RideFast and The Bike Show host The 2nd Annual Frosty Buns Blanket Run with RAD KTM and Bikeshop Rivonia.
Last year, about this time we kicked off our first annual Frosty Buns blanket run with RAD KTM and The Bike Show. This year, Bikeshop Rivonia and The Rotary Club joined the team and we moved it to a Sunday morning rather than a Tuesday evening. The response was overwhelming. Close on 200 bikers arrived on brisk but sunny Gauteng winters morning all bearing armfuls of blankets.
The fact that the 2 hot water urns at the RAD KTM – BIkeshop Rivonia sponsored coffee station had to be refilled a couple of times was testament to how crisp the first official day of winter was in Gauteng, making the attendance at this year’s event that much more meaningful. Then again, there were a lot of festivals on the go on Saturday, so maybe some of those cups of coffee were to fight off the after effects of the revelry of said festivities, which then makes the attendance figures even more special.
Members of the Rotary Club Brits Hartbeestpoort were on hand to accept the donations, and the pile of blankets was almost as tall as Debbie Ross who was gathering the blankets all together. How awesome is that? Then, the Rotary Club members, all on their own bikes and with their own fuel worked as marshalls on the ride, controlling traffic at the intersections, helping stranded riders along the route (a few of riders fell prey to Gauteng’s potholes and mahoosive speed bumps in ‘The Cradle’), and just generally made sure everybody was safe and cared for along the route. It was an operation that would have made our traffic departments proud! The Rotary Club will make sure that all the blankets get to where they will be most effective.
The Route:
Route planner and leader, ‘Disco Don(key)’ Fourie of The Bike Show, put a really lekker route together that included a little bit for everybody. At 9am or thereabouts ‘sharp’, the pack started rolling out of the parking lot and turned right onto Witkoppen rd, winding its way through the Sunday morning traffic to Cedar road where it turned left and aimed for the old Lion Park fourways crossing. Imagine that, a four way crossing in Fourways. All the while, some lunatic, (Howdeee….), was weaving through the pack with a camera, so if you made it onto The Bike Show segment for this event – It’s my pleasure!. The route took us onto the Kromdraai road for a flip through The Cradle of HumanKind , past the Sterkfontein Caves, on to the R400 and then right onto the R24 into the hamlet of Magaliesberg for a refuel and a tea break. What a lekker route it was, eventually winding down for a final blast to Maggie’s Farm, the home of the Chicken Pie.
On a personal note, I have to say this – There is nothing like the sound of a huge pack of bikes rumbling past you at speed. At one point I sat tanning the back of my neck and top of my pip on the Satellite road for an hour or so waiting for the pack to pass. Every 10 minutes or so a small pack or two, or the occasional solo rider would wander by, some sedately and others like they were late for an argument with their better halves. All of them could be heard echoing around the surrounding hills at least 3 minutes before they passed by me.
As the Frosty Buns pack rumbled through, the hills came alive to the song of our people. It started with the low rumble of distant thunder akin to that of a Highveld afternoon thunderstorm before becoming a cacophony of swarming and wailing four pot and triple mills at full thrash and the deep growl of twins.
We are pretty sure that Sunday the 1st of June 2025 will forever be etched into the history of anybody that was at Maggie’s Farm that day. Hundreds of bikes and bikers rolled in, filling the parking lot, the takeaway shop and the restaurant as Dad’s gathered their families, Mom’s grabbed their toddlers and wide eyed children and grandparents alike weren’t quite sure which way to turn.
True to form, the leather clad, helmet carrying masses were the epitome of politeness and courtesy, smiling at the wary parents, fist bumping the kids and just generally showing them what a nice, generous bunch of people bikers really are.
Everybody headed home at their own leisure. It was a really successful day, a brilliant ride under the chilly highveld sun with a lot of blankets collected for the needy.
See you for next years Frosty Buns Blanket Run….
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