Bray, the forgotten city

[m0lt3n]

Ja there is some kind of camera setup on that Vostershoop pump with its liter only reading. I took the bill by faith and just paid. I remember he was surprised that (IIRC) I only needed 15l of petrol. but remember I added 5l from the bag.

From Vorstershoop to Bray was about a 100km, a bit of the same old same old but the sand pit intensity did increase. I would have preferred going by the border route but judging from the section after this I was not missing out on much.
just outside of Vorstershoop I had to stop to take a picture of the old signage. I dont think new signs last as long as the old ones.
Going through yet another sand patch I thought I really should try to get a pic of the sand...useless. I just cant capture sand. I did take a pic of some churches, cant remember which was where though. I think the second was in Bray. so I do have one pic of Bray! The area could really do with some rain.

Entering Bray I realized I had enough fuel to reach Tosca. I also forgot to bring cash with and did not feel like swiping for an ice cream, a pity. I had a look around at the General Dealer and saw its much the same. Hardware in these areas seems to consist of pipe fittings and wire. Quick chat with the owner/manager/salesperson turned out to be very interesting. I was asking why the Bray July was canceled the last few years. Turns out its politics between the area and the gambling board. I know its a respectable event with some proper money flowing and would imagine a big loss to the area if taken away. Other reason for asking was I would like to bring my family for a breakaway weekend. But after driving through town, I imagine I wont be very popular if I bring all here, especially in summer. I was asked if I came in on the sand-pit road, I replied that I thought thats the norm for the area which he laughed and agreed on.

Next up was the border road to Vergelegen. not much to report though. I saw the baboons I mentioned earlier and I was still enjoying my day. I was still making good time, think it was around 12 oclock and the other issue I mentioned earlier was fine.
Issue=heated grip was loose on the throttle. in other words I would give gas but nothing would happen, or I would hold steady throttle in the thick sand and just loose power. I applied some cable ties and it held. Except for being super uncomfortable holding onto some sharp edges of cable ties. see last pic

 

[Pietsjiet]

Lekker man !
Ek en n maat was ook een lang naweek daar deur op ons 640's. As gevolg van die vakansie dag, kon ons nie petrol kry in VanZylsrust nie, en het maar aangestoot. Ek moes my maat sleep die laaste 5km na Vostershoop...op reserve met my petrol liggie  wat flikker. Toe ons by die winkel/pompe kom, sê die eienaar hy het al vir n paar weke geen petrol nie.
Na hy te lekker gekry het om ons rooi gesigte te sien, sê hy: ek joke net :laughing4:

 

[m0lt3n]

Right, next up was when all went pear shaped for me.

From Vergelegen I was still enjoying myself, and planning to be home before 4pm. There wasn't much scenery change and I have nearly seen all that I set out to see. I turned right to Pomfret on a white road. I was actually wondering how this road came to be. There was a lot of dolomite rocks and the road was very different to the others. It had a layer of white powder, almost fesh fesh on top and the hard rocks underneath. I was struggling to make good speeds but managing well.
Or rather, I had to stop being lazy and stand up to still maintain speeds higher than 100 in reasonable comfort. This also saved my but. I hit a huge rock, a big *** lurker I never saw. The front end came up rather high and I instantly thought so much for a day without punctures...but then I realised my rear of the bike was against my butt, fortunately I was standing with decent balance so the 'jump' wasn't with to much issues and after what felt like ages I was back on the ground. I felt the front end and the tyre still felt fine. Rode another 200m and decided to stop anyway, that couldn't have gone by with zero issues.

Pulling over I was happy to see the wheel was really actually still hard, no pinch flats, but my smile dropped when I saw a rather sizeable smiley on my flippen new Excel rim. I thought these were unbendable! Then I whistled when I saw a spoke also broken next to the smiley. That sucked. I rode back to see the rock and take a picture of it but it looked fairly small, most of it being covered by the powder. Slightly rattled I continued on.

Not much to see in Pomfret and not really in the mood to take any more pictures I continued to Tosca.
Tosca I stopped at the fuel station and found it closed, seems like 11am on Saturdays they close up, fortunately the neighbour saw me sniffing around and directed me to the caffee which also had a fuel pump. What do you know, 2 fuel stations! I had a smile again!
On the last stretch though my GPS died. I have had my GPS since forever, I always say I have broken almost everything on bikes, on kit and what not, but my GPS has never dropped me....so this was not good! I took the seat of to see if a cable came loose maybe as I had installed a new battery two weeks prior. This was when I started swearing, or in my head at least, I am not much of the swearing type but seeing that I have again broken the plastic fairing above the rear tyre got me fuming. It has happened before, its a CRAP job to sort out, you have to strip the tail end of the bike to the frame, cant even remove the old fairing but had to break it out.

So I would have to go through all that again. I also spend thousands on a suspension upgrade which included a rear bumpstop upgrade to prevent this from happening again. FUMING. Useless aggressive MotoZ tyre, FUMING.

Riding further I realized I was just lashing out. It could have been worse and the cause was pretty much a combination of all factors, not helped by myself decreasing preload



Pic 1 was Pomfret. Looks like an inhabited ghost town if that makes sense. Almost like diepgezet.

 

[sidetrack]

Big heavy bikes travelling at speed will always be more likely to get smilies no matter what rims you run

 

[Neo_za]

No one could have seen that rock....a bummer.

Have always been interested in this area, thanks for posting :thumleft:

 

[m0lt3n]

Tosca onwards the road was pretty rough with deep sand. I was making good time again, I just wanted to get hom but was still on track to be home at around 4pm. I was thinking and calculating and scheming whether I should claim from my insurance or not, what to claim, where to report an accident, self repair implications. My mind was very busy, I also realise how dependent I had become on the GPS. I use it to check for sharp corners as well. Stopping to verify route and location via phone every now and again wasn't much fun.

Last place I wanted to tick off, that I had been wanting to see for a while was Heuningvlei, for no reason other than the unique name and some green shading in the area on Google maps.

So about 10km in a stretch with particularly deep sand where there was some road works going on the bike cut out. Not cool. Stopping from 100kmph in very deep sand is a hand full with no throttle assistance as soon as the bike steps out. I came to a stop. Thought what the hell, and started the bike again and it took and I set off again. 500m later the same happened again though. It was hot so I got off the bike and put my helmet and such at a tree and went back to fetch the bike to work in the shade when I heard crackling. I had been smelling wires but thought it's the nearby grader, hearing your bike burn is a rather loud wakeup call that somethings wrong.

I took of the seat and found the battery terminals melting plastics. The new battery was also extremely puffed up. I knew I had to disconnect the battery but was very worried that the battery will explode. Batter does not show the full extend as its 'deflated' a bit again.

I was screwed, I had a short of some sort.

I called for help, my wife  was to come with the trailer and children as company but she would have to do about 140km of gravel with my newly refurbished spotless trailer. Not cool but it is what it is.

I tinkered a little and managed to set off again but 10km later all was dead again in Heuninvlei's main Street, I pushed the bike rather far in that street so that I could wait at the petrol station place.  I also found that somehow my slip on had burned a hole in. Very very demotivating. Seems like the bracket shaved it thin and once the air could escape it was tickets. Just another repair to be added to the list of many.
Bike did look very lonely waiting for me at a distance while I was gussling down all the water I could find.

My wife pitched at sunset, in a dust storm as this dry place was about to get their first rains in months. Unpacking the next day I saw I really should not have chilled outside, my helmet was outside in the sand and now it's like something my children used for mud castle building.

Anyhow, I got home at 10. Not very impressed with myself and my wife even less so.

 

[Namakwalander]

Daar is geen twyfel dat jou vrou vir jou baie lief is. Myne sou my laaankal verbied het om die pad te vat as sy my elke nou en dan moes kom haal met n sleepwa.

 

[Chrisl]

Jy is baie unlucky met daai fiets, hoop jy kry hom gou gesort. :deal:

 

[roxenz]

Geesh, this has been such a lekker ride, and then the ****** end. Feel for you boet, hope you get all the issues fixed well.

Thanks for the ride report, I've never been on those roads, so an interesting read.  :thumleft:

 

[m0lt3n]

Daar is geen twyfel dat jou vrou vir jou baie lief is. Myne sou my laaankal verbied het om die pad te vat as sy my elke nou en dan moes kom haal met n sleepwa.

Hey hey stadig nou.... Eerste keer wat KTM nie die huis kon haal nie. (punctures is nie bike issue nie)
My KTM en GS is nou gelyk op, altwee my nou al een keer lelik gedrop.

Ek koop vandag parte vir reg maak. Is in Jhb. Sien op n snaakse manier uit om die bike weer mooi reg te maak en als.

 

[subie]

Daar is geen twyfel dat jou vrou vir jou baie lief is. Myne sou my laaankal verbied het om die pad te vat as sy my elke nou en dan moes kom haal met n sleepwa.

Hey hey stadig nou.... Eerste keer wat KTM nie die huis kon haal nie. (punctures is nie bike issue nie)
My KTM en GS is nou gelyk op, altwee my nou al een keer lelik gedrop.

Ek koop vandag parte vir reg maak. Is in Jhb. Sien op n snaakse manier uit om die bike weer mooi reg te maak en als.

Maak nie saak watse bike jy ry of hoeveel maintenance jy doen nie. So af en toe loop dinge maar net skeef op n adventure trip. It is what it is  :thumleft: :ricky:

 

[subie]

My vrou het my ookal n paar keer kom optel langs die pad. Eenkeer 450 km (900km roundtrip) my  en bicycle.
En eenkeer my en  bike so 400km roundtrip. :laughing4:

 

[sidetrack]

Daar is geen twyfel dat jou vrou vir jou baie lief is. Myne sou my laaankal verbied het om die pad te vat as sy my elke nou en dan moes kom haal met n sleepwa.

Hey hey stadig nou.... Eerste keer wat KTM nie die huis kon haal nie. (punctures is nie bike issue nie)
My KTM en GS is nou gelyk op, altwee my nou al een keer lelik gedrop.

Ek koop vandag parte vir reg maak. Is in Jhb. Sien op n snaakse manier uit om die bike weer mooi reg te maak en als.

:sip:

 

[Namakwalander]

Daar is geen twyfel dat jou vrou vir jou baie lief is. Myne sou my laaankal verbied het om die pad te vat as sy my elke nou en dan moes kom haal met n sleepwa.

Hey hey stadig nou.... Eerste keer wat KTM nie die huis kon haal nie. (punctures is nie bike issue nie)
My KTM en GS is nou gelyk op, altwee my nou al een keer lelik gedrop.

Ek koop vandag parte vir reg maak. Is in Jhb. Sien op n snaakse manier uit om die bike weer mooi reg te maak en als.

Ek het nie gese die fiets is onbetroubaar nie, ek het gese jou vrou moes jou al een of twee keer kom haal.

 

[VaalBaas]

Jy is baie unlucky met daai fiets, hoop jy kry hom gou gesort. :deal:

Wys jou net.....moet nooit iets by n Wilddog koop nie.....[emoji16][emoji16][emoji16]

Sent from my ALE-L21 using Tapatalk

 

[VaalBaas]

Lekker gelees, maar jammer vir die einde.


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[Straatkat]

My vrou moes my eenkeer net so duskant Bray kom haal toe my fiets gebreek het, dit het haar amper 'n hele dag gevat om daar te kom en ons was eers 2 uur die volgende oggend terug by die huis. Dis lelik as 'n bike mens so drop! ek hoor nou nog daarvan! :-\

 

[The TRANSPORTER]

Dink vandat 32 Bataljon daar by Pomfret weggetrek het Amsterdam toe was daar niks meer oor nie... : :

 

[m0lt3n]

Dink vandat 32 Bataljon daar by Pomfret weggetrek het Amsterdam toe was daar niks meer oor nie... : :

Is dit wat daar aan gegaan het!!
Daai dorpie was regtig iets wat uitgestaan het. Daar was ou murasies waar jy kon sien was swembaddens en tennis bane. Oud rykmens huise of goed soos mynbestuurder. Regtig soos n spookdorp waar mense rondom hierdie murasies weer begin leef het.

 

[Chrisl]

Dink vandat 32 Bataljon daar by Pomfret weggetrek het Amsterdam toe was daar niks meer oor nie... : :

Ek  was in 1997 in Pompfret vir die eerste/laaste keer. Klomp Angolese soldate nog daar gewees, maar mens het die idee gekry hulle het geen doel en wag vir iets om te gebeur.