The Meeulanders are at it again

Saturday morning at about 10h30 the temperature was already in the high twenties and there was no wind, in fact it was quite humid which we don't often get here, more like Durban's weather. We pulled on our riding jackets happy in the knowledge that in about ten minutes time we would be taking them off again.

We were heading through to the bike shop in Vredenburg, "West Coast Yamaha" for a look at some new clothing, a new big scooter which I was keen to ride and some free boerewors rolls. Sadly the open day was not well attended but the boerewors rolls were nice. 

The new Yamaha Scooter was certainly nice looking;

 Very aggressive and macho styling and certainly the "face" was more like a superbike than a scooter,

I took it for a ride but I'm afraid it was only a short ride, I didn't like it at all but to be fair it goes like the clappers and is capable of 180kmh (apparently), I didn't try it. It is a "twist and go", no gears so while I was riding I was very careful not to grab a handfull of the left lever which on this bike operates the back brake. I did not like the fact that my feet were in front of me and close together like at a school desk and when I had to make a turn my hands on the bars came up against my knees. Feeling very wobbly and nervous I took it back to the shop, it is for smaller people and for them it would be great, the build quality is fantastic and it certainly is sporty - if you're into scooters this would be a great one.

Monica said that if I rode the big one I would also have to ride the small one, no way! If I was nervous on the big one then this one would terrify me!

This was much better, I took Janet for a ride on the new 1200 Super Tenere', I did a write up on this when it first came out and I enjoyed it then. Janet really enjoyed it, she said the pillion was very comfortable but she would have liked a back rest - which comes as an aftermarket part in the form of a topcase. This bike has a lot of torque and although I rode most of the time in "Touring" mode there was a lot of grunt, I also liked the seating position with the relatively high handlebars, very comfortable - I wouldn't mind one of these in my garage!
We spent a pleasant couple of hours with our friends, also the "Rooikraans pub" is conveniently just across the road so we popped in for a cold beer to counter the effects of the heat, just the one and then it was time to join the club for their ride to the children's home where they were to donate toys that had been collected at their year end function.

Sadly only a handful of the members turned up but the children were very excited to see us, and obviously the presents too.

Craig and Monica went in their van with all of the presents and we all carried them into the house, a lovely big collection of toys and games.

This lovely young girl on the right gave a wonderful "Thank you" speech that had some of our ladies teary-eyed, it's the kind of reaction that makes it all so worth while, before we left everyone gathered outside on the veranda for a group photo.

We met up afterwards at "Juffroshoogte" outside of town, it's a farm/guesthouse and I'm not even going to try to tell you how to pronounce that! We had a very reasonable lunch there but unfortunately because it is a farm the flies were a huge problem, we had to eat quickly before they carried the food away.
It was a lovely day out with a great bunch of people and on Monday, which is a public holiday we will be joining another local toy run........aren't bikers the best people?!