Swazi Weekend Boner

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Xpat

Grey Hound
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
Messages
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AJS (all models)
Intro

The official name of this ride is Swazi hardcore weekend. I tend to shy away from that kind of macho language and prefer more subtle and multilayered ‘boner’ as a better reflection of the weekend which turned out to be both bone shattering as well as reinvigorating (talking two different bones here).

This was one of the regular three day rides through northern Swaziland organized and guided by Mark Taylor (Just Blip It in WD speak) from his lair in White River. I’ve heard about it before, but I tend to stay away from organized group rides and the ‘hardcore’ moniker always makes me feel a bit suspicious. While I’m no Chris Birch (or rather Stefan Svitko to stay closer to home), South Africans do sometimes tend to get a bit overdramatic.

But Straatkat (aka Bertie in human speak, which I’m going to continue use here as we didn’t end up calling each other WD names on the trip) and Tony (TK in WD speak), who were both three times veterans of the ride, kept on harping about how this is the best riding in the world and some such. So I eventually decided to give it a go and signed up for the upcoming edition. And while I will not ride a bike for the next 6 months as a result the trip, I’m not sorry at all that I did. The riding did turn out to be exquisite and unique providing variety of riding terrain unmatched anywhere else in South Africa I know of (including Lesotho).

Four people signed up for the weekend:

  • Henk (aka Chopperpilot on WD) on Husky TE610 he just bought off Rough Rider
  • Tony (aka TK on WD) on TE610, he just refurbished with new fancy custom build faring, lights and tower.
  • Bertie (aka Straatkat on WD) on another TE610, which annoyed everybody as it turned out to be the fastest Husky in all drag races, which Bertie sought out at every opportunity.
  • And myself (Martin - aka Xpat as you probably figured out by now) on the most rare of the breeds (only 4 were ever imported according to some sources) - Husky TE630, which was short lived BMW attempt at improving TE610 by putting in DOHC head (instead of SOHC on 610), and - BMW trademark move - crappier suspension (which I got rectified to some degree after the purchase).

I presume Mark on his 990 may have felt a bit apprehensive by the prospect of 4 Huskies ganging up on him, so he roped in last minute his mate and Swazi ride veteran Lee (aka Steel Image on WD) on KTM 690. Which turned out to be a good move as Mark otherwise would have had to spent many a lonesome minutes waiting for the Husky crowd to climb out of a ravine, or resolve specific Italian technical issues that spiced up the ride.

The crew:

Mark (left) and Lee:

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Tony:

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Henk:

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Bertie (center) flanked by Tony:

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Myself and Lee:

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The area of operation:

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