and started to interfere with our touring plans. The purpose of this book is to share our passion for what we believe is the most enjoyable way to ride a motorbike – the why, the where and the how. That was how we came up with ‘A Guide to Adventure Motorbiking’ – quite a mouthful, but it probably sums up what we do the best. BMW and KTM sometimes call their big models Adventure, but this is purely incidental. This book is not aimed solely at owners of these bikes.
So, which kind of bikes are we talking about? Versatile bikes for tar and gravel of 650cc or more. We’re talking about the big dogs, which have been built for long distances with good rider protection, significant capacity for luggage and that can travel at least 250 km on a tank and – should you feel the urge – at 120 km/h or faster, with enough power and room for a passenger. It should be able to do this all day long, for seven days a week.
We want to share our favourite routes and a few stories about them. We also explain different riding techniques. This book will teach you that it is easy (and fun) to master any surface (if you focus a little and spend enough time in the saddle).
We explain the theory behind the skills, and show you how to apply it in practice.
This guide will also help you to buy a touring bike – whether new or second hand – that best suits your needs, budget and ability, as well as the right accessories. And there’s advice on how to adjust your bike for easier and safe riding.
An oft-repeated refrain at Jan du Toit’s Country Trax Off-Road Riding Academy in Amersfoort is: ‘There’s too much to remember. Do you have any printed material that covers all these interesting principles?’
We aim to provide just that in this book.
And then there are Adriaan Oosthuizen’s amazing photographs to illustrate the beauty and atmosphere of this lifestyle.
But, there are also a few things this book is not … It is not a correspondence course for dirt and off-road bikes. That is why the subtitle describes it as a guide. It is nothing more or nothing less than that. Dirt Busters won’t turn you into the Big Gravel Guru overnight, no matter how many times you read it. What it should do is increase your understanding of what it takes to control a big dual-purpose bike on the dirt.
A good course offers more depth of theory than our book (some principles simply cannot be explained effectively on paper) and of course the value of practice is priceless. So we strongly urge you to complete an official, accredited off-road course after you read this book. And then spend enough time in the saddle. There is nothing like practice to hone your skills – and make them become second nature.
Or do the course first, and then read the book. But do the course. Please. Even better, do the course two or three or four times. And read the book again. Keep riding, learning and reading. Because, as Jan always says: ‘Repetition is the mother of skill.’
Our grading system
We have ridden all the routes in this book ourselves. Some fairly recently, others a few years ago. The photos accompanying each route description in this book were also taken on that particular route.
These are by no means the only dirt roads worth exploring in South Africa. (On a recent tour of the Eastern Cape we realised once again how many incredible roads there are to discover.) These are also not the only ones we explored, but they are definitely our favourites.
The trouble with untarred routes, of course, is that traffic and the elements can change a tame gravel, dirt or farm road into a monster overnight. Even normal use – and lack of maintenance – can result in serious changes in the degree of difficulty over a few months or years. On the other hand, sometimes an adventurous rough-and-ready route might have been repaired since we last rode it – you might find a highway where we had a wild ride before.
In the former GS Challenge Jan du Toit and I (you will hear a lot about Jan in this book) had the wonderful experience of developing routes for our participants. And one of the great lessons we learned was that, despite our best efforts in indicating the difficulty level of routes, we were never entirely successful. Riders’ skills – and their perceptions of them – differ.
Even when we demarcate a road as a ‘1’ – easy, in excellent condition – there are always sneaky, hidden turns and hills, local traffic, and farm and wild animals to catch you out.
Another dilemma is that some of the routes include servitudes that are often controlled by farmers. Seasonal livestock moves, outbreaks of animal diseases, theft, or misuse of the through-routes sometimes cause farmers to lock the gates. As a result we can’t guarantee the condition of, or access to, all the routes.
So the grading system we offer for each route is merely a guideline. We hope you will use common sense for the rest.
1 Excellent, easy gravel road, with a predictable, even surface, and little evidence of a sandy central ridge (or ‘middelmannetjie’).
2 Gravel road with the occasional spot where you have to be careful – expect an aardvark hole or two, central ridge in the road, hardened mud tracks or potholes.
3 A farm road presenting a technical challenge. Here and there you’ll come across a gully, drift, serious pothole, sandy spot or deep ruts.
4 A track requiring much skill: steep, stony up- or downhills, long stretches of loose sand, difficult water crossings, large stones, loose stones, unexpected ditches or dongas.
5 An adrenaline-charged route for the exceptionally skilful with impossible gradients, unexpected, hidden and very dangerous rocks, stones, sand, mud and water. You could injure yourself seriously if you don’t know exactly what you are doing. Never attempt such a route alone; preferably in groups of three or more very experienced riders.
GPS, maps and software
Electronic navigation has experienced one revolution after the other over the last decade – to the benefit of road users everywhere. Cellphones with GPS and map software are gaining ground at an astonishing rate, while GPS manufacturers are multiplying daily.
The disadvantage is of course the Babel-like confusion of standards, platforms and programming, complicating the electronic availability of the mapping of our routes.
We use Garmin products – and their MapSource program. All our routes are compiled and tested with Garmap’s SA Topo maps (specifically Garmap SA Topo 2011 – which is in our opinion their most accurate work to date), and we recommend this software for anyone who is serious about adventure motorbikes. It is based on the 1:50 000 topographical chart of Southern Africa, and does automatic routing, even for obscure farm roads.
You can download all of this at www.deonmeyer.com/bike/bike.html.
Lastly, the kilometre markers are based on the distance from the starting point, which is provided with each route description.
Part 1
The roads
to adventure
