THANK-YOU VERY MUCH !

We ( Steven and I ) got up at 04H30 this morning to collect an accident damaged 1200GS in Lesotho at Mokhotlong.The bike belongs to Roger, son of our Managing Director,who had an accident while riding back from Sani Pass. The bike fell on top of him and he broke his leg quite severly. He obviously couldn't ride any further and was taken to Bethlehem for treatment. The bike was taken to the Police Station in Mokhotlong.

We drove to Caledonspoort Border post to enter Lesotho.We were greeted by the most beautiful scenery I have seen in a very long time.



Of course the occasional cow strolling across the road.

Check out the winding roads and take note of the speed - top left corner


The Thank-you is for the loan of the club trailer to recover the bike.


Just before Villiers we noticed these storm clouds brewing

We just got to Villiers when the heavens opened with all its might

Rain and hail like I haven't seen in a long time.Put the GS safely under cover until it passed.

It stopped after a while and this was the scene nearing Heidelberg

What a beautiful day ! Got home at 20H00.
THANK-YOU for the loan of the trailer.Roger really appreciates the club's assistance. Although Roger is still in plaster, I would like to bring him to our club Noggin as soon as he has recovered.

Those moutains are beautiful. Hope Roger will get well soon.

Roger recover soon so you can get on da iron horse riding with the rest of us.

Hope he recovers soon - now get him to join

Hell, nou juk my gat om Lesotho te gaan ry !!!!!!

Hope Roger recovers soon, and great of the club to lend out the trailer !!!!

Great to read how we help each other!
And thanks for sharing - the story and the scenery.

btw.. nice pic Sharkie!

Hi Guys,

I'm the owner of the bike that Deon was kind enough to fetch. Thank you to the club for the loan of the trailer. I've broken my left Tibia and Fibula about 10cm's from my ankle, and while it's been the most painful experience of my life, I have now had a IM Rod inserted into the bone to hold it still, and a week after the op, it's starting to feel better.

The trip was started on Thursday the 9th of January, and quickly became a series of errors. There were three of us riding - Hans on his brand new R1200GSA, myself on the 1200GS and Garth on his new 800GS. We arranged to meet at the Engen at Modderfontein at 5, and then discovered later that Garth was late because he was at the Engen at the next turnoff. From there we took the N3 to Harrismith, and during Breakfast, Garth realised that he had left his passport at home. We called home and got one of his employees to bring it down, but that would take another 3 hours. To kill time we rode to Sterkfontein and the surrounding area's of the berg - very beautiful. At 1pm we fetched the passport in Harrismith and left for Bergville. We were planning to stay at the Sani Top Hotel in Lesotho that night so had a massive amount of distance to cover before the border closed. The last three hours were spent mostly on dirt trying to make up time. When we got to Heinville it was pouring with rain and we stopped to refuel. It was just past 4pm, and the border was 33km's away. We met a farmer who told us the border only closed at 5pm, but that it would be too tough to do in the rain with darkness approaching - But Hans's German determination kicked in and off we raced to get to the top.

Ten minutes later I saw Garth stray into the muddy middlemannetjie and his rear wheel slipped out. As he lost his balance he rolled the throttle on, and the bike shot to the right, luckily throwing him well clear of it. We were all riding with full protection gear including Leatt braces, so luckily he was okay, but his bike was messed up. Immediately we saw the clutch had broken off and the handle bars were skew, so knew his ride was over. When we tried to push the bike we then realised that the front axel had sheared off on the right side too, so the bike was pretty much immobile.

Luckily all this took place 500m from the Sani Pass Hotel, so we managed to book in there for the night, get Garth's bike onto a bakkie, and back to the hotel. From there it was nearly midnight before the most useless tow truck driver eventually managed to get his bike onto a trailer and send it off to Pietermaritzburg. Garth had a hire car dropped off for him and he drove home the next day.

In the mean time, the Sani Pass Hotel had a picture of the pass on their wall. it winds nicely to the base of the mountain and then goes up a sheer cliff in a back and forward zig zag. This further kept me awake nervously anticipating the next day's ride.

We started riding at 8am the next day. Little did we realise the pass would take us nearly 2 hours (22km's) so there's no way we would have made it the previous day anyway. It was honestly the hardest riding I have ever done in my whole life, and when we got to the top, it was an enormous sense of achievement, but I was absolutely exhausted. Beautiful view though.

The Lesotho border post is at the very top of the pass. Despite having ridden 920km's the day before, we were still seriously behind, so we set off riding though the mountain passes of Lesotho. What a beautiful area. The best riding roads I've ever seen. We had to make it all the way back to Jhb by that night. We rode for another hour or so through the winding roads, and I was really feeling like I was in my groove. The road took a long bend to the left and then around the mountain, and I was sticking to the right side to be away from the cliff. I looked across to see Hans go around the bend ahead of me, and as I looked forward, the camber of the road increased significantly and in a split second, the bike slid out from under me, and fell to the left side before sliding off the road into the drainage ditch. I was probably only doing 60 or so at the time, so it wasn't high speed, but it was so quick I wasn't able to respond at all.

When the dust settled, the first thing I saw was the bottom of the bike with fuel leaking onto the hot exhaust. I was right next to it so I had to get away. As I stood, the ground seemed to be muddy and I fell down. Then I tried again, and fell again. As I looked at my foot, the whole thing was sideways, and a feeling of disaster came over me as I realised I had snapped it in half and there was no way I could ride home.

Luckily the passersby were kind enough to stop, and Hans returned when he saw I was no longer behind him. Sadly there were 15km’s of dust road left for the remainder of the trip, then I would have been back on tar. We went to the clinic at the nearest town where a doctor from the DRC did a surprisingly good job of immobilizing my leg in a plaster cast. Hans had meanwhile collected my bike and ridden it to the police station where it stayed until Deon collected it. At 2pm, a government official had been arranged to take me to the border crossing near Bethlehem. That was the scariest two hours of the day as he never went under 100km/h and was often over 160km/h through the winding mountain passes. Even Hans, a very experienced rider, could not keep up on his 1200GSA – we got to the border 10 minutes before him.

One of my Father’s staff members had arranged to collect me on the South African side and take me to Bethlehem Medi-Clinic where I spent the night on pain medication. The next day my parents collected me from the hospital and brought me back to Johannesburg, and in the early hours of Tuesday morning, they operated on me to put in the pin to hold my leg in one piece. Four days with a broken leg is not pleasant at all.

So the swelling is going down, and it’s feeling a little better each day. I will be immobile for a while still, hence the long post. Looking back we had made a series of errors that had lead me to the event. 1 – dual tires are not the same as knobblies. I was on the wrong tires for the type of riding I was doing. 2 – I was exhausted from the mileage and the climb up the pass. We should have made it a leisurely three day ride when we realised we were delayed. 3 – I let my guard down as the “difficult” part was over. 4 – wear the best safety gear available. My Rally suit saved me, and while my boots were good (Dainese), they should have been off-road and more solid.

But we live and we learn, and my leg will heal, and I’m grateful that I’m okay because it could always have been worse. My wife gives me double the flack for riding now. She’s made me up my life insurance. Thanks for all the well wishes, and I’ll post some pictures soon.

Roger

As you say we live and learn. I am sorry to hear about the leg and the damage to Garths bike and I think that the lesson learn t from this experience is to keep the distances traveled each day when doing difficult terrain like this to manageable portions. In doing so one does not become so tired. So many accidents happen because of fatigue. Every holiday season you see the numbers killed because they push the limits of endurance and fall asleep behind wheels. Your comment about safety gear is also so valid. The shorts and t shirt brigade should learn a lesson from your experience.

Wow Roger, glad you're here to tell the tale - may you recover quickly.
- and vasbyt: Keep perspective through the pain and frustration!
Oh and welcome to the forum - keep us updated - you have the time now, don't you?

And I was immediately thinking of our Roger (at Bavarian). When I stopped there this afternoon finding him alive and well and kicking tyres I realised there is a problem somewhere here.

Halloooooo?! There must be another Roger Smith out there.

Sorry Roger... both of you

To the eina-Roger; Sterkte en voorspoed

Welcome to the forum Roger.

Good to see your spirit is high. We trust you will heal up real soon.

Thank you for sharing your story with us

All the best

ps. thanks for the pics and the report Mr P

Glad you got your bike back Roger - seriously thought you would not get much of it back given previous postings on the old forum where other members bikes were severely damaged/buggered up. Must admit those roads in Lesotho is awesome.

Kudos Roger - I hope you get well soon, and thank you for sharing your lessons, so (hopefully) I don't have to learn from my own experiences!

Now go get some knobblies fitted to those crutches.

Sorry to hear about the higher life insurance too