WC AMAGEZA Assessment!!! No blood, but sweat and tears!!!!

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Bokkeman said:
Dakarboy said:
Thats my dad hahahah!!! what a doosh!! COUNT ME IN ON THE NEXT QUALIFIER FOR SURE!!! Work is a complete bastard and with the short notice on the change it was too late!!! 23rd here we come!

Son, the spelling is "douche".  :bueller:

And don't you ever call me that again!

:imaposer: :imaposer:
 
Awwww thanks for the kind words everyone, but without you lot riding around we would be nothing!  :p

Thanks once again!
 
Fuzzy Muzzy said:
I was so happy to see train tracks, it was like heaven compared to the sand..

Same here..the relief was palable. Hope that nice bike of yours did not suffer to much damage.

From my side, having not ridden my bike for about a year, to say I felt a slight trepidation would be an understatement....and Danie (team mate) shared the concern.

The technicalities started within 50m of the startline, and the sandy track immediatly after the N7 did nothing to assuage my fears.

By the time we hit Atlantis, I was properly pumped, and side swiping over the whoopies was very much an "Oh F__","Oh F__","Oh F__","Oh F__","Oh F__" affair.

The riding through the sand was a laborious affair, hard physical stuff that saw bikes sinking into the powder sand up to their bellies. I could smell the burning oil, with sweat running into my eyes I was beginning to doubt. The howering gyrocopters, the fellow riders and the prospect to be stranded in that heat pit motivated me, till we struck the railway line.

Picking up speed and cooling off was just what the doctor ordered and I managed to focus on the navigation. The one thing that I dread, and fortunately it did not happen, was a puncture. It would have cooked my goose to do a fix in that heat. (Why I am in awe of Andy660 and his effort, what a tuff bugger)

Making Darling we decided on a refill, the sand just gulped down precious fuel, and I had a sneaky suspicion there was more to be had.

Heading back, the track on the GPS constantly veering of in the direction of the Atlantis sandpit, all I can think of was "please have mercy". Fortunately, we just skirted the deep sand, and made it to the flying club unscathed.

The beer and burgers was GOOD!

As a noobie to this type of navigational challenge, what can I say...it is awesome.
The concept, sharing it with so many like minded riders, the actual ride itself... to be recommended.

The level of the organization that Kameelkop and Co managed to achieve contributed...the better run an event is, the easier it is to forget that a huge amount of effort went into it. The management of the qualifier was seamless...it just "happened"


I took home that night a sense of pleasant satisfaction, and to those I met for the first time, putting faces to the names, what a pleasure.

You people out there, come do this thing, you will not be sorry, and I have 26 other witnesses.
 
Rescue in the sand pit... see the relief on the competitor's face  ;D

[flash=854,480]https://www.youtube.com/v/ySdxZVeYRqA[/flash]
 
I imagine the heat accounted for at least 50% of the dropout numbers. Eish. The same weather has reached PE, and I registred 42 degrees in the car a little while ago. You okes must have suffered!! :eek:
 
Thanks guys, and keep those stories coming! I love to hear your version. I tried to warn you!

After spending 3 weeks of weekends and afternoon in that sandpit and the second one, finding a route through was a tough issue. Riding on my own, I was writing your stories for you. Any time the story become easy, I would go find a different track to do.

All I ask is that you don't share the track with the other entrants. I might want to save myself some afternoons, and use some of the track for the second qualifier. I don't mind all the afternoons and weekends away, but the grass is growing over the roof, and my wife took me out for dinner last night!  :mwink:

Oh yeah.. and my bike is loosing just about all that can be bolted on.  :biggrin:
 
Kameelkop said:
Thanks guys, and keep those stories coming! I love to hear your version. I tried to warn you!

After spending 3 weeks of weekends and afternoon in that sandpit and the second one, finding a route through was a tough issue. Riding on my own, I was writing your stories for you. Any time the story become easy, I would go find a different track to do.

All I ask is that you don't share the track with the other entrants. I might want to save myself some afternoons, and use some of the track for the second qualifier. I don't mind all the afternoons and weekends away, but the grass is growing over the roof, and my wife took me out for dinner last night!  :mwink:

Oh yeah.. and my bike is loosing just about all that can be bolted on.  :biggrin:

KK ek dink jy kan die roete vir hulle nou maar gee die sand sal nie makliker raak nie.

I am glad I used my 450. The speeds being limited to 120km/h the only positive for a big bike is comfort and less vibrtion.

 
J-dog™ said:
When will the results be out?  :peepwall:

I sure do hope you ride as well as you moan / nag...

The organisers have day jobs, as well as preparing for the bash.... so just sit tight please!
 
Firecoast said:
J-dog™ said:
When will the results be out?  :peepwall:

I sure do hope you ride as well as you moan / nag...

The organisers have day jobs, as well as preparing for the bash.... so just sit tight please!

put a cork in it.  :deal:
 
Kameelkop said:
Oh yeah.. and my bike is loosing just about all that can be bolted on.  :biggrin:

Having a light bike is an unfair advantage.. :)

Like Tau says, the route will not become easier, but I would advise people to cozy up to their GPS' and familiarize yourself with it.

Create a track between your office and home (not a route), and see how it affects what you see on the GPS, how the GPS reacts. Navigation is key.
One of the things I had to get used to, was looking at the GPS and focussing on the information being displayed, at first, glancing down all I saw was an instrument, eventually I got to see the screen, and finally I started taking in the information on display....practice and save yourself a whole lot of trouble.

The quicker you do it, and are able to adjust based on the information, the less likely you will end up crashing through trees 'cos you are not keeping an eye on the course.
 
Andy660 hard at work... Always jumps in and helps everyone  :thumleft:

[flash=854,480]https://www.youtube.com/v/E2DnzS73DtQ[/flash]
 
Guess who's enjoying themselves...     ;D

[flash=854,480]https://www.youtube.com/v/0fE3u-w8hNs[/flash]

Shot with the all new Drift HD Action Camera - switch the YouTube setting to full HD 1080p for the full experience.  :eek:
 
Only my pleasure to help out where I can.I`ve done all sorts of weird and wonderful things .
Some points to remember !

If you have put tyre weld in a tube , Dont try fixing the Puncture afterwards :It never works !
Oh , and I have put a 21 inch tyre in a rear 17inch before and it worked for a time , But yesterday after doing Tau`s front tyre and having no spare front tube , WE actually managed to fit a 17inch tube in a 21 inch front rim.

You do how ever need 3 sets of hands .
We got it in , pumped it up and we got on our way.

It didnt last long though and to say it was unbalanced was a serious understatement,
We decided to call for back up after that,It was 39 in the shade on Sacks BMW.
KK and Crossed up came out and recovered the bike.

By the time I got back , most of you had left and all the Burgers were gone !
Tau !
I need my wheel spanner , I`m off to the bash on Wed, morning early ! if possible , let me know so I can arrange a spare one.

If Rovrat is assisting you  , make sure your are wearing your body armor , especially on your elbows.
With one of  the tyre re fitments ,  and a " Hold this lever please ? ( means just that , HOLD it !)
The tyre lever slipped out of his hand and hit me a hell of a shot on my elbow protector  ," KLACK " , Sack looked at me anticipating the swear words I`m sue.
Thank goodness for the body armor.Lol.

And for all the guys that did that road around the Alantis Dunes , Hats off to you all !


 
Andy...you have an incredible temperament to be the tyre tech....respek  :thumleft: ;D
 
Well done to the okes that did that Atlantis sand on the big bikes... respect  :thumleft:

Tau, where was the 660Z?
 
It was good to get the first tumble out the way. On the tracks next to Zone 7 on my way to the airfield for the start, my brand new pair of Mitas E10's gave notice that the front was crap and was going to be needing much more care on the looser stuff.

Many people had turned out for the fun, old faces and new. Alex (Kameelkop) handed my GPS back saying my venerable 60GSx wasn't up to the load and that I was to be given a chopped up version. I'd have 4 tracks to follow. The others only had 2 - an out and back. Ahh well, I was certain that I’d be fine. Mmmm the curse of the optimist. 

The starting order was a sort of first come first served. 3 at a time 2 minutes between groups. 

Having had a quick glance at the tracks I was very keen to be first off. I like sand but starting behind a bunch of bikes would be unpleasant. So I wasn’t one to argue when Marissa beckoned me to the start line. 

Myself, Sack and Archangel were the first 3. (funny that the guys who ride sand a lot had the same idea as me!) We agreed that as staying on the track was the major part of the exercise, if whomever was in front stuffed up, then not to chase them and set them right. The reasoning was that having more than one person riding back on the track may be dangerous for others.

It was sweaty work waiting for the gyro’s to get up. Heart rate was doing its thing too.

I was first off and then promptly nearly over cooked the turnoff and slid messily into the tracks. Just past the brickworks I took a wrong turn. I hadn’t realised that what looked like an easy thing when I scanned the tracks on the GPS in reality was far more difficult. After doubling back Sack was ahead and he promptly did the same. Arch was now the leader with me, then Sack.

Not 5 minutes into it Arch ground to a halt. I asked if he was ok, he said electrical. Not much I could do, anyway I had places to be and things to do. Sack and I headed off into the quarry and then it really started to get sweaty. I have ridden on all the tracks before and in the heat, with low humidity and my crap tire it was not pleasant. Once I popped out onto the railway with heartbeat racing, I had to remind myself to pace the day.

Halfway along the railway the GPS said I was not right?! I should have been 50 meters to the left. Now I know this part of the world very well and there is no track there, it’s farm land. I doubled back and met Sack, he too doubled and then we realised that we must be right so turned again just as Beserker and TSDan caught up. I was behind Sack again and at one stage got a huge fright. I was staying about 50 meters behind him to stay out of the dust enough to see any crap that may come up. The railway has some lurkers of holes and the odd blind chicane with concrete posts to deal with if one overcooks it. Also although is it a jeep track, the track closest to the line is far harder to ride on as it is mostly just ballast stones. Still, we weren’t hanging around at about 90kph. Suddenly there was a black shadow to my right! WTF! Someone was trying to pass on the stones! What a chop! 

Seconds later I realised it was a Gyrocopters' shadow! Fook! 

Not far from the end of the railway was Atlantis. I have ridden in there a lot, the sand is never the same, every day is different. This day was one of the worst. Not too far in, Sack ate it big time and very soon after that my GPS ran out of tracks. As I stopped to change over to the second one, I realised that the whole Atlantis bit had been cut off in Alex’s chopping up of his tracks to get them into the machine. Beserker and Dan bolted by and I had to follow blindly.

They were soon out of sight, I was fighting my front tire, in sand it knifes in and gets bullied by ruts and my confidence in it was not high. This is shitty as it wastes energy big time and slowed me up a lot. At one fork I was not sure if I was on the right track and thought to look around for the gyro’s. They were way back and seemed a bit off to the side. Sack was nowhere to be seen. I took my helmet off to listen. Nothing?!

Oh well, back I went to check and see if others were making the same choice as me. A few minutes later I met Sack. Nope, he assured me we were right. Damn! So back again. I waited for Sack at a crux turn with the warned about hill that Alex had told us of in the briefing. My bike was very close to max temp. No wind, slow riding in sand on a hot day is not a favoured thing for the big KTM’s. At another stop to catch my breath and get the warning light off on the bike Sack passed me. He was just as sweaty as me and we both agreed that this was about as hard-core as it gets for Atlantis. We didn’t think that many bikes would make it. We weren’t even sure we’d make it!

After a short time and no bikes or gyro’s to be seen or heard I too headed off and wasted time twice trying to climb a massive dune hill thinking that this must have been the one Alex had warned us about. Sadly for all my sweating, I was wrong. I was feeling light headed and weak when Halleluja! I hit the gravel and then even better Tar! 120kph is surprisingly hard to keep to. My GPS now knew where it was meant to be going so at least I was not having to guess where the others had gone.

Sadly the tar was not long lived. Somewhere we dived into a gravel road that turned to track and not far down there around a corner there was the Amageza film crew. Aha! At least I was for a moment on the right track. It’s hard not to showboat with cameras about.

Soon on from there another patch of sand, a long stretch under some power lines. Legedema passed me here. His forte is high speed travel and he’s not at all slow, he seemed well in the groove so it was fun to sit behind him. Actually I really didn’t have much choice, he’s blitz quick and I would have been far into the here-be-dragons-sunshine zone to get back past him.

It was here that I went for a quick forestry lecture. The edge of the track caught my bastard of a E10 front and it was either bin it or ride it out. Ride it out was the choice. In no time, I knew what a flea on the back of a porcupine feels like. Just hundreds of thumb sized port Jacksons and me stuck in them. That took 20 minutes of really going deep into the red zone. I sucked at least a litre of water and was getting a bit claustrophobic in my ATTGAT whilst wrestling the beast out. So much so, that half way through this I pulled my pants down and shirt up to try cool off. I can’t imagine what that would have looked like if anyone came thundering down the track just then.

This was about how far I got before I had to pull my kit off;



Entry was at that slight bend back there.


Fortunately once I got going again another train track appeared and again I was saved by the breeze.

All was not plain sailing, I was not feeling well. I could feel dehydration and loss of keenness for anything much and certainly not anymore sand. This is a dangerous state to be in. Concentration goes for a ball. The track besides the railway kept crossing the lines and some panic stops were ordered. I still did not listen and inevitably I was completely taken by surprise by a deep culvert crossing under the tracks. I managed to scrub a bit of speed off before I hit it but I was still going way too fast. I was just the passenger now, but the bike fortunately had had enough of me being a cupcake and sorted out the mess for me. All hail the KTM suspension! I didn’t need the Gods to give me another wakeup call so backed off a bit.

Again my tracks ran dry just before Darling so I was forced to follow the tracks of others again. I had to do 2 time consuming U-turns, one just before Darling. The other I rode to one end of the dorp before I found out that the petrol was the other way. On my way back into Darling Legedema passed me for the last time. I would only see him again supping beer back at the landing field.

Aha! There was Sack fixing a puncture. He’d got it by also daydreaming through the culvert.

I filled up with fuel and took a quick bath under the petrol station tap. I sucked on a rehydrate and an energy bar and moved a few small steps away from cupcake status. 

Sack headed off a few minutes before me. We both agreed that if any more Atlantis was on the menu then we’d phone home for the wives to come and get us.

He only made it about a k up the road and still within Darling when he got another puncture. He would win the puncture stakes by getting a total of 5 for the day. 

The GPS routed me onto gravel again, wide open stuff that again that front tire wasn’t liking one bit. At 120 it was very nervous and not my idea of fun at all. Still, I was very happy to deal with a nervous bike rather than see the GPS track head off into a sand pit, so as long as it showed long straights I was happy. Just past Rocking the Daisy’s concert place my GPS tracks ran dry again. I had to double back a few times to check suspicious looking turnoffs to do some tracking of the three ahead of me. The rehydrate and bar had kicked in and I, just for a moment, was sure that maybe I had a bit more sand in me if needed. But, I’ve got to truthful here, that moment wasn’t that long.

The rest of the story was only noteworthy in that we were routed along a scenic train track and right past Atlantis and straight back onto the shit-myself-silly-by-overtaking-gyro railway track. I wasn’t sorry at all to know Atlantis was behind.

There were a gaggle of bikes parked at the field. I wasn’t so certain that I was the fourth bike in until chatting to all. Sack without his punctures would easily have been in my place.

The beers and burgers were just right, the company was perfect for a bit of banter and the organisers had more than played their part.

I had a really great day out and what’s more we get to do it again in April. For two days!… that’s if I get off the standby list. I feel a bit like Tau waiting for his entry to be given the green light.

Last night I was chopping those Port Jacksons down well before 8pm and today I’m a bit stiff.

The E10 rear can stay but that front one, anyone want it? Lightly ridden for 300k’s, yours for R200.00
 
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