We go to the Capetown Bike Show

Sunday morning I was up bright and early, 06h30 to be precise, which is quite a long sleep in for me seeing as how I am normally up at 04h45. Plenty of time to get a cup of coffee and get ready for the day's ride and I saddled up at about 07h20 and headed out to the Engen One stop on the R27. It was a cool and crisp morning, partly cloudy and I could see that it had rained during the night as there were puddles of water and wet patches all over the roads. Hopefully that was all the rain we would get for the day.

Janet had elected not to accompany me, she had all manner of important things planned for the day, girly things that I didn't want to get involved with.

I bought a cup of Wimpy's famous coffee and chatted to the riders who were already there, gradually more and more arrived.

Lots of people like the coffee, eventually the group was 17 motorbikes and some 22 people that set out south towards Capetown and we planned the first stop at the Viper lounge so that those who needed to smoke could do so and those who needed to drink beer could also do so.

Willie, Div (El Presidente of the Meeulanders MCC) and Mike have a serious discussion outside the Viper lounge.

I featured this chopper on my last visit, the owner was riding it through to the Bike Show venue at Kommetjie, quite a long ride for a bike like that, rather him than me!

After a brief refreshment stop we headed out and as there was no way that we would all be able to stay together from there we set up a meeting place on the M3 freeway.

"Ou Kaapse Weg" (Old Cape Road) goes up and over that mountain in the background, a lovely ride to Kommetjie on the other side and the site of the Capetown Bike Show.

We were greeted at the gate by quite a few American girls, don't ask me why! We paid our money to get into the venue and started wandering around greeting old friends and checking out the trade and food stalls. Things started to go a bit "pear shaped"....

I felt a bit peckish and this was the portion of chips that I got for R15! They should have used a smaller box. It was shortly after that that I discovered there was no beer tent! They weren't going to keep bikers around for long without a beer tent, especially as it was very hot by then.

Dieter was there with a selection of Harleys and Victorys from the Viper Lounge,

Is it true what they say about pretty girls and fancy motorbikes?
Some of the nicest motorbikes were the ones that the visitors rode in on;

Very nice vintage sidecar rig, note the gear lever on the side of the tank.

A very impressive and clean looking Honda GL1800 Goldwing.

This couple arrived on a great looking Honda ST1300,

A really nice looking bike, but then maybe it's just that I've got thing for red motorbikes.

A pretty rugged looking air force themed bike.
We wandered around for an hour or so, chatted to old friends and had a good look around the trade stalls but then we decided that it was time to head off and get some lunch, the guys decided on "Doodles" in Blaauwberg and as it was right across the other side of the Peninsula we all agreed that we would make our own way over.

We settled in on the enclosed veranda and placed our orders, everyone gradually arrived, we hadn't been that far spread out on the ride through from Kommetjie.

My hake in crispy batter with chips wasn't too bad, the garlic butter sauce was great and at R59 it was a bargain, I finished up and said my goodbyes, took one last look at the beautiful view...

and headed for home, only an hour to Saldanha. It had been a good day out on the bike, I had ridden with a good bunch of people and had thoroughly enjoyed myself.
The Capetown Bike Show needs more work, there was not much to see as far as bikes were concerned, maybe more of the dealers need to get involved as well as suppliers of apparel and accessories and my goodness, a beer tent would make a huge difference but I suspect there are licensing issues there.
I hope that they made some money from the bikers coming and going, let's see what happens next year.