Hi Gents, just want to introduce myself: I am 55 years YOUNG and believe in the saying, you definitely only die once, but I chose to LIVE every day. I own a 06 with KM 33000 and I have never had so much pleasure on a motorcycle. My previous 2 bikes which I owned at the same time was a BMW GS 1150 Adventure which I sold just on the wrong side of KM 175000. My other bike at the time was a Honda CBR 954 RR which I used as my weekend ride and ofr Marshal / Training at track days.
Since owning the 06 about 8 months now, my smile is Bigger, Wider, Quicker and lasts from Monday to Monday. I have visited this forum many times and joined today. Keep sharing the info guys I love it.

Welcome Woody. Where in SA are you based?

Welcome Woody. What took you so long to join? This is only the BEST ZX14 forum out there!
Post up some pics of your ride and let us know about trips you take. We love that stuff...

Mad

Welcome Woody it's a great bike and great people here.

Speaking of great people..anyone heard from Grn lately?

Welcome and can we please get some pic of a 14 with a Lion or Rhino or at least a frickin Elephant?

Grn told me he expected to be out of the loop for a few months right after Christmas. He'll be back after he takes care of business. We will be giving him a warm welcome back after mid March though he did not mention any exact date. He is well though. Good on ya for asking, Vic.

Yeah, , Woody!

* Last updated by: Rook on 2/11/2016 @ 5:45 PM *

Hi guys, thanks for letting me join. I am based in Central South Africa, the province is called the Free State, but nothing here is for free, and the city is called Bloemfontein......I will definitely post some pics soon....what is a Lion, Rhino and Elephant....hehehe just joking. I friend of mine has a game farm not to far from Bloemfontein with some Rhino of which I do have some pics.
Question: Rear wheel hugger: Power Bronze seems the way to go?

Have a LEKKA (means super nice) day

Look forward to seeing and hearing more about South Africa. What are the roads like? Are there twisty tasty roads? What's motorcycle culture like there?

Look forward to seeing and hearing more about South Africa. What are the roads like? Are there twisty tasty roads? What's motorcycle culture like there?

Not to hijack Woody's post.
If I can add my 2c. I'm from Johannesburg so a little up country from Woody. Don't have any pics of Rhinos, lions or elephants but have had giraffe, warthog, monkeys and Zebra cross the road in front of me.

We have one of the best biking weather countries. We ride all year round. We have fairly good roads (some pot holes here and there). We have an area called Mpumalanga (low veld region) which has some of the best twisties around. I think it's something similar to Dragons tail. Maybe a little bit bigger when you take in the whole area you can ride in excess of 500kms with 80%,twisties all the way. It's that close that I regularly spend a weekend up there. Will take some photos this week end coming.
The East coast and the mountain passes in the Cape are also great.

Our biking culture is based on brotherhood with mutual respect for each other and our bikes. There are fair amount of social biking clubs as well as a few hardcore and 1%. None the less we all get along. This also spans along the whole spectrum of bikes from cruisers to super bikes with Men and lady riders.
The guys love to get competitive on a Sunday morning breakfast run with a few spots that you can really twist that throttle and be relatively safe and without Leo.

I'm sure Woody can add some more from his side of the country. I know there are some other guys on the forum from SA that can add.

Not aware of South African branded motorcycles. Is there anything like Harley culture like in the US? Culturally is there a "bike to have"? For example you either have a Kawasaki or you have "something else"?

In the US it's kind of like that with Harley, although I'd say that's the older generations at this point. It's still not uncommon for example Japanese cruiser owners to seeing owning a Harley as their aspiration.

Howzit mr Untamed....as previously commented, we have great roads in some provinces, which screams for high travelling speeds..........(veryvery illegal) then our avarage speeds are well north of the 200+Km/h mark......but the dual purpose bikes have the better scenery. The Lowveld situated in the North Eastern corner of South Africa as informed by Untamed is really excelent and on every South African bikers bucket list. The Central region Free State is a bit of a Harley place but they all have trailers to get to venues (few Harleys ever see more than 60 000 miles), but we really are more ZX14,Busa and BMW K1300 country as the distances we need to cover to get to nice places are far apart, and we only have one track Phakisa in a town called Welkom which is KM200 away from Bloemfontein, so it is more expensive to really enjoy a track bike than the hyper tourer. We are quite set on the ZX14 vs Busa top end runs once a month, these aren't always legal but fun any way.
The brotherhood between bikers is really strong and when differences are put aside, a biker in need will always be helped. Different bike manufacturers in South Africa have upped their game too. 15-20 years ago, the choices were Yamaha and Honda because of spare parts availability, but today, Harley is huge, BMW has an incredible network throughout the Southern African region because of their adventure side, all Japanese manufacturers share some good sales, KTM has recently also done well. I think it is more of where you see yourself to fit in and then be happy.

Regards, and till next time keep at least one wheel in the air!!!