The annual George car show took place over the last weekend of January and I went down by bike to see the show, visit friends and ride the Tradouw pass, a Thomas Bain pass that I had heard so much about, but which I had never seen. Fluids and tyre pressures are all checked the day before, but not the fuel tank since it was still pretty full. Since I was riding alone, I could fill up whenever I needed and use the chance to stretch the legs.
1. An early start
I get an early start and head out of Kleinmond at first light. Cool air, not a breath of wind and just the occasional car, prima! By the time I get past Caledon, the sun is up but the air stays cool, the road stays quiet and the wind stays away.
2. Start of a Beautiful day
Just after Caledon you get Middleton, ‘aka, blink and you’ll miss it’, and this is where I have a run-in with a flock of guinea fowl. I slow down and give the birds a chance to vacate the road; some go left, others go right, but one brave individual can’t make up his mind and goes left-right-left instead. So there’s Phoebus going right-left-right, oh fffff….!!!! at which point my left fork makes up his mind for him. I stop in Riviersonderend to top up and survey the evidence of this ‘meating’. There are ribbons of an arrestingly bright pink hue all over my beautiful black wheel rim and a pungent odour cooking off the pipes. I feel bad for the bird until I see this; a case of seeing pink and then seeing red. Now we know this can’t be brain matter, but is something rather ‘offal’ instead. Even the pump attendant, with his compromised sense of smell, filled the bike with a straight arm and found something fascinating to look at, far away on the horizon!
Swellendam is up next and it’s raining, thank you, oh thank you. I turn into a ‘Speedqueen’ and do a rinse cycle at 150km/h. While probably not safe, is completely effective; no more malodorous fowl matter!
The turnoff from the N2 is for a charmingly named place called ‘Suurbraak’.
3. Turn-off just after Swellendam
4. Just before Suurbraak
I don’t know how the place got its name, but this ‘Stadsjaapie’ wonders if it has anything to do with the flattened cow patties dotting the main drag every three meters! Nice and slick after a bit of rain, these glistening, fibrous ‘sponsdorings’ would not be a problem to a GS, but since my bike is shod with ‘Road Attacks’ and not ‘Kak Attacks’, I decide to weave between them instead. This is fun, rather like a video game, and so I started speeding up. Concentrating too closely on running the ‘Patty Gauntlet’, I fail to notice the dog leg in the road and nearly park Phoebus into the side of a rather pretty church.
I manage to avoid these and also the three un-tethered horses grazing along the road just as I start speeding up on exiting the town.
5. Tradouw Pass
6. Tradouw Pass
7. Information Target
The Tradouw Pass is spectacular, but it is not to be ridden fast, especially in the rain. Since I am already wet, but rustig, there is no need to rush and I am not holding anyone up.
8. Tradouw Pass
9. Tradouw Pass
I stop at nearly every lookout point to take in the view. Too soon it is over and I head out into the glorious, desiccating Karoo sunshine of the R62.
10. The un-twisted bits can be fun too...
The sky is heavy the sort of mid-level cloud that makes the horizon seem more distant. For someone living on the coast, this is big-sky country and I give Phoebus beans. Word is out that we killed a fowl back in Middelton and now his feathered friends are playing hardball. What I assume to be swifts are probably feeding on insects above the road, but to me it looks as if they are doing a Kamikaze on the bike. I start to develop a flinch like a desk-cop on a shooting range. It’s not long before one suicidal swift crosses my path, banks and comes back for a second ‘Howzit’, hitting me in the neck at 140km/h+. It drops onto my thigh in a sickeningly boneless sort of way and I am grateful for three things;
1. My Leatt neck-brace
2. It is a feathered swift, not a Suzuki swift
3. It does not happen again.
Soon we pass ‘Ronnie’s Sex Shop’ with an up-market addition called the ‘Pompstasie’, sponsored by Klipdrift. My butler instincts draw me to this classy bar like a magnet, but it is not yet 9am and too early for a stiff one. :-)
11. Obligatory Stop
Phoebus and I pass numerous classic cars along the road and are surprised at how many Edwardian cars are about, how little they have in the way of backup vehicles and how exposed the occupants must be to the Karoo sun. Heroic. Since many of these pre-WW1 cars are narrow by modern standards, they potter along the left shoulder and leave a space of about a meter or so between the side of the car and the middle line. Phoebus reads this as an invitation and we pass several cars at close quarters, and at speed. This not appreciated by the drivers and many return our friendly waves, but with greater vigour and fewer fingers. We guess that this is what our instructor was talking about when he berated us for not occupying our lane, so we slow down behind each car and pass properly. This means slowing to 40km/h on blind rises and is not nearly as much fun as soliciting the one-fingered salutes.
We stop for fuel at Oudtshoorn and find out that the town does not have a BMW dealership. We know this because the pump attendant gets excited by the bike and talks more than my mom at a quilt ladies meeting. I nod my head and leave a tip, all the while smiling and ‘checking’ my earplugs by driving them ever deeper.
12. Alpine-like pass
Next up is that banked playground called the ‘Outeniqua pass’. It is still in surprisingly good condition given the volume of traffic it carries, but is now a very light grey and I would recommend anyone who is in that area to ride it soon. Once they re-surface it, the road will undulate and it will never be the same again.
13. Banked playground
Phoebus and I stop at the lookout point so that I can take in the view of the ‘Four passes’ and give the pucker which has mysteriously formed on his seat a chance to relax before my buddies in George see it.
14. Famous four passes lookout point
After that we head into town in time for our 10 o’clock cuppa tea.
15. Phoebus takes a break
After a great weekend, we head back early on Monday morning and have an uneventful trip back along the N2. (Unless that is, you consider meeting your Standard 5 teacher whom you have not seen since 1983, at a Wimpy an event. I didn’t.) Another early start means that we get back before the strengthening head-wind becomes unpleasant.
A couple of points stick with me;
1. This bike is comfortable despite its looks. The lower bars of the S, combined with the ST’s screen makes for a bike which is fun in the bends, relaxing on the open road and far more of an all-rounder than one would at first assume.
2. Beauty is subjective, but given that it is as capable as the ST, why don’t they sell? The ST is pretty, but the S is a beauty. Two people have now said that it looks like a Ducati to them. I don’t regard this as an insult.
3. The vibrations from the parallel twin do not result in any numbness of the hands, despite what one Australian posted on the Parallel Universe website (and I thought those ex-cons were supposed to be tough...)
4. Panniers are nice but they encourage you to pack more stuff. I could have halved the size of my luggage if it wasn’t for that pair of takkies. Motorcycle boots cannot be worn with shorts; you look like something that needs to be arrested.
5. Average fuel consumption went up from 4.4 l/100km’s to 4.5 on the way there and 4.6 on the way back, but then so did the average speed...
6. There will always be one person who got the wrong end of the story and takes it upon themselves to convince you that it is actually a 650cc, but is marked 800cc to differentiate it from the single. I find that it is more fun if I allow myself to be corrected.
7. The look of disappointment on the traffic cop’s face when she points her camera at you, only to realise that you slowed down for that bakkie ahead of you just in time and are now at the speed limit. Ha!