A nice roadside meal and bad news for the R27 riders

I'm on leave for a week, my sister arrives tomorrow and then a mob of family and friends arrive on Friday but today I was on my own and as it was a beautiful day I got the bike out. What better way to pass the time is there than a big touring bike and miles and miles of tarmac on a sunny day?

I just had some cruising in mind so on the way through Langebaan I stopped at the KFC to buy some lunch, I don't eat it often but today it sounded good. On the R27 I headed south with a laybye in mind where I could stop and eat my lunch in peace. Just past the Engen One Stop I was surprised to see this gantry supporting cameras over the road,

I turned back to get the photo and had a chat with the workmen, they were just involved with installing a guard rail and as far as they knew this unit was already functioning. I "zeroed" my trip meter and headed off in search of the other one and sure enough exactly 20kms down the road I found the second one. In my eagerness I may have been travelling too fast, I hope that I haven't fallen foul of this bloody thing, Janet will not be too pleased with me if I incur another fine so soon after the last one!

This is a conspiracy! As far as I can see these are the units that measure the time that you take to pass between the two and then work out your speed, so you guys and girls riding up from the Cape will have to behave yourselves for twenty kilometres or else stop for a smoke break between the two gantries!

Hell and damnation I am not happy about this kind of thing, unless as I suspect they are going to ignore bikers and only concentrate on cagers - yeah right!

Keep in mind this trap section is in between the West Coast National Park and the Engen One Stop at the Langebaan turnoff.

Still angry I pulled in to the next shaded laybye to enjoy my lunch and actually it was very pleasant, apart from the noise of the occasional car or truck passing by there were lots of bird sounds and as I relaxed I felt the anger draining away.

A "Streetwise two with chips and four zinger wings" I discarded most of the chips as they were pretty dry but the chicken was good.

I behaved myself on the way home apart from the last stretch down the dual carriageway towards Saldanha, a guy in a Ford Ranger came up fast behind me and I let him through but then decided to show him that his vehicle was not really all that fast, I let him get ahead a bit and then took my bike up to a happy 210kmh and blasted past him in the left hand lane - "Don't think that you are faster than me buddy!" Happiness.

Suzuki Intruder C1500T

While reading my favourite magazine, BikeSA the other day I came across this picture and it immediately caught my attention. What a lovely looking machine! The 2013 Suzuki Intruder C1500T.

It weighs in at 363kg, has a 1462cc 4 stroke, twin cylinder liquid cooled, Single overhead cam 54 degree Vee twin engine with a 5 speed transmission and an 18 litre fuel tank. This baby will just eat up the open road!

I used to have a Suzuki 1500 twin but I didn't like the three speed gearbox and the small fuel tank, this one however looks right for us and I can imagine that a nice sissy-bar for Janet would complement the good looks.

There was no mention of the price or if it is available in South Africa yet but I'm going to get in touch with the Suzuki dealers in Capetown to find out if there's a demo model - watch this space!

Iconic biker

I came across this really cool photo, taken by Jenny Foster Ermes, on facebook of my old biker buddy Des Pistorius and his sidekick Boswell. I think it was taken at the recent 1000 bike show, not sure about that one but Des is an iconic figure in the biking fraternity, he lives in Durban but is seen at bike jols all over the country. I last saw him at the recent Buffalo Rally in Mossel Bay and before that he was travelling through my area on a "Round-the-country" trip on a Vespa scooter towing a trailer back in 2011.

He has had that Goldwing for many years and has just clocked up 1,253,000kms! He tells me that he has been through 110 back tyres, 56 front tyres, 13 batteries and 5 water pumps, not many people can match those figures I'm sure, in fact I would love to hear if anyone can come close!

Boswell travels everywhere with Des, perched on a pad on the tank of the bike, I took this photo of the two of them at our biker pub when they travelled through.

My daughter said to me "Dad, I'll bet you want to be just like him when you grow up." she's right!

Good luck Des, keep on rolling and I hope to see you again soon my brother.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome awareness day

During last week in Vredenburg a march was held to help bring awareness to the scourge of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, apparently the western cape province in South Africa has the highest incidence of this totally preventable syndrome in the world. Certainly not a record to be proud of.

The organisers, "FARR" the Foundation for Alcohol Related Research asked if there were any bikers willing to take part in the parade, unfortunately most of us were working but a good few turned up to show support for this worthy cause.

 Div, the President of the local Meeulanders Motorcycle club led the bikers with one of the organisers riding with him on his Harley. One thing about the Meeulanders, they are always ready to take part in or support a worthy cause.

 Because they were following a marching parade there was a lot of foot "paddling" and clutch and brake work. They were escorted down the main street of the town by the traffic department who made sure the traffic was diverted.

 Here they are, mostly Meeulanders a great bunch of people. Ya just gotta love bikers!

The march ended at the rugby club where I'm sure there were some welcome refreshments, well done to the bikers of the western cape, the few that were able to attend represented all of us and hopefully helped to focus attention on fetal alcohol syndrome.

The Western Cape wild flowers

In my last post I touched on the wild flower show that nature puts on in the Namaqualand and the cape west coast area every year between July and September. This floral profusion brings visitors from near and far and on sunny days the nature reserves and the surrounding parts of the west coast which are known for their displays, are crowded with tourists.

Now in September the purple and orange flowers are out, the display usually begins in late June early July with the white daisies and gradually the other colours are added until the show ends.

We decided to take a trip up the coastal road to Eland's Bay for lunch and see what was on display, at first the sky was a bit overcast but gradually the clouds broke up and the sun shone through.

 Shortly before Eland's Bay itself was where we saw the majority of the flowers, along the road as we were travelling there were isolated patches of white, yellow and intense purple but here I had to stop and take some photos.

Eland's Bay is just around that hill and we had another good lunch at the "Wit Mossel Pot", the floral displays were a bit better on the way home.

 The road was surprisingly quiet, perhaps the tourists had thought that the weather was not going to improve, anyway we had no trouble getting in to the restaurant this time.

 We made quite a few stops to photograph the flowers, hell a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!

If you're thinking of coming to the west coast to look at the flowers don't wait too much longer, the show's nearly over for another year.

I know that this has nothing at all to do with braais or with bikes but I did drink some beers! Anyway it is a good road for motorbikes, just be wary of the potholes - see you out there.