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Welcome to my blog, these are the ramblings and musings of an (upper) middle aged biker and if you enjoy braais, (barbeques) beers and motorbikes then hopefully you will enjoy what Janet and I do; we do lots of braais, we drink lots of beer and we tour South Africa on our motorbike, which at the moment is a BMW R1200RT. Join us, read about what we do and please leave us your comments.



Thursday, October 22, 2015

Harley Owners Group rally in Saldanha

 Heading home from work on Wednesday I saw several Harleys parked outside the Saldanha Bay Protea Hotel, I was aware that the annual H.O.G. rally was being held here and that the Protea had been completely booked out as had most of the other hotel in town and several B&Bs. These guys don't camp!
Meanwhile across the road at Ancorr pub I saw this sweet KTM;
I had occasion to chat with Corr, the biker owner of the pub, he rides a Hyabusa and I asked him if he was anticipating extra business from the rally, his words; "I hope so but you've been a biker for many years, you know what these guys are like, they don't mix with us." Unfortunately true, if there are any other makes parked outside they probably won't go in.
Look I am not a Harley fan as you will know if you have been reading my stuff, but even I have to admit that they do look and sound good but that's it, I wouldn't have one unless I could afford to have a lot of bikes - there are many others I would park alongside my beloved BMW before a Harley.
Today, Thursday is the official start of the rally and a lot more had arrived by the time I drove past, I had to stop and take some photos in spite of the risk of looking like a wannabe!
 This one I like, although I wouldn't like to travel behind it for any length of time!
 Another nice looking custom job.
 Nice older model, I saw my first trailer - not good enough to ride up from Capetown?
 There were already plenty of these full dressers, I imagine that many more riders will come in later tomorrow after work and by the weekend the town will be full.
On a completely different matter now, my old riding buddy Frank dropped his bike two weeks ago when his foot slipped out from under him whilst doing a slow U turn, he broke his collar bone and fractured four ribs. Before you all ask; his bike is not badly damaged, a few really small scratches and a broken mirror.
I got a message on my phone yesterday that bikers are gathering at the garage in Velddrif tomorrow afternoon for a ride to Frank's house to cheer him up, bring your own beer and from there the group will move on to the Phoenix bar. You know that I keep on saying this; Bikers are good folk and the brotherhood is strong here, I'll show you photographs later, stay safe!

6 comments:

Michael said...

Thats kind of weird how the Harley owners are where you are. I guess because we have tons of them here they are nothing special. I have owned 2 brand new Harleys and sold them both when I got my BMW and I will never buy one again.

Thanks for your posts and I always look forward to reading them.

the rider said...

Interesting that you feel the same way as I do Michael, if I could afford to have several bikes it would take a long time before the collection included a Harley. Thanks for commenting, I appreciate the feedback.

Trobairitz said...

I too am not a fan of Harleys and the whole persona that goes with them. Back in the day it used to be the non-conformists that were typical "bikers", now it seems to be a bunch of non-conformists conforming together all in the same uniform.

I say: "Chrome don't get ya home."

the rider said...

Brandy they are the same here, HD jackets and tee shirts, tassles hanging from the handlebars and avoid any other bikers - I don't understand it and I don't like it, let them get on with it.

Anonymous said...

Hi Andrew,
Sorry to hear of Frank's fall - please pass my best wishes for a speedy recovery
Regards to all of you
Cheers
Dick

the rider said...

Thank you Dick will do.