Newbie From Jozi

Hi All, I'm an expat Pom, been living in South Africa for more or less 40 years; at first in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) and then in East London (perhaps soon to be Emonti). When I retired, 4 years ago, I moved to Johannesburg (also known as Jo'burg, Joeys, Jozi or Egoli) because my wife works at the University of Johannesburg.

I have been a biker since I was 16, starting off with a Yamaha 100cc twin (YL1) and progressing to a Honda CB175 (on which I passed my test, while at uni in Loughborough) and then, when I got my degree (in Mechanical Engineering) a Kawasaki Z650.

There was a bit of a hiatus when I moved to South Africa, but I remained interested and rode anything with two wheels if the opportunity presented itself, including the Yamaha 125 I bought for my wife to commute to work, and later the Honda 400-4 she progressed to. I learned to ride on gravel roads, of which there are a lot in the Eastern Cape, and even on sand dunes on an XT500.

While working at a vehicle emission test lab, Ismail (a colleague/friend) and I tried to start a side-hustle buying bikes that had been written off by insurance companies (but which were repairable), fixing them up and selling them. We started with a Honda 600RR, which was fixed and converted into a track bike, and subsequently sold, and then bought an almost new (1250km) Kawasaki ZX14. That one gave us nightmares, as they weren't that common in SA and consequently obtaining used plastic parts (fairings) was difficult. Some of the smaller stuff came from America, I used eBay quite a bit, as it was reasonably priced and shipping wasn't too steep. But we got it fixed eventually and then learned a hard lesson - once a vehicle is flagged as "Code 3" ie written off, it stays that way, even if it is completely rebuilt and goes through roadworthy (like the MoT), and as such, finance houses won't touch it, neither will insurers. So Ismail kept that one.

While we were busy on the Kawa, I bought a Daytona 675 from a guy in Cape Town. He'd bought it at auction, as accident damaged, and had started to fix it before running out of cash. Thank goodness for eBay UK that time, as parts were readily available at good prices, and I could get my brother to post them to me if sellers were UK only. That bike, a 2007 model, had only around 16,000km on the clock, and I rebuilt her to almost new condition, finished in Scorched Yellow. I rode her, as a daily commute, for two years, and then an unlicensed taxi driver, in what is called an Mphela (Xhosa for cockroach) taxi (it was a Toyota Tazz), pulled out from a stopped van without looking to see if there was anything coming, without even slowing, and appeared in front of me, at 45 degrees across my lane, as I was passing said van. I hit his left headlight, went clear over the roof, did a neat 360 somersault, and landed on my feet in the road behind him. It would have been great if I hadn't snapped the ball of my left femur clean off, requiring a hospital visit and a replacement hip.

With the insurance payout (my insurance; he, of course, didn't have insurance - not a legal requirement here - and in any case he vanished after the accident, gave the police a false name and address and did a runner) I bought a 2007 Speed Triple 1050, which I am still riding to this day.

Anyway, that's my story, sorry it's a bit like War and Peace!

Cheers, totsiens, Hambe Kahle,

Mike