Leftless
Race Dog
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2006
- Messages
- 561
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Western Cape
- Bike
- Honda CRF-1000L Africa Twin
Took my biking gear out of mothballs. Luckily it all still fits. Not like my road bike gear I wore at varsity that seems to have shrunk drastically last time I checked. Took a wash or two to get the mothball smell (most of it at least) out of the gear. Refitted my toolkit with generic tools and tyre patch bits and cleaned my hydro pack. We went for a 450km loop (noob ride for me) on an Africa Twin DCT – on loan to me from Honda Tygerberg.
I had to get all my creature comforts on the bike and spent the week before testing my old Autocom system and refitting some components. and revived my Zumo 550. I found my old Mapsource CD and had to load that on my laptop (no cd or dvd drive) to do some route planning. I still had all the tracks of the trails and routes I did in the past. Browsed through those and compiled about four routes ranging from hectic to serious dotted line stuff. I settled for the 450km noob route.
Fitted my trusty Aurtocom and Zumo 550 (loaded with 800 hard rock songs) and installed my prosthetic grip the day before. There was no need for a hydraulic mod as the DCT is FULLY AUTOMATIC - Freaking amazing (sport 3 works best ). All the mods took just more than an hour. So Wednesday I met up with Fearless Frikkie and Loki_CPT at the Durbanville Caltex.
Straight off the bat, I got lost. I asked “Cow” to recalculate a route and she screwed it up completely. This along with the fact that CTCC tared some of the dirt roads in the area and Escom removed their wind turbines in the past five years did not help and I missed another turn.
We finally connected with the dirt tracks of the R45 and made our way to Malmesbury via Jakkalsfontein and Moerasfontein. I missed another turn but turned back to the dirt highway to Moreesburg. As I was riding like an old lady I decided to go directly to Piketberg on tar as I was keen to get to the Goedverwag dirt pass. By the time I got there I was feeling a bit more comfortable on the DCT and started to understand the gearbox.
Let me explain for those that do not know me or the DCT. All my other bikes I had to refit the clutch on the right grip. There I had throttle, front brake and clutch. A lot of stuff to manage. The DCT is a dual clutch gearbox and is fully automatic. The bike does not even come with a gear lever on the left foot – nada, nothing. It has four settings – Drive (boring), Sport (mmm), Sport 2 (better) and Sport 3 (why anything else). On top of that, there is a Gravel mapping that changes these up even more. ABS and Traction Control can be disabled in varying stages as you prefer. You do NOT have to stop to do any of these.
Needless to say, Goedverwag pass was a breeze. From there it was tar all the way down and headed to Piekeniers or at least Grey's Pass to be accurate. The dirt pass was built by Thomas Bain and he named it after Sir George Grey (1858). Prior to the construction of this pass, travellers had to travel up the mountain with oxen and wagons. They often had to unload these, dismantle the wagons, cart the payload and the wagon pieces on the backs of oxen, reassemble the wagon on the plateau and then continue their trip. Ref-The Romance of the Cape Mountain Passes by Graham Ross. This is the dirt pass you see on the left travelling North claiming and on the Right descending to Citrusdal.
The pass was marked closed, so Fearless Frikkie and I chose the new tar pass. Loki_CPT, on the other hand, scouted ahead. Reaching the top, I could not help myself and travelled down the pass, meeting Loki_CPT halfway on his second trip up. He had gone back to look for us.
In Citrusdal we stopped for a quick bite to eat and get some ice into my armour. It was 43c.
From here we continued to Middelberg pass and to look at the Elandskloof track. There was an old wagon trail before Middelberg pass was built. The locals don’t seem to agree but I still need to go have a close look at some point.
The Western side of Middelberg was badly rutted but the Eastern side a lot better. I tried to scout two other tracks before heading to Ceres. One track leading to “Pilgrims Rest” and the other to “Pompies Kraal”. Both of these had the potential of leading deep into the Cederberg but unfortunately, both were closed.
This was where the fun stopped and it was tar all the way back home.
We stopped at the base of Mitchells pass for another drink and some more ice. Gees it was hot. Then headed home via Bains.
A great day.
Thanks to Fearless Frikkie and Loki_CPT for the great company, and HONDA Tygervalley for lending me an absolutely awesome bike – I think I’m in love..
Ps, although the road was very tamed I had no stress or inflammation in my right wrist after the trip. I could even hold a cup of coffee when I got home. I would like to take the DCT on a bit more challenging trail (dotted line type stuff) if I get the opportunity and see how my right wrist holds up. Keeping in mind that half my right wrist is already removed and completely misaligned (compliments of a read bike some 35 years ago).
I had to get all my creature comforts on the bike and spent the week before testing my old Autocom system and refitting some components. and revived my Zumo 550. I found my old Mapsource CD and had to load that on my laptop (no cd or dvd drive) to do some route planning. I still had all the tracks of the trails and routes I did in the past. Browsed through those and compiled about four routes ranging from hectic to serious dotted line stuff. I settled for the 450km noob route.
Fitted my trusty Aurtocom and Zumo 550 (loaded with 800 hard rock songs) and installed my prosthetic grip the day before. There was no need for a hydraulic mod as the DCT is FULLY AUTOMATIC - Freaking amazing (sport 3 works best ). All the mods took just more than an hour. So Wednesday I met up with Fearless Frikkie and Loki_CPT at the Durbanville Caltex.
Straight off the bat, I got lost. I asked “Cow” to recalculate a route and she screwed it up completely. This along with the fact that CTCC tared some of the dirt roads in the area and Escom removed their wind turbines in the past five years did not help and I missed another turn.
We finally connected with the dirt tracks of the R45 and made our way to Malmesbury via Jakkalsfontein and Moerasfontein. I missed another turn but turned back to the dirt highway to Moreesburg. As I was riding like an old lady I decided to go directly to Piketberg on tar as I was keen to get to the Goedverwag dirt pass. By the time I got there I was feeling a bit more comfortable on the DCT and started to understand the gearbox.
Let me explain for those that do not know me or the DCT. All my other bikes I had to refit the clutch on the right grip. There I had throttle, front brake and clutch. A lot of stuff to manage. The DCT is a dual clutch gearbox and is fully automatic. The bike does not even come with a gear lever on the left foot – nada, nothing. It has four settings – Drive (boring), Sport (mmm), Sport 2 (better) and Sport 3 (why anything else). On top of that, there is a Gravel mapping that changes these up even more. ABS and Traction Control can be disabled in varying stages as you prefer. You do NOT have to stop to do any of these.
Needless to say, Goedverwag pass was a breeze. From there it was tar all the way down and headed to Piekeniers or at least Grey's Pass to be accurate. The dirt pass was built by Thomas Bain and he named it after Sir George Grey (1858). Prior to the construction of this pass, travellers had to travel up the mountain with oxen and wagons. They often had to unload these, dismantle the wagons, cart the payload and the wagon pieces on the backs of oxen, reassemble the wagon on the plateau and then continue their trip. Ref-The Romance of the Cape Mountain Passes by Graham Ross. This is the dirt pass you see on the left travelling North claiming and on the Right descending to Citrusdal.
The pass was marked closed, so Fearless Frikkie and I chose the new tar pass. Loki_CPT, on the other hand, scouted ahead. Reaching the top, I could not help myself and travelled down the pass, meeting Loki_CPT halfway on his second trip up. He had gone back to look for us.
In Citrusdal we stopped for a quick bite to eat and get some ice into my armour. It was 43c.
From here we continued to Middelberg pass and to look at the Elandskloof track. There was an old wagon trail before Middelberg pass was built. The locals don’t seem to agree but I still need to go have a close look at some point.
The Western side of Middelberg was badly rutted but the Eastern side a lot better. I tried to scout two other tracks before heading to Ceres. One track leading to “Pilgrims Rest” and the other to “Pompies Kraal”. Both of these had the potential of leading deep into the Cederberg but unfortunately, both were closed.
This was where the fun stopped and it was tar all the way back home.
We stopped at the base of Mitchells pass for another drink and some more ice. Gees it was hot. Then headed home via Bains.
A great day.
Thanks to Fearless Frikkie and Loki_CPT for the great company, and HONDA Tygervalley for lending me an absolutely awesome bike – I think I’m in love..
Ps, although the road was very tamed I had no stress or inflammation in my right wrist after the trip. I could even hold a cup of coffee when I got home. I would like to take the DCT on a bit more challenging trail (dotted line type stuff) if I get the opportunity and see how my right wrist holds up. Keeping in mind that half my right wrist is already removed and completely misaligned (compliments of a read bike some 35 years ago).
