(Advrider.com)
Here's an amazing, gripping account of a daring motorcycle trip across Angola. I found this story on MetaFilter, posted by user jcruelty, and got sucked into reading the entire adventure. Five guys take a risky motorcycle trip with very tight logistics that leave only a razor-thin margin of error. One 40 kilometer stretch in particular, "the doodsakker", has our adventurers racing along the ocean's edge, trapped between the merciless tide and a wall of desert sand dunes - a three hour nail-biting ordeal that defies sanity:
.....The longer we ride the more intense it gets. The sand is so thick and waterlogged it's hard to believe. At one point the drag pulls me down until I'm in 1st gear with the throttle wound to the stop. The motor don't rev out though. It sits in the fat part of the torque curve. The bike bellows like a wounded animal and it kills me. It just kills me. No motor should be abused like this. It goes on for a good hundred metres. And there's nothing you can do. I'm on the pegs, murdering the bike and moving at just above walking pace. If I tap off for just a second I'll be stuck, with no way to get going again. And if I get stuck I get fucked. It turns into a refrain in my head that I can't control: "If you get stuck here, you get fucked here"....
And all along, the brave guys are supported at every stage by the incredible people of Angola, despite being completely unable to speak the language! I recommend that you take the time to read the entire story.
Here's an amazing, gripping account of a daring motorcycle trip across Angola. I found this story on MetaFilter, posted by user jcruelty, and got sucked into reading the entire adventure. Five guys take a risky motorcycle trip with very tight logistics that leave only a razor-thin margin of error. One 40 kilometer stretch in particular, "the doodsakker", has our adventurers racing along the ocean's edge, trapped between the merciless tide and a wall of desert sand dunes - a three hour nail-biting ordeal that defies sanity:
.....The longer we ride the more intense it gets. The sand is so thick and waterlogged it's hard to believe. At one point the drag pulls me down until I'm in 1st gear with the throttle wound to the stop. The motor don't rev out though. It sits in the fat part of the torque curve. The bike bellows like a wounded animal and it kills me. It just kills me. No motor should be abused like this. It goes on for a good hundred metres. And there's nothing you can do. I'm on the pegs, murdering the bike and moving at just above walking pace. If I tap off for just a second I'll be stuck, with no way to get going again. And if I get stuck I get fucked. It turns into a refrain in my head that I can't control: "If you get stuck here, you get fucked here"....
And all along, the brave guys are supported at every stage by the incredible people of Angola, despite being completely unable to speak the language! I recommend that you take the time to read the entire story.
posted by markjamesmurphy at 4:46 PM
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