Desert Run 2006 Preliminary

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JourneyMan

Bachelor Dog
Joined
Jan 26, 2006
Messages
11,797
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Location
Pretoria
Bike
BMW F650GS / Dakar
So. Me and the Dakar back in one piece!

We had a ball of a time (except for a few things which will folllow below) and certainly are previleged to have had the experience.

Firstly. I did not have a camera with me so don't expect any pics soon. However, there were 5 camera's in our group so it is just a matter of getting the pics from them. They are scattered over Gauteng/North West so it may take some time. One of the group (Zak) took 1500+ pics alone! A full report will follow once I've got all the pics.

Distance covered: 4 526km from start point in Pretoria and back home. About 1 500 of that was tar. Me personally spend around 3 900km of that on a bike! :p Backside a bit sore.

Highlights:

- Seeing a very green Namibia
- Khomas Hochland Pass (Personally my favourate DS riding part of the trip)
- "Roller Coaster" on the way to Windhoek from Kois. Exhilarating and heart stopping stuff!
- Sossusvlei (Words can not describe it)
- Riding DS for 3000 km (Bike/Bakkie)
- Personally riding 2 400km DS type conditions on bikes
- Surviving "Red" route 1. (Dropped the bike three times in a 200m stretch of soft/deep sand :shock: ) No damage to bike. Rider needs to get some sand riding practice!
- Great time with friends
- Many,many laughs

Not so nice

- Fellow Desert Runners stealing some of our booze, tie downs and my personal medical aid kit with personal medcines needed. :x Happened at Red Sands on the first night. Words fail me.
- Dakar/KLR/Honda CRF450 all down for repairs on dune day at Walvis. Had a great time at the dunes but no serious dune riding! :cry: (Dakar fork seals replaced, KLR thought it was clutch but was sand in the kill switch cable on the stand, CRF450 valve problems) All sorted out that day and up and running the next.
- Quads

Man. This was rediculous! I think 80% of participants was quads and with no basic courtesy to be found with most of them. Spoke to Simon at Molopo and he just said is is the way things are going. Money talks. IMO, it was a Quad SA Desert Run organized by Bike SA. (I think both Quad SA and Bike SA is Simon?)

Otherwise it was a well organized run and I I enjoyed it thoroughly. My skills has certainly benefitted from the trip but the trip also highlighted where I must get some serious improvement.

Dakar was awesome! Apart from the fork seals going, the bike did not have any problems and handled all the conditions in her stride. (Needed to since rider sometimes not so skilled! :lol: )

Seals went at 25 500km. Is this standard or should it have lasted longer?

Our group has decided not to do the organized Bike SA trip in the future but run our own. Maybe a day or two in advance of the official trip.
 
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