- Joined
- Oct 19, 2008
- Messages
- 16,251
- Reaction score
- 4,384
- Location
- Bothasig , Cape Town
- Bike
- Honda CRF-1000L Africa Twin
LIST OF SPONSORS - THANK YOU
Toolquip & Allied ( Wild Dog Forum Vendor ) - providing tools to the workshop to work on the bike and hopefully will follow in the support vehicle if we can be lucky enough to get one there.
BlueBull2007 R1000 cash, which will be allocated to buying raw materials in building the cockpit.
Kenisis - R1000 cash - which will be allocated to developing the cockpit and buying raw materials for the road book
NL Designs - Sponsoring all their time in the development of the cockpit, road book and luggage rack.
Outriders - 2 x rear tyres and 1 x front tyre for the race.
Media Alliance - R4000 for a new helmet and cash towards the upgrade of the bike and gear.
Extreme Lights ( WD Forum Vendor ) - 2 x 3000 lumen LED lights
THE AMAGEZA ITCH
The opening post from my Africa trip RR sums the beginning of this journey up perfectly.
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=61231.0
“I am one of those okes.. always wanted to ride a bike, but was never allowed one so this RR is dedicated to all those okes who never had a bike growing up, to the okes who take the miss on a weekend away in a cage and when 5 KTM 990's roar past your heart leaps and you think to yourself " one day I will be doing that", you see, my mom has worked for an orthopaedic surgeon for as long as I can remember and my attempts at obtaining a bike throughout my school days was just impossible, I remember the day I bought home a Gamma 50.. the next day there was a note saying ’sorry’ with a pile of cash on my pillow.. MOM !!
Fast forward to age 35 and my mom gets a phone call.. “ I have bought a bike and I’m gonna keep it”.. The reply “ I knew this day was coming”, it was done, the brand new Transalp 650 was mine!
And so it was !!.. for as long as I could remember I wanted to ride a bike as far up into Africa as I could.. I was born in Zim and spent my childhood in the bush.. so I wanted to get out of Cape Town and back to the elephants, feel the earth and smell the rain.. before I get too old and cranky. It has to be said that I didn’t buy the bike with the intention of doing this trip, it was a sequence of events that just seemed to make it all happen. It all started when I went to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro the year before. While riding in a bus from Kilimanjaro international Airport to our hotel I saw a guy riding his bike and I thought.. " I shouldn’t be in this bus, I should be on a bike" and the seed was planted.”
Amageza was to be no different, the sequence would be different, but the same pattern, the deep desire to do long distance off-road touring was satisfied, I was living my dream, I could pack up and tour whenever I wanted and it felt fantastic. Along the way I met some amazing Wild Dogs and we have been on tons of rides including watching the Dakar while riding through Tanzania, not being in any kind of position to do the Dakar I already put rally ambitions behind me until one day my little bubble was burst, reports of the 1st Amageza filtered through, local, cost effective, attractive.. Then the hype of the second one began almost immediately.
The months and weeks leading up to the 2012 Amageza would prove to be the turning point in how I perceived biking, it was happening quite quickly too. I was used to having a heavy bike, 20 – 30kg of luggage and 30 days to do 6000km, all of a sudden there was things like sand, speed, power delivery and something I had never really done before.. standing up. I was not sure if I was ready, but it was only 2 days of riding, let’s give it a go !! Err, not so fast, there was a small thing called the Amageza qualifier. Doing the ride and failing was one thing, but not having the skill to pass the test to even get to the ride was quite another, to say I was nervous was an understatement.
Instead of me pouncing on glory I was smacked in the face with a big fat FAIL, it was not as easy as it looked on TV when you see the okes sailing over the dunes on the Dakar and certainly it was not as easy as many of my fellow riders made it out to be as they came past me on one wheel. The style of riding was different, the fitness levels were different, the mind-set was off the charts different and my bike was just too heavy not to mention I ran out of talent. I took a certain amount of pride knowing that I really knew how to fall in sand now. After a morning of blood, sweat and tears that was the Amageza 1st qualifier, riding back in the recovery vehicle to the N7 was an eye opener, I knew this was not going to work the way I was doing it, I needed to make a change in my approach because I was doing things the hard way.. So I sold the brick that was the black beast – snif, she was really nice.
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=84401.0
After much consideration I tried to buy a bike that would satisfy all my needs, I was looking for a commuter, an adventure bike and a rallye bike, and the best one I could think of? the XR650R !!!. Now finding one was no easy task, you okes with them sure hold on tight, but eventually one came up for sale and I snapped her up.
And so the fun began.
Toolquip & Allied ( Wild Dog Forum Vendor ) - providing tools to the workshop to work on the bike and hopefully will follow in the support vehicle if we can be lucky enough to get one there.
BlueBull2007 R1000 cash, which will be allocated to buying raw materials in building the cockpit.
Kenisis - R1000 cash - which will be allocated to developing the cockpit and buying raw materials for the road book
NL Designs - Sponsoring all their time in the development of the cockpit, road book and luggage rack.
Outriders - 2 x rear tyres and 1 x front tyre for the race.
Media Alliance - R4000 for a new helmet and cash towards the upgrade of the bike and gear.
Extreme Lights ( WD Forum Vendor ) - 2 x 3000 lumen LED lights
THE AMAGEZA ITCH
The opening post from my Africa trip RR sums the beginning of this journey up perfectly.
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=61231.0
“I am one of those okes.. always wanted to ride a bike, but was never allowed one so this RR is dedicated to all those okes who never had a bike growing up, to the okes who take the miss on a weekend away in a cage and when 5 KTM 990's roar past your heart leaps and you think to yourself " one day I will be doing that", you see, my mom has worked for an orthopaedic surgeon for as long as I can remember and my attempts at obtaining a bike throughout my school days was just impossible, I remember the day I bought home a Gamma 50.. the next day there was a note saying ’sorry’ with a pile of cash on my pillow.. MOM !!
Fast forward to age 35 and my mom gets a phone call.. “ I have bought a bike and I’m gonna keep it”.. The reply “ I knew this day was coming”, it was done, the brand new Transalp 650 was mine!
And so it was !!.. for as long as I could remember I wanted to ride a bike as far up into Africa as I could.. I was born in Zim and spent my childhood in the bush.. so I wanted to get out of Cape Town and back to the elephants, feel the earth and smell the rain.. before I get too old and cranky. It has to be said that I didn’t buy the bike with the intention of doing this trip, it was a sequence of events that just seemed to make it all happen. It all started when I went to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro the year before. While riding in a bus from Kilimanjaro international Airport to our hotel I saw a guy riding his bike and I thought.. " I shouldn’t be in this bus, I should be on a bike" and the seed was planted.”
Amageza was to be no different, the sequence would be different, but the same pattern, the deep desire to do long distance off-road touring was satisfied, I was living my dream, I could pack up and tour whenever I wanted and it felt fantastic. Along the way I met some amazing Wild Dogs and we have been on tons of rides including watching the Dakar while riding through Tanzania, not being in any kind of position to do the Dakar I already put rally ambitions behind me until one day my little bubble was burst, reports of the 1st Amageza filtered through, local, cost effective, attractive.. Then the hype of the second one began almost immediately.
The months and weeks leading up to the 2012 Amageza would prove to be the turning point in how I perceived biking, it was happening quite quickly too. I was used to having a heavy bike, 20 – 30kg of luggage and 30 days to do 6000km, all of a sudden there was things like sand, speed, power delivery and something I had never really done before.. standing up. I was not sure if I was ready, but it was only 2 days of riding, let’s give it a go !! Err, not so fast, there was a small thing called the Amageza qualifier. Doing the ride and failing was one thing, but not having the skill to pass the test to even get to the ride was quite another, to say I was nervous was an understatement.
Instead of me pouncing on glory I was smacked in the face with a big fat FAIL, it was not as easy as it looked on TV when you see the okes sailing over the dunes on the Dakar and certainly it was not as easy as many of my fellow riders made it out to be as they came past me on one wheel. The style of riding was different, the fitness levels were different, the mind-set was off the charts different and my bike was just too heavy not to mention I ran out of talent. I took a certain amount of pride knowing that I really knew how to fall in sand now. After a morning of blood, sweat and tears that was the Amageza 1st qualifier, riding back in the recovery vehicle to the N7 was an eye opener, I knew this was not going to work the way I was doing it, I needed to make a change in my approach because I was doing things the hard way.. So I sold the brick that was the black beast – snif, she was really nice.
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=84401.0
After much consideration I tried to buy a bike that would satisfy all my needs, I was looking for a commuter, an adventure bike and a rallye bike, and the best one I could think of? the XR650R !!!. Now finding one was no easy task, you okes with them sure hold on tight, but eventually one came up for sale and I snapped her up.
And so the fun began.
![N[]vA](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/39fc70600d70a0afa40b682c3a695dc0?s=96){kind=avatar}
