Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

And so it all begins again. Another Wild Coast BMW Club Tour. A big group this time around with riders from as far afield as Gauteng, Zimbabwe and KwaZulu Natal. ===Wednesday evening=== '''30 July''' '''(Geoff)''' I arrive home from a rushed day at the office and start going through my normal checklist. I start by asking Noelene to take the back up vehicle for a wash while I wash the bike. I again go through my top box ensuring that everything is there that I may need. I go through my kit making sure that I have everything in the correct pockets. Make sure the head set is charged, cell phone, sat phone, the list is endless. Abie our trusted back up driver arrives to collect the vehicle and trailer and we together go through some final checks. He takes the vehicle and goes home to try and get an early night. Finally at around 2230 after checking and rechecking all my goodies I pop a sleeping pill set my alarm for 0530 and go to sleep almost immediately. ===Thursday=== '''31 July''' I wake up before the alarm toss & turn a bit and decide to get up. I faff around a bit rechecking my stuff and leave home later than I wanted to. "Damn I am going to be late at the meeting place " I scold myself as I fire up my 1200 Adventure. She takes first hit of the starter button. Unusually she sounds a bit rough, I think nothing of it and put it down to the cold. As quietly as possible I trundle into the road and head for the Engen 1 Stop on the N2. After getting caught in some traffic on the R300 I finally get to the N2 and I give the bike it's head. In no time we are scooting along at way in excess of the legal limit. In the blink of an eye we are at the Garage. Fill up and go inside. It is the normal story that I see on most all of the tours. Nervous, apprehensive faces. I greet all and have a great breakfast. Just about on schedule we depart for Port Elizabeth. The air is crisp but not too cold, the roads are damp so we take it easy. In no time we are eating up the kilo's on route to Riversdal our first fuel stop. Just after Swellendam I feel the bike is running rough, I think nothing of it! Dirt in the fuel line or something silly like that I try and convince my self. It gets worse.......Anything under 1500RPM and it cuts out, then anything under 2500RPM, then 3500RPM and finally as we pull into Riversdal it starts cutting out at anything under 4500RPM. Ominous clouds of black and yellow smoke billow out of the exhaust every time I hit the accelerator. I call Atlantic Motorrad chat to Shane he tells me to check a few things to no avail. I tell him I am heading for BMW in George and ask that he pre-warn them of my problem. At the garage we also see that Nils has lost the "goody" that is used to tighten his Dakar's chain (at the end of the swinging arm) it is also used to keep the rear wheel straight. With a fuel guage dropping faster them a meteorite and pumping out more black smoke than a sick diesel motor we head for George. By the time we get there the engine is really sick...........they are however waiting for me and in a jiffy the problem is diagnosed as a faulty throttle sensor switch which they replace. Before heading off I need to refuel, horror of all horrors I had used 26 lts of fuel in only 120kms. Heavier than the Land Cruiser back up vehicle. With the bike purring like our new kitten we head for Knysna to meet Marius from Natal & Glen from Zimbabwe. We meet and greet and head for Plett and lunch. Lunch eaten we head for PE. All the while chasing dark rain clouds........... A short distance before Humansdorp Nils's Dakar gets a puncture. While loading his bike onto the Trailer we see that Justin's KTM with brand new knobbly tyres is chucking of lugs of rubber from it's rear tyre. This won't reach the Transkei for sure. The Dakar loaded we head on towards PE. Just outside Jeffreys Bay it buckets down with rain. I stop the convoy and we all hastily don our wet weather gear. From here on it is pouring rain all the way to PE where we arrive in the dark during rush hour traffic. As we turn off the N2 Marius's bike dies on him. Mors dood!!!!!!!!!!! Abie stops and loads it onto the trailer. Then Andy runs out of fuel having committed the cardinal sin of not filling up with the rest of us in Plett. He gets towed to the Garage by Tian. It is raining, we are wet and cold, yech!!!! We arrive at the Road lodge and check in. Abie, Nils & Tian try and sort out a part for Nils's bike. Andy is on the phone to the boffins trying to make head or tail of Marius's problem and Justin is fighting with KTM about his faulty rear tyre. We all head off for dinner where Andy is suitably punished for being so silly and running out of fuel. Olaf is made the next day's designated sweeper, as punishment for breaking the group. Olaf still cannot understand what was wrong... The group are bushed so we sleep early. ===Friday=== '''1 August''' The broken bike owners are up early. Nils & Marius are off the BMW with their bikes on the trailer and Justin to KTM for a new tyre. About 0930 all the broken things are fixed (Nils, pinched tube. Tube replaced. rear chain adjuster replaced. Marius, faulty clutch switch replaced. Justin, rear tyre replaced. An hour behind schedule and with the weather threatening we head for East London. I push the group faster than normal in order to make up time and by the time we arrive in Alexandria it is a raining. We stop to don the rain gear and off we go again. By Port Alfred it is dry and getting warmer as we head further North. Along the way a not so brave monkey plays chicken with group and unfortunately lands under Anne's wheels. Bike 1 monkey 0. Anne is quite shaken by the incident. We refuel in East London and head for Kei Mouth where we arrive without incident to find Terrance from Gauteng waiting for us. We deflate tyres and set suspensions for the dirt. Lots of laughs and a few drinks later it is time to leave to cross the ferry (pont) into the Transkei. It is Peter Mann's birthday. We off load the bikes in the Transkei. I start my bike and...........it's running a bit rough again. Not to worry it is probably my imagination. Off we go. Hennie takes his first fall on the first corner of the first hill!! He was trying to warn us that a car was belting along in our direction. Ag nee Hennie man! I have a little surprise for the group and instead of heading straight to the Hotel (Trennerys) I take a bit of a detour, YeeHaa!!! Off road tracks for the first time. I stop the group for a breather and low and behold, my engine problem is back. Damn it..................!!!!!! I call Dave in CT then speak the Shane, it is 16:45! We all try and get hold of BMW East London to no avail. The Boss man is not answering his cell phone. After doing some checks we work out that it is again the throttle sensor that has packed up but with East London not answering our calls I am stuck without a bike in the Transkei. A few conversations with Shane later we decide to wait for Saturday morning to see what if anything can be done. Anne has very kindly offered me her bike. It is now 04:22. I cant sleep as I am concerned about the situation. All the what- if's. What if BMW EL are not as helpful as Shane is, what if we can't repair my bike, what if they don't have a spare ??? I suppose worrying won't help so let me again try and sleep. I will post this as soon as we get cell phone signal. Lightning flashes crossed the sky – rain tomorrow? ===Saturday=== '''2 August''' '''(Anne)''' Yep, the night – she was dry, but just as we heaved a sigh of relief...pit pat pit pat on the roof – oh no, the rain started gently falling. Breakfast? You try and eat a little bit – oh but what the hell, who cares that it might come up when we go down the first technical bit? We gather around for the pre-trip briefing. We all start to listen, rain gently falling on us, when Terrence discovers a nail in his back tyre. Instantly several mechanics surround the bike. Unfortunately the tyre must be fixed. This is done in a jiffy. We are now about an hour behind, but what the hell, the 1st section we can't do because of the wet. Finally the pre-trip briefing: watch out for the wet, watch out for the slippery, watch your guy in front – see what his wheels are doing... Olaf – you are sweeper again. Surprise, surprise, the wet is not even slippery. Probably 15 mins later, Tian's front wheel develops a puncture. We pump mousse into it. Ride on several kms to the rest of the group – puncture still there. Load the bike onto the trailer. Tian bravely jumps onto Geoff's bike to pillion – his first time pillion. I wonder whether his eyes will look so friendly on the other side. We are told we're doing the original route – I know what this means... We encounter our first sand – wet sand – much better than dry sand for some of us. A surprise up-uphill catches our breaths, but no-one falls. And we bounce along, more sand, more bouncing. Somewhere along the way, the sweeper lost the backup vehicle and we stand and watch Abie meandering along the hills across the valley. Finally we get him to stop. The Sweeper (naughty sweeper) is sent off to look for Abie. Then the Sweeper gets lost, and Geoff goes off to look for everyone. Guess who's buying rounds tonight? Some water crossings followed by steep hills – no run-up – you must just stand, throttle and GO!! Some are now removing their rain gear, sweat building up inside. Finally we get to the Jacaranda shipwreck and browse around and have some snacks. Olaf arrives, swamping us with beach sand. The group of lady hikers in the distance take a rapid hike! We discover the trailer has a flat tyre, so we pump it up, hoping for the best. And we're off again, several falls on departure in the sand. Sand, more thick sand, more falls. We stop-start our way to another lookout point – stunning views. The trailer has to have it's wheel changed. 10 guys lift up the trailer while Andy exchanges the wheels!!!! Now the rain really starts falling. We encounter a lovely steep grassy hill – surprise surprise – everyone makes it up! More sand. And then the main road – we make rapid pace, until Geoff turns off to meander. The pathways have turned to slime. Anne takes her 1st fall. Finally we get to the mother of all slimy hills – some make it up, some find another way up – next time guys, use that other way. Eventually we're onto the straights again and make rapid pace to the fuel pump at Trennery's. A huge buffet lunch awaits us. Andy has 2 huge helpings even though he knows there's another huge buffet tonight. Most of us eat, shower and power nap for awhile. The Bokke are playing their game and we have to support them! '''(Geoff) ''' Managed a two hour nap so am feeling much better. Watched the second half of the Test and we are all shouting for the Boks.....! The dinner chime rings out........tonight is seafood extravaganza night. We amble into the dining room to be greeted by tables laden with every seafood you can imagine. We eat ourselves dik! Back to the laundry (my bedroom) where my sopping clothes are being blown dry by my daughters “Barbie” hair drier. My gloves look like crows feet as they have shriveled in the drying process. My riding pants are full of mud but are now at least dry. As I sit here the dryer is stuck in my boots trying to dry the. Thankfully my helmet is now dry. Some bad new ..............you guessed it.........it's raining again!!!!!!!! Some good news...........BMW East London delivered my replacement throttle sensor swith. Some more good news from this morning the McGuiver trick Shane told me about seems to have worked as the bike is still running on the previous days “faulty” switch! I have now just finished plotting an alternate route to Mazeppa Bay for tomorrows expected rain. It is going to be a difficult day whichever route we take. The group is apprehensive about tomorrows ride I can see it on their faces and hear it in the light hearted chit chat. Yep tomorrow (Sunday) will again test us all and it will probably be wet and cold. I can see lightning flashes out at sea! Let me go back and join the group in the pub! Cheers, till tomorrow!!!!! ===Sunday=== '''3 August (Nils)''' Even better then Saturday!! Which is saying something. Today we were blessed with good weather, little quad bike tracks with berms, river crossings, rocky ascents and descents, in fact everything a dual-sport rider could hope for. There was an especially challenging river crossing with a sharp, rocky right turn then after that was a beast of a hill which had everyone knyping a bit. I took my Dakar up the hill which twisted left then right, then Geoff pointed me to the left of the donga which I happily ended up plowing right through with gusto. Then I was entrusted with the task of hauling another bike up the hill, I made the first ascent successfully but then on the next rockier section the Lower 650 gs's suspension meant that I underestimated the ground clearance of the undercarriage. Screaming up the hill the bike stopped dead in its tracks and flicked the back wheel straight up. I followed suit and was thrown into the air and landed on the bike then flopped off limply, winded. Willing hands helped the bike up the last bit of the hill. Andyman also had an eventful ascent, in fact everyone had an oops at some point throughout the day, but the Camaraderie of this great group makes even the toughest sections manageable. I'm looking forward to the following day, and if today was anything to go by, then the next day will be just as spectacular. A good evening at the pub stands in the way of being in top form for tomorrow, so lets get started!! '''Chris 'Zebra' Grinton''' Whew! Where to start? Well, according to Abie, what we rode today (day 4), was more difficult than GS Challenge 'Red Route'! Certainly, listening to the radio comms between Geoff and Abie, I heard Geoff say that the difficult hill was steeper than he remembered, and it would be tough, but we should give it a go... Good friends, good times, OUTSTANDING food, and many helping hands when anything goes wrong, there is Abie with the trailer and/or spare parts, Andyman with his McGuyver box of tricks, and Geoff with clear instructions of where we have gone wrong, where we will go wrong, and maybe a High-Five when we LISTEN properly to his guidance, follow it, and then complete the 'task' successfully! I'm not sure Geoff's even planning a Wild Coast 2010, but I'm starting a 2010 list with/without his permission...! '''Andyman, reporting from Mazeppa Bay.''' Relaxing after a tough day on the bikes, muscles I never knew I had are talking to me. Now that I have recovered my breath and changed from my sweat drenched safety gear to clean dry duds, I can look back on a long day on the pegs. Tomorrow I ride just ahead of the cambion balai, so today I spent on Geoff”s back wheel, matching his every move was exhilarating as we danced the bikes over the cattle droving trails. By now the group dynamic is developing very well. Marius's riding has improved exponentially through the the day and it's so cool to see him absorbing challenge after challenge with ever increasing confidence. I also now know who I don't want to follow and who is fun to follow. Riding styles differ and you need to ride in different places in the procession to get to know who you fit with in style and pace. So far we're all finding our pace and settling into our rhythms and slotting in with riding buddies we are comfortable with. It's settling to watch the quiet confidence of Hennie who never uses more throttle than he needs to do the job. Olive, or is it Olaf is absorbing a huge amount of banter directed at him after he was banished to the rearguard for day 2,3 & 4. The bikes are absolutely amazing, absorbing punishment and eating up the Transkei hills n dales. More later... '''Pete Mann reports...''' Well so far I have had a fantastic trip. From the ride up from Cape Town, staying overnight in PE and to where we are this evening, Mazeppa Bay. Everyone is getting on really well and one can see the individual groups forming. The dynamics of 18 of us will surely become interesting as the tour progresses. I am not too sure if anyone has mentioned it but it was my birthday on Friday...and Saturday...and today (Sunday). I have a sneaky suspicion that it may just continue throughout the remainder of the week (I hope so, the guys and gal(!) have been really great, as I have been spoilt rotten with shots/shooters and various other alcoholic beverages). The first 2 days of riding for me have been challenging to say the least. Having not been on the bike for the last 6 weeks my confidence has been somewhat at a low ebb. However this afternoons ride re-installed my self confidence and I look forward (albeit with slight trepidation) to the next few days. Anyway apparently I have (once again) an incy wincy birthday drink waiting. So without further ado, until tomorrow, I will attempt to keep it upright. '''(Geoff)''' Woke up this morning too scared to open my curtains as I was not looking forward to another day of rain and treacherously slippery roads. I finally plucked up the courage and was greeted by a very dull sun trying to push through the clouds. Great news!!!!! During breakfast the sun was getting brighter and brighter and we could see the ground drying up in front of our eyes. By 0900 the ground had miraculously dried up as it only can do in the transkei. Our route was now to be back to normal. We left Trennery's at 0930 and plunged doen the rocky descent into the first rocky gorge without incident, without giving the guys breather we exited up the other side. At the top there were some green faces as breakfasts became difficult to hold down. Here we rested for a few minutes. Due to Tian not being able to ride most of yesterday due to a puncture I decided to re ride part of the previous days route in order to allow him to enjoy this tricky section that we had experienced. Unfortunately along the way someone did not use the thumbs up rule and we lost about 7 riders and the back up vehicle. With radio communication it took us 25 minutes to regroup. Today is also the longest river crossing day but on our arrival found the river almost empty due to the drought in the area. The river bed is however rocky but a few of us were able to cross it without assistance. Others had to be pulled through. A tough excercize non the less and we rested and had drinks on the other side. From here we made good time but up ahead lay a steep grassy hill. It as usual claimed it's victim and Chris fell braking his clutch lever. Fortunately we had a spare so were quickly on our way again. Next stop was the Takazi waterfall unfortunately it was not flowing but remains an awesome site. The next obstacle was the dreaded hill climb. A climb we had not attempted before judging it to be too steep and difficult to attempt. I have pondered about this huge obstacle for years but was adamant that we could do it. However on arrival at the river crossing prior to the climb I must confess to having huge butterflies in my stomach and a racing heart beat. Being the leader has it's pro's but the hill climb was a “con' today............. Off I went, through the river (very shallow) sharp right, through the donga's, out onto a short stretch of grass, set your line up for the hill and away you go. I made the first section with relative ease and was yelling in my helmet, then came the second and more difficult part of the hill. I again chose my line without stopping and half way up this section my flip face helmet flipped down blinding me completely. Able to see nothing I had no option but to stop on this very steep section. Cursing myself for not closing the helmet before I started the climb I took stock of my situation. The line I had stooped in looked ok and I was fortunately able to pull off and complete the climb without further incident. From the top I was able to radio the rest of the group up one at a time. Once all were up we had a drink and snack and admired the stunning view of the Cebe River mouth. The rest of the ride to Mazeppa Bay was an assortment of terrain from steep loose rocky downhills, river crossings and lots of breathtaking scenery. We arrived at Mazeppa Bay at 1600 and hey it was Peter Manns birthday again. Shane from Atlantic BMW called to find out if my bike was still going alright. Thanks Shane!!