I now also carved even deeper) and ended up where he couldn't touch Terra Firma when his GSA started to lean over.
This was the result:
You can also see the tell-tale sign (in front of his bike) of my quick ‘jump to the left’ and straight to the side.
;D
On doing the sand thing a while ago, CJ commented (while Surf was in the distance) that ‘two lights next to each other was good – two lights on top of each other was bad’
Clearly these two lights were on top of each other…
Quickly he was upright and on the go again.
He was just out when we realized the bag of wood was missing, so we found it where he had his ‘lean over’.
Operator and Surf proving that we leave nothing behind.
Ok – maybe we just wanted to have enough wood for the night…
This was the entrance to ‘Gert du Toit se baai’
What a magic spot:
Couple of random shots:
Having a drink and a chat after a very cool 1st day
Surf’s bike showing proof that the ‘A’ in ‘GSA’ isn’t just for show.
Yes I admit it. I am still in love with the 1150GSA ;D ;D ;D
Ektoknbike and Piksteel’s answer to the dew that we knew were coming. Their tent is in the middle of all of that.
This is how I like to camp – our bikes right next to the tents and the sea right behind.
The_CJ , the_riekielouw and the_sunset
Smiles all around – I like being on the road with these guys
Biesie and the sunset
I love silhouettes. And 1150 GSA’s make for good ones:
Check the moon
Don’t ask, don’t tell:
Don’t ask don’t tell v 2 :
And so the sun set on a magnificent 1st day.
It was lots of laughter and long stories ‘till deep into the night.
All in all we were just so happy to be here – doing the stuff that we have read about in ride reports for too long…
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinking
Somehow at this moment the rat race that Pink Floyd spoke about wasn’t that important at all.
All of a sudden we had enough time.
The bikes, the sunset, the sea and good friends.
Right here and right now it all just made sense.
A couple of guys that started off as forum acquaintances gradually and effortlessly changed into regular riding buddies and eventually into very close friends.
Last year was the 1st time we did ‘n big ride (more than a one-nighter) together.
Our resident map and back road encyclopaedia and all-round-nice guy (more on that later), Ektoknbike plotted a route for us and again (like last year’s Karoo trip) upon looking at the screen shots from his Mapsource we instantly knew that this was going to be a ride that would not only stretch some of our capabilities a little (albeit in a safe manner), but would plainly just be a ride where every kilometre and new piece of scenery would be taken in, savoured, thoroughly enjoyed and above all remembered for years to come.
The plan was:
Leave at Topbox’s shop the 22nd, ride up to camp next to the sea somewhere on the other side of Lambertsbay, go to Port Noloth, then across at Sendelingsdrift, get supplies at Rosh Pina, camp on the bank of the Orange River, head back into South Africa at Vioolsdrift, sleep over at Klein Pella then head to Verneukpan and then home.
Our plans did change a bit (as they always do), so we ended up leaving verneukpan until a later time and going from Brandvlei to Calvinia and from there via Wuppertal and Eselbank to Cederberg Oasis and back home.
Enter the myriad of merry motorcycling men (*groan*):
Ektoknbike and Piksteel on big KTMs, Topbox on his XR, Biesie on his 660 Tenere, CJ on his Africa Twin, Operator on a Djebel XC, ‘Klaing’ on a V-strom and finally me and Surf on the two big GS’ bringing up the rear.
Joining us for the 2 days was Highlander on his 1200GSA – Having just arrived back back from his Trans Siberian Express holiday sadly he had just enough ‘needed to be caught up on’ backlog at his office to keep him from joining in on the whole trip.
This was an interesting selection of bikes for a trip like this, but we were ready.
Ektoknbike did an amazing job of plotting the routes, planning the distances and finding the spots where we would stay over – taking into consideration the different types of bikes as well as the different levels of experience/skill of all our city boys.
This was going to be 6 days away from home – unsupported with camping as the main focus, so I needed to think about what I was going to need, what I wanted to take with and what there was space for.
I packed the bike the evening before we left and then took it to a little sandy spot close to my home where I wanted to get a feel for the bike and the weight distribution before I went on the trip. It was a good thing I did as I found out that the tankbag was too big (ok maybe that’s mah belly) for me to be able to stand ‘neutrally weighted’ on the pegs.
So I went back and then removed all but the tools from the tankbag (and let it collapse) and put some of the stuff in the back. I was actually very chuffed by how easily I got everything packed with relatively little space needed. I had the sleeping stuff (blow-up mattress and duvet) in the topbox, tools in the tankbag and the clothes and the rest in a bag on the pillion seat with the tent on top of it.
The next morning we arrived at Topbox’s place and the needle was deep in the red on the ‘excitometer’.
Even one of his ‘posties’ was ready ;D
Ready, steady …
We decided to go and have a look at the track day before we left.
Thought it would be cool to arrive with our fully loaded bikes and then leave on our trip, but when we arrived at Killarney there was no-one to be seen, so we left again, as breakfast was waiting at the Wimpy in langebaan ;D
Some of the worst chips I had in ages, but the company was excellent and the trip was ahead of us.
We went onto some very cool back roads on the other side of Dwarskersbos.
This was on one of those ‘loops’ on the way to Elandsbaai.
Enjoying the sea view
Surf being ‘chill’
Me enjoying the ride:
Somewhere on these roads I found out the hard way that you shouldn’t really pack your tireweld in the same bag as your clothes.
Somewhere where I got off the bike for a photo I saw this dripping at the back of the bike and on closer inspection I saw the foam coming through the side of my bag.
:
I decided that for my well-being (and to not hold up the group) I would rather not open the bag and deal with it when we stopped again.
As it turns out the can ruptured on the outside (lucky the can was in the corner of my bag) with almost no gunk on anything important in the bag. *phew*
Ektoknbike’s bike started to backfire, so having just replaced the battery the day before he suspected the terminals.
This was him fixing the terminals while showing the paparazzi what he thinks of their photodocumenting efforts... ;D
;D
Ektoknbike being good with his hands
So on we went.
This was taken at Doringbaai. There’s a maze of little roads between the tar road and the sea – this area will see me again.
Doringbaai
By the nature of how we travelled and where we were planning on sleeping we had to get all of our supplies in Lambertsbay. So we had extra water, drinks, meat and a bag of wood each now also strapped to the bikes. (The wood we got at Lutzville while filling up)
Down at the bottom of this hill was the right turn that put us onto the road that leads to ‘Gert du Toit se baai’, where we would spend the night.
I was pleasantly surprised by how it looked on this bit of coastline.
I wasn’t expecting cliffs and a lot of ‘ups and downs’ like we were greeted with.
To be honest, for someone who’s never been higher up the west coast than Strandfontein I didn’t know what to expect ;D
Very cool roads
Somewhere on this road we also met a fellow Wilddog (Motto – didn’t know he was a wilddog at the time)
Enjoying the scenery again
We knew we were going to shift some boundaries on this trip, but some of it came a little earlier than expected. I was never totally comfortable with sandy strips and ruts in it.
Somehow the mental barrier was always nagging in the back of my mind of the ‘big’ bike, its heavy weight and the 19” front wheel. We did go play a little in the sand about 2 weeks before the trip, but that was almost dune-like sand and the bike wasn’t loaded with extra braai wood on the topbox…
On this road we encountered a couple of sandy spots. Nothing serious, but with a couple of bikes having gone through it there were definite ruts snaking across it.
In a previous life that would have been enough to let me tap off the gas and get the duck feet out, but this time I decided that if everyone said the same thing, the theory might hold some truth…
So I got up, looked ahead, opened my legs slightly and gently accelerated.
It was the weirdest thing and a huge personal victory for me. After this my riding style changed. ;D
The bike snaked and twitched a little (waaay less than I expected), but I could feel it sniff the old ‘tracks’ and then (just as it felt like it was going to wash out sideways) I could feel that reassuring feedback from the bars that it was now busy carving out its own path through it.
Before I knew it I was through it and still upright.
I spoke to Surf and he felt the same thing.
Granted – this wasn’t ‘sand riding guru’ type of stuff, but for me it changed my mind about riding rutted sand and I know for a fact that there was one or two instances where I either would have paddled the bike, or where I would have risked a topple over. And this time I was gunning it through finding out that in riding sand speed really is your friend.
There was (this day and the next few) a couple of times where we arrived at a spot that was carved up by 8 bikes ahead of us leaving us with a couple of deep waving ruts and all we did was to look up, get up, open up and let the bike find its own way through it.
Even though it was still scary (to me anyway) it was also very liberating to know that putting the theory into practice had the results I was looking for: Get it over with quickly, efficiently and above all safely.
There was one bad spot where one of the guys in front toppled over and then panelbeated the spot quite badly, with another guy toppling over and doing the same.
By the time Surf and I arrived all guns blazing (around a corner nogals) we were greeted with a sight of bikes in front of us, so we had to slow down and pull away while still being in the sand. I almost toppled over where on pull away my front wheel took a rut and I could just put my foot down in time, parking the bike in the side of the road ;D
Surf followed the same rut (that I now also carved even deeper) and ended up where he couldn't touch Terra Firma when his GSA started to lean over.
This was the result:
You can also see the tell-tale sign (in front of his bike) of my quick ‘jump to the left’ and straight to the side.
;D
On doing the sand thing a while ago, CJ commented (while Surf was in the distance) that ‘two lights next to each other was good – two lights on top of each other was bad’
Clearly these two lights were on top of each other…
Quickly he was upright and on the go again.
He was just out when we realized the bag of wood was missing, so we found it where he had his ‘lean over’.
Operator and Surf proving that we leave nothing behind.
Ok – maybe we just wanted to have enough wood for the night…
This was the entrance to ‘Gert du Toit se baai’
What a magic spot:
Couple of random shots:
Having a drink and a chat after a very cool 1st day
Surf’s bike showing proof that the ‘A’ in ‘GSA’ isn’t just for show.
Yes I admit it. I am still in love with the 1150GSA ;D ;D ;D
Ektoknbike and Piksteel’s answer to the dew that we knew were coming. Their tent is in the middle of all of that.
This is how I like to camp – our bikes right next to the tents and the sea right behind.
The_CJ , the_riekielouw and the_sunset
Smiles all around – I like being on the road with these guys
Biesie and the sunset
I love silhouettes. And 1150 GSA’s make for good ones:
Check the moon
Don’t ask, don’t tell:
Don’t ask don’t tell v 2 :
And so the sun set on a magnificent 1st day.
It was lots of laughter and long stories ‘till deep into the night.
All in all we were just so happy to be here – doing the stuff that we have read about in ride reports for too long…
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinking
Somehow at this moment the rat race that Pink Floyd spoke about wasn’t that important at all.
All of a sudden we had enough time.
The bikes, the sunset, the sea and good friends.
Right here and right now it all just made sense.
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