Keep em coming :thumleft:
Marc Coma was lucky to ride with me. KTM RR 08
- Thread starter Kamanya
- Start date
B
BigEd
Guest
Nice one Kamanya! Love the helmet cam - scared the living shit out of me 
What speeds were you doing during those parts? Looked pretty fast or is that just the nature of the helmet cam?
Caren't wait for the rest. :thumleft:
What speeds were you doing during those parts? Looked pretty fast or is that just the nature of the helmet cam?Caren't wait for the rest. :thumleft:
GO GIRL
Race Dog
Kamanya TKU again for a super route...it was JUST AWSUM and the technical sectionbehind Montagu goods to get one going :ricky: :ricky: :ricky:
A really stunning ride.....
A really stunning ride.....
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Day 2
So, click on these, get each open in its own browser. Once they start to load and you see the first images push pause and read on then come back and watch.
KTM RR 08 Day 2, Part 1
KTM RR 08 Day 2, Part 2
Day 2
For me started at 3.57am. Our next door neighbours who I think were some technicians from Eskom had a really loud conversation till I politely asked them to shut the fark up, by that time I was too excited about the upcoming day and it was almost time to get up anyway.
Aardt and I pushed the beds apart for this photo, just so that none of you would get funny ideas.
Breakfast was a wholesome affair. I can highly recommend the placeâ?¦ if only I could remember what the name of it was. I am sure someone who was there will be able to fill this blank in.
There were a load of Harleyâ??s in the small town, they were on the way to some rally. We had two of them staying with us. Note the Harleys sitting in the cold whilst the KTMâ??s got the plush accommodation. Times they are a changing!
I had asked each person during breakfast, â??what do you want to get out of today, what is your goal that would make this enjoyable for you?â? I also asked them not to answer immediately but to stew on it for a while. Pete being a big extrovert had to be restrained from answering immediately.
If I remember rightly this is what they answered;
Andre wanted to have a great day and do some good roads.
Clinton wanted more of the same of the previous day â?? more high speed dirt.
Debbie wanted to have fun, be safe and learn some more.
Amanda and Ashley wanted to be safe and get to Thomas River in one piece.
Aardt was a little nervous and didnâ??t want to feel pressured into anything and just have fun.
Pete wanted to see some new scenery and have fun.
Itâ??s nice as a lead rider to find out where each persons head is at, it makes understanding how the group will work together easier.
Of the 7 of us, only one had standard pipes on. In a small quiet dorp I think us lining up like this gets old quick.
I was a bit worried about Ashley who had Amanda as a pillion. It can be a bit daunting to have to pillion on tracks you donâ??t know â?? I neednâ??t have worried, they were fine.
It was about 1k out of the dorp and onto the gravel, this was to take us from Willowmore to Jansenville via some really back road tracks. Before we got going on this section I got us all stopped and told them of the, wait at a junction or gate till the next one arrives and only then leave rule. Then it was tally ho! The first stretch was magnificent and the video doesnâ??t show the better bits of this â?? I was having too much fun. Clinton by this stage had figured out how to ride safely alongside in order to stay out of the dust and I was having fun seeing how fast I could get him to go round some of the corners. Juvenile I know. He mentioned that it was much easier to learn following someone that to have it all explained.
Andreâ?? and Peter werenâ??t taking things too slowly either, in fact at no time did we have to wait long for anyone. It was really great to have just the right size group riding really well.
I got lost once but soon had us on the right rack again and what a track it is. If you ever get the chance, just north of Steylterville is a road that follows the Heuningklip River. It seems to get older, narrower and more eroded as you go along it but it really is a superb track. It also has many many gates that you have to open and close. This is not a bad thing as it give the group a chance to spread out and avoid the dust.
This is the only shot I have of it, but the video has bits.
Debbie getting a bit overheated with adrenalin
It was just as we had left the narrower roads and gotten onto the bigger ones that we had a slight challenge. We were coming off of a small side road, going about a k up a bigger one and then turning off for the next bit fun. I was just cruising when Ashley and Andre had obviously had enough of eating dust, took off clearly thinking that it was clear road for a while. I was now in a bit of a jam. I got to the turn off and told Clinton to not move from there and to stop all the others. I then chased after Ashley and Andre. They were really hauling, they only had a 40 second or so start on me, even still, it took me a good few kilometres to catch them, doing some really quick speeds. Ashley later on commented that just when he got to create some of his own fun I came along and screwed it up. Sorry Ash.
This is big sky country
From there is was direct to Jansenville for a koeksister, some fuel and a cool drink. I was starting to get a little concerned about time. It was about 11am and we still had a way to go, so we had to keep up the pace. The organisers had said that there was a 10k loop to test ride if you wanted to get an idea of what the levels difficulty were going to be for the different routes. For us to make it to Thomas River in time to do this and still have some light left to unpack and what not we had to press on. From Jansenville to Somerset East it was all very flat and well maintained gravel. There were a couple of tricky corners that could have caused a hassle if not concentrating. One high irritation was a bakkie that was being driven very quickly and didnâ??t even slow down or move over to his side as he was coming towards me. He was in a mad hurry. I was worried that he would cause a head on.
Here's where we gathered after the high speed dash before the tar.
Somerset to Adelaide passed relatively quickly on the tar. The only bit of interesting thing that happened here was we caught up with Donald in the van just after Cookhouse. From there, there were 3 routes that I had planned. It was only when we got onto the Kaalhoek mountains that I decided that as all of us were quite tired and chose not to ride the Katberg pass. Instead we went down through the Mpofu game reserve and got onto the R67 and from there R351 to Cathcart.
When we pulled into the Caltex there, there was just heaps of KTMs everywhere. It was just 30kâ??s to the Raid and I couldnâ??t wait to get there.
It wasnâ??t sign boarded and it was only when we came over a hill not 300 meters from the camp that we saw a sea of Orange.
Yeeeha! Made it.
Check in was pretty simple and once that was done I unpacked into my tent. Only one more necessary thing that had to be done before drinking could commence and that was to find Donald, get my new Michelin Desert out and take it to the KTM mechanicsâ?? gazebos where they had a tire changing machine and would do everything for you for 50 bucks. Bonus! They must have changed A LOT of tires that day.
It wasnâ??t long before they spooned the fresh one on.
Later on I wandered over to see what they were up to. They were fixing a 640's oil leak. They had all the tools. Impressive.
Should I still go try find the 10kâ??s to test? Nope, bugger that! I would find out about it tomorrow.
Got to say it was pretty chilly in this part of the world. I had the luxury of having Donald pull all my stuff up there so I was pretty toasty, aided by the influx of alcohol.
After supper (or was it before?) Mike welcomed us and gave us a rundown of the routes for the next day. He promised that route one was a â??bike breakerâ? and not to underestimate it. He said that going up may not be as bad as coming down. A Toyota Landcruiser with difflocks all round couldnâ??t manage it. He had photoâ??s of route 2. I thought along with most others that he was joking. If that was route 2, what would route 1 look like?
I managed to collar Alfie Cox, he said not a problem â?? he would, I suppose. He is the wrong oke to ask anyway considering his pedigree.
Well, that settles it then, I would drink on it and make a decision in the morning.
I had only a few drinks and was pretty tired after the long two days in the saddle with a big day coming up and so thought that being hungover would not be a good option so sneaked off to bed.
In my tent whilst lying there I thought of a few things; I have recently has a really bad run of medical luck, one of which was breaking my neck in January and another was a heart op in April for a pericardial biopsy. Route 1 was weighing heavily on my mind. I really did want to try it and see what both I and the bike could do. But, I had an unsettling premonition about the next day. Something that I almost never get. So I gave myself a talking to lying there in my tent about not letting ego get in the way of a great time and to ride within myself. Also I was not going to make a decision until breakfast and then weâ??ll see.
It wasnâ??t long before I joined the ranks of snorers, possibly even leading them.
So, click on these, get each open in its own browser. Once they start to load and you see the first images push pause and read on then come back and watch.
KTM RR 08 Day 2, Part 1
KTM RR 08 Day 2, Part 2
Day 2
For me started at 3.57am. Our next door neighbours who I think were some technicians from Eskom had a really loud conversation till I politely asked them to shut the fark up, by that time I was too excited about the upcoming day and it was almost time to get up anyway.
Aardt and I pushed the beds apart for this photo, just so that none of you would get funny ideas.
Breakfast was a wholesome affair. I can highly recommend the placeâ?¦ if only I could remember what the name of it was. I am sure someone who was there will be able to fill this blank in.
There were a load of Harleyâ??s in the small town, they were on the way to some rally. We had two of them staying with us. Note the Harleys sitting in the cold whilst the KTMâ??s got the plush accommodation. Times they are a changing!
I had asked each person during breakfast, â??what do you want to get out of today, what is your goal that would make this enjoyable for you?â? I also asked them not to answer immediately but to stew on it for a while. Pete being a big extrovert had to be restrained from answering immediately.
If I remember rightly this is what they answered;
Andre wanted to have a great day and do some good roads.
Clinton wanted more of the same of the previous day â?? more high speed dirt.
Debbie wanted to have fun, be safe and learn some more.
Amanda and Ashley wanted to be safe and get to Thomas River in one piece.
Aardt was a little nervous and didnâ??t want to feel pressured into anything and just have fun.
Pete wanted to see some new scenery and have fun.
Itâ??s nice as a lead rider to find out where each persons head is at, it makes understanding how the group will work together easier.
Of the 7 of us, only one had standard pipes on. In a small quiet dorp I think us lining up like this gets old quick.
I was a bit worried about Ashley who had Amanda as a pillion. It can be a bit daunting to have to pillion on tracks you donâ??t know â?? I neednâ??t have worried, they were fine.
It was about 1k out of the dorp and onto the gravel, this was to take us from Willowmore to Jansenville via some really back road tracks. Before we got going on this section I got us all stopped and told them of the, wait at a junction or gate till the next one arrives and only then leave rule. Then it was tally ho! The first stretch was magnificent and the video doesnâ??t show the better bits of this â?? I was having too much fun. Clinton by this stage had figured out how to ride safely alongside in order to stay out of the dust and I was having fun seeing how fast I could get him to go round some of the corners. Juvenile I know. He mentioned that it was much easier to learn following someone that to have it all explained.
Andreâ?? and Peter werenâ??t taking things too slowly either, in fact at no time did we have to wait long for anyone. It was really great to have just the right size group riding really well.
I got lost once but soon had us on the right rack again and what a track it is. If you ever get the chance, just north of Steylterville is a road that follows the Heuningklip River. It seems to get older, narrower and more eroded as you go along it but it really is a superb track. It also has many many gates that you have to open and close. This is not a bad thing as it give the group a chance to spread out and avoid the dust.
This is the only shot I have of it, but the video has bits.
Debbie getting a bit overheated with adrenalin
It was just as we had left the narrower roads and gotten onto the bigger ones that we had a slight challenge. We were coming off of a small side road, going about a k up a bigger one and then turning off for the next bit fun. I was just cruising when Ashley and Andre had obviously had enough of eating dust, took off clearly thinking that it was clear road for a while. I was now in a bit of a jam. I got to the turn off and told Clinton to not move from there and to stop all the others. I then chased after Ashley and Andre. They were really hauling, they only had a 40 second or so start on me, even still, it took me a good few kilometres to catch them, doing some really quick speeds. Ashley later on commented that just when he got to create some of his own fun I came along and screwed it up. Sorry Ash.
This is big sky country
From there is was direct to Jansenville for a koeksister, some fuel and a cool drink. I was starting to get a little concerned about time. It was about 11am and we still had a way to go, so we had to keep up the pace. The organisers had said that there was a 10k loop to test ride if you wanted to get an idea of what the levels difficulty were going to be for the different routes. For us to make it to Thomas River in time to do this and still have some light left to unpack and what not we had to press on. From Jansenville to Somerset East it was all very flat and well maintained gravel. There were a couple of tricky corners that could have caused a hassle if not concentrating. One high irritation was a bakkie that was being driven very quickly and didnâ??t even slow down or move over to his side as he was coming towards me. He was in a mad hurry. I was worried that he would cause a head on.
Here's where we gathered after the high speed dash before the tar.
Somerset to Adelaide passed relatively quickly on the tar. The only bit of interesting thing that happened here was we caught up with Donald in the van just after Cookhouse. From there, there were 3 routes that I had planned. It was only when we got onto the Kaalhoek mountains that I decided that as all of us were quite tired and chose not to ride the Katberg pass. Instead we went down through the Mpofu game reserve and got onto the R67 and from there R351 to Cathcart.
When we pulled into the Caltex there, there was just heaps of KTMs everywhere. It was just 30kâ??s to the Raid and I couldnâ??t wait to get there.
It wasnâ??t sign boarded and it was only when we came over a hill not 300 meters from the camp that we saw a sea of Orange.
Yeeeha! Made it.
Check in was pretty simple and once that was done I unpacked into my tent. Only one more necessary thing that had to be done before drinking could commence and that was to find Donald, get my new Michelin Desert out and take it to the KTM mechanicsâ?? gazebos where they had a tire changing machine and would do everything for you for 50 bucks. Bonus! They must have changed A LOT of tires that day.
It wasnâ??t long before they spooned the fresh one on.
Later on I wandered over to see what they were up to. They were fixing a 640's oil leak. They had all the tools. Impressive.
Should I still go try find the 10kâ??s to test? Nope, bugger that! I would find out about it tomorrow.
Got to say it was pretty chilly in this part of the world. I had the luxury of having Donald pull all my stuff up there so I was pretty toasty, aided by the influx of alcohol.
After supper (or was it before?) Mike welcomed us and gave us a rundown of the routes for the next day. He promised that route one was a â??bike breakerâ? and not to underestimate it. He said that going up may not be as bad as coming down. A Toyota Landcruiser with difflocks all round couldnâ??t manage it. He had photoâ??s of route 2. I thought along with most others that he was joking. If that was route 2, what would route 1 look like?
I managed to collar Alfie Cox, he said not a problem â?? he would, I suppose. He is the wrong oke to ask anyway considering his pedigree.
Well, that settles it then, I would drink on it and make a decision in the morning.
I had only a few drinks and was pretty tired after the long two days in the saddle with a big day coming up and so thought that being hungover would not be a good option so sneaked off to bed.
In my tent whilst lying there I thought of a few things; I have recently has a really bad run of medical luck, one of which was breaking my neck in January and another was a heart op in April for a pericardial biopsy. Route 1 was weighing heavily on my mind. I really did want to try it and see what both I and the bike could do. But, I had an unsettling premonition about the next day. Something that I almost never get. So I gave myself a talking to lying there in my tent about not letting ego get in the way of a great time and to ride within myself. Also I was not going to make a decision until breakfast and then weâ??ll see.
It wasnâ??t long before I joined the ranks of snorers, possibly even leading them.
Ama ride ride
Grey Hound
Lekke lekker.
Videos adds other dimension to RR's :thumleft:
Videos adds other dimension to RR's :thumleft:
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BigEd said:Nice one Kamanya! Love the helmet cam - scared the living shit out of me
Caren't wait for the rest. :thumleft:
The camera flatens things out, so big hills and rocks don't look so hectic. But the speeds are pretty true to life.
There is a section of the Day 2 video where I was trying out a bit of high speed, you can hear me reading out the GPS speeds.
I very rarely go over 150 on tar and didn't on the way up.
So this is from the Boniville dirt section...
Doing very high speeds on dirt is stupid, very dangerous and scary.
I wrote something about doing this a while back...
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The map for the day....
Awsome Report Thanks
I could never post videos with a helmet cam like that!
Everyone would then hear how muck Kak I speak when I'm ridding (out of Bluetooth Headset Range of course hey Li )
I sing and jabber on and it seems the faster i go the louder I get!
Jules
I could never post videos with a helmet cam like that!
Everyone would then hear how muck Kak I speak when I'm ridding (out of Bluetooth Headset Range of course hey Li
)I sing and jabber on and it seems the faster i go the louder I get!
Jules
CrazyPorra
Race Dog
Excellent report as always.
Hey Jules I think I am going to be suprised of how much K@K I do speak while I ride once I get my New Toy. :biggrin:
Hey Jules I think I am going to be suprised of how much K@K I do speak while I ride once I get my New Toy. :biggrin:
Mark Hardy
Grey Hound
Absolute stunning report. Enjoying the videos.
:thumleft: :thumleft:
:thumleft: :thumleft:
Piston Pete
Teach Peace
Kark. I klapped my pb by 4km/hr...up to 179. Karoo dreamin man..Kamanya said:BigEd said:Nice one Kamanya! Love the helmet cam - scared the living shit out of me
Caren't wait for the rest. :thumleft:
The camera flatens things out, so big hills and rocks don't look so hectic. But the speeds are pretty true to life.
There is a section of the Day 2 video where I was trying out a bit of high speed, you can hear me reading out the GPS speeds.
I very rarely go over 150 on tar and didn't on the way up.
So this is from the Boniville dirt section...
Doing very high speeds on dirt is stupid, very dangerous and scary.
I wrote something about doing this a while back...
GO GIRL
Race Dog
Kamanya will certainly ride with you again...... :thumleft:
We really had a lekker 'pack'
A grt route and super report..... 8) 8)
We really had a lekker 'pack'
A grt route and super report..... 8) 8)
mrg46
Pack Dog
Loving that camera action, just keeps getting better.
Great RR Kamanya - the helmet cam footage is fantastic! Thanks for sharing ;D
Hi Kamanya - Clinton is my son and as soon as you said you were riding dirt all the way he was in like Flint. Any chance of getting a opy of all your footage of the trip somehow.
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Phillo1 said:
Hello Phil
Once I have all the video edited I will cut DVD's in the original resolution for those that want.
Just a little busy right now.
Day three part 1 should be up this evening.
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Load this up whilst you read on...
https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YTdK-SzTz78
As I was reviewing the past two days and writing this ride report I realised that this ride was a little different to most of the others that I do. This time it was not about a destination or the view and scenery or even who I was riding with. It was totally about the ride, the route and the bike. In a way it was a selfish ride. The ride up was a bonus to have the luxury of not having to carry my kit all the way. Also the risk factor in case of an emergency was reduced by having people along too, but my focus was just on the road, the engine, the handling. I was pretty much in a zone. I canâ??t remember too much of the scenery but I have a good recollection of all the bumps and corners. When I had asked for people to join me for the ride I had said that I had some prerequisites for riding partners, not something that I normally do. Anyway that was what I wanted and it worked out great.
To back track a bit. My bike has a direct ancestry with the Paris Dakar. The engine and chassis are straight off the 2002 winning bike of Fabrizio Meoni. Here is his bike;
He effectively was riding a modified preproduction bike. There are in fact more things on his bike in common with mine than the unobtanium usually associated with Paris Dakar or serious racing bikes.
When I was looking to get back in to biking after being out of it for 10 years, I was seduced not only by the performance of the bike, but its history too. It was a rush to have such a direct link with something that I admire and have huge respect for and to be truthful, secretly harbour an ambition to try. How often had I been able to ride like some of the images I had seen on the TV to places and through things that such a big bike really shouldnâ??t. It is a testament to the Meoni who had such a huge hand in the development of it and KTM that I could become on occasions a Rally rider, if only in my own head.
Marc Coma, what did he have to do with this ride you ask? Well, he was an invited guest. He won the Paris Dakar in 2006 and would have done it again in 2007 if he hadnâ??t concussed himself. Andâ?¦ he was to be a guest rider at this event! It was a great bonus for me. Just another bite of reality to add to my little dream. Even my wife who has no interest in bikes or their details (other than hoping I donâ??t get hurt or spend too much on them) got excited for me as she had sat through enough of my gibbering on about the Dakar and KTM.
I feel pretty strongly about celebrities and their privacy, so when I had seen Alfie Cox (another of the Dakar legends) last night at supper, it was enough just to snap a long distance shot.
I had seen evidence of Marc too
And, after all the wating, I got a quick glimpse of him at supper. It really made the event even more special that the organisers had gone out of their way to create not just an event but an experience much deeper than just riding a bunch of roads and trails.
All this was running through my head whilst I was waking up in my orange igloo. Clinton, who happened to be my next door neighbour was also up. I donâ??t think I caught his best side?
Pete, Debbie and Aardt also up early. They were going to do route 2.
Now began the faffing to get dressed and ready. We had decided the night before that weâ??d be ready for the start time for Route 1 and make a decision as to whether we were going to ride it or not during breakfast.
I managed to get talk to Alfie who as I mentioned earlier was very positive about the route. Clinton who managed to talk to Mike Glover, the organiser came back with less positive news, he had said the uphills were not so bad but there were a few very steep shale type downhills that would be a problem. He said that even the small bikes had hassles. I have been down a couple of very steep hills basically bulldogging the bike down so this was not such a bad bit of info for me. I find going up more hazardous than going down
â??Fuck it, lets do it, if things turn ugly we can always take the escape route or turn aroundâ? was our final decision.
Donald hadnâ??t driven all the way not to have some fun too and joined us at the start line on a very fruity sounding 690. It has an Akropovic on that really makes a huge difference to the bike. He was going to do the route 1 loop as far as the first fuel stop and then come back to the camp.
Mike had made it very clear in the riders briefing that it was not a race, but I couldnâ??t help but feel that it did have a bit of a race feeling to it as we pulled up to the start.
Annnndddd, theyâ??re off!
The organisers had posted onto the website the week before all the tacks for all the routes, so it was just a matter of downloading them into the GPS and following them. Neat! I had the resolution turned up very high so that I could just see critical turns.
The first bit was about 20kâ??s gravel to get to the single track, and suddenly there was the first turnoff with a farmer pointing the way. The route had little Day-Glo tags to also give you a chance at not getting lost.
Route 1 and 2 were exactly the same apart from two little loops that would apparently be the bike breaker bits of route 1. We were running through the bush when not long into this section there was a pretty meaty up grade with some fair sized rocks in it. Mmmm, if this was still route 1&2, I was sure some of the route 2 guys are going to get a surprise. The video is not good at showing steepness but you can see how much the bike gets thrown by the rocks. Here is a photo stolen from another thread of the section. The video starts in the dip you can see here.
In the video this also doesn't look as steep as this;
For the first time ever I was getting some serious pins and needles in my hands. I could only feel the bars with my pinkie and ring fingers, the others were dead? I had to stop along the route pretty often just to shake them out and get some feeling back. I was a bit pissed off at this and nearly came off once because of it. It was making it very hard to control the bike. At one of the stops Donald wanted to let some air out and also gave me a disprins saying it should help a bit.
Slowly my hands seemed to warm up and there was less pins an needles. But it was irritating.
All doubt about where route 1 started was cleared up a little later with a marshal at a sign with a big Route 1! Sign. Well, I was not going to stop and debate it with Clinton and just headed in. For the first bit It was not difficult, just slow. It was a 4x4 track with endless â??speedbumpsâ? and some steep grades but nothing â??heart in your mouthâ?. Then after climbing for a quite a bit...
...we came around a corner that had been contouring around the mountain into a bottleneck of bikes at the foot of and halfway up a pretty steep hill. There was very little space to stop. Up ahead there were quite a few guys manhandling some 950â??s up the track. It didnâ??t look good.
We just sat at the bottom. Once the clutter had been cleared it was time to boogie. The 950 has so much torque and is very responsive that bouncing about can make keeping a constant throttle hard and then it jerks and breaks traction and can make stuff like this harder. Also the name of this game is all about momentum. Loose it and it makes for a sweaty day. I like to hook my thumb over the throttle cable housing to provide a little stability to the twistgrip so as to avoid the jerking and thus loss of momentum.
I made it to the top with not much difficulty and ran back to film Clinton, but he obviously had tunnel vision and had followed me straight up and didnâ??t give me a chance to film him. He too cleared it. Donald got stuck halfway up, he had had to stop for one of the other riders who got into the path and with that he had to stop and with the grade fell over slowly. He said that first gear on the 690 was too low and ended up going back down to the bottom and trying again rather than trying to get a start on the steep bit. He used second gear this time, he did it with no hassle at all.
We hung around to witness some of the carnage and sweat, shout some abuse and encouragement.
As we headed off I was thinking ok, one down that was a confidence booster, this down hill slide must be next. But, that was it. There was some steepish stuff but nothing that needed getting off to negotiate, I hardly locked the back wheel on any of it.
In hindsight it was a very good strategy by the organisers â?? talk down route 2 and make route 1 sound really bad. The net effect was that more people got to ride routes that were just at or beyond their ability levels. Without the warning on route 1 I am sure that there would have been a few people who may not have enjoyed themselves because they were sold into a route that was a little beyond them.
From there we headed off towards first fuel stop. I had asked Clinton and Donald to get ahead of me so that I could get some footage of them. Watching someoneâ??s wheel sliding whilst right behind them is for me quite mesmerising and I nearly paid for it by not concentrating on a simple corner and ending up eating a couple of thorn tree branches.
Part 2 later. Sorry for the wait.
https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YTdK-SzTz78
As I was reviewing the past two days and writing this ride report I realised that this ride was a little different to most of the others that I do. This time it was not about a destination or the view and scenery or even who I was riding with. It was totally about the ride, the route and the bike. In a way it was a selfish ride. The ride up was a bonus to have the luxury of not having to carry my kit all the way. Also the risk factor in case of an emergency was reduced by having people along too, but my focus was just on the road, the engine, the handling. I was pretty much in a zone. I canâ??t remember too much of the scenery but I have a good recollection of all the bumps and corners. When I had asked for people to join me for the ride I had said that I had some prerequisites for riding partners, not something that I normally do. Anyway that was what I wanted and it worked out great.
To back track a bit. My bike has a direct ancestry with the Paris Dakar. The engine and chassis are straight off the 2002 winning bike of Fabrizio Meoni. Here is his bike;
He effectively was riding a modified preproduction bike. There are in fact more things on his bike in common with mine than the unobtanium usually associated with Paris Dakar or serious racing bikes.
When I was looking to get back in to biking after being out of it for 10 years, I was seduced not only by the performance of the bike, but its history too. It was a rush to have such a direct link with something that I admire and have huge respect for and to be truthful, secretly harbour an ambition to try. How often had I been able to ride like some of the images I had seen on the TV to places and through things that such a big bike really shouldnâ??t. It is a testament to the Meoni who had such a huge hand in the development of it and KTM that I could become on occasions a Rally rider, if only in my own head.
Marc Coma, what did he have to do with this ride you ask? Well, he was an invited guest. He won the Paris Dakar in 2006 and would have done it again in 2007 if he hadnâ??t concussed himself. Andâ?¦ he was to be a guest rider at this event! It was a great bonus for me. Just another bite of reality to add to my little dream. Even my wife who has no interest in bikes or their details (other than hoping I donâ??t get hurt or spend too much on them) got excited for me as she had sat through enough of my gibbering on about the Dakar and KTM.
I feel pretty strongly about celebrities and their privacy, so when I had seen Alfie Cox (another of the Dakar legends) last night at supper, it was enough just to snap a long distance shot.
I had seen evidence of Marc too
And, after all the wating, I got a quick glimpse of him at supper. It really made the event even more special that the organisers had gone out of their way to create not just an event but an experience much deeper than just riding a bunch of roads and trails.
All this was running through my head whilst I was waking up in my orange igloo. Clinton, who happened to be my next door neighbour was also up. I donâ??t think I caught his best side?
Pete, Debbie and Aardt also up early. They were going to do route 2.
Now began the faffing to get dressed and ready. We had decided the night before that weâ??d be ready for the start time for Route 1 and make a decision as to whether we were going to ride it or not during breakfast.
I managed to get talk to Alfie who as I mentioned earlier was very positive about the route. Clinton who managed to talk to Mike Glover, the organiser came back with less positive news, he had said the uphills were not so bad but there were a few very steep shale type downhills that would be a problem. He said that even the small bikes had hassles. I have been down a couple of very steep hills basically bulldogging the bike down so this was not such a bad bit of info for me. I find going up more hazardous than going down
â??Fuck it, lets do it, if things turn ugly we can always take the escape route or turn aroundâ? was our final decision.
Donald hadnâ??t driven all the way not to have some fun too and joined us at the start line on a very fruity sounding 690. It has an Akropovic on that really makes a huge difference to the bike. He was going to do the route 1 loop as far as the first fuel stop and then come back to the camp.
Mike had made it very clear in the riders briefing that it was not a race, but I couldnâ??t help but feel that it did have a bit of a race feeling to it as we pulled up to the start.
Annnndddd, theyâ??re off!
The organisers had posted onto the website the week before all the tacks for all the routes, so it was just a matter of downloading them into the GPS and following them. Neat! I had the resolution turned up very high so that I could just see critical turns.
The first bit was about 20kâ??s gravel to get to the single track, and suddenly there was the first turnoff with a farmer pointing the way. The route had little Day-Glo tags to also give you a chance at not getting lost.
Route 1 and 2 were exactly the same apart from two little loops that would apparently be the bike breaker bits of route 1. We were running through the bush when not long into this section there was a pretty meaty up grade with some fair sized rocks in it. Mmmm, if this was still route 1&2, I was sure some of the route 2 guys are going to get a surprise. The video is not good at showing steepness but you can see how much the bike gets thrown by the rocks. Here is a photo stolen from another thread of the section. The video starts in the dip you can see here.
In the video this also doesn't look as steep as this;
For the first time ever I was getting some serious pins and needles in my hands. I could only feel the bars with my pinkie and ring fingers, the others were dead? I had to stop along the route pretty often just to shake them out and get some feeling back. I was a bit pissed off at this and nearly came off once because of it. It was making it very hard to control the bike. At one of the stops Donald wanted to let some air out and also gave me a disprins saying it should help a bit.
Slowly my hands seemed to warm up and there was less pins an needles. But it was irritating.
All doubt about where route 1 started was cleared up a little later with a marshal at a sign with a big Route 1! Sign. Well, I was not going to stop and debate it with Clinton and just headed in. For the first bit It was not difficult, just slow. It was a 4x4 track with endless â??speedbumpsâ? and some steep grades but nothing â??heart in your mouthâ?. Then after climbing for a quite a bit...
...we came around a corner that had been contouring around the mountain into a bottleneck of bikes at the foot of and halfway up a pretty steep hill. There was very little space to stop. Up ahead there were quite a few guys manhandling some 950â??s up the track. It didnâ??t look good.
We just sat at the bottom. Once the clutter had been cleared it was time to boogie. The 950 has so much torque and is very responsive that bouncing about can make keeping a constant throttle hard and then it jerks and breaks traction and can make stuff like this harder. Also the name of this game is all about momentum. Loose it and it makes for a sweaty day. I like to hook my thumb over the throttle cable housing to provide a little stability to the twistgrip so as to avoid the jerking and thus loss of momentum.
I made it to the top with not much difficulty and ran back to film Clinton, but he obviously had tunnel vision and had followed me straight up and didnâ??t give me a chance to film him. He too cleared it. Donald got stuck halfway up, he had had to stop for one of the other riders who got into the path and with that he had to stop and with the grade fell over slowly. He said that first gear on the 690 was too low and ended up going back down to the bottom and trying again rather than trying to get a start on the steep bit. He used second gear this time, he did it with no hassle at all.
We hung around to witness some of the carnage and sweat, shout some abuse and encouragement.
As we headed off I was thinking ok, one down that was a confidence booster, this down hill slide must be next. But, that was it. There was some steepish stuff but nothing that needed getting off to negotiate, I hardly locked the back wheel on any of it.
In hindsight it was a very good strategy by the organisers â?? talk down route 2 and make route 1 sound really bad. The net effect was that more people got to ride routes that were just at or beyond their ability levels. Without the warning on route 1 I am sure that there would have been a few people who may not have enjoyed themselves because they were sold into a route that was a little beyond them.
From there we headed off towards first fuel stop. I had asked Clinton and Donald to get ahead of me so that I could get some footage of them. Watching someoneâ??s wheel sliding whilst right behind them is for me quite mesmerising and I nearly paid for it by not concentrating on a simple corner and ending up eating a couple of thorn tree branches.
Part 2 later. Sorry for the wait.
Lito
Race Dog
Fork! You suck, I feel the excitement of it all, I keep envisaging the climbs and rocks and stuff as you describe them, and how I would have negotiated them
YeeFREKENhoo! 8)
YeeFREKENhoo! 8)
Stofstreep
Race Dog
Wow! Cool Write up.
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Mark Hardy
Grey Hound
Just getting be and better.
These vedios really let you live the route abit. Thanks.
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These vedios really let you live the route abit. Thanks.
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