EtienneNXR
Bachelor Dog
125â??s and Fruit Farms
Routine, we get so caught up in it. The everyday cycle of life, go to work/school come home eat sleep get up go to work/school the cycle just continues. And the only way to break that cycle to do the thing you love the most riding! Riding to remember what life is really about,forgetting your responsibilities and having a hell of a great time doing it.
We recently went up to the little town of Tulbacht for a long weekend to go camp on a fruit farm in the middle of the mountains. All packed up we headed of with the bakkie and caravan and my bike on the back. The whole time we were driving to the place i was just thrilled to be able to get out and do some hard dirt riding again. We arrive at the camping spot, its placed in the beautiful Winterhoeks mountain range all the fruit boards where also in the mountains with hundreds of dirt access roads winding through them, and they are as steep as mine shafts!
We went to sleep that night I just took my sleeping bag and went to go sleep next to a dam. The next morning Iam up before sunrise getting my gear on. I start the bike and start doing some fun riding through the fruit roads, these roads are so steep when you go down them it feels like you are going to fall over the handle bars. I make my way to the main gravel road its still damp because the sun just came up. The roads are long with lots of bends and drunk farm workers in the middle, so you get a wet twisty road full of drunks to dodge... Go figure
I stop under a tree to make myself some coffee and just enjoy being out of the city, I cant imagine how people can survive in the the city without breaks like these. So i rode back to the farm to go do some serious off roading, the dirt hills are dry by now and i start attacking the biggest one i could find. Its so steep that the front wheel occasionally lifts of the ground on the way up, 10 meters from the top the Honda is starting to run out of stem I think to myself that if it stalls now itâ??s going to get real ugly real fast. I quickly pull the clutch rev the bike full out let the clutch go and i shot up the hill. Man I thought that was going to be the end of my weekend, when suddenly i struck a boulder in the road, the grass is so high that i couldn't even see it I went down hard. Laying there for a moment just hoping the bike is alright when i saw the right hand brake lever snapped clean off.
I pick the bike up in disgust and ride to the camping site. We braai and swim on the dam for the day. Later the afternoon I get the courage to go tackle those hills again(was that a dumb decision!) so iam of again starting the decent down the first hill, having no front break I have to try going down with only the rear. But when i step on it to lightly it has no affect and the moment i went harder the back wheel locks up and the bike slid out of my control throwing me of and then to rest on my leg, so now iam lying there in the rotten plums with a bike on top of me. Got to love this sport i thought to myself, I eventually get my legs out from under the bike and start to go down further. Luckily didnâ??t fall again I was already down the hardest part so thought I will just go to the gravel road and ride a bit. Watching the sun set in my mirror I was almost back at camp. What a great weekend I thought to myself, where are you going to get an experience like this in the city?
It would be a sin to not come do this regularly, just one thought I will definitely be getting set of hand guards they might be expensive but they are worth it in the long run.
Routine, we get so caught up in it. The everyday cycle of life, go to work/school come home eat sleep get up go to work/school the cycle just continues. And the only way to break that cycle to do the thing you love the most riding! Riding to remember what life is really about,forgetting your responsibilities and having a hell of a great time doing it.
We recently went up to the little town of Tulbacht for a long weekend to go camp on a fruit farm in the middle of the mountains. All packed up we headed of with the bakkie and caravan and my bike on the back. The whole time we were driving to the place i was just thrilled to be able to get out and do some hard dirt riding again. We arrive at the camping spot, its placed in the beautiful Winterhoeks mountain range all the fruit boards where also in the mountains with hundreds of dirt access roads winding through them, and they are as steep as mine shafts!
We went to sleep that night I just took my sleeping bag and went to go sleep next to a dam. The next morning Iam up before sunrise getting my gear on. I start the bike and start doing some fun riding through the fruit roads, these roads are so steep when you go down them it feels like you are going to fall over the handle bars. I make my way to the main gravel road its still damp because the sun just came up. The roads are long with lots of bends and drunk farm workers in the middle, so you get a wet twisty road full of drunks to dodge... Go figure
I stop under a tree to make myself some coffee and just enjoy being out of the city, I cant imagine how people can survive in the the city without breaks like these. So i rode back to the farm to go do some serious off roading, the dirt hills are dry by now and i start attacking the biggest one i could find. Its so steep that the front wheel occasionally lifts of the ground on the way up, 10 meters from the top the Honda is starting to run out of stem I think to myself that if it stalls now itâ??s going to get real ugly real fast. I quickly pull the clutch rev the bike full out let the clutch go and i shot up the hill. Man I thought that was going to be the end of my weekend, when suddenly i struck a boulder in the road, the grass is so high that i couldn't even see it I went down hard. Laying there for a moment just hoping the bike is alright when i saw the right hand brake lever snapped clean off.
I pick the bike up in disgust and ride to the camping site. We braai and swim on the dam for the day. Later the afternoon I get the courage to go tackle those hills again(was that a dumb decision!) so iam of again starting the decent down the first hill, having no front break I have to try going down with only the rear. But when i step on it to lightly it has no affect and the moment i went harder the back wheel locks up and the bike slid out of my control throwing me of and then to rest on my leg, so now iam lying there in the rotten plums with a bike on top of me. Got to love this sport i thought to myself, I eventually get my legs out from under the bike and start to go down further. Luckily didnâ??t fall again I was already down the hardest part so thought I will just go to the gravel road and ride a bit. Watching the sun set in my mirror I was almost back at camp. What a great weekend I thought to myself, where are you going to get an experience like this in the city?
It would be a sin to not come do this regularly, just one thought I will definitely be getting set of hand guards they might be expensive but they are worth it in the long run.
