The group of riders were spread quite wide and, since we were sweeping, we arrived at the top of Sani pass as the first riders were just about ready to leave.
Jean- Michel Bayle first gave a quick briefing of riding position and the various settings on the Africa Twin.
This was the first gravel section of the trip and daunting for some. I quickly adjusted tyre pressures on the bikes prior to the descent, while Oom Bonnie assisted a GS rider who hit a rock on the ascent and broke off his RHS brake caliper.
Just as the last rider took off, another returned with a rear flat. We found a little piece of steel stuck in the rear tyre and quickly replaced the tube.
A quick stop at the border control office and we were back in our sweeping position.
I have been fortunate to do the pass a couple of times before and couldn’t believe the condition it was in. I’ve never seen it this bad.
It wasn’t long before we came to a stop with one of the riders down. Fortunately he wasn’t seriously injured and apart from some scratches, no serious damage to his bike either. The rider was however hurting enough to call it quits for the day.
This caused a bit of a challenge however. With four bikes on the big trailer that Hardy was towing, we made the call the morning to not risk that vehicle coming down Sani pass.
This meant that we had nothing to load the bike on, apart from the small fold up emergency trailers that Ride & Drive has. While these little trailers are very handy, they are unsprung (if there’s such a word for a trailer with no springs). With the condition of the pass, this would be too much of a risk.
I was asked to ride the bike down to our overnight accommodation, which was fortunately not too far away, while Oom Bonnie had to nurse the Cruiser down the rest of the pass.
Unfortunately there was no time for pics, but everyone eventually made it to the hotel in one piece, despite about 10 other falls.
After assessing the bikes, no noteworthy damage was found apart from a couple panniers.
There was a sense of achievement amongst the group tonight at dinner, which was great to see.
And now it’s time to rest. Tomorrow is another challenging route and we’re holding thumbs that the weather holds up.
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Topic: Honda Adventure Roads 2019 (Read 14091 times)
