Easter Weekend 1980 Thursday, midday Fuel Restrictions in place
Following on to:-https://steemit.com/life/@awgbibb/chronicles-of-alan-lucas-4
Wayne and I on my '76 Z900 with all the Mods and Gayle and Peter on his New Guzzi le Mans, we leave Selby in Johannesburg where Lucas is located.
Fairly uneventful , get to Harrismith , have a bite to eat . There are an enormous amount of Bikes on the road , The Rhino Rally is taking place at Estcourt in Natal.
Remember at this time there was a Blanket Speed limit of 80Kmh, and filling stations close at 1800hrs , no Weekend Gas!
There is a Police Car cruising Slowly in front of us and must of been 50 Bikes bunched up behind them, eventually we just all opened up and went past him and sped off, What were they going to do?
Before Pietermaritzburg There are a lot of High speed Bends , We picked up another Guy on a Honda CX 500 who cruised with us for a while
As we start going through these bends ( doing about 120kph) I feel Wayne slip sideways behind me , I catch him with my left arm., Slow down and stop. He has fallen asleep, on the Bike!
Take out an extra long sleeved Jacket , Zip him into it and tie the sleeves in front of me! Feel a lot better about this .
The Original Biker Theme song ( Easy Rider)
A while after Pietermaritzburg , Peter leaves, he is going to the South Coast for the Weekend, arrange to meet him Monday Morning at 1000hrs at this Branch off.
Off we go to my Aunt Pat and Uncle Ronnie's place at the Bluff in Durban, Huge Double storey house with a Sea View and a Macadamia Nut tree in the Garden, Heaven!
While we are down there , we swim in the Sea ( obviously ) visit Gordon who played Guitar in the Band "Thor" with me, and visited other Relatives and Friends, some who had never met Wayne before.
All make a big fuss of him , very good looking clever boy ( come to think of it , not much has changed?, just bigger!).
Another fellow , Malcolm Wilson is also down there on a Bike , comes to my Uncle's place to visit, decides to ride back with me.
Malcolm is riding a Honda 900
Malcolm meets me at 0900 hrs at Ron's place,Monday Morning, off we go , get to the Turnoff where Peter is supposed to meet us, wait till 1030hrs, still not there ?, No cell phones, I leave,
Bike starts handling funny , just before we get to Estcourt, Back wheel nearly flat! Stop at a Garage, Public holiday, No spares! Panic.
Leave Wayne with Malcolm , borrow his Bike , head towards the Rally Grounds, meet Simon Fourie there ( Editor of Bike SA) gives me a brand new tube ( Thanks again Simon) Rush back to the Garage , Take the Back Wheel out , change the Tube , all is well. Lots of time wasted , There are hundreds of Bikes heading back from the Rally , somehow I don't see Malcolm anymore . I am cruising along happily a Guy comes from behind , pulls up next to me , taps his wrist , I look at my watch , signal him 1730Hrs, and realise it is a long way to the next place we can put in gas!
Minimum of 180kph all the way to the next filling station , get there with 7 minutes to spare, over 50 bikes in front of us.
When the Owner seemed to be getting a bit edgy around 1800hrs , some of the heavily armed Bikers there sort of indicated that it might be in his own best interest to carry on filling tanks? he seemed to agree, who can blame him?
About 50kilometers from Johannesburg , it started raining, zipped Wayne into the Heavy Coat , tying him on again , I wore the lighter Jacket .