I’ll leave it to the more eloquent guys to tell the whole truth & hopefully only the truth. A few points from my side:
- I have sand in every orifice
- In fact last night I noted a few extra orifices, (compared to Friday am) all filled with sand..
- It was one beforkte trip
- (A super bunch of guys)³
- A GSA 1200 is an enormous motorcycle. Especially in thick sand.
- A GSA 1200 gets even more enormous as the day grows older. Especially in thick sand. In fact, if you watch it closely you can see it grow….
- Staaldraad has size XXXL Titanium Cajones and an excessive quantity of “Vasbyt” (Haal my hoed vir jou af…)
- As Camelman said, I found the problem lies with the stopping & not with the starting….
- Resulting in my further intensive studies of coastal dune vegetation’s root systems. Close up. Any botanists out there, just ask me what you want to know about the subject
- You can’t go slow, so when rounding a bend & the GSA “staan die pad vol” & one is committed to the same track, panic easily sets in. (Ek mag blykbaar nie se die GSA sit vas nie want net honde sit vas.)
- Uyster, IMO I think the damp sand is a double edged sword. I found that if it is undisturbed, it rides relatively easy.( So the faarkers up front had it easy. IMO “Die bliksems”)
- “Hoe later hoe kwater egter” if it has been churned up not only do you lose traction & increased effort to start off (fixable through ample right wrist action) but I found the front wheel was inclined to track the previous bike’s spoor & not always easy to break out of it. So on the condition that the previous bike went in the desired direction then all’s well. But not always the case & some unplanned excursions resulted. Needless to say, nobody owned up for causing these diversions….
- At stages that GSA ran so deep that once you fell into the track you were committed. Or doomed one can say. You can either fall out of the track & start over or try stop & scrum your way out. But in case it sounds like I’m complaining – I enjoyed every minute of it perversely & it is always good for the morale to see somebody that must be kaarking off more than you. Again my respects Staaldraad.
- It would be interesting to ride the same route when the sand is dry & hot. I somehow think it will take more effort. One will have to test the theory.
- We had a good laugh late on Sat pm at Skulpieskraal when friends of Staaldraad pulled into camp on their way to the Richtersveld. They drove the same route as what we rode & could interpret the various telltale “off” marks & struggle signs caused by our efforts along the way.. 1st thing they did on arrival was to inspect all the rear tyres, looking for the culprit. Fortunately Heidenau rear tyres were prolific otherwise I would have had to accept all blame.
- What else….a big thanks to CM & Weskus for organising. Also a huge thank you to Nico & Sybrand for generously sharing their “spys & drank”
All in all I consider it a privilege to have participated. One is blessed to have such places to ride in & such people to ride with.
Topic: West Coast Explorer 2009 (added pics 20090805) (Read 2364 times)
