Spokey

Easy on rate, not so the radius! Man, that guy is having fun!

The Big Orange enjoyed a quick jol to Swartburg Pass at the weekend. Was nice to get out. So much rain in the Garden Route over the last 2 weeks. I had an unscheduled few days at home with the aeroplane in maintenance and only took the Katoom out. Road bikes stayed well wrapped up against the weather! The last pic is the Lategansvlei road, the turn off is just passed the Swartburg Private Game Lodge on the road to Kruisrivier from Kobus se Gat at the foot of the Swartburg Pass. I forgot what a lekker ride that is. Narrow and winding through the hills over low drift river crossings…..then opening out to a wide fast road where the Orange exercised her “ponies” at a fair gallop!

Hi Swiss, sorry for the late reply, I have just returned to the sandpit from a swift jaunt around Euroland. Sadly, nope, I am not at liberty to disclose who the owner is. Suffice to say that I have been 11 years with the ExecuJet Group in SA and ME. Sorry if I sound like a **** but you understand how it works.

Pleasure man, I would love to comment more on some of my trips but only as an encouragement to peeps who are in early stages of flying or those trying to build there careers in this difficult time. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be employed at my age in the corporate field however I am 9 years with my Boss and they clearly value loyalty having released an FO this time last year who was low time in the company. I am around 15 years older than my colleagues so am very grateful.

Hairy buy yourself some extra fuel carriers. i use a 5 litre Dessert Fox roll bag. Ner neede it yet but it adds peace of mind. There are RotoPacks for hard panniers too. Honestly the 5 l roll pack is a good option.

You know, I head off on my Katoom 1190 on my own through vast very quiet area’s yet in the back of my mind is this………..reliability, buggar, you hear so many stories yet……..much knocking on wood, my Katoom has proven to be remarkable! I would use that beast for any trip around SA.

Pink ones be good hey……no one nick the bike…….well maybe a Guatie Girl Guide. Kidding right, I fancy one of those XR 1200 Harley’s……..beauts!

A bit of a read…….if you have the endurance! And so…..I am sitting in my hotel in Dubai, just arrived a while ago from LA via Seattle ( pic is lining up in Van Nuys) and it dawns on me that I am terrible at posting about bicycles, the reason for the Hub in the first place. I have some bikes I really l like and I treasure them, keep them clean and ready to rock and roll and just do not ride enough. I miss them. Anyway, a little of what I do for those who may be interested. ( and bloody keep it up if you are learning to fly or establishing a career) We left LA yesterday (Friday) at 1400 local time for the quick 2 hour jaunt to Seattle. Boss had a quick meeting on board while we gassed up for Dubai. Our Hostie Angie was busy with a fine spread of Canapés and Dom for the Boss, the CEO and the guest while we busied ourselves prepping the flight. The flight plan chose to not work on the Datalink upload which was a bit of a schlep as with limited time on the ground I was only able to load about 40% of the trip before we departed. Sure the destination was in but the lack of waypoints meant the current datalink winds ended up a little discouraging! However we had run though the pre flight brief enough to know that it would all work when finally installed in the FMS. Fortunately we had a third pilot on board who was doing the fuel while my co Captain was sorting the bill in the FBO. We loaded fuel to within 1000 lbs of Max Take Off Weight. (Max fuel, 51750 lbs, 100 short of the book maximum) The aerie was beautiful on the take off run and climb just after sunset in Seattle, (one of the pics over the fuel truck) though we could only get to FL390 initially. The forecast winds allowed a high speed cruise of M.88 for the entire trip. We ended up being 01:30 faster than the trip in June when the winds determined a Long Range Cruise of M.85. We entered Canadian airspace quite quickly and received a 1200nm (2223km) direct routing to our NAT Oceanic entry point. All good, continued loading the Flight Plan, logged on to the CPDLC and life was peachy. Dinner was stellar, the Boss retired to his bedroom and the CEO was catching a movie in the forward cabin. Climbed quite quickly to FL410 and the entered Oceanic at a non standard FL430. Was entertaining we had to obtain the Clearance the old fashioned way via HF radio as the Datalink continued its stubborn resistance to actually do its job. I had a chuckle as my colleague was a little unprepared for that. CPDLC and Datalink have proven to be easy and great when working but at least my many years on the old DC8 came to the fore last night! Anyways, just over northern Canada we had the good fortune to see the Aurora Borealis, my first time in a lot of Atlantic crossings, was awesome!! We crossed the Pond way north, up to 74 degress North which was a bit more than the 71 degrees achieved on our bicycles when the Missus and I left Noordkaap Norway heading south in June 1992. Had a marvellous dinner, ( pork medallions seeing as we were heading to the Mid East) just missing a fine bottle of red ha ha, then headed to the bunk for a few hours kip as the sun was poking above the horizon ahead of us, a little west of Bodo in Norway (one of the pics). I rejoined the crew over Russia, we climbed to FL470 and settled into the last 4 hours 30 of the flight. Was gorgeous passing Georgia and Yerevan ( pics of the mountains) eventually crossing Iran for the final run in to UAE airspace and Dubai. Around mid Iran the sun set again so I ended up with a night take off and night landing on our 13 hour 30 flight. Anyways, if you manage to read this far, I hope you enjoyed it. A very small insight into my life flying corporate for an aircraft owner on the latest and in my humble opinion best Bizz Jet out there. Sorry, an older pic of the machine.

Was very tight parking In Teterboro. The tug driver expertly positioned us after shut down.

Buggar, I am now in New York!

Indeed, That top end power is a monster. Close relationship with the rev limiter. That guy sure has some skills!. I like my twin, I like the characteristics of it on the dirt. But, that big Suzuki scrambler, just for 10 mins on a wide open dirt road in the Karoo……….yes please!

I did not wave as it was dark!

A little of my past two weeks. Left Riyadh on a non stop flight to Florida. 15 hours 28 mins block time. Still landed with in excess of 4000lbs of fuel. Crossed Oceanic at FL470 climbing to non standard FL490 with 5 hours to go. Long Range Cruise of M.85. A pic or two of leaving Miami for the Bahamas. Landed Nassau, Piper Aztec territory. I love it, fond memories of poling an Aztec all around southern Africa out of Wonderboom last century! Tomorrow to New York.

Enjoy your flight. You may or may not know through my (infrequent ) posts, I fly for a living. I am surprised when I hear of people who fly so little if at all, yet I should not be. There are many people who do not have opportunity or even need to fly. I am so jaded with the airlines as I travel to and from the Mid East to go to work. I have swapped out as crew in places as diverse as Phuket in Thailand and St Maarten in the Caribbean. And as tired as I am of paxing in the back I get a kick out of the excitement of people who do not fly very often. To be true, I am still in awe of the physics of it all and how it works…….buggar, magical science! Anyways, hope you have a great flight!

Okaaaay……I can think of many things to say about this, buggar it is ridiculous is about the most PC. But why not and if you can keep it up right……what a blast! I want a go, fresh undies on standby when done!………come to think about it, tis only 12 more than my Big Orange……though of course a tad lighter. Heads to workshop to strip all the unnecessary bits off the Katoom!

I really like the colour scheme on the top one. That on the bike with wire wheels…………yes please!

Sorry for the late response, been very busy around Saudi and are now in the US. Yes, would be a good idea to try and rent one at some point. I like that it is reasonably similar to my KLR in size but has around 60% more hp and 10% more torque and just a few kg’s heavier.

Tonights mission. 15,3 hrs. About to go and kip!

Garden Route is GS territory by a long shot. The very reason I bought the Katoom! Seriously though, I had my eye on a Yammie Super Ten in fine fettle and at a good price. Was keen on the Yam due to reliability. I so nearly laid down the Randellas and then bought the Katoom on what can only be described as an impulse buy. I have done around 20 000kms in the 19 months I have owned the bike and that is with about 7 months away at work. (Been home a lot due to Covid) The bike has proved to be very reliable. I would really like to try a Yam T7 for the more tech stuff but they are still really pricy 2nd hand. I would likely chose that over a Katoom 7/890 due to the simplicity of the bike. Anyone on here own a T7? let is know your feelings of the bike!

Arrived in The Kingdom a day or two ago. Thought to share these of our machine on the remote parking.

It is noisy, handling is entertaining! In the wet one has to be particularly cautious. It really is a different cornering style altogether. I am a great believer in learning to ride dirt bikes and getting used to how the bike moves around. Personally I think it helped me in the early days of Sportsbike riding if the bike was moving around a bit on bumpy roads.

Thanks! Dunlop 606 on the rear and Pirelli MT21 on front. I removed the rear foot pegs too, kind of looks nicer, IMHO of course!

I took the little KLR for a 300 km jolly to have coffee on the top of Swartburg Pass and return via Kruisrivier, Volmoed and Mount Hope road. I use the Giant Loop Mojave saddle bags for my tools and spares with my first aid kit, hydration bladder and rain suite in my back pack. I do think a small top box would work to just leave the hydration bladder on my back. This was my last big day out before I return to the Sandpit for work on Wednesday. I rather fancy the Triumph 1200 that parked next to me at Kobus se Gat at the base of the Pass.

Ha ha, na……not for me hey, though perhaps the XR1200 flat tracker. My twins are my V twin KTM and my Italian Mistress the L Twin Ducati 1098.

This is a super account of biking!……...I travel everywhere with my tool kit and rain suit if the trip takes me away from George. I do not set out in the rain if I can help it but I do not skrik for it when on a trip. Wind this past week was horrendous. I rode to Uitenhage and back on Thursday to buy some model bikes to build. The return along the cost was frankly scary. I turned inland along the R62 via Kareedouw……was a better option, and really beautiful.