blauth
Race Dog
My old man has a guest lodge between Belfast and Dullstroom. In order to visit as often as possible, I try combine my recreational activities with family responsibilities so this has naturally resulted in an adventure ride every few weeks to my dads place.
OneWayRay opted to join me on the ride so Saturday morning, after a cuppa, we got going, myself on my newly acquired KTM525 and Ray on his XR650L. For me, this was a little bit of a recce ride for the 525, this being it's first trip of fair distance.
Anyways, I won't give you lot the long winded version, here's the short version:
Midrand to Bronchorstspruit - All offroad. We headed out of Midrand on the usual route, a quick refuel and the route there is a combination of single track and service roads for railways. A really nice route. Apart from switching bikes so we could get a better feel for each others ride, the route to the N4 was uneventful. After the N4, we kinda headed towards Mamelodi and hooked up with the railway heading east.
Here for whatever reason, we saw a steep rocky climb off to the left (most of you will know it, but it's not the climb around the mountain, it's the one you see from the road) that we just have to try....because we can. I give it a bash on my 525 and stall about half way up. While I am trying to stop my bike from sliding backwards, Ray comes up to the left of me, chooses a different line and next thing I know, his XR is verticle, Ray is off the back and next thing the XR is almost lying on top of me. That was a close call, for both Ray and myself but all including the bike are unscathed so.... Now the last time I did this kind of climbing, Mike from Red Cherry Adventures gave me a couple of pointers about steep climbs like this where there is very little traction: Square the bike up (90 degrees to the incline, position the bike on anything where you can get a little traction and then control the back wheel i.e. no wheel spin which means ride the clutch to get maximum traction.) Okes, this works!!!! Next thing I knew, I was at the top with no more toiling. Just then a group of riders on Beta's came past (going downwards) and the one oke asked if I had come up the climb. I told him and he just shook his head. Now to get Ray's XR up there. Well this was a little more of a challenge but at this time, THE CLIMB WAS NOT GOING TO BEAT US!!! 15 minutes later and we were both panting at the top of the climb, very chuffed with ourselves.
OneWayRay opted to join me on the ride so Saturday morning, after a cuppa, we got going, myself on my newly acquired KTM525 and Ray on his XR650L. For me, this was a little bit of a recce ride for the 525, this being it's first trip of fair distance.
Anyways, I won't give you lot the long winded version, here's the short version:
Midrand to Bronchorstspruit - All offroad. We headed out of Midrand on the usual route, a quick refuel and the route there is a combination of single track and service roads for railways. A really nice route. Apart from switching bikes so we could get a better feel for each others ride, the route to the N4 was uneventful. After the N4, we kinda headed towards Mamelodi and hooked up with the railway heading east.
Here for whatever reason, we saw a steep rocky climb off to the left (most of you will know it, but it's not the climb around the mountain, it's the one you see from the road) that we just have to try....because we can. I give it a bash on my 525 and stall about half way up. While I am trying to stop my bike from sliding backwards, Ray comes up to the left of me, chooses a different line and next thing I know, his XR is verticle, Ray is off the back and next thing the XR is almost lying on top of me. That was a close call, for both Ray and myself but all including the bike are unscathed so.... Now the last time I did this kind of climbing, Mike from Red Cherry Adventures gave me a couple of pointers about steep climbs like this where there is very little traction: Square the bike up (90 degrees to the incline, position the bike on anything where you can get a little traction and then control the back wheel i.e. no wheel spin which means ride the clutch to get maximum traction.) Okes, this works!!!! Next thing I knew, I was at the top with no more toiling. Just then a group of riders on Beta's came past (going downwards) and the one oke asked if I had come up the climb. I told him and he just shook his head. Now to get Ray's XR up there. Well this was a little more of a challenge but at this time, THE CLIMB WAS NOT GOING TO BEAT US!!! 15 minutes later and we were both panting at the top of the climb, very chuffed with ourselves.
