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Godzilla on a tricycle kitted out in full race<br />
leathers going at 112km/h on a 250cc for<br />
5 hours. Eyes twitching in concentration,<br />
sweat pouring down his pasty brow,<br />
hoping, praying, that his last nibble at the<br />
throttle has not cost him 2.5ml of extra fuel.<br />
In his mind he realizes that, that particularly<br />
aggressive move has probably lost him the<br />
opportunity to claim the title of “fastest slow<br />
guy using the least fuel.”<br />
Leaving aside the camaraderie and fun<br />
of the event, it’s as ridiculous as the cyclists<br />
that manually pedal up Long Tom Pass or<br />
“Die Hel” and call it enjoyment or trying to<br />
have a hairstyle when riding a bike.<br />
RideFast decided to see how much fuel<br />
we could burn in our version of the Economy<br />
Run, where the objective was to find the<br />
best bang for buck crotch rocket under<br />
120K and not hold back on the throttle.<br />
The steeds chosen for this test were the<br />
aging but still timeless Honda CBR 1000RR,<br />
the Cross-Plane beautifully rendered<br />
Yamaha R1, an original puke-green no<br />
electronic aids BMW S1000RR and <strong>final</strong>ly<br />
one of the most underrated bikes of the last<br />
5 years, the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R.<br />
We decided to once again visit the<br />
undulating corners and picturesque<br />
mountains of Mpumalanga, this time<br />
we had bikes with fairings and could go<br />
slightly faster. Rob also was wearing his<br />
full leathers, so now the ride was getting<br />
serious. It is after all impossible to resist<br />
the allure of frozen mornings and misty<br />
sunsets. It’s the closest knee slider<br />
shredding destination which truly provides<br />
an exhilarating experience coupled with<br />
scrumptious cuisine at an affordable price.<br />
On this trip we were accompanied by<br />
top lady racer Daphne Lang and Rob’s<br />
mate Henry Barnard, who could pass as his<br />
accountant.<br />
Winter in Sabie is a convoluted vacation<br />
of freezing posteriors, numb finger tips and<br />
blocked noses. The weather warms up<br />
by 10am when a wintry sunbeam begins<br />
defrosting the roads but until then you<br />
better have 22 layers of clothes and seven<br />
heaters strategically placed in your room.<br />
Daphne rose to the occasion by wearing<br />
all the clothes that she could fit under her<br />
leathers and carried her shampoo and<br />
makeup in the back-pack. It kept her warm<br />
and well-groomed. Henry on the other hand<br />
looked terrified, whether it was from his first<br />
foray into Sabie with slighytly more serious<br />
riding company, or because a girl was<br />
dragging her knees on the tar ahead of him.<br />
We will never know.<br />
I spent most of the trip up on the Honda<br />
and although the bikes technology is eight<br />
years old, it never missed a beat and<br />
performed flawlessly throughout the entire<br />
journey. This was a 2012 model, which I<br />
collected from Cayenne, and apart from<br />
the slightly dulled paint scheme it looked in<br />
very good nick. Honda has always made<br />
reliable motorcycles, if slightly sedate in<br />
RIDEFAST MAGAZINE AUGUST 2016 37
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