The Motorbikerist Thread

[Marv]

Not a silly question at all mate. I'm not a day trip sort of a guy - I need a trip and a destination.

I had a courier take my monumental dive bag, and the suitcase my bike gear was in, from the BMW dealer I collected the GS from in Durban, and they took it to me in Cape Town, for the grand total of THIRTY ENGLISH POUNDS.

That was the game changer for the trip - for five days I lived out of a rucksack. PS - Google Kriega, and thank me later. No panniers.

In terms of photos - let's do this. When I get back on terra cotta (any Delboy fans here?) I'll post up my whole folder of the trip.

You'll see no pics of me on the bike as I did it solo

In terms of gear, I have some really strong recommendations.

Cheers, when it comes to buying gear, I'll let you know

Look forward to seeing the pics. I imagine you've got some pretty good scenery pics.

[speedingfine]

+1 for pics

[JLv3.0]

Here you go - this is every pic and vid from the whole trip so there's a lot of nonsense and irrelevance in there, but you should get the general idea

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g3hlpytzst4a ... 5f5Xa?dl=0

[Marv]

Here you go - this is every pic and vid from the whole trip so there's a lot of nonsense and irrelevance in there, but you should get the general idea

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g3hlpytzst4a ... 5f5Xa?dl=0

Sorry, I've had a busy weekend and only just seen these today.

Looks like you had an amazing time mate, some wonderful pics there. You took the GS off road too

Real shame that such a clearly beautify country has bad security issues...

[tim]

Looks like a cracking trip JL.

My girlfriend has booked her Mod1 and Mod2 for a couple of weeks time. She did a "transition" session yesterday at the training centre where she got to ride the SV650 she'll do her test on, so it's not a complete shock.

What do doubt will be a shock is what it costs to add her to my Ducati policy

[Broccers]

Bike show tickets are on sale - no early bird discount and so 19.50 plus 10.00 to park. Might not bother.....

[evostick]

What do doubt will be a shock is what it costs to add her to my Ducati policy

Can't see it being that bad. It was one of the bikes that I was considering after passing through DAS.

[evostick]

Averaging about 500 miles a week on the new bike in this gorgeous summer weather.

The road 5 sports touring tyres have surprised me a bit. I wasn't expecting much. I've had dual compound tyres before, including michelins, and haven't really noticed that much difference between the centre tread and the shoulders.

On these, the centre is like wood and the sides are proper sticky. I'm not sure quite how evenly they're going to wear but in these (albeit ideal) conditions, they work really well.

The different compounds are really quite visibly ..erm different.

[NotoriousREV]

Modern tyres are awesome.

[Marv]

My girlfriend has booked her Mod1 and Mod2 for a couple of weeks time. She did a "transition" session yesterday at the training centre where she got to ride the SV650 she'll do her test on, so it's not a complete shock.

What do doubt will be a shock is what it costs to add her to my Ducati policy

Hope it all goes well for her. I take it you're instructing her for the road stuff?

I learnt to ride on an SV650. For me, it took a bit of adapting to get used to how they ride (as I was very used to riding my 125 and nothing else) but otherwise, the SV650 is a nice and easy bike to ride..hard to stall too, which helps

Anyway, I had my Mod1 on Monday and passed and had my Mod2 this morning....and passed

[evostick]

Congrats Marv.

I don't know what's what now though. Does that mean you can legally ride a proper bike?

[Marv]

Yep, I can now ride a proper bike.

[evostick]

Awesome.

What are you thinking of getting?

[Marv]

Going to test ride 3-4 bikes. A smallish adventure/touring bike is what I'm thinking of at the moment, so V-Strom 650/ Tracer 700/ GS800/ CB500X.

[NotoriousREV]

About fucking time, Marvald.

[Marv]

Sorry Dave.

[evostick]

Going to test ride 3-4 bikes. A smallish adventure/touring bike is what I'm thinking of at the moment, so V-Strom 650/ Tracer 700/ GS800/ CB500X.

Probably all decent options tbh. I enjoyed the GS but I reckon the Tracer would be a good shout.

Please do a ride report on each anyway.

[Coaster1]

Going to test ride 3-4 bikes. A smallish adventure/touring bike is what I'm thinking of at the moment, so V-Strom 650/ Tracer 700/ GS800/ CB500X.

It would have to be, wouldn’t it?

Sorry, glass house and all that.... I ain’t tall myself

Congratulations pal!

[JLv3.0]

Congrats Marv! Top effort

[mik]

Knowing nearly NOTHING about bikes, from your list I would go for the Tracer.