Day 3

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We were up early this morning, well, some earlier than others...



While we broke up camp Asterix and Tom-Tom (Rovrat's son who rode pillion) had an easter egg hunt courtesy of Rustyb. Rustyb's name might as well have been McGyver. He had everything from pepper sauce to easter eggs to pickled onions and home grown chillies. A good man to have around camp

Group photo:


From left to right:

Back: Paramed, Trailrider, Asterix, EtienneNXR, Operator, Mrs Operator, Rustyb
Front: JAmBer, Rooipoot, Tom-Tom, Rovrat

Our route today:


(Clickable Map)

The route is similar to the route we rode on the first day, but instead of travelling over Cloetes Pass we'd ride through Attakwaskloof.

Just after 8am we hit the road.



Gravel highways crossing the Klein Karoo towards the Langeberge.



Rovrat and Tom-Tom catching up.


(Thanks Rovrat and JAmBer for your patience riding with Asterix on these stretches )

From here the route gets more interesting. Heading towards the Gourits river:





Then the highlight of the weekend's riding - Attakwaskloof. Great scenery, great trail.





The infamous marble sections did not bother Asterix a lot and he did not show the same patience Rovrat and JAmBer did earlier, passing them when they were riding to slow. I still need to teach him about the etiquette of group riding...





A quick stop for roadside repairs on JAmBer's bike. His steering came loose on the marble section Interesting times...





Leaving the kloof via the plantation road.





And finally we had to split up. But not before JAmBer re-tightened his steering which by now had lost a bolt.



Heading home:



At Diesel and Dust we stopped to top-up the CRF. I am unsure of how many km's he did on this tank but we estimate it was around 200km.





Less than R30 And that's after the attendant accidentally overfilled the tank.

Some wildlife on the way back. You can clearly see the effects of the drought.





The ride today took just over 5 hours. Asterix handled his first multi-day ride well and so did the CRF80. We will do more father and son rides in future.



Some thoughts on the bike:

Some additions and changes needs to be made to the CRF80 to turn it into a little DS bike. Firstly he needs mirrors. When riding in a group he needs to be aware of where the bikes around him are. It's needs some small custom panniers. I am also considering adding a CRF230 front light to make him more visible on the road.

Then we'll change the sprockets. The bike has very short gears and bags of power. Riding along at 65 km/h on gravel in 5th gear the rear wheel spins if he guns it. It tops out at 85km/h but by then the refs are very high. This frustrated him on the open road. I'll try and sprocket the bike for a top speed of around 100km/h which will give it a nice cruising speed of 80km/h.

Lastly we'll choose tighter routes. This is not a gravel highway bike . By the time we do a small bike tour again he'll be ready!


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