Guest Blog: Biking in South Africa

Ok, here were are with part two of the occasional "round the world" series of guest blogs. This time it is the turn of a very good friend of mine living in Johannesburg, South Africa. My grateful thanks go to "Caff the Saff" for penning the following piece - hope you enjoy it....

Biking in South Africa - by Cathy Brown

South Africa is one of the most diverse and enchanting countries in the world. Exotic combinations of landscapes, people, history and culture offer the adventure rider a unique and inspiring experience. I am definitely a non-biker but I’m hoping to share what I know about South African biking with you.

I am from Johannesburg and ever since I can remember I have known about the Harties Breakfast run. This is a 59km or 36.7 mile ride to Hartebeestpoort Dam. The ride takes place on a Sunday. Harties is a great destination with lots of places to visit when you get there - like the Bushbabies Primate Sanctuary and Elephant Sanctuary, also the de Wildt Cheetah Reserve is en route. There are great places to eat and they are well used to seeing lots of bikers on weekends. 

The N4 main road into Harties is well kept, with an occasional police presence.Generally, bikers and cops are friendly and respectful to one another - as long as papers are in order there is a good relationship.

Harties by night

An interesting event taking place this year is the Pro-Africa Adventure Tour, starting from Johannesburg. The plan is to ride through 10 countries just using back roads, with only old fashioned maps and instinct to rely on. The group will have to be self-sufficient and look out for each other as there will be no back up or support vehicles to step in to help. The group will ride through 10 countries including Angola, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland - one country per month. It sounds quite a trip!

There are other popular bike events, such as Mandela Day which is recognised as an international day of humanitarian action in celebration of Nelson Mandela’s life and legacy. People are called to devote 67 minutes of their time to serving their communities (this year it is 67 years Mandela has spent making the world a better place). 

Mandela Day this year fell on 18 July and a sprinkling of celebrities joined a group of ordinary bikers leaving Monte Casino in Johannesburg on 11 July, making their way through Gauteng, the Free State, KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and parts of Swaziland. The 200km ride would take the group into more rural terrain too. They would then devote 67 minutes of their time to activities at various community projects along the way, returning to Pretoria on the former president’s birthday on the 18^th. 

In South Africa, we have quite an active ‘Think Bike’ campaign which aims to target motorcycle and road safety. There is a good reason for this - road safety in South Africa is nothing less than shocking. For the most part there is no police presence and those that are about take bribes for everything. It does however, depend on the province – for example, in KwaZulu Natal, they are quite good there in trapping speedsters. You don’t drink and drive there and sentencing is very harsh. Others are much more lenient – if they catch you at all.

During the holidays, for example at Christmas, everyone heads to the coast and the amount of fatalities at this time is ridiculous - even though the roads are in good condition. A big problem is taxis/mini buses that are loaded too full – if they are supposed to have 11 people they will squeeze in 20. These vehicles are not roadworthy most of the time and a lot don’t even have licences. You can imagine the deaths that occur from this including killing bikers and other road users. A two-vehicle collision can easily have double figure fatalities.

According to the World Health Organization, 14,920 people are killed on South Africa’s roads per year. This is 5 times more than the UK, even though we have a smaller population of 50.5 million. In addition, there are 219,978 road injuries a year. Accidents in South Africa cost R50 billion a year (£4.3bn).

Bike jacking is present - bikers are vulnerable, as you can imagine. They are not targeted more than any other type of hijacking though (that’s not much comfort, I know!). However, bikers can sometimes be their own worst enemy because they know they can get way with riding without a licence plate so they do what they want on the roads and often come off second best. Nevertheless, bikers are not seen as rebels or undesirables here. People come from all walks of life with a passion for biking. There is no colour associated with biking either and there are many women bikers too. Often children accompany their parents on rides so it can be very much a family outing.

In South Africa the fastest growing segment is the Adventure type motorbikes like the BMW F1200GS, F800GS, Yamaha Tenere 660 and 1200, Triumph 800 and 800XC, KTM990 or similar. We also have a rather huge Harley Davidson following. Naked type bikes are few and far between. Sportbikes are still popular but the sales are declining.

From the different aspects of biking in South Africa that I have written about I hope you can see that while there are problems, there are also many advantages to biking in South Africa – including good roads, a vibrant culture, stunning scenery and a friendly welcome. I hope you have learned a bit about South African biking from this article and maybe one day you will visit South Africa on a biking holiday yourself!

Lost in Hollywood

What is the greatest motorcycle movie ever made? It's a difficult one. While bikes and bikers have featured in many films across the years, actually, for a pastime and culture that is popular around the world, there are very few mainstream movies that are about biking itself - and even fewer that are any good! Let's have a quick look at a few of the better ones....

The 50s and 60s were when biking really started to gain in popularity and this was a time when bikes and bikers started to be identified as part of a kind of a rebellious sub-culture.

Films like "The Wild One", starring Marlon Brando, helped set that trend. It all looks a bit dated now but this is a film that helped set the tone of what biking was all about at the time - social outcasts, attitude, lots of black leather, powerful bikes and the communities and rivalries that grew up around it all. 

For that aspect at least, "The Wild One" was an important film.

Steve McQueen's "The Great Escape" is often held up as a classic "bike" film but really it's a war and prison breakout story. It helped cement the image and "coolness" that surrounded bikes and McQueen himself was a popular hero at the time as well as a bike enthusiast and racer and was always good to watch on screen - but as far as I'm concerned, it's not really a "biker" movie in the true sense. 

Its somewhat unfortunate legacy is that it is usually aired as a "filler" in Christmas tv schedules these days!  

Ask most people what they consider to be the no.1 biker film of all time and chances are that "Easy Rider" will figure high on the list. This is a film that has almost entered cinematic folklore as THE Hollywood depiction of biking culture. Certainly, it seemed to capture the time well and in Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and a young Jack Nicholson, it had a good cast. The notorious Hell's Angel Sonny Barger acted as consultant for this film and he rides a Sportster in it. Steppenwolf's classic track "Born to be Wild" also helped set the tone. Personally, I think the film is a load of rubbish but no-one can doubt its place in American biking history and culture.

"Easy Rider" was released in 1969 and it spawned a great many sub-standard "copycat" movies - really, what followed was a period of around three decades where biking films only attained B-movie status. And there were some absolute shockers along the way: "Outlaw Riders", "Electra Glide in Blue", "The Wild Riders", "Bronx Warriors" "I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle", "Knightriders" etc etc. All following a depressingly similar format. 

But there was also the odd gem along the way - and it took independent film makers to forge a different path to what had gone before. 

The classic British film "Quadrophenia" (1979) remains one of my favourite films to this day. Simple and effective, with good imagery and a terrific cast, it captured young angst and the Mods v Rockers rivalry of 60s Britain perfectly. 


Then, the 1981 release of "Silver Dream Racer" reflected the British public's burgeoning interest in bike racing at the time of Barry Sheene and others. In it, a young bike enthusiast inherits the prototype for an incredibly fast machine which was designed by his brother. He successfully gets the finance for it, and uses the bike to challenge for the world championship at Silverstone. 

SDR wasn't the greatest film by any stretch of the imagination but as with Quadrophenia, it was something different to what had gone before.

Fast forward to the 2000s and there are three further films worthy of mention in this piece - and guess what, the one made in Hollywood was comfortably the worst of the three! "Wild Hogs" (2007) could have been a really interesting film. It is essentially about a group of middle-aged riders setting off for a journey across America. But instead of the 'voyage of discovery' film it could have been, Hollywood turned into a comedy - worst of all a comedy that pokes fun at the concept of middle-aged bikers. A terrible, terrible film.

"The Motorcycle Diaries" (2004) tells the story of a young Che Guevara and his friendship with Alberto Granado, a fellow medical student. Together, they take a motorcycle trip across the South American continent. 

This is a film that is quite unlike anything else in the biking movie genre - it is a story of discovery, of the people they meet on their journey and of the poverty and hopelessness of the poor and disenfranchised that they encounter along the way. For Guevara, this trip was a political awakening and a turning point in his hitherto sheltered, carefree life. We all know what happened next.... Highly recommended. 

As is traditional, I have saved the best until last. As good as Quadrophenia and The Motorcycle Diaries are, there is one film that towers above them as a true homage to what bikers and biking is all about. "The World's Fastest Indian" (2005) is based on the true story of Burt Munro, a bike racer from New Zealand. Superbly played by Anthony Hopkins, this is a film that portrays the true essence of biking - an ordinary man, obsessed by motorbikes, tinkering around in his garage in an effort to build a bike to go faster that anyone else. It tells the story of Burt who modified a 1920 Indian Scout, paid his passage from New Zealand to America and then raced the bike he had built to set a land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. 

At the time of the record attempt Munro was 68 years old and was riding a motorbike that was 47 years old! The record he set still stands to this day.

For me, "The World's Fastest Indian" is one of the best films ever made of any genre - it represents the triumph of the human spirit, it lifts your heart and leaves you with a great big smile on your face. It is deservedly number 1 on my list - but what say you?

The question of organ donation

Somewhat unkindly, bikers are often referred to as "organ doners in waiting" - yet organ donation is a life choice that actually is widely supported in the biking world. It probably has something to do with the rather troubling statistic that bikers are 30 times more likely to die in accidents than car drivers. That kind of risk tends to concentrate the mind somewhat so it is hardly surprising that bikers generally take a more sanguine view of organ donation than do other sections of the population. Whilst by no means wishing to be fatalistic, there is no denying that as bikers we are at significantly greater risk of being killed while going about our business and so the widely held view seems to be that it is incumbent on us to take the necessary steps to ensure, should the worst happen, that our organs won't go to waste.

The facts are stark: more than 8,000 people in the UK need a transplant, but a shortage of donors means that fewer than 3,000 transplants are carried out annually. Around 1,000 people every year die for want of transplant surgery - as the British Medical Association puts it, 'bodies are buried or cremated complete with organs that could have been used to save lives'.

It is also estimated that over 95% of people support organ donation (and would accept a donated organ themselves) but only 27% of the population are on the organ donation register. The widely-held view is that something needs to be done to address this disparity.

Many would like to see the UK adopt (as other European countries have) a system of "presumed consent" - that is, a system that presumes that organs may be used for others upon death. No requirement to sign a register or carry a donor card, simply a system that assumes that the individual automatically will donate organs upon death, unless one opts out. Such a system would create a default position that life should be saved rather than a default position that life could be lost and this was the desired policy of our previous Government. Clearly, such a policy would represent a significant step-change from how the system currently works and when proposed it created quite a furore - not just amongst civil liberties and religious groups but also many in the medical profession. The memory of recent organ retention scandals (at Alder Hey and Bristol hospitals) casts serious doubt on whether it is right for healthcare professionals to ever presume consent. The proposal was quietly shelved after the previous Government were voted out of office.

So what is the answer? Well, the current Government is trying a different approach. From 1 August, new driving licence applicants will have to tick one of three boxes to answer a question on organ donation before they can complete their application:

• Yes, I would like to register
• I do not wish to answer this question now; or
• I am already registered on the NHS Organ Donor Register.

This is a pilot scheme to test the ‘nudge’ theory. It is thought that since a person is required to respond to the question, they will spend more time considering the question. It is hoped that the change will double the percentage of people choosing to join the organ donation register when applying for a driving licence. This "prompted choice" scheme has already been trialled successfully in several US states - for example, in Illinois, where the percentage of donors who have registered has increased from 38 per cent to 60 per cent since 2008. It is not yet known how the results will play out in the UK, indeed the scheme has been criticised in some quarters for not having an explicit "no" option. Presumed consent by the back door is the charge levied by opponents.

But really, what is there to oppose? Yes, there is a discussion to be had about systems and methods but surely noone can doubt that organ donation is intrinsically a good thing and should be promoted? I think the current "nudge" strategy is a good one but its drawback is that it only captures new driving licence applicants - the numbers still need to increase dramatically so other levers are needed. Personally, I would go further - I don't believe families should be allowed to refuse if the deceased has chosen to donate their organs. I am on the organ donor register but would be very unhappy if I thought that one of my family would seek to ignore my wishes and refuse consent when I die (not that there's much that I could do about it!).

Whether presumed consent is the right policy I'm not so sure. There are very significant political and moral difficulties to overcome and I'm not sure that argument is winnable. But we have to do better than the current numbers. The way to look at this is.... if you or one of your loved ones was in need of a transplant, would you accept a donor organ? If the answer is yes then really you should know what to do....

NHS Organ Donor Register can be found HERE

Where the REAL problem lies....(Part II)

Following on from the last piece, there has been a bit of a conversation taking place on my bike club website on standards of driving (I say "bit of a conversation" because, although we're a group of bikers, there's hardly ever any talk about bikes - but that's by the by....!). Anyway, the subject was car drivers and cyclists and the gist of the conversation was an observation that when a car driver is confronted by a cyclist riding in front of him/her, they pull out and overtake them taking up half the other side of the road - whether they are on a blind corner, or have a motorbike or another car coming towards them. The thread then turned into a bit of a general moan about driving standards generally and about how cyclists often do themselves no favours by the way they ride.

I think the central point of the thread was well made but I also think it goes much further than a problem with cyclists. Drivers pulling out and around other vehicles (cyclists or otherwise), usually without looking or indicating, is probably the one thing that incenses me more than any other when out riding. Think about it, you're on a normal urban carriageway and a vehicle two cars ahead wants to turn either left or right. What does the car/van/taxi immediately in front of you do? That's right, they suddenly lurch left/right into your path (or a cycle lane) in order to get round the "obstruction". How many times do you see it happening? It's the same at traffic lights - drivers will nip into a right or left hand filter lane to get a bit further ahead in a queue of traffic, realise they're obstructed by people who actually want to turn and then lurch back out in front of you in order to continue straight ahead. That they might take someone else out in the process seems not to be a consideration. And worst of all is that they usually get away with it by forcing people to swerve or break sharply - bikers and cyclists being the most vulnerable in these situations. If there's one thing that gets on my tits about the standard of driving nowadays, this is most certainly it.

So what's behind it? Is it stupidity? Is it lack of awareness? Is it that drivers cannot deal with competing considerations? No - as far as I'm concerned it is simply selfishness, a desire not to be held up for more than a nanosecond and a complete lack of consideration for others. I really do believe that the majority of drivers nowadays simply do not give a flying one for any other road user. And as roads become ever more congested, so this sort of behaviour will become the accepted norm - if it hasn't already. I know that I expect these things to happen regularly so make allowances - but isn't it wrong that we have to?

You might think that our esteemed Government and brave law enforcers might be concerned about what is happening on our roads and the general deterioration of driving standards and common courtesy. So what do they about it? Yep, they decide to make the motorcycle test harder!

You really couldn't make it up!