I've been meaning to do a ride report of the Lesotho bike trip I did with my brother in law last December/January. But between working, building, and a back injury, I've been putting it off. I have a bit of free time at the mo, so I will give it a go and try remember what we got up to....
My daughter got married in April last year, and lucky for us, some of the family flew in from Norway to join in the festivities. They arrived about a week before the event and stayed for a week or so once all was said and done. During their short visit, my brother in law, Trond, and I went for a ride or two, and at some point, one of us thought it would be a good idea for him to come back to SA, and for us to do a ride across lesotho. He had never been to Lesotho before, and was keen to have a blokes only biking adventure. A week or two after the family got back home to Norway, he called me up, and said that after speaking to a few of his mates, some of them were keen to join in the festivities and come ride Lesotho as well.
I was certainly not expecting such quick commitment, but I couldnt help but get super excited at the prosect of another epic Lesotho ride. We spent the next few months deciding when to go and what our routes should be like. Trond, up untill this point in time had never ridden off road, over rocky terrain. Had never ridden in the rain and certainly never in the mud. So trying to figure out where to ride in Lesotho for a complete novice, yet at the same time see the rugged side of Lesotho. I must have spent 100s of hours pouring over maps, gps tracks, google earth, youtube videos, chatting to folks who had recently been out there, anything that i could find to accomodate the level of riders I was expecting to guide around Lesotho, and ride terrain that was challenging yet doable with a bit of effort. The thought of doing a bit of a recce ride to scope things out was also something I was considering. But the free time I had available, with other commitments on the go, was a bit of a hinderance.
One big challenge we had to overcome in planning this trip, was bike hire vs bike purchase. I spoke with a few folk, and going the bike hire route was going to be expensive, but the bike purchase route could potentialy be expensive as well. It was decided early on in the planning stages, that whatever bike we chose for the 'VIKINGS' to ride. They had to be light weight single cylinder adventure orientated bikes. around the 650cc range and spares had to be reasonably cheap and readily available for the bikes to be prepped in time.
In the end we decided that we would go the bike purchase route, and so I started looking for decent second hand bikes.
But, as time went on and crunch time arrived to actually step up and put your money where your mouth is. Pay for the flight to SA. Buy riding gear if you didnt have any, health insurance...etc etc. The pals who were uber keen to start with, started pulling out one by one, until it was just Trond and I who would be riding Lesotho this time round. With a very busy work schedule, Trond could only get off work at the end of the year, so he booked his flight for a day after xmas, and would be back in Norway in the second week of January. Once we had dates confirmed, my wife and her two sisters decided to have a girls only adventure in Norway while the blokes were slinging it in deepest darkest Africa. They ended up in Norway for about a month.
Although it would have been great to have a few more folks come out here and ride. The fact that it was only going to be the two of us, made the bike purchase issue a non starter. Trond would ride my KTM525exc and I would ride my Honda XR650R. Being the beginner rider, having a bike with a happy button makes life that much simpler when you stall or fall off. By the time the route was mostly finalised and the accomodation sorted, I had about 10 weeks to get the bikes Lesotho ready, inbetween working all day and trying to build on the small plot of land my wife and I recently purchased.
I had'nt ridden either bike for a while, with being busy building ect. so there was not that much to do other than the usual maintenance and checkups. My Honda had been parked for more than a year and it had been months since I rode the KTM. So one random saturday, I rode the KTM out to Muden and back again, then swapping bikes as soon as I got back home, and did the same track on the Honda. At the end of the day, I had a much better view of what needed to be done seeing as the bikes had been standing for so long. The only major thing I decided to do, was have both bikes front and rear suspension serviced at TBR Suspension up in Hilton. Its local and they do a good job. Once that was sorted, both bikes had a full going over and service as necessary. New tyres all round, chains/sprockets/oils/filters, etc etc. Then I used each bike to commute to work and back for a few days, all 15kms of it, To make sure there were no surprises on our trip, that could have been avoided by simple maintenance.
A few spares waiting to be fitted
Setting the height of the KTMs forks. Its a bit of a fiddle to get it ±0.05mm or better for both sides.
Ready to ride
My daughter got married in April last year, and lucky for us, some of the family flew in from Norway to join in the festivities. They arrived about a week before the event and stayed for a week or so once all was said and done. During their short visit, my brother in law, Trond, and I went for a ride or two, and at some point, one of us thought it would be a good idea for him to come back to SA, and for us to do a ride across lesotho. He had never been to Lesotho before, and was keen to have a blokes only biking adventure. A week or two after the family got back home to Norway, he called me up, and said that after speaking to a few of his mates, some of them were keen to join in the festivities and come ride Lesotho as well.
I was certainly not expecting such quick commitment, but I couldnt help but get super excited at the prosect of another epic Lesotho ride. We spent the next few months deciding when to go and what our routes should be like. Trond, up untill this point in time had never ridden off road, over rocky terrain. Had never ridden in the rain and certainly never in the mud. So trying to figure out where to ride in Lesotho for a complete novice, yet at the same time see the rugged side of Lesotho. I must have spent 100s of hours pouring over maps, gps tracks, google earth, youtube videos, chatting to folks who had recently been out there, anything that i could find to accomodate the level of riders I was expecting to guide around Lesotho, and ride terrain that was challenging yet doable with a bit of effort. The thought of doing a bit of a recce ride to scope things out was also something I was considering. But the free time I had available, with other commitments on the go, was a bit of a hinderance.
One big challenge we had to overcome in planning this trip, was bike hire vs bike purchase. I spoke with a few folk, and going the bike hire route was going to be expensive, but the bike purchase route could potentialy be expensive as well. It was decided early on in the planning stages, that whatever bike we chose for the 'VIKINGS' to ride. They had to be light weight single cylinder adventure orientated bikes. around the 650cc range and spares had to be reasonably cheap and readily available for the bikes to be prepped in time.
In the end we decided that we would go the bike purchase route, and so I started looking for decent second hand bikes.
But, as time went on and crunch time arrived to actually step up and put your money where your mouth is. Pay for the flight to SA. Buy riding gear if you didnt have any, health insurance...etc etc. The pals who were uber keen to start with, started pulling out one by one, until it was just Trond and I who would be riding Lesotho this time round. With a very busy work schedule, Trond could only get off work at the end of the year, so he booked his flight for a day after xmas, and would be back in Norway in the second week of January. Once we had dates confirmed, my wife and her two sisters decided to have a girls only adventure in Norway while the blokes were slinging it in deepest darkest Africa. They ended up in Norway for about a month.
Although it would have been great to have a few more folks come out here and ride. The fact that it was only going to be the two of us, made the bike purchase issue a non starter. Trond would ride my KTM525exc and I would ride my Honda XR650R. Being the beginner rider, having a bike with a happy button makes life that much simpler when you stall or fall off. By the time the route was mostly finalised and the accomodation sorted, I had about 10 weeks to get the bikes Lesotho ready, inbetween working all day and trying to build on the small plot of land my wife and I recently purchased.
I had'nt ridden either bike for a while, with being busy building ect. so there was not that much to do other than the usual maintenance and checkups. My Honda had been parked for more than a year and it had been months since I rode the KTM. So one random saturday, I rode the KTM out to Muden and back again, then swapping bikes as soon as I got back home, and did the same track on the Honda. At the end of the day, I had a much better view of what needed to be done seeing as the bikes had been standing for so long. The only major thing I decided to do, was have both bikes front and rear suspension serviced at TBR Suspension up in Hilton. Its local and they do a good job. Once that was sorted, both bikes had a full going over and service as necessary. New tyres all round, chains/sprockets/oils/filters, etc etc. Then I used each bike to commute to work and back for a few days, all 15kms of it, To make sure there were no surprises on our trip, that could have been avoided by simple maintenance.
A few spares waiting to be fitted
Setting the height of the KTMs forks. Its a bit of a fiddle to get it ±0.05mm or better for both sides.
Ready to ride
