[Is motorcycling allowed?]

7 hours ago, Stevief said:

 

 

Swartberg Pass is an awesome ride. Would also like to go down into Die Hel next time I ride there.

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

7 hours ago, Stevief said:

It looks like these come in pairs now....????

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

12 hours ago, Hairy on a Davidson said:

I see you guys made it all the way to Australia

Kyk hier né... ,I tried reloading that pic a few times, I even flippen it over in my phone gallery and then uploaded, but it keeps coming out upside down on here.????‍♂️

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

It's been some time since I've come to visit Hub-land. 2021 has been a sh!t show of note at work and since purchasing a new home in December with loads of renovation jobbies my time in the bike has been cut very short and my time on a bicycle is basically non existent at this stage.

We're planning a group ride for this coming Sunday though, will be our first in over 2 months, will post some pictures.  But in the meantime here is some pics from my last propper ride/trip when me and my boy joined a group of friends on a farm in the Tankwa Karoo for Easter weekend. ????

[Where has your bike taken you today?]

12 hours ago, 'Dale said:

My 50th birthday celebration ride - there was chocolate cake and bottomless coffee. ☕

Happy birthday Dale, hope you had a great day!????

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

1 hour ago, Hairy on a Davidson said:

If you guys do an oil change, how do you dispose of your old engine oil?

We have a local scrap metal dealer who also takes in oil to recycle. Alternatively check your nearest car dealership/workshop and see if they'll take it of your hands to dispose of or recycle. 

[Who else have Tapatalk Issues]

On 5/16/2021 at 3:07 PM, BSG said:

Good afternoon fellow cyclists.

Is it just me or is someone else having troubles logging into Bikehub through Tapatalk?

The error message I get is the following, "Network error, please try again later. (get_config)

 

On 5/16/2021 at 3:11 PM, Meezo said:

Is broken!

 

See website gremel thread

Thought I'd pop in on Tapatalk to say hi and found you guy's (and the entire Bikehub for that matter) moved.

Jumped on the www and after a quick search ended up here. If it is the new mobile version I'm working on now it really aint so bad (compared to the old one anyways). The only drawback/inconvenience will be not having Bikehub in the same "basket" (the Tapatalk app) as all your other frequented forum's. 

Still the same people and same banter as always though. 

[Sealed hubs vs non sealed? (Giant)]

Just now, BenReaper said:

As mentioned above sealed bearing hubs tend to outlast and outperform cup-and-cone, but the cost more to maintain. (Between service intervals I must ad)

Also with OEM branded parts such as hubs there are many instances where parts become unavailable after a period of time. For instance with the first 29er Giants you had OEM sealed bearing hubs in the higher spec models. Every so often you would have a freebody fail and there were no replacement parts available. You would then have to replace the entire hub. 

With Shimano cup-and-cone hubs you will rarely struggle to find parts and they tend yo last forever when maintained properly. 

If you do want to upgrade to sealed bearing hubs I'd recommend something aftermarket rather than OEM, and do enough research on parts availability for whatever brand you decide on.

 

[Sealed hubs vs non sealed? (Giant)]

As mentioned above sealed bearing hubs tend to outlast and outperform cup-and-cone, but the cost more to maintain. 

Also with OEM branded parts such as hubs there are many instances where parts become unavailable after a period of time. For instance with the first 29er Giants you had OEM sealed bearing hubs in the higher spec models. Every so often you would have a freebody fail and there were no replacement parts available. You would then have to replace the entire hub. 

With Shimano cup-and-cone hubs you will rarely struggle to find parts and they tend yo last forever when maintained properly. 

If you do want to upgrade to sealed bearing hubs I'd recommend something aftermarket rather than OEM, and do enough research on parts availability for whatever brand you decide on.

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

Now you let my identity out [emoji3166][emoji23]. I'm trying to be a myth as the STIG[emoji85]. Thanks for the visit, glad that we could accommodate you 2 bikers.

Duisende dankies weer BSG! [emoji120]

You truly run a top class facility, I will definitely come visit again in thd future. [emoji106]

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

You are doing life right!

You see now how much joy that "careless decision-making" can bring.[emoji12]

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

What an amazing day on the motorcycle. Today is day one of a four day moto-camping trip with my son.

And the first nights stop over point is at the Pine Creek Caravan Park.......the home of the man! The myth! The legend!.....none other than mr BSG. [emoji1690]

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

Good to see we have such well organized folks here, makes up for my lack thereof.[emoji41]

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

I am looking at Harley's again ......... if all things pan out I should hopefully be on a bike by the end of the first quarter of the new year!

Praat jy nog steeds.......wanneer doen jy nou n slag......[emoji12]

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

Valid question.

 

Lighter than it looked. I am getting racks put on the bike now (while in service) for soft bags. I will discontinue using the top box. In its place will be the ATG bag that is in the pic. It has excellent securing straps and is waterproof. I will use this together with soft bags (ATG again). I will carry the spares and tools low in the panniers split between them.

The get up in the pic was more necessity than ideal packing. I needed to get to Scottburgh for a Memorial service ( my Mum) and felt that a long bike ride would give me time to think.......mmmmm.

On return I was carrying new suspension for my ZRX (delivered from Josie by my brother) which made the ATG bag a bit high so I strapped my back pack on top. That only had iPad and work phone so did not make it too heavy.

If I'm reading correctly, sorry to hear about the reason for your trip.

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

So a friend tells me the other day he has a little automatic 50cc kiddies bike gathering dust in a garage... Would I like to borrow it for my son?

 

Needless to say I said YES!!

 

Two questions now for the Hub:

 

1) Best place in Cape Town to get a kiddies helmet?

2) How do I deal with a not-so-happy wife?

Look for Ridersports on FB or Gumtree, Dominic is based in Blouberg and has a wide range of second hand kit.

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

Spent the afternoon yesterday fabricating pannier racks for my F800GS.

I'm quite satisfied with my progress so far, will post again some time when I'm finished.

This is also the reason for my arc eyes.[emoji2357]

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

So on this cold wet "winter's day" in the Western Cape I'm stuck inside partially on account of the weather and partially due to arc eyes.[emoji43]

 

In light of that, I thought I'd share a couple of pics from last Sundays bike ride.

A friend of mine recently got into motorcycling again by means of a Triumph Tiger 800. We met each other halfway between Worcester and Oudshoorn at Ronnie's Sex Shop where they let us use the braai facilities for the day.

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

People underestimate the value in a good set of earplugs.

I migh have my Hubbers confused, but I think you've posted before that you have a custom set of ear plugs.

I think that post was one of the first things that got me thinking about ear protection. Also there was a interview on the Gravel Travel Podcast with a lady who gave a little insight into why ear protection is actually a necessity.

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

I think earplugs are essential to protect your ears. I have tinnitus and it's a shocker. I wonder how folk use intercoms and stuff though?

Quick question followed by a tip:

 

Which ear plugs do you use?

 

Tip: I have tried many, including bike-specific ear plugs from bike shops and find the simple cone-shaped plugs from Dischem to be the best. And by far the cheapest.

 

Tip no2: Inset them with the wide part into your ear with the point sticking out. It seems counter-intuitive but you will find it is the most effective. Squeeze them to a narrow width, insert and then listen as the sound disappears as they expand. Bliss. Haha

I got an orange foam pair a while ago at a local agri/ammo supplier, think they were something like R10. I had read somewhere about the benefits of ear plugs and when I saw them for that price I decided to see what the hype is about.

 

Having seen/felt the benefit of using them now I will look for something proper. These foam ones dont fit so nice in my ear, they pop out easily. I want to see if I can find something more rubbery and similar in shape to my Samsung earphones.

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

Had to be in Struisbaai for work on Monday and decided to take the bike.

Wind was a bit crappy, but enjoyed the ride none the less.

 

*I learned two new valuable things on this trip.

 

On a previous work trip I ended up coming home in the dark and realized that the chrome reflective part of my headlight was burned to sh@t. A replacement unit is extremely expensive so I decided to fit a decent pair of spotlights instead.

 

*On Monday's ride I officially tested the spots out for the first time and they made an hell of a difference. I could actually see where I was going in the dark instead of only relying on the reflection of the cat eyes in the road from my shoddy OEM light.

 

*I also decide to use ear plugs for the entire ride and this also made the worlds difference. Previously I felt extremely fatigued from having to concentrate very hard in the poor light as well as having "ringing ears" from the wind on the helmet.

This time round I was much more relaxed with better lighting and some ear protection.

 

Oh and I also got a m@erse surprise coming round a bend in the dark.....

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

So took my boy to go riding at Zone7 in Cape Town this past Sunday. Even though his bike started developing a feuling issue the little guy was extremely chuffed to have finally ridden here.

 

I also had the F800GS on the bakkie but was told at the gate that my bike would not be suitable for the enduro track, so on the bakkie it stayed.

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

Those GS's are such awesome bikes. Cannot fault them. Super Comfy, amazing on long trips and on gravel. and the best part... you don't feel any wind. Just talking about it and seeing your pics makes me miss my gs

I'm not very tall, but I do take a bit of wind even over the taller screen, a lot less than on my previous DR600 thought.

 

At an combined weight of approximately 200kg for the wife and I a 1200GS might have been more powerful, but I'm not keen on lugging that heavy bike around and I haven't felt the 800 to be underpowered yet, other than when riding with the bigger bikes at speed on tar. However I did not buy the bike for this purpose, I have GSXR 750 for going fast.

 

I felt the 800gs would be the best midway between a light dual sport and a big adventure bike and I got exactly what I bargained for![emoji108]

[Is motorcycling allowed?]

So I've been enjoying the hell out of my bike lately with mostly Sunday outrides every 2nd or 3rd Sunday depending on my wife's work schedule.

 

This F800GS was one of the best purchases I've made in a long time. Found a group with some lekker okes in my area to ride with and my boy is usually on the back with me.

 

I recently also got my wife on the back for a ride aswell. She hasn't been on a bike with me in over a year and was pretty hesitant, but after a 280km Ceres, Op die berg, Katbakkies, Tankwa Padstal and back through Ceres Sunday ride she's caught the bug again with me. Now she's already starting to plan longer weekend trips.

 

I've even started using the bike for some work trips now and again. Did a biggish ride last Tuesday from Worcester to Malgas, the new Pond is not in operation yet so I had to go all the way round to Buffeljags and down to Witsand and back to Worcester again through Swellendam.

 

I wish I'd found this adventure riding thing more appealing earlier on, could have been enjoying this lifestyle long ago already.

 

Here are a few pics taken over the past month or so.

[Where has your bike taken you today?]

Only if it was a Scott(y).

Ironically it is a Scott(y).......[emoji23]