Meet The Team. The peeps who bring you all the fun!
Glenn Foley:
My Love affair with bikes started at school when I first swung a leg over a little ItalJet on a flat track. I bailed, burned my leg raw and crawled off vowing to ride again.
Boarding school, I was back on a bike, this time Mr Potgieters Z200 which we scaled regularly at night to get to the Village and back to buy vetkoek. We had a side hustle going charging hostel guys for any orders… In between, on school holidays, my brother has a Kawasaki farm bike and I learned how to crash that.
Leaving school, bikes were all we could afford and another Kawasaki Z200 (There’s a theme here) was my sole means of transport for millions of kilometres. Somewhere there is a photo of that bike with a fish tank on the back… but that’s a story in itself.
Working in a retail bike shop and workshop in central JHB, I got to know Simon Fourie From Bike SA – and long story short, after lots of bikes – mostly road going Honda’s and a Suzuki or two, mostly salvaged from The Bike Hospital, he offered me a position at the magazine where I cut my teeth in motorcycle everything for eight great years.
My bike then was a V-Max and I loved that thing! It was eventually sold with 200 000 KM’s on the clock 95 percent by yours truly.
The rest is history. The dirt bug bit after a trip to Zambia where it was baptism of fire on an old steel tank KDX through the Zambezi valley. Man that was something, totally unprepared insanity and it turned out to be the catalyst for the Adventure Company and Bike SA’s offroad magazine. Dirt And Trail Magazine came along soon after which was followed by RideFast.
Both titles have enjoyed great success.
With the world going digital we turned our attention to the magazine’s current format – and the love affair with motorcycles continues…
Here’s to the future!
Sean Hendley:
My old man got me my first motorcycle at the tender age of four years old back in 1974, so 2024 marks 50 years that I have been riding motorcycles. My first bike was a Yamaha 50cc FS1, 1973 model that I banged around the garden, then around the local parks and eventually the local quarry until I eventually had to chuck it in the bin somewhere around 1982. A few weeks later we were offered a Yamaha YZ 125 ex-race bike that was no longer needed by the team and I managed to blow it up just as I was called up for my National Service in January 1989. During my national service I managed to sneak out the military issue Honda XR650R’s most weekends. After the army I needed wheels and bought a CB750F, then a CB900F2 Bol’dor, then onto 3 or 4 1100 Katanas, a bunch of GSX 1100’s one of which I managed stop quite abruptly against a bakkie in 1995 and spent the next 2 months chatting up all the student nurses. I’ve been the President of a bike club, that’s how I met my Wife. I banged around on quads for a while before eventually maturing onto an adventure bike. Nowadays I get to ride the latest and greatest the industry has to offer…. And tell you all about it.
Donovan Fourie:
Donovan has been lauded for many things in his life: The world’s fastest Ewok, Red Beard the cake-eating pirate and “you are actually much smaller in real life”. He is the son of Simon Fourie of Bike SA fame and presenter on IgnitionTV’s The Bike Show. He has been riding motorcycles since he was four years old, has been making motorcycle noises since he was six months and raced superbikes for 26 years. Beyond that, he spent a decade helping run an advanced riding academy at Phakisa Freeway. He sometimes finds time to type stuff, too.
The Karr report:
I’d like to thank my dad, my cats, my… What? Oh, wrong intro? Lemme try that again: Hi, my name is (my name is) Karr. Socially awkward to the point of Supreme Awkwardness, but can write lots of words that, somehow, people enjoy reading. I inhabit the little town of Middelburg – the MP one, not the EC one. Also able to write articles for days, but absolutely suck at writing short descriptive thingies about myself. So watch out for all the Moto GP stuff in these pages. That’s my happy place.
Deon vdl.
I got into racing photography in 2019 and had my first time shooting the SASCS. This is where my love of motorcycles became a passion. In 2022, I did my first article and photos for Ridefast Magazine and kept working with the team until September 2023 when I joined the family full time. Enjoying the experience.
‘Coz you need a bike in your life.
Jason Wessels:
We think Jason was passionate about bikes even before he debuted in the maternity ward back in 1976. He can ride just about any bike really fast and has raced motorcycles, mostly superbikes since 1995. He owns MotoRentals, operating out of RedStar Raceway and Formula-K, where you can rent a full service day out on the track with one of his bikes. As the grey flecks have started appearing in his hair he has stepped back from serious racing and mostly takes part in social and fun events now. However, since 2004, his passion and focus has been on training new riders to hone their riding skills and be the best riders they can be and his is well loved and respected by many well known SA racers these days, all ex-students of his – We see it everytime we do a shoot at a track with Jason, all the racers practising there that day all come along for hug and a “Howzit” with Uncle Jay.
Garth Taylor:
As a kid I used to take apart my bicycle and put it back together, modifying it to look like a motorbike and trying all sorts of contraptions to make it sound like a bike, from clothes pegs with cardboard, to plastic lids stuck between the tyre and frame.
Living on a farm I used to race around and pretend I was on off road bikes. I even had a few spills, one in particular which left a perfectly round scar on my stomach in the shape of my handlebar.
Riding my makeshift motorbike (bicycle) carried on through my school years until I got my first actual motorbike which was a Honda 400 twin. Loved that bike until I broke the rear sprocket and couldn’t afford to fix it. I ended up going through a bunch of fix-up road bikes until one day I decided that just having a car was perhaps more practical for lugging my speakers around.
I went into off-road riding for leisure but got way too confident after some time. Breaking wrists and cracking ribs as I went. I called it a day for my off-road bike career when I snapped my collar bone a day before a big show. I needed to choose between being a daredevil and a singer so I chose the money maker naturally.
A few years later I was sponsored a Husqvarna Swartpilen to ride for a year and the hook set in again. I have since been riding road bikes again. From that bike I then climbed on a Triumph Tiger Sport 660 which evolved to the bigger brother, the Triumph Tiger Rally Pro which so far has been my favourite personal bike.
In 2019, while still riding the Husqvarna, I was invited by Ride Fast to test ride and review the bike and I guess the rest is history.
I’ve since had some great adventures with Glen, Sean and and the team and get to test all the latest and greatest along with some real classics with them.
It’s always a nice surprise hearing what I’m riding next!
Stefan van der Riet
Since I was a young lad, I begged and pleaded with my parents for my very own motorbike, so that I could be one of the cool kids and enjoy the open road. On my 18th birthday, my dad gifted me a jaw dropping 2008 Aprilia RS 125 (the last facelift model). That two stroke super trooper took me all over the place, solidified my love for motorcycles and scored me the girl of my dreams. After breaking many a speed limit and racing everything on wheels with my Italian stallion for 3 beautiful years, we sadly had to part ways in order to buy a car because of “adulting” and “responsibilities”. After a 3 year hiatus, only occasionally stealing a buddy’s bike for a joy ride, I finished my studies and landed at DT’s doorstep with big eyes and a camera ready for action. It was with the magazine that learned about dirt, a medium I never saw myself enjoying. One day Glenn chucked some old leatt kit on me, threw me on his good ol’ CRF 230 and said “keep up”. After crashing into a couple of rocks and falling on my head once or twice I decided that dirt bikes might be too gnarly, so naturally Glenn thought it would be a great idea to hand me the keys to a brand new Africa Twin. And so a street Rossi turned into an adventure biker. I’ve explored every dirt road in town, crept up mountains around Lesotho and explored the country with my tent strapped to the back. Motorcycles became my entire life, so much so that I forget that I own a car sometimes…
René Swart
I started my two wheeled journey back in high school, when I got my trusty 125 Gomoto scooter. I had a blast riding all around town and occasionally felt little adventurous and tackled a dirt road or two. Later on, Stefan roped me in on some magazine shoots and that’s when I really got hooked on the bike life. In 2022 I got my first real motorcycle, the cheeky little KTM Duke 390 and I loved it. Not long after I realised that I could not keep up with Stefan and a year later I went for the Kawasaki versys 300 X, my trusted mountain goat. It might not be the most powerful, but it takes me on many adventures. I love being able to photograph and experience new bikes and seeing how technology advances. I also occasionally steal a bigger bike from the guys to test something with a little more power.