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The last few days have been amazing….!! Leaving Crakow has been difficult… I have visited a Salt Mine, met a fellow biker who showed me the sights and introduced me to his family, and spent a day at Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration camps, an emotionally shattering experience… I will post updates of these in the [...]

It is believed that the twenty year old man lost control of his car and slammed into a tree on Birmingham Road in Panorama Gardens.

ER24 paramedics were told by bystanders that it seemed that the man had lost control of his vehicle, and he first swerved his car towards his right hand side. He then appeared to try an correct the vehicle when he suddenly swerved hard to his left. His car then slammed into a tree on the passenger side with such force that his car was partially wrapped around the tree.

The man was severely entrapped in the car, and paramedics had to try and stabilise him while Fire and Rescue workers spent half and hour cutting away at the metal. He was in a very critical condition and paramedics had to place him on manual ventilation while he was still upright in the driver’s seat.

When he was eventually freed, as he was being safely pulled from the vehicle, his heart suddenly stopped beating. Paramedics immediately initiated CPR, and after ten minutes his heart started beating again.

He was loaded into an ambulance and transported to a nearby hospital where he was handed over to the awaiting staff in a critical condition.

There were no other cars involved in the accident, and the necessary authorities were on the scene.

Vanessa Jackson
ER24

so there i was driving along and wondering what i can get to eat, worms are alive, usually a bun and coke does the trick but today i decided to give myself a treat, a steers burger

I can imagine few journalists working outside of motorcycle-industry 'rags', who have been as intimately connected to motorcycling as Hunter S. Thompson.  The legendary writer invented a whole genre of reportage, 'Gonzo journalism', diving into his subject matter with such passion as to become a central figure in his own narrative.  Writers before Thompson had lived with and identified with their subject matter, as he did in 'Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs' (Random House, 1966), but few admitted to and chronicled what exactly that meant - sex with designated 'mamas', Bacchic revelry around campfires and in seedy clubhouses, shooting and fighting.  If you haven't read 'Hell's Angels', I highly recommend it, for while the club may have changed dramatically over the years, Thompson humanizes club members and lays out a sociopolitical context for their 'outsider' stance, and to his credit, never apologizes for or glosses over the worst of their behavior, or buys into their Romantic self image.

Thompson was a motorcyclist from his teens, as shown in the top photo from ca. 1963, on his stripped-down 1948 Triumph, a true California special.  He had at least some affinity as a rider with the wild, bearded Outlaws who came to the attention of the press and the California Attorney General (Thomas C. Lynch - perfect name).  Lynch submitted an official report on the gang in '65, blowing their influence, crime statistics, and numbers all out of proportion, perpetuating the image of a Bogeyman on two wheels, summoned dybbuk-like by Life magazine in their 1947 article on the Hollister 'riots', which formed the basis for the film 'The Wild One'.  (For an education on this event, with witness interviews, click here)
                                       (Photos by Hunter S. Thompson )

 Lynch's report created another wave of popular mistrust of motorcyclists, and Thompson, living in San Francisco at the time (with a wife and child no less), spent two weeks visiting and interviewing HA gang members to get the 'real story', after gaining an introduction from ex-HA Birney Jarvis, a police reporter from the SF Chronicle.  He quickly discredited Lynch's report, which claimed '233 active HA members in San Francisco alone' - Thompson found 11.  It was a brave bit of reporting, not only to spend time with a gang who thoroughly distrusted journalists, but as well to throw all the rubbish, exaggeration, and fearmongering printed about the Hell's Angels right back at the Authorities and lapdog media.  Thompson's article, 'The Motorcycle Gangs', was printed in The Nation in May 1965, and offers came immediately from publishers who wanted Thompson to expand the story.

Hunter S. Thompson spent the following year with the Angels, who fully participated in the project, recording lengthy interviews.  Thompson's fair reporting in The Nation, combined with his riding skills, a measure of fearless crankiness, and a taste for bending his mind, earned the respect of the club.  He also allowed club members to review drafts of the book for accuracy - probably a wise move, given their propensity for violence.  Thus, his visits, interviews, and ultimately the book, were fully sanctioned by the club.  That he was savagely 'stomped' at the end of his book is the stuff of legend, although he later admitted that those who beat him weren't HAs with whom he had spent time.  Enjoy this sensationalizing television interview from shortly after the event (and you thought Jerry Springer et al were a novelty - this is 1966!):


The resultant book was a sales success, even though Thompson botched his book tour with continual drunkenness and erratic behavior.  His writing career blossomed, and he continued to follow 'outsider' stories of drug use in the Haight-Ashbury district, and the media circus following political candidates.
In 1970, a 'small' assignment for Sports Illustrated (photographs of the Mint 400 motorcycle race with a 250-word caption), metastasized into a drug-fueled 2,500 word rant on his depraved Las Vegas trip with attorney Oscar Acosta (below). 

While the magazine 'aggressively rejected' (!) his piece, Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner liked what he read and commissioned a lengthy article, which appeared in two parts.  'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' (Random House, 1971) grew out of the articles, and in the midst of the druggy haze, a lot of hilarious writing about motorcycles is included.  Here's a sample:
                         (Thompson also began a long collaboration with illustrator Ralph Steadman)

"Well," he said, "as your attorney I advise you to buy a motorcycle. How else can you cover a thing like this righteously?"
"No way," I said. "Where can we get hold of a Vincent Black Shadow?"
"Whats that?"
"A fantastic bike," I said. "The new model is something like two thousand cubic inches, developing two hundred brake-horsepower at four thousand revolutions per minute on a magnesium frame with two styrofoam seats and a total curb weight of exactly two hundred pounds."
"That sounds about right for this gig," he said.
"It is," I assured him. "The fucker's not much for turning, but it's pure hell on the straightaway. It'll outrun the F-111 until takeoff."
"Takeoff?" he said. "Can we handle that much torque?"
"Absolutely," I said. "I'll call New York for some cash." 

And in 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72' (Random House, 1973):

After Miami the calendar shows a bit of rest on the political front -- but not for me: I have to come back out to California and ride that goddamn fiendish Vincent Black Shadow again, for the road tests. The original plan was to deal with the beast in my off-hours during the California primary coverage, but serious problems developed.
Ten days before the election -- with McGovern apparently so far ahead that most of the press people were looking for ways to avoid covering the final week -- I drove out to Ventura, a satellite town just north of L.A. in the San Fernando Valley, to pick up the bugger and use it to cover the rest of the primary. Greg Jackson, an ABC correspondent who used to race motorcycles, went along with me. We were both curious about this machine. Chris Bunche, editor of Choppers magazine, said it was so fast and terrible that it made the extremely fast Honda 750 seem like a harmless toy.
This proved to be absolutely true. I rode a factory-demo Honda for a while, just to get the feel of being back on a serious road-runner again . . . and it seemed just fine: very quick, very powerful, very easy in the hands, one-touch electric starter. A very civilized machine, in all, and I might even be tempted to buy one if I didn't have the same gut distaste for Hondas that the American Honda management has for Rolling Stone. They don't like the image. "You meet the nicest people on a Honda," they say -- but according to a letter from American Honda to the Rolling Stone ad manager, none of these nicest people have much stomach for a magazine like the Stone.
Which is probably just as well; because if you're a safe, happy, nice, young Republican you probably don't want to read about things like dope, rock music and politics anyway. You want to stick with Time, and for weekend recreation do a bit of the laid-back street-cruising on your big fast Honda 750. . . maybe burn a Sportster or a Triumph here or there, just for the fun of it: But nothing serious, because when you start that kind of thing you don't meet many nice people.
Jesus! Another tangent, and right up front, this time -- the whole lead, in fact, completely fucked.

His most legendary piece of motorcycle writing, though, on par in my opinion with T.E. Lawrence's extract from 'The Mint', is from an article in Cycle World, March 1995;   'The Song of the Sausage Creature' (read the entire piece here):

Of course. You want to cripple the bastard? Send him a 130-mph café racer. And include some license plates, so he'll think it's a streetbike. He's queer for anything fast.
Which is true. I have been a connoisseur of fast motorcycles all my life. I bought a brand-new 650 BSA Lightning when it was billed as "the fastest motorcycle ever tested by Hot Rod magazine." I have ridden a 500-pound Vincent through traffic on the Ventura Freeway with burning oil on my legs and run the Kawa 750 triple through Beverly Hills at night with a head full of acid.... I have ridden with Sonny Barger and smoked weed in biker bars with Jack Nicholson, Grace Slick, Ron Zigler, and my infamous old friend, Ken Kesey, a legendary Café Racer.



Or maybe not: The Ducati 900 is so finely engineered and balanced and torqued that you can do 90 mph in fifth through a 35-mph zone and get away with it. The bike is not just fast -- it is extremely quick and responsive, and it will do amazing things.... It is a little like riding the original Vincent Black Shadow, which would outrun an F-86 jet fighter on the takeoff runway, but at the end, the F-86 would go airborne and the Vincent would not, and there was no point in trying to turn it. WHAMO! The Sausage Creature strikes again.
There is a fundamental difference, however, between the old Vincents and the new breed of superbikes. If you rode the Black Shadow at top speed for any length of time, you would almost certainly die. That is why there are not many life members of the Vincent Black Shadow Society. The Vincent was like a bullet that went straight; the Ducati is like the magic bullet that went sideways and hit JFK and the Governor of Texas at the same time. It was impossible. But so was my terrifying sideways leap across railroad tracks on the 900SP. The bike did it easily with the grace of a fleeing tomcat. The landing was so easy I remember thinking, goddamnit, if I had screwed it on a little more I could have gone a lot further.
Maybe this is the new Café Racer macho. My bike is so much faster than yours that I dare you to ride it, you lame little turd. Do you have the balls to ride this BOTTOMLESS PIT OF TORQUE?
That is the attitude of the New Age superbike freak, and I am one of them. On some days they are about the most fun you can have with your clothes on. The Vincent just killed you a lot faster than a superbike will. A fool couldn't ride the Vincent Black Shadow more than once, but a fool can ride a Ducati 900 many times, and it will always be bloodcurdling kind of fun. That is the Curse of Speed which has plagued me all my life. I am a slave to it. On my tombstone they will carve, "IT NEVER GOT FAST ENOUGH FOR ME." 

Thompson may have been light on technical data (surely for effect), but his adrenalized style really suits the experience of that special cocktail of Speed; half gonna-die danger, half gotta-live thrill.

The rain just wouldn’t quit…!! It fell all day, making my ride south to Osieck a bit of a mission… I collected the Big Fella from BMW, happy to see that he sported his new set of Michelin Anarkee 2 tyres… Lukas and Piotr had ensured that the bike was in great nick for the [...]

I was up at 5.00am, stumbling around the room, gathering up the things I would need at BMW… Service manual, registration certificate, set of brake pads that I had carried all the way from South Africa… I drew the curtains open and saw that the rain that had fallen throughout the night had not gone [...]

Schlowy Custom Motorcycles is proud to be involved with this year’s Pro Action KTM Adventure ride.

Three men Juan Ballester, Thomas Eich and Clinton Pienaar will ride 10 Southern African countries over the next five months. This awesome adventure will cover some of the roads less travelled and will feature in future editions of Super Bike magazine. The question is – looking at the flags below can you name the 10 countries?

We crossed the border into Poland near the village of Podwajponie, midway between the Russian and Belarus borders, those two destinations still on my mind, the disappointment of passing them by a sour taste in my mouth… I couldn’t quite put my finger on why this was… Maybe it was the rebel in me…wanting to [...]

Remember Saturday is the day jol at the Phoenix bar so come one up, I will have to take it easy so that I can do the track day on Sunday!

The biggest thing on my mind when it came to getting to Warsaw in Poland, was having the Big Fella serviced… Looking after the bike is as important as looking after myself, as without each other, there can be no fulfillment to our dream of taking each other around the world… Perhaps it was my [...]

With only a 300 km ride ahead of me today, I decided to take it easy. Leaving the Centra Hotel at 10.00am, and heading out of town and onto the highway leading to Lithuania… In the past, very little of Latvia was industrialized, and the majority of the population were kept busy in the agricultural [...]

I went to collect the Big Fella from the “Ritz Parking Lot”, where he had spent the night playing host to a pair of cats that were still crouched on the seat under the bike cover when I began taking it off… I am not sure what the attraction is, but cats have taken up [...]

biker clubs and bikers in south africa who wish to have a blog for either your club or personal use email us info@chillbike.co.za with name of the blog, it will b set up and you can do your thing, it is free and free it will stay

The local movie scene is blooming with more stars headed to our shores.

Halle Berry will wrap up shooting the movie Dark Tide in Cape Town later this week, while Gerard Butler is on his way here too.

Butler is set to spend a few weeks in South Africa filming more scenes for his movie Machine Gun Preacher.

He has been in Michigan shooting the film, which is based on the true story of Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing biker who became a crusader for hundreds of Sudanese child soldiers.

Childers and his wife founded an organisation called “Angels of East Africa” where they look after about 300 orphans.

A remake of the Judge Dredd movie is also due to be filmed here soon with Karl Urban, known for his roles in Lord of the Rings and the re-make of Star Trek, set to play Sylvester Stallone’s character.

I am … upfront, straightforward and don’t mind telling it like it is.

Where were you born? Soweto.

Where do you live? Bryanston.

Who do you share your house with? My two children, my daughter who is 11, and my son who is seven.

How did you get into your career? When my divorce came through, I decided to get a hobby. I took up biking. One day I was trying to park my bike outside a Soweto pub, and a guy came out to help me. It turned out he was a member of The Sopranos, a Joburg biker group. I started doing community work with them and eventually it became my career.

What’s your greatest extravagance? Holidays.

What’s your most treasured possession? My bike, a Yamaha 1500.

I’m predisposed to … success.

What’s your favourite building in Joburg? My house. It’s quiet, peaceful and I’ve got a great view. I love being in my own space and getting away from the craziness of Joburg.

What’s the ugliest thing about Joburg? The pretentiousness, you never know whether you’re coming or going with some people.

What is the most memorable moment you’ve had in Joburg? Finishing last year’s nine-province charity ride. We rode from Joburg to Polokwane to Mpumalanga to KZN, through the Eastern Cape, the Western Cape, the Northern Cape, the Free State, the North West and back to Joburg again, in nine days. I’ve never been so pleased to see the outskirts of the city.

How do you get around? In my role as the Biker Queen, I’m given the opportunity to ride every new bike that comes on the market. Otherwise, I drive a ‘91 Merc.

I can’t go without … my kids and my mom.

If you inherited R100-million, what would you do with it? The first R10000 I’d blow on sunglasses. The rest I would give to the Biker Queen Foundation, the charity I’m registering. Once it’s up and running, we’re going to build HIV testing centres in rural areas where young women can get advice, treatment and medicine, free of charge.

If your house caught fire, what would you save? My new helmet. It’s designed for bikers, but it’s based on a pilot’s helmet.

What are your creature comforts? Dogs. My dad has dogs and I love them. I want a Chinese Chow Chow, but not at the moment.

What are you reading? The Koran. I’m interested in exploring the Muslim faith.

I collect … sunglasses. I have no idea how many I’ve got. My favourite is a pair of purple-framed Pradas.

My friends and I like … honesty and truth.

Have you ever taken public transport in Joburg? I grew up on public transport.

Everything in moderation but … dessert.

I met my partner … I haven’t yet. But I believe that when I finally do meet my partner, I’ll know.

If money could buy happiness … I would buy one day of realness; a day when everyone could feel centred and comfortable, and just get on with being themselves.

What’s your favourite biking route in Joburg? The N1 north out of Joburg is the best – it’s a concrete highway and the sound of the tyres on the concrete is magnificent.

If you could give your 20-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be? Be true to yourself and treat others the way you’d want them to treat you.

What travel essentials do you pack for a ride? We travel pretty light but I’m a big Victoria’s Secret fan, so I’ll be packing my body lotion and shower gel.

What is your dream bike? A Boss Hoss 1800. It weighs a ton and is totally impractical but I love it. It’s the sort of bike you see in movies.

No one knows this about me, but … I always wear beautiful underwear, even under my biking leathers.

How do your children feel about you biking? My son thinks it’s the coolest thing and my daughter’s has a great grasp on why I do it.

Do you think biking is dangerous? It’s only as dangerous as using a knife in your kitchen.

The secret to being a single mother is … honesty. If you’re truthful, they’ll understand, and cut you some slack where necessary.

POLICE have recovered one of the vehicles believed to have killed Dr Calvin Blignault, 30, in a hit-and-run accident in Cape Road, Port Elizabeth, early on Saturday.

Blignault, a mechanical engineering lecturer at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, died when a car crashed into him from behind while he was at a red traffic light on his motorcycle at the intersection of Cape Road and Stella Londt Drive.

Police spokesman Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said yesterday information received by the police suggested that two vehicles had been involved in the accident.

“The police confiscated a BMW believed to have been involved after it was found parked outside a business in Pyott Street, Sydenham,” she said.

“The driver has not yet been arrested as our forensic investigators are going to attempt to match pieces of the vehicle found on the scene to the BMW so they can be sure it is the right car.”

The police are not sure how the vehicle got to the business, but the driver claims to have been involved in a different accident.

Janse van Rensburg said witnesses reported that a silver vehicle – believed to be a Volkswagen Polo – and another car were racing along Cape Road when the accident took place.

“It is alleged that one of the vehicles hit the stationary motorbike at the intersection,” she said. “The other vehicle then allegedly rode over the biker when he fell to the ground.”

Shortly after the accident, one vehicle with three occupants stopped, then left a short while later. Several messages have been placed on Facebook asking people to be on the lookout for the vehicles believed to have been involved.

Blignault’s uncle, Reino Louw, 40, said the family was devastated and shocked that the drivers had just fled. “Calvin was one of those guys everyone liked and was just friendly by nature,” he said. “He was an avid biker and got the motorbike only seven days ago.”

Louw, who is also trying to track the drivers of the vehicles, said Blignault had a doctorate in engineering. “He was a very clever person and a role model to many people he taught,” he said. “What makes it even sadder is that Calvin’s birthday is next week.”

Mechanical engineering and technology manager Prof Danie Hattingh, who worked closely with Blignault, said he had been one of a few specialists in friction stir welding. “He was passionate about the work he taught and his contribution to the department and to industry will be sorely missed.

“Calvin was considered a professional in the industry and was so good that he was head-hunted by industry leaders to work at Cambridge in England,” he said.

Hattingh said that in 2008 Blignault had returned to Port Elizabeth from overseas after being offered a senior lecturing position at NMMU.

“Calvin was working in England at the time but I knew he had a real passion for South Africa, which was one of the main reasons for his return. He was a committed professional and well respected by everyone in the industry.”

SEPEI Mashugane has completed her “one in nine” motorcycle ride.

The self-proclaimed Biker Queen departed from Harley-Davidson headquarters in Sandton more than a week ago for the nine-day motorcycle road trip across all nine provinces in South Africa.

“We did not make a lot of money because corporates are still recovering from the 2010 World Cup,” she said. “But the tour was a success because more people became aware of and awakened to the campaign.”

Riding for the “one in nine” tour, Mashugane was raising funds for a Pro-choice campaign, a movement that aims to promote women’s right to be able to plan their pregnancies and choose whether to have babies or not.

The “one in nine” name comes from statistics that show every nine minutes a woman dies of pregnancy-related complications.

Mashugane said the ride went well and they created a lot of awareness for Pro-choice. She said the reception they got in all nine provinces was nice.

They had a great experience in Nelspruit when 40 female traffic officers set up a roadblock for the campaign and informed motorists of the campaign.

Mashugane said that being a single mother of two children, Pro-choice was something very close to her heart.

“For me it’s basically about riding for the choices of women.”

She said incidents of babies being dumped on the street was caused by the fact that the mothers of these babies had had no choice in the matter.

Mashugane is no stranger to long-distance motorbike riding. Last year she raised R350,000 for the People Opposing Women Abuse campaign, highlighting that one out of every nine women have been abused.

Mashugane, straddling a 1584cc Harley-Davidson, rode with three other members of her biker group and covered close to 5,400km.

She said that people could still support the Pro-choice campaign by SMSing BIKE to 36997. She said the campaign would end with Women’s Month, when they would auction a Harley-Davidson 889 and the proceeds would go to the Biker Queen Charity.

A PORT Elizabeth man aged 21 was killed when his motorcycle hit the back of a truck on the N2 freeway.

The Rowallan Park man was killed at about 9pm on Tuesday. His name has not yet been released as his next of kin have yet to be notified of his death.

Police said yesterday the truck and motorcycle had been heading towards Humansdorp when the collision occurred near the Cotswold off-ramp in Port Elizabeth.

The driver told police he pulled the truck over after hearing a noise, which he thought was a tyre bursting.

The police were notified, but the motorcyclist was dead when they arrived.

Here’s something you wouldn’t have seen 20 years ago: a cabinet minister touring Soweto, in leathers, with a posse of bikers.

Minister of Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk toured Soweto on Thursday with the Soprano Bikers Club in a stunt to launch South African Tourism’s I’m a South Africa Fan program.

OK, so he rode pillion, but the point is he was there, flying the flag in a new spot on SA’s tourism map.

After my visit to Tallinn’s old town, I decided to do a little preventative maintenance on the Big Fella… I topped up the oil, and re-glued the stone guard that he had broken in Addis Ababa with that silly maneuver into the wall… I also tightened up the screws holding the wind deflector onto the [...]

VlarkVarkRally 2010: "PRE-ENTER ONLY THIS YEAR

NO PRE-ENTRY - NO RALLY - NO EXCEPTION
69 days, 23 hours, 38 minutes, 17 seconds

THE VLAKVARK RALLY IS BACK!!
5th - 7th November 2010

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