Lethal Bethal

I came across your website and relived quite a few of my teenage biking memories!

I grew up in a little town named Bethal in what used to be the South Eastern Transvaal. When I was in Std. 7 (a mere 21 years ago), my late father, who was in the car business, aquired a Honda motorcycle franchise. This was right in the motorcycle boom of the early 80's. Over the course of the next 4 years, I had 27(!!!!) motorcycles. I of course never had a motorcycle license during all those years!

My father supplied motorcycles to the local traffic department, and over the years I took many motorcycles to the roadworthy test facility. When I finally decided to get my license during a week pass while I was in the army, the traffic chief said: "Jou bliksem! Het jy nie 'n lisensie nie?". He then marched me of to his office and gave me my license without a test!

A few years later my father also got a BMW motorcycle franchise. Some of my best memories were also wrestling "The Bull", also an early 80's R80 G/S! I have not ridden a BM since then, but the R80 still stands out as the best dirt road cruiser I have ever ridden.

The motorcycle I probably loved most was my Honda XR500R. It had a 6" SuperTrapp on and even though it could only do 120km/h, it had loads of torque. In my heyday I was Bethal's wheelie king with the XR. The XR was very intimidating to wheelie, as it had a high center of gravity and really had to cranked up to get to it's balance point, which of course resulted in quite a few flips. I have memories of sneaking into my dad's bike shop on a Sunday to order a new rear mudgaurd and then hanging around the shop for days to sneak it out before it got checked into stock!!!

There was a long downhill leading into town from one of the neghbouring towns, which we frequented with our 50's dicing and trying to set the new speed record. For quite a while the speed record was held by a Yamaha 50 at 117 km/h, much to my chagrin. One day I decided to end the dispute once and for all and clocked in at 237km/h on a CB1100RC (in a 70 zone)!!!

I also competed in the regional motocross circuit for several years on a CR125 and did quite well. I remember a young Gary Nel showed up one day on his factory Suzuki RM80 at a raceday at Kriel and lapped everybody including the 250's!

I have been living in the US since 1995, at the moment in San Diego, California. There is a lot of biking in southern California, and I hope to be back in the saddle soon. I don't know if you're a Harley fan, but I have grown to despise the wealthy yuppie-scum crowd it attracts. I will probably get a Honda XR650 or BMW F650GS.

If you ever make it to the US, drop me a line, there is a LOT of riding to be done...