Roadhawg
Grey Hound
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2013
- Messages
- 6,100
- Reaction score
- 904
- Bike
- Husqvarna (all models)
Joined Bonafide MotoCo on their "Around Lesotho" trip this weekend. Had a jol. Pushed myself a bit. Fucked around a bit....Found out a bit.
Day 1 JHB to Wepener on Tar.
(Night before Day 1, I decide to add some preload to the rear shock, to compensate for some luggage. Stock setting is 3 turns of preload....I Discover the shock is set to ZERO. So add 5 turns (3 stock, plus 2 for the luggage).
Get out of JHB and the bike feels ok until we start getting deeper into the freestate and hitting shittier tar. It wants to start weaving at anything over like 125km/h. To be fair I also have some pretty aggressive dirt tyres on, but it's pretty unsettling, and even though the next couple days will be on dirt, I still have to ride home on the tar so I'm concerned.
Spend the night at Lord Fraser Guest House in Wepener. EPIC food. Good chats.
Day 1
Day 2 Wepener to Rhodes via a bunch fo Dirt and Lundeans Nek.
(Overnight I asked the 790/890/ktm guys on this forum what I can do for the weave. Consensus was to give the tyres a little more time to bed in, lower the pressures slightly, and back off the preload a bit. I went back to the std "3 turns" setting on the shock....Felt VERY soft. At the forst smoke break I went back up to 4 turns, and it felt spot on!!)
Onto the dirt like 500m out of Wepener and it's everything is grooving. Hit Zastron for fuel. Back onto a little dirt detour again. Lekker scenery (but very dry). Eventually we find a dry river bed with a fairly big bridge to eat out lunch under as it was the only shade we could find. We still had good long way to go, and Lundeans so I was keen to push on but guys like to stop and talk shit hahah.
Finally start getting into lundeans proper and riding through the little villages leading up to it I can see a proper storm building in the mountains....I'm keen to get to the top before that really starts. A mate on a 1290 and I push on when the others take the next break. That means we hit Lundeans on our own, which was actually lekker to take it nice and chilled at our own pace and enjoy the views. We were like little kids in the Helmer Comms ('OMG look at that Valley!! Look at that rock! Wow its a bit rocky here!")
Get to the top with no drama. It's pretty easy but It's been a long day so we stop for a good while. Drink all the water we had on our bikes, and then wait for the support vehicle to get some more.
Right. Time to head off down to Rhodes.
Initially pretty chilled and then the road smoothed out, and it had rained JUUUUUUUST enough to kill all the dust. The leader on the new Tiger 900 and A guy on a Multistrada 950 started pushing, riding right next to each other. I sat about 20m back from them and I was riding pretty much at the limit of my "safe" ability to keep up. Then there was a another guy on a Tiger 900 just behind me. We were all sending it through those twists. It was AMAZING riding. Once or twice ended up in a rut at a bit of a silly speed but the bike shaked itself straight and we kept going. Really really good riding.
Closer to Rhodes, Joe the leader really took off, I tried to follow him but there was no way I could safely keep up. Dude can ride, and has been SOLIDLY on the bike for the last month and a bit riding in India and Nepal. So he was FLYING.
Got to Rhodes (Walkerbouts) dusty, tired but flipping happy.
More coming.
Day 1 JHB to Wepener on Tar.
(Night before Day 1, I decide to add some preload to the rear shock, to compensate for some luggage. Stock setting is 3 turns of preload....I Discover the shock is set to ZERO. So add 5 turns (3 stock, plus 2 for the luggage).
Get out of JHB and the bike feels ok until we start getting deeper into the freestate and hitting shittier tar. It wants to start weaving at anything over like 125km/h. To be fair I also have some pretty aggressive dirt tyres on, but it's pretty unsettling, and even though the next couple days will be on dirt, I still have to ride home on the tar so I'm concerned.
Spend the night at Lord Fraser Guest House in Wepener. EPIC food. Good chats.
Day 1
Day 2 Wepener to Rhodes via a bunch fo Dirt and Lundeans Nek.
(Overnight I asked the 790/890/ktm guys on this forum what I can do for the weave. Consensus was to give the tyres a little more time to bed in, lower the pressures slightly, and back off the preload a bit. I went back to the std "3 turns" setting on the shock....Felt VERY soft. At the forst smoke break I went back up to 4 turns, and it felt spot on!!)
Onto the dirt like 500m out of Wepener and it's everything is grooving. Hit Zastron for fuel. Back onto a little dirt detour again. Lekker scenery (but very dry). Eventually we find a dry river bed with a fairly big bridge to eat out lunch under as it was the only shade we could find. We still had good long way to go, and Lundeans so I was keen to push on but guys like to stop and talk shit hahah.
Finally start getting into lundeans proper and riding through the little villages leading up to it I can see a proper storm building in the mountains....I'm keen to get to the top before that really starts. A mate on a 1290 and I push on when the others take the next break. That means we hit Lundeans on our own, which was actually lekker to take it nice and chilled at our own pace and enjoy the views. We were like little kids in the Helmer Comms ('OMG look at that Valley!! Look at that rock! Wow its a bit rocky here!")
Get to the top with no drama. It's pretty easy but It's been a long day so we stop for a good while. Drink all the water we had on our bikes, and then wait for the support vehicle to get some more.
Right. Time to head off down to Rhodes.
Initially pretty chilled and then the road smoothed out, and it had rained JUUUUUUUST enough to kill all the dust. The leader on the new Tiger 900 and A guy on a Multistrada 950 started pushing, riding right next to each other. I sat about 20m back from them and I was riding pretty much at the limit of my "safe" ability to keep up. Then there was a another guy on a Tiger 900 just behind me. We were all sending it through those twists. It was AMAZING riding. Once or twice ended up in a rut at a bit of a silly speed but the bike shaked itself straight and we kept going. Really really good riding.
Closer to Rhodes, Joe the leader really took off, I tried to follow him but there was no way I could safely keep up. Dude can ride, and has been SOLIDLY on the bike for the last month and a bit riding in India and Nepal. So he was FLYING.
Got to Rhodes (Walkerbouts) dusty, tired but flipping happy.
More coming.
