Last Friday I flew up to Johannesburg to attend the 2nd Annual S.A.Bike Festival at the Kyalami race track, I had hoped to ride up but I just didn't have the time, I had a bike club meeting on the Thursday night and anyway it was far less expensive to fly. My sister met me at the airport and I stayed over at her house.
I arrived at the festival site at around 10h00 on the Saturday and already the place was buzzing;
As I was quite early I had a good chance to wander around the many bike related stalls before the place really started filling up as it did towards midday. The whole event was really well organised with only stalls related to bikers, from helmets and equipment to tyres and clothing and a myriad of really good food stands which were all to do a thriving trade as the time passed.
Pretty much all of the bikes available in the country were on display in the main building with many of the new models available for test riding around the track.
If you have a spare R390,000 you too can own one of these Indians! (To see any of the photos full size just click on them.)
By midday my feet were sore and my throat was dry, only one thing for it; find a place to sit and drink beer!
There was a very nice beer garden area which was by then doing a roaring trade, I secured a cold beer and looked for a place to park off for a while, that's how I met friends Carl and Kay, I asked if I could have a space at the table and we got chatting;
You meet the nicest people at a biker jol, it wasn't long before another group of guys asked if they could sit with us;
Ridley and Piet were another good couple of biker guys we ended up chatting with and Ridley will be down in my neck of the woods for the Harley Rally later on this year so I'll have to go and see if I can meet up with him, that is if they let BMWs anywhere near!
The obligatory pretty girls photo, and let me tell you there were plenty of pretty girls around!
I had a very pleasant day at the festival, I wandered around some more, watched what I could see of the Superbike race and attended the podium ceremony with Clinton Sellar getting first place trophy and by the time I had been there for six hours I needed something like this to take me home;
I have now seen the bike festival, would I go again next year? I asked myself the same question of Africa Bike Week and I think that the answer to both would be no, been there, done that. Had a great time though.
4 comments:
That looks like a huge event. Even though they can be fun, some events only need to be attended once.
Yes Brandy, unlike a rally where you meet up with regular friends who also go every year, this kind of thing only needs one visit or maybe once again in a couple of years to get a look and maybe test ride new models.
See they had the new Yamaha T7 there! Pardon me for getting excited, but it's a long time since we've seen much from the endurance / adventure side from Yamaha. Used to go to the old Lifestyle expos there many years ago - was always something new & exciting to see. And easier if you lived just down the drag :)
Actually Yamaha had a very big, well stocked stand and it was right in the middle of the place, quite prominent. I don't think I'll go next year but I would certainly be interested to go again in a couple or three years time.
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