Redwolf
Race Dog
We were a little concerned about the rain on this fine saturday morning, but when I opened my eyes at 05h00 I was relieved to discover that it was a beautiful overcast day. Perfect weather to introduce some of our new members to the pleasures of offroad riding.
I had the privilage that my brother in law came to visit all the way from Nelspruit and I gave him no choice but to ride pillion with me. We left my home in Montana at 05h30 and arrived at 05h45 in Hatfield where we were meeting the others. We arrived at an empty garage and after filling up the first KLR arrived. By 06h00 we were 5 bikes and waited until 06h15 for any late comers. We met 2wdrift and A/T on route to the dirt. So, 7 bikes in total.
The first dirt road I had planned was a hard packed piece of road just to get the new guys used to the dirt feeling. The group had a huge range of dirt experience from no experience up to thousands of kilometers of dirt experience. It made it kinda difficult to determine the optimal cruising speed but because this was a Newbie ride, I decided to keep it slow. I kept the 990 in 5 th gear and cruised at roughly 70kph.
The total route distance was somewhere just over 150km with 3 pieces of 'techincal' road thrown into the mix. The first portion was some loose sand. I went trough it and saw in the mirror that one of The GS's are running through the sand sideways..
. Luckily the sand monster didn't claim any victims.
The second piece of technical was basically no road and just riding over some dry clay and through the bushes. I must say that this was done at roughly 10kph. We then continued with a lot of dirt road and cruised up to 100kph in some sections but did around 70kph most of the time.
The last portion was railway service roads and over a klip koppie.
I must congratulate the new guys, you did awesome. No one fell and no bikes or ego's were damaged.
The spirit of the group was awesome and the feeling of accomplishment was strongly felt in the group after the ride.
And for myself: I must say, sometimes it's nice to go slow and smell the daisies.. ;D
I had the privilage that my brother in law came to visit all the way from Nelspruit and I gave him no choice but to ride pillion with me. We left my home in Montana at 05h30 and arrived at 05h45 in Hatfield where we were meeting the others. We arrived at an empty garage and after filling up the first KLR arrived. By 06h00 we were 5 bikes and waited until 06h15 for any late comers. We met 2wdrift and A/T on route to the dirt. So, 7 bikes in total.
The first dirt road I had planned was a hard packed piece of road just to get the new guys used to the dirt feeling. The group had a huge range of dirt experience from no experience up to thousands of kilometers of dirt experience. It made it kinda difficult to determine the optimal cruising speed but because this was a Newbie ride, I decided to keep it slow. I kept the 990 in 5 th gear and cruised at roughly 70kph.
The total route distance was somewhere just over 150km with 3 pieces of 'techincal' road thrown into the mix. The first portion was some loose sand. I went trough it and saw in the mirror that one of The GS's are running through the sand sideways..
. Luckily the sand monster didn't claim any victims.The second piece of technical was basically no road and just riding over some dry clay and through the bushes. I must say that this was done at roughly 10kph. We then continued with a lot of dirt road and cruised up to 100kph in some sections but did around 70kph most of the time.
The last portion was railway service roads and over a klip koppie.
I must congratulate the new guys, you did awesome. No one fell and no bikes or ego's were damaged.
The spirit of the group was awesome and the feeling of accomplishment was strongly felt in the group after the ride.
And for myself: I must say, sometimes it's nice to go slow and smell the daisies.. ;D
