AMAGEZA 2013..... So much more! (SS4- last vid added)

[Pleco]

Chest mount for the GoPro is still the best in my opinion. But it looks like the bottom of your Leatt might be better.

Try to recover that video please.  :3some:

 

[MegaPix]

:thumleft: :sip:

More more!!

Hello Bazinga    :laughing4:

Hi Megapix. Wat is so snaaks. ha ha

jy se More More soos in hello hello

toe groet ek maar

 

[BlueBull2007]

Bonova, this is a truely great report. Thanks so much for taking the time to put it together. That Video was FANTASTIC!!!

You seriously rode like a pro, could see that on the video. You were really pushing hard low flying and riding very smoothly. Clever of you to take it easy on that boring section, and give your bike a chance to recover a bit.

ithin about 2-3 km I came on a lone soldier, walking in the opposite direction. I stopped and asked if all was ok. Shame his chain had snapped and he was walking out to the start. Jeez my heart went out to him, and when I saw his Honda 650L Standing next to the track further on, I had a wave of depression for him. Not like that man....that is no way to have to stop.

Its a horrible feeling seeing another guy like that. Feel like crying in sympathy. Really depressing. At least he was okay, and no one crashed on this rally.

Cant wait for the rest, man!

 

[bonova]

I pulled onto the bivouac just outside springbok maybe 4th or 5th I guess. There was no overlander yet so once again I had no tools or anything, but the guys from KTM Cape Town were nice enough to lend me some tools and a feeler gauge set. I needed to take off the low mudguard to get to my fork seal and clean it properly, which I did and then just hoped it would work for one more day.
Not long after that and the overlander arrived and very quickly this time offloaded the trommels and set up the tents. I went and had a nice warm shower and potted a bit with the bike. An oil change was all that was needed really. The air filter being so high up was still basically spotless, which was a relief cause its a mission to remove with the safari tank. Bikes arrived in numbers late afternoon, and there was a lot of tyre changing and bike fixing going on. A number of towers had met there unsightly demise, and there were some interesting fixes. I remember WTD carving up some branches to use as a splint

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Just a bit of mud
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Claude pulled in and he looked shattered. He had had a fall in the mud on the liaison and hurt his wrist badly ( the same one he broke 3 months prior and had screws in still) it had been a long day after that for him with the sand taking its toll on the wrist especially. But he pushed on. I was worried about it cause I know he is seriously hardcore, and i could see it was sore, and there was some crepitus when he moved it. Fortunately his bike was hundreds and so nothing needed doing.
I cut my new rear tyre loose in favor of just resting.



At the briefing we handed in our GPS's and it was here that Pleco and I managed to figure out the problem with mine. The tracks would need to be sent off to SteveD that night and he would get it right. In the mean time I still had no idea where I stood, apart from being very happy to just be on the startline for day 3. I left my GPS with Pleco and would have to do the waypoints in the am. This is where there was a big advantage in having my mate there. We entered the waypoints in his GPS so all I needed to do the next day was copy them, and not go through the whole map again.

The briefing was a bit scary. We were told to "PLEASE please not crash in the 1st SS of day 3 as it would take over a day to recover a bike and rider. The going was rough, the chance of getting properly lost was good, and the consequences were possible serious.
After the refuel in namibia we could pin it tho yay!
Claude and I got our roadbooks, and marked them while we ate some spag-bol in the restaurant. We were tired and i guess worried about his wrist mainly, and it showed.



After supper we went straight to bed, while some guys were up till 3 am trying to fix bikes

 

[BlueBull2007]

You must have been pretty tired by that time. I also can also never sleep for the first two nights but after that - nooo problem at all! ;D

A silly question: how the heck do you use a feeler gauge to clean a fork seal - Just shove a thin one in, slide it around a bit and hope for the best? I would never have thought of that. Did you top up your fork oil? I guess not...

How is Claude's wrist now? Hope it is okay...

 

[DRAZIL]

respect to all and thanks for sharing with us all your ups and downs.
Riviting reading :thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[goingnowherequickly]

Thanks so much for sharing...

& wishing you best of luck for the Roof this weekend.. :thumleft:

 

[Crossed-up]

Thanks so much for sharing...

& wishing you best of luck for the Roof this weekend.. :thumleft:

Indeed!  Thanks for all the trouble you've gone to in writing this report.  I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
All the best for the Roof, and we're looking forward to that report too.  Such is the price of success!

 

[bonova]

You must have been pretty tired by that time. I also can also never sleep for the first two nights but after that - nooo problem at all! ;D

A silly question: how the heck do you use a feeler gauge to clean a fork seal - Just shove a thin one in, slide it around a bit and hope for the best? I would never have thought of that. Did you top up your fork oil? I guess not...

How is Claude's wrist now? Hope it is okay...

Hey Neil. Ja remove the dust cover, and then gently slide in a thin gauge. Angle it so that as you slide it around it hopefully pulls the dirt out wards. Often works 100%  Fixed my mates 990 seal like that in Malawi and it held for the rest of the trip.
I didn't replace any oil. Dunno how much I lost. It was enough to oil my boot a bit haha.

Claude's wrist is okay. still sore and clicking a bit but no need for surgery so that's good!

Thanks for all the well wishes. For the roof! Gonna need it I think

 

[MaxThePanda]

Aren't neoprene fork boots a good solution to prevent this, or is there a downside I don't know about?

 

[Kamanya]

Aren't neoprene fork boots a good solution to prevent this, or is there a downside I don't know about?

I swear by them.

I regularly used to get shit in my seals. Maybe twice a year and then once it starts the probability of fixing it again is pretty high.

I've had socks on for two years now, nada! No down sides I know of.

Good luck for the roof.

 

[bonova]

Wow...it was really hard to wake up this am. In fact Claude had to shake me awake cause I didn't even hear my alarm with the ear plugs in. It was the same routine...get dressed In the tent and stumble out. Every night I had been strapping Claude's wrist with KT tape, which had been working well, but this morning, when I asked how the wrist felt he said not good. It was very swollen and he couldn't really move it much. Things didn't look good for him riding today, and even though I really didn't want to believe it, I said that he probably shouldn't ride with it like that. If it was the 1st injury he could have maybe, but if he re-broke it or damaged it again there was a chance of permanent issues. He carried on getting dressed though, but fortunately got the medics to examine it and they stated that under no circumstances was he to ride. At breakfast he was bitterly disappointed, but he said he would just jump on the tar and meet us in kakamas. There wasn't much time, and I entered my waypoints in at the table after retrieving my GPS from Pleco. It was pretty chilly that morning, and still pretty dark when I pulled into the starting line.
I had to stop just north of springbok to put a zip-tie on my front brake line that I'd forgotten to do the night before, but then it was a quite ride to the fuel stop before the special. The 3 riders who were in front of me made a wrong turn and so I was at the fuel stop before them. In and out, i didnt fill up completely, and i was on my way to the rhichtersvelt!!
Andy and John were there to see us off.
Now just before starting the Amageza, the battery in my speedo had died. I replaced it with a new one, but it was somehow dead again. This meant that anytime I turned off the bike, the farking trip meter reset. This had started on day 2 actually. So quite often I was frantically trying to change the trip meter by large values, or having to add 50 km or some random number to the value. It was frustrating. I sorted this out and then got the go-ahead to start ss3.

The 1st section was pretty much a gravel road that meandered for awhile and then became less and less of a road and more of a jeep track.

I need to get the original of this pic
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It was truly beautiful, and here were plenty of "woooohoooos" and "yeeeehaaaas". After a fair distance the track started to get more technical as we ascended into the mountains. The navigations was a little tricky, but manageable at speed generally. I passed 3 riders who were a bit lost and coming back from a wrong turn, and then the road got more hectic. It wasn't that technical, but it was very rocky, with loose shale sections and some deep ruts in places. I too took a wrong turn at one point. My map and gut said I should go left, but there were absolutely no tracks going that way (so I thought, but the ground was rocky and difficult to see) and a lot of tracks leading straight. I went straight but soon realized it was wrong and didn't loose much time at all. Riding over those loose rocks took really good concentration. Set in my mind was the words from the briefing the night before and so I took it fairly easily. This was also prime terrain for a snake-bite puncture, and so I kept the front light. The wheels flicked up rocks constantly and my baseplate and exhaust protection took a bit of a beating. For awhile a guy on a 690 rode behind me after I passed him when he was stopped to check his navigation, but after maybe 5-10km he was no longer there and I rode the rest by myself. It was fantastic!
Even though I was kinda backed off a bit, I still had a few moments where I went farming rocks and sand, or hit something really hard. Here were hidden ruts and small river beds. There were plenty of tracks also heading "off-road" and a few places where it looked like someone had fallen, one in particular back in the 1st 1/3 of the stage, up in the rocks. The rocks were so loose you could easily see the skid marks.

The route took us down into maze of criss-crossing riverbeds and there was some really fast open sections interspersed with riverbeds of sand and rock. The navigation now was really easy and the landmarks were good. It was really the best SS section of the entire race. The scenery was utterly mind blowing. So harsh, but so beautiful. I found myself pointing and yelling to myself. i wonder if any of this is on the video hahaha. (haven't had a chance to go through day 3 yet  ) I remember seeing an Auger Buzzard and was super chuffed as it was the 1st one I've seen
Too soon it was over and I was going painfully slowly through farm areas with speed limits of 40km/hr, eventually making my way to the end of the SS and the border into NAM.

Pulling in at the end of SS 3
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Crossing over was a bit of a pain and I envied the full blown rally bikes that didn't need to. It took what seemed like an age to get over, and then at the garage I took off all my warm gear, had a coke, and then reversed the process. I then stopped to tell Nicki I was back. As I was heading off WTD stopped me and asked if I had puncture repair glue. I did so I gave them some to fix his front tube and then I was off. I caught Joey on the short liaison, cause he was taking it easy on the tar with his mousses. I started the SS 4 section 2 min in front of him.

I had a good chuckle cause as I started there was a rider heading back towards me. He missed the very 1st turn off and had gone off into a dead end. I passed him at that turning, and set off on a very fast track with stunning sections of sand and then gravel, meandering through hills and over small rocky mountains.



Some river bed sections were really fun with sharp turns around bushed and rocks in medium sand. It was really great stuff. At one waypoint I slowed down and Joey came flying passed me....he was not taking any prisoners, and I quickly jumped on his tail and we started a long section of riding together. Once or twice I passed him when he took a slight wrong turn and then he'd pass me again. It was a really fun time cause were were riding fast, and just having a blast, both navigating and kinda checking each other. Fairly close to the end of the technical section, it got a bit dusty so I was hanging a little further back. I came around the corned and my heart stopped. He was sprawled on the ground, bike lying off to the side. I quickly stopped and ran over to him, asking if he was okay. I didn't hear him with my earplugs so I tried to look into his eyes. I thought he was out, but actually he wasn't and he asked me to sort out his bike. I laughed afterwards - that's exactly what I would have done.... Dude, is my bike ok?? I picked it up and then helped him up. His arm was pretty sore but otherwise he seemed a bit groggy. We checked the bike and then set off. I rode behind him for a while to check he was ok. The speed had dropped down quite a bit naturally. After awhile he gave me a thumbs up and I went off in front. It wasn't long and the fun was over, moving onto another long boring section of normal road, so I sat at my customary 100-110km/hr. Joey passed me here as did someone else if I remember correctly. At the end of the special we stopped and had a break, chatting to N[]VA and co who were tagging along with the Marshalls.

The liaison to Kakamas was a short section of tar to Poffadder and then some beautiful back roads that kinda bunny-hopped north of the highway and eventually came out at Kakamas. There were multiple gates. I potted along, and at one point stopped cause I was falling asleep.



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[SteveD]

Epic    :notworthy:

 

[bonova]

Pulled into the final bivouac, with a high five from Alex on arrival. I was relieved to see Claude there, he was fast to get a beer in my hand. It was such a relief to know I had made it!!!! It was smiles all round and everyone was super jovial. Even Claude was chuffed and I think he'd make peace with not being able to ride the last day.
I vaguely unpacked and had an awesome shower, but mostly we just chatted amoungst ourselves and relived a lot of the race.
Everyone that started the day made it in which was incredible! It was some seriously rough terrain that we went through. There was some close calls though, and some bikes that limped in with leaking radiators and the like. One set of stitches in a riders neck, a few punctures, and some bent rims.





I must say that supper that evening and the gin and tonics that we put back have never tasted quite as good as that. Everyone was really keen to know the positions but that would have to wait till the next morning. So for now we all ate drank and were very merry! It was fortunate there were no single girls around cause I think that they would have been in big trouble hahaha

 

[BlueBull2007]

Brilliant reading! :hello2:

Peter once again: Well done bud! What an awesome feeling it must have been at the finish.

Its amazing how easy it is to fall asleep on a liaison!

Thanks for this awesome, awesome report. :thumleft:

 

[bonova]

Brilliant reading! :hello2:

Peter once again: Well done bud! What an awesome feeling it must have been at the finish.

Its amazing how easy it is to fall asleep on a liaison!

Thanks for this awesome, awesome report. :thumleft:

Thanks bud!
The rest is gonna have to wait till after the roof... Got to pack now and get some sleep tonight! Leaving early tomorrow am. Catch you all on the flip side

 

[Rynet]

Brilliant reading! :hello2:

Peter once again: Well done bud! What an awesome feeling it must have been at the finish.

Its amazing how easy it is to fall asleep on a liaison!

Thanks for this awesome, awesome report. :thumleft:

Thanks bud!
The rest is gonna have to wait till after the roof... Got to pack now and get some sleep tonight! Leaving early tomorrow am. Catch you all on the flip side

Bo I agree with BB , it is an awesome ,awesome. awesome report , and epic as SteveD said .  :hello2:

Brilliant reading it , thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed and riveting report  :thumleft:

And all the best for the Roof , we are all rooting for you .  :ricky: 

 

[alanB]

I remember seeing an Auger Buzzard and was super chuffed as it was the 1st one I've seen Smiley

You know this just irritates the crap out of me! 

You consistently were  going so fast  that you finish to of the log - EVERY DAY !   

That doesn't happen by accident.

But you still have time for birdwatching, and can name the bloody species afterwards  while riding what some have said was the toughest stage of them all....its just depressing for us lesser beings 

:biggrin: 8)

Well done!

Thanks for a great RR from a great rider.

Hope you do equally well on the Roof!

 

[Haplo]

Such an awsome RR!!! Thanks so much for the effort! 

 

[T9ER]

Great report bud, sums it up nicely. Thanks for picking up my bike when I had that big off ! I nearly threw it all away on that last special.......lesson learnt. Loved racing that special together some of the coolest riding I've ever done. Good times.
I also remember seeing those tracks in front of us where someone was clearly flat out and overshot a good number of corners, had a good chuckle in my helmet a few times.
Well done once again on a well deserved win. Great job.