New Friends

Adam writes:

Through conversations with my dad, I have come to find out that our friends at Starved Rock Harley Davidson in Ottawa are avidly following our blog and facebook updates. So I wanted to post this with them in mind.

The first World Cup game we went to was Australia v. Serbia and it was a night game. At half time Jess and I got up to walk around a bit and warm up and I saw a guy in a Serbia jersey that I knew from the way he looked that he rode a motorcycle. He was the first guy I have seen here in South Africa that looked like an American biker. See, most bikers here ride sport bikes or sport touring bikes and are usually seen in full racing leathers and full face helmets or lots of reflective gear, not our usual denim and black leather look. As I was trying to decide whether or not to approach him, he asked us if we would take a photo of him and his buddy. So we snapped some photos and then I told him, “I have to ask, you ride a bike don’t you?” “Yeah,” he replied, “Johannesburg Hell’s Angels.” I was surprised and said “No shit” meaning that this was random but he took it to mean that I didn’t believe him and promptly pulled up his sleeve and showed me his club ink on his arm. We got to talking and I explained that Jess and I were volunteers from the States and that we weren’t allowed to operate a motor vehicle except on leave and that my bike was half a world away with my dad and that I hoped to rent some bikes when he and mom came to visit. Well this guy introduces himself and gives me his phone number and tells me that when my dad gets over here that we should get our bikes in Jo’Burg and give him a call and him and the guys would take us for a ride and show us around and oh yeah, he owns and runs a tattoo shop in Josi and if we ever want ink he’ll give us a good discount since we are riders and volunteers in his country.

A few weeks later we got to Graskop, and on the main road into town we saw a bar with sign that had a big motorcycle painted on it named Rider’s Rest. The first biker bar we had seen in this country. We stopped in our first available day and quickly made friends with the two bartenders as you’ve read about in the travelogue. The next night we met the owner, Shannon, who rides with the Mad Dogs MC, a South African club. Well, we spent pretty much every night there and we would sit around with Shannon and discuss the differences and similarities between riding in the States and riding in South Africa. Shannon introduced us to every regular customer that came in the bar and made sure to introduce us to every guy wearing club colors. We talked about what people ride, Harleys are unpopular here because they are really expensive. We talked about rallies, turns out that Graskop hosts three a year. We talked about rides we’ve taken. By the second night it felt like home. Not only had we met everyone at the bar, but people would see us out during the day and wave and say hello and ask if they would see us that night. I should also mention that we only ended up paying for a third of our drinks our entire stay. I am planning on attending the Paradise Rally in May, whether on a bike or not, so that we can not only see the rally but see our new friends.

I guess the point of this post was to show the riders back home that riders here are the same: They love to ride and anyone else who loves to ride is a friend.