Groenie
Grey Hound
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2006
- Messages
- 5,941
- Reaction score
- 1
- Bike
- Honda CRF-1000L Africa Twin
So the Roof has come and gone and we enjoyed it - sort of....
The story actually started months ago when Bullfrog announced that he was doing the Roof this year and will be starting his training immediately. He got together a few good friends and we quickly formed a committee to get everything arranged and in place so he can complete his quest. The man put in hours and hours in the gym and on the new KLX450 and he even competed in his first enduro race.
Not everything went according to plan and I only got to bed at 3:30 on Wednesday morning only to be rudely awakened an hour later. "What? You not finished packing yet?" was the words that greeted me when "Slet se Span" arrived to pick me up. Jerry (Bullfrog aka. Slet) and Gary would be trailering the bikes down (Yes, I do sometimes put my trusty steed on a trailer) and Jacques and me would be towing the Venter with the Landy. Unfortunately, our resident Roof expert could not join us. We left Centurion at 5 and was in Maseru before 12.
The parking lot was orange! Yes, almost every bike there was a ghastly shade of orange.....
After getting Slet and his chief assistant set up in the hotel, the lowly mechanic and camp-commandant had to go off and find a camping spot. With a bit of help from our friends, we found a very nice spot in Roma and pitched out tents and gazebo/workshop.
Thursday morning saw us up very early to go and tackle the Round-the-houses and time trial. We were all very nervous and our fearless rider was looking slightly grey with worry. We offloaded the bike in town in order make a quick get away when the race was done.
The morning dragged by as the usual excitement of racing just wasn't getting through to us. Too many questions raced in our minds already - Is the bike properly prepped? Is Jerry fit enough? How difficult will it be? What if....?
The smile doesn't really hide the nerves....
There was plenty of eye candy though - 300 off road scooters in one place is an awesome sight.
Starting time for the senior class was only at 11, but first three races had plenty excitement. The round-the-house format is crazy! Turn up the volume and listen to the roar!
Even the LDF joined the party. Check the cooler box in their chopper!
And then it was time to go racing. Jerry is an old hand at other forms of racing and picked a nice spot right behind Wayne Farmer, who would eventually win the race
And they're off!
Seeing them come around after the first lap nearly made me shit my pants! Jerry was in 2nd! And really motoring it...
Apparently, they hit speeds of almost 160 km/h! Jerry missed a gear and lost his second place, but was rewarded with an astonishing 3rd place! Not a bad start to our weekend at all. We were all very excited and saw them off to the start of the time trial...
....and set off to the refueling point at Roma. And we waited, and we waited, and we waited. Quite few of the senior class riders came in and went out and we waited some more. I got out the binoculars and scanned the mountain across the valley for any sign of our rider, but didn't come. In the mean time we had some fun as the riders going out of the DSP was caught out by a nasty little bump.
After the second rider came down quite hard, the marshals moved the tape a bit to make the rest miss the bump. And then Jerry arrived. He was tired and had gotten stuck for 45 minutes after a bad fall. Although R150 poorer for the help to get his bike back up to the track, he was still strong. The bike showed signs of abuse already and was overheating and had lost a lot of it's coolant. We sent him off on his way and made our way to the Trading Post at Roma for the finish. I decided to take nap while I could, because that night was going to be hard work. I would have to fit new tyres and repair all the bent/broken bits.
When I woke up, our world had collapsed. The bike was very sick and Jerry had to retire with 20km to go. I couldn't believe it. The day had started so well and now we're on the trailer. Bliksem, donner, kak, p0es!
The radiator was bent beyond repair, the motor had overheated badly and was sounding very sick and the rider was hurting from more than plenty falls...
That night we sipped our beers with long, sad faces and contemplated what could have been. Jerry said: "No way I'm doing this again. It's too hard" Famous last words that would be forgotten soon....
More later......
The story actually started months ago when Bullfrog announced that he was doing the Roof this year and will be starting his training immediately. He got together a few good friends and we quickly formed a committee to get everything arranged and in place so he can complete his quest. The man put in hours and hours in the gym and on the new KLX450 and he even competed in his first enduro race.
Not everything went according to plan and I only got to bed at 3:30 on Wednesday morning only to be rudely awakened an hour later. "What? You not finished packing yet?" was the words that greeted me when "Slet se Span" arrived to pick me up. Jerry (Bullfrog aka. Slet) and Gary would be trailering the bikes down (Yes, I do sometimes put my trusty steed on a trailer) and Jacques and me would be towing the Venter with the Landy. Unfortunately, our resident Roof expert could not join us. We left Centurion at 5 and was in Maseru before 12.
The parking lot was orange! Yes, almost every bike there was a ghastly shade of orange.....
After getting Slet and his chief assistant set up in the hotel, the lowly mechanic and camp-commandant had to go off and find a camping spot. With a bit of help from our friends, we found a very nice spot in Roma and pitched out tents and gazebo/workshop.
Thursday morning saw us up very early to go and tackle the Round-the-houses and time trial. We were all very nervous and our fearless rider was looking slightly grey with worry. We offloaded the bike in town in order make a quick get away when the race was done.
The morning dragged by as the usual excitement of racing just wasn't getting through to us. Too many questions raced in our minds already - Is the bike properly prepped? Is Jerry fit enough? How difficult will it be? What if....?
The smile doesn't really hide the nerves....
There was plenty of eye candy though - 300 off road scooters in one place is an awesome sight.
Starting time for the senior class was only at 11, but first three races had plenty excitement. The round-the-house format is crazy! Turn up the volume and listen to the roar!
Even the LDF joined the party. Check the cooler box in their chopper!
And then it was time to go racing. Jerry is an old hand at other forms of racing and picked a nice spot right behind Wayne Farmer, who would eventually win the race
And they're off!
Seeing them come around after the first lap nearly made me shit my pants! Jerry was in 2nd! And really motoring it...
Apparently, they hit speeds of almost 160 km/h! Jerry missed a gear and lost his second place, but was rewarded with an astonishing 3rd place! Not a bad start to our weekend at all. We were all very excited and saw them off to the start of the time trial...
....and set off to the refueling point at Roma. And we waited, and we waited, and we waited. Quite few of the senior class riders came in and went out and we waited some more. I got out the binoculars and scanned the mountain across the valley for any sign of our rider, but didn't come. In the mean time we had some fun as the riders going out of the DSP was caught out by a nasty little bump.
After the second rider came down quite hard, the marshals moved the tape a bit to make the rest miss the bump. And then Jerry arrived. He was tired and had gotten stuck for 45 minutes after a bad fall. Although R150 poorer for the help to get his bike back up to the track, he was still strong. The bike showed signs of abuse already and was overheating and had lost a lot of it's coolant. We sent him off on his way and made our way to the Trading Post at Roma for the finish. I decided to take nap while I could, because that night was going to be hard work. I would have to fit new tyres and repair all the bent/broken bits.
When I woke up, our world had collapsed. The bike was very sick and Jerry had to retire with 20km to go. I couldn't believe it. The day had started so well and now we're on the trailer. Bliksem, donner, kak, p0es!
The radiator was bent beyond repair, the motor had overheated badly and was sounding very sick and the rider was hurting from more than plenty falls...
That night we sipped our beers with long, sad faces and contemplated what could have been. Jerry said: "No way I'm doing this again. It's too hard" Famous last words that would be forgotten soon....
More later......
