We rode up Penge Pass.....and then some

[BLK]

Talk about punishment for man and machine.

[Cable Tie]

Noneking, awesome ride! What mode did you ride in, do you find the traction control helping slippage on the steep terrain?


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[ROOI]

Nicely Done ,That pass is actually a very nice and scenic route on smaller 650 class bikes    On a 500 or such it will be an absolute jol 

[Noneking]

Noneking, awesome ride! What mode did you ride in, do you find the traction control helping slippage on the steep terrain?


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My bike is always in Rally mode, throttle on street setting and I manage the slip on the fly. Lately slip has moslty been on 1 as I feel that me having the slip on 5 was part of the issue I had with my clutch springs on a ride with long rocky climbs before.  For Penge (actually most of the weekend's riding)  I took the slip control down to 1 which is obviously least intervention. My experience with slip control as been that I prefer being in control with clutch and throttle on gnarly climbs

[Noneking]

Nicely Done ,That pass is actually a very nice and scenic route on smaller 650 class bikes    On a 500 or such it will be an absolute jol 

I'm sure it would be, but the 500 would have a tough time doing the 150km odd to get to the pass 

I'm enjoying the challenges on the bigger bikes. I'm sure that as I get older, I will have to scale down and eventually end up on a much smaller bike if I want to continue riding, but here's to hoping that's still a long way off......

[Noneking]

We joined up with the Pass With No Name again and stopped for a breather.

[Noneking]

Lucky you did not have any bike trouble like punctures on that pass in that heat.This is maybe a ride for Mid Winter only?I'm sure you guys had a few beers after that day.Cheers.

Yes we were greatful for that! We were dog tired that night. Had two beers and a great meal and we had to force @Just Blip It! to sit at the table till after 19:30..........

[Cable Tie]

Noneking, awesome ride! What mode did you ride in, do you find the traction control helping slippage on the steep terrain?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My bike is always in Rally mode, throttle on street setting and I manage the slip on the fly. Lately slip has mostly been on 1 as I feel that me having the slip on 5 was part of the issue I had with my clutch springs on a ride with long rocky climbs before.  For Penge (actually most of the weekend's riding)  I took the slip control down to 1 which is obviously least intervention. My experience with slip control as been that I prefer being in control with clutch and throttle on gnarly climbs

Before buying one, this looked like a real benefit, but I guess to be fair this is then possibly not the feature it intends to be. In it current configuration the bike is probably better of without traction control as it is intended to be a technical biased adv bike. It will be interesting to see if the 890 clutch is interchangeable.

Really amped to try this route!

[Tr0jan]

Lekker trippie!

[sidetrack]

Lucky you did not have any bike trouble like punctures on that pass in that heat.This is maybe a ride for Mid Winter only?I'm sure you guys had a few beers after that day.Cheers.

Yes we were greatful for that! We were dog tired that night. Had two beers and a great meal and we had to force @Just Blip It! to sit at the table till after 19:30..........

One flat or flat battery on that pass and it can mean riding it at night or having to wild camp in the mountains, quite an experience I would know 

[Noneking]

Noneking, awesome ride! What mode did you ride in, do you find the traction control helping slippage on the steep terrain?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My bike is always in Rally mode, throttle on street setting and I manage the slip on the fly. Lately slip has mostly been on 1 as I feel that me having the slip on 5 was part of the issue I had with my clutch springs on a ride with long rocky climbs before.  For Penge (actually most of the weekend's riding)  I took the slip control down to 1 which is obviously least intervention. My experience with slip control as been that I prefer being in control with clutch and throttle on gnarly climbs

Before buying one, this looked like a real benefit, but I guess to be fair this is then possibly not the feature it intends to be. In it current configuration the bike is probably better of without traction control as it is intended to be a technical biased adv bike. It will be interesting to see if the 890 clutch is interchangeable.

Really amped to try this route!

Where it realy does shine for for me, is on fast flowing sections where you can just pin the throttle and concentrate on steering and weight distribution. I can often see Mark's 990 squirming under him as he fights the rear wheel breaking away while at the same time, under hard acceleration the 790 is perfectly stable. This function I believe has made me a better rider as I'm now completely comfortable on the bike and I've slowly started to dial down slip control to where I'm happy to hang the arse out with the throttle pinned while chasing that mad route master 

[m0lt3n]

Great trip! Looks like clutches will take a beating there.


I would love to attempt this some day, but first get fit
and then prep for wild camping

[Sheepman]

My Gopro footage of the pass

Very tough and well handled - most definitely not for couch riders 

[Noneking]

We started off down into the valley on our tracks from the morning.

[Noneking]

As usual, Mark had an ace up his sleeve....... “We’re just quickly going to ride this nice little short pass that Martin ( @Xpat ) sent me”.......

I looked at my watch and was concerned about getting to the Lekgalameetsi gate in time. Mark wasn’t worried and off we went........

It started out fairly tame.

[Noneking]

Lucky you did not have any bike trouble like punctures on that pass in that heat.This is maybe a ride for Mid Winter only?I'm sure you guys had a few beers after that day.Cheers.

Yes we were greatful for that! We were dog tired that night. Had two beers and a great meal and we had to force @Just Blip It! to sit at the table till after 19:30..........

One flat or flat battery on that pass and it can mean riding it at night or having to wild camp in the mountains, quite an experience I would know 

Can just imagine........

[Noneking]

And things slowly but surely got a bit more interesting ....

[BuRP]

My Gopro footage of the pass

Thanks for that bit of footage!
I now see where I went straight instead of left, and ended up on an old part of this 'pass'.
Oh well, at least it got me a smokebreak 

Well done on those big bikes! 

[Noneking]

But we were rewarded with magnificent views on the other side.....






At this point Mark mentioned that Orrie is just over the next rise ......

Think Xpat calls this the Orrie Side Entry? It “ EVENTUALLY”  meets up with Orrie at the point where dirt becomes tar.....  but we had some way to go before we would get there......

[Xpat]

I called it OB side entry as the matter of speaking as that is what it kind of is. I doubt it has any official name.

If you want to make a mark in the history, this area gives you some opportunities to name routes / passes. For example 'Penge pass' was I believe named by Jacques 'Livingstone' Sidetrack.