Random_ADV

10 April 2026 / Bike farkling…

Hi all!

I’ve had quite a few questions about the bike changes, so let’s talk about that a bit. First up let me say the ‘what I’ve done’ is not as important as the ‘why I did it’, since you are not me, and my solutions aren’t always appropriate to your problems. That said, the principles are relevant, so here goes…

My original plan with the Himalayan was to get it to the 10 000km valve clearance service before doing any serious mods to the bike, in the process getting to know it really well & and shake out any warranty gremlins if necessary (it hasn’t been necessary, the bike has been solid). On the calendar this looked like a big ‘ride as much as possible’ block until the end of April, and get stuck in with the spanners afterward. Then I crashed it end of January - best laid plans and all that…

Irritatingly the crash left me sitting on the bench for almost 2 months waiting for new levers to arrive of all things. I simply couldn’t fit the new handguards over the damaged brake lever, so as opposed spending untold time looking at courier updates on my phone, I got stuck in – 6600km would have to do. As fate would have it, it has also been very wet in Gauteng this season, and I’ve learned my lesson the hard way previously about playing chicken with wet highveld clay, so there wasn’t much riding to be had anyways & this actually worked out for the best I recon.

So what have I been up to with the ergonomics? I knew after I test drove the Himalayan that the ergos were a bit tight for me. That, or I was at the very least on the upper limit on who the designers had in mind for the stock ergos. Not deal breaking, just needing some fettling for a bloke of my size - this is normal. After 100 000km I had the KTM very dialled-in to my taste, I now just needed to chip away at getting the Himmy a little closer to that high-water mark.

Another lesson I’ve learned previously is not throwing loads of money at a problem before properly understanding it, so I generally start dialling up solutions one notch at a time, as opposed started at 10 and only needing 6 as I have in the past - which tends to get expensive. With regards to rider triangle specifically, I also learned with my KTM that small changes can make a big difference – the TR Tec lowered pegs dropped my position just 10mm, but that made the world of difference in slow speed control and confidence with the 1090 for me.

That in mind, I attacked the ergos one small step at a time. The rallye seat was a no-brainer after my test drive, followed by rolling the handlebars back a bit. After the first ride out in the Swartland in December it was immediately apparent I needed risers too, so I added 30mm before heading off on my December jam. The 3300km home was largely fine – comfortable, no aches, pains or cramps after a few very long days and very comfortable over lots of mixed terrain, so I was generally happy.

It was when we got up to the border in January doing more sustained stints of technical riding, particularly the tighter sandy jeep tracks, that I found myself a little too over the bars when standing up. At least it felt that way, like my arms were too close to my torso and way too straight when up on the pegs - I needed to rake the rider triangle out a little. It was when taking the broken bits off the bike after the crash that I saw for the first time how raked toward one the Himalayan’s handlebars are, even when rolled back, and it then crossed my mind that a flatter handlebar bend would probably solve my problem. Cue lots of um’ing and ah’ing at the Protaper display at Biker’s Warehouse and an imminent lightening of my wallet...

I settled on Protapers’ CR High Bend. Hold them side by side with the stock Himmy bars and the difference is fairly apparent. Don’t let the ‘High’ bit fool you, the Himmy’s stock bars are the same height. However, rolled back the CR High’s are at least 20mm further back from where I held the controls previously, and this had the nett effect of moving my arms forward (not down) and elbows out a bit, and this has made a world of difference to me. I now feel my weight on my legs properly when standing, with my elbows in a comfortable, yet correct position to manhandle the bike if need be, so I’m really happy with where this is at now. Win!

However, as happens with these things, you move one lever and something else shifts you weren’t expecting. I now need wider pegs - solving the rider triangle had me sliding the rear around a bit more on Monday, and I found myself toe’ing the rear brake a couple of times by accident. I’ve been spoiled by TR Tec pegs on the KTM, so I guess they’re next on the list. It never ends does, it?

Apart from ergos, the new levers & new aluminium handguards after the crash, I ticked a few items off the ‘quality of life’ upgrades list too – double-take style mirrors & a side-stand-foot expander. The bike is now pretty dialled in for my next trip which starts in just less than a month. The only other technical item I need to attend to is a Motul 660 brake-fluid bleed, since the next excursion involves lots of up & down through some mountains, and then I'm done for a bit (he says while eye-balling the box with the new exhaust & headlamp in the corner of the garage...).

So yeah - lemons, meet lemonade. Best use made of the waiting time methinks, all that’s left now is to go ride. A nice big one too, to places I haven’t been before – can’t wait!

Enough of my stuff, go ride your bikes & do your stuff! Till next time…

6 April 2026 / Shaking down the Himi & catching up with an old friend...

I had some minor riding plans for the Easter weekend that got a little stymied by my son deciding he needed to add stitches to his list of life experiences in the week before the Easter weekend - such is life. This stung a little more than usual, because as you can see from the photos, the riding conditions on the Highveld were just superb!

That said, I still managed to squeeze in an afternoon to shake down all the changes to Himalayan prior to the big trip end of this month, and check in on my old mate Breedt’s Nek. I realized I hadn’t ridden Breedt’s since 2022, so it was well overdue. I’d heard some stories about how ‘it’s really bad now’, and these rumors needed confirming or debunking.

Regarding the changes to the Himi’s cockpit, just magic. More on these in another post, but for my riding style & a bloke of my size frame, just what the doctored ordered.

As for Breedt’s, rumors of its deterioration are exaggerated – it was buggered before, and it’s still buggered, which is exactly why we love it. I mean, heaven help us if the North West provincial administration decides to fix it – it would be boring, and we’d be stuck behind a queue of soft-roaders every time we’d want to go over. No, I love it as is. It was as I know it – a little different in a few places, but no better or worse on aggregate.

How do I know it? As usual, a good technical work-out to sharpen your riding chops, and a great place to shake down bike changes. Big ruts, big washouts, lots of loose rocks, rock steps, some sandy patches – all your favorites are there. What you do get this time of year, especially after all this rain, is a lot more loose rocks & loose gravel, where water had washed things down but there haven’t been enough 4x4’s over it to settle down decent lines yet. This is not ‘worse’, this is just seasonal – I’ve seen this before, and if you ride it this time of year, this is to be expected.

As for the rest, just good riding on the farm roads west of Josi – a great afternoon out. I even saw some signs of grading, which feels a little premature, but is good news for the more green among us. As I’ve hinted at before, I’ve got a really decent trip penciled in for the end of April, so I’m amped for that and the bike is now officially ‘ready’. But I’m also loving seeing all the rides from the Easter weekend coming up in the various groups. Keep it going folks, keep fleshing out your expression of exploration & adventure.

Cheers for now…

24 March 2026 / random_Update

Hello again from the West Rand. Just a quick update as to the radio silence – I’ve been waiting for some bits for the Himi post-crash. The one critical piece missing that was the new levers, which were ordered for Feb, but got delayed in some of the interesting logistical challenges going down in parts of Asia due to the conflict happening in the middle-east. So I’ve been sitting on the sidelines for a few weeks. But the new levers are here now, they feel pretty fabulous, and I’ll be back out on the tracks shortly.

I actually did a few mods while I was at it – firstly, new handle bars. I’d been wanting to put a little more comfortable bend on since I got the bike, and the Barkbuster mount snapping just expedited this as a ‘2-birds with one stone’ solution. I’m not happy about that BB failure, and the mount snapped due to it using the stock Himalayan mounting bolt which is an 8mm as opposed to the usual BB 10mm. Since the bar weights (which the BB bolt threads into) are welded into the Himmy’s handle bar, getting a new bar was a simpler way to use the 1090’R’s old BB mounts while not permanently damaging the Himmy handle bar in case I needed to revert. So on with a Protaper CR High bend – it’s a little flatter than the Himmy bar when rotated back and already feels like a significant improvement for my frame.

Next was a set of double-take style mirrors from Aliexpress, and finally the shortly adjustable brake & clutch levers. The Himalayan levers were fine, but having lived with adjustable levers on the 1090R for so long, it’s hard to go back. This was largely an inevitable upgrade, the crash & subsequent damage to the brake lever just accelerated their arrival.

So now that I have levers, I can ride again. I should have everything buttoned up by the weekend, just in time for some Easter shenanigans if the GP weather plays nice. Failing that, I have some big plans for end of April – so more ride pics soon!

That’s me for now…

10 February 2026 / no one told me you needed a pilot’s license for an adventure bike…

To quote Dave Darcy of MAD TV, if you’re going to go adventure riding, inevitably you’re going to come off. Well, I had another inevitable off 3 weeks ago, and a big one at that. And it wasn’t the usual sudden & unexpected shortage of talent or skill that separated me from my motorcycle. No, this was f$% nasty, and just because it didn’t end in hospital, doesn’t mean it wasn’t big.

The subtext to that headline is I’m okay - very bruised and my bell got rung very hard, but okay. And the irony is not lost on me that one week prior I was pontificating on the blog about boots, the future you can’t see, and not min-max’ing budget in the wrong places. It really wasn‎’t my intention to go out and prove this point quite so spectacularly, but the point remains proven nonetheless and I should probably just claim it as commitment to the community.

So what happened?

It would seem a simple matter of the bike getting mixed up in some wire, yes? Pretty much, though the devil is in the detail – I’ve been caught up in some barbed wire before, and didn’t get an honorary pilot’s license to show for the experience. This happened just outside of Rayton on the railway service road. That piece of railway is slowly being pillaged, with fresh holes from cable theft later on as well. We’re not sure exactly what this wire is, but it’s heavy-duty stuff you can’t cut with wire clippers (we tried), so we suspect it’s being used as bailing wire by the thieves to bundle & remove the girders they’re stealing. It’s definitely recent, since the wire has clearly not corroded, and you find a leftover bundle of it here and there on the railway line that’s been discarded when they’re finished. But importantly, it’s lying on the railway track and not lying in the service road. Grey wire, lying on grey stone & grey concrete sleepers, so it’s hard to see and nowhere in your normal riding line of sight to notice if you could. Neither myself, nor any of the 6 bikes ahead of me saw it.

Due to the recent rains, the grass is nice and long on the highveld, equally so at the side of the tracks. That’s where one loop of this wire had folded over into, and where my TKC80 picked it up. I went 20cm left of the track into what looked like grass to avoid a rut, as we do often, and the k***s on the tyre hooked this loop and wound it on. My pace ensured the rest of the wire left its resting place on the tracks, and that was all she wrote - a few seconds later the front wheel locked up & I was airborne.

It was as if someone had ripped the bike out from under me. The Himmy basically stopped dead, stood on its nose, then slammed onto its side so hard it snapped the left side Barkbuster mount. I can’t tell you exactly how fast I was going when it happened, but I was doing at least 55km/h last time I checked the clocks, and winding it on at the time - so 55km/h + 5 seconds’ acceleration for the sums, it was a big hit. I was up on the pegs when it went down, so I just went flying. I did my best to tuck and roll, but there wasn’t much time to react with my right elbow hitting first and square, followed by my shoulder, with the impact snapping my helmet sideways against the neck brace. I lay there for a bit doing finger & toes tests before moving, because it was a significant impact and I was sore in more than a few places.

Lucky, blessed, well-prepared – all of the above. I’m very grateful I didn’t get seriously hurt, and the fact I could gather my wits and carry on was just a bonus. Yes, the Barkbuster mount on the Himmy snapped & the right side backbone is unrecoverable (I’ve never seen this, despite my Barkbusters on the 1090R taking an unreasonable beating), and the gear lever had to be straightened from its newly assumed 90 degree angle, but the crash bars took the punch - there was no further material damage apart from the above. This Himalayan is one tough cookie. It took us 20min to untangle the bike from the wire since we couldn’t cut it, but 3 cable ties later I rode out the rest of the day. And no, I wasn’t being bedonnerd or stupid macho - Rob & I checked me over and I trust him to stop me if he feels I may have a concussion or something – I was a little bruised, but genuinely fine and the bike was largely okay.

That alone is a testament to the value of the combined wisdom & knowledge sitting inside of our ADV community. The right gear, in the right places, keeps you as safe as possible, and keeps you out there. Protection is not always about the most expensive item, but it is about the right solution for your context. Make sure you have the right protection for both you & your bike, for the type of riding you want to do, and get the best you can afford. If you’re not sure what you need, ask someone you are sure does know. Do not min-max your budget on protection. Moments like this will make you glad you didn’t, and remember what Dave said – these moments are inevitable to a greater or lesser degree…

Lastly, I want to just want to give a big shout out to Leatt Protectives, because without their 3DF Airfit body protector I would without question have gone home in an ambulance followed by significant elbow surgery. I’m not affiliated to them, and I pay my own hard-earned dosh for my gear, but I’m grateful. Leatt design great stuff and then don’t cut corners manufacturing it - my body armour, jacket & neck brace put in proper work on Saturday. I know there are a couple of Leatt folk subscribed to the blog from Cape Town, so please relay my gratitude and keep up the world-beating, best-in-class work!

23 January 2026 / About magical boots & where to find them…

So I’ve had a few riding expenses come up after my big trip in December, most expensive of which so far has been the need for new boots. The Terra’s are done – they have done well, but they are properly done and not simply in need a of a re-sole. But 6 years & 80 000km’s later, I recon they’ve earned their retirement.

The irritating bit about this process is I settled on a new pair of boots to replace them that aren’t in production anymore, which I found on clearance, so I can’t even do a nice review piece. However, chatting to Mpho at Moto Mate Rivonia while trying on various options, she was asking why she can never get new adventure riders to buy full length boots. And the answer is quite simple – money. Full length boots are simply more expensive, and newer riders can't see past the price & don’t understand the need. Yet.

Since this blog is aimed at newer entrants to adventure riding, let’s talk about that and use the language of money. If you don’t have a history with dirt bikes, you fit into one of two groups – you either had a friend to guide you through the starter gear process, or you didn’t. And if you didn’t, your process probably went as follows. When you got your bike, you bought some nice ¾ adventure boots to ride in – most of us did. They looked the part, made you feel good, the sales guy said they looked good on you, and you probably thought something along the lines of ‘I’m not going to be doing technical stuff anyway’ as you strolled away from the full-length, 3-buckle and incidentally more expensive boots in the shop to go pay for your new, oiled-leather, ¾ footwear of the gods.

However, there’s this future you can’t see into. Somewhere in the next year, you’re going to go for a ride, and on this ride you’re going to have an incident. This ride isn’t necessarily technical, and you won’t necessarily crash needing all that full-length boot ankle support & twist mitigation you didn’t purchase. All that will happen, is you will tip over. It could be getting a u-turn wrong, or something more nefarious like mud or sand, but the point is, the bike will go over, and you will try to save it. At which moment you will feel a metal foot-peg, in all its toothed glory, with 220-odd kilograms of momentum behind it, dig between your unprotected calf muscle and shin bone. It’s going to hurt, a lot. If you’re smart, you will take the hint and let the bike drop. If you’re less smart, like me, you will repeatedly try to save the bike, only to repeat the painful impact into your calf with no existential change to the outcome. But in both cases, the sight of the potato-sized bruise on the side of your leg when you get home, and the associated pain when you moved your foot around with said bruise, will help you rethink the whole ¾ boot thing.

Which is probably why we see so many ‘used once’ or ‘hardly used’ ¾ boot classified ads on marketplace. You will get full length boots, and you will sell the ¾ ones for a loss, easily costing you more than just buying the full-length ones in the first place. I know it seems counter-intuitive, considering they’re R1000 or R2000 more expensive on the shelf, but if you intend to take your adventure bike off-road, I guarantee you will save money buying the full-length boots first time around.

I know we all have budgets. I know there’s a fair bit more gear needed than one initially thinks when we enter this hobby / sport. And many of us, myself included, over-capitalize on the bike a bit first time around in adventure enthusiasm. I get it, but boots are not the place to min-max. If you’re riding off-road, get full-length boots. And we’re not even getting into the Enduro vs Adventure boot debate, that’s another can of worms (experienced okes, leave it alone - one battle at a time please!).

Alrighty, point made. As opposed to the usual epilogue of ’now go ride your bike’, now COME ride your bike! If you’re keen for a ride, I’m heading out with some of the old Guts ‘n Gas family tomorrow, as in SATURDAY 24th Jan. If you’re in the Pretoria area and looking for jam this weekend, we’ll be heading out from Bike Kings Lynwood - 8am gather for 8:15 split (no I’m not affiliated, just collecting some gloves on the way). Just be aware we’re a chilled bunch, and we have more of a rough sketch than a planned route, so I’m not entirely sure what time we’ll get home - but you're welcome if you're keen, link to the start point below:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5VXa1wFdDCqtXMch9

Lastly, thanks to Mpho at Moto Mate Rivonia for the great service. Again, I’m not affiliated in any way, but credit where credit is due. As the manager she’s put a lot of work into that shop, and it shows. Go pop in if you’re in the area… Also to Nicholas at DMD Distribution for making time to answer all my Forma questions – you're a champion, thank you! (yes I got Forma boots again – 4th pair. Predator 2.0 Enduro’s – friggin’ sick! No, I’m not affiliated – they just seem to have the best option every time I go boot shopping. Okay, bye).

3 January 2026 / Border patrol – Moselasela to GP…

There’s this little thing that happens when you point your nose in the direction of home, you kinda want to get there faster. Which seems dof when you still have a full day available to ride, but it’s a subliminal thing that sneaks in sometimes and Vin fought the good fight and stopped me from taking the shorter way home. He’s a good man, that Vin – another great day out…

First up, Moselasela to Thabazimbi on some mint, fast gravel access roads (incl fast sand sections as is the Limpopo way). Then west up Bakker’s Pass and along the bottom of Marakele Park and out at Jan Trichart Pass, before turning right and heading for Rooiberg to top off the Tenere with Fuel.

Now there aren’t a whole bunch of photos from the Rankin’s Pass to Rooiberg turn-off section that goes past the Police Tactical Training College, because this road was utterly wrecked. I mean, whenever I’ve been there they’re always filling ruts with sand and grading sections, but this was next-level stuffed the entire way. Big ruts, even bigger sandpits, wheel-swallowing washouts, massive g-outs, and all topped off with a lovely section of serious road repair where the entire piece had been dug up and spread by a digger, but not graded. They’d clearly had some serious water in the previous few days, and the local authorities were working hard to fix it, but the entire road was a proper work-out. There’s wasn’t anywhere to park up to take a photo that one could be sure you’d be able to take off from again, so apologies, fun riding but no photos.

From the Rooiberg turn-off it was easy, fast riding through Rooiberg & Assen in the direction of Brits. We even squeezed in a quick stop at Jericho Rock, since Vin had never been there, and it was from there through the crystal clear skies that we saw a problem in the distance – serious weather other side of the Magaliesberg. As it turned out, we’d left it behind in GP, and it had patiently waited for us to return. So we canned our last little Canals leg, and high-tailed it back home in the hope of beating the late afternoon showers.

It was a vain hope. I got all the way back to the satellite road before it got me, but it made up for lost time. There’s nowhere to take shelter once you’re past the Telkom installation, and as such I found out what it’s like to ride in Highveld hail for the first time. It bloody hurts, I’ll tell you that much. But everything prior to that was awesome – a fabulous 3 days out!

P.S. Thanks Vin for being a god-tier wingman, I appreciate you!

If you like this sort of thing, bang the page a ‘like’ or a comment so I know you want more. And if you want more, check out my Patreon where you can find all the posts, ride reports curated & more…

https://www.patreon.com/c/random_adv

2 January 2026 / Border patrol – Zeerust to Moselasela…

Simply put, another good day. We started the morning at 7am, and got cracking with what seemed like a little connecting track from Gopane to Ngotwane Dam, courtesy of Martin Malec. This turned out to be arguably the ride of the day – a brisk-paced, snaking jeep track with sandy bits, hard pack bits, some muddy bits & occasional, but not scary washouts. Really fun, the sort of track that encourages you to find a rhythm & flow, and flow we both did - Vin somewhat more briskly than myself. Martin, Vin & I each owe you your choice of a beer, soda, juice, or whatever your preferred beverage is, because this track was top-drawer. Thank you for sharing!

From Ngotwane Dam, we made our way west through the farmlands to pick up the border again, skipping the Maphephane portion due to having done this bit in the past & wanting to give ourselves enough time to explore the bits we hadn’t done before. That caution proved unnecessary, since the conditions were mint & this bit of the border track is much easier to manage than the southern side of Skilpadshek – having a proper exit helps! We made good time, with Vin & myself popping out at Moshana around 10:30. Really good & really fun as mornings go…

From there on out it was rural access roads the whole way, north past the Ramotswa border post, Kwa-Ntsweng, Supingstad, Kopfontein and across the top of the Madikwe Game Reserve to Derdepoort. Courtesy of the recent rain, the dirt portions were rutted enough to get one sharp without being boring or irritating, with the whole area being beautiful & green and Madikwe putting on a show as usual. We got in to Derdepoort around 1:30-2pm, leaving us with a few hours to kill until our book-in time at Moselasela. Good thing the Derdepoort General Store has a lapa and a fully-stocked ice-box…:)

So a little shorter for sure, but a good day with great riding and no dramas. Happiness!

P.S. If you like this sort of thing, bang the page a ‘like’ or a comment to keep me encouraged. And if you want more, check out my Patreon where you can find all the posts, ride reports curated & more…

https://www.patreon.com/c/random_adv

ACME numberplate mounting system...

1 January 2026 / Border patrol – GP to Zeerust…

Yeah, so I have a kindred spirit in Vin Horn from Linex Sandton, in so far as giving a rat’s ass about New Year’s – so we went to go ride our bikes. The only place remotely dry was the North West, so we headed up to go play on the Botswana border for a couple of days. I keep seeing this piece on T4A that looks fun, so after a failed attempt a couple of years back, we decided to poke our head’s in again and have a look.

Well, call it blind luck or navigation genius, but we managed to thread the weather needle perfectly, arriving in the area soon enough after some rain to have great traction, yet little-to-no dust, and not enough standing water to make things unpleasant. Baby-bear’s porridge conditions, just lekker!

We had a great run through the farmlands in the morning, and after a little poking around to find a legal access point, we found our way onto the border fence service road at about 11:30. This was huge fun for about 20km, until it got properly rough on the switchbacks through the koppies. We were a bit taken aback as to how it went from so good to so bad so quickly, until we got to the end and worked out why we don’t see people riding this bit anymore – the exit doesn’t really exist in this timeline in any reasonable form at all, and clearly hasn’t for some time. Well, someone has to go look – call it a community service…

Turning around isn’t really anywhere near the top of the thought considerations for either myself or Vin (this isn’t necessarily a virtue, just a fact), so after bundu-bashing a bit we found our ways out to the walking track next to the border post. This did, however, take us a while, which cost us the time to go look in on a loop Martin Malec kindly sent me (next time!), so we bailed to our digs in Zeerust to regroup and refuel the bodies for the next day. Hard work at the end, but a really fun day!

If you like this sort of thing, bang the page a ‘like’ or a comment to keep me encouraged. And if you want more, check out my Patreon where you can find all the posts and ride reports curated…

https://www.patreon.com/c/random_adv

03 January 2025 – random_Update

What an appropriate way to end off a year, 5036km around ZA in 3 weeks, happy New Year all! Vin & I are back safely from our jaunt around the North West & Limpopo (ride reports will start going up tomorrow), and now my Januworry riding budget is properly blown. Happily so, though! It will not be hard to kill the time till February, however, since there is still much to talk about…

Firstly, the Himalayan report back. A few of you have asked for a ‘review’, and I promised this once I’d had it out on some proper sand. Well, the Marakele loop was quite happy to oblige in that regard, so I’ve got all the ‘data’ I need to get my thoughts together re the 'Iron Pony' – expect this soon. I also have 5000km on the Karoo 4 now, so that’s worth a mention, plus I had some fun putting a whole bunch of Temu stuff on the new bike to see how it would hold up, and that’s an entertaining conversation. So on the subject of ‘stuff’, there’s kak we need to praat.

Secondly, my Patreon is up, and on time too! All the usual content is there, free to access, but you’ll find a few other things titbits too – check the ‘collections’ if that piques your interest. I’ll have the first premium ride report going up during the week too, so if you’re the type that wants more detail than the usual (like GPX files, accommodation details, etc), check these out.

https://www.patreon.com/cw/random_ADV

Then lastly, Vin & I had a good conversation about getting active with the Guts n Gas riding group again. That group really has its own flavor, and a very necessary one, so we’re going to get some rides going again and see where the rabbit hole leads. I know that will be music to a few people who graciously support me here’s ears. Be patient with us, we need to chat to a couple of people first and iron out a sustainable battle plan, but the moment we know exactly what we’re doing, I’ll put the contact details in a post for those of you not in the group. I get many, many requests to join in on rides, so if that’s you then this is your chance – watch this space.

Alright, that’s me out - need sleep. Be lekker, and go ride your bikes!