One dog and a bitch on trip to Kommandodrift and lotsa pics.

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Jerrycan

Race Dog
Joined
Nov 22, 2007
Messages
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Location
JHB
Bike
Yamaha TW200
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I've had this itch since Linda bought her TW two years ago as a first bike, riding behind her on the F650GS like a true gentleman at 90 kays an hour while she found her way on two wheels.  So in typical dog style I scratched where it itched, and it wasn't my balls, it was the simplicity of the mini thumper that intrigued me, and the fact that it was Yamaha.  I've had Mercury  and Mariner outboard motors until I discovered Yamaha, and besides, my very first bike was a Yam, only later did I switch to Boxer Beemers with Bing carbs, again because the simplicity and resulting reliability combined with ease of maintenance made biking a thing of relaxation rather than a thing of financial burden and grovelling in front of the bank manager when a BM water pump or even worse ECU needed replacement.  The TW is a rugged little machine, been in production for at least 15 years with only minor design changes through all those years, it has enough torque to warrant a 5 teeth drop in rear sprocket for a bit more tops and a major service gets done by self in under an hour and only cost 1.3 litres of oil, oil and air filters are re-useable.

For those of you who may think I'm farkin mad to go from R80GS and F650GS to a TW while there are 1200GS's and 950 Katooms available, I'll simply quote Chris Scott, one of the pioneers of adventure biking since these are exactly my sentiments after having been there, done it and getting the T-shirt: "The more you learn about overlanding biking the more you realise what you DON'T need; your bike becomes less of a "statement of your individuality and belief in personal freedom" and evolves into a functional and dispensable adventure tool.  Comfort comes as a result of function and freedom from worry; you may not turn heads, but in Asia or Africa, a few less heads turned will make your day."  Also read about the two ouks that criss-crossed Namibia on two Hyperama specials costing only about R16g'seach, 180 or 175cc jobs I think it was, the story is in this month's Bark Essay.

So I bought a TeeDub, cheap enough to be able to replace it should it one day disappear falling overboard a dug out canoe in the swamps or something like that, found a used one from a preacher-man who used it to visit his congregation members, (it was a holy TeeDub, all hell was ridden out of it, I found traces of a chain-snap and the barrel was about to disembark from the crankcase due to loose top bolts and it was pissing oil as a result) it had 7K kms on the clock, was same year model as Linda's which meant only one set of spares to take along on trip and I kitted it out fully, o-ring chain, sprockets, alu bars, GPS bracket, soft panniers, top box, tank bag, new tyres etc. and still had change left for a new Evo jacket and new boots after selling the Beemer.  This TeeDub is mine, not Wesbank's or ABSA's or any loan shark's.  That was two months ago, the next step was to see if as much fun could be had on the TeeDub as on the Beemer, this trip being the result...

The standard knobblies were replaced with dual sport tyres for a more vibration free ride (to Linda's disgust) and had to be taken for a test before the trip, so after some Gauteng rainstorms we went looking for mud and sand around town to get the feel for the new tyres, needless to say, with a bike weighing less than 130kg and a contact patch almost the size of a John Deere tractor tyre I could hardly feel a difference in the sand and mud.
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Packing for the trip, we had to cater for sleeping and cooking in the bush and fuel for 300-400 kays so we could skip the towns.  We did over do the packing thing, this trip was a trial run for the luggage racks I built and I never used soft panniers before so wanted to see if all systems work for future long trips.  We only took extra fuel on board when leaving Bothaville, 10l each and 4l water each, the rest was more bulk than weight, tent and sleeping bags and sleeping mats which in the end did not prove to be worth a sh#t, next trip will see an inflatable mattress and 12v accessory plugs for an inflator.
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As we passed the Grassmere tollgate it started pissing of course, but we had an ace up the sleeve, we packed our raingear including rubber over boots which proved a blessing before the day was out.. yeah, we looked like pharmacy delivery personnel rather than ADV riders but there was no bath or tumble dryer where we were going and there was a lady on trip with me.
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