Andymann

It must be the same Miguel that I know. Back in 1983 my Dad bought an 850 LM3 from Roma Guzzi. After a while I sold my 350LC (because back then they were worth nothing) and bought it from him - I imported a lot of spares back then from Italy and a funny story was when I ordered a rev counter cable they sent me three and politely asked that I use the one that fits and please to send the others back! Anyway I road that bike for 50000kms and Miguel used to service it for me - only AGIP Sint 2000 back then! I eventually sold it to my brother in Cape Town who used it and then when his son had to go to high school regrettably had to sell it. Luckily, he kept in touch with the new owner asked him that if he ever wanted to sell it, please to let him know. A few years back he contacted my brother and the Guzzi is now back in the family. So very interestingly, one day when I was having the Guzzi serviced I saw a bike there which I didn't recognize - it looked a lot like a Ducati 900SS but was a.......Yamaha. Yes said Miguel - thats a "Yamacati"- or TRX. And that's where my love of TRX's came from. I actually pestered Miguel a few times to sell me that bike but he never did!

You need one of these......only R300k

Sadly no! Which is also why any bike in South Africa built in or before 1936 carries a hefty premium. It also explains why South Africa is the only country in the world where there are more bikes dated as 1936 than were actually built in 1936 by all the factories combined, and that strangely no bikes from 1937 were ever imported into South Africa 😉

I remember that little run - there was a moerse outcry but no-one could do anything because they didn't have proof that he had actually done it! With the roads and trucks as they are today, I think you would be hard pressed to even do it in under 6 hours today in a car

Was a race held on public roads and too many people were getting killed so they decided 1936 was the last year. In 1970 they resurrected it as a regularity run but only on bikes which would have been eligible to do the original race - so up until 1936. The traditional overnight stop was in Newcastle and in the years that we lived in Newcastle my Dad was the Works Manager at Iscor so was quite well connected to the Newcastle Town Council. He was able to convince the Newcastle Traffic Department to turn a blind eye one year and then suggested that the DJ organizers put in an "open" section on the road between Ladysmith and Newcastle to let the guys have some fun. One of the Excelsior Manxman 500 racers was clocked at over 150kph.....

One thing I can add is that before they realized what the the Schlesinger Vase was worth, it was presented to the winner of the regularity run which started in 1970 and the winner was allowed to take it home. This was the original trophy that the winners of the race got before it was banned in 1936 and the winning times are engraved on the trophy. My Dad won the DJ a few times, and he took the vase home and I looked at some of the winning times from the race. When I used to travel from Pretoria to Durban for university in the 90's you were doing well if you could do it in 6hrs. On the N1/N3 The fastet time in 1934, (which I think is the official record), on dirt roads with bikes that looked like the ones in the picture I posted from our ride on Sunday was 6hrs 42min - averaging 100kph. I've ridden a DJ bike at 80kph and I can tell you it's scary. Those guys were from another breed.

Sure thing - most of what you will find is here - https://djrally.co.za/ But if you have any other questions - shout!

I knew Pierre very well - I started doing the DJ back in 1990 and did six I think and then stopped. I was the youngest rider for years and Pierre kept on trying to convince me to come back because they wanted more young riders. Later on Pierre helped get a few bikes of ours registered. We miss him at the VMC meetings - he was a real character! This year will be my Dad's 32nd DJ and we have arranged for my two brothers to ride with him this year with me in the backup van. So quite special

We did something a little different yesterday - took the old Velo's on a pre-DJ ride just to check that all is well before the actual DJ next month. Ended up doing part of the old Rand Water Race for Victory Route, the original Hyper to Hyper, the Fast one and the Clover Vets Tour - my old Racing roads when I was racing for Gary Beneke's team in the 90's. Something to be said about cruising along at max 75kph, but I'm not 1930's bike fit - my arse and back is killing me today!

Could you perhaps send me his number too? Going through some boxes and I found my Grandfathers Omega from 1969. Not really my style and the date isn't working so I would like to check and see what it would cost to refurbish before I decided what to do with it. Thanks!

oops.... https://triathlonsa.co.za/2022/10/31/south-african-institute-of-drug-free-sport-update/

That's why when we organize the small Tri races they are all off-road to try and keep the costs low, or have very short road laps so you don't need as much Policing on the day. It's just become such a mission to organize the policing it only works when big sponsors are involved or when someone knows someone and is able to get the right people by promising a little something extra on the day

All my DT's run with normal B8ES NGKs and they are fine. It's the highly strung bikes that tend to be a but iffy. The one thing that we have seen over the years though, is the number of plugs that just die, or actually spark normally when they are tested outside the cylinder, but fail under compression. We have a very interesting talk at our Club a while back about NGK and how to spot the ones which are not made in Japan. There's certain markings on a Japanese NGK that aren't on the ones made around the world. Crazy as it sounds, but I actually order all the plugs for my bikes off the Yamaha Part number, to ensure I get the Japanese ones. We also have one of our old race bikes that will absolutely not run properly on anything other than BOSCH plugs. It's the craziest thing and I initially wouldn't believe it, but put in an NGK and two days later you will be standing next to it cursing.

What does the manual say the premix should be for an 85? I would go with that

Definitely - the moment she starts pinning it with the hotter plug you are going to get some issues again. When I was at Yamaha we had such an problem trying to convince men not to buy their wives and girlfriends YZ85's just because they rode YZ125's and YZ250's. 85's are such temperamental things - hell they literally change with the weather. Have you ever felt how well a 2-stroke goes when it's really cold and the air is nice and dense? Or when it's just about to run out of fuel. There's an old saying - a 2-stroke will run brilliantly just before it blows up! We used to try our best to recommend TTR230's in place of YZ85's because they are just perfect for recreational riding, but they just weren't cool enough with the styling and the old drum brake at the back. Put in a hotter plug and let her ride it and then take the plug out and check it - it's not strictly the right way to do a plug check, but it will give you a very good idea of what the engine is doing.

So the higher the number on the plug the colder the heat range is and subsequently you need to ride the bike harder to get it to burn the oil off. When we used to race back in the day we ran NGK BR10EGV. We used to warm the bikes up with an 8 and then run a 10 for the race. On our old Classic bikes we run really hot plugs - NGK B4HS and B5HS because we don't ride the bikes hard enough for the plugs to get hot. So for your sister who lugs the bike maybe try a slightly hotter plug - perhaps a 6 rating? And if you are not flat out on your YZ wherever you go - maybe try an 8? 40-1 is cool if you are running a full synthetic. When we ran Castrol TTS we could go to 32:1 when the norm was 20:1 (much older bikes in the 80's!). As long as you are running decent oil and not this outboard motor stuff that some people use I doubt it's oil related. Yamalube or Motul is really good.

I hate bikepacking......

So I wonder if our good friend Mazepin has been called up to go and fight in Ukraine? Or are some soldiers more equal than others......

I had the opportunity to meet RjvR at a wedding this weekend - he stayed in the room next to us and also sat at our table. What a top guy. So down to earth, not a hint of arrogance whatsoever. I kind of imagined a bit of a Mark Cavendish type of character - but couldn't have been more wrong!

So it was bugging me who the guy was so I phoned my old boss and we both remembered it was Pieter De la Rey - he the famous Drag racer. We always thought it was so weird that a guy who was a top drag racer was also an expert at winning fuel economy runs. Another interesting story involving Pieter De la Rey was that he drag raced an R1. That in itself isn't that impressive. It's the R1 that was impressive. In 1997 Yamaha brought out a pre-production R1 to South Africa for testing - engine number 00001 or the first R1 Yamaha ever built. When the Japanese testers left SA, they insisted that the bike and engine be destroyed as it was pre-production and was for assesment and testing only, so the plan was to take the bike out by ship into the Durban harbor and drop it overboard. Somehow, that never happened and it eventually made its way to De la Rey for drag racing. When I left Yamaha it had been returned and was standing in the entrance hall of Yamaha in Pinetown but Yamaha has moved now up to JHB so I have no idea where it went. But somewhere, in SA is the first ever R1 pre-production R1 ever built.

Many years ago we helped prepare a TDM900 for the Total Fuel Economy run. I forget the guys name who rode it, but he was a big BMW man and we poached him to ride the TDM. You really do have your hands tied when it comes to preparation because you aren't allowed to do any modifications but he knew a trick or two! He leaned out the mixture to a point where it was almost damaging the motor, and then also put in super thin oil. Last trick was to tape up the Radiator so that the bike warmed up almost immediately - all so that you didn't waste any unnecessary fuel. I think the TDM ran under 4l/100km which for a big 900 Twin was impressive!

So that was interesting - we drove down last week from Gauteng and returned yesterday. It was different to what I expected - I was expecting Race to the Sun bunches and a lot more Chirp - I was with A-bunch to about halfway up the climb and then never saw another bunch until right at the end - most of the route I rode alone or had maybe one person passing me, or me passing them. My Wife started 10mins ahead of me with the racing Ladies and we honestly thought that given what happens in Race to the Sun we would catch up to each other by the first or second Water Point. I never saw her again until the end. Wasn't an issue in the beginning but the last 40kms it was really soul destroying having no-one to chat to, to keep the motivation going. I might go back again - we went in with Race to the Sun type training which is way different to what you need for this race - we didn't do nearly enough hills, so I would change things a bit. And I will definitely fit different tyres to the MTB! The Gravel bikes just destroyed us! I

I think the Trinity series, along with 5150 Bela Bela have all been canned. Can only suspect it's a money thing.

We're plebs. We just call them Rally Boxes 🤣

I've made a public album with some pics and vids on Facebook for those who want to have a look. https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=andy.robertson.9047&set=a.10159981653041142 Unfortunately the 125 broke down on Day 1 - I'll pull the motor this weekend to see exactly what went wrong but I hope it's not too serious! The 175 lived up to it's reputation and apart from one 10mm bolt that came loose on the back mudguard, I never touched it once. Just cruised along with zero problems.