Old mill drift 4x4 route near Lesotho border (with 1200GS and Super tenere)

[m0lt3n]

Good day all.

I love reading ride reports so thought I will try my hand at it as well. And of course to share it with my buddies to motivate them onto adventure biking if I can. My wife will probably want to read it as well so expect some edits as my engelash gets corrected...

I read a thread where the guys were planning this route and immediately thought I am going there, so why not...how bad can it be...well it turned out very bad and I shouldnt be so cocky  :

We planned a family get together in clarens on the bikes. My brother (and wife) on a triumph sprint ST and my mother and father-in-law (oom Aubrey) on a super tenere they bought not to long ago. Me and my wife will be on my GS1200.
I have limited riding experience (1 year on a bike, mostly tar) but did do a DP1 course which I think helped. Aubrey has massive experience but mostly on Harleys and even less gravel experience than I have. They recently did a tour on the Harley but got to frustrated that he had to pass all the nice gravel turnoffs like baviaans and such. I have had my GS now or 4months and he his S10 for a month less.

So we all grabbed the long weekend as an opportunity to ride!!!
My brother from Durban, Aubrey from Kimberley and myself from Thabazimbi. Pics of the packed bikes.

 

[m0lt3n]

On that stupid orange cover of mine!! that thing has fallen of so many times it was getting very frustrating. it finally fell of for the last time! I just hope I rode over it as well!

My wife couldnt get off from work very early so we left from Thabazimbi at 3pm and arrived in Fouriesburg where we were staying at 10pm. Pretty cold (temps as low as -3) but we had decent gear. Cold was the name of the game for the weekend though.
I was told to sleep over en-route but really wanted to do the 4x4 trip, so thought my best chance would be to go ride through and do the trail Saturday, quick quick. That off course turned out to be overly oportunistic...

We left for the trail at 9h30 saturday morning with high spirits. I was warned that the bikes were to big and Anakees not suited but how bad could it be right! The trail turnoff was 20km out of town, then you go on a winding tar road for another 5 of 10km before the gravel starts (first pic). We stopped and deflated to 1.5bar as we knew the Anakees were going to need all the help they could get...

At first the gravel was very nice, here and there a little technical but not much. We could see the Lesotho huts on the opposite side of the river and it looked very calming. There were a few rough patches but not to much. i can remember thinking that this would be a nice route with pillion. But then it got tougher...

 

[Losper]

Keep em coming, Molt3n  :thumleft:

 

[Pom17]

:sip:

 

[m0lt3n]

We like pics right? right

We were really ill prepared with no maps, and I soon found out my water bottle also fell off the bike. stupid. At the first fork we followed a sign saying 4x4 route to right...easy! and then we came to a gate where some friendly locals showed us its the correct way we can pass through their yard. They even opened the gates for us (pic 1).  Then soon after it got tough with a bang. a lekker long rocky uphill with a step near the top. And there I fell for the first time. But falling was soon not even funny anymore...

I first had a go, but we soon saw we were going to have to pack some rocks to get over the step. Still ended up very winded from fighting and rocking the bikes out there. It was also on this incline that Aubrey fell and slightly sprained his ankle. He randomly borrowed a pair of MX boots to see if he can manage with them. Well, the bike fell on the boot and there would have been a conciderable amount of more damage to the ankle had he rode with his normal (Harley  O0 ) boots. The sprain did hurt, and to prevent him stepping solid on it on a difficult patch I was had to take his bike through some of the difficult patches as well. I did not know it can be so massively tiring!!! Eish!!

Well, this difficult rocky incline was soon repeated by more and we were just getting more and more tired. But still positive we were on an adventure remember! But you can only fall and battle so much...soon we were not in the highest of spirits anymore...


I now understand why people say pics dont do it justice...it just doesnt. wIt was very steep and the rocks very large and the pics just doesnt show it. Excuses I know but we truely believe it would have been tough for an experienced rider as well and it not just our noob-ness making it worse. Here is some more pics...

 

[Dwerg]

:sip:

 

[Mark Hardy]

:sip: this should be good

 

[m0lt3n]

My take on the bikes before I continue:

I think this is more technical than what either bike is meant to do. There was many pieces where we struggled our ass off and got stuck between big rocks. But I do think the GS was better suited than the Sten in this case. I know most reviews rate the Sten better at offroad, but I dont think they mean this...
Dont get me wrong, I think the Sten is a brilliant bike and underrated and generally I get frustrated when people bash other brands in favour of BMW as there is just to many people BMW okes living in a propeller shapped bubble and refuse to give credit where credit is due...but in this case my credits goes to BMW and this is why...

The BMW with it horizontally opposed pistons picks-up easier after a tumble  :biggrin:
but seriously, the Sten is heavier and lies flatter. I was exercising my squats fully between the two bikes and really do think now that the piston setup is an advanteage. I always thought they will restrict ground clearance and stuff but did not experience issues with that. Then also the linked brakes of the BMW. When you stall or lose traction completely at an incline and need to stop you can just grab a hand-full of front brake with the Beemer and the rear will brake as well. In these situations you cant have a foot on the rear brake so I had to learn to stall or cut the engine on the Sten quick quick to use the clutch as a brake. And then you go downhill....you brake with the clutch until you get a gap to stand and start the bike, now suddenly the clutch functions to accelerate and not break you. A lot to learn and adapt to for a noob but we were quick learners. had to be...

THen there was also the lower down torque of the Beemer which was handy. The Sten on the other hand felt stronger than the Beemer when you get it to 3k rpm. Some clutch slipping on both bikes at 3k rpm and they just monstered over and through everything! The Sten also had a lovely growl when you get it going, and that with a standard eqaust which was fitted for this trip.

The Sten had the Rombux crashbars fitted, those are awesome! they took some hard shots! It has a 3mm solid bash plate and that ended up with a solid dent. I dont think my meagre (dont know what brand) bashplate would have survived. here is some more random pics. I dont have pics of the damage on the bikes though. Maybe I will post that later.

 

[JonW]

Well done m0lt3n

Enjoying your Ride Report and the great pics.

Hope the bikes and your bodies are not too badly damaged after your trip.

You are a braver man than I to attempt this route on those big bikes.

 

[m0lt3n]

So back to the route...
It got worse of course  :'(

We soldiered on! Oom Aubrey is not in his teens anymore (no offense oom!) and myself havent done much exercising lately so we were realy getting tired. Once when I was walking back to get Aubrey's bike my inner fore arms started to burn...due to just the mass of the helmet!!

We were getting worried as it was getting worse and worse, so tried to check coordinates on the gps (no maps for africa, which I will definitely be making sure I have if ever I do something like this again!).. It didnt help much and we kept on hoping that just around the next corner there will be light...

We stopped at a particularly steep incline, not rocky but dongas washed out. There a friendly local sheepherder approached us. With him not being able to speak english or afrikaans it was difficult...but we did learn that the road we were on was near its end...we had missed the turnoff and were doing some unnecessarily tough pieces. And we were allready tired, hungry and it was getting late. We were progressing very slowly...

I decided to go ahead and just check whats on top. Almost got to the top..stopped and walked to see whats around the next corner...no hope. So I had to turn my bike around on that massive incline! Hell I didnt think this through. Halfway through my U-turn and I fell! Shit I was negative there! I broke my mirror and indicator (saw indicator was broken later). And this minutes after we were telling each other we should have taken the mirrors of but was to stupid/lazy to do it!

I wasnt feeling very happy with myself then. I felt bad for the damage I caused to my pride-and-joy bike. I felt bad for talking Aubrey into this situation and the damage to his bike and then on top of that I realized then we had to turn around! We had failed!! Going back over thos rocks would not be to easy!

Well we turned around, nothing else to do. Luckily Aubrey was like a racing horse that was turned towards its stalls! I had trouble keeping up at times. The return ended up going a lot faster. We did have a tumble or two, but progress was good. you just stand at those crazy rock declines and hope for the best! The steps we already packed with rocks so no need to stop there. I think we returned in two hours where it took us 6 hours to get to that point.

Sorry guys, no pics of these more difficult pieces, we were just to gatvol at that time! Here is some random pics...

 

[m0lt3n]

thanks for the positive feedback guys. Its nice to know that sharing my experience is also read (and enjoyed hopefully) by others

 

[Geel Hond]

:sip:

 

[Dakota]

Very brave on those bikes.. I went over on a DRZ400.

:thumleft:

 

[m0lt3n]

Okay, so we got home just as the sun was setting. It was cold the whole day but going slow and working hard it wasnt an issue. Going home and doing 100kmph (didnt reinflate tyres) it was freezing! bike temp was at 2degrees the whole day almost but going back eish!

Well it was tough, we were tired but we did enjoy it. Aubrey says he wont be doing it again, me on the other hand.... (remember my wife will read this!)

Oh yes on the anakees...me and Aubrey differ on that. I know they are useless in mud and sand and such but I dont think knobbleys would have done so much better. The issues we had we were spinning rocks out. A knobbley would have done the same. SO I think the advantage to be had with a knobbley would have been average. But then, we both do tar riding just about all the time. That Sten is also a brilliant cruiser with very good wind protection and good consumption. Eats up the kilos.

Well, Sunday we did the Clarens thing and I must say I really love these bikes!! We did 550km Friday, cruising and perfectly fine. Then we did a serious (for us) technical dirt piece Saturday, and the bike managed, took some knocks and were still going...and then we went and did some highway twisteys! With enough performance to still enjoy that. Granted I am not used to a superbike and wont ever enjoy one. But I could fling my bike with pillion through the corners just as well/if not better than my brother's Triumph.

I really enjoyed a nice dash through golden gate and got the tyre nice and worked/black right up to a cenimtre of the edge  ;D ;D. Also had a running start race against the Triumph, and while loosing convincingly, I still had a blast and surprised him by not losing too far  ;D

Monday we took the road back home, see pic with a model licking my ear at the BP!!
All in all, very enjoyable weekend. I have to go and do my license Thursday and as I am comfortable on my bike will need to get it repaired as soon as possible. Mirror and indicator will be R1400. Then I will also need to repaint my crashbars...then the bike is better than ever again. The crashbars needed a paint in anyhow.

And that was my weekend... (Triumph looks good in red dont you think!)

Oh yes...You should have seen the looks my bike got in Clarens...not good ones. It got a lot of attention, more than the other two bikes, but everyone was shaking their heads and if I would have been near them I swear I wouldve heard TST TSK for the damage and dirt on the bike!

Some more random pics. I like the paw thats only visible when reflecting on my helmet. I want to put more on my topbox but my wife is not very fond of stickers on vehicles...

 

[Aubrey]

:sip: What a great trip. Rode the S10 in T mode most of the time as the S mode had to much grunt. The throttle response in sport mode was to sharp. Yamaha informed me that the S10 has a computerized linked system which is the best in the market. I found that on a rocky decline it tends to run away leaving wet spots where you don't want them so I turned it off. (Modification).

Think we where out of our depth a bit but at least we got home in one piece... (Apart from the sprain which was hell riding with)

We have a beautiful country... Explore it on a adventure bike..... But keep it safe and plan well beforehand.

 

[T Rex]

Thanks for the RR , you showed us it can be done. I agree with you on the fact that the GS picks up easier than the S10.

:thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[KTM11]

Thanks for the RR .... we are planning to do this route sometime later this year, I think my KTM 690 might be a little better suited to the terrain than the bigger BMW /S10 combo.

Well done for giving it a go !!!

 

[tinusvdb]

Did your brother arrive in Clarens just after dark on Friday ? I saw that bike on the way to Clarens and a couple of times this weekend. Towed up my GS for the weekend, some lekker roads up there!!

 

[PEET WEET]

Oh yes on the anakees...me and Aubrey differ on that. I know they are useless in mud and sand and such but I dont think knobbleys would have done so much better. The issues we had we were spinning rocks out. A knobbley would have done the same

Cant agree with you more !!!!!!!!!!

Very nice report..........You speak very true words here on this thread

 

[m0lt3n]

Did your brother arrive in Clarens just after dark on Friday ? I saw that bike on the way to Clarens and a couple of times this weekend. Towed up my GS for the weekend, some lekker roads up there!!

Hey Tinus. Ek neem aan dit is nie wat die blou Beast gewoond is nie? (Moet maar nie se as dit is nie!)
Jap, hy het so net na donker se kant gearriveer. Hy like nogal sy bike, baie gemakliker op die oop pad as die oranje Versys wat hy gehad het. Hy kort net n aerotrim of iets vir die wind volgens hom.