maybe,just maybe

Chat about anything not Paso related here
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Skins
paso grand pooh-bah
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Post by Skins »

I've never been back, Paul. As pathetic as it may sound, bicycles were about the only things I enjoyed in my childhood over there. It didn't take me long to graduate to Velocettes over here, and boy I loved them.

I reckon the Cape must be a pretty good place for motorcycling, eh? Good weather, not too much traffic, and heaps of space - or am I dreaming?
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Paul
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Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2004 12:00 am
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year: 1987
Location: Hartbeespoort Dam, South Africa

Post by Paul »

I haven't ridden a motorbike there since I left in '88, although I go back each year for the Argus cycle tour (bicycles). Have a look at the route that we cycle (http://www.cycletour.co.za/map.html). I've got some really great photos from the race showing the stunning scenary. I believe that these have to be posted on a web site (and a link supplied) for them to appear. I'll see what I can do.

I used to ride from Tableview over the Durbanville hills (at the time I had an old Honda XL185 so I stayed off of the main highways).

The weather is pretty good in the summer but can be attrocious during the winter (it can rain for weeks on end, just like NZ ?).

If there was a "worlds worst" rating for drivers, Cape Town would be in the top three... On the way to Malmebury the roads are pretty straight and flat.

During peak hours the traffic doesn't move at all. This is a web site put up by one of our cellular service providers. It has traffic web cams posted throughout the city (http://www.mtn.co.za/default.aspx?pid=6408&mid=10292).
The following are Cape Town web cams :

Table Mountain / Camps Bay / Devil's Peak / N2 Hospital bend / N2 Coen Steytler / N2 Sable Road / N2-M5 highways / N2 Strand / Otto du Plessis / N2 Eastern Boulevard. It appears to be chucking it down at the moment and it is rush hour.

I have lived in Johannesburg since '88, but I am busy building a new house at Hartbeespoort Dam, which is about 50km north of here. We should be able to move there in February. This is where the Johannesburg bikers go on their "breakfast run" on Sunday mornings. Most of the traffic cops turn a blind eye to this and you get a succession of bikes going flat out on a Sunday morning, having breakfast and then riding back much later.

Johannesburg is in the summer rainfall area of South Africa. We get most of our rain from October to April. Our winters are dry, but we have a desert type climate. By this I mean it gets warm / hot during the day but can go down below freezing at night in the middle of winter (it is currently going up to around 20C during the day and down to about 5C at night).

End of geography lesson (I explain this as most people don't know that there is such a thing as a "summer rainfall area").

Paul
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Skins
paso grand pooh-bah
Posts: 1304
Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:00 am
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Post by Skins »

Very interesting. Thanks very much, Paul. Very different countries I think, England, Seth Efrika, and Kiwiland. I imagine SA as a place with cultural undercurrents of enormous energy, and such an ancient past, that they think 'modern' humans may have originated there before populating Europe (I was looking at a place called Blombos Cave on the net recently) And then there's all that gold and diamonds!

Ever been over here to NZ? This could be the most peaceful place on Earth.
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Paul
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Post by Paul »

I've never had the opportunity to go to NZ, although I nearly had to drop everything and go to a customer in Christchurch a couple of weeks ago (I really tried to pull that one off). I'd love to visit.

So how far is Wellington from Christchurch ? And how come you speak Spanish (I wouldn't have thouigh that there was a large Spanish community in NZ) ?

To show how diverse we are we have 11 official languages (and that excludes the large Indian, Greek, Portugese, Jewish communities).

Between Johannesburg and Hartbeespoort is the "Cradle of Humankind" which is where humans / pre-humans are thought to have originated (http://www.cradleofhumankind.co.za). I'll have to drive past it on the way to work each day.

I haven't had a chance to open up my Dell'ortos yet to check your theory that the high revving is caused by marks on the side of the piston. This will be the first weekend I haven't had to work around the house since August last year (renovations / improvements, getting ready to sell). The plan is to open them up on Saturday.

Paul
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Skins
paso grand pooh-bah
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Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:00 am
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Post by Skins »

Wellington to Christchurch is a day trip by road. Taking the ferry across Cook Strait would take most of the morning, then driving down the top half of the South Island (about 300km) would take most of the afternoon, taking it easy.

I lived in Spain (in Barcelona) for a couplke of years about ten years ago. There aren't many Spanish-speakers in NZ. Most come from Chile or Argentina. I have neighbours from Argentina, but I speak English with them because my Spanish is not that good. Useing it on the site is a good way to practise and learn, because there's a 'time lag' to make it easier.

Hmm ... eleven official languages. I can think of five of them. Do you know if there are tribes whose languages are not included? I'll check out that 'cradleofhumankind' site without delay.

If you peer down the throat of the carb as you very gently ease the throttle open and closed (just a couple of millimeters of movement at the end of the cable travel) you will see how a wear 'dimple' (if you have one) messes up the movement of the slide at the bottom of it's travel, and you will be able to imagine how unsteady the slide would be in it's 'rest' position under the effect of vibration at idle, and how impossible it would be to make accurate adjustments with the throttle-stop screw end sitting in the dimple - these wear dimples can become very large if not attended to.
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Paul
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Post by Paul »

The eleven languages are :

English / Afrikaans / Zulu / Xhosa / Swati / Ndebele / Southern Sotho / Nothern Sotho / Tsonga / Tswana / Venda.

I had to look up the ones that aren't official :

Fanagalo (used in the mines only) / Lobedu / Nothern Ndebele / Phuthi / Khoe / Nama / San / sign langauge.

Just in case you are an insomniac, I've dug out a couple of interesting pages for you :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa

http://www.cyberserv.co.za/users/~jako/lang

http://www.sa-venues.com/sa_languages_and_culture.htm


You must have learnt Afrikaans as a kid, especially in Malmesbury. Do you remember any ? May be your Dad can ?

I "created" a web site (in the loosest possible terms) that contains the photos I mentioned earlier. Rather than post all the pictures here you can go to :

http://paulhollick.bravehost.com/cape_argus_2005.html

I tried to put a link here to bring in one of the pictures but the bravehost site does not allow remote linking of images.

Paul
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Skins
paso grand pooh-bah
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Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:00 am
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Post by Skins »

Thanks for the pics, Paul, but they took ages to download on my little dial up system. I know virtually nix about computers, but they were the biggest pics I've ever downloaded! I was going to suggest to you what I did to post pics on the site. I have Windows XP, and all you have to do is click on 'Publish this file/folder on the Web', and the wizard takes you through it. It takes just minutes, and it's free! But I don't think the system (the wizard put me into a MSN Groups system) can cope with files the size of those pics.

Dad speaks Afrikaans, but I'm afraid I only learned a few words myself. I think I was still fighting the Boer War in my head, and I went with my mothers side, the English side, of the family, where my uncle was a motorcyclist.

I'll check out the other links you give later today.

Good luck with the DellOrtos - you'll see, if the 'dimples' in the slides are big enough, that they cause the slides to twist, and maybe jerk up or down also, as you ease them onto and off the stop.
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Paul
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Post by Paul »

Skins,

Sorry about the size of the files. That's what comes of uploading them from the office, you don't think about the size.

Paul
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Skins
paso grand pooh-bah
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Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:00 am
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Post by Skins »

:thumbup:

No trouble, mate. It was interesting to have a bit of a look around Table Mountain again. Not that we spent much time in the city or at the mountain when we were there. Spent most of our time running around in the bush barefoot at Tableview, dodging cobras.

It would be good to see more shots of the mountain, Devils Peak, the Twelve Apostles, the famous Robin Island where they held Nelson Mandela for so many years, etc, if you have them, and can make them smaller. Others might like to see them too - it's a unique place.
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Paul
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Post by Paul »

I'll do my "Tourist fiendly" bit and dig some out. I was reading about the launch of the Yamaha MT-01 last night in December's (or January's) Superbike magazine. This launch happened in Cape Town and there were a couple (of not so good) photos in that.

Paul
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Skins
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Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:00 am
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Post by Skins »

Yes, it seems Cape Town is a popular place for bike launches and promos, but not quite as popular as some locations in Spain.
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Paul
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Post by Paul »

It must be either cheaper to fly Euro journalists to Spain than SA, or the long haul flight is considered too long.

Spain's pretty, but Cape Town has got it licked (I'm biased and I have only been to Alicante and Barcelona).

Paul
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