Bushveld on two 450's

[sidetrack]

The idea to do a 3 day round trip from Pretoria up to Thabazimbi and back. We ended up doing 1000km. More to follow.

 

[swart skaap]

Lol
nice

 

[1ougat]

gooi  :thumleft:

 

[sidetrack]

Day 1

We left Friday morning with day1 ending in Vaalwater where we would camp for the next two days. Swartskaap found some Google Earth tracks and we took the scenic route to Cullinan. This included a lekker rocky climb, good way to baptise some new rubber !

Moloto never dissapoints and soon we were into some farm tracks stopping only to open cattle gates, the terrain a mixture between single tracks and sandy tweespoor

This certainly beats a days work at the office ! The bikes were happy too whether lugging along in first or navigating the sandy bits at higher speeds. I fitted a Michelin T63 before the trip and were pleasantly surprised. Not an aggressive knobbly but decent grip and rated for tar as well

The route then went past Rust de Winter and we also got some dirt in near Pienaarsriver, after this the track opened up and we were on our way to Bela Bela where the local Wimpy became lunch for the day

The last stretch included a section of Rankins Pass towards Vaalwater, the best bits would be in our section for Sunday on our way back. In the afternoon we made it to the camp site at Zeederberg. We did 370 odd km for day 1

Being in the Bushveld we had a lekker braai and plenty of meat was consumed and some beer and some Jack Daniels mix and … Nah just enough to end a succesfull days riding
:ricky:

 

[HK]

:thumleft:  kom waar is die res  :ricky:

 

[sidetrack]

Day 2

Next day breakfast in Vaalwater, the route for the day ran close to 400km. Unfortunetly two (edit 1) punctures shortened it by about 50km. When we planned the trip we were worried about fuel range, both bikes had the standard 10L tanks fitted. Amazingly they were returning figures off 26km/l so we made all the stops with juice to spare

The countryside changed into proper bushveld vegetation and we started seeing lots of game. Swartskaap gooid serious brakes to stop in time for a Kudu who had such a freight that he jumped straight through a fence breaking three strands in the process !

I was running 15/48 gearing and Swartskaap 14/48, I think he was having more fun. His throttle seemed to be broken as it would shoot open and the bike would power slide all over the place, it even wheelied without notice. He did a good job off staying on board  :biggrin:

Options all over the place but there was simply not enough time to explore them all

Look at that for a view ! We are truly blessed with riding possibilities in this country. The mountains and dirt roads lay oustretched before us, ah biking Nirvana untill Swartskaap saw he had a flat and did not even notice when riding

Never fear Sidetrack is here, I stuck the patch on like a boss only for it to fail later in the days ride … oops my bad

Roaming the bush for a rock and doing the repair cost us 30 min or so
Onwards crossing some river

Hey this camera can point both ways

The next animal that came close to meeting Mr Dunlop turned out to be this Wharthog (he is in there somewhere). These buggers are all over the place, the small ones are cute would be awesome as a pet !

Could just imagine myself sitting on a little boat, fishing rod in one hand something cold to drink in another ……. Would be a great way to watch the sunset

I really really like my bike !

All too soon we were running out of time and needed to get back to camp, we stopped and bought some biltong. The place had some clever advertising, you can only ignore so many signs by the 20th one we were sold – “must have biltong”

As we left the patch on Swartskaap’s bike failed and we fixed the same flat again, next moment this friendly chap on a quad came drifting around the corner with a cooler bag full of Black Labels – bargain ! We only met friendly folk on this trip, thank you kind sir !

Back in town we met two dudes on their way to Nylstroom, two open face helmets from the 70’s and a bottle of dop could not stop them, unfortunetly a VFR running on no coolant from Krugersdorp to Vaalwater did. The frame became a bit too hot and the heat gauge conviced them to stop. The leaky radiator was promptly fixed by adding some curry powder to the water ! It actually worked, and the bike still ran even after the motor got so hot that the dipstick started to melt. Trust me you had to be there, all I can say is Honda’s must be moer strong

Another braai and more meat, this is life !

 

[sidetrack]

Day 3

Heading home, we headed out towards Rankin Pass. Beautifull scenery and one many a Wilddog will be know. The road snakes all along the foot of the mountain bordering on the Marakele nature reserve

Leaving Marakele

Thabazimbi or Rooiberg, Rooiberg was closer although we weren’t sure about avaliability of fuel

We were running late and headed towards Rooiberg on a horrendous corrugated dirt road, luckily we found fuel
Towards Radium the riding improved 100% as we hit some sandy sections

Then just before Hammanskraal I got a puncture on the rear, the ZCC were on hand to offer songs of encouragement

The last bit headed through Dinokeng nature reserve, I was back home at about 6pm. My bike had 22.4 hours on when I left and 37.5 when I got back home. Did not use any oil despite only having 700ml for the motor, I think that is pretty good. Big thanks to Swartskaap for the invite and Blazes for some tips on the routes to follow.

 

[swart skaap]

Jy't vergeet om te noem dat hierdie dude vir ons verniet aand ete gegee het; 1 hele brood en 'n helse klomp wors!
Dit, na die shop reeds toe was.. hy't op gery huis toe om die sleutel te loop haal.
Moer nice!

Ek begin sterk te dink om 'n XR650R te kry vir hierdie tiepe rides  :ricky:
Sal wel die CRF mis in Radium en Moloto!  :-\

 

[swart skaap]

Never fear Sidetrack is here, I stuck the patch on like a boss only for it to fail later in the days ride … oops my bad

My blinde Ouma patch onderbroeke beter.

 

[Dwerg]

Lekker ouens  :thumleft:

Kan julle dalk die tracks laai? Was als publieke paaie of was van dit privaat grond?

 

[madmike999]

:thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[swart skaap]

Lekker ouens  :thumleft:

Kan julle dalk die tracks laai? Was als publieke paaie of was van dit privaat grond?

Privaat  :-\

 

[swart skaap]

Lekker ouens  :thumleft:

Kan julle dalk die tracks laai? Was als publieke paaie of was van dit privaat grond?

Ek sal jou nooi, dan doen ons 'n day ride daar deur Moloto.

 

[swart skaap]

Nog 'n paar pics:
Lynnwood na moloto

 

[Beserker]

Ossum!!!

 

[swart skaap]

Jacques mount sy CRF soos 'n XR

 

[swart skaap]

Honda, jou lekke ding!

 

[swart skaap]

Hierdie is ander kant Hammanskraal.
Daar is moer lekker ry plekke in hierdie homeland bosse:

Die CRF met tent, tools, opblaas matras en slaapsak was frikken awesome gewees hier.
:ricky:

 

[swart skaap]

Nog gedeeltes van dag 1:

 

[swart skaap]

Dag 2 en 3 se random shots: