October Karoo run

[Pleco]

It was time for a weekend trip again, and I decided to try and keep this one "rustig", so that we can take some pillions with.

Citrusdal, Clanwilliam, Calvinia, Keikies, Ganagga, Tankwa, Katbakkies, Ceres and back home.

We had the usual suspects: Krag Kris with Liewe Heksie as Pillion on a 1000 Vstrom, Geoff on a Wee Strom, Monkey Boy on his F800, Shaun on his 1100GS, Roost and Teach on the Eishpee, and Rubicon and I on the KLR.

It was time to start early for a change, and we aimed to leave at 7h00 from the Engen on the N7. We eventually got away at about 7h30, and had an almost uneventful trip to Piketberg for breakfast.

Roost getting reprimanded for not wearing his safety belt

Having breakfast at the Piketberg Spur. Roost on the left and Rubicon looking splendid in pink.

Roost and Teach, with Roost showing the "brace position". This position is needed to stay on the eishpee at 200 plus!

Going up Piekeniers

Shaun in Citrusdal.

From Citrusdal, we took the gravel road to Clanwilliam on the east side of the river. This was a pleasant change of scenery from the busy N7.

 

[BEN TAP]

lyk lekker gooi jou fotos

 

[Pleco]

This was the first trip where I could use my new Drift helmet cam, so most of the pics were taken from the video clips.

The drift gives you some different angles to work with. I will post the proper pics as I get then in from the rest of the group.

Here are some interesting ones.



Roost with Teach on top, ag I mean Teach in front, or is that now Teach in control. Not bad for a girl's first run. Lifting on an eishpee down the Tankwa. I was also riding pillion at that time. Very interesting. Respect to the pillions out there.

Sitting at the back has its advantages though. It leaves your hands free to roam!  :biggrin: :biggrin:. That is to take video with the camera in your hands.

Krag Kris and Liewe Heksie:

The trusty KLR:

To be continued..

 

[DRAZIL]

I will be traveling the east side of clan william dam on Thursday 13th from the oasis.The road looks great,thanks.
:thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[Pleco]

I will be traveling the east side of clan william dam on Thursday 13th from the oasis.The road looks great,thanks.
:thumleft: :thumleft:

Few blind corners, watch out for oncoming cars, otherwise nice to ride.

 

[Frannarossi]

Cool foudies :thumleft:

 

[DRAZIL]

I will be traveling the east side of clan william dam on Thursday 13th from the oasis.The road looks great,thanks.
:thumleft: :thumleft:

Few blind corners, watch out for oncoming cars, otherwise nice to ride.

:thumleft:

 

[Pleco]

Clanwilliam fuel stop.

Up Pakhuis pass.

Top of Pakhuis pass.

Dropping down into the Karoo.

The sign says it all.

Top of Botterberg pass.

That HP2 looks small, until you want to get on it. Teach having a break.

Krag Kris and Liewe Heksie.

They almost had a serious off on the road after Botterberg pass. They hit a pothole, and the Vstrom's centre stand connected the opposite wall with a huge bang. This slammed the rear wheel about a meter into air, and sideways  . I just saw the wheel go up, and Liewe Heksie riding on KK's neck, and then just dust. I thought here we go, serious off when they popped out of the dust cloud on the other side. KK sure knows how to handle the bike. He rode on the front wheel for abou 10 meters, and then handled the bike when the wheel came down sideways. All of this with Liewe Heksie hanging on around his neck for dear life!  :ricky:

KLR fully loaded. (R300 for soft luggage :biggrin

Geoffrey.

Shaun taking a stroll.

 

[Pleco]

Calvinia B&B where we stayed. R450 per couple incl Breakfast.

Back yard with ample parking.

Inside.

Breakfast.

Krag Kris en Liewe Heksie. (Krag Kris lyk of hy die son met klippe wil gooi!)

Teach met n headlock. As sy geweet het wat kom, dan sou sy n beter job gedoen het.

 

[Pleco]

Some of the Panorama pics from Roost.

Road to Keiskie pass.

HP in its element.

Top of Keiskie, looking back towards Calvinia.

Between Keiskie and Ganagga, there was still some flowers open.

Top of Ganagga.

 

[XTJoe]

Nice, cool HP2

 

[Kykdaar]

Lekker Pleco :thumleft:

 

[Bashplate]

Dankie  :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[ROOST]

Apart from the road pleco planned for us to take, the rest was very much unplanned... and i liked it that way! Head off into nowhere going slowly! Thanks pleco!!  :thumleft:

 

[Pleco]

On the Keiskie road we still found some flowers.

Liewe Heksie.

Roost and Teach having a snooze.

Liewe Heksie and Shaun

Beauty and the beast. (if anybody else calls Rubicon beast, there will be trouble!)

Teach on the Eishpee.

Monkey Boy.

The Stig! (AKA Geoffrey)

We had some trouble as well. The Eishpee tried its best to shed the exhaust. We had running repairs all
the way to the bottom of Katbakkies, where Paul eventually admitted he had some BM tools stashed away.
Ag No, not again!

 

[Pleco]

We eventually got to Ganagga. The Keiskie road was quite washed away, and had a lot of surprises. This forced us to keep the speeds down.

Geoff had a bit of a fall, but only damaged the bike a little, although the Wee Stroms parts are apparently not so cheap.

Top of Ganagga.

The road clears up nicely as you go through the Tankwa, and we decided to give the girls a chance to ride.

Rubicon can ride, but it still took me quite a while to relax on the back! This was the first for Teach though.
Roost was brave, but judging by Teach's expression, she was even more scared. Not bad for a first ride,
Eishpee with pillion!

Some pics down in the Tankwa.

Up next, some serious racing through the Katbakkies rd.  :ricky: :ricky: :ricky: :ricky:

 

[Pleco]

The Katbakkies road. 35km Full of twists and turns, tar and gravel, bumps and jumps.

We rode from right to left.

Roost, with Teach on the back, gave us all a head start. Me, about 5mins, with everybody else following at "out of the dust" intervals. Rubicon and I had a serious slide at the top of the first tar section. It was a blind corner, and I ran wide to see. We hit the loose gravel on the outside of the turn, and broadsided around on the edge of the road. We stayed upright with some quick reflexes, and a lot of luck!

Roost had the camera strapped on, and passed us all with the first few clicks. From there on it became a crazy ride.

He finished, and waited for us. With the camera running, I could get the times. Roost with Pillion ran it in 23 mins!   . Monkey boy 3 mins more, Geoff 6 mins more and Shaun 14 mins more.

Krag Kris and I brought up the rear with a time of 43 and 44 mins each. And I was not really holding back.

I am condensing Roost's video a bit, but will try and post. Sorry, had to cut out quite a bit. Still 150mb to upload. At least Youtube condenses it again. Sorry for the wind noise at stages.

[flash=480,385]https://www.youtube.com/v/cqJUk2sZDPw[/flash]

 

[Bashplate]

:happy1:  :thumleft:

 

[Swart Baard]

Awesome  :thumleft:

 

[Pleco]

Video added above.