GKG 2011, the report

[airHEAD]

Friday night was was all organised by the Chairman. Pizza at Bruno's in town. All very civilized for bike gathering  :thumleft:

Louis and Howard who had the bike problems in Victoria West that morning finally arrived at "dark and rainy o'clock" after having all sorts of adventures. They looked very relieved to finally be part of the gathering but it was a bit premature as they still had to get back to the camp site after pizza and that involved another river crossing in the dark 

The next morning was the out ride planned by DustDevil but first Abu had picked up a flat rear tire the day before.

Luckily Christof a local farmer who, as someone put it  "had tire levers for fingers" was there to fit a tube on the tubeless rim and with Bismark's help they got the Kalahari ready for the ride. The moral of the story is no Mr tire salesman a tube type tire will not be fine on a tubless rim  :deal:

With all the mud around and DustDevil's bias towards the hardcore when it comes to adventure biking, there weren't that many who wanted to take him up on the offer of a 10 o'clock breakfast in Middelburg. Eventually there were a hand full of takers with all the rest choosing to do the tourist thing and take in the sites around Nieu Bethesda

 

Although we only had 85km to cover it soon became clear that the 10 o'clock breakfast wasent going to happen  :
the route was a mud bath  :biggrin:

 

[airHEAD]

We had the only lady rider at the gathering Nikki on the out ride and man did she do well O0

Her bike was suffering from one of the classic airhead problems, a cracked coil which caused it to cut out every time there was a water crossing and there were plenty of those Fortunately some Q20 sorted it out for a while until we could pick up a replacement at the GS Workshop

The carnage continued. It reminded me a bit of the old Camel trophy events instead we replaced the Land Rovers with airheads and the jungle with the Karoo  :mwink: This was the worst mud hole we encounted.

There were a car and a truck abandoned on one side, they were apparently waiting for things to dry out a bit. We couldn't wait so had to find  some creative routes around. I dont have any more pics of it but I'm sure once DustDevil gets his act together and posts the video the footage will speak for its self  :ricky: We had covered about 30km in 3 hours  ...

 

[airHEAD]

Come on Altus, the chairman has told us about his relaxing day on Saturday as a tourist

The Great Karoo Gathering - Nieu Bethesda 2011

Why don't you show some of the pics of the outride you took with that real camera of yours?

As the events official photographer and outride leader you have a responsibility to take up the story.

PS how is the video coming along?

 

[Chairman Meow]

:happy1: :sleepy2:

 

[faniesmith]

Mike I just have to say that you can rightfully be very proud of that HPN you built.
It realy looks and more importantly does the business!  :thumleft:

 

[gser]

I missed out big time !
Has to be there next year.
Although, I had a very good Parys - De Aar 2370 km  tough ride.
A pitty about the dates on the same long weekend.

 

[madmike999]

waar is die RR? 8)

 

[Baches]

:thumleft:

 

[airHEAD]

Mike I just have to say that you can rightfully be very proud of that HPN you built.
It realy looks and more importantly does the business!  :thumleft:

Thanks domstes. This is the third trip I have done on the bike in the year since I built it and I have to say after riding with lots of standard bikes I love mine even more.

My need to build the bike was driven by the feeling that I was riding the standard bike much harder than it deserved. I wanted an old school reliable motor that handled and stopped like a modern bike and the HPN has lived up to that promise. Its a BMW with KTM suspension, the perfect combination  ot:

I pushed it hard at times on this trip and it took it like a champion  O0. While we are waiting for old dusty to get out of bed and post some pictures I will risk boring everyone and sneak in another one of the HPN on a Karoo highway wearing Giant Loop luggage and tent.

 

[Gerard]

No risk.  :thumleft:

 

[Gerard]

Come on DD. You're killing us.

 

[Abu]

A small hi=jack.
Jess and I arrived safely back yesterday after our maiden 2780km round trip to the GKG and WC bash.
Many thanks to those who helped with the new "tubeless" tire issues, all the push starting and carrying in the mud, and to Dustdevil who replaced my starter motor on Sunday and a public holiday Monday morning.
We may have new convert to biking and airheads in particular.

 

[Chrisl]

Was good meeting you at the bash.
Get her a bike!!! :thumleft:

 

[Harry the Buffalo]

Subscribe

 

[airHEAD]

I was hoping DustDevil would have some photos or video of the muddy part of the outride but apparently the busy metropolis of Middleburg is keeping the man too busy  :mwink:  ot: so I guess I am going to to have to carry on with the story myself.

So we eventually all manage to get around the last and biggest of the morning's mud holes. We had covered about 30km in 3 hours   After that the going was good. The rain kept the dust down and the roads were firm and fast gravel. We even saw all sorts of wild game at a couple of places along the route  :ricky:

We stopped along the route to regroup and Altus pointed out the there were three HPN's parked on the piece of gravel behind us  :mwink: This wasent posed I promise...

We had just come through a deep river crossing just before this pic and were warned that the one coming up would be even worse. Well it turned out to way worse... When I arriver there were already 5 bikes on the other side. I was shouting and gesturing to try and get some advice on the best line but strangely enough nobody on the other side was responding  > The current was clearly strong but I had no way of knowing how deep it was. I figured if there were 5 bikes on the other side it must be doable  ??? I headed in cautiously but with what I thought was enough speed to create a good bow wave around what I knew to be a rather low air intake. I don't think I got even half way and the motor died suddenly. Instinctively I pulled in the clutch immediately and then cut the ignition but I still had to get to the other side of what now really felt like a raging torrent   I managed to push it through and up the bank on the other side only to discover that all the other bikes had also drowned in this crossing, it was clearly deeper than the g/s air intake NOT 8). The next half hour of so was spent trying to resurrecting 7 g/s's

Luckily the boxer motor lends itself to easy access road side repairs. Plugs out, carb bowls off, and in some cases airfilters out as well.

Bismark watched me and decided more speed would fix the problem and did I proper job on his bike  :imaposer: The paper filter was so wet that even once all the water was removed from the combustion chamber and airbox it wouldn't run with the filter in place.

Needless to say once we eventually made it to Middleburg  the 10 o'clock breakfast had become a late afternoon lunch

Everyone loves an airhead

After lunch we headed to check out the Middleburg chapter of the g/s workshop for some more repairs  :imaposer: (these are old bikes being worked really hard okay)

Thats a really nice setup you have there Mr DustDevil  :thumleft:

 
After this we headed back to the camp with some opting for the "lets just get home" tar option. I choose to stick to the original plan and headed back on yet another dirt road. Nieu Bethesda is such an amazing venue there are are just so many riding options in and out  :thumleft: Can you believe that they were taking bets at the camp on what time we would be back and most were betting it would already be dark  ???  

It was a really cool day's ride and I think the tourists really missed out, its extremely unlikely the Karoo will be that wet anytime soon. Thanks Dust(Mud)Devil  :mwink:    

 

[Gerard]

:happy1:

 

[Dustdevil]

Video is being uploaded as I am writing this.  :mwink:

 

[Gerard]

eepwall:

 

[LeonDude]

Nice RR,  :thumleft:
Good to see so much water in that area. Well for me in any way, don't know about the bikers there.  :biggrin:

 

[Carrots]

:thumleft: