I woke up to cloudy skies and a strong South Easterly wind blowing. The ground outside was damp and I thought that was that. I got ready and left for Mowbray. Whilst refueling in Mowbray, the heavens opened up and the rain came pouring down and within seconds the roads were flooded.
Off to Damelin where Luderick, Helewese, Krog, Jean and Rob were waiting on the steps of the College. Arriving shortly afterwards with all the raingear to go diving was Mike and Jenny, followed shortly by David and Tracey. It was still raining and the general discussion was to cancel the ride to Franschhoek and to go to the Spar at Edgemead Shopping Centre. I then phoned the restaurant in Franschhoek and had to tell them the unfortunate news that we would not be riding through to Franschhoek due to the weather. The lady on the other end of the phone was not too happy about it, but I did apologize that I have no control over the weather.
We then phoned Yvonne to tell her that we were going to Edgemead and not Franschhoek, fortunately they were only at Bellville, so it was a quick `u` turn for them back to Edgemead. I also phoned Henry as he had phoned me at 07h46, as I had not heard my phone ringing with all the rain coming down. Unfortunately Henry did not answer my call, so guess who went all the way to Franschhoek only to find us not there.
Time to face the weather again and off we set. No route directions, no tail end Charlie, just concentrate on the traffic and the road conditions. Turning from Liesbeek Parkway onto the N2 still on the onramp we had to avoid a round drain cover that was lying in the middle of the roadway. No further incidents until the N1, where a Mercedes Benz, silver/grey in colour was driving without its headlights on. What with the grey background of clouds, rain, spray, what were these people thinking?
We then took the service road past Century City and approaching the turn off to the N7 we saw flashing blue lights on the N1 itself. What had happened was that the roadway floods in heavy rain up against the center island and wall and the cars, travelling too fast, hit the water and the car spins out colliding with the wall on the center island, damaging front and rear of the car as it spins all the way round, or the car can spin across the road and then can collide with the steel barrier on the left side of the roadway, hopefully not colliding with any other cars in the other lanes.
PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THIS, IF YOU ARE TRAVELLING ON THE N1 IN THE DIRECTION OF BELLVILLE AND IT HAS OR IS RAINING EXTREMELY HARD. Stay in the left or middle lanes, as the road slopes towards the center island.
Onto the N7 and turning up towards Bosmansdam Road and turned right towards Edgemead, we then turned right into Edgemead Drive, while Luderick went straight to go home and change his wet clothes and come back to the shopping center in their car. Rob also went straight and met up with us at the shopping center. We then turned left into Louis Thibault Drive and then left again into the shopping centre.
We all walked inside and stripped our helmets off in the forecourt and then in the restaurant off came the rain gear and hung it over anything that we could. Having consumed our reasonably priced breakfasts, which included coffee, it was time to don our wet raingear and make our way to our respective homes.
Thank you to the members who attended the ride. It shows loyalty and dedication to the Club.
In total there were 13 members, zero visitors, 6 bikes and 1 car. BMW. 3. Harley Davidson. 1. Honda. 1. Kawasaki. 1.
Upcoming Ride: 15 November 2015 – Skatkis Restaurant, Paternoster
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This post was written by nomads