- Joined
- Feb 6, 2006
- Messages
- 12,141
- Reaction score
- 5,579
- Location
- Cape Town, deep in the lentils
- Bike
- KTM 990 Adventure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8MCBHstj8k
That morning started with Phillip and I having a bit more of a conversation about how we were going to play the game. What made the whole thing tricky was that although we were told that everything was going to be rated, we were not told what “everything” was. They kept on about being a “True Adventurer”, but what that actually was wasn’t easily defined. I felt that to be competitive we needed to collaborate with the rest, stay alert, show initiative, have a good attitude, be helpful, care for fellow competitors, care for the bike and lastly riding skill. Also, I was sure they were going to keep a sharp eye on the dynamics between the team members.
To this end and to aid getting us in this short time onto the same page, I shared with Phillip a personality test called the Enneagram. It is a system that helps work out the motivations of people that then drive behaviours. Unsurprisingly, we were absolute opposites, but for both of us it instantly gave a better connection and shortened the “get to know you” time. It was also helpful to chat about how we are going to disagree with each other.
All this took place over the span of the day as we were given times to have things done or to be somewhere and there wasn’t much time to bugger around. We had a confirmation of this when we were told to load the Iveco at a certain time. Stoffel had his phone out and 1 minute past the deadline was taking notes on who wasn’t there. Phil and I caught each other’s eyes right there. Though we weren’t then, we made sure we were never going to be late for anything from then on.
Lunch… winegums became a staple part of it. (I miss them, strangely!)
All new and nervous
Ok, not so nervous
This being the first morning briefing, John had suggested that because of the group size of the option for the teams to ride shoulder to shoulder was open. It’s not an often described technique that helps riders stay out of the dust and halves the distance that groups take up. It takes some skill and loads of trust between partners. I know many who’ve refused to do it unless they know their partner well. It works like this;
The guy on the left sets the pace and is mostly responsible for setting the dust gap. He rides mostly on the left side of the road but isn’t confined to it. If things get hairy or the track demands it, he can come over to a better line but then would shift back to the left. The Guy on the right is responsible for the safety of the unit. His primary task is to anticipate the needs of the road and rider on the left and to keep them as a pair safe. On shittier parts, blind rises and right hand or blind turns he drops back from the shoulder position to a spot that is still within the mirrors of the guy on the left but just ahead and out of the dust and stone roost. This enables the left hand guy to choose his line. It also keeps both safe with oncoming traffic.
It takes some time to learn a riders idiosyncrasies and for a safe rhythm to form. It can be a joy when it “clicks”.
He also put a lot of emphasis on being responsible for the guys behind. The shoulder thing was optional and only going to lose points if practiced unsafely, the keeping the guys behind thing was mandatory and going to be a lot more carefully looked at.
Tell me you wouldn’t take life a little more seriously if this was talking at you?
See….
I was not feeling so confident, that’s a nervous smile, I needed the valves in the lower end of my body to man up and do their thing
So, it wasn’t long and we were off. It felt very awkward. Understandably, the pairs were being super alert for the guys behind and neither the pairs nor the group had found a rhythm. Any little slow down resulted in the pair in front slowing or even stopping to check and then this would result in a massive concertina effect that took tens of kilometres to get the spacing right again. I just kept humming to myself, “Oh mani pani hummmm, it’s worth an African Twin”
One of the better gaps
Riding in dust used to do my head in… Badly! Apart from the safety aspect, it screws with my mechanical sympathies. At first when I started adventure riding, I would either blitz ahead or stop and wait 10 minutes. But if you can take the wind and general direction of travel into account along with the pace that the group is moving at, then it is possible to have a reasonably pleasant experience.
But, I’m also not easily capable of rambling along on dirt – I tend to ride quick but safe and generally find myself at the sharp end of groups. I get bored quickly and love getting into a groove with other like-minded individuals that often doesn’t make for great tyre wear but gets places quicker.
Jaco, who was sweeping, was experiencing the net effects of the concertina. His input about this at one of the first stops was a great bit of input but had an unintended consequence; we all got more nervous about losing points and so just put up with smaller dust gaps. “omani padni....”
I’d started on the right for that first bit so we swapped after the break. That morning apart from the excitement of being on this massive adventure, it wasn’t the most pleasant ride. The road wasn’t that spectacular and it was a crap surface for the first few hours so it was mostly hours of dust dodging and very little scenery viewing. But, this wasn’t any ordinary ride, I was enjoying the fun of watching others and of course myself and wondering how this was all going to play out?
Phillip clearly wasn’t used to this shoulder to shoulder thing from the right hand side, he was either suffering in the dust or riding in spots that I couldn’t see him no matter what I did with my mirrors. Also what was playing on his mind was, not being that comfortable on sand, the times he would have to float across the middlemannetjie wasn’t good for him. At the petrol stop, we had a conflab. We resolved that being more comfortable in sand, I’d stay on the right, but also that he was free to pick his lines as he wanted as that was my job to stay out of his way. That’s how it stayed for the rest of the trip. I think in the beginning he must have thought I was nuts, because I enjoy trying to stay on the middlemannetije or the graded bits on the side for fun. It can get a bit squirrely but is great practice.
Anyway, Uis came up and so did Bazil!
He was this lovely friendly larger than life guy who pitched up on a characterful original that Honda might want to put in their museum. He knew all about us and was good naturedly pissed off that he’d not been chosen even though he’d written in.
The group was still clearly a little new, but the pace was creeping up and less time was spent being squeezed by the concertina.
Then it was comedy hour…
Climbing up some pass we came across some stranded tourists, they’d ruined their original and now flatted the spare. This part of the world was super hardcore, but luckily a cold front was coming through so the temperature was only about 40! Picture it, 20 super helpful biker types (who are probably being scored on their helpfulless!), combined with 16 super responsible 4x4 types trying to impress these foreigners. It was a case of too many cooks for not enough jobs. You know what happens then, everyone was chirpy and the comments were coming thick and fast.
Jaco had hogged the prime job,
There was also way too many on the compressor lecture circuit too
Then a few more on the how and where to drive on a gravel road…
Feeling a bit spare, I thought, they could do with a bit of Honda Quest branding and marketing…
Entertainment over, it was back to business. The vet vence
Palmwag fuelling
All I’ve got of the camp that evening was
Apparently a big bull elephant had just been through 5 minutes before us!
Phil’s mentioned already my bit about dehydration. I spent a really long time whilst a student as an Orange River Guide. I became really good at spotting it and more, sorting it out. That afternoon more than a few had the signs. I’ve gave my rant and advice and before long a handful were obediently sucking on many more litres of water. If you want to do this next year, 2 litres a day is simply asking for serious trouble. 2 is for before breakfast!
I was just super elated that my loose end had behaved itself… not enough to trust a fart, but certainly better than the previous evening.
After all the chores were done, Phil and I had a short powwow about the day; things had gone well we thought. I wouldn’t say we were super connected yet but way more comfortable and down the path than that morning. We had a little more chat about personality and in particular about being in a disagreement and how to handle this. I was happy. Well, there was another problem, we had no beer! The issue was apart from the bar being way off somewhere, we didn’t know if we were allowed to have a few. So, as I like a beer after a ride, I headed off to find Hardy and he was all thumbs up. Then because he was halfway between the bar (that was 500m from where we were) I just kept going and got a round for everyone. The way everyone approved of this, I thought I’d found how to bribe our way to this bike!
I chose to sleep under the stars, I didn’t do much stargazing whilst falling asleep; I’d only slept 3 hours the previous evening and if you’ve met me, I certainly need my beauty sleep!
I crashed!
That morning started with Phillip and I having a bit more of a conversation about how we were going to play the game. What made the whole thing tricky was that although we were told that everything was going to be rated, we were not told what “everything” was. They kept on about being a “True Adventurer”, but what that actually was wasn’t easily defined. I felt that to be competitive we needed to collaborate with the rest, stay alert, show initiative, have a good attitude, be helpful, care for fellow competitors, care for the bike and lastly riding skill. Also, I was sure they were going to keep a sharp eye on the dynamics between the team members.
To this end and to aid getting us in this short time onto the same page, I shared with Phillip a personality test called the Enneagram. It is a system that helps work out the motivations of people that then drive behaviours. Unsurprisingly, we were absolute opposites, but for both of us it instantly gave a better connection and shortened the “get to know you” time. It was also helpful to chat about how we are going to disagree with each other.
All this took place over the span of the day as we were given times to have things done or to be somewhere and there wasn’t much time to bugger around. We had a confirmation of this when we were told to load the Iveco at a certain time. Stoffel had his phone out and 1 minute past the deadline was taking notes on who wasn’t there. Phil and I caught each other’s eyes right there. Though we weren’t then, we made sure we were never going to be late for anything from then on.
Lunch… winegums became a staple part of it. (I miss them, strangely!)
All new and nervous
Ok, not so nervous
This being the first morning briefing, John had suggested that because of the group size of the option for the teams to ride shoulder to shoulder was open. It’s not an often described technique that helps riders stay out of the dust and halves the distance that groups take up. It takes some skill and loads of trust between partners. I know many who’ve refused to do it unless they know their partner well. It works like this;
The guy on the left sets the pace and is mostly responsible for setting the dust gap. He rides mostly on the left side of the road but isn’t confined to it. If things get hairy or the track demands it, he can come over to a better line but then would shift back to the left. The Guy on the right is responsible for the safety of the unit. His primary task is to anticipate the needs of the road and rider on the left and to keep them as a pair safe. On shittier parts, blind rises and right hand or blind turns he drops back from the shoulder position to a spot that is still within the mirrors of the guy on the left but just ahead and out of the dust and stone roost. This enables the left hand guy to choose his line. It also keeps both safe with oncoming traffic.
It takes some time to learn a riders idiosyncrasies and for a safe rhythm to form. It can be a joy when it “clicks”.
He also put a lot of emphasis on being responsible for the guys behind. The shoulder thing was optional and only going to lose points if practiced unsafely, the keeping the guys behind thing was mandatory and going to be a lot more carefully looked at.
Tell me you wouldn’t take life a little more seriously if this was talking at you?
See….
I was not feeling so confident, that’s a nervous smile, I needed the valves in the lower end of my body to man up and do their thing
So, it wasn’t long and we were off. It felt very awkward. Understandably, the pairs were being super alert for the guys behind and neither the pairs nor the group had found a rhythm. Any little slow down resulted in the pair in front slowing or even stopping to check and then this would result in a massive concertina effect that took tens of kilometres to get the spacing right again. I just kept humming to myself, “Oh mani pani hummmm, it’s worth an African Twin”
One of the better gaps
Riding in dust used to do my head in… Badly! Apart from the safety aspect, it screws with my mechanical sympathies. At first when I started adventure riding, I would either blitz ahead or stop and wait 10 minutes. But if you can take the wind and general direction of travel into account along with the pace that the group is moving at, then it is possible to have a reasonably pleasant experience.
But, I’m also not easily capable of rambling along on dirt – I tend to ride quick but safe and generally find myself at the sharp end of groups. I get bored quickly and love getting into a groove with other like-minded individuals that often doesn’t make for great tyre wear but gets places quicker.
Jaco, who was sweeping, was experiencing the net effects of the concertina. His input about this at one of the first stops was a great bit of input but had an unintended consequence; we all got more nervous about losing points and so just put up with smaller dust gaps. “omani padni....”
I’d started on the right for that first bit so we swapped after the break. That morning apart from the excitement of being on this massive adventure, it wasn’t the most pleasant ride. The road wasn’t that spectacular and it was a crap surface for the first few hours so it was mostly hours of dust dodging and very little scenery viewing. But, this wasn’t any ordinary ride, I was enjoying the fun of watching others and of course myself and wondering how this was all going to play out?
Phillip clearly wasn’t used to this shoulder to shoulder thing from the right hand side, he was either suffering in the dust or riding in spots that I couldn’t see him no matter what I did with my mirrors. Also what was playing on his mind was, not being that comfortable on sand, the times he would have to float across the middlemannetjie wasn’t good for him. At the petrol stop, we had a conflab. We resolved that being more comfortable in sand, I’d stay on the right, but also that he was free to pick his lines as he wanted as that was my job to stay out of his way. That’s how it stayed for the rest of the trip. I think in the beginning he must have thought I was nuts, because I enjoy trying to stay on the middlemannetije or the graded bits on the side for fun. It can get a bit squirrely but is great practice.
Anyway, Uis came up and so did Bazil!
He was this lovely friendly larger than life guy who pitched up on a characterful original that Honda might want to put in their museum. He knew all about us and was good naturedly pissed off that he’d not been chosen even though he’d written in.
The group was still clearly a little new, but the pace was creeping up and less time was spent being squeezed by the concertina.
Then it was comedy hour…
Climbing up some pass we came across some stranded tourists, they’d ruined their original and now flatted the spare. This part of the world was super hardcore, but luckily a cold front was coming through so the temperature was only about 40! Picture it, 20 super helpful biker types (who are probably being scored on their helpfulless!), combined with 16 super responsible 4x4 types trying to impress these foreigners. It was a case of too many cooks for not enough jobs. You know what happens then, everyone was chirpy and the comments were coming thick and fast.
Jaco had hogged the prime job,
There was also way too many on the compressor lecture circuit too
Then a few more on the how and where to drive on a gravel road…
Feeling a bit spare, I thought, they could do with a bit of Honda Quest branding and marketing…
Entertainment over, it was back to business. The vet vence
Palmwag fuelling
All I’ve got of the camp that evening was
Apparently a big bull elephant had just been through 5 minutes before us!
Phil’s mentioned already my bit about dehydration. I spent a really long time whilst a student as an Orange River Guide. I became really good at spotting it and more, sorting it out. That afternoon more than a few had the signs. I’ve gave my rant and advice and before long a handful were obediently sucking on many more litres of water. If you want to do this next year, 2 litres a day is simply asking for serious trouble. 2 is for before breakfast!
I was just super elated that my loose end had behaved itself… not enough to trust a fart, but certainly better than the previous evening.
After all the chores were done, Phil and I had a short powwow about the day; things had gone well we thought. I wouldn’t say we were super connected yet but way more comfortable and down the path than that morning. We had a little more chat about personality and in particular about being in a disagreement and how to handle this. I was happy. Well, there was another problem, we had no beer! The issue was apart from the bar being way off somewhere, we didn’t know if we were allowed to have a few. So, as I like a beer after a ride, I headed off to find Hardy and he was all thumbs up. Then because he was halfway between the bar (that was 500m from where we were) I just kept going and got a round for everyone. The way everyone approved of this, I thought I’d found how to bribe our way to this bike!
I chose to sleep under the stars, I didn’t do much stargazing whilst falling asleep; I’d only slept 3 hours the previous evening and if you’ve met me, I certainly need my beauty sleep!
I crashed!
missed the scheduled times airing the Quest show. Where can I order a DVD or .........pls help
