Ant
Pack Dog
Last weekend, with the weather looking great and with the Dogs that I know otherwise occupied, I decided to go for a short solo ride in the general direction of J’Bay.
Setting off from PE along the coast road towards Maitlands, the smell of burning rooikrans braais mixed with the fresh smell of the sea, an absolutely tranquil ocean, warm sunshine and zero wind made for perfect riding pleasure. What could go wrong?
Reaching Maitlands I met a couple of Harley riders on their way up the hill from the car park. Gave them the “bikers’ nod”, which they returned. Recognising kindred spirits.
When I reached the car park, the scene was surreal, like something from the movie The Truman Show (Jim Carry lives a perfect, idyllic existence only to discover that he’s actually living in a movie set and is part of an elaborate reality show). Families were walking on the beach, dogs and children playing, horses being led in the lagoon shallows with young riders on their backs. Just perfect.
After absorbing the scene for a while, and feeling really chilled, I pushed my starter button, ready for my bike to roar to life and to make an exit with just enough subtlety for people to notice (its a Katoom, after all), but without too much noise to piss people off.
Click. Click. Nothing. OK, let me get off, pretend I’m still chilling, and maybe when I try again my battery will have harnessed some reserve energy, enough to turn the motor. No luck. Damn, should have replaced the battery some time ago.
Fortunately there’s a nice steep hill leading to the car park, so I decided to push the bike up to be able to get enough momentum for a run start. So off I go. But the hill’s steeper than I imagined, and the bikes a whole lot heavier when there’s no engine helping out. I made about 5m at a time then had to pause and catch my breath. After making what I thought was enough height I turned around, freewheeling and releasing the clutch first in third, then in fourth. No luck, back wheel locked and all I managed to do was some impressive skids.
Back in the car park, two guys in a beach buggy, big boeps and snorre, came over and asked if I needed a tow. So after securing some strapping from another willing bystander, off I went firmly attached to the rear roll bar of the buggy. But the result was the same, just lots of even more impressive skidding. I then said the guy should tow me all the way to the top of the hill and to try it from there. At the top I detached the strap and started a rapid freewheel down the hill. About ¾ of the way down suddenly the engine “took”, and I did my first wheelie on my KTM. Front wheel up, going downhill, missed the white Polo on its way upl, cr@pped myself, but at least the engine was going again. Thanks Jules, your riding skills taught are paying dividends already! I then decided to do a nice long section to get the battery charged again, so off I set for J Bay.
Went through old Van Stadens pass, stopped for a pic under the bridge (with engine running), then on to Jefferies via Gamtoos and Kabbeljous rivers. At the old bridge over Gamtoos passed two dogs coming in the opposite direction; don’t know who they were, but saw a paw on the second bike, a red and silver BMW.
At J Bay I stopped at Supertubes and watched some surfers plying some serious manoeuvres in the water. In the pics below if you look carefully you can see a guy in a tube. Not the greatest pic, but it is a point and shoot after all.
At the car park I saw a big banner reading “Surfers say No Nuke at Thuyspunt”. On the opposite side of the car park was a similar banner reading “Fishermen say No Nuke at Thuyspunt”. This is an issue very close to my heart. Did you know that in the event of a meltdown, St Francis bay would have eight minutes to evacuate, and if the prevailing wind is blowing towards PE (which it does most of the time) PE would have four hours to evacuate? This on top of a currently seriously flawed environmental impact assessment, an unstable dune field that they want to build on, destruction of the Chokka industry in the area, hugely rising cost scenario (think korrupsie/ Medupi), centuries of nuclear waste legacy it will leave behind, Fukushima, etc… I could go on. Given that it was still a really beautiful day, I decided to try to find Thuyspunt to see the area for myself, so off I went. Bike started first time.
Just outside J Bay I came across a board proclaiming Jefferies Bay Wind farm. Now we’re talking, renewable energy here we come!!
Riding on to Cape St Francis I reached the end of the road, so to speak. A locked gate leading into a reserve at St Francis Bay. I realised that the Thuyspunt turnoff must be somewhere along the Oyster Bay road, so I turned around and headed off in that direction. However, I didn’t make it too far. The bike began to judder, and then eventually died. Felt like I was out of fuel, but I knew there were still a couple of litres left even before I got to reserve.
Finding myself stranded along a dirt road, with no sign of life anywhere, I decided to problem solve. Stripped the kill switch, took off the side panels, checked electrical connections, fuses, etc etc, but nothing helped. Then I figured out that when I switched on the ignition I couldn’t hear the familiar clatter of the Facet fuel pump starting up. This was strange, as it was only a month old. And I was told these things go on forever. After a while, not knowing what else to do (like calling Tiger8 on my cell and asking him to go to my house, hitch up my trailer and prepare himself for a road trip), for whatever reason I decided to blow through the fuel overflow outlet at the top/ front of the left hand fuel tank. As soon as I tried this and hit the starter, the bike roared to life again! Not wanting to chance my luck, I didn’t want to switch off, so left the bike idling. But I had tools, nuts, washers, and other bits of paraphernalia to re-assemble. Literally, as soon as the last bit was back in place (the seat), the bike died again. I wanted to try the blowing thing again, but the bike was all assembled. I therefore pulled the long rubber overflow tube up through where it is routed, so I had in effect a “straw” through which to blow into the fuel tank without stripping the bike. A couple of blows down the tube and again the bike started. Realising that this was putting pressure into the tank which in turn forced fuel into the carb, I figured that as long as I kept doing this I would be able to “nurse” the bike home without a functional fuel pump. Only about 150K’s. That’s a lot of blowing.
Using this method, I soon got the knack; going along, about 6 -8 k’s the bike would begin to die. Without stopping I leaned forward so I could reach the tube, blew until I felt pressure, and the bike would continue purring happily. Then, after further experimenting I worked out that after blowing, if I crimped the end of the tube and held it closed as I rode, the pressure remained in the tank and the bike kept going for about 12 -15k’s before having to repeat the process.
Got home in good enough time; all in all an interesting day’s riding. Next on the agenda: a new battery and contact Guy (Jughead) to check out the Facet pump. And finding Thuyspunt will have to wait a little while…
Some pics:
1. Road to Maitlands
2. Lagoon at Maitlands
3. Maitlands dune
4. Van Stadens bridge
5. Gamtoos River
6. Gamtoos through the bridge structure
more to follow
Setting off from PE along the coast road towards Maitlands, the smell of burning rooikrans braais mixed with the fresh smell of the sea, an absolutely tranquil ocean, warm sunshine and zero wind made for perfect riding pleasure. What could go wrong?
Reaching Maitlands I met a couple of Harley riders on their way up the hill from the car park. Gave them the “bikers’ nod”, which they returned. Recognising kindred spirits.
When I reached the car park, the scene was surreal, like something from the movie The Truman Show (Jim Carry lives a perfect, idyllic existence only to discover that he’s actually living in a movie set and is part of an elaborate reality show). Families were walking on the beach, dogs and children playing, horses being led in the lagoon shallows with young riders on their backs. Just perfect.
After absorbing the scene for a while, and feeling really chilled, I pushed my starter button, ready for my bike to roar to life and to make an exit with just enough subtlety for people to notice (its a Katoom, after all), but without too much noise to piss people off.
Click. Click. Nothing. OK, let me get off, pretend I’m still chilling, and maybe when I try again my battery will have harnessed some reserve energy, enough to turn the motor. No luck. Damn, should have replaced the battery some time ago.
Fortunately there’s a nice steep hill leading to the car park, so I decided to push the bike up to be able to get enough momentum for a run start. So off I go. But the hill’s steeper than I imagined, and the bikes a whole lot heavier when there’s no engine helping out. I made about 5m at a time then had to pause and catch my breath. After making what I thought was enough height I turned around, freewheeling and releasing the clutch first in third, then in fourth. No luck, back wheel locked and all I managed to do was some impressive skids.
Back in the car park, two guys in a beach buggy, big boeps and snorre, came over and asked if I needed a tow. So after securing some strapping from another willing bystander, off I went firmly attached to the rear roll bar of the buggy. But the result was the same, just lots of even more impressive skidding. I then said the guy should tow me all the way to the top of the hill and to try it from there. At the top I detached the strap and started a rapid freewheel down the hill. About ¾ of the way down suddenly the engine “took”, and I did my first wheelie on my KTM. Front wheel up, going downhill, missed the white Polo on its way upl, cr@pped myself, but at least the engine was going again. Thanks Jules, your riding skills taught are paying dividends already! I then decided to do a nice long section to get the battery charged again, so off I set for J Bay.
Went through old Van Stadens pass, stopped for a pic under the bridge (with engine running), then on to Jefferies via Gamtoos and Kabbeljous rivers. At the old bridge over Gamtoos passed two dogs coming in the opposite direction; don’t know who they were, but saw a paw on the second bike, a red and silver BMW.
At J Bay I stopped at Supertubes and watched some surfers plying some serious manoeuvres in the water. In the pics below if you look carefully you can see a guy in a tube. Not the greatest pic, but it is a point and shoot after all.
At the car park I saw a big banner reading “Surfers say No Nuke at Thuyspunt”. On the opposite side of the car park was a similar banner reading “Fishermen say No Nuke at Thuyspunt”. This is an issue very close to my heart. Did you know that in the event of a meltdown, St Francis bay would have eight minutes to evacuate, and if the prevailing wind is blowing towards PE (which it does most of the time) PE would have four hours to evacuate? This on top of a currently seriously flawed environmental impact assessment, an unstable dune field that they want to build on, destruction of the Chokka industry in the area, hugely rising cost scenario (think korrupsie/ Medupi), centuries of nuclear waste legacy it will leave behind, Fukushima, etc… I could go on. Given that it was still a really beautiful day, I decided to try to find Thuyspunt to see the area for myself, so off I went. Bike started first time.
Just outside J Bay I came across a board proclaiming Jefferies Bay Wind farm. Now we’re talking, renewable energy here we come!!
Riding on to Cape St Francis I reached the end of the road, so to speak. A locked gate leading into a reserve at St Francis Bay. I realised that the Thuyspunt turnoff must be somewhere along the Oyster Bay road, so I turned around and headed off in that direction. However, I didn’t make it too far. The bike began to judder, and then eventually died. Felt like I was out of fuel, but I knew there were still a couple of litres left even before I got to reserve.
Finding myself stranded along a dirt road, with no sign of life anywhere, I decided to problem solve. Stripped the kill switch, took off the side panels, checked electrical connections, fuses, etc etc, but nothing helped. Then I figured out that when I switched on the ignition I couldn’t hear the familiar clatter of the Facet fuel pump starting up. This was strange, as it was only a month old. And I was told these things go on forever. After a while, not knowing what else to do (like calling Tiger8 on my cell and asking him to go to my house, hitch up my trailer and prepare himself for a road trip), for whatever reason I decided to blow through the fuel overflow outlet at the top/ front of the left hand fuel tank. As soon as I tried this and hit the starter, the bike roared to life again! Not wanting to chance my luck, I didn’t want to switch off, so left the bike idling. But I had tools, nuts, washers, and other bits of paraphernalia to re-assemble. Literally, as soon as the last bit was back in place (the seat), the bike died again. I wanted to try the blowing thing again, but the bike was all assembled. I therefore pulled the long rubber overflow tube up through where it is routed, so I had in effect a “straw” through which to blow into the fuel tank without stripping the bike. A couple of blows down the tube and again the bike started. Realising that this was putting pressure into the tank which in turn forced fuel into the carb, I figured that as long as I kept doing this I would be able to “nurse” the bike home without a functional fuel pump. Only about 150K’s. That’s a lot of blowing.
Using this method, I soon got the knack; going along, about 6 -8 k’s the bike would begin to die. Without stopping I leaned forward so I could reach the tube, blew until I felt pressure, and the bike would continue purring happily. Then, after further experimenting I worked out that after blowing, if I crimped the end of the tube and held it closed as I rode, the pressure remained in the tank and the bike kept going for about 12 -15k’s before having to repeat the process.
Got home in good enough time; all in all an interesting day’s riding. Next on the agenda: a new battery and contact Guy (Jughead) to check out the Facet pump. And finding Thuyspunt will have to wait a little while…
Some pics:
1. Road to Maitlands
2. Lagoon at Maitlands
3. Maitlands dune
4. Van Stadens bridge
5. Gamtoos River
6. Gamtoos through the bridge structure
more to follow
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