Freak
Race Dog
All pics taken with Samsung S4 and a few with blackberry..so quality to be excused.)
here we are... Almost exactly a year later... Same reason, different bike...
So I found this lovely looking /5 series Beemer in PE... ( actually wezzz found it, and called me immediately...thanks wezzz).
Short story long, bike is paid and delivered to Volker. The airhead god and guru in one..
So excited, I call Darrell (whom I haven't seen for months and is temporarily residing in Pretoria..) to share the news and jokingly suggest we ride together back home.. He congratulates me..and says shortly after.."I will have to phone you back..".
5 mins later.. He calls back ..short and sweet.. " ek kom saam !!". So he organised some leave for the Thursday, as Friday is a holiday, followed by, ..yes you guessed it..a weekend.
Great plan..but..he's in Pretoria, my bike is in PE, his bike is in cape town, and I'm in cape town... But it seems I had it wrong. The Dappermuis had to work out of Jnb for a few months and decided he needed reliable safe transport in crime city, so he parts his bike from handlebars, wheels etc..and loaded her into the work car in cape town, to take to Pretoria... As you do.
So that cleared up one mystery..now to teleport him and his steed to PE.. no problem.." I will hop on her Thursday, and meet you in PE on Friday" ...some 1200 km later..
Okay well I suppose don't mess with a man on a mission..
Thursday morning d-muis pops in to the office ( which makes me wonder if he actually took that leave or just pretended to be "around" .. But 10am and he's on the road..heading for the coast.
Noon thursday....I get a call... It's not good. He's steed is not well.. So I think that's obviously the end..but no no.. He wasn't calling to cancel, only to inform me it will take a bit longer.. And aliwal north might just end up over the horizon and not under..
He makes bloem.. Spends the night..
Friday morning, and I'm on the first fast one to PE..the easy way. I get a ride with a mate in his " werksbakkie" and willem drops me in PE.
10am, I land in PE. Volker fetches me and we need to debrief.. We do this over a cold one. That quickly removed the Colgate taste but it's not like beer is ever a bad thing...
We head to the airhead lair and it became evident my love for airheads was Merely a high school crush compared to this guy... Everywhere you look, vintage boxers surround you.. Bikes I've only read and heard of. R67 with sidecar, R69s ..ag don't even get me started.. Let's just say.. Nothing else is transformed into art this easily by simply putting it on a stand..
We discuss his museum over a few cold ones and I decide to actually look at my purchase, and focus on the reason for my visit..
I fire her up and decide to guide dmuis in from the flatlands. About 10km out of PE and the rain comes down..no reason for both of us drowning.. So I turned around.. And take the opportunity to snap some angles. It sure is better than riding in the rain. ( sorry Darrell...).
At last! Dark and cold, but we meet in walmer. A quick bike sniff and off to Volker we go!
After dmuis' tour ( and my second voluntary one) and a few very cold ones later, we sit down to a home cooked German leg of lam. So far, this bike fetching thing is pretty easy stuff. ...mmmmm
We cover most BMW related topics, discuss brandy and whiskey, and before we knew it, we were back in his cave..kicking tyres and drooling even more..
Saturday morning:
We wake to the smell of freshly brewed coffee .. Clear skies and fresh crisp air.
Spanner time..
We set some carbs, give our bikes a once over, and the golden hour arrived. It's go time !!!!
But first..more food..
En route to humansdorp, About an hour out and disaster is knocking on the door..or rather the barrel..
I see oil.. On my shoe.. Not good...
We stop and investigate. Seems my head gasket is leaking..ever so slightly.
Options :
1) Turn back
2) call AA assistance
3) ignore it, keep an eye on it, but Carry on and complete the mission..
Three it is!
Dmouse dink Hys snaaks...
Not long and I start monitoring the nearing of lucky numbers 7... Maybe our luck is turning...
In true freakmouse fashion..we speak a bit of shit and push on.. Our mission, to join the Yamaha XT crowd at their bash in ladysmith. About 500 km away.
Ons gooi mielies....
It soon became evident where the cold is coming from. It's nippy, and only when you ride these babies, do you start to appreciate the efficiency of a fairing. No matter how small..
We stop. Often..
Sometimes for carb balancing, float bowl settings, but mostly for speak abitofshit.
I became the tool whisperer...
After another hour or so, my mind is playing tricks on me... Are those tappets getting noisier?? Well if so, I'm guessing the head bolts are somewhat loose, causing the valve clearance to fluctuate, and obviously, will explain the oil leak. Simple ! Problem solved! Now to find a socket set. I need a 14mm socket, a feeler gauge, and a "ten" spanner. I will tighten the head, solve the leak, and reset valve clearances.
Passing little town after little town, no luck..it's Saturday arvy after all ...we are asking a bit much! Then I thought of something worse!!! Dop stores in small towns also shut shop early. Stuff the leak and valves, we need beer.
As we know, many problems get solved over beer, so off we go. Beering in front of off-sales, we meet and greet the locals.. A jaloppie pulls in. Held together by mother mary hanging from the skew rear view mirror, some gun gum and a set of racing slicks. Surely they must hide a toolkit.. This car looks like it could be big mates with mr Gedore... And yes, they are.
Off with the peanut, and let the torquing begin.. But sadly, everything is tight. Ahhhh shitballs.. I was wrong. And let me tell you, the only time I was ever wrong, was the time I thought I was wrong. Ask my wife. ( I'm Aries after all!!)
so I button it up, greet kareedouw and call veldbrand to say we are on our way...
But not before the man himself shed some tool time..
So I watered some fynbos...
Seems we weren't the first dawgs to pass this way...
But the sun is faster than our airheads, and darkness my old friend is chasing our butts...
I don't smoke.. But it seemed appropriate.
80km outside oudtshoorn and it's night. Proper. I'm a little worried as I can't see the oil leak..and in fact can't see much at all!
It became evident that, although the "slash 5" was a upgrade of biblical proportions vs the "slash 2" , it still shared the same shitty headlight setup.
The temp dropped to well below 10 degrees, and it's getting uncomfortably cold. But dmuis is riding the twisters like its the last day of isle of man. No way I can keep or will even try keep up.
We reach the grootvoël village of Oudtshoorn ( for some reason we really feel at home??) and quickly reach consensus at the first red traffic light.. The international signal for beer and "holding a knife and fork" is signaled and I lead the way..looking for some chow..
Stick with what you know...SPUR.
We park our bonies heel windgat heel voor die winkel. Blerrie kommin bikers.
We sit down, order steak and red wine and feel like asking Charlie and Ewin to guard our bikes. We were adventurers of note. The dust and roadshit is evident on our fur collars and headlights. Which confirms our level of hardcore ness...in our minds, anyway, which is all that counts right now...
We drop our guards, attitude and egos and take a minute to regroup.. We look pretty tired and stinky to each other, and start discussing whether carrying on is the right thing to do. From here on we have a rather serious mountain pass ahead of us, and some odd 90km of unknown tar before we reach the XT guys. Worth the risk? I quickly start thinking of my wife and little boy back at me, and whether all this night riding this is worth it.. No.. Nothing is...
That's it..drop anchor matey!!
As the red wine fights it's way way through my frozen organs, I grab google and start searching for rooms... Issh..some lame ass festival in town and we are dead out of luck.
We eventually e-find Matt, the owner of a backpackers. He offers us a lounge with seem couches.. Deal. It's getting late and we need a haven. We accept and promise to check in ASAP after dinner.
Meal finished, bill settled,and off we go!
On our bonies, but problem,, I can't find my key. Wtf??? !!! I always put it in my left hand pants pocket ?? But no luck.. We search everywhere outside, and then venture back into spur. I walked from the bike to the spur seat.. No toilet break so how difficult can it be??
We have the entire spur including their guests on their knees,, everyone looking.. Niks nadda...
By now I'm getting a bit gatvol and tired of the silky part of the trip fading away. I'm so pissed off.. I Somme start smoking. Seems like a good time to start. Sitting on the pavement, smoking my twig, I decide to take my pants off. Right there.. I inspect every inch of the garment, and after 5 minutes I feel something.. Right at the bottom of my left leg. It's BMW city pants.. And on closer inspection it became evident a small hole developed in my pocket. The key made it s way down the inside of the lining to a undisclosed location.
I'm so debliksem in, I double clutch the twig, and proceed to burn a hole in the liner ..get my key and start relaxing.
Just then I see people exiting the spur. Elderly couple walking like they have back problems or something. Only when I walked towards mybike did I realise they are all still looking for my key! Shame. I felt a bit shit, but informed them.. It was found.
Joy all round and we saddle up..again...
Just then I get a beep beep...sms... And. Decide to quickly read it...
It's the gentleman from the backpackers...
Gentleman Se gat man!! Hys n geld gat. He gave our lodging away...???!! Almost 22:00 and we are back to where we were earlier.. At least we were dined and wined.
So we unsaddle and head back to spur. Coffee time. No need to get upset..yet.
Back to google. We are in luck. A friendly lady answers and confirms one room left for the night. We will take it!!!
Saddle up..again, and off we go..
Check in, and sorted.
What a day!!
Sunday:
07:45, we hit the road!
Maternity wear shoe oil preventer.. Patent pending.
As shitty as our day ended, it was pleasantly greeted by the most beautiful sunrise scenery..
Now there's less rush.. So we stop lots and talk shop.
Time for some more chow....
We have a lovely ride from town to town and end up at Ronnie's sex shop.
Seems its not Dappermuis' first visit here..
Panty valley...
.few beers later, we meet trailrider there and shoot the breeze. Also saw some landies.. Two coming and one going it seems... Lol.
We saddle up, for the last time, and make our way to the cape.
Amazingly, every town had rain that weekend, but somehow we missed it all ! Except for the Friday, we didn't feel rain on our jackets once!
Very stoked, we ride our beemers into the sunset, yet again, with smiles from ear to ear.
Everyday I'm amazed at how simple, yet reliable these bikes are. Here we are.. In 2013, riding a 1972 model over 1000km.. With a blown head gasket, al, the way to where we wanna be. And beyond should we wish to!
Again, thanks dappermuis for your High lever of "keenness" and support on a trip. May some of you one day be dealt a great riding partner like him.
Shot bud. Dit was n vet jol...nes laas... En seker link volgende keer..
But next time I wish for the faster bike for once !!
Until next year I suppose??
here we are... Almost exactly a year later... Same reason, different bike...
So I found this lovely looking /5 series Beemer in PE... ( actually wezzz found it, and called me immediately...thanks wezzz).
Short story long, bike is paid and delivered to Volker. The airhead god and guru in one..
So excited, I call Darrell (whom I haven't seen for months and is temporarily residing in Pretoria..) to share the news and jokingly suggest we ride together back home.. He congratulates me..and says shortly after.."I will have to phone you back..".
5 mins later.. He calls back ..short and sweet.. " ek kom saam !!". So he organised some leave for the Thursday, as Friday is a holiday, followed by, ..yes you guessed it..a weekend.
Great plan..but..he's in Pretoria, my bike is in PE, his bike is in cape town, and I'm in cape town... But it seems I had it wrong. The Dappermuis had to work out of Jnb for a few months and decided he needed reliable safe transport in crime city, so he parts his bike from handlebars, wheels etc..and loaded her into the work car in cape town, to take to Pretoria... As you do.
So that cleared up one mystery..now to teleport him and his steed to PE.. no problem.." I will hop on her Thursday, and meet you in PE on Friday" ...some 1200 km later..
Okay well I suppose don't mess with a man on a mission..
Thursday morning d-muis pops in to the office ( which makes me wonder if he actually took that leave or just pretended to be "around" .. But 10am and he's on the road..heading for the coast.
Noon thursday....I get a call... It's not good. He's steed is not well.. So I think that's obviously the end..but no no.. He wasn't calling to cancel, only to inform me it will take a bit longer.. And aliwal north might just end up over the horizon and not under..
He makes bloem.. Spends the night..
Friday morning, and I'm on the first fast one to PE..the easy way. I get a ride with a mate in his " werksbakkie" and willem drops me in PE.
10am, I land in PE. Volker fetches me and we need to debrief.. We do this over a cold one. That quickly removed the Colgate taste but it's not like beer is ever a bad thing...
We head to the airhead lair and it became evident my love for airheads was Merely a high school crush compared to this guy... Everywhere you look, vintage boxers surround you.. Bikes I've only read and heard of. R67 with sidecar, R69s ..ag don't even get me started.. Let's just say.. Nothing else is transformed into art this easily by simply putting it on a stand..
We discuss his museum over a few cold ones and I decide to actually look at my purchase, and focus on the reason for my visit..
I fire her up and decide to guide dmuis in from the flatlands. About 10km out of PE and the rain comes down..no reason for both of us drowning.. So I turned around.. And take the opportunity to snap some angles. It sure is better than riding in the rain. ( sorry Darrell...).
At last! Dark and cold, but we meet in walmer. A quick bike sniff and off to Volker we go!
After dmuis' tour ( and my second voluntary one) and a few very cold ones later, we sit down to a home cooked German leg of lam. So far, this bike fetching thing is pretty easy stuff. ...mmmmm
We cover most BMW related topics, discuss brandy and whiskey, and before we knew it, we were back in his cave..kicking tyres and drooling even more..
Saturday morning:
We wake to the smell of freshly brewed coffee .. Clear skies and fresh crisp air.
Spanner time..
We set some carbs, give our bikes a once over, and the golden hour arrived. It's go time !!!!
But first..more food..
En route to humansdorp, About an hour out and disaster is knocking on the door..or rather the barrel..
I see oil.. On my shoe.. Not good...
We stop and investigate. Seems my head gasket is leaking..ever so slightly.
Options :
1) Turn back
2) call AA assistance
3) ignore it, keep an eye on it, but Carry on and complete the mission..
Three it is!
Dmouse dink Hys snaaks...
Not long and I start monitoring the nearing of lucky numbers 7... Maybe our luck is turning...
In true freakmouse fashion..we speak a bit of shit and push on.. Our mission, to join the Yamaha XT crowd at their bash in ladysmith. About 500 km away.
Ons gooi mielies....
It soon became evident where the cold is coming from. It's nippy, and only when you ride these babies, do you start to appreciate the efficiency of a fairing. No matter how small..
We stop. Often..
Sometimes for carb balancing, float bowl settings, but mostly for speak abitofshit.
I became the tool whisperer...
After another hour or so, my mind is playing tricks on me... Are those tappets getting noisier?? Well if so, I'm guessing the head bolts are somewhat loose, causing the valve clearance to fluctuate, and obviously, will explain the oil leak. Simple ! Problem solved! Now to find a socket set. I need a 14mm socket, a feeler gauge, and a "ten" spanner. I will tighten the head, solve the leak, and reset valve clearances.
Passing little town after little town, no luck..it's Saturday arvy after all ...we are asking a bit much! Then I thought of something worse!!! Dop stores in small towns also shut shop early. Stuff the leak and valves, we need beer.
As we know, many problems get solved over beer, so off we go. Beering in front of off-sales, we meet and greet the locals.. A jaloppie pulls in. Held together by mother mary hanging from the skew rear view mirror, some gun gum and a set of racing slicks. Surely they must hide a toolkit.. This car looks like it could be big mates with mr Gedore... And yes, they are.
Off with the peanut, and let the torquing begin.. But sadly, everything is tight. Ahhhh shitballs.. I was wrong. And let me tell you, the only time I was ever wrong, was the time I thought I was wrong. Ask my wife. ( I'm Aries after all!!)
so I button it up, greet kareedouw and call veldbrand to say we are on our way...
But not before the man himself shed some tool time..
So I watered some fynbos...
Seems we weren't the first dawgs to pass this way...
But the sun is faster than our airheads, and darkness my old friend is chasing our butts...
I don't smoke.. But it seemed appropriate.
80km outside oudtshoorn and it's night. Proper. I'm a little worried as I can't see the oil leak..and in fact can't see much at all!
It became evident that, although the "slash 5" was a upgrade of biblical proportions vs the "slash 2" , it still shared the same shitty headlight setup.
The temp dropped to well below 10 degrees, and it's getting uncomfortably cold. But dmuis is riding the twisters like its the last day of isle of man. No way I can keep or will even try keep up.
We reach the grootvoël village of Oudtshoorn ( for some reason we really feel at home??) and quickly reach consensus at the first red traffic light.. The international signal for beer and "holding a knife and fork" is signaled and I lead the way..looking for some chow..
Stick with what you know...SPUR.
We park our bonies heel windgat heel voor die winkel. Blerrie kommin bikers.
We sit down, order steak and red wine and feel like asking Charlie and Ewin to guard our bikes. We were adventurers of note. The dust and roadshit is evident on our fur collars and headlights. Which confirms our level of hardcore ness...in our minds, anyway, which is all that counts right now...
We drop our guards, attitude and egos and take a minute to regroup.. We look pretty tired and stinky to each other, and start discussing whether carrying on is the right thing to do. From here on we have a rather serious mountain pass ahead of us, and some odd 90km of unknown tar before we reach the XT guys. Worth the risk? I quickly start thinking of my wife and little boy back at me, and whether all this night riding this is worth it.. No.. Nothing is...
That's it..drop anchor matey!!
As the red wine fights it's way way through my frozen organs, I grab google and start searching for rooms... Issh..some lame ass festival in town and we are dead out of luck.
We eventually e-find Matt, the owner of a backpackers. He offers us a lounge with seem couches.. Deal. It's getting late and we need a haven. We accept and promise to check in ASAP after dinner.
Meal finished, bill settled,and off we go!
On our bonies, but problem,, I can't find my key. Wtf??? !!! I always put it in my left hand pants pocket ?? But no luck.. We search everywhere outside, and then venture back into spur. I walked from the bike to the spur seat.. No toilet break so how difficult can it be??
We have the entire spur including their guests on their knees,, everyone looking.. Niks nadda...
By now I'm getting a bit gatvol and tired of the silky part of the trip fading away. I'm so pissed off.. I Somme start smoking. Seems like a good time to start. Sitting on the pavement, smoking my twig, I decide to take my pants off. Right there.. I inspect every inch of the garment, and after 5 minutes I feel something.. Right at the bottom of my left leg. It's BMW city pants.. And on closer inspection it became evident a small hole developed in my pocket. The key made it s way down the inside of the lining to a undisclosed location.
I'm so debliksem in, I double clutch the twig, and proceed to burn a hole in the liner ..get my key and start relaxing.
Just then I see people exiting the spur. Elderly couple walking like they have back problems or something. Only when I walked towards mybike did I realise they are all still looking for my key! Shame. I felt a bit shit, but informed them.. It was found.
Joy all round and we saddle up..again...
Just then I get a beep beep...sms... And. Decide to quickly read it...
It's the gentleman from the backpackers...
Gentleman Se gat man!! Hys n geld gat. He gave our lodging away...???!! Almost 22:00 and we are back to where we were earlier.. At least we were dined and wined.
So we unsaddle and head back to spur. Coffee time. No need to get upset..yet.
Back to google. We are in luck. A friendly lady answers and confirms one room left for the night. We will take it!!!
Saddle up..again, and off we go..
Check in, and sorted.
What a day!!
Sunday:
07:45, we hit the road!
Maternity wear shoe oil preventer.. Patent pending.
As shitty as our day ended, it was pleasantly greeted by the most beautiful sunrise scenery..
Now there's less rush.. So we stop lots and talk shop.
Time for some more chow....
We have a lovely ride from town to town and end up at Ronnie's sex shop.
Seems its not Dappermuis' first visit here..
Panty valley...
.few beers later, we meet trailrider there and shoot the breeze. Also saw some landies.. Two coming and one going it seems... Lol.
We saddle up, for the last time, and make our way to the cape.
Amazingly, every town had rain that weekend, but somehow we missed it all ! Except for the Friday, we didn't feel rain on our jackets once!
Very stoked, we ride our beemers into the sunset, yet again, with smiles from ear to ear.
Everyday I'm amazed at how simple, yet reliable these bikes are. Here we are.. In 2013, riding a 1972 model over 1000km.. With a blown head gasket, al, the way to where we wanna be. And beyond should we wish to!
Again, thanks dappermuis for your High lever of "keenness" and support on a trip. May some of you one day be dealt a great riding partner like him.
Shot bud. Dit was n vet jol...nes laas... En seker link volgende keer..
But next time I wish for the faster bike for once !!
Until next year I suppose??
