Prologue:
I never thought I’d buy another bike; after all, I love the Purple Hooligan to bits (quite literally). So why? Because. It came along at the right time, I knew its pedigree, the stars aligned, mysteriously there was a small surplus amount of cash in my bank account, and so I openend heart and pocket and now the Gentleman is mine, crowding my back door, begging to be ridden.
Why keep the Hooligan, then?
Why not?
The bikes, although both DR650s, differ a bit. Hooligan is a bit of a thug, swarthy, with leathers and attitude. The Gentleman is refined, ligher, quieter and nimbler. And as every biker knows, the correct number of bikes to own are n+1.
Then I had to do a few little improvements.
And so it came that a request for original Suzuki exhaust parts was posted on Wild Dog, and a response led me to contact Dux. He invited me to come scratch in the attic where he stored odds, bits and pieces, and asked what I was planning to do. When I told him, he offered to help, and soon my two Purple Turtles were under the care and supervision of DR Dux: mechanic, maker and master farkler.
Of course it is all good and well to have the bikes wind-screened, spotted, tyred, exhausted, oiled, jetted and purpled, but the whole point of bikes is to ride them. Since I had two bikes that wanted riding, I commandeered the Dux to draw up a route, and along with his daughter, the Minion, we set out to Napier on a cold but beautiful Saturday morning.
The Route (in Dux' words):
Starting off on backroads to N2, over Sir Lowry's Pass and a stop at Peregrine's for brekkie, then the popular Highlands road which was in surprisingly good condition, a testament to the low rainfall. Boring tar to Stanford with a light drizzle along the way to keep us on our toes, then onto the R326 where we stopped at Agrimark for Minion to do horselifting
Then onto the Papiesvlei road to Elim where we hung a left to Napier and the Moerse shop with a moerse talkative old timer and not so moerse big lemon meringue pie. Return journey is along R316 rollercoaster road, then we took the Sandy's Glen turnoff for a bit of attempted piglet culling :-D until once again onto the R326 and east past Raka Wines and then the Tesselaarsdal road to Caledon to finish off the dirt riding. Thereafter N2 with a Dassiesfontein detour for lekker vetkoek and soup and a gigantic toasted sarmie for Minion. Ending off with a windy return along the N2 back home .
I never thought I’d buy another bike; after all, I love the Purple Hooligan to bits (quite literally). So why? Because. It came along at the right time, I knew its pedigree, the stars aligned, mysteriously there was a small surplus amount of cash in my bank account, and so I openend heart and pocket and now the Gentleman is mine, crowding my back door, begging to be ridden.
Why keep the Hooligan, then?
Why not?
The bikes, although both DR650s, differ a bit. Hooligan is a bit of a thug, swarthy, with leathers and attitude. The Gentleman is refined, ligher, quieter and nimbler. And as every biker knows, the correct number of bikes to own are n+1.
Then I had to do a few little improvements.
And so it came that a request for original Suzuki exhaust parts was posted on Wild Dog, and a response led me to contact Dux. He invited me to come scratch in the attic where he stored odds, bits and pieces, and asked what I was planning to do. When I told him, he offered to help, and soon my two Purple Turtles were under the care and supervision of DR Dux: mechanic, maker and master farkler.
Of course it is all good and well to have the bikes wind-screened, spotted, tyred, exhausted, oiled, jetted and purpled, but the whole point of bikes is to ride them. Since I had two bikes that wanted riding, I commandeered the Dux to draw up a route, and along with his daughter, the Minion, we set out to Napier on a cold but beautiful Saturday morning.
The Route (in Dux' words):
Starting off on backroads to N2, over Sir Lowry's Pass and a stop at Peregrine's for brekkie, then the popular Highlands road which was in surprisingly good condition, a testament to the low rainfall. Boring tar to Stanford with a light drizzle along the way to keep us on our toes, then onto the R326 where we stopped at Agrimark for Minion to do horselifting
Then onto the Papiesvlei road to Elim where we hung a left to Napier and the Moerse shop with a moerse talkative old timer and not so moerse big lemon meringue pie. Return journey is along R316 rollercoaster road, then we took the Sandy's Glen turnoff for a bit of attempted piglet culling :-D until once again onto the R326 and east past Raka Wines and then the Tesselaarsdal road to Caledon to finish off the dirt riding. Thereafter N2 with a Dassiesfontein detour for lekker vetkoek and soup and a gigantic toasted sarmie for Minion. Ending off with a windy return along the N2 back home .
bly jy kon vir Dux en Kayleigh uitneem op n trip. Hulle verdien dit. En ja...daai oom by Moerse Padstal kan regtig baie kak praat...ek en Anmar het einde 2015 met ons lang trip daar gestop. Hy het gedink ons was bedonnerd om n week lank op n bike te gaan toer het tot in Hogsback en terug. 
