- Joined
- Feb 6, 2006
- Messages
- 11,515
- Reaction score
- 5,160
- Location
- Cape Town, deep in the lentils
- Bike
- KTM 990 Adventure
Well, there’s not much to show from a camera perspective but hell it's a lot of fun. It does sound a bit like a recipe for disaster. Lots of guys are not happy in sand and then to add darkness to it does sound a bit like an April fools joke, but its really a great way to get some exercise in the evening.
On the way there I tried the artsy fart thing.
And again.
Nick turned up on his piccannini DS bike
and promptly was ordered to inaugurate the proceedings.
Piet was not far behind and treated similarly.
That’s 97% stuff some farmer gave me about 10 years ago. It's wayyy strong.
We waited for anyone else to pitch and then jumped right in.
From the get go it was clear Nick was having some hassles and when I turned back to check, he was determined to continue. Piet and I waited and all we could see was a faint small light coming through the bush, a poor 125 being thrashed and Nick getting some exercise running/pushing/pedalling.
It was decided that he should turn back as clearly the little bike was not getting on top of things. Or maybe it was the witblitz? Possibly I should have thrown the witblitz into his tank?
Piet clearly has done this kind of stuff before and he has brand new knobblies on. He commented that it was so much better than his last set and gave him a ton of confidence.
Once into the dunes proper, it was a different story to the previous time. With the moon it makes it so much easier to pick lines and see where to go.
Even still I managed to lead us into a small bowl that needed some work to get out of. We had devised a comms thing; If I put my indicator on – it means, "don’t follow, I’m checking to see if this is a good way." Piet had missed me putting it on or I was too late. I got out of it just but Piet had to do a bit of sweating.
Once to the northern side the view was stunning, see?
Although I have a crappy little camera it really was stunning. I buggered about in a pit and struggled to get out.
From there I used the GPS to get us to the wall of death. On the way I made a mistake and rode up the backside of a soft dune and in trying to turn down it before I got stuck, over I went.
I couldn’t use the light switch and starter button as it had become packed with sand so out came my head torch and a bit of spannering was needed before we could get away.
The wall of death is hard to judge riding up, it took me 3 goes before I tried the steepest biggest part of it and completely miscalculated my speed and the lip. My hang time allowed me to have a long conversation with myself about how stupid that was. Also to speculate on what was going to break on me and the bike. Also to gaze down on Cape Town and in particular the Power Station. It was actually getting boring before I smashed back to earth. Amazingly nothing happened, I rode it out and then being so amazed promptly fell over. I fully expected to see the front forks or blown or bent. These bikes are anvil tough! I had landed a good 15 meters from the lip. Lucky!
Piet in the mean time also had some issues and in retrospect it was probably a good thing he never made it over as it could have easily been a scene similar to mine.
We’d had enough to back to the exit. Piet hadn’t brought any water to was sucking like a pool pump on my camel bac when I offered it to him.
Once out, he was poked but had done really well.
The sand was pretty soft and with the high wind there were some tricky bits.
A coke then a beer to chew the fat
and once I had gotten home scrubbed and snacked it was nearly 1am.
It is a very different feeling sailing along at night under the moon, it feels a lot like skiing and is very enjoyable. You should try it.
Some things I learned about riding in dunes at night.
Have water.
A GPS is essential – to mark the exit if we get split up.
A bit of local knowledge is highly needed – I would say that to get around it would be impossible to navigate without knowing a little of where to go. Riding blindly is very hard.
Do not charge up dunes, even ones you know, its tough to gauge the breakover/lip. Ride more diagonally at the top.
It is cooler, so slightly easier on the sweat factory.
A good light helps – my HID’s are a bit of overkill but really make it much easier to pick up the lines on the open stuff and makes the twee spoor stuff very easy to see.
A full moon is measurably better and safer than a dark night.
Take a head torch for unexpected work or finding stuff that gets dropped.
Stay together. Have a plan that everyone knows if you get split up.
More than 4 or 5 will be an issue.
On the way there I tried the artsy fart thing.
And again.
Nick turned up on his piccannini DS bike
and promptly was ordered to inaugurate the proceedings.
Piet was not far behind and treated similarly.
That’s 97% stuff some farmer gave me about 10 years ago. It's wayyy strong.
We waited for anyone else to pitch and then jumped right in.
From the get go it was clear Nick was having some hassles and when I turned back to check, he was determined to continue. Piet and I waited and all we could see was a faint small light coming through the bush, a poor 125 being thrashed and Nick getting some exercise running/pushing/pedalling.
It was decided that he should turn back as clearly the little bike was not getting on top of things. Or maybe it was the witblitz? Possibly I should have thrown the witblitz into his tank?
Piet clearly has done this kind of stuff before and he has brand new knobblies on. He commented that it was so much better than his last set and gave him a ton of confidence.
Once into the dunes proper, it was a different story to the previous time. With the moon it makes it so much easier to pick lines and see where to go.
Even still I managed to lead us into a small bowl that needed some work to get out of. We had devised a comms thing; If I put my indicator on – it means, "don’t follow, I’m checking to see if this is a good way." Piet had missed me putting it on or I was too late. I got out of it just but Piet had to do a bit of sweating.
Once to the northern side the view was stunning, see?
Although I have a crappy little camera it really was stunning. I buggered about in a pit and struggled to get out.
From there I used the GPS to get us to the wall of death. On the way I made a mistake and rode up the backside of a soft dune and in trying to turn down it before I got stuck, over I went.
I couldn’t use the light switch and starter button as it had become packed with sand so out came my head torch and a bit of spannering was needed before we could get away.
The wall of death is hard to judge riding up, it took me 3 goes before I tried the steepest biggest part of it and completely miscalculated my speed and the lip. My hang time allowed me to have a long conversation with myself about how stupid that was. Also to speculate on what was going to break on me and the bike. Also to gaze down on Cape Town and in particular the Power Station. It was actually getting boring before I smashed back to earth. Amazingly nothing happened, I rode it out and then being so amazed promptly fell over. I fully expected to see the front forks or blown or bent. These bikes are anvil tough! I had landed a good 15 meters from the lip. Lucky!
Piet in the mean time also had some issues and in retrospect it was probably a good thing he never made it over as it could have easily been a scene similar to mine.
We’d had enough to back to the exit. Piet hadn’t brought any water to was sucking like a pool pump on my camel bac when I offered it to him.
Once out, he was poked but had done really well.
The sand was pretty soft and with the high wind there were some tricky bits.
A coke then a beer to chew the fat
and once I had gotten home scrubbed and snacked it was nearly 1am.
It is a very different feeling sailing along at night under the moon, it feels a lot like skiing and is very enjoyable. You should try it.
Some things I learned about riding in dunes at night.
Have water.
A GPS is essential – to mark the exit if we get split up.
A bit of local knowledge is highly needed – I would say that to get around it would be impossible to navigate without knowing a little of where to go. Riding blindly is very hard.
Do not charge up dunes, even ones you know, its tough to gauge the breakover/lip. Ride more diagonally at the top.
It is cooler, so slightly easier on the sweat factory.
A good light helps – my HID’s are a bit of overkill but really make it much easier to pick up the lines on the open stuff and makes the twee spoor stuff very easy to see.
A full moon is measurably better and safer than a dark night.
Take a head torch for unexpected work or finding stuff that gets dropped.
Stay together. Have a plan that everyone knows if you get split up.
More than 4 or 5 will be an issue.
