The KTM 990's Maiden Voyage

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SGB

Race Dog
Joined
Feb 4, 2006
Messages
3,157
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11
Location
Bloemfontein, SA
Bike
BMW R1200GS
Friend Main wrote the story - thought I'd share:

It is true that there is often a second side to a story. The first was around a few pictures sent out anonymously by email entitled: ?New developments: watch this space!?. The second follows and is a tale of how quickly things change.

It?s Saturday morning 8 July 2006. Imagine the Main camp cruising through the House and Garden show. I?m looking for an opportunity to shoot the breeze and share a few Botswana stories with Mr Afrispoor whilst N pages through a seemingly endless pile of Persian rugs. My phone rings and I see it?s from SGB. I need to speak to him to finalise Sunday?s ride to raise some money for a KTM fella who wants to do the Red Bulls Romaniacs thing. I?m getting old so my hearing is not what it should be and the convention centre is a noisy place. I do manage to pick up some important words like ?Fancy new gadget?.when can I see you?.?? Anything to stop the paging through the Persians, so I convince N we must trek up to the B's by scoota with the kids on the back for afternoon tea. As expected Thomas and Luli exert the necessary pressure on Mom and the Persian selection is made in extra quick time.

Arrival at the B?s is welcoming as usual. I observe out of the corner of my eye that nothing seems out of place.

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The 540 neatly parked outside the front door with the Cruiser next to the garage. I notice the Cruiser still has some Botswana dirt on it but Mr B tells me time has been few and he?s had a bad week. We exchange pleasantries in the driveway and suddenly SGB raises the issue of this gadget. We stroll to the garage and as he opens the door I notice the 950 has had a paint job with some fancy stickers that read ?Adventure S 990 efi?. On closer inspection, this is no ordinary paint & sticker job, this is the real thing?..the trusted 950 has made way for a magnificent new 990. Lots of approving oooohs! and aaaahs! and I?m beginning to understand why SGB has had such a bad week - come to think of it I would also rather pick up my new chariot than wash my Landy. And to top it all, not one little kilometre on the clock ? I sat on it and personally fired up the 990 cubes just to check that it was an operational unit and not one of those plastic dummy show units.


We have celebratory beer and coffee and discuss the maiden voyage. It is a sad moment indeed ? first sadness is that the would-be voyagers list looks terrible, almost like a war-zone:-

G ? sunning his buns in Hazeyview
P ? Germany on business ? I hope he?s supporting Italy in the finals!
H ? Doing an elephant count up in Chobe
N ? Must work in her shop this weekend
M ? Geen bromponies toegelaat nie!
K ? still waiting for delivery of his new GS12 ADV

That left C and myself and after a short drawing of the straws, C volunteered to look after the Yobs so that SGB and I could do the maiden voyage thing ? thank you C. We agreed to meet at 6 bells on Sunday ? route to be confirmed later.

Further sadness is that the 990 is unlicensed ? there is nothing on it other than an Alfie Cox sticker (not that the state of law enforcement in KZN is anything to laugh at, but an Alfie Cox sticker might just get you by. However, this was serious business and we weren?t taking any chances!!). This sadness took a structured thought process and robust debate to overcome. 12 seconds later it was agreed that the 450 parked in my garage would donate its KATOOM-ZN paperwork to the 990 until further notice.


There being no further problems to solve, The Main camp shot off back home for me to do some planning and for us to entertain Matthew and Kirsten who were going to join us for the night, but not before a quick fill-up at the local shell.

Sunday morning 6 bells and the call was to do a KZN round trip starting off at the Pavillion Engen and heading up the North Coast. The morning air was chilly and first light was still on its way when we left the N2 at Umhlanga, choosing to see sunrise along the beach route rather than the N2. First stop was at the Wild Bean Caf�© Coffee Shop at the BP on the seaward side of the Sibaya Casino. Their Cuppacino is highly recommended and even comes served with a rusk.

We were approaching Westbrook beach when the sun started to pop through over the sea. A great start to what would turn out to be an awesome days riding, so we thought a quick Kodak moment was in order. Clearly Mr B had not seen such a sight since his early mornings out of his rooftop tent in Botswana, and it was only later that I started to piece a few things together. Just a stones throw away we got back onto the N2 at Ballito. It was 7 bells and we had done the best part of 50 kilometers. We would need to pick up the pace a bit or it was about to become a maiden week.

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The road ahead covered a further 180 odd kilometres to our next stop at Mtubatuba and this was an ideal opportunity for me to capture some of the events over the last couple of hours. Of great concern to me and to Piet with whom I had had a SMS conversation with the previous night was the inability of the Durban branch of the KGB to have picked up that anything at all was going on between Mr B and Richard Manning at KTM in Pietermaritzburg. From a few snippets SGB was throwing away, this deal was in process some time ago. In fact during a stretch of the Frostbite Run, the 950 was shown off to the new owner, and this right under our noses. Clearly the temperature severely affected our powers of observation. I started hoping that the meeting took place prior to Harrismith in which case we would only have to release Gaukes and Hein from any further KGB responsibilities. Failing this we would all have to go. Blikskottel?..there could be a public outcry the magnitude of which was last experienced after Zuma claimed to use a shower as a post-event prophylactic!

I reminded myself that all of this took place before the Botswana trip as well and so I started to understand why Mr B wasn?t sleeping so well in Botswana. How do you sleep when you?ve got such a helluva secret to tell your riding buddies but you don?t ? and on top of it, all around you, tea is being sipped with MDB and deals being struck with new wheels. You?re in the wrong job Mr B?..you should have been a spy. Are you sure that?s not a cyanide pill in your teeth?! Then again to be fair, I remembered when SGB tried to raise the issue of two wheels in Botswana, the rest of the gang told him to keep quiet because this was not a bike trip ? maybe the KGB has itself to blame for this royal mess!

Suddenly Mr B is in the shoulder and he?s slowing down. We have had a bit of a head-wind and the 990 still is running in so she has been a thirsty beast. The closest fuel is just up the hill and around the corner. With a tilt of the bike and a quiet prayer (trust me, by the determined look on SGB?s face he would have picked the new machine up by the twin exhausts and wheelbarrowed it to the nearest fuel pump rather than have it towed in) we were at the Caltex at Mtubatuba. It was around 8 and a half bells and the next stretch would add a different part of the countryside for both of us.

The route took us on the road through the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park and on to Nongoma. But first a stop at the Nyalazi gate of the park for a body break and to study the local water-hole. For the second time Botswana was compared ? first the sunrise and now the spread of game around a water-hole but a few meters from the reception area. We were privileged - a couple of minutes later there were tourists in numbers and the game had drifted back into the bush. Our total count for the water-hole and the road through to Nongoma included nyala, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest. Time to push on.

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At some point, and I wasn?t watching the kilometres, we started with road-works and the odd stretch of dirt alongside the works. Both of us were acutely aware of incorrect tyre pressures and SGB had not even set up his suspension yet so it was slowly, slowly catch a monkey. At one point we debated making some adjustments, but seeing as we were supposed to be on tar and we had no idea how much longer the dirt stretches would last for so we decided to continue carefully on. For me on the big BM it was great learning on the new machine and the smile on SGB?s face after the odd burst suggested he wasn?t having such a bad time either. We reached tar closer to Nongoma and then it was on to Ulundi on good tar.

Well what can we say about Ulundi? Good roads in and good roads out?that?s about it. Once the powerhouse of KZN politics, the provincial legislature still stands out in this village, but for the rest?well it?s a village much like the others we passed through. The once proud Shell garage with a Whistle Stop now has less of a restaurant and SGB managed to get a couple of pies, bananas and juices from the takeaway that offered to make us chips but that it would take around twenty minutes. SGB reckoned if it was twenty minutes to start with then they probably needed to plant the potatoes first, so the micro-waved pies seemed a better bet. Good enough for a couple of hungry fellas. Judging by the sun, it was just after eleven bells after the men and machines had refuelled and so time to continue on the way.

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The plan was to head out from Ulundi and a few kilometres into the Vryheid road we would take a short dirt trip through to the city lights of Babanango. Shortly after the dirt section started, there appeared in the middle of the road one of those little yellow and black ?road closed? signs. We could go back and tackle the same route from Dennydalton, but in one of those split seconds brain told eye (eye told brain?? I?m never sure which way round it is in these tricky situations) not to be silly because there were healthy vehicle tracks on both sides of the sign. What could possibly stand in the way of a well planned Garmap auto route? Lovely dirt, a little more confidence, still on unadjusted tyre pressures and horrible suspension, but we were enjoying the day.

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A short skip after we pass Pandas Graf, and as quickly as the ?closed? sign had appeared, the reason for the sign appeared. I stayed well back because the thought of sticking my 65kg?s in the ring with the BM?s 199 just didn?t appeal to me in the midday sun. SGB headed in closer to discover a really bad wash away that would have turned the pumpkins purple with envy. Just off to the side, all the good vehicle tracks disappeared behind a rickety fence gate and seemed to head down through a river crossing. This seemed like a better bet and as we got closer, it became more do-able. The first river crossing in the lives of both big machines was tackled with ease and we moved on to the top of a pass with some magnificent views as far as the eye could see.

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Babanango came and went. We were back on good tar and steaming on towards Dundee through Nqutu.

SGB admitted to getting scared as I passed the KFC in Dundee without giving it a glance. Fortunately a Wimpy lay a little further ahead where we parked our dusty steeds next to the shiny racers of the Vryheid and Newcastle chapters of the Christian Motorcycle Association. We greeted them courteously and moved swiftly through some good Wimpy grub whilst considering the structure of such clubs. You see some of these fellas seemed to have their colours ? ?oumanne? if you will, whilst another just had ?Vryheid? on the back. We wondered what he would have to do to be able to sit next to the ?President?. That?s what I enjoy about the fellas I ride with ? no President required because all members have the same strategic intent.

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The conversation moves to the number of battlefields spots we?ve ridden past and their proximity to each other. We believe that Mr Garmap might be able to assist in putting a ?dirt only? battlefields weekend together that would include the greats like Blood River, Rorkes Drift, Majuba and Isandlwana. More planning for the future?.so little time.

Goodbye Dundee and a quick tour through the centre of Glencoe just to add a further 10 clics to the tour thanks again to the Garmin auto-route. The sun has moved over a bit and it?s around 14 bells. The next stretch is good tar again through to Ladysmith.

Just outside Ladysmith there?s a short bosberaad to determine whether its Colenso, Weenen then Greytown or Bergville Loskop and R103 home. Bergville wins and I lead the way directly under the bridge onto a lovely little used dirt road that doesn?t seem to be on the GPS. On later inspection I find that T4A maps overwrite Africa maps on the GPS but are overlayed on the PC. At the next stop, SGB thinks we will intersect the Bergville road, I think we are going to end up around Geluksberg. Both of us have obviously been punished by the midday sun because we end up passing through and old metal bridge across the Sandspruit that ends up at the biltong shop with the same name at the bottom of Van Reenens Pass instead. Well at least we know where we are now!

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A cold beverage later and the decision is to N3 it all the way home, to preferably arrive before dark.

The customary goodbyes at Gillits and the time is 17h48. By the time I get home we?ll have been on the road for 12 hours and 887 kilometres according to my trusted Garmin. Mission accomplished with enough kilometres on the clock for a first service and SGB with a smile on his face after bonding with the new machine for a couple of non-stressful riding hours.

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What a perfect day for riding and a truly splendid maiden voyage for the big 990. May you have many more splendid voyages on the 990 SGB!
 
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