Dullstroom and Back - KTM525 & XR650L

[blauth]

My old man has a guest lodge between Belfast and Dullstroom. In order to visit as often as possible, I try combine my recreational activities with family responsibilities so this has naturally resulted in an adventure ride every few weeks to my dads place.

OneWayRay opted to join me on the ride so Saturday morning, after a cuppa, we got going, myself on my newly acquired KTM525 and Ray on his XR650L. For me, this was a little bit of a recce ride for the 525, this being it's first trip of fair distance.

Anyways, I won't give you lot the long winded version, here's the short version:

Midrand to Bronchorstspruit - All offroad. We headed out of Midrand on the usual route, a quick refuel and the route there is a combination of single track and service roads for railways. A really nice route. Apart from switching bikes so we could get a better feel for each others ride, the route to the N4 was uneventful. After the N4, we kinda headed towards Mamelodi and hooked up with the railway heading east.

Here for whatever reason, we saw a steep rocky climb off to the left (most of you will know it, but it's not the climb around the mountain, it's the one you see from the road) that we just have to try....because we can. I give it a bash on my 525 and stall about half way up. While I am trying to stop my bike from sliding backwards, Ray comes up to the left of me, chooses a different line and next thing I know, his XR is verticle, Ray is off the back and next thing the XR is almost lying on top of me. That was a close call, for both Ray and myself but all including the bike are unscathed so.... Now the last time I did this kind of climbing, Mike from Red Cherry Adventures gave me a couple of pointers about steep climbs like this where there is very little traction: Square the bike up (90 degrees to the incline, position the bike on anything where you can get a little traction and then control the back wheel i.e. no wheel spin which means ride the clutch to get maximum traction.) Okes, this works!!!! Next thing I knew, I was at the top with no more toiling. Just then a group of riders on Beta's came past (going downwards) and the one oke asked if I had come up the climb. I told him and he just shook his head. Now to get Ray's XR up there. Well this was a little more of a challenge but at this time, THE CLIMB WAS NOT GOING TO BEAT US!!! 15 minutes later and we were both panting at the top of the climb, very chuffed with ourselves.

 

[blauth]

So about 15km outside of Bronchorstspruit, Ray gets his first flat, with a Ultra heavy duty tube. It looks like a snake bite so I put my spare tube in and we get on the road again. We come across the martial points for the first GOC race of the season and see a couple of okes go by in their race and then head on. So we head on.

Just before we move off the railroad service point I feel my 525 surging. Initially, I just thought it bogged in a bit of mud or something but then when I pulled of, it made an awful clanking sound and stalled. I though to myself, ooooh shit. Looking down at my front sprocket, I see some blue cloth sticking out. WTF, I recognise that, its my undies!!!!  ??? I get off to see my tracksuit pants stuck in the rear sprocket. That explains the surging. Ray rides up to me canning  :imaposer: himself with a pair of my socks in his had.

What had happened is I had my overnight clothes in a bag on my back and the zipper had come open, spewing my clothes behind me as a rode. How the shit ended up in my sprockets is a little beyond be but such is life and I see the lighter side and have a good laugh at the situation as well. Ray goes and rescues my jersey and T-shirt a km or two down the trail while I proceed to remove the unwanted accessories from my bike.

The rest of the ride was cool but uneventful. We finally arive at my dads place at about  17:30. 430km later.

 

[blauth]

Coming home was an absolute fiasco!!!! The route home is normally much shorter than the way there, being able to get home in about four hours if all goes smoothly.

We leave at about 8:30am from my dads place and stop in Belfast to fill up. Here we notice that Rays rear tyre is flat once again. Bugger!!! So we pull that wheel off and start repairing it.

Just to put things into context, Rays bike is roadworthy, mine is actually a dirt bike. It doesn't have indicators and is not registered to be on the road but we spend probably less than 5% of the route on tar so I wasn't too worried.

At this point a traffic cop sees us there and comes over and says in his best Afrikaan english, "how did this bikes get here?". I look at him and say "Jeez dude, were sitting here fixing a puncture and you come and give us a hard time". Well, he didn't like that very much. He proceeds to yell at me and tell me that its his town and he can give me a hard time if he wants and goes on and on and on. Ray eventually apologises to him and appeased him until he goes on his way on his way.  :thumleft: to Ray for keeping his cool.

Anyway, we get the original thick tube repaired with patches and get on our way again. But only after strategising how we were going to shake off the cop if he was waiting for us around the corner. Luckily, he probably went off to chruch to pray for us sinners.


25km later, guess fucking what. The rear tyre is flat agaaaain. We pull the wheel and tyre again and this time repair the thin tube but Ray notices that there puncture mark is like little bight marks. We locate the position and figure out that it's around about where the rim lock is. So we pull the rim lock out only to discover that the rim lock is buggered (some cheap as chinese shit no doubt) and the ridges on the edge of the rim lock are like sharks teeth. No friggin wonder we are not winning!!!! So we take the rim lock out.

About another 45km later the rear wheel goes flat again. It's taken us about three hours just to do 70km so we are now pissed. I ride off to a garage on the GPS to get tyre weld only to discover that it's one of those one horse garages with a single pump and no shop in sight so I head back to Ray who at this time is sitting on the side of the N4 highway. Fix number four ensues in the grass next to the highway with the odd hooter being blasted at us. We test the myth that a 21" tube will work in the rear tyre.

Anyway, we didn't bust that myth, a 21" tube made it all the way home (150km) on the highway with me hiding behind Ray every time I went past coppers.

Here's another pic or two on the way out of Belfast:

 

[blauth]

A quick summary of my 525 as an adventure bike;

- It's incredibly quick and leaves you with a smile every time you twist the throttle.
- The seat is a little hard but tolerable if you wear cycling shorts and shammy cream.
- It's very light on juice (21-22km/l)
- With balanced wheels, it's road manners are very good and can comfortably cruise at 120km/h although I preferred to do about 110km/h
- The torque is massive and I often found myself in sixth gear at 80km/h. Top speed achieved was 157km/h
- It does NOT like bumpy dirt roads like the one from Tonteldoos to Dullstroom. The suspension is too harsh. I did adjust it on route setting the compression damping down to it's lowest back and front with rebound damping roughly in the middle but it's still very harsh where the XR is massively more comfortable on this sort of riding.

It's a great bike that can definately do the distance without much drama but it's very clearly a race bike.

 

[jimjim]

Well now, this is a new one. Usually the Reds have to help the Orange guys out  ot:

At least you had a proper adventure. That 525 looks the beans.

 

[LouisXander]

Once had the same puncture problem only to discover the tyre on the inside had gushes that chew the tube all the time.

 

[blauth]

I had just fitted heavy duty tubes and had my wheels balanced on the KTM and Ray had thick tubes too but my bike has the stock KTM rim locks whereas Ray had asked the tyre okes to fit a rim lock and they obviously took the part from the 'Cheap' parts bin  :-\

Shows how something as simple as a rim lock can screw up a whole ride.

 

[alanB]

Nice report!

I've also eye'd that rocky climb a few times on Mamelodi mountain  :biggrin:  Nice going on getting up there, looks pretty gnarly.

 

[Tinton]

Nice one, damn that ktm loots neat :thumleft:

 

[E816]

Nice report, and well done on keeping your cool with all the punctures. I would've lost my sense of humour after the 2nd one.

Just a question, do you have a GPS track of this route perhaps. We have a spot just outside Belfast and I've been looking for an offroad route to get there.

 

[blauth]

Nice report, and well done on keeping your cool with all the punctures. I would've lost my sense of humour after the 2nd one.

Just a question, do you have a GPS track of this route perhaps. We have a spot just outside Belfast and I've been looking for an offroad route to get there.

I only have a route mapped for the road sections. You can get it here:

https://maps.google.co.za/maps/ms?msid=215349968910571546337.0004bbbf8a61250bf3451&msa=0

The rest of the route is along railways, jeep tracks and that sort of riding. This I don't have because I don't have a GPS. I will ask GvH if he tracked it the last time we went on it. There are a few tricks here and there like getting back on the railway service road after Bronchorstspruit. You actually have to go to the next bridge, double back to the river at the previous bridge go under the bridge and hook up with the service road that way.

The way back is awesome even if most of it is on railway service roads. They aren't the boring sort, they are quite twisty and interesting.

 

[E816]

Nice report, and well done on keeping your cool with all the punctures. I would've lost my sense of humour after the 2nd one.

Just a question, do you have a GPS track of this route perhaps. We have a spot just outside Belfast and I've been looking for an offroad route to get there.

I only have a route mapped for the road sections. You can get it here:

https://maps.google.co.za/maps/ms?msid=215349968910571546337.0004bbbf8a61250bf3451&msa=0

The rest of the route is along railways, jeep tracks and that sort of riding. This I don't have because I don't have a GPS. I will ask GvH if he tracked it the last time we went on it. There are a few tricks here and there like getting back on the railway service road after Bronchorstspruit. You actually have to go to the next bridge, double back to the river at the previous bridge go under the bridge and hook up with the service road that way.

The way back is awesome even if most of it is on railway service roads. They aren't the boring sort, they are quite twisty and interesting.

Thanks, that's great. The few tricks you talk about is what makes the GPS track so valuable

 

[Kawaki]

Nice one  :thumleft: