Feel-Good story for the day!

Some charitable people out there:

Heartbroken man sceptical about new bike 2012-05-30 14:00

Cape Town - A man, who lost his bike in a shack fire in Pretoria while he was looking for work, said on Wednesday afternoon that he refused to believe he would be given a new bike.

Honda Kyalami in Johannesburg said it would give a brand new motorcycle to Chengetai Chauke.

Chauke told News24 that he could not believe that he had been offered the new bike and would only believe it when he saw it.

A heartbroken Chauke, 26, said he had paid R3 350 for the bike, and had been working to fix it and get it roadworthy when it was destroyed in a fire.

The bike was destroyed when a gas stove fell over and ignited on Tuesday morning, reducing 10 shacks, including Chauke’s, to ashes, in Woodlane informal settlement in Pretoria.

Chauke hoped that having the bike would help him gain employment.

Craig Langton, owner of the Honda Kyalami dealership told News24 that it had a brand new Honda Ace 125cc motorcycle valued at R8 900 to give Chauke.

Quite a snappy looking little scoot. Reportedly especially made for African markets.

For R9k it is a bargain, considering that it is from a trusted big name brand.

At that price it would pay for itself in 6 months just in savings compared to covering the same distance in a car, when you consider insurance,fuel,interest etc.

Hell I do 3000km in a month, and for the average newish budget car that means payments of R2-R3k, insurance up to R1k, and fuel of R2-2.5k. That is half the cost of the bike right there in the first month.

Even if someone gave me a car for free, I wouldn’t be able to afford to keep it on the road. I bought myself a small motorbike some six years ago, for something like R6500, and it has not given me any trouble yet, with 35000 km on the clock. I’m surprised that many more people do not switch to such vehicles. They are suicide machines, mind you…

That is true. Bicycles excluded, you’d be hard pressed to find a better in-town commuting tool than a small motorcycle or scooter, both for their frugal natures and traffic splitting capabilities.

I’m equally surprised. During the last seven years I’ve done about 55,000 km shared between two bikes, and I only remember one very close shave. But yes, they are obviously inherently more dangerous than a car. One has to be super careful.

Rigil

It’s only a 125 cc so Highway riding might be a bit scarey.

I’m happy people stepped up and wanted to help, it’s restored some faith I had in people that has been lost the last two weeks.

While a 125cc bike is the minimum legal requirement for riding on a highway, I have my doubts that even a 250cc is practical. If there is a requirement to regularly go above 100km/h during your commute, I wouldn’t go much below a 400.

Rigil

Quite. I bought a pair of Gomoto 125s for Scallywag and myself (R8000ea). Great fun, but using them for commuting in the Cape Town winters proved to be a miserable experience. Also, they were rusty within a month of being bought, despite being kept in a closed garage when not in use. Top speed about 90km/h downhill with a tailwind.

Actually, they are not inherently more dangerous. They are dangerous because of all the cars on the road, If we can get everyone to switch to bikes, they’ll be much safer. :slight_smile:

I have driven a lot on the highway on my 110cc Vuka, which can’t go much beyond 80km/h. For the most part, it is quite safe. Indeed, probably safer than city driving.

What does irritate me is the toll. I drive from Pretoria to Bronkhorstspruit on R10 of fuel, and R20 of toll! Quite incredibly, a 110cc bike has to pay exactly the same toll as a 4x4 with a trailer. The mind boggles.

Probably a topic worthy of a thread by itself. What I meant by the inherent safety of a vehicle is it’s capability to maintain the driver or rider’s health during an accident even in the absence of other vehicles. While some bikes have astonishingly good dynamic safety features (fancy breaks, steering damper thingies and anti-skid whatnots) they are still inherently unsafe because you can’t really get past the fact that the rider is not properly contained within a steel shell.In other words, given the same class of mishap, the rider will mostly be worse off than the driver.

What does irritate me is the toll. I drive from Pretoria to Bronkhorstspruit on R10 of fuel, and R20 of toll! Quite incredibly, a 110cc bike has to pay exactly the same toll as a 4x4 with a trailer. The mind boggles.

I feel you pain! You guys up there certainly pay a lot towards toll. What happened to that etoll system that most were unhappy about … been cancelled or still hovering?

Rigil

If everyone switched to bikes, there would be only riders and no drivers. It is of course true that if you ride into a telephone pole, you’ll be deader than if you drive into one. But my impression is that most motorcycle fatalities involve cars.

I feel you pain! You guys up there certainly pay a lot towards toll. What happened to that etoll system that most were unhappy about .... been cancelled or still hovering?

Not too sure. I would guess it is hovering. It involves a road I almost never use, so I haven’t been following the saga very closely. And I was too busy tracking the Zuma painting - it was vastly more entertaining. :slight_smile:

:o

Duude, there are some most awesomer things out there for cheap! As for me: I have nooooo idea what that baby costs, but there’s a sweeet 2nd hand 'busa standing at my local. I’m drooling at it every morning on my way to work.

But then… that is a killing machine.

The government said this week that the e-toll is still happening. :confused: They need to get past the courts first though. I got so tired of the Spear kak after a while, I just stopped reading the articles after a while.

I’m going to buy a BMW 650 Dakar soon. But I have been forbidden to commute with it by my boss, mostly because of the safety issue. He’s seen too many accidents. For now it’s going to be just weekend trips and day trips out into the bundus with friends.

Nice and congrats. Not sure how serious your boss is about this restriction on how you come in to work in the mornings, but unless there is a specific prescriptive clause in your company’s travel allowance scheme which excludes bikes, I would just chalk his concerns up to his caring nature, and thunder into the parking bays anyway.

Just go get the little falcon, man. You don’t have to ride it at full tilt boogie, Boogie. :wink:

Rigil

What is a 'busa? I do not like bikes but I suppose they make economic sense.

Click on Rigil Kent’s “falcon” link to find out.

'Luthon64

I ride (or rather used to) a Zook GSR600, lowered to accommodate my short stature. Neither the S/O nor I ride anymore, we freak each other out with worry when we do, so we basically parked the bikes.

We’re thinking of selling the bike though, if anyone’s interested, drop me a pm.

Not to mention some dubious advantages when you’re running late. :o

Rigil

As the link and video shows, it’s what you drive when you think standard-issue widow makers are getting a tad boring. However I just like it because my frame sits much more comfortably in it than most other bikes.

I do not like bikes but I suppose they make economic sense.

Don’t let people tell you lies. Small bikes like 125’s and 250 scooters are frugal, but sport bikes can be thirsty. For instance the Suzuki Hayabusa I mentioned has a ‘wikipedia’ usage of:

32 mpg-US (7.4 L/100 km)

Doesn’t say city or highway, but it doesn’t matter… Since that is about 1400cc, lets compare to a car: Suzuki swift 1.4:

Fuel per 100km - average 5.5 Litres Fuel per 100km - extra-urban 4.7 Litres Fuel per 100km - urban 7.0 Litres

I think some bikers may have it in their heads they’re biking to “save money”. I suspect most do it because it’s fun, and that’s fine by me. However facts are facts, the average sports bike might consume less than a light car, but not by as much as people go bragging about. (It is a crapload faster though)