Cheating the weather, though it did rain a little, we had a great outride exploring the forest roads around Kwambonambi, as an introduction to quad biking for Ashika.
We turned back for Heidi and Adam, but her bike didn't work ! Gotta see about that !!!
WW wishes Thaven and Ashika a great trip to India, and we hope that they can handle the long wait until our next ride together....
Date : 10 December
Riders : Aroon + Aziz, Jerome, Thaven, Ashika
Bikes : Polaris 300 Hawkeye, 350 Raptor, 700 Raptor, 200c ATV
Route : General exploring along forest paths in and around Kwambonambi
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Sunday, December 3, 2006
Launch of Weekend Warriors BLOG
Welcome to Weekend Warriors, the BLOG pages of Team WW, a bunch of fellers (thus far, no chix), in Zululand, South Africa, trying to get to grips with quad biking in the Great Outdoors....
Visit here for updates of our weekend antics, and anticipate the following :
Photos of our trips
GPS co-ordinates of our trails and destinations
Discussions on the bikes we ride
Visit here for updates of our weekend antics, and anticipate the following :
Photos of our trips
GPS co-ordinates of our trails and destinations
Discussions on the bikes we ride
Jolly Rubino
Date : Friday 1st December 2006Riders : Aroon, Thaven, Jerome, Vincent
Bikes : Raptor 350, Raptor 700, Raptor 350, Raptor 700
Conditions : Overcast, but dry
Trail : Kwambonambi to Mapelane, to the wreck of the Jolly Rubino
GPS : eTrex Legend
Camera : CANON digital IXUS
Refreshments : lots of powerade
Bikes : Raptor 350, Raptor 700, Raptor 350, Raptor 700
Conditions : Overcast, but dry
Trail : Kwambonambi to Mapelane, to the wreck of the Jolly Rubino
GPS : eTrex LegendCamera : CANON digital IXUS
Refreshments : lots of powerade
Average speed : 65 kph
Maximum speed : 121 kph (oops!!!)
Duration of trip out : 1.5 hrs
Duration of trip back : 1 hr
Thaven had gotten the co-ordinates for the wreck to load into his GPS, and was very keen to navigate by handheld....
After a delay waiting for Vincent's borrowed bike's key to be brought to Kwambo (left it behind, somehow !) we made off towards the Jolly Rubino, on the Mapelane road. After a couple of detours, following the GPS rather than gut feel, we got back onto the main Mapelane road and gassed it to the beach.
The entire trip took us about 2.5hrs.
Some safety tips :
1. when riding in built-up areas, SLOW DOWN
2. riding on roads (tarred or gravel) - keep to the left, and in single file - the gravel roads were quite dusty, and we tried to keep out of the dust by riding two abreast, but after dodging local traffic, we switched to single file.
3. note that tarred roads with large potholes can be more hazardous than dirt tracks, for quads ! the quads don't handle that well on tar, especially at speed in corners.
PS. Cow droppings are far more difficult to navigate than potholes.
Gadgets to get for next trip : Hydropack - taking off helmets just to take a sip became quite annoying !
Friday, November 24, 2006
Van Heerden's Farm aka Eteza Track
Riders : Aroon,Thaven, Jerome
Bikes : Yamaha Raptor 700, Yamaha Raptor 350
Trail : Eteza motorcross track
GPS : eTrex Legend
added this location as a waypoint
Conditions : Track was nice and dry, even though it had rained a bit that morning. Up above, it was overcast and late afternoon sun was gentle and fading.
After attending the family day the previous weekend at this location, I was keen to bring Thaven out to the track.
Borrowing Craig's trailer, we got two Raptors to the track, with Thaven succeeding in twisting Jeromé's rubber arm to make the trip.
Once we arrived at the track, I tried to drive up to the farmhouse to pay our track fees, but after ending up tangling with the neighbours' boerboels, and almost sticking the wheels of the Colt in some really soft sand, I decided to pay twice next time !
Though I didn't have a bike for the session, we took turns doing a couple of laps each at a time, and swapping riders.
We had a fun time going through the corners, and jumps, and were quite stiff in the chest, arms and back for days afterwards !
Bikes : Yamaha Raptor 700, Yamaha Raptor 350
Trail : Eteza motorcross track
GPS : eTrex Legend
added this location as a waypoint
Conditions : Track was nice and dry, even though it had rained a bit that morning. Up above, it was overcast and late afternoon sun was gentle and fading.
After attending the family day the previous weekend at this location, I was keen to bring Thaven out to the track.
Borrowing Craig's trailer, we got two Raptors to the track, with Thaven succeeding in twisting Jeromé's rubber arm to make the trip.
Once we arrived at the track, I tried to drive up to the farmhouse to pay our track fees, but after ending up tangling with the neighbours' boerboels, and almost sticking the wheels of the Colt in some really soft sand, I decided to pay twice next time !
Though I didn't have a bike for the session, we took turns doing a couple of laps each at a time, and swapping riders.
We had a fun time going through the corners, and jumps, and were quite stiff in the chest, arms and back for days afterwards !
P.S - check out the pilots and their flying machines
Sunday, November 19, 2006
North Coast Kawasaki Family Day
Riders :
Aroon - borrowed Debbie's (Craig Byrne's missus) quad
Aziz - sat in front of Dad
Trail : 10-15 km trail on Van Heerden's farm
GPS : no
Bikes : Kawasaki (?) 80cc semi-automatic
North Coast Kawasaki hosted a motorcross family day at Van Heerden's farm (Eteza track) with some quad bikes on demo.
Amongst the bikes there, was the AEON Crossland 300 which seemed like and interesting bike, but I didn't get to ride it since a young chick hogged it most of the time.
I bumped into Craig and Family (incl. Debbie and Liam) who are FULLY into the quadding scene.
Debbie kindly loaned me her bike, and Zi and I thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic little (10-15kay) outride that had been prepared around the river, hills and bushes.
Due to us not wearing helmets (!), I proceeded VERRY cautiously, and was a but nervy around some of the more technical sections....rightly so, since young Liam did manage to take his new REVO 100 for a short swim in the river - that could SO have been us !
While watching some of the motorcross earlier, we had witnessed an accident, that reminded us of the inherent dangers of the sport we were about to enter - turns out the guy who fell on one of the jumps might end up being paralyzed !
(see this link for more info - Horror crash at motorcross fun day)
Aroon - borrowed Debbie's (Craig Byrne's missus) quad
Aziz - sat in front of Dad
Trail : 10-15 km trail on Van Heerden's farm
GPS : no
Bikes : Kawasaki (?) 80cc semi-automatic
North Coast Kawasaki hosted a motorcross family day at Van Heerden's farm (Eteza track) with some quad bikes on demo.
Amongst the bikes there, was the AEON Crossland 300 which seemed like and interesting bike, but I didn't get to ride it since a young chick hogged it most of the time.
I bumped into Craig and Family (incl. Debbie and Liam) who are FULLY into the quadding scene.
Debbie kindly loaned me her bike, and Zi and I thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic little (10-15kay) outride that had been prepared around the river, hills and bushes.
Due to us not wearing helmets (!), I proceeded VERRY cautiously, and was a but nervy around some of the more technical sections....rightly so, since young Liam did manage to take his new REVO 100 for a short swim in the river - that could SO have been us !
While watching some of the motorcross earlier, we had witnessed an accident, that reminded us of the inherent dangers of the sport we were about to enter - turns out the guy who fell on one of the jumps might end up being paralyzed !
(see this link for more info - Horror crash at motorcross fun day)
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