- Joined
- Feb 6, 2006
- Messages
- 11,529
- Reaction score
- 5,163
- Location
- Cape Town, deep in the lentils
- Bike
- KTM 990 Adventure
I feel for you guys who don’t get to ride on the Dunes. It is absolutely stunning and not as hard as riding down a sandy jeep track once onto the dunes proper.
Originally 6 had accepted, 2 had last minute issues so 4 became the number for the day to play with. I met another small group also on the way to learn sand on some jeep track further up the coast. They were keen, I wonder how it went? I can’t remember their forum names or names.
Sadly, my video camera is kaput and I only took my cell photo’s. Neil and Martin were noobs to the dunes, Gerhard had been once before on a 1200GS – not apparently something that had left fond memories. Neil and Martin where on 990 and 950 respectively, Gerhard was on the XR650.
After the tire pressure dance, it was into the sweating not 20 meters from the start. I can usually tell within these first few meters what kind of day we should have by how the guys get onto the dunes. All 3 were a bit nervous but coped fine. I gave a few pointers and off we went.
Dunes can be a lot of fun, but they can bite if a few simple rules are not followed. The crests are dangerous places for many reasons and should be treated with respect. Loads of guys have hurt themselves barrelling over crests only to have a good 10 meter dropoff catch them on the other side. Even the small ones can hard on a rider. This was the first of many and the first one that the guys crested. All three of them took a sand bath of varying sorts.
Once at one of the bigger dunes, Neil took up the challenge of trying to get to the top but turned along the face and accelerated down again only to biff really hard when his suspension bottomed at the bottom. Nothing broken but he had a really sore knee. I see some knee guards in your future! His video tells the story.
[flash=600,400]https://www.youtube.com/v/lL1qpa4QhYA[/flash]
Gerhard was starting to make it look easy till I suggested a tricky line, he lost a few kilo’s getting this turned around and back on it’s feet again. Playing in the dunes is sweaty work.
Neil’s leg after another fall was not fun anymore so I lead him out and came back to carry on with the other two – One down, two to go!
The wind was pretty strong and riding with a tail wind with these bikes makes the temperature shoot up. My temperature guage was flashing at one stage. It’s is easily remedied, either ride faster than the wind or turn into it. Witin seconds the temperature comes down.
By this stage all of us had fallen loads. The hard part of riding in the dunes is picking the bikes up. All guys have a limit where the enjoyment to bike picking up ratio puts a dent in the fun. So to keep the fun ratio in the green you either have to be; at the start of your day, or really fit and strong, or very good at sand, or have a really light bike with a lot of power. There’s a reason why old fat guys like MX bikes in the dunes. We DS riders, unfortunately, are lekker dom.
Once we’d made our way to the Northern corner, the guys had reached the edges of the green zone and were quite happy with their day.
On the way though, Martin had a massive crash. He went over the top of a dune with way too much enthusiasm and landed a good 12 meters away from the crest. Fortunately 950’s and Martin crash really well and all he hurt was his hip. I expect there to be some big blue photo’s in this thread in the near future.
The 4x4 guys had ring side seats.
After a bit more sweating and taking the fun ratio right to the limit,
Once the guys were out of the dunes where it took zero persuasion to get them to agree to a beer at the bush pub. I think the score for picking up bikes was in the high teens for me (my own bike about 5, the rest where the others), the others must have been in the same ball park. After re-telling the height that Martin got, how brilliant the day was and various other mindless topics, we parted and headed home. It was a great start to my birthday.
I’m sure the other guys have some stunning pics too.
Come on, more of you should get your big DS bikes out there. As winter comes on, it will get easier with it being less hot.
Originally 6 had accepted, 2 had last minute issues so 4 became the number for the day to play with. I met another small group also on the way to learn sand on some jeep track further up the coast. They were keen, I wonder how it went? I can’t remember their forum names or names.
Sadly, my video camera is kaput and I only took my cell photo’s. Neil and Martin were noobs to the dunes, Gerhard had been once before on a 1200GS – not apparently something that had left fond memories. Neil and Martin where on 990 and 950 respectively, Gerhard was on the XR650.
After the tire pressure dance, it was into the sweating not 20 meters from the start. I can usually tell within these first few meters what kind of day we should have by how the guys get onto the dunes. All 3 were a bit nervous but coped fine. I gave a few pointers and off we went.
Dunes can be a lot of fun, but they can bite if a few simple rules are not followed. The crests are dangerous places for many reasons and should be treated with respect. Loads of guys have hurt themselves barrelling over crests only to have a good 10 meter dropoff catch them on the other side. Even the small ones can hard on a rider. This was the first of many and the first one that the guys crested. All three of them took a sand bath of varying sorts.
Once at one of the bigger dunes, Neil took up the challenge of trying to get to the top but turned along the face and accelerated down again only to biff really hard when his suspension bottomed at the bottom. Nothing broken but he had a really sore knee. I see some knee guards in your future! His video tells the story.
[flash=600,400]https://www.youtube.com/v/lL1qpa4QhYA[/flash]
Gerhard was starting to make it look easy till I suggested a tricky line, he lost a few kilo’s getting this turned around and back on it’s feet again. Playing in the dunes is sweaty work.
Neil’s leg after another fall was not fun anymore so I lead him out and came back to carry on with the other two – One down, two to go!
The wind was pretty strong and riding with a tail wind with these bikes makes the temperature shoot up. My temperature guage was flashing at one stage. It’s is easily remedied, either ride faster than the wind or turn into it. Witin seconds the temperature comes down.
By this stage all of us had fallen loads. The hard part of riding in the dunes is picking the bikes up. All guys have a limit where the enjoyment to bike picking up ratio puts a dent in the fun. So to keep the fun ratio in the green you either have to be; at the start of your day, or really fit and strong, or very good at sand, or have a really light bike with a lot of power. There’s a reason why old fat guys like MX bikes in the dunes. We DS riders, unfortunately, are lekker dom.
Once we’d made our way to the Northern corner, the guys had reached the edges of the green zone and were quite happy with their day.
On the way though, Martin had a massive crash. He went over the top of a dune with way too much enthusiasm and landed a good 12 meters away from the crest. Fortunately 950’s and Martin crash really well and all he hurt was his hip. I expect there to be some big blue photo’s in this thread in the near future.
The 4x4 guys had ring side seats.
After a bit more sweating and taking the fun ratio right to the limit,
Once the guys were out of the dunes where it took zero persuasion to get them to agree to a beer at the bush pub. I think the score for picking up bikes was in the high teens for me (my own bike about 5, the rest where the others), the others must have been in the same ball park. After re-telling the height that Martin got, how brilliant the day was and various other mindless topics, we parted and headed home. It was a great start to my birthday.
I’m sure the other guys have some stunning pics too.
Come on, more of you should get your big DS bikes out there. As winter comes on, it will get easier with it being less hot.
