Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

Very, veeerrrry nice Herman.  Captures the spirit of the weekend brilliantly.

Oh Boy, how will I ever conquer the sand monster?

Patience, practice, persistence.  That's how you conquer the sand monster. Some people pick it up quickly and never look back, some of us have to take the longer road.  

On my first trip to the Kaya, I hated it and struggled mightily. I slowed everyone down and was panicked at the slightest patch of sand.  It took months to recover my nerve. 

My second trip a year later was better, but I still battled - I swore never to return.  

This year, after a gap of 2 years I did, feeling more confident on loose sandy roads.  I still struggle in long stretches of deep sandy twee-spoor - my head tells me I can't do it and I slow down and stop and then find myself paddling.  But I've improved significantly.  

Geoff tells me this is the worst he's seen the road to the Kaya in a long time.  

Somehow though I managed to find myself the first to arrive at the Kaya.

Sometimes on a long slog, which looks like it will never end, it is useful to turn around and look how far you've come.  I've come a long way - and trips like the Kaya are a great measure of that.  

I'll be back.

 Kevin

By the looks of things it is also suggested to let your bike lie down and rest every so often

Teaching it new tricks.

To roll over and play dead.  

Oh, how I wish I was there.

It reminds me so very much of my 1st (2011) visit to the Kaya.

And the 2nd (2012), and the 3rd (2013) and the 4th (2014).

Well done to all you monster-slayers!

 Mwendo....please show us a pic of you wearing the T-shirt !

Eish Adrian, that's a sore point.

Each and and every one of them was shredded by the time we got to Elands Bay on the Sunday. Which is why I keep on going back - one of these days I'll get home with the T-shirt intact. 

You are missing a statistic Herman: number of falls!

Sjoe! That's a lot of sand...

Herman did not fall once.  Neither did Geoff.  The rest of us varied from 1 to more than 10.  I fell 4 times, of which one was while playing in the twisties at Gert du Toit se Baai (in the video I am the guy sitting on Mr.Badger having left the road on a turn.

Each time we go to the Kaya I wonder how many more times my body will allow me to enjoy this unforgettable experience.

It's videos like this that will remind me of these special times.

I guess I can always drive the back up vehicle.

Thanks for the memories Herman.....great music by the way.

My bike did topple over (on tha last day) on the middelmannetjie soft sand when I deliberately changed spoor while fiddling with the action camera to get a shot of bikes coming past me, so I guess it counts as a fall. 

Cool video Herman. I had loads of fun the entire weekend. So many funny stories. Monday everything was very unsatisfying thinking back to all the awesome riding there is out there.

I fell over about six or seven times, mostly side stand incidents. I uploaded some of my clips last night: https://youtu.be/63i4v9BZSWc

Lance.

Respect Brother, this is THE definitive video for this trip.

This is the video Geoff will surely use for his trip teasers for many times toi come.

11,5 minutes of well documented trip.

And so by the way you are der Sandmeister!!

That 21' wheel is like ten Red Bull's it just gives you wings!

But that notwithstanding you showed much aplomb surfing the sand monster.

WTF,  running past the field, filming them, stopping the bike to film the filed and then having to negotiate passing them again.

I have done this three times on the 1150GAS, but I don't think I have done it on the 1200GSA,,.... mmm must look at photos.

Thanks for taking all the trouble to cobble this into one documentary.

Superb guys, Thnaks herman!

Great videos guys, really does give one a good idea of riding "the sand monster" and an inkling of the magic of the Kaya trip.

This confirms why Jurg se Kaya is #1 on my list .

Tony wrote:

This confirms why Jurg se Kaya is #1 on my list .

Yep! Your passion for this event is legendary! 

I have more than 1 list - to do, might do and not to do.

Didn't say which list I was referring to , although I suspect you already figured that out .

Lance's sand-riding and video-taking skills have increased markedly over time! He did have some hard knocks on the way though. Maybe we are just an unlucky couple; 3 broken bones in the space of 7 months.

His mishap was from riding sand at Parklands and not seeing a very deep ditch. He popped his one fork seal, flipped the bike and did a really good job in destroying his wrist. He was only traveling at about 40 km/h at the time (GPS proof available). There wasn't enough whole bone for a pin through the bone. The pin he had was inside the skin/muscle, but sitting alongside the bone; like an internal splint.

That was in Feb this year. He has fallen plenty since...

...but now it appears that his sand monster is turning into a sand fairy (mine still looks like a monster). He made sand riding look effortless!

Hectic Zanie/Lance.  The way Lance was riding I occasionally mistook him for Herman (I know I know).

I have put up an annotated "Sand Riding Howto" from Simon Pavey.  He sounds quite realistic about sand.

Don't believe the 'just 2km' story that Geoff tries to sell about the last stretch into the Kaya.  

My GPS says this is 7.2km from the mouth of the river into JSK.  

And it tells an interesting story about time and distance.  

Friday evening: duration 35 minutes, 30 minutes 'moving time'.  The rest of the group arrived between 20 and 45 minutes later.   

Saturday morning (with hangover): duration 01:02 (an hour and two minutes); 31 minutes 'moving time'.  This also included the time to load Okkie's bike on the trailer.  

Saturday afternoon: 48 Minutes, 25 minutes 'moving time'.  Which included stopping to pick up my bike and then staying around a bit to pick up my lungs.  

It is amazing how different the same stretch can be just at different times of the day.  

Agreed Kevin, it felt like a different road each time we rode it. It was most tricky on Friday evening with the setting sun casting dark shadows in the spoor. It was a also tricky Satuday morning when my reaction time was dramatically slower from those nasty straf doppe. I found Saturday afternoons ride back the easiest. I managed that 7.2km stretch in a little over 10min which works out to an average moving speed of 40km/h. Here is my raw footage of that "2km" sand road to the Kaya with you chilling out at 2:25

That last stretch to the Kaya has really come a long way.
It was "just 4km" in Nov 2011.

Thanks for the videos Lance.

What an awesome video Herman, well done.

SO, i have learnt 3 things from watching this video,

1. Herman is a sand riding god (or he so conveniently edit out all his falls from the video) 

2. One really needs to be riding fit as the sand riding seems to be energy sapping and one can really have a hard time once fatigue sets in

3. I WANT TO DO THIS TRIP ONE DAY, what an amazing venue.