Lekker stuff!! :ricky:
Bonova's RR - AMAGEZA 2014
- Thread starter bonova
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Dirt Junkie
Race Dog
Loving this RR
bonova
Race Dog
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OKAY - I know its all a bit disjointed now - but this is the 2nd and last day 1 Video 
I'll add it to the post with the 1st one too. Still haven't figured how to embed vimeo vids.... so just click on the link
Amageza day 1 - 2nd vid on Vimeo
I'll add it to the post with the 1st one too. Still haven't figured how to embed vimeo vids.... so just click on the link
Amageza day 1 - 2nd vid on Vimeo
Mark Hardy
Grey Hound
more please , really enjoying your RR
bud500 (R.I.P)
Grey Hound
Mark Hardy said:
What he said!
billy-joe
Race Dog
Mark Hardy said:
+2!
bonova
Race Dog
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Hello Neighbour. It's nice to know we own adjacent plots of Kalahari dune. :biggrin:
Crossed-up
Pangaman
Now I see - you guys rode real slow like normal people and then you just speeded up your videos. :deal: :lol8:
How the hell do you keep it going for hour after hour? :hello2: :hello2: :hello2:
How the hell do you keep it going for hour after hour? :hello2: :hello2: :hello2:
bonova
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Crossed-up said:
Haha - exactly John!
Love that part of the vid when you counting us down
Honestly tho - you cost me some seconds there bud cause I had to wait for you to get out the way I see...... ;D :ricky:Its weird...I think the faster you go tho the less tiring it is. Put the hammer down and get to the end.....there are dancing ladies and stuff at the end.....and you can lie back and relax :biggrin: It helps to be fit too
Crossed-up
Pangaman
I was quite good at jumping out the way, but on the prologue I was nearly run over. There was a rider poised on his kickstarter and I thought I'd have lots of time. Turns out he was way faster than the two button starters next to him. I had to move smartly, I tell you, as he barely brushed past me a good half a second in front of the others.
So don't wait for the starter. Wait for the count. Then run him over and appeal for lots of lost time later.
So don't wait for the starter. Wait for the count. Then run him over and appeal for lots of lost time later.
bonova
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whitedelight
Grey Hound
Nice vids
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Cool - brings back all the memories again.
those red dunes and gates were driving me nuts - I was alone on most of day 2 and was doing each gate for myself
By the time I got to those dunes the main path was chopped up badly and you had to make your own line - it was a great day - a whole lot better than sitting here, tapping away at a keyboard ..............
those red dunes and gates were driving me nuts - I was alone on most of day 2 and was doing each gate for myself
By the time I got to those dunes the main path was chopped up badly and you had to make your own line - it was a great day - a whole lot better than sitting here, tapping away at a keyboard ..............
bonova
Race Dog
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and finally....apologies about the delay... DAY 3
Day 3
today was gonna be a hum-dinger. Long distances and it had warmed up quite a bit. There was the usual liason and then we all lined up on the side of a tar road ready to hit the speacial. It was quite cool cause when we got there the front guys were just starting and so we got to see the fast guys pin it off the startline.....
I started again with a 690 / 660 next to me and gunned it flat out from the start, riding solo for a good few KM. The navigation was tricky at one point early on and quite a few guys got lost. I caught a group and we all headed off down the wrong road a bit before turning back. I can't exactly remember how, but I had a gut feel (normally a bad thing to follow those) and headed off in a slightly different direction and managed to find the correct road in front of them..... hooking up on a nice twisy section of fast dirt road through a canyon. With the heavy rains there were quite a few wash-aways, and a river crossing that was completely washed, but shallow. I got a little stuck in the rocks on exiting but then i was off again...no bikes in sight. It was some really stunning riding that section, and then it hooked a hard left for some off piste in a wide riverbed. I remembered marking a very importand note down as the the ICO reading to get out of the river, but it was an obvious one - little climb over some rocks and boulders. Just after that though i managed to get lost. I don't know how it happened, but I saw a rider on a husky off to the right and took that direction. I think he had realized his mistake, but I followed a path that appeared to be going the right way, but ended me in a dead end in some hectic rocks at the top of a waterfall. No ways I was getting through there so I turned around and managed to get into some proper Roof Of Africa rocks for a bit haha. I went all the way back along the contour of a mountain to the find the correct path.
Today my mind was not 100% focussed I must say, and I very quickly had 2 very close calls that could have ended in a smashed bike....I was lucky! You'll see the one on the video. Just after that was the fuel stop where I bumped into Greg Raaff...He must have passed me when i got lost. We exchanged some banter and then he was off.... I chased hard after that and the navigation was good.....until I came to a locked gate.....eish.... I was 100% sure I was in the right place and then saw a bike on the other side of the fence..... I followed the trackes made in front of me, crossed over the fence at a low point and carried on. This is where I found my team mates Roger and Greg, hooked up with them and started off down a sandy track. 1 km later we were stopped by a VERY IRATE farmer who told us that we were on his land and we were not to pass (THOU SHALL NOT PASS!!) so a bunch of us back-tracked after lots of gestigulating and shouting to each other, and found a way around to the next waypoint. From here the 3 of us rode together and it was fantastic and very fast. I must say that riding with similar people who all navigate well is a real plus! we ate up the miles and soon we were heading down a river course that I think was part of last years race.... I was tucked behind Roger at # 2 in the line and we were flying. Suddenly I saw him duck left a little and in the dust i was not sure why so I did the same.....turns out he had just dodged the branches of a tree and then veered right into a riverbed to follow the road. I missed that in the dust and as I dropped off the ledge into the riverbed I saw the bank on the other side. No ways I was gonna make the road to the right at that speed and under almost full compression I hit the bank. It looked very high and almost vertical....which it wasn't fortunately... and I remember thinking that i was gonna snap off my front end. I smashed into it, no time to lighten the front, and i remember my chest hitting the tower hard. Then I was in the air for a bit and came down hard on my right side with the bike in a cloud of dust. I was winded but fine... bike had mildly twisted tripple clamps and a bent right side handguard this time. Brian Bontekoning and Greg stopped to check on me and then Brian hared off after Roger. Greg - the voice of reason, hung around, asked me some questions, made sure I was okay, and then took point while I followed. Fortunately my brain was still working well, and i realised that we were way off course. we'd missed a crucial turn. I signalled him, we had a discussion and we tore off to hunt down a waypoint. We didn't see Roger or Brian again and they lost hours on that mistake. The rest of the day was incredible riding with Greg. He and i took turns navigating and we were really on a roll. There was some really rough fast stuff on a sandy road, with grass tufts on the side and hard bumps under the sand that I remember well...It sapped all your energy to ride at pace and I was starting to feel my fitness letting me down. We came up on Riaan and his group and they jumped behind us cause they had missed a turn. After a short time I signalled Riaan to pass cause honestly I was pushing way too hard in the front. Not long after that we came out on Jan (with quadrocopter) and the marshalls and Greg and I backed off and let the front group get ahead before following. The ride was relentless....never could you stop concentrating...rocks, sand, navigation, heat. I started to loose concentration near the end and was feeling a little light headed. I smashed a energy bar at a gate and Greg took the front. Honestly I just followed for a bit. That man has such stamina and his riding is so smooth. It was not long and we were dropping down the last fantastic decent to the N7. I was relieved to be there I must say....we had pushed hard and I was tired. We pulled into the biv at springbok at around 15h30. It was hot and Claudes folkes had a cold energade and smiles waiting.
They were full of questions about the day. I said it was a tough one, but played it down a bit. I knew in my heart there were gonna be some tired people out there. The hours ticked on. I serviced my bike and fixed my tower which I had cracked with my chest guard in the fall.
HAte to see bikes on trailers
The kitchen
And we waited and waited.
Last Riders in the light
Eventually i went to race control to explain the farmer and the locked gate etc, and asked about the trackers for the guys still out there. It seemed there were still quite a few guys out there, still moving and more importantly no one was solo. I reported back to Claudes folkes and to Lee's folkes. the worry in the air was tangiable. I wasn't too worried about Claude making it in...hes tough. I was worried about the toll it would take for the next day. I also had a more than just a little apprehension about that last decent in the dark, cause it was quite hectic! I went to riders briefing and logged all the Waypoints. I checked all my stuff was in order and I was all set. When the last legends arrived at 21h30...there he was... smiling and happy but buggered.
Last riders in!
Scrat
Claude
Food was shoved into his face and his Dad and I set about repairing his bike.
The bashplate was stuffed and falling off. Rudy and Claude had fixed it with a tiedown to hold it on. I made up a metal bracket of sorts and used some wood as a wedge and we managed to fix it well. His tool box on the bashplate was a gonner and we removed it, and made a plan to get just the essentials onto the tail of the bike. Claude did his roadbook and I went through the briefing with him.
You never too tired to mark that think - It'll save your life!
We copied my waypoints to his GPS which saved time too. It was late when we got to sleep, but we were happy to both be okay and the bikes were servicible.
To me, what is incredible about rally is that each person is on their own mission. Even If you stick together. Its really just you out there against the clock, the road, the bike, the heat, your own mind. Each person has their own way of dealing with it. I get completely introverted which is not always the best thing. I go into survival mode. Everyting is about energy, each sip on your trippper, each handful of throttle you grab, everything seems to count. I think of nothing else but me and the bike and how i'm gonna make it through. I don't have a tactic... I just go with what is right at the moment. when it's good, I push hard. When I start to loose it, i slack off and try to regain that feeling of being in a rythem again. I think that the really good guys have mastered this....they just keep at that performance level all the time and they have a tactic of some sort, because they understand their limits and how hard to push for how long. I've got a long way to go, and day 3 showed me that. For the 1st time in my short rally experience I had felt just a tinge of the dread of letting myself down. I felt that I could have ridden better and I could have been faster, but my mind had failed me somehow - I had felt the lack of fitness and my mind had not come to the party and towed the line. It wasn't a big thing....but it was there hiding in the dark, casting doubt. I had had a few very close calls - too close. And I knew that it was not my skills that were lacking but rather my concentration at the time. It was not good enough. I'm lucky i guess to not have anyone to be responsible for....if i did I think that day 3 would have made me think hard about them. I remember thinking to myself that I could not be that lucky forever and made a mental note to remember that its a long race, and finishing is the goal
I don't remember falling asleep, but it was fast this time.
Day 3
today was gonna be a hum-dinger. Long distances and it had warmed up quite a bit. There was the usual liason and then we all lined up on the side of a tar road ready to hit the speacial. It was quite cool cause when we got there the front guys were just starting and so we got to see the fast guys pin it off the startline.....
I started again with a 690 / 660 next to me and gunned it flat out from the start, riding solo for a good few KM. The navigation was tricky at one point early on and quite a few guys got lost. I caught a group and we all headed off down the wrong road a bit before turning back. I can't exactly remember how, but I had a gut feel (normally a bad thing to follow those) and headed off in a slightly different direction and managed to find the correct road in front of them..... hooking up on a nice twisy section of fast dirt road through a canyon. With the heavy rains there were quite a few wash-aways, and a river crossing that was completely washed, but shallow. I got a little stuck in the rocks on exiting but then i was off again...no bikes in sight. It was some really stunning riding that section, and then it hooked a hard left for some off piste in a wide riverbed. I remembered marking a very importand note down as the the ICO reading to get out of the river, but it was an obvious one - little climb over some rocks and boulders. Just after that though i managed to get lost. I don't know how it happened, but I saw a rider on a husky off to the right and took that direction. I think he had realized his mistake, but I followed a path that appeared to be going the right way, but ended me in a dead end in some hectic rocks at the top of a waterfall. No ways I was getting through there so I turned around and managed to get into some proper Roof Of Africa rocks for a bit haha. I went all the way back along the contour of a mountain to the find the correct path.
Today my mind was not 100% focussed I must say, and I very quickly had 2 very close calls that could have ended in a smashed bike....I was lucky! You'll see the one on the video. Just after that was the fuel stop where I bumped into Greg Raaff...He must have passed me when i got lost. We exchanged some banter and then he was off.... I chased hard after that and the navigation was good.....until I came to a locked gate.....eish.... I was 100% sure I was in the right place and then saw a bike on the other side of the fence..... I followed the trackes made in front of me, crossed over the fence at a low point and carried on. This is where I found my team mates Roger and Greg, hooked up with them and started off down a sandy track. 1 km later we were stopped by a VERY IRATE farmer who told us that we were on his land and we were not to pass
(THOU SHALL NOT PASS!!) so a bunch of us back-tracked after lots of gestigulating and shouting to each other, and found a way around to the next waypoint. From here the 3 of us rode together and it was fantastic and very fast. I must say that riding with similar people who all navigate well is a real plus! we ate up the miles and soon we were heading down a river course that I think was part of last years race.... I was tucked behind Roger at # 2 in the line and we were flying. Suddenly I saw him duck left a little and in the dust i was not sure why so I did the same.....turns out he had just dodged the branches of a tree and then veered right into a riverbed to follow the road. I missed that in the dust and as I dropped off the ledge into the riverbed I saw the bank on the other side. No ways I was gonna make the road to the right at that speed and under almost full compression I hit the bank. It looked very high and almost vertical....which it wasn't fortunately... and I remember thinking that i was gonna snap off my front end. I smashed into it, no time to lighten the front, and i remember my chest hitting the tower hard. Then I was in the air for a bit and came down hard on my right side with the bike in a cloud of dust. I was winded but fine... bike had mildly twisted tripple clamps and a bent right side handguard this time. Brian Bontekoning and Greg stopped to check on me and then Brian hared off after Roger. Greg - the voice of reason, hung around, asked me some questions, made sure I was okay, and then took point while I followed. Fortunately my brain was still working well, and i realised that we were way off course. we'd missed a crucial turn. I signalled him, we had a discussion and we tore off to hunt down a waypoint. We didn't see Roger or Brian again and they lost hours on that mistake. The rest of the day was incredible riding with Greg. He and i took turns navigating and we were really on a roll. There was some really rough fast stuff on a sandy road, with grass tufts on the side and hard bumps under the sand that I remember well...It sapped all your energy to ride at pace and I was starting to feel my fitness letting me down. We came up on Riaan and his group and they jumped behind us cause they had missed a turn. After a short time I signalled Riaan to pass cause honestly I was pushing way too hard in the front. Not long after that we came out on Jan (with quadrocopter) and the marshalls and Greg and I backed off and let the front group get ahead before following. The ride was relentless....never could you stop concentrating...rocks, sand, navigation, heat. I started to loose concentration near the end and was feeling a little light headed. I smashed a energy bar at a gate and Greg took the front. Honestly I just followed for a bit. That man has such stamina and his riding is so smooth. It was not long and we were dropping down the last fantastic decent to the N7. I was relieved to be there I must say....we had pushed hard and I was tired. We pulled into the biv at springbok at around 15h30. It was hot and Claudes folkes had a cold energade and smiles waiting. 
They were full of questions about the day. I said it was a tough one, but played it down a bit. I knew in my heart there were gonna be some tired people out there. The hours ticked on. I serviced my bike and fixed my tower which I had cracked with my chest guard in the fall.
HAte to see bikes on trailers
The kitchen
And we waited and waited.
Last Riders in the light
Eventually i went to race control to explain the farmer and the locked gate etc, and asked about the trackers for the guys still out there. It seemed there were still quite a few guys out there, still moving and more importantly no one was solo. I reported back to Claudes folkes and to Lee's folkes. the worry in the air was tangiable. I wasn't too worried about Claude making it in...hes tough. I was worried about the toll it would take for the next day. I also had a more than just a little apprehension about that last decent in the dark, cause it was quite hectic! I went to riders briefing and logged all the Waypoints. I checked all my stuff was in order and I was all set. When the last legends arrived at 21h30...there he was... smiling and happy but buggered.
Last riders in!
Scrat
Claude
Food was shoved into his face and his Dad and I set about repairing his bike.
The bashplate was stuffed and falling off. Rudy and Claude had fixed it with a tiedown to hold it on. I made up a metal bracket of sorts and used some wood as a wedge and we managed to fix it well. His tool box on the bashplate was a gonner and we removed it, and made a plan to get just the essentials onto the tail of the bike. Claude did his roadbook and I went through the briefing with him.
You never too tired to mark that think - It'll save your life!
We copied my waypoints to his GPS which saved time too. It was late when we got to sleep, but we were happy to both be okay and the bikes were servicible.
To me, what is incredible about rally is that each person is on their own mission. Even If you stick together. Its really just you out there against the clock, the road, the bike, the heat, your own mind. Each person has their own way of dealing with it. I get completely introverted which is not always the best thing. I go into survival mode. Everyting is about energy, each sip on your trippper, each handful of throttle you grab, everything seems to count. I think of nothing else but me and the bike and how i'm gonna make it through. I don't have a tactic... I just go with what is right at the moment. when it's good, I push hard. When I start to loose it, i slack off and try to regain that feeling of being in a rythem again. I think that the really good guys have mastered this....they just keep at that performance level all the time and they have a tactic of some sort, because they understand their limits and how hard to push for how long. I've got a long way to go, and day 3 showed me that. For the 1st time in my short rally experience I had felt just a tinge of the dread of letting myself down. I felt that I could have ridden better and I could have been faster, but my mind had failed me somehow - I had felt the lack of fitness and my mind had not come to the party and towed the line. It wasn't a big thing....but it was there hiding in the dark, casting doubt. I had had a few very close calls - too close. And I knew that it was not my skills that were lacking but rather my concentration at the time. It was not good enough. I'm lucky i guess to not have anyone to be responsible for....if i did I think that day 3 would have made me think hard about them. I remember thinking to myself that I could not be that lucky forever and made a mental note to remember that its a long race, and finishing is the goal
I don't remember falling asleep, but it was fast this time.
