- Joined
- Feb 6, 2006
- Messages
- 10,577
- Reaction score
- 4,187
- Location
- Cape Town, deep in the lentils
- Bike
- KTM 990 Adventure
I am trying a new form of capturing a ride report; through video. So there is a video link below but beware it is going to be a pretty big drain on your bandwidth. Also it is my first go so all the feedback would be welcomed.
Open another window and point your browsers here and download this while you read the report;
video
My wife and I go away to recharge the batteries towards the end of the year. This year we went to house on a vlei close to the sea in a quiet part of the world, Vermont here in South Africa.
She would go by car with her Mom and cat and I would take the bike. I didn?t really have a route planned and ended up riding from here (34�°12'46.58"S 19�° 7'42.56"E) through the SAFCOL forests to come out by Kleinmond and from there to Vermont. I didn?t take any pictures.
I was going to use the time to explore and try get some video of my rides. I will get a helmet cam but for now I have a Nikon S4 that can take video. I had originally tried putting it on my camel pack chest strap but that didn?t work too well as the cameras angle was not so good and it bounced about a lot.
After much faffing around I found that putting it onto the shoulder strap worked pretty well but it took a few trips to figure out the best angle for the lens as the camera would be pointing at a different angle if I was standing or sitting.
On to the exploring.
I had two objectives, one to ride up into the hills and do some single track stuff and look down onto the town, the other to get to ride on the beach.
I had seen a road up the side of mountain and that was going to be where I was going to go. There is a valley called Hemel en Arde Valley, (Heaven and Earth Valley). Quite a way down it there is a track that can be seen disappearing up the hill.This was the road going up,
Had to stop to let these other dual sport riders get past.
This was a new road that had been cut recently so it was very loose and tricky.
The view from the top was awesome.
The road beckoned but it was steep and slow.
From here, it was a track more than a road. The track came to an end but there was faint track through the fynbos (indigenous plants) that looked like it would lead to the mountain opposite that had a track that I knew would then lead back to another farm down the valley. I had looked in Google Earth the evening before and could see that the two series of tracks did not seem to have a joining path but this track that I was on looked like it might do the trip.
It wasn?t long before I had a bit of a problem. I lost my side stand switch going over a big rock in the path.
I had to go ?off Piste? for the last bit to get to the other track. I was going to really be in a spot if I had a problem, but it was all good. The bike was very impressive going through the bush.
Stanford from above
Going back down the mountain I saw a Cobra; he was gone before I had turned around to check him out.
It wasn?t far from there that I had a good fall. I was nearly onto the main gravel road and had to come down a very steep rocky road that is used on a 4x4 obstacle course.
The front wheel tucked and down I went. Once I had got the bike back up using adrenalin I had damaged the passenger footpeg and put a new deep scratch in the carbon tank guard and the upper fairing. I thought that the camera was recording, but sadly it did not catch my fall.
This photo is just as I was about to get back on, I thought that I was turning the video on but the camera just took a photo instead, mostly of my finger, sorry *@$(*&^%&^#
Unfortunately this whole track is on private property and when I came back the next day to re-record the track as the angle on the video wasn?t so hot, the farmer caught me; Charles Crowther from Glen Oaks. Although he was pretty heated to begin with he cooled down enough and I eventually left over an hour and a half later after a good chat and learned that my route the day before had covered 4 farms. The last of which was on his neighbours property and he said that it was quite possible that the way he felt about trespassers I was lucky not to meet him as I may have had to see if my carbon fibre guards and ATTGAT would be good enough for bird shot.
So for those of you wanting to follow in my tracks be warned we are not welcome, especially if you don?t ask permission first.
He runs a 4x4 route that he will take you on if you arrange with him before hand. email glanoaks at hermanus . co .za.
I had wanted to get onto the beach and ride some dunes. There is a 4x4 track in Walker Bay that you can get to from Stanford, it was easy to get to the beach and when I enquired about driving on the beach the local fishermen said that there were loads who did it. Oh well, its better to ask for forgiveness than permission so off I went.
34�°28'24.06"S 19�°21'10.31"E
I fell on an easy bit and then managed to get onto the beach proper; it is exhilarating!
The sand next to the sea is very tough to ride on as this part of the beach is right next to the estuary and the sand has a high silt content that the bike sinks into easily, so it is important to get the bike ?up on the plane? to get anywhere.
I rode up some steep dunes with no hassles; it is cleaner sand away from the beach.
It is very pretty around this part of the world and it was a lot of fun just exploring side roads. I had no real destination to get to and could follow my nose.
I would get most of my riding done before noon and be back to take the Missus off to the beach and relax in the afternoon.
Chatting with friends who came for a few evenings.
On a very hot day she surprisingly did not object to this form of air con.
After nearly two weeks of just riding around and relaxing I have very little to show for the effort I am afraid.
I was constantly changing the pressure to suit the conditions
On the way back home I went to the MX track by Hoehoek and did a lap, it was very muddy from the heavy rain and not that much fun as a result.
One funny thing happened while I was there. I had parked very close to the stick railing to the track itself. A few meters from me a father was getting his son (probably about 10) onto what I presume was his new Christmas present. A little auto scrambler, not sure what make.
Son then dutifully twisted the throttle but still kept the front brake on. The auto gearbox played its part and dutifully lurched him forward. This huge amount of coordination was obviously too much for the poor chap and he and his new toy missed my bike by a meter and ploughed his way through the stick fence. Much tears more from fright and a bit of patching up of the fence and he was fine. But dad went off to find him a bigger field to practice in.
I doubled back and took the coast road past Betties Bay. Again my camera let me down and I do not have any footage of this made-for-bikes idyllic piece of road.
I can?t wait for our next holiday.
Cheers, ride safe
@
Open another window and point your browsers here and download this while you read the report;
video
My wife and I go away to recharge the batteries towards the end of the year. This year we went to house on a vlei close to the sea in a quiet part of the world, Vermont here in South Africa.
She would go by car with her Mom and cat and I would take the bike. I didn?t really have a route planned and ended up riding from here (34�°12'46.58"S 19�° 7'42.56"E) through the SAFCOL forests to come out by Kleinmond and from there to Vermont. I didn?t take any pictures.
I was going to use the time to explore and try get some video of my rides. I will get a helmet cam but for now I have a Nikon S4 that can take video. I had originally tried putting it on my camel pack chest strap but that didn?t work too well as the cameras angle was not so good and it bounced about a lot.
After much faffing around I found that putting it onto the shoulder strap worked pretty well but it took a few trips to figure out the best angle for the lens as the camera would be pointing at a different angle if I was standing or sitting.
On to the exploring.
I had two objectives, one to ride up into the hills and do some single track stuff and look down onto the town, the other to get to ride on the beach.
I had seen a road up the side of mountain and that was going to be where I was going to go. There is a valley called Hemel en Arde Valley, (Heaven and Earth Valley). Quite a way down it there is a track that can be seen disappearing up the hill.This was the road going up,
Had to stop to let these other dual sport riders get past.
This was a new road that had been cut recently so it was very loose and tricky.
The view from the top was awesome.
The road beckoned but it was steep and slow.
From here, it was a track more than a road. The track came to an end but there was faint track through the fynbos (indigenous plants) that looked like it would lead to the mountain opposite that had a track that I knew would then lead back to another farm down the valley. I had looked in Google Earth the evening before and could see that the two series of tracks did not seem to have a joining path but this track that I was on looked like it might do the trip.
It wasn?t long before I had a bit of a problem. I lost my side stand switch going over a big rock in the path.
I had to go ?off Piste? for the last bit to get to the other track. I was going to really be in a spot if I had a problem, but it was all good. The bike was very impressive going through the bush.
Stanford from above
Going back down the mountain I saw a Cobra; he was gone before I had turned around to check him out.
It wasn?t far from there that I had a good fall. I was nearly onto the main gravel road and had to come down a very steep rocky road that is used on a 4x4 obstacle course.
The front wheel tucked and down I went. Once I had got the bike back up using adrenalin I had damaged the passenger footpeg and put a new deep scratch in the carbon tank guard and the upper fairing. I thought that the camera was recording, but sadly it did not catch my fall.
This photo is just as I was about to get back on, I thought that I was turning the video on but the camera just took a photo instead, mostly of my finger, sorry *@$(*&^%&^#
Unfortunately this whole track is on private property and when I came back the next day to re-record the track as the angle on the video wasn?t so hot, the farmer caught me; Charles Crowther from Glen Oaks. Although he was pretty heated to begin with he cooled down enough and I eventually left over an hour and a half later after a good chat and learned that my route the day before had covered 4 farms. The last of which was on his neighbours property and he said that it was quite possible that the way he felt about trespassers I was lucky not to meet him as I may have had to see if my carbon fibre guards and ATTGAT would be good enough for bird shot.
So for those of you wanting to follow in my tracks be warned we are not welcome, especially if you don?t ask permission first.
He runs a 4x4 route that he will take you on if you arrange with him before hand. email glanoaks at hermanus . co .za.
I had wanted to get onto the beach and ride some dunes. There is a 4x4 track in Walker Bay that you can get to from Stanford, it was easy to get to the beach and when I enquired about driving on the beach the local fishermen said that there were loads who did it. Oh well, its better to ask for forgiveness than permission so off I went.
34�°28'24.06"S 19�°21'10.31"E
I fell on an easy bit and then managed to get onto the beach proper; it is exhilarating!
The sand next to the sea is very tough to ride on as this part of the beach is right next to the estuary and the sand has a high silt content that the bike sinks into easily, so it is important to get the bike ?up on the plane? to get anywhere.
I rode up some steep dunes with no hassles; it is cleaner sand away from the beach.
It is very pretty around this part of the world and it was a lot of fun just exploring side roads. I had no real destination to get to and could follow my nose.
I would get most of my riding done before noon and be back to take the Missus off to the beach and relax in the afternoon.
Chatting with friends who came for a few evenings.
On a very hot day she surprisingly did not object to this form of air con.
After nearly two weeks of just riding around and relaxing I have very little to show for the effort I am afraid.
I was constantly changing the pressure to suit the conditions
On the way back home I went to the MX track by Hoehoek and did a lap, it was very muddy from the heavy rain and not that much fun as a result.
One funny thing happened while I was there. I had parked very close to the stick railing to the track itself. A few meters from me a father was getting his son (probably about 10) onto what I presume was his new Christmas present. A little auto scrambler, not sure what make.
Son then dutifully twisted the throttle but still kept the front brake on. The auto gearbox played its part and dutifully lurched him forward. This huge amount of coordination was obviously too much for the poor chap and he and his new toy missed my bike by a meter and ploughed his way through the stick fence. Much tears more from fright and a bit of patching up of the fence and he was fine. But dad went off to find him a bigger field to practice in.
I doubled back and took the coast road past Betties Bay. Again my camera let me down and I do not have any footage of this made-for-bikes idyllic piece of road.
I can?t wait for our next holiday.
Cheers, ride safe
@
