DouglasN
Race Dog
- Joined
- May 22, 2013
- Messages
- 915
- Reaction score
- 43
- Location
- Benoni, Gauteng
- Bike
- Triumph (all models)
There and back to see how far it was.
Not quite a DS report....
Ah well, Jenni & I had been looking to do a trip over the Christmas / New year period, first prize was a drive in the Landrover through the Northern cape and then the West Coast then back up through the inland areas of the Western & Eastern Cape and then the Eastern Free State but work and hail interfered, so we decided to just go for a little ride on the Triumph (Tiger 1050) instead.
It started with a overnight Triumph RAT run organised by Holeshot Motorcycles to a guesthouse called Oban, just outside Van Reenen. We decided to kinda just keep going after that.....
So with the Bike serviced, prepped, new chain & sprockets etc
DAY 1:
Sat 28 Dec, departure day dawns and we have an early meet at Holeshot, introduce everybody to everybody, 5 couples on 5 bikes, 3 800XC's, 1 Tiger 1050, 1 Tiger 1050 sport. We discussed the route and after giving out directions and maps, we were off,
Ready to go at Holeshot
The route for the day was Boksburg start, R23 to Heidelburg, the R23 past Balfour and Greylingstad to Standerton, breakfast & fuel stop, Vrede, Memel, Coffee break, Newcastle, Ladysmith, Petrol, R103 to the Tugela Toll Plaza then onto the N3 and up Van Reenen's pass to The Green lantern for and end of day beer and then 5km down the road to Oban.
As you take the the R23 from Heidelberg towards balfour, there is a very short stretch of roadworks with a stop & go, very quick & the road is good, from there past Balfour to Greylingstad is a very nice piece of road, at Greylingstad, as you go around the town, there are roadworks with a big stop & go, you can wait 15min there. After that the road is not bad again, it has been graded a bit to take the middlemannetjie and ridges out but it is good to ride, at the turnoff to the little village of Val, the roadworks start again and it is continuos roadworks, stop & gos and VROT roads from there to Standerton. I lost both my headlight protectors on this road after whacking a couple of serious gaatjies. We had 4 police stop points in the last 10km into Standerton, 2 were speed traps, no we were not stopped.
The village of val has a little hotel and they do a breakfast that is popular with bikers, a buffet job, personally I don't thinl it is particularly good value when compared to places like Amazingwe for instance but it is a nice ride and a quaint little place to visit, just dont go via Delmas, that road id VROT.
Standerton Breakfast & Fuel stop
From Standerton we took the R546 to Vrede and it is very scenic and not a bad road at Vrede we took the R34 to Memel. This is also a scenic road. There has been some work done on it but the last 15/20km coming in to Memel is potholed. At Mememl we stopped at The Wild Hog for coffee and a s usual were well looked after. We also met a couple on a KTM (Ken & Melanie) who were having a drive around and after chatting somewhat and sharing routes etc, he said he would see us on the road later.
Then....
My embarrassing moment of the day.. I was gifted a centre stand for the Tiger by Jenni for christmas and am still getting used to it, so of course, when I parked I ussed the stand and when we were getting ready to leave, I jump on the bike, stand up and rock the bike off the stand, All good so far, then i put my foot down to balance and wham, I am on the ground squashed between my Tiger and the 800 next to me, my leg is stuck under the bike and my knee, ankle and toes are all pointing in different direction with the accompanimemt of much pain.
my jeans or something had hooked on the footpeg or gearlever and, of course, no balance thereafter, and grondtoe, is the only way.
Anyway, once everybody stopped laughing they picked up the Tiger, then me and once I checked that nothing was properly damaged we were on our way again.. I must say however that I definetly think that my boots prevented a broken ankle.
The Wild Hog, Memel, where I moered over.
From Memel we carried on on the R34 to Botha's Pass and Newcastle, the road to Botha's pass is quite frankly, unpleasant, but at the start of the pass, it is all brand new tar and from there to Newcastle is good.
From Newcastle we took the N11 to Ladysmith. Again mostly good road, nice scenery and then you get to the R68 turnoff to Glencoe, we should have taken it! Frik, really crappy roadworks, detours, SLAAGGATE and speedbumps and every speedbump is a different size and shape and this goes on for about 15km before it sorts itself out and the road is good again.
In Ladysmith we fueled up and took the R103 up towrds Van Reenen it joins the N3 at the Tugela Toll plaza and we then scooted up Van reenen's being very glad for the guy who was already getting a ticket halfway up as he distracted the nice police officer...
At the top, we turned off and stopped in at the Green Lantern to clean our throats. and then it started to rain, the whole day so far had been magnificent weather for riding and the last 5 kms turned out to be wet on the only gravel for the day!
A little aside here, the guy behind me coming up Van Reenens says to me he was watching my riding style and that he notices my feet kinda stick out a little and he was worried I was going to scrape them in the corners and we were getting a little low... but then he says, he sees when i go low i kinda tuck in and all is good, but he was so busy watching me, he dinged his foot into the ground in the corner! Go figure!! LOL
The day is done, The Green Lantern, Van Reenen.
So day one was Holeshot to Standerton 153km, Standerton to Ladysmith 264km, Ladysmith to Oban (Van Reenen) 62km a total of 479km and at all the fillups, fuel consumption was averaging 20/22km/L across the board.
Not quite a DS report....
Ah well, Jenni & I had been looking to do a trip over the Christmas / New year period, first prize was a drive in the Landrover through the Northern cape and then the West Coast then back up through the inland areas of the Western & Eastern Cape and then the Eastern Free State but work and hail interfered, so we decided to just go for a little ride on the Triumph (Tiger 1050) instead.
It started with a overnight Triumph RAT run organised by Holeshot Motorcycles to a guesthouse called Oban, just outside Van Reenen. We decided to kinda just keep going after that.....
So with the Bike serviced, prepped, new chain & sprockets etc
DAY 1:
Sat 28 Dec, departure day dawns and we have an early meet at Holeshot, introduce everybody to everybody, 5 couples on 5 bikes, 3 800XC's, 1 Tiger 1050, 1 Tiger 1050 sport. We discussed the route and after giving out directions and maps, we were off,
Ready to go at Holeshot
The route for the day was Boksburg start, R23 to Heidelburg, the R23 past Balfour and Greylingstad to Standerton, breakfast & fuel stop, Vrede, Memel, Coffee break, Newcastle, Ladysmith, Petrol, R103 to the Tugela Toll Plaza then onto the N3 and up Van Reenen's pass to The Green lantern for and end of day beer and then 5km down the road to Oban.
As you take the the R23 from Heidelberg towards balfour, there is a very short stretch of roadworks with a stop & go, very quick & the road is good, from there past Balfour to Greylingstad is a very nice piece of road, at Greylingstad, as you go around the town, there are roadworks with a big stop & go, you can wait 15min there. After that the road is not bad again, it has been graded a bit to take the middlemannetjie and ridges out but it is good to ride, at the turnoff to the little village of Val, the roadworks start again and it is continuos roadworks, stop & gos and VROT roads from there to Standerton. I lost both my headlight protectors on this road after whacking a couple of serious gaatjies. We had 4 police stop points in the last 10km into Standerton, 2 were speed traps, no we were not stopped.
The village of val has a little hotel and they do a breakfast that is popular with bikers, a buffet job, personally I don't thinl it is particularly good value when compared to places like Amazingwe for instance but it is a nice ride and a quaint little place to visit, just dont go via Delmas, that road id VROT.
Standerton Breakfast & Fuel stop
From Standerton we took the R546 to Vrede and it is very scenic and not a bad road at Vrede we took the R34 to Memel. This is also a scenic road. There has been some work done on it but the last 15/20km coming in to Memel is potholed. At Mememl we stopped at The Wild Hog for coffee and a s usual were well looked after. We also met a couple on a KTM (Ken & Melanie) who were having a drive around and after chatting somewhat and sharing routes etc, he said he would see us on the road later.
Then....
My embarrassing moment of the day.. I was gifted a centre stand for the Tiger by Jenni for christmas and am still getting used to it, so of course, when I parked I ussed the stand and when we were getting ready to leave, I jump on the bike, stand up and rock the bike off the stand, All good so far, then i put my foot down to balance and wham, I am on the ground squashed between my Tiger and the 800 next to me, my leg is stuck under the bike and my knee, ankle and toes are all pointing in different direction with the accompanimemt of much pain.
my jeans or something had hooked on the footpeg or gearlever and, of course, no balance thereafter, and grondtoe, is the only way.
Anyway, once everybody stopped laughing they picked up the Tiger, then me and once I checked that nothing was properly damaged we were on our way again.. I must say however that I definetly think that my boots prevented a broken ankle.
The Wild Hog, Memel, where I moered over.
From Memel we carried on on the R34 to Botha's Pass and Newcastle, the road to Botha's pass is quite frankly, unpleasant, but at the start of the pass, it is all brand new tar and from there to Newcastle is good.
From Newcastle we took the N11 to Ladysmith. Again mostly good road, nice scenery and then you get to the R68 turnoff to Glencoe, we should have taken it! Frik, really crappy roadworks, detours, SLAAGGATE and speedbumps and every speedbump is a different size and shape and this goes on for about 15km before it sorts itself out and the road is good again.
In Ladysmith we fueled up and took the R103 up towrds Van Reenen it joins the N3 at the Tugela Toll plaza and we then scooted up Van reenen's being very glad for the guy who was already getting a ticket halfway up as he distracted the nice police officer...
At the top, we turned off and stopped in at the Green Lantern to clean our throats. and then it started to rain, the whole day so far had been magnificent weather for riding and the last 5 kms turned out to be wet on the only gravel for the day!
A little aside here, the guy behind me coming up Van Reenens says to me he was watching my riding style and that he notices my feet kinda stick out a little and he was worried I was going to scrape them in the corners and we were getting a little low... but then he says, he sees when i go low i kinda tuck in and all is good, but he was so busy watching me, he dinged his foot into the ground in the corner! Go figure!! LOL
The day is done, The Green Lantern, Van Reenen.
So day one was Holeshot to Standerton 153km, Standerton to Ladysmith 264km, Ladysmith to Oban (Van Reenen) 62km a total of 479km and at all the fillups, fuel consumption was averaging 20/22km/L across the board.
