< ="-" ="text/; =utf-8">< name="ProgId" ="Word.">< name="Generator" ="Microsoft Word 12">< name="Originator" ="Microsoft Word 12"><> On my way home last night from work, I was in such a hurry becauseI needed to pick the wife up from work that I totally forgot to fill up the car. I was praying all the way up Vissershok that I just make it over the hill so that I can freewheel into Durbanville. Never mind all the traffic, Capies can?t drive in the rain and the traffic was twice as bad as usual! Luckily I made it to the first petrol station, picked up thewife and made a quick pit stop at the shop to keep the wife happy. I won?t say this out loud, but it was storming at one stage and I thought to myself, what did I let myself in for!! At home I was like in a jack-in-the-box waiting for the time to go on the ride, looking out the window every five minutes to assess the weather! My little one couldn?t understand why her dad is more excited than her for a change! 18:30 couldn?t come earlier, filled up the water bottle, check that the lights were tightened and at 18:40ish lube the chain as I was leaving the front door. In this process I left my gloves (yes I know- bloody idiot!) on the couch. To my surprise it wasn?t raining and I thought what a bargain, I hate starting a ride in the rain. Don?t mind rain while I?m warmed up. So I struck a bargain, it could only get better! And so it did. To safe some time I decided to take some shortcuts to Majik. Oh boy, what fun that was. The roads were WET, within the first 800m I went through some HUGE mud puddles, almost seen my ass big-time (I couldn?t get unclipped and got it out just in time). Going past the D/ville golf course the squeaking of the trees and the howling wind didn?t put me off as I knew I?m hooking up with some great lads for an outrageous ride so I pushed up the steep-ish uphill to reach Durban road, from where it was downhill all the way to MF. Reaching MF with ample time to spare I took out the phone to check who chickened out! To my surprise no missed calls or sms?es. I took a peek at the hub to see if someone didn?t post a no-show on there and I saw slowbee?s post that he was in the car park and I knew the guys would be down in a minute. Slowbee rocked up first, IN HIS CAR, don?t know how he thought he will get to the top of MF with that!! NAAAH just joking with you slow ? pity they couldn?t fix the bike in time! Next time, next time! And then the rest of the guys arrived on their bikes, when Icould hear them before I saw them, I knew this was going to one awesome ride! After we sorted TarmacPro with an extra light and greeted Slowbee, we (Myself, TarmacPro, Mackem, Droo and Onetime) set off into the dark, which soon became day with all the impressive lights on show! We were chatting like crazy until we turned left onto thefirst steep-ish hill, when droo and Onetime picked up the pace, bastards ? lol. We were now just muttering a word here and there until we reached the top, took a breather and carried on. Once we turned going up to the beacon, it was becoming quite misty and it looked awesome with the patterns the lights? beams made into the mist! We stopped at the beacon and I tried to shed some lights on the riders and took a pic (see pic1&2). From there we cruised up and it became very muddy and slippery, made for some lekker laughs. Once we hit the section along the electric fence the okes became very silent!!! With reason, we were so concentrating not to touch that fence in this weather ? HAHAHAHAHA. After that it was time for downhill!! Yeehah!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TarmacPro decided to take the lead and the rest of us followed closely until we reached the drop off, when droo decided to take the drop-off, crazy man!! The rest of the downhill was just catch up, as he is a daemon on the downhill. We hit the single track up the fence and reached the section were they are busy working on. By this time everyone forgot about the struggle up the uphill and were chatting and smiling again! Into the forest section we bumped into 2 ?local residents?, who by that time of night were very friendly and talkative to us. With a quick exchange of hi?s, hello?s and what-ya-ma-call-it?s we flew past them. And before we blinked we came out the forest, lap one over L After a lengthy discussion, droo and myself decided to go up to the beacon again as the others were pressed for time ;-) We took a leisurely stroll up to the beacon and then I tried to play catch-up to droo all the way down, coming down softly in one corner, luckily no-one was there to witness and/or take pics!!! Poor droo had to stop numerous times to wait for this roadie to come out of the dark. When we hit the shopping centre were droo was parked Onetime and TarmacPro were still chit-chatting and I decide to leave the 3 of them and hit the road back home. Had very quiet ride home except for the odd squeak from the bike. When I got home I saw that the bike was brown and not black anymoreL I did take a pic of my sock tan, I will include the pic. No more midsummer rides to get a sock tan, will just hit MF in the middle of winter from now on!!!! A very big thanks to all who pitched, we will definitelymake this a more regular thing AND those of you who couldn?t make it ? join us next time, awesome bunch of guys and lots of FUN!!! DONT KNOW IF YOU NOTICED, I DIDNT MENTION WE WERE SOAKED ONCE!!!!!!! THAT?S CAUSE WE WERENT!!!!!! NOT ONE RAINDROP FROM THE TIME I LEFT HOME TILL THE TIME I GOT BACK!!! NOT ONE .BMC Fan2009-06-05 06:32:39
