Dustybutt 2500, Take 1, failed (Short RR)

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m0lt3n

Grey Hound
WD Supporter
Joined
Dec 7, 2012
Messages
8,948
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Location
Kathu (NC)
Bike
KTM 990 Adventure
I have done a successful 1600/hr dustybutt, but have this huge personal challenge to do a 2500km/36hr one. It took more than a year for the stars to align before I could take this on but we were prepped and Saturday went at it.

or not, we were supposed to start at 5am but first the zip on my jacket broke, so quickly back home to get another jacket. then we got going and my GPS didn't work, so again quickly home to get the backup paper-route I forgot, but now it was 6oclock so we quickly got another fuel slip and restarted the trip officially at 6. Super frustrating as I put a huge amount of planning in not to have crap issues like this.

First sandy patches we hit my troubles was not over and I find that my bike is unstable. something was really not on. The least amount of sand will get huge wobbles out of the bike. I already had a full 10l of petrol extra on the back, but I also increased the rear compression before the trip in an attempt not to bottom out as I knew this was not a little issue with these bikes. So I deflated my tyres to less than 2 bar and went softer on front and rear compression and it was a lot better, not sorted though but a lot more manageable and I also soon forgot about it and we got into the groove.

We travelled from Kathu to Deben to Olifantshoek and then to Prieska via the Witsand route, doing as much gravel as possible. A lot of rains fell the previous day and was still falling. Great fun. It stole a lot of our time also as, like the kids we were, we wanted to get pics and videos of the wet road as well. There was some really deep patches as well and then other times we both took some water way to fast. Philip particularly took very long to reply on the intercom once after hitting a nice patch of water at speed. One that was a little underestimated and he came out at almost 60degrees but managed to keep it upright, giving one of those unbelieving chuckles of what the hell just happened.

A few random pics, even though we are pressed for time pics should always be taken.... Philip had to do a quick fix on his spotlight, (which worked lekker afterwards!) and then water and water. Later we also had rain. Somehow my back was properly covered in mud while Philip was not as bad. Don't know how the setups differ to allow that.
But the water was a lot of fun, even though it was costing us a lot of time.
 

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