American Embassy. The bar was run by Bob, an ex-skydiving biker with a Honda Goldwing Aspencade and an Aprilia Caponord, who said he was too old for the bum-up, head-down brigade and preferred to cruise while listening to the Stones on tape deck. We were due to ride at 11am but due to the relaxed West African attitude, hardly anybody was there at our ride time. The bikes which turned up weren’ t the Africa Twin or Tenere adventure bikes I was expecting. Instead, a 916, GSX-R1000, Hayabusa, a couple of ZX-9Rs, and an RSV1000, amongst others, began to trickle
into the car park. We weren’ t ready to roll until 1pm. Africa works on its own time, or not at all, normally with the latter coming out in the lead. Eventually, after everyone had caught up on their week’ s exploits, we were ready to go. I’ d been lent a Hayabusa for the ride by Koye, a businessman in the construction industry, who also owned an MV Agusta 750, Honda SP2 and Aprilia RSV. Riding kit consisted mainly of jeans, helmet, MX gloves and an external body armour jacket. Anything else was too hot in the 35 degree heat and 90 odd percent humidity. The Okada riders,
72 KIWI RIDER