Al
Pack Dog
Hello all ,finally I register after lurking for far too long !
Live in the city bowl in Cape Town and have been riding an 02 Dakar for just over a year now . Owned various roadbikes from a 50cc Honda at school to a GSX1100 but was then bikeless for about 10 years . I commuted on a scooter for a year or two but had been thinking about getting a DS bike for a while . A friend ( also on the forum - SAM ) bought an AT and reminded me that we had always spoken about doing offroad trips on bikes. You know the " lets buy XT500s and cruise through Africa " type of discussions . I think it took me about a week and I had found a bike ! An 02 Dakar with all of 4000km on it . It has now done another 12000km ( about half of that on dirt) and does not look quite so clean anymore.I do a lot of mountainbiking and thought that my natural ability ( ja right ) would make offroading on a DS bike easy !! A quick fall on my first excursion into soft sand sorted out that theory! Then I remembered that I ride a BM and must stand at all times and things got a bit easier !
Anyway one lives and learns and I managed a recent 2 week trip to Nam ( ride report in progress )without appearing too inept on the dirt .
I have certainly learned a lot from the forum and enjoy the ride reports .
Greetings to all the WDs
Live in the city bowl in Cape Town and have been riding an 02 Dakar for just over a year now . Owned various roadbikes from a 50cc Honda at school to a GSX1100 but was then bikeless for about 10 years . I commuted on a scooter for a year or two but had been thinking about getting a DS bike for a while . A friend ( also on the forum - SAM ) bought an AT and reminded me that we had always spoken about doing offroad trips on bikes. You know the " lets buy XT500s and cruise through Africa " type of discussions . I think it took me about a week and I had found a bike ! An 02 Dakar with all of 4000km on it . It has now done another 12000km ( about half of that on dirt) and does not look quite so clean anymore.I do a lot of mountainbiking and thought that my natural ability ( ja right ) would make offroading on a DS bike easy !! A quick fall on my first excursion into soft sand sorted out that theory! Then I remembered that I ride a BM and must stand at all times and things got a bit easier !
Anyway one lives and learns and I managed a recent 2 week trip to Nam ( ride report in progress )without appearing too inept on the dirt .
I have certainly learned a lot from the forum and enjoy the ride reports .
Greetings to all the WDs