Scenes from South Africa

Some great photography from one of my brother Nic's recent tilley-tours around South Africa's dirt roads on his LC4...

Sometimes I really miss South Africa.

Ducati Desmo Off-Road

From my favourite blog: Cafe Racer Culture

I'm not a fan of the Supersport frame... with the big gap in the middle of the spars (where the rear cylinder is), it often looks kinda broken. But in this off-road guise it looks great!

I Love Ducatis!

Enduroland

Got out to Enduroland on Sunday for my first dirtbike ride in more than a month...

First, the action pic... it all goes downhill and gets pretty boring after this...
(thanks Dave Burton Photography for the pic - but what's with the dreamy border?)

Gave the Fourfiddy some love a few weeks ago...

...some serious love!

Then I threw her in the mud...

...that horrible sticky, claggy, shitty, slick mud...

This rider's handicapped kid has an awesome time riding pillion.
(Does one 'ride' a quad? Doesn't sound right...)

After 2 hours of cleaning that crap off the Fourfiddy, it was back to the man-cave for to give some flattrack love... I think she's running better now. Still bogs down when throttle is cracked open. Any suggestions?

And then discoverin some wounds before bedtime.

It was an okay day. Conditions were muddy and tricky. Frustrating not to get out of third and just spinning up everywhere. I dug in and did 2 hours straight - just for fitness. I'm still hurtin.

Wasn't a huge amount of fun... I went down an ate mud a bit too. Bah! But at least ot wasn't bloody raining again. Gimme the sunshine, sand, rocks and company of California any day!

Trail Riding... Africa style

Some pics of my brother Igor's recent trail riding trip in Qwa-Qwa, South Africa...

 

It was a training trip for the upcoming Roof of Africa extreme enduro... preparations are going well!

Chilly Goat Field

A couple more pics of brother Igor at the last round of the South African National Off-Road Champs. It was held at a place called 'Kouebokkeveld' - literal translation: Chilly Goat Field

SA National Off-road Champs

Some news from brother Igor in South Africa:

Herewith some pics of the final round of the S.A. national off-road champs down in the Western Cape.

Was hard season, lots of traveling and loooots of money. Best result was 5th in the senior class which at the end secured me a overall 7th in class for the year. Yaaaaay!

Bloody well done Chief!

Brother Igor - National Off-Road in Brits

My brother Igor in South Africa has been doing well at the National Off-Road series:

Did the 5th round of the National Off-road series on Sat, it was in Brits and surrounds and used a lot of our usual De wildt trails so course knowledge certainly helped.

The track had everything from mud, sand, rocks, river crossings, whoops etc so was a very interesting but punishing race. Took it easy in the time trial on Friday and started 61 out of about 180 bikes. Race went quite well considering, had a huge off early on which shook me up abit - moved over for a faster rider and my front wheel rode up against a side lip on the path, it slid for a few meters slowing my momentum, shifting my weight over the handlebars, then of course the front bit sideways, high-siding me like a champion.


All the time I'm flying through the air I'm hearing the “Wooooow” reaction of the rider that I let past. Tucked and rolled twice, landed on my feet, clapped my hands to check all was in order, gave the now stationary fellow competitor the thumbs up and remounted... still shaking the stars out of my helmet. Bike was also lucky enough to come away from that unscathed.

Plugged along nicely until I came upon a close rival in the championship points and it was 'GAME ON', the two of us traded positions all day, he blitzed me in the open stuff, but I always got him in the rocks, and sand.

I was ahead of him with 40km to go and one major obstacle to master, a deep river crossing. I approach and the two main lines are blocked by quads! Naturally! I try go around and half way through the back wheel bogs and bike is standing up at 45degrees with exhaust in water. “Dumbass” switches off and bike sucks water back up into motor... F-ing brilliant!

Takes 5mins to wrestle the machine out of the thick sand and river with help, by which time Neil had passed me again, and another 5mins to pick bike up on its back wheel to drain water and crank it till it eventually takes. On I ride with a new sense of urgency. It was now a part of the course I knew very well and scythed through it knowing that I am making time on Neil. I catch and pass another two riders that got past while I was taking a bath and knew Neil wasn't far ahead. Finally I catch him on a long rocky climb called "coconuts".

I struggled up 'Cococnuts' on a previous trip to SA - it's got to be punishing after 7 hours riding!

I can see he is battling with fatigue and pain in his hands (as we all were) from 7 hours of pounding. So I try put the hammer down even more and focused on the last stretch home. Barely able to hold on an longer. Made it! Got in 4 or so minutes ahead of Neil who looked spent. We shook hands and congratulated each other on an awesome chase and he thanked me for the inspiration.

Race distance 320km, time 7 hours 22 mins. Result 6th in Senior class which moves me up to 7th in the National Championship. Good job, bike needs a new top end and I need a few days sleep.

News from Africa - Lesotho Off-road

Latest installment from my brother Igor's South African National Off-road campaign:

Did a little off-road race in the ice capped peaks of Lesotho this past weekend...awesome ride. We were told that the pits were blanketed in snow on Tuesday, and well conditions had hardly changed by time we did the time trial on Fri, no snow but I did see an eskimo.

Come Sat morn, and it was bitter to say the least, some said -6. Anyway, we donned double layers and an enduro jacket and headed into the mountains and things went rather well in the beginning. Early on the sun was at a very acute angle into our faces which made for real difficultly in reading of markers, but I fortunately had a G.P.S. to refer to which helped ALOT!. (couldn't get it to work the day before so had a bit of luck there) Could see a lot of riders wrong-slotting and overshooting early on, and left a lot of them behind purely because I could navigate better.

Then I hit the first big climb...crap!! 30 degree angle, in shadow, loose rocks slick with frost on top of black ice. Manage to work the 450 up to a point, lost momentum on the frozen cobble stone surface, come to a halt and slide back down and fall. Shit ! Neva fallen like this in an off- road race. Pick the bike up, all to the amusement of the half dozen or so locals that were watching the action and try to pull off again, make about 30cm of ground, slid back and fall ova again...crap! Up again, push bike up to a point with more traction and on we go...

Shit very tired now. get to within a stones throw away from the second DSP and have to come down over big rocks, turn and go over a frozen stream....aaaahh crap!, down again, this is NOT off-road !!

Get to Nic at DSP gasping for air...cracked on and made it to half way. Got more fuel and food and was desperately trying to cope with the fear of the ice climb coming up, thought that if I battled so much on the first lap( and I was probably only the 8th or 10th rider to go through there on the first lap) it was going to be utter bedlam by the time I got there again, but knew I could rely on my second wind to get me through.

But alas, most made it up ok, I was just making a meal of it for some reason (probably giving the big 4 stroke to much gas). Rolled straight into it for the second time and hung up half way, fortunately had cash ( in the form of coins duct-taped to the back of my front fork) which I invested in some of the local man power who pushed me up to the same traction rich point as before and on I went, knackered, but knew my second wind was imminent.

All the dozen or so frozen streams we crossed in the morning were still solid by the time we got there later in the day but you learn how to cope with them pretty quickly so no more trouble there. took the rest of the lap slow and steady waiting for that second wind, got to the finish exhausted but relieved and satisfied....aaaah the second wind arrived, pity it came out my arse!

Definitely one of the more technical off-road races in the calendar, more like an enduro with an average speed of around 30 kph whereas normally we would be doing around 65 kph, but a wicked ride nonetheless, result 10th in senior class.

Thanks to Nic for all the support and banter...

Enduro News from Africa

My brother, Igor, competed in the Mafeking 400 National Off-Road this past weekend. He crashed heavily 3 weeks ago while setting a course, cracking some ribs and hurting his shoulder. The weekend in his words:

"Time trial on Fri was a little challenging, hadn't ridden a mo-cicle for about 3weeks, in fact I think thats the longest stretch that I haven't ridden since I started this here sport.

So needless to say the time trial was a darstardly affair... couldnt get a rythm, loose in and out of corners, ribs hurt like a S.O.B. generaly rode like a girl, and got a 82 position to start the race... didn't mind, I knew I was hurtin, and had totake it easy, I was going  to finish this race, not race it.

Anyhow, Sat came and the race course led us into the first loop of 200km thru thicksand and thorn bush, quite technical for a National off-road, with all the weaving(and ploughing) thru the folliage. Lots of riders couldn't take the pace in thissection, it saps a lot of energy riding in thick sand, over whoops and aroundcountless bastard thorn bushes. Thats where I knew I could make time... just put head down, open throttle and fight thru the pain... got my mo-jo back !

Got into the main pit and we had a 15 min de-control, things were good, bike 100%, body ok, smoked my team principal in the first 100km....! ( and that clown started2min ahead of me)

My bling team jearsy has been reduced to a workshop rags by the thorns... no shit. My arms didnt look that much better. Went out on the second loop (100km) and soon saw it was the same trail as last year, more open and flowing. So I relaxed into a nice rythm and finished strong in 11th inseniors... F'ing A! That result moved me from 13th to 11th in the National Seniorchampionship. Shit.... didn't think I could do that carrying an injury."

Well done Chief!