briv
Race Dog
- Joined
- May 3, 2006
- Messages
- 2,811
- Reaction score
- 98
- Location
- Bel-in-die-wil Cape Town
- Bike
- KTM 990 Adventure
This is a trip I did sometime ago and posted on bmw.m.ad; some might have read it but some might not.
Waenhuiskrans and back...or not
Saturday and what shall I do when my wife escorts my two girls to a morning birthday party and then a second afternoon birthday party!
Get the gear on and take the Dakar to Caledon and swing right to Napier. It is a leisurely cruise over Sir Lowry's pass up to Caledon and then on through to the best piece of road that a biker can experience.
In a blink of an eye Napier looms up ahead and your senses are clear from the exhilaration of the absolute stunning piece of road just travelled. A quick stop at the 'Moerse Winkel' to clean all the bugs of the visor and on we go to Waenhuiskrans.
There, a leisurely stroll around the beach area and a drink to take some of the heat away. It's back on the saddle and hit the gravel road to Struisbaai. This is a good piece of gravel road and it is the short cut between Waenhuiskrans and Struisbaai.
I come out on the tar road approximately 20 kilometres from Struisbaai. Here the wind starts to pick up and I have to lean quite heavily to the right to keep going the right direction. About 10 kilometres from Struisbaai the turn off to Elim and then the road on to Gansbaai looms up ahead.
I take the turn on to this gravel road and ride about 500 metres before deciding to lower my tyre pressures as I had packed the pump to reinflate when necessary. As I undo the rear tyre valve cap I feel the tyre and rim is a bit hot but don't take any notice and move on to the front. I come back to the rear and to my utmost disbelief the tyre is flat. I roll the bike and there it sits, a u shape nail, the type used to fix wire to an upright, imbedded with both sharp ends.
I then do something that I will never do again. Without thinking out comes the Leatherman and out comes the nail. With a flying arc it travels into the veld followed by a good long burst of cursing. Needless to say that the tyre is now totally flat and there is nothing to stop the air from escaping.
In hindsight I should have just let the nail stay in position and then applied the can of tyre weld that I always travel with. Needles to say, the tyre weld just poured out under pressure as fast as it expelled into the tyre. I then upped the bike on some rocks to get the rear tyre to turn and spread whatever tyre weld was left inside. This was quite a mission on its own as I had to lift the bike over on to the rocks then close the side stand hanging over the saddle, then start the bike, again hang over the saddle to engage a gear and all this while holding the front brake and my finger on the kill switch, so if some unforeseen slip occurs the bike does not go its own way.
This done, I attach the pump and try to inflate the tyre. All that happens is air and bubbles escape from the two big holes in the tyre. With another unsavoury exclaimation I decide to call in some help.
Luckily a friend of mine is on his way to Struisbaai to visit his mother-in-law. He drives a 4x4 and after a call he is on his way with some tyre plugs. While waiting for him I inspect the front tyre and low and behold I find small devils thorn in a tyre valley.
As I remove it the dreaded hissing sound appears and there goes the front tyre. I quickly plug it back in and it stops. The can of tyre weld would have closed this hole but now it lies all empty and discarded useless. Now I have two flats to contend with. Well nothing but wait till help arrives.
The pump I packed is rigged for the open battery under my bakkies's engine hood. So I have to rig some way of getting power to it without stripping all the panels. This I did by tapping into the fuse box and running a piece of wire to the back attached to the carrier, so I can attach the pump when needed.( I always pack a length of twin flex wire and some cable ties). I left home 09H30 and as John arrives I glance at my watch, its 15h15, I have been stationary for 2 hours and that is not what I am meant to be doing!
We quickly plug the two holes and I pump the front and rear. Start up hit the road back to Bredasdorp, not wanting to continue on dirt road. 5 Kms down the road I stop and check the tyre. Flat again, so I pump it and find the air escaping through the spokes so the tube is damaged. That's it, I pump the tyre and turn around heading straight for Struisbaai, making use of John's offer of joining him and his family for an unplanned braai and sleep over.
I phone Anda, my wife, and get Leon's bike trailer organised for a recovery on Sunday. We have a lovely braai with excellent weather, a couple of beers and some wine and the most amazing stroll down the Struisbaai boardwalk to the harbour.
Sunday morning I am up and out for walk at 07h15. A nice cup of coffee and a news paper to wait for Anda and the trailer. 11H30 the whole family arrives. I load the bike on the lazy loader and off we go back home. What an adventure!! And did a learn something!!!
What would I do if something like that happens again? I would not remove the object from the tyre before investigating the whole situation first. I would always carry some twin flex, zip ties and tyre weld; I will in future ad a tube patch kit and tyre plug kit and some tyre levers. I must ad that the unplanned stay over was so good I might just plan it again.
Dis wat ek doen patch kit tyre levers en als altyd.
Waenhuiskrans and back...or not
Saturday and what shall I do when my wife escorts my two girls to a morning birthday party and then a second afternoon birthday party!
Get the gear on and take the Dakar to Caledon and swing right to Napier. It is a leisurely cruise over Sir Lowry's pass up to Caledon and then on through to the best piece of road that a biker can experience.
In a blink of an eye Napier looms up ahead and your senses are clear from the exhilaration of the absolute stunning piece of road just travelled. A quick stop at the 'Moerse Winkel' to clean all the bugs of the visor and on we go to Waenhuiskrans.
There, a leisurely stroll around the beach area and a drink to take some of the heat away. It's back on the saddle and hit the gravel road to Struisbaai. This is a good piece of gravel road and it is the short cut between Waenhuiskrans and Struisbaai.
I come out on the tar road approximately 20 kilometres from Struisbaai. Here the wind starts to pick up and I have to lean quite heavily to the right to keep going the right direction. About 10 kilometres from Struisbaai the turn off to Elim and then the road on to Gansbaai looms up ahead.
I take the turn on to this gravel road and ride about 500 metres before deciding to lower my tyre pressures as I had packed the pump to reinflate when necessary. As I undo the rear tyre valve cap I feel the tyre and rim is a bit hot but don't take any notice and move on to the front. I come back to the rear and to my utmost disbelief the tyre is flat. I roll the bike and there it sits, a u shape nail, the type used to fix wire to an upright, imbedded with both sharp ends.
I then do something that I will never do again. Without thinking out comes the Leatherman and out comes the nail. With a flying arc it travels into the veld followed by a good long burst of cursing. Needless to say that the tyre is now totally flat and there is nothing to stop the air from escaping.
In hindsight I should have just let the nail stay in position and then applied the can of tyre weld that I always travel with. Needles to say, the tyre weld just poured out under pressure as fast as it expelled into the tyre. I then upped the bike on some rocks to get the rear tyre to turn and spread whatever tyre weld was left inside. This was quite a mission on its own as I had to lift the bike over on to the rocks then close the side stand hanging over the saddle, then start the bike, again hang over the saddle to engage a gear and all this while holding the front brake and my finger on the kill switch, so if some unforeseen slip occurs the bike does not go its own way.
This done, I attach the pump and try to inflate the tyre. All that happens is air and bubbles escape from the two big holes in the tyre. With another unsavoury exclaimation I decide to call in some help.
Luckily a friend of mine is on his way to Struisbaai to visit his mother-in-law. He drives a 4x4 and after a call he is on his way with some tyre plugs. While waiting for him I inspect the front tyre and low and behold I find small devils thorn in a tyre valley.
As I remove it the dreaded hissing sound appears and there goes the front tyre. I quickly plug it back in and it stops. The can of tyre weld would have closed this hole but now it lies all empty and discarded useless. Now I have two flats to contend with. Well nothing but wait till help arrives.
The pump I packed is rigged for the open battery under my bakkies's engine hood. So I have to rig some way of getting power to it without stripping all the panels. This I did by tapping into the fuse box and running a piece of wire to the back attached to the carrier, so I can attach the pump when needed.( I always pack a length of twin flex wire and some cable ties). I left home 09H30 and as John arrives I glance at my watch, its 15h15, I have been stationary for 2 hours and that is not what I am meant to be doing!
We quickly plug the two holes and I pump the front and rear. Start up hit the road back to Bredasdorp, not wanting to continue on dirt road. 5 Kms down the road I stop and check the tyre. Flat again, so I pump it and find the air escaping through the spokes so the tube is damaged. That's it, I pump the tyre and turn around heading straight for Struisbaai, making use of John's offer of joining him and his family for an unplanned braai and sleep over.
I phone Anda, my wife, and get Leon's bike trailer organised for a recovery on Sunday. We have a lovely braai with excellent weather, a couple of beers and some wine and the most amazing stroll down the Struisbaai boardwalk to the harbour.
Sunday morning I am up and out for walk at 07h15. A nice cup of coffee and a news paper to wait for Anda and the trailer. 11H30 the whole family arrives. I load the bike on the lazy loader and off we go back home. What an adventure!! And did a learn something!!!
What would I do if something like that happens again? I would not remove the object from the tyre before investigating the whole situation first. I would always carry some twin flex, zip ties and tyre weld; I will in future ad a tube patch kit and tyre plug kit and some tyre levers. I must ad that the unplanned stay over was so good I might just plan it again.
Dis wat ek doen patch kit tyre levers en als altyd.
