Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

On Monday the 1^st March, in the soft light of the rising sun, I was threading my way through the early morning peak traffic to meet another three riders who had been attracted to the same folly.  This was to ride through all of SA’s nine Provinces.  As this had been done before (boring), Keith Millington came up with the idea to have a cup of coffee with every BMW Motorcycle retailer in SA to make the ride more interesting.  And then to add to the challenge the caveat of including 21 passes was included.  All the research indicated that this had never been done before so the “Epic” ride was on with the objective of completing the adventure in eleven days.

Four Intrepid Travellers The Usual Suspects

Introducing the riders from the left ; Jacques Botha, Eric Pretorius, John Gillespie and Keith Millington.

Dave Higgs and the Auto Atlantic team were there to feed us coffee, sign our flags and provide a bon voyage.

Signing the flag for the first time, note the look of enthusiasm of Keith’s face.

Jacques Botha (retired Police Colonel) organised a police escort with sirens to send us on our way in style.  After negotiating the remaining early morning traffic we soon settled into a relaxed rhythm of eating the kilometres away at a steady pace.  Turned to the right off the N7 to tackle the awesome Vanrhyns Pass and head in the direction of Upington via Calvinia, to our next dealer.

First Pass

This road had approximately 20 “stop and go’s” due to road works and we were unlucky to only have three of these in our favour.  This put our dealership arrival time of 16h00 in serious jeopardy so we just stepped up the pace to make up time.  The two 1200RT’s, 1200GSA and 1200GS responded enthusiastically and we cruised into Upington just ahead of schedule.

Auto Lexus 

Coffee was substituted for cold beverages as the temp was 42 deg. and the “soon to be repeated many times” ceremony of signing flags and taking photos commenced.

Biltong yeah! 

We were each presented with a huge stick of the local biltong by Istvan and admired some old BMW’s on display before locating our lodgings and a well earned rest after covering 852 Km.

What a beauty

As it was a Saturday and we needed to arrive at the next dealership before closing time at 12h00, we departed at 06h45.  Temp. was already at 23 deg when we left so it was a pleasant surprise that it did not become excessively hot as the day progressed.  Much fewer “stop and go’s” and we made such good time and that we were able to stop off for a coffee break in Matimola, where we had exceptionally good Cappuccino.

Matimola Cappuccino 

The last 155 Km for the day flew by and we reached the Kimberly dealership right on 12h00.  Cool refreshments were offered by Jan while we chatted, signed flags, took photos.

Sovereign

 Here is another photo of a classic bike.

 250cc single

Formalities completed we found and checked into the local Travel Lodge to chill and watch rugby.  Dinner was eaten at the casino and we all donated some money to Jacques so that he could increase our stash at the roulette table (his prediction).  This was not to be and we went to bed slightly poorer but satisfied that it had been a great day.

Sunday turned out to be more of a challenge.  Piet, the principal dealer in Klerksdorp, could meet us before 09h00 or after 13h00 as they had a ride organised, so we left Kimberley at 04h30 to make the early meeting time and give ourselves more lee way to reach the Rustenburg dealership timeously.  Once the Piets arrived (father and son) the flags were signed on a top box in front of the dealership.

Speedbike

Breakfast was eaten at the Wimpy before we departed to Rustenburg.  It was here that we saw a few bikes with their rear number plates on a hinged bracket angled up so that they could not be seen or photographed.  More about this later.

Now Rustenburg was quite a treat.  A bunch of riders met us along the road, with the BMW on call car, and escorted us to the dealership in Rustenburg.  Car lights flashing et al.  They opened the dealership provided lots of refreshments and encouragement before signing the flags and sending us on our way.

Best Auto

Here is a photo of Keith in the typical “heading for the flag signing” ceremony mode.

And here are some of the dealership team that sacrificed their Sunday to meet and host us.

Rustenburg Team 

David Niven was so excited about the ride that he would have been tempted to join us if he did not have an injured wrist that was still in recovery.

It had been a long day so we were grateful to be able to locate the overnight accommodation just outside of Rustenburg and relax, enjoy a few “dops”, have dinner and an early night.

Monday was a big day.  Not distance wise but we had six dealerships to visit in PTA and JHB and there was some nervousness about tackling the Gauteng traffic.

Jacques had a “heart to heart” with his brother in law and was able to lead us directly to the Zambezi Dealership.  Most impressive set up, almost a mini BMW city.  Udo was an excellent host and arranged for the lamps that had blown on John’s bike to be replaced while the flag and photo process took place.

Zambezi

The entire team popped out for a group pic and they kindly allocated one of their staff to take us to the next dealer thus easing the stress of finding the Centurion outlet in the busy morning traffic.

Zambezi Team 

The next stop was Bavarian Motorcycles.  Now this was the most BMW’s that any of us had seen on a showroom floor at one time.  They always have between 75 to a 100 bikes in stock.

Bavarian 

The other impressive facet about this dealer is that if you walk into the shop and purchase a bike at 08h00 in the morning, you can take delivery of your bike (licensed and plated) at 10h00. Now that is service for you.  It was a pity that we arrived after eight....... or maybe lucky for our finances.

Bavarian Team

Braam volunteered to guide us to the Northside Motorcycles in Midrand.  We were grateful for this as it would have been a major mission to find them on our own, seriously impacting our ability to meet the other dealers on time.

This recently opened branch certainly has captured the open, spacious feel that one associates with the mid rand area.  Refreshments and flag signing complete, Cheyne led the way to the on ramp of the northern bypass on the nippy BMW scooter, and we could see first hand, how effective these bikes are at negotiating city traffic.

Northside

A serious accident had occurred earlier in the day on the opposite lane of the highway and we saw a small black car jammed between, and on top of, a truck and the concrete road separator.

Clearwater

The next stop was Clearwater in Roodepoort.  Mannie, who is a long standing member of the BMW sales team, did the honours and signed the flags and provided the refreshments. 

We ducked the highway, due to the accident, and took the risky route of following the back roads to our next destination in Lyndhurst.  This worked out well and we arrived at the dealership in record time staying well on schedule.

Here, besides having our flags signed, we met the gentleman who markets the hinged rear number plate bracket that we first saw in Klerksdorp.  It apparently has a sensor which when activated by the rider will flip the number plate down so that it displays legally. What a “skelm” lot they are up north.

Lyndhurst 

Our last dealership visit of the day, which was in Boksburg, went off without any hitches.  The refreshments were welcome as it was hot.  We had an extended flag signing as Jacques wanted an opinion on a noise that his clutch was making and they kindly tightened the loose bolts on my rear mud guard.

Auto Alpina 

We found our way to the Angelica guest house and really relaxed as we had completed what we knew to be our most challenging day, relatively easily. Although we only travelled 282 Km we had visited six dealers.  

We dined at a Portuguese restaurant that was just down the road from Angelica and had our most tasty dinner of the trip.  “Straf dops” were also dished out, for some real and some imagined infringements.  A great evening was had by all.

Tuesday we enjoyed a hearty breakfast before departing, for the first time on the trip.  Secunda, our first destination, was an easy ride, as the highway on ramp was within a kilometre of where we stayed and we were travelling in the opposite direction to the morning traffic.  There was some confusion about the route as some of the highway we were using did not exist on our Garmin maps.

We surprised the dealership with our early arrival and after a slight delay commenced to sign the flags, drink great vanilla flavoured coffee and take photographs.

Pinnacle 

The dealership, which was really enthusiastic about our trip, arranged for one of the local news papers to conduct an interview and take photographs.  Ah!  Fame at last.

Pinnacle Press Photo 

We now entered the more fun side of the trip with the focus more on the riding and less on the dealerships.  We had to detour into Groblersdal to claim the nine province goal and rode through the Kranspoort Pass on the way to Loskop Dam. 

On this road we encountered what I believe must the worst accident that I’ve ever seen.   A car obviously collided head on with a truck.  The car had been reduced to a small square lump of metal that looked like it had been crushed by a motor scrap yard compressor.  The body or bodies must still have been in the wreck and the front of the truck was completely collapsed.

From here on the countryside became most scenic as we progressed north enjoying some passes, with great sweeping curves, at pace.  Such a thrill to play in the curves on the BM but we had to cool it on the Nelshoogte Pass coming into Nelspruit due to speed recording cameras.

Refreshments were most welcome at the dealership as it was hot and humid (typical lowveld weather) and besides the usual signing and photo taking the dealership arranged with Empangeni to provide Jacques with a 20,000 Km service, while we wait, provided we arrive there before 13h00 on Wednesday.

Eastview 

We moseyed off to our overnight accommodation, Duma Lodge, which was on the road to the Komatiepoort border post.  Here the owner suggested that we continue our trip toward the border and turn right towards Baberton, as the road would not have any trucks and the scenery was exquisite.

Braai packs, a fire and chef were provided by the Lodge and a superb dinner was enjoyed by all. Here is a photo of our chef in action.

Had to leave before 05h00 to be able to make the Empangeni lunch time deadline.  It was 23.5 degrees when we departed so we knew that we were in for a “snorter”.  The route advice turned out to be sound and we rode through some of the most beautiful scenery encountered on the trip, although the first hour was lost to the dark.  And we had the road to ourselves.  Some great passes and twisties were encountered and fun was had by all, with unanimous agreement that this section was the best part of our entire 11 day ride.  Interestingly enough we were all having so much fun riding these passes that none of us took any pictures of this section of the trip.

We also encountered our worst road, travelling through Piet Retief.  Main highway into and out of the town was fine, but within the town limits it was a veritable cabbage patch, in a state of complete disrepair.  The local authority should be ashamed and embarrassed, if not dismissed, to have let the roads degenerate to this extent.

We reached the Empangeni dealership near 14h00 with the temperature at 39.5 deg.  Zululand at it’s humid best.  While they commenced to service Jacques’ bike we signed flags enjoyed cold drinks, met with a reporter from the Zululand Observer and sought refuge in the air conditioned showroom.

Natal Motors 

Val Van Der Walt trolls the local dealership’s looking for news to publish in the local newspaper.  He seemed genuinely interested in the story about a bunch of riders who were travelling all the provinces and visiting all the dealerships, because it was something different from the usual “let me tell you about the latest small import from China”.

Here is the photo that he took of us.  Note the professional touch producing a great photo.

Zululand Observer Photo 

Jacques’ bike was ready about 16h30 and we continued to the Travel Lodge in Richards Bay with a prayer for our safety provided by Gerhard Vos.  Thank you Gerhard, we can use all the help we can get in this life journey.

Reached our first dealer in Umhlanga at approximately  09h00.  This was the most protected dealership that we had visited.  Booms, fences, tyre ripping spikes at the entrance and exit and a security guard.

Auto Umhlanga Motorcycles 

Nice friendly welcome and the signing and photograph formalities were dealt with swiftly as we were slightly behind schedule.

The trip to Ryder Motorrad in Hillcrest took 30 minutes and they had the welcome mat ready.

Ryder Motorrad

Michael Kuit, the Workshop Manager, came and whisked all the bikes off to the workshop to be checked.  They topped up oil, checked tyre pressures, re-routed some cables and replaced an oil seal on a weeping differential.  We were blown away by the professional and efficient service and were not charged a cent. 

Thank you Michael and Ryder Motorrad, your attention was much appreciated by all of us.

Signing flag photo for Ryder Motorrad. 

Some friends of mine showed us the way to the N3 motorway and we headed off to Bethlehem via Harrysmith.

This was boring highway riding with the only real fun being Van Reenen’s Pass.  This was unfortunately hampered by an 80 Kph speed limit and a number of speed traps.  I for one took some of the curves at 120 Kph and am desperately hoping that the cameras were shooting from the front.

We arrived at the Bethlehem dealer late in the afternoon where besides the usual formalities, Jacques had a gripe at the dealership about not receiving his Vooma magazine.  Apparently the Hochland dealership plays a significant role in producing the publication.  Was this the real motivation for him to join the trip?

Hochland 

A Nando’s chicken dinner was enjoyed by all and an early night was in order as we had travelled 576 Km.  Keith probably had a later night as he was wrestling with the internet banking service to be able to pay the staff back home.

We woke up to the “pitter patter” of rain but fortunately it stopped before we departed.  We enjoyed our second, before departing for the day, breakfast here.  This was to be our shortest day riding 330 odd Km to Bloemfontein.  We started off taking the scenic route out of town struggling to find the correct road.  Once that complication was resolved we cruised through to Clarens, did a quick circuit of the town and headed for the Golden Gate National Park after a short roadside consultation.  As can be seen from some of the photos this was a worthwhile deviation plus we found an unexpected pass.

Golden Gate National Park

More Golden Gate Views 

The next stop was Fouriesberg  where , over coffee it was decided that, to save time on our next day leg to PE we should push through to Colesberg instead of sleeping in Bloemfontein.  200 odd Km off the Saturday ride to PE would be far more manageable.

We then pushed through to Bloem, on mostly boring straight roads with the occasional pretty view like this field of Sunflowers.

40 deg in Bloemfontein was no fun and the cool drinks that were offered when we arrived and given to us on departure were most welcome.  A really a nice bunch of people those Free Staters.

Sovereign 

The last two hours of the day was hard going.  We were tired, hot and had to suite up for rain, making us even hotter.  We experienced a severe cross wind most of this leg and were rained on.  I was using a motocross helmet with a peak and had to hold it down with my left hand to reduce my head and neck being jerked around.  We checked into the Colesberg Lodge after riding 606 Km and had a most pleasant evening in the hotel pub and restaurant.  More “straf doppe” were enjoyed although these were mostly volunteered for.

There was no messing about the next morning and we put “pedal to the metal” and rushed to PE stopping briefly for fuel for the bikes and ourselves in Craddock.  The Olifantkop Pass is a super ride that temps one to exceed the limits.  What a rush!

The PE dealership was done and dusted by 12h30 and we headed for the Road Lodge on the beach front to relax for the rest of the day.

Continental 

The rest of the day was taken up by a light lunch on the beach front, watching the rugby and enjoying dinner, on the beach front again.  Especially because the Stormers won.

The second last day of the trip with no dealerships to visit and a leisurely ride down to the Wilderness was just what the doctor ordered.

As we needed a few more passes we detoured onto Van Staadens Pass.  As Keith has never approached the Stormsrivier bridge from this side of the pass, he missed the viewing point and now has a good reason to go back.  In fairness, if John had not pointed it out to me, I would probably have missed it as well.  Thank you John.

Our next stop was to help an “Oomie” that had pulled the rear tubeless tyre off the rim of a 250cc Kymco Harley look alike.  He was asking us to lift the bike so that he could re-inflate the tyre using a hand pump.  We immediately realised that this was not going to work and persuade him to get a lift with us to the Stormsriver garage to obtain help.  Once there we enjoyed a Steers burger brunch before continuing.

We took a chance and followed the signs to the Bloukrans Pass even through it was clearly indicated that the road was closed.  We rode over the bulldozed sand barrier and entered an enchanting world on a road that looked to be perfectly functional.  There was no visible serious damage and the pass could probably be opened again with a couple of days cleaning up taking place.

Bloukrans Views

After this we immediately found ourselves on the Grootrivier Pass which takes one down into the beautiful Natures Valley.

After stopping in Knysna to pick up our braai packs etc. for our final night on the road celebration, we arrived at Pirates Creek and booked into the log cabins on the water’s edge.

Mike Shield had joined us from CT to catch up on the news and participate in the final leg of the ride.  He was supposed to be on the trip but had to pull out at the last moment due to health problems thus creating the opportunity for Jacques to join in.  Thank you Mike for meeting us on the way back.

A good final celebration was enjoyed by all as we “pigged out” on a heap of food superbly braaied by Jacques.  It was with a sense of sadness that the trip was at its end mixed with the exciting feeling that we were going home.  Always a sign of a successful trip I believe.

Last Supper

Happy Travellers 

After a breakfast of warmed up braai leftovers we rode through to the George dealership.  Where once again we were spoiled with great coffee, fun chit chat and did the usual flag, photograph stuff.

Lynn Schroeder Motorrad

Then the final dash home began, being lead by John, who seemed to be extra keen to reach Stellenbosh.  We refuelled outside Mossel Bay and charged down the N2 stopping outside Swellendam again to refuel the bikes and enjoy freshly prepared rooster brood.  Yum yum!

After this short interlude the dash was back on with John and Mike leading the way.  We all regrouped at the bottom of Sir Lowrys, our last pass, and rode through to Donford arriving together at 13h30.

Donford

Journeys End

The epic ride was complete, what an experience, that will never be forgotten, and may even be repeated, but Keith thought of it first.

Keith designed and had five flags manufactured for the trip.  Each rider has one of these signed flags as a memento of the trip and one will be presented to the Club for their memorabilia collection.

Signed Flag

A big thank you to Keith, for thinking of, and organising the ride.  It took a huge effort to put this together and his planning and organisation was superb resulting in a supremely satisfying and rewarding ride.  Well done from all of us that participated.

Another innovation that he introduced was to fit a tracking device onto his bike.  This allowed our families and the dealers to track our progress, on the road, via the internet in real-time.  Jacques’ son was tracking our progress from Taiwan and Keith was receiving daily calls from the various dealers to discuss our progress.   A nifty gadget that can also be configured to activate a hooter, cut the ignition etc remotely.  You can contact him through the club web site if you want to know more.

To my fellow riders it was a privilege sharing the road with competent, considerate and aware riders.  At no stage of our travels was there a close call where we could have collided, pretty good for four people sharing the road for nearly 6000 Km while often travelling at speed on unknown roads.

A special thank you to the dealership staff that made us welcome, were generous with their refreshments, gifts of biltong, caps, pens, diaries, repairs and visor cleaner.  And for taking the time out of your busy schedules to sign our flags and take and pose for photos.

A final thank you to the BMW Motorcycle Club Cape for donating club shirts to all of us for the ride.

Statistics for those that are interested:

Days on the road              : Eleven

Distance Travelled           : 5778 Km

Dealerships Visited         : 21

Atlantic Motorrad (CT), Auto Luxus Motorrad (Upington), Sovereign Kimberley Motorrad, Speed Bike Klerksdorp, Best Auto Motorrad (Rustenburg), Zambesi Auto Motorrad (PTA), Bavarian Motorcycles (Centurion), Northside Motorcycles (Fourways), Clearwater BMW (West Rand), Lyndhurst Auto Motorrad, Auto Alpina Boksburg Motorrad, Pinnacle Motorrad (Secunda), Eastview Motorrad (Nelspruit), Natal Motors Motorrad (Empangeni), Auto Umhlanga Motorcycles, Ryder Motorrad (Hillcrest), Hochland Motorrad (Bethlehem), Sovereign Bloemfontein, Continental Cars Motorrad (Port Elizabeth), Lynn Schroeder Motorrad (George) and Donford Motorrad (Stellenbosch).

Number of Passes           : 23

Kaaimansriver, Noupoortsnek, Monanta, Daggaboersnek, Botha’s Nek, Horn’s Nek, Pierkernierskloof, Nelshoogte, Vanryns, Hilltop, Olifantsnek, Lichens, Schoemanskloof, Carlton Heights, Witkransnek, Kranspoort, Van Reenen’s, Olifantskop, Bloukrans, Grootrivier, Rotspoort, Houhoek and Sir Lowrys.

No mechanical faults encountered.  Just the occassional loose bolt that needed tightning or blown light bulb.  The technology is superbly reliable.

No injuries except for one bee sting.