Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

. . . . . . ANOTHER BURGER OFFROAD RUN A short insight into my weekend. Another well organised 4x4 Avontuurklub run arranged by Mouton of Die Burger, this time Melkbos via Darling, Mooreesburg and Elands Bay on the way to Velddrif. The proceeds going to the Burger Christmas Charity. As usual, the early morning briefing over coffee at the Bush Pub in Melkbos, then off to the dirt. Quite a few club members there – nice seeing familiar faces. We all stayed in Velddrif – the Riviera Hotel has superb chalets and lay on an amazing feast! View during morning coffee from Riviera Hotel These rides are always accompanied by a strong 4x4 backup with an ambulance bakkie, paramedic and bike trailer and always SO enjoyable, yet very different from the BMW club outings. Firstly, so many different types of bikes. In fact so many bikes! Probably about 70 to 100 and all with friendly faces in the saddles no matter what the level of bravado attached to the brand. It’s striking how image is so obviously attached to brand :-) The roads were hard, soft, wet, slippery, muddy and dry all in one ride. We went through a few rivers, many mud pools and some loose sand, but mostly firm gravel. All in all I didn’t have a single QuickPulse moment. All in a days work for any of BMWMCCC club members (though Jane might have struggled through one or two corrugated spots or the deeper water – even if she walked on tippie toes), which brings me to the other big difference between this ride and the ones we’re used to – skill. The ride is pretty much a free for all, with groups of guys who know each other generally trying to stick together. The KTM guys are without exception a great bunch – friendly and cheerful, and with an image that they need to maintain, they generally are quite capable offroad but … We don’t realise how the continual interaction and exploration for better ways of doing things actually influences us in the club. There is a definite positive spinoff to all our interaction and the fantastic training we get. As I said, I had a pretty uneventful ride, easily managing whatever came our way, and I am by NO means an experienced rider, however there were numerous “side stand incidents” and I ended up with people coming up to me throughout the weekend asking for advice on how best to handle certain situations offroad, just because I spent most of the time standing and doing things the way we’ve been taught! One incident was quite serious, by the way. I’d say speed was the fault – I was at about 110Km/h which I think was too quick but I was enjoying being a bit euphoric on the Dakar, when 4 guys shot past, shortly after which I had to do a bit of a power brake to stop, with the 1200GS lying in the bush on its side and the rider at an awkward angle, headlong in the sand. He had hit a small patch of water with soft sand in it, veered to the bank on the left close to him, bounced to the right, back to the left and then a tumble for a few hundred metres. If he’d been going slower he may have been able to react, at that speed I’d say not … dunno – my interpretation of what happened in front of me). I did a c-spine stabilisation on him similar to the one we did at the club on Tuesday (more training), and after about 40min loaded him into the 4x4 ambulance which had arrived (more evidence of great organising by the 4x4 Avontuurklub). He was taken to hospital but discharged later, unfortunately no similar happy ending for the GS – which had a snapped prop shaft and housing! 1200 GS LOW ENOUGH TO BE A HARLEY!: Sad sight, GS at its lowest BROKEN PROP SHAFT: Prop shaft and housing - snapped. Must have been slammed from behind The trailer carted that off about 30min afterwards and I was only too glad to at last be able to get going towards the beckoning beer! So, moral of the story … guys be thankful for the training and rider development that we kind of take for granted! I’m glad I’m a BMWCCC member!