Henk, have a look at Hawkesy's channel -
https://www.youtube.com/c/WildCoastAdventures_Transkei/videos - and just pick any one... and you want to put a 145kg bike on there?
The
fun part of the Transkei is that it's not all rideable (on a plastic!), and the resultant struggling then forces the group to act like one: at the very least helping if not manhandling by multiple guys, or worse, roping (some guys brought pulleys!) to get the bikes up. We've even carried bikes across a river, four men per bike wading chest-deep!
You will not make any friends if you bring an anvil to the darts competition...
It's for plastics like CRF230 (the perfect weapon there!), KDX200 and the orange bikes, and Kamanya also (like me) won't take his 500 there... and he's a rather handy rider (unlike me)!
But yeah, you
can take it, and Kamanya will be showing off on his 525 then..... but then we won't do the
real Transkei: again, look at any clip from the abovementioned channel!
When we were there on 690's we did completely different routes - yeah, difficult enough, sure - but we were simply stopped because the rain made it too hectic, and next we found ourselves riding on the roads. That was difficult enough on those bikes in that rain yeah, but it was not 'Transkei' riding!
The youtube in the first post shows (I'm almost sure...) 'The Gorge' from 3m55s to about 4m50secs.
That's the uphill bit on Kob Inn's side, and it's dry there... the
lucky gits!
The downhill bit though (not shown in the video!) is these days rideable only by socalled Gods, a steep large-rock stepped descent... so moi walked a large part of it... that in itself wears you out I guarantee you. I
did ride it ~12 years ago on my KDX nogals, but all those years of erosion have taken a serious toll, visible everywhere... also on that uphill bit, narrow deep ruts, plus it used to be wider there too I think (overgrown now) so you'll have to face it these days.
I will assume you want to see the
real, rof en tof Transkei, the difficult bits - which will make you suffer as a group, and wear you out so that you're klaar when you get to the top/out?
Then like I said...
... get a suitable bike somewhere - rent? Or force your daughter to pick a boyfriend with a plastic you can borrow!
I am
mid-sixties these days (like some of the pinged guys btw) so you're a relative laaitie still, ditto fitasafiddle Canz, and the youngest probably is Renrew - but I know ONE thing:
it will be awesome to do the (real!) Transkei as a group!
And Andrew (agewise in his midyears here), I reckon you can borrow a bike from one of the many guys you must know?
Let's DO it chaps, let's go pester Hawkesy with a request to put something together for us!
