NEON DEON
Race Dog
Panniers packed and we were ready to hit the road to Van reenen our pitstop for the first leg of the trip, We have been using Pyramid now on a couple of trips, and its a nice pit-stop . We were on our way bu 3.30 pm on Wednesday afternoon , pulled into Harrismith for a refuel at around 5.15 , and had a milkshake at the M&bean , then after a quick ride we were at Pyramids. Dis mounted the panniers and top box , We decided to not change and remain in our riding gear for dinner , then after dinner , shower and ready for bed as we wanted to be up at 4 am to hit the road by 5.30 am , early start as Thursday was my birthday and the plan was to have breakfast in Ramsgate ,
from our room we could see lots of lightning and the forecast of rain was more evedant than a clear night . Woke to a wet parking lot but it seemed that the rain was gone , how wrong could one be .
We left Pyramids buy 5.30 and onto the N3 , We had not completed Van reenens and the rain started again , pulled into the One-stop and my missus donned her rain-suit . my rain-lining was keeping me dry so we head off again . Must say we were very fortunate , it was more a heavy drizzle than rain , at some stages it came down hard , just to let up with in a couple of ks , From the Southcoast ultracity the rain stopped and we arrived in Ramsgate dry , Pulled in at the Blue lagoon diner for breakfast as planned .
Our booking time was only 2 pm , but as it was a public holiday we took a chance to book in early , again we were in luck . Booked in , parked the bike , got out of our riding kit and dismounted the top box and panniers , For some reason I could not unlock the right side , the lock just turned but had no resistance , Phoned my son the KTM TECK, And his response was , Dad I thing the mechanism inside the lock has come adrift and the only way to repair it is from the inside , Screwed :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
Between My missus and myself we tacked this box with knives forks , teaspoon , cell phone torch :imaposer: :imaposer: , but it seemed it was going to be a lost cause , break it open or ride home with it and worry hoe to resolve the problem at home , but..... My shoes were in the box as well as my towel and toiletry bag , so we just had to open it , on closer inspection of the other pannier we saw that we could slide the latch back and this would open the box , easy when box is on a table , not so easy when locked to the bike , as there is no space , we managed to unlock the rear lock , the fron was mores of a battle but we won, got it open after about 45 min battle , unpacked all the stuff from the box , now to remove the securing latch from the bike , The tool kit has a 3mm torx allen key , so with this in hand I started to dismantle the box , 14 screws later and a tug it cam apart , and yes the inside did come undone . Box on the table I set the reassemble it , lucky for me I am a aircraft tech by trade so I could figure it out and reassembled the box , it working better than before , it was decided once at home to do the other two as well just in case , rest of the weekend was awesome .
Sunday after breakfast we were back in the saddle on our way home . Going up FIELDS hill , I had a craze mishap , fuel distance indicator showed 150 ks , power on in 5th gear and the bike lost all power , like it rand out of fuel , would not rev , Pulled over to the slow lane , kept it going but at cruising speed , All seemed ok , filled up in Howick and back onto the N3 , kept it smoothe and soon we were back at 5.5 6 k rpm , no problems , we hauled ass all the way home and 6 hours later pulled into Alberton , not a problem again ,
I am aware that my bike is dew for the 3 k service and it also need the teabag filter to be done , chatting to my son it seems to be the only explanation , for the power-loss . we made it home and planning the next trip , just dont know where to ride to . Zululand is on the cards.
from our room we could see lots of lightning and the forecast of rain was more evedant than a clear night . Woke to a wet parking lot but it seemed that the rain was gone , how wrong could one be .
We left Pyramids buy 5.30 and onto the N3 , We had not completed Van reenens and the rain started again , pulled into the One-stop and my missus donned her rain-suit . my rain-lining was keeping me dry so we head off again . Must say we were very fortunate , it was more a heavy drizzle than rain , at some stages it came down hard , just to let up with in a couple of ks , From the Southcoast ultracity the rain stopped and we arrived in Ramsgate dry , Pulled in at the Blue lagoon diner for breakfast as planned .
Our booking time was only 2 pm , but as it was a public holiday we took a chance to book in early , again we were in luck . Booked in , parked the bike , got out of our riding kit and dismounted the top box and panniers , For some reason I could not unlock the right side , the lock just turned but had no resistance , Phoned my son the KTM TECK, And his response was , Dad I thing the mechanism inside the lock has come adrift and the only way to repair it is from the inside , Screwed :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
Between My missus and myself we tacked this box with knives forks , teaspoon , cell phone torch :imaposer: :imaposer: , but it seemed it was going to be a lost cause , break it open or ride home with it and worry hoe to resolve the problem at home , but..... My shoes were in the box as well as my towel and toiletry bag , so we just had to open it , on closer inspection of the other pannier we saw that we could slide the latch back and this would open the box , easy when box is on a table , not so easy when locked to the bike , as there is no space , we managed to unlock the rear lock , the fron was mores of a battle but we won, got it open after about 45 min battle , unpacked all the stuff from the box , now to remove the securing latch from the bike , The tool kit has a 3mm torx allen key , so with this in hand I started to dismantle the box , 14 screws later and a tug it cam apart , and yes the inside did come undone . Box on the table I set the reassemble it , lucky for me I am a aircraft tech by trade so I could figure it out and reassembled the box , it working better than before , it was decided once at home to do the other two as well just in case , rest of the weekend was awesome .
Sunday after breakfast we were back in the saddle on our way home . Going up FIELDS hill , I had a craze mishap , fuel distance indicator showed 150 ks , power on in 5th gear and the bike lost all power , like it rand out of fuel , would not rev , Pulled over to the slow lane , kept it going but at cruising speed , All seemed ok , filled up in Howick and back onto the N3 , kept it smoothe and soon we were back at 5.5 6 k rpm , no problems , we hauled ass all the way home and 6 hours later pulled into Alberton , not a problem again ,
I am aware that my bike is dew for the 3 k service and it also need the teabag filter to be done , chatting to my son it seems to be the only explanation , for the power-loss . we made it home and planning the next trip , just dont know where to ride to . Zululand is on the cards.
