My soggy ride from Pinetown to Johannesburg

Before I clarify, let me just say right now, if you're riding in rain, you WANT a Spyder!!!

On Wednesday 23^rd I went to Pinetown for the opening of our new dealership, Hooked Up Motorsports. Me and Fred flew down in the morning at sparrows and helped get the shop ready. In between all this, customers who had test ridden the Spyders in the morning wanted to chat to me so I spent about an hour with them.

It was raining on and off all day long but we managed to get all the bikes, quads and jet skis dry and polished. That evening was a great success with more people attending than they'd expected and more food had to be ordered which vanished in the blink of an eye as well.

We got to bed late and I woke with the sound of rain on the roof and gutters. The last RS in the country is our only demo bike until the new stock arrives in December and I had to bring that back to Johannesburg. One customer from the previous day wanted to have another ride but we confirmed that they had all made up their minds so wouldn't be coming in the morning – I could leave earlier. But just as I was ready to get into my rain suit, another three customers walked in and spent another 45 minutes talking about the bikes.

I eventually left at 11:00 hoping the rain would stop soon. A few kilometers outside Pinetown were major road works and the highway narrowed to one lane. Of course I couldn't see potholes so just hoped that the puddles were just indentations and nothing worse. One puddle stretched from one side of the road to the other and as I hit it, the bike started aquaplaning and snaking all over the road. And this is where I was very grateful for the technology on the Spyder - TRACTION CONTROL RULES!!! All I could think of was to relax and to trust the bike, but that was pretty difficult when you see a concrete barrier coming towards you at speed and you have to trust your life to a piece of machinery! The bike snaked about four or five times and then I was out of the puddle and heading down the road with my heart in my throat! Had I been on a two wheeler or a small car without traction control, I would not be here to tell the tale.

By the time I got near Harrismith, I’d decided that I’d had enough. Conditions were not improving but thought I’d make the decision to stop or continue once I got to Harrismith. As I rounded the corner at the petrol stop, the sky looked lighter so I decided to push on. Van Reenen’s pass was not the most pleasant experience as the cloud cover was about 2cm off the ground. I just hoped that trucks had bright back lights as my visibility was hampered by the mist, plus the rain and spray from the trucks and cars gathered on my visor (drops weren’t flowing off and just sat there). I got through Van Reenen’s unscathed but then the open road meant a full-on head wind with the trucks’ buffeting and spray hitting me every now and again. Once again, I was very grateful for the traction and stability control together with the ABS when I needed it.

Just before Villiers I was approaching in the right hand lane with a black car quite a distance in front of me. I have no idea what happened, but I was right on top of it in a blink of an eye. I didn’t see brake lights and I’m not sure if I’d lost concentration for a second causing me to go faster or if the car had braked, but I touched my brakes and swerved to the left. Thanks to training and lots of practice and experience with emergency braking and swerving, I missed the car by inches!

I made my way to Villiers filling station where a woman approached me and congratulated me on getting through those conditions. I had passed them somewhere along the way and she was convinced it was a woman on the bike but she and hubby decided that it couldn’t be, no sane person would be that brave! They ride Harleys and she pillions, saying she isn’t brave enough to ride by herself even in perfect conditions.

It rained all the way and I guess I travelled 4.5 of the 5.5 hours in the downpour. Eventually my bullet-proof rain suit gave up the struggle and I had some very interesting wet patches. Thank goodness I had spare gloves because the waterproof ones eventually also threw in the towel.

I arrived home safely but very tired and sore from being tense for so long.

All I can say is that the Spyder’s stability control system and my saddle time saved me from a few near misses!

www.thinkbike.co.za

Think Bike Support Services; Education; Projects 

3,660 kilometers – One Woman, NO Maps, NO GPS

My main brief is to promote the Can-Am Spyders and to support the dealers, so as part of this, I organise dealer demo days (some of you had bought your bikes as a result of those days). I’ve been concentrating on the inland dealers so it was time that I paid attention to our coastal guys. The original plan was to visit Waterbuoys in Durban, Bayview Boating in St Francis Bay, GV Motorcycle Rentals in Stanford and ending up with Waterworld in Cape Town. However, due to the inclement weather further down the coast, I cut my trip short after St Francis Bay. I’m planning on visiting the Western Cape in October though.

Packing for four seasons for ten days took a bit of planning, but the type of garments I use for biking (moisture wicking and thermals) take up very little space. Tops and bottoms can be rolled into sausages thereby minimising the space needed. I also had to make space for my laptop with its charger and cables, a cell phone charger, camera, hairdryer, business documentation and extra protective clothing. I could fit all of that into the panniers of the RT-S but discovered that the bags had to be soft and squishy so that it would mould to the shape of the panniers.

On Thursday 9 June I set off on the RT-S to Durban. The temperature gauge didn’t register more than 11^o C until about 100 kilometers after Harrismith – I was very impressed with the heated grips! I arrived in Durban at about 15h00 and found Waterbuoys at the bottom end of Mahatma Gandhi Road (old Point Road). There were two big conferences in Durban so all accommodation had been booked out – I had to be happy with a Backpackers for the first night. I was pleasantly surprised at the general cleanliness and the size of the showers – if they are all like that, I wouldn’t hesitate to stay in one again.

Due to the location of Waterbuoys (very quiet on a Saturday) we decided against having the normal dealer demo day and instead rode around Durban and surrounds, introducing the town and the Spyders to each other. Sunday another owner joined us for a breakfast run to the Pot & Kettle in Pinetown and then we headed down the coast to Scottburgh.

On Monday 13 June I headed down the coast to East London. Not having installed a GPS on the bike, I found out which highway I had to take to avoid the Transkei. However, I pulled off into Margate to have breakfast and fill up with fuel but because of the road works, there weren’t any signs indicating the directions to the highway. I recognised the next town name and headed in that direction on the R620 which eventually became the R61, straight through the Transkei! All the people I spoke to told me to avoid the Transkei because of the poor road conditions, however I found the roads to be passable and in no worse condition than any other rural roads. I would not venture there at night due to the animals having right of way, but as long as we could see each other, all was fine. The people were friendly and of course the Spyder got a lot of attention! It’s a beautiful countryside and should not be avoided because there “might” be a few potholes.

I was sorry that I had to chase daylight because the Kei River Pass begged me to turn around and ride it again. I arrived in East London with about ten minutes of daylight left and found a cosy B&B to stay for the night. I had a hearty home-cooked meal and fell into bed well before 20H30!

I had another 400 kilometers to go to St Francis Bay so I took it easy the next day, enjoying the ride. I arrived there around 14h30, found Bayview Boating and booked into my B&B – Sandriver Lodge, right on the main road and opposite the main shopping centre. On Wednesday myself, the salesman and a customer rode to Humansdorp, through the Gamtoos valley, onto Jeffreys Bay and back to St Francis Bay.

 My introduction to St Francis Bay

Bayview Boating managed to get permission to set up the gazebo and bike display at the harbour on 16 June. There was a lot of interest and a few regular Bayview Boating customers rode the bikes around town.

Our ride around the Gamtoos through J-Bay

I left St Francis Bay on Saturday at 06h30 back to Bloemfontein. I checked the map in the back of a Country Life (only time I checked a map) and memorised “10, 9, 1” – N10 past Port Elizabeth, left on the N9 then N1 to Bloemfontein. There were a lot of road works in the passes between Port Elizabeth and the Karoo, but if you view it as it being a good thing because the roads are being maintained, then it really isn’t a problem sitting at the stop-and-go listening to music.

I arrived at my brother’s place in Bloemfontein at about 16h30 to his great relief. I left on Sunday at 10h30 and made good time back to Johannesburg, arriving at home at 14h00.

A few things became very clear to me on this trip:

1. Our bikes are made for travel. The RT-S was like a ship on the sea and didn’t flinch once, no matter the road condition. I would love to take an RS on the various passes because if the RT-S was that much fun, I can well imagine what an RS would be like.
2. We have a great country with wonderful people. As a woman travelling on my own, I never once had a problem from anybody, either on the road or at stops. As it is, the Spyder draws a lot of attention but add a lone woman rider to that and I couldn’t get away from fuel stops under 20 minutes.
3. I had bought an MP4 player for R600 for the trip as I refused to pay R2,000 for an iPod. A friend of mine lent me his iPod so I could compare devices. I recommend the MP4 player because the volume could be adjusted on the handlebar; the iPod’s volume had to be set on the device itself. The sound quality was far better on the MP4 player as well. So in this case, it’s not always the more expensive device that will serve you better.
4. If you’re travelling out of season, you don’t need to pre-book accommodation. There is always a B&B, Guesthouse or Lodge where you can sleep the night.
5. Just because the age of adventure is supposedly over, it shouldn’t prevent us from packing a bag and heading into the unknown. Our roads are not as bad as we are made to believe and we should explore our wonderful country more …… on a bike. In a car the windows are closed and the air-conditioner is full blast so you never smell the wonderful aromas from the forests. Long before Alexandria, I could smell the chicory; the fresh pine smell all the way down the Kei River Pass was not from Glade; the citrus fragrance all through the Gamtoos made me want to buy a pocket of oranges there and then.

A few numbers:

1. Average fuel consumption was 9L/100km
2. Cruising speed between 125 and 135 km/h
3. Average time at fuel stops 20 minutes
4. Average accommodation cost R400 pppn

The entire trip was 3,660 hassle-free kilometres. Next trip, Western Cape!

PACKING FOR A TRIP ON THE BIKE

This is not exactly “equipment testing”, but more a “how to” in terms of packing for a long-ish trip on a bike. I’m fortunate that I’m riding the Spyder RT-S because it has a total of 155 litres of packing space. Although that sounds like a lot, the panniers are awkwardly shaped so packing becomes a bit of a challenge. Add to that a laptop with its charger and cables, a cell phone charger, camera, hairdryer, business documentation, extra protective clothing….

I cut my initial two month trip down to two weeks due to the inclement weather further down the coast. I’m in Durban right now and will be heading down the coast to St Francis Bay in a few days. After the open day there on the 16^th, I will head back inland to Bloemfontein, spend a few days there and then back home to Joburg.

Due to the strange weather we’re experiencing right now, I had to figure out how to pack for two weeks for all four seasons. Fortunately I’ve built up quite a stock of thermal and moisture wicking garments because you can roll them up into small sausages, thereby saving a lot of space while packing a great number of items. When you start biking, you learn to wear layers of clothing and our modern fabrics are ideal for this. Biking shops seldom stock this type of clothing but you can find the ideal winter and summer garments at camping shops, such as Outdoor Warehouse and Cape Union Mart. Although they are pricey, they are well worth the financial outlay and all you need to do is figure out how many short vs. long sleeved tops you need.

There is a saying in Afrikaans “Een in die was, een in die kas, een aan die bas”, meaning one garment in the wash, one in the cupboard, one being worn. Seasoned travellers also recommend that you lay out all the stuff you think you might need, then take away half – that is what you really need and should pack. So, with these two rules in mind, I started packing. I got to a point where I actually had space left in three of the bags and wisely decided not to take more “stuff”. As it is, I needed that space later.

When I left on Thursday, the weather forecast was for cold and rain storms closer to Durban. I put the liner in my jacket, added my rain suit’s jacket, and wore my snowboarding pants (one of the best investments for biking!). When I got to Harrismith, I could see snow on all the mountains and the bike’s display registered 9⁰ C – I was very happy with my choice of clothing at that point! There wasn’t any rain except for some spitting along the way. By the time I got to Durban city centre, it was 25⁰ C and I had to undress very quickly!

This morning when I woke up, it was clearing after some rain during the night. Being Durban, it was already muggy at 7:00 so I had to take the liner out of my jacket. This is where the extra space in the bags came in handy – I needed to pack the liner, the pants and the rain jacket.

I’m quite comfortable with my choice of clothes for the trip as it looks like the range will suit all types of weather I might encounter. I think the only thing I might add to my biking clothing, is waterproof winter gloves – tight wet leather gloves are not the easiest things to get off your cold hands!

Because of the awkward shape of the panniers, the bags should be soft so that they can be squashed into the available space.

NAMPO – An agricultural show of epic proportions

It’s amazing where my job takes me. Never would I have thought of going to an agricultural show in the middle of nowhere, for even more than half a day. As part of my job of promoting the Can-Am Spyders, I support the various dealers in whichever way I can. Our dealer in Klerksdorp, Speed Bike, has a stand at NAMPO and has had for years. Once you manage an approval to have a stand there, you do everything in your power to keep it. Rules are strictly applied and the waiting list for stands is five years long. If you transgress a rule, you can be assured of losing your stand, so we were all read the riot act to make sure we toed the line.

“Piet Spoed” van Zyl, the owner of Speed Bike, doesn’t sell only two-wheeled bikes, but deals in ATVs and Spyders as well. For NAMPO, Piet gathers as many hands as he can get and I was one of the worker bees for the week. When I was told about the show and the scale of displays and the number of visitors, I wanted to know what they were smoking. And then when they told me how the farmers arrive at the show – light airplanes and helicopters – I wanted to smoke that stuff too.

I arrived at the show on Tuesday at around 10:30 – I stopped counting airplanes when I got to 20 because to carry on counting was pointless. There were eight helicopters, ranging from two-seaters to eight-seaters – I became a believer! From the minute I set foot on the stand I was busy, but at the end of the day was told that it was the quiet day – Wednesday was a bit busier. Well, THAT was an understatement! At any one time, there were 15 people at the Spyder stand, often more than that. Sitting down was not an option and I had to make do with one bottle of water the whole day. That night I fell into bed with just two Pro-Nutro breakfast bars as supper, I was just too tired to eat anything more complicated.

Of course the organisers could not have foreseen that the Wednesday was to be election day, so everybody was thoroughly unprepared for the number of visitors. By 10:00 the queue of cars was 35 km long and they had to close the gates, letting in one car only if one left. There were a total of 44 000 visitors through the gates just for the one day. I later heard that a bull at auction was sold for a record R8m. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to take a photograph of the number of airplanes and helicopters, but I was told that there were 45 and 25 respectively. The show was truly on an incomprehensible scale.

The show closed on Friday at 17:00 but I left at 14:00, stopping off for some North West biltong at a place called “Moerse Lekker Plek” which advertised “Flippen lekker biltong” – you just have to love the Afrikaans language!

NAMPO is known throughout the world, from the USA http://www.buyusa.gov/northdakota/nampo.html  to Australia http://www.austrade.gov.au/EventViewBookingDetails.aspx?EventID=2756 . To read more amazing statistics about NAMPO, go to www.nampo.co.za .

Would I go again next year? You bet I will! Despite working so hard, I would not miss it for the world!

Two of the "smaller" tractors....

Big daddy of the lot....

A little delivery truck

Our Spyders at the stand....

I’m SUCH a show-off!!

So the guys have been trying to get me on an RT-S for ages, playing on my ego and teasing me about not wanting to look old! I just plain refused because I love the Hindle growl and fun factor of Pynkie.

However, it’s part of my “job” so I hoiked up my skirts and got onto the RT-S a few days ago. Besides, the mileage on Pynkie was climbing and I’d like to sell her with less than 10,000 kilometres on the clock. The problem is that most people think that if a bike has more than 5,000 kilometres on the clock, it’s over the wall. But bikes only loosen up properly around 20,000 kilometres and the motors get happier as the miles pile on.

The demo RT-S I’m riding is the top of the range – heated grips, on-the-fly suspension adjustment, heaps of packing space, and best of all, a radio with kick-ass speakers! So off I go to Centurion but there is an accident on the highway so we all sit and try to ignore each other, pretending we’re having fun! What better time to play around with the radio? I’m thoroughly tired of the pop music on playlists on all the radio stations and there are no independent DJs playing the good stuff. So the only other station of any use is Classical. Fortunately they were playing some upbeat music so what can a girl do but play Mozart full blast on the highway, sitting in a traffic jam?

Listening to music on the bike is quite addictive and I’ve missed it since not having my GPS on the various Spyders. The RT-S has two jacks – one for an MP3/ iPod/ CD shuffle and the other is a power outlet. I’ll be installing my GPS for the trip but I will have to find myself another music source so the hunt is on for something decent. The Interphone F4 blue tooth helmet unit has a six hour constant play-time battery, so I will be running out of music quite quickly – I need a backup!

So yesterday I strolled into Dion Wired and asked for a portable CD shuffle and the salesman had to contain his laughter – CD shuffles are apparently very 90s and iPods have taken over that market. Shows you how “up” on technology I am – I honestly thought shuffles were still available… oh well, so we learn.

The Spyders draw a lot of attention, but with the radio full blast, people look before they can see it. And once I load the MP3 with my selection which ranges from heavy Classical through Alternative, Blues, modern Country and out the other end with Heavy Metal, I think they will pay lots of attention!