motorcycle - Shaun Dewberry

Biking Gear

As Reinhardt commented on my previous post, adopting a policy of ATGATT (All The Gear All The Time) is the most successful way to protect yourself when riding a bike. And so the day dawned where I had to start my own spending spree in search of the gear that would suit me most.

I drew on the experience of two mentors here. In fact if you’re looking to start biking GET YOURSELF A MENTOR. Bikers are actually friendly people, and they’re often happiest promoting the lifestyle to new bikers, so there’s loads of advice for you to draw from. I also saved big money by having someone with me who’d made the mistakes before me and could advise against poor purchases.

Full Throttle in Edenvale was the first stop, where I browsed through helmets, jackets, boots and gloves. Nothing quite caught my fancy, and I’d yet to crack open the credit card. Unfortunately the only way to shop for gear is to browse everything, trying it on, feeling it, testing it. It’s monotonous and off-putting and disappointing when you see something almost acceptable, but not quite there. Whatever you do don’t give in and buy something that’s good but not quite what you want – wait and keep browsing – you will find what you want. The very last thing I looked at in the shop was a pair of Berik gloves. Finding those gloves triggered the sensation you feel when you see something you know you want immediately, and once I’d found that sensation and swiped my first transaction I used that newly-honed instinct to guide the rest of my purchases.

Berik Motorcycle Glove
We headed off to Mosskays in Randburg to see if I could improve my browse/purchase ratio. I was in luck there. I immediately saw the Shoei XR-1000 Joust in black and white and knew I wanted it. I also found a Frank Thomas “Blade” leather jacket and a transparent tank-pad (I secretly knew which bike I was going to get by this stage, which also helps a hell of a lot.) Unfortunately they didn’t have my size for the helmet, so I took the jacket and tank pad. Things were looking up – I was halfway geared.

Shoei XR-1000 Joust

A quick call to full Throttle in Randburg confirmed that they didn’t have any stock of the Joust helmet, so my mentor called Brian at Biking Accessories and he arranged for it to be ordered in the next few days.

The last thing I picked up later in the week was a good pair of Berik ankle boots, perfect fit at Centurion Yamaha.

Gear Done. Next mission? Bike choice…

Technorati Tags: bike, ride, gear, shoei, accessories, Fullthrottle, Mosskays, jacket, helmet, gloves, berik, boots

The Dreaded Learner’s License

The first step in my mission to acquire a speedy set of two-wheels is, of course, the Learner’s Licence test. It’s simple, in theory. So I phoned 0860GAUTENG, pressed the required random digit to get through to an operator, and requested a booking. My timing was, of course, less than stellar, as I phoned during late December, at a time when none of the scheduled test times were available. Nevertheless, I was put onto the waiting list for the soonest available booking.

I know why it’s called a waiting list. If you’re on it, all you do is wait. The promised SMS confirming a booking never arrived. So two weeks later, early January, I called to see what was going on. They politely informed me I was on the waiting list. That was all they could do. In order to see if bookings had become available I would have to remove myself from the waiting list. Ke? Surely they take people off the top of the waiting list, commonly known as “first come, first served”? Apparently not, so I took the chance, removed my name from the list, went through to another operator who re-checked availability et voila, three dates – (23, 25, and 28) in January were all of a sudden available. I asked if they had anything sooner still, and lo and behold, yes – there was a booking available for the 18th! So I took it.

I was given an ultimatum of paying the very next day, or risking losing the booking, so I took my galoshes down to Centurion Traffic Department and queued for 3 hours in the pouring rain for an eye test. And this time they cannot blame it on lack of equipment – there were four eye machines available, but only one was being manned. Oh, and don’t forget a copy of your ID and some bucks and ~~colour~~black&white ID photies – at various stages of my (mis)adventure, I saw some poor souls who had neglected to include all the necessary equipment heading home in a state of desperate gloom.

For the test itself a couple of hours with my nose in the dreaded learners book was all that was needed to brush up on the finer points of misguided traffic department grammar and doublespeak. Salearners.co.za also helped (just don’t try use Firefox).

I was ready to go. Nervous as hell too, because I had a potential seller waiting for me to pass the test, and I didn’t want the deal to fall through. Thankfully, having passed it three times previously (don’t ask) I wasn’t going to bail the fourth time, and I didn’t.

Phase one complete. Many, many more phases to come…

Technorati Tags: learners, license, motorbike, bike, ride, trafficdepartment