Woohoot! Thanks Geoff

Hey Charles, know what you mean. Natalie has one of those and I absolutely love riding it. Don't get to many chances though as she loves riding it as well.

Wow That's GREAT!!!

Julie is already nagging for a little easy offroad ride this weekend.  Where is the closest gravel road to Muizenberg that would be suitable for taking a first-timer on?  All I can think of (and this sounds far) is the dirt roads near Philadelphia.  Is now the time to explore Philipi?

can't you ride some of silvermine?

and there's a dirt road up behind that mountain/hill thing above Capri Village in Fishhoek, comes out on Glencairn highway - I think the land is Navy owned..

Stripes, can u post a google map of this site?  Just like the fancy ones of Tiara's mishap.  Shah

I thought it is mountain bikes only - and then with restrictions.  It is all nature reserve, and bikes are moto non grata.

The navy owes me big - that's where I lost my hearing...

Bones took me up a little (tar) road past the cannon near redhill once.  The installation has fallen into disrepair and squatters have moved in (or at least that is where they do their business).

Around the ammo depot in Simonstown is  a nice dirt road.

Good incentive not to fall.

Congratulations Charles dear on your new bike.....oops I mean congratulations Julie on your bike :):)

Charles

The 'Pipe Track' can be a fun place to practice quitely; 200m down Contantia Nek (Hout Bay side), nice ride with uphills, flat sections, downhills, etc. Then into Houties for luch, and then reverse the trail on the way home!

Cheers

To my delight Julie insisted on going for a ride - to the Tokai arboretum where she did some offroad in the parking lot.  Then we stopped at the traffic department to effect the transfer of ownership.  Turns out we needed to do a roadworthy - no problem I thought, the bike is still shiny from Geoff's tlc and only slightly muddy from my ride along the canal.  But it was not to be.

1. Tyres marked Not for Highway Use,
2. I didn't know how to get an odometer reading from the electronic speedo,
3. no chain guard, and
4. the off/dim/bright switch made no difference to the headlight which was on bright all the time.

The odo I sorted out when I got home and found instructions on google.  Tyres I am still sourcing, but it looks like I will end up with a Trailwing on the front and the back is a bit more tricky ito size and roadworthiness.  I will see what gives with the headlight switch this afternoon, and I suppose I can fashion some kind of chainguard with aluminium.

On the up side, a youngster called Daniel at Suzuki South was very enthusiastic and helpful (he also rides a Honda crf) and encouraged me to join a club and get a racing license for off-road races.

But just for good measure I took a shortcut home through a field and popped stonking wheelies on the grass - thanks for the lessons Freak and Flipper

Charles the lights do not have a dip and bright only on and..........on no off!

Also standard with no chain guard.

Thats how they are made!!

I told the guy at roadworthy that this is how the bike comes.  He walks with a limp and said he rode bike for many years and I  can only assume he must have hurt himself in the chain :). 

The chap at Suzuki South said I must have ended up with a chop and should try again.  I think what happened with you is that a new bike is automatically roadworthied without being checked. 

The catch is that the items have been listed, so those are the things I must fix.  No problem - I'll make up an aluminium chain guard, and will wire up the switch (it isn't even connected to the light at all - the light gets power from elsewhere).  I just need to find a Hi/Lo beam bulb that fits the socket.

There is a screw holding the chain guide that I can use to secure one end of the chain guard, and I just need to tap another one into the swingarm to hold the other end.

The speedo thing is sorted - google pointed me to the online manual for it (and when I took it off the cradle it has instructions on the back also).

This morning I broke the hex on that poor bike and dropped it 3 times while playing around.  Turns out the knobbly back wheel has too much traction to do an elephant turn on the grass the way I do with Mr.Badger, so instead of spinning the back wheel and swinging around, it flew up onto the back wheel and flipped!  What a blast!

Julie is cursing me and has threatened me with bodily harm should anything happen to the bike.

Now, while buying aluminium to make a chain guard, I saw a KTM Enduro bike with a guard that might even fit the Honda, so tomorrow I am going to shop around at the bike shops.

In my quest to roadworthy I visited Trevor at Primaforce Exhausts in Muizenberg (he rides an R100GS and was on the Cedarberg Oasis trip).  Got a two-filament bulb and fitting there.  Will hook it up shortly.

Next visit is Rian's in Waterkant Str to see if I can get a chain guard that will fit - then it is just tyres and we are ready to license.

• Visited Craig's in Maitland and got a chain guard from the 'misc old chainguards' box.
• Visited www.Renz.co.za then sent Julie off to Blouberg to collect Michelin M18 off-road tyres that are street-legal
• Spent a few evenings pottering about in the garage bending bits of metal I bought from Mica and drilling holes and learning how to tap a thread in order to fit the chain guard.
• Spent a morning wiring up the switch and new bulb holder and soldering the wires to fix the hi/lo beam
• Spent Saturday morning drilling bolt-holes into the bike's swingarm and screwing on the chainguard, then washing the bike and taking it to roadworthy.

Chain Guard and Tyre

We passed, but I resent the fact that all my hours of work on the chainguard solicited only a cursory glance from the tester before he ticked it off.  I mean, he didn't even try to wiggle it to appreciate how totally over-engineered it was.  He didn't remark on the hours of thought and design that went into the attachments to the swingarm.  In fact, he hardly seemed aware of the 4 items I was coming back for (tyres, odometer, chainguard and headlamp).

I had to tell him what the issues were, and he wrote down the number on the odometer (which I programmed in myself and set to some realistic-looking pleasing combination of digits).  The he checked that the headlamp Hi/Lo beam worked, and mentioned that I needn't have changed the tyres.

Just look at the photo - those are the meanest badass tyres I've seen on a bike on a long time, and they do not have writing on the side saying they will burst on the freeway while giving you seven years of bad luck and cursing your first-born!  I'm not sorry I changed them. 

Charles it is beautiful, fine craftsmanship, sadly unappreciated by bureaucrats...... feel better now?

Ps I did look at tthe pic....in FULL size!

Well done Charles!! I'm sure Julie's chuffed with all your effort.