My friend Eddie

Eddie was the first of us to get hooked onto bikes. He had several small two-stroke machines, including a lovely Honda MB5 and a Yamaha 125 Electric. He quickly graduated onto something a bit more substantial and decidedly bigger; a 1979 Suzuki GS400L; a bike that I was going to buy, but got intimidated by its size!

It is with his GS and my GSX400FW that we had the best riding times together. The GS and GSX were a perfect couple; different in power, performance and design, yet evenly matched in spirit and attitude. These were the bikes and times we cut our riding teeth on; exploring our new-found freedom; easy-rider style, up the west-coast and through the Boland.

Eddie has good mechanical aptitude, and he keeps his hand on the minor stuff in looking after his machine. And sometimes he even has to help out on our (Riaan and I) bikes.

Eddie fell in love with Suzuki’s Bandit 400 early on in his biking life. Even while he still had the GS, he bought the Bandit. It was a mixed experience; fraught with difficulty from day one. It suffered a seemingly irrepairable electrical glitch that caused it to cut out, even at high speeds.

And this caused him the most serious accident he ever had (and he had a few). One evening, I was way ahead on the highway, trying to outdrag him (by this time I had the GS500E). After a few moments I realised he was no longer behind me, and pulled of, waiting for him to catch up. When I realised he was not coming I got worried. A car stopped behind me, the driver got out and asked if I have a friend on a bike behind. My heart sank. He told me my friend had an accident.
I turned back, and arrived on the scene in the midst of flashing blue, red and orange lights. The high-way was backed-up, and my stomach heavy with doom. I did not want to see what I was about to see.

I was stunned to find Eddie alive and in one piece, sitting next to the road. He was in shock. His bike cut out again, in the middle lane, and a bakkie (pick-up truck) hit him from behind. The impact threw him clear across the lane to the side of the road. That probably saved his life, because he hit nothing and nothing hit him.

The bike was an insurance write-off, but most of it was remarkably intact. The point of impact from behind seemed to be the exhaust, followed by the wheel, swing-arm and subframe. This left the engine and front-end undamaged. So Eddie bought the bike back from the insurance company, bought a frame, and had a Bandit again.

But the bike was not the same ride again, least of all because that electrical gremlin remained. So he sold it.

His old GS was on its last legs, so that had to be put down (literally!) as well, but that is another story…

With visions of trekking through Africa and playing in the sand dunes, Eddie set his sights on Yamaha’s XT500. But the Yamaha was maybe too crude and slow, so soon his fixation with Suzuki’s Bandit returned. Besides, he hardly spends time in the dunes, and Africa? Well, Africa…

The XT is now doing service as a back-up to the lovely Bandit 400 Limited that he took ownership off. It is a stunning looking machine, with a really mean and intimidating exhaust note.

Somewhere along the line Eddie also fell in love with a Ford Capri. But he rides it on Sundays only, as that 3 litre V6 is thirsty. And he has been getting a constant stream of offers from wannabe owners for years. He eventually sold it, and now sticks to two wheels again. He is on his second XT500 now.