Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

I am a terrible rider:  physically I am nothing to write home about, and my balance is so poor that I make drunkards look stable.  Just to be able to ride like most normal people, I have had to do lots of bike training - to the point that I have ended up doing every single possible course offered by the Country Trax Riding Academy:

• Intro to Offroad Riding
• Intro to Offroad Riding with Pillion (sommer twice)
• Offroad Riding Intermediate Weekend
• Offroad Riding Advance Course
• Advanced Sand Course
• Dune Riding Course
• Dirtbike Fundamentals Course

As a result, Country Trax presented me with an award for being the first person ever to have completed (needed?) all of the courses they have on offer.  It seems that after all that training they feel I still have some way to go, because the prize was another training course!  This time, an all-expenses paid Dirtbike Fundamentals Course at the Country Trax headquarters in Amersfoort (Mpumalanga) on Jan du Toit's farm.  Jan to provide a bike for me to ride (a Honda CRF 230F like the one I ride at home).

Getting There

No solo bike trips this time - Country Trax Flew me to JHB on Thursday, and Gerber Strydom picked me up at the airport and drove me through to Amersfoort.  Gerber would be one of our instructors - I had met him before when I did the Dirtbike Fundamentals Course at Eselfontein, and again at the GS Trophy where he represented South Africa in the international event.  The trip was about 3 hours in a luxury Toyota Landcruiser - the bad roads and potholes were soaked up by this legendary vehicle.

Country Trax Headquarters - Amersfoort

When we arrived I was overwhelmed with sensory overload.  There's the luxury log cabins, Jan to greet us, the other course participants, Jan's wife Elsie, getting settled into my room in the log cabin (east facing, with ensuite bathroom), meeting the other instructors (Gerhardt Strydom and Herman Cremer).

Jan is the consummate host.  We sit outside and banter until supper is called by Elsie and we sit down to the first of the weekends fabulous meals.  Each meal is balanced, delicious and healthy - really healthy.  And delicious.  All the course participants are here, except for a guy called David who was coming first thing on Friday (and ended up leaving early on Saturday because his brother was in hospital).

I meet the other participants:

• Brenden (Yamaha 250) and his girlfriend
• Zelda (185 2-stroke)
• Pauline (Yamaha 230)(Zelda's friend)
• Kevin Wills (on a BMW 450)
• Roger from KZN on a KTM 250 or 300
• Conrad Dent from Pretoria on a hired Honda 230F

The dinner was cosy, and afterwards we had coffee and chatted around the fire and watched a DVD of the Dorsland trip that Jan did with a group of riders.  The couch around the fire is cut from a solid tree-trunk that had grown into a 'U'.  One piece of wood, cut with a chainsaw and polished into a couch big enough for 8 people with a coffee table in the middle.  Jan's handiwork.

Friday - Day 1

On Friday I awoke early and enjoyed the sunrise with a cup of coffee.  Jan opened the shed and got the bikes out - the CRF I was riding needed some adjustments and we attended to it before breakfast.  Conrad and I would be riding the two Country Trax CRF 230Fs.

David was late and we waited a bit, but then got started with the course.  The first exercise is walking with the bike, keeping your eyes up and using your situational awareness to know when the front and back wheel are over certain obstacles and momentarily stopping with the wheel on a log or stone or line or whatever.

Ready to roll: (photo courtesy of Conrad Dent)

For throttle, brake and clutch control we walked the bikes up a narrow ramp and down the other side (without looking down).  I did look down, and when the optional, more difficult exercise to walk up the steep ramp we had come down I went for it, stubbornly keeping my eyes up the whole way.  I refer you  to the first line of the this report.  What happened next?

Feedback 1

As I get to the top of the ramp, stubbornly not looking where I was walking, I step right off the narrow ramp and drop the bike.  Using alacrity I never had before, I was able to save the bike (mostly), by wedging myself between the bike and the concrete at the top of the ramp.  All I broke was the clutch lever and part of my hip.

Luckily, this was the same side of the hip I had bruised extensively before in an argument with a ditch just a few weeks ago, so I was quite accustomed to the searing pain and able to hobble swiftly onwards...

The Playground

You need to understand the setup of Jan's farm.  The log cabins (which he built himself from trees he bought from a sawmill because they were too big for the sawmill to handle), look onto an enormous manicured plush lawn.  The lawn is the perfect place to learn things on the bike - a 'sidestand incident' results in a soft landing.  There are obstacles on the lawn, like tyres, logs, a seesaw, a ramp, gumpoles and trenches all designed for particular biking exercises.

There is one very long log - about 30m - that is low at the one end and high at the other, and just perfect for learning how to ride over logs.

Wheelies

I started riding a dirtbike in order to learn how to wheelie.  I can sortof now.  I learnt to use the front brake to help compress the front before lofting the wheel, and I learnt to feather the back brake - it somehow gives you more control/confidence and lets you ride it further.

Logs

First, we learn to ride over the long log, starting at the low end and soon moving to the high bit.  I had no problems there, but focussed on the manner in which Herman negotiated the obstacle - smoothly and using very little power or speed (contrasted with my giving it berries and klunking over not quite so elegantly).  So my aim became to ride more like Herman and less like me.

Soon we moved onto the 'Pivot Turn'.  This is where you park the bike parallel to the log, then wheelie the bike and swing the front over the log and ride over, in one elegant movement.  Ha!

Feedback the second

In my usual insecure overachiever fashion, I totally overdo the compressing of the forks, the opening of the throttle, and the popping of the clutch.  The bike leaps up and throws me off balance (as if I ever had any to be on in the first place).  I manage to make some kind of swinging motion to get the bike over the log, but succeed only in flinging myself headfirst over the bike.

Being an experienced faller, I dodge the soft grass and land with my left shoulder on the log.  It hurts like the dickens.  Luckily, this shoulder is used to pain from the ditch incident a few weeks ago.  Herman tells me to sit aside and wait - the shoulder will either get worse or it will get better and then I can decide whether to carry on or not.  Is this the end of my magical course or not?

The pain subsides to a dull ache and I carry on.  Only certain movements cause a sharp pain - such as when I fall, but since we are not supposed to be falling anyway that is OK.

The suffering

Jan has had a 10m diameter round hole dug into the ground, with vertical sides.  We are to race each other inside there, riding on the vertical sides and treating them as a berm in a continuous circle.  It is hard - get it wrong and you pop out the top or tumble to the ground.

Conrad does much better than me.  Zelda does really well too.  Kevin and Roger are the real demons.  Gerhardt pitches Zelda against her boyfriend Brenden saying that if she beats him then he must propose to her.  She wins.  We laugh.

The evening

Lovely supper again, great conversation and hilarity.  Jan is curious about some of the other courses I have done, and my stay in the Antarctic and work as a space physicist.  Everybody is tired, but I am quite fit and Jan and I sit and chat over a coffee.  I mention one of the 'truths' of NLP: There is no such thing as failure, only feedback.  This was to become the new euphemism for a fall - feedback.

Saturday - day 2

A long day with a ride before breakfast.  Early in the day we are learning how to ride over one of those enormous tyres that they embed in the ground.  The girls are a bit nervous.

Kevin's Feedback

Kevin makes it fine the first time, but feels he was not quite aggressive enough.  The next time he gives it horns.  His BMW 450 gets carried away and he ends up smashing into the trees on the other side of the tyre.  His bike is broken - the radiator is damaged.  Kevin is bruised and shaken.

Jan fishes out a Honda 250 Tornado out the shed for Kevin to use - it is a far cry from the 450, and everybody lends him their bike for various exercises.  Getting used to different bikes while doing difficult new exercises results in a number of feedsback for Kevin.

The oval track

Jan has built perfectly flat, smooth oval tracks, that you can race around doing power slides without fear of hooking up and high-siding.  I soon got the hang of this and was powering around the corners with the back wheel stepped out, and the front slipping out and being controlled.  A real confidence builder.

The enduro track

Off we go along a mountainside that is criss-crossed with a single-track for enduro.  It has some jumps that we go back to repeat.  Herman shows the way.  At the big jump I totally overcook it and land on the back wheel with the bike past vertical.  I keep it together though, and control it to recovery without major feedback (other than that having your heart in your throat is not a pleasant feeling at all).

Water break

Barrel race on sand

There is a short stretch of deep, ploughed up sand.  Right next to the main buildings.  We ride through there a few times and then Jan sets up some cones in the middle of it.  We are to race each other around the cones, in the sand.

I go first, against Conrad on the other 230.  It is extremely hard work.  Conrad hits some difficulty and I manage to do a doughnut (after a fashion) around a cone and score a point.  I have learnt that this is a war of attrition, so I try to keep my cool and not go down.  Eventually he is exhausted and falls, and I manage to tag him without hurting either of us (one of my main concerns being a bit of a nerd).

The outride to the haunted forest

That afternoon we ride out to a track in a bluegum forest.  Jan's farm is a cattle farm, and there are many fences.  But at each gate, he has built a ramp over the fence for bikes.  Cattle can't walk over the ramp, and on some of them it is quite feedback-prone for bikes also.

The group is split into a faster and a slower group.  I go with the slower group, led by Gerhardt and swept by Herman.

We do a steep descent, which doesn't worry me at all.  Then I realize why the girls stopped at the top - we have to come straight back up.  Gerhardt signs me to pay attention and look ahead, then barrels up a rutted rough ascent.  Herman advises me that it is easier to stay out of the rut.

I take off.  Into second gear.  Giving the 230 everything.  Bloody hell - my foot bumps the bike into neutral and I stop threequarter way up.  I try to get the bike out of the rut with a little wheelie, and end up getting minor feedback ("don't do it like that you idiot").  Eventually Herman rides it out for me and I walk up the hill - this is very tiring.

Now I notice the bike will not change into second gear.  Have I broken the gearbox?  I follow the group in first the whole way.

We stop at a dark and spooky abandoned cottage where Jan tells us of people leaving because they cannot sleep there due to unspeakable things in the night.  I think they are just scared.

Anyway, when I explain my bike's problems to Jan and Gerhardt, they tell me to bend the gearlever away from the crankcase.  Turns out I could not hook second because the gear lever was bumping against the crankcase.  I found a big stick and bent it out and voila! bike fixed.

Jump the river

On the way back to the farmhouse, we came to a river in a deep ditch that could only be crossed by jumping.  Jan had advised the girls to go a different route, as they would not have the aggression needed to make this jump.  We all made it, some more elegantly than others.  I ended up with the front wheel quite high, and am beginning to think the rear suspension on that bike was a bit soft.

Sunday - day 3

Roger had loaded his bike the night before and took off back to Natal as he had family visiting that he would not see again for a while.  Kevin also skipped most of this day as he did not have a bike.

Stoppies

I have never ever been able to do even a small stoppie.  At the course in Eselfontein, I ended up losing the front and falling, and at home I did the same.  With Herman and Gerber both giving good instruction and coaching each of the remaining five riders, I finally got the back wheel to lift.  It takes more aggression on the front brake, sitting on the tank, and yanking the body forward.  Thanks guys.

The 'Populier Bos'

Only three of the course participants did the last outride to the poplar forest - myself, Conrad and Brenden.  The girls stayed at the base with Jan giving them some personal coaching.

The ride and the scenery was fantastic.  Brenden had the dropsies and was gathering lots of feedback.  Conrad was out of breath a lot, but that did not stop him from jumping off his bike to help whomever was in need at every opportunity.  I was just shattered.

Steep muddy incline: Brenden struggling, me waiting, Conrad taking the photo

The end of the ride culminated in a ride over a big rock with very little run up.  I just could not face it and elected for Herman to ride my bike over.  Then it was home, over the deep river with big slippery rocks that had me walking my bike through and soaking my boots (I hate that).

Brunch and Farewell

We had another spectacular meal from Elsie for brunch.  Then Jan wrapped up the course and issued our certificates and caps and stickers and things, and then the dreaded goodbyes to new riding buddies and the fantastic crew at Country Trax.

Gerber drove me back to the airport.

Thanks to Country Trax I have had yet another wonderful biking weekend and learned new skills and confidence.  The award of a free course at Amersfoort was inspired and I loved every second of the months of anticipation and the days of participation and the years of afterglow.  Thanks guys.

For the new biker

Many newcomers to biking start on adventure bikes the way I did, once the kids have left home and you have some leisure time and money.  Only a few people have had the privilege of riding scramblers or dirtbikes when they were young.

After learning on an adventure bike, riding a dirtbike is pure fun.  Try it if you get the chance - it is good exercise and lots of fun and safe.

They say you should start on a trials bike, then an enduro dirtbike, and only then an adventure bike.  I say what the hell, I'm doing it backwards and loving it.  Proper formal training has helped me bypass the learning by trial and error and skip straight to the training and success part.