The SAAF Forum

Awesome story and I really enjoyed reading it here, thanks Steve!

Looking forward to reading more of your recollections, it does bring back memories.

The best time of my life I don't want repeated.

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How come every time my ship comes in, I'm at the airport?

Thanks, Dean. Glad you're enjoying the read. Still got a few more on the boil.

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A corner is just a straight piece of road that's bent.

'Ouman' any familiar faces here?


Credit unknown

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/tallyho2015/albums

Thanks for the memory-shaker, Tally-Ho.

Dunno where this pic was taken, but I don't recognise anyone, although they look like they could be creditable Bike Squad mischief makers. The fact that they are riding 500's tells me this is quite a few years after my time. As I recall, the XR 500R only came out in 1979 and these, with the "500R" on the black seat, look like 1982/3 models. Some later models just had "XR" on the seat. The 350XL (which we had back then) was the largest capacity offroad bike that Honda made till 500 range.

I acquired the XL500S when it came out in 1979 instead of the XR because I didn't intend to race it. Couldn't help myself, though and joined a club and raced it for a season in open enduro class - best finish was 3rd (crashed a lot). Then, in 1983 (about when this pic was taken), I took delivery of my spanking new XL600R, which was ridden hard for most of its life with me - offroad and tarmac. Brilliant in the Namib and in traffic at rush-hour. A giant slayer on a twisty road. However, I had a good dice on my XL with one of these XRs (500R on the seat) ridden by a local MX champ in Cape Town (#1 on his helmet) on Chapman's Peak. We were formation blackstriping through the twisties on our offroad tyres - too narrow to pass him and annoyed that my extra capacity wasn't an advantage. Thumbs-up at the end, though. Solid machines, the XRs. No wonder the military chose them.

Back to your picture: my sharp biker eye will always recognise a new tyre. If you look at bike #3 from the right in your pic, you'll notice that the knobblys on the back tyre are still very pronounced compared to the other bikes. The same bike is also the only one that doesn't have a number plate, which means the bike itself is likely new, or the oke riding it is new or his 1IC also wrote his bike off in a stunt and had to replace it.

Presume the racks on some of the bikes are for radios. (Or pizzas.)

Any idea where the pic was taken?


My XL600R circa 1985

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A corner is just a straight piece of road that's bent.

The picture originates from a Facebook page "Sadf Magte Fotos voor 1994". The members / followers show some pre-1994 SA Army biker pictures now and then, amongst thousands of other SADF related pictures. It can be like a walk down memory lane and good for a laugh - lekker ou dae!
No details or date explains the picture, but the comments underneath the picture could provide pointers.

Here's another posted by one Markham Bester - heading says 'Bike squad 1975 Heidelberg 1sig'

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/tallyho2015/albums

Jeepers! Talk about catch a wake-up! Thanks for this, TH.

This is the first actual memory-shaker that I’ve come across from my time. Being 1975, his would be the squad that came in when (we) were oumanne (1974) and who got our bikes when we left. How I remember that scratchy step-out jacket, the baggy dispatch pants and long lace-up boots with the two straps at the top. That’s how we used to ride in the shows.

I can’t for the life of me remember wearing that spiedcop headgear with the go-fast black stripe. As far as I recall, we wore our berets on show and ‘floppy’ bush hats when riding in camp (20km/h limit in camp as I remember). It is quite likely that the helmets were introduced as a result of the antics from the previous year, brought on by Staff Steel’s head-on collision with the rugby field, my adventures in the sidecar as well as using a barbed wire fence for brakes (story still to come on that one).

And those Honda 350 Fours look different to me for a few reasons: I don’t remember them being white/gray (could have been repainted since) and, if my eyes don’t deceive me, they are also shod with knobbly off road tyres. Not surprised – I think I mentioned in Attack By A Superpower that when it rained, it was tricky for the road bikes and their road tyres on the dirt roads around camp.

So maybe my time there wasn’t such a waste – some lessons were learnt after all.

I honestly don’t recognize that location as part of the 1Sigs camp. Since the okes are wearing their show kit, this might actually be on location at some gig. It’s a fenced-in area and there is an odd individual in the background who is not wearing typical army colours, so likely this is part of the 1 Sigs squad before/during/after a show. Some more info would help.

FYI: those 350 Fours were an experiment by Honda to make a small-bore multi-cylinder machine. While they screamed quite nicely when you wound them up, the power to weight was all wrong and it didn’t fare well in the competitive market, so not surprising that it was soon discontinued.

Really disappointed that I don’t have any photos from my time. Despite possessing a Kodak 126 Instamatic, use of cameras in camp was an issue. Besides, I never bothered to keep it loaded. So, once again, I’m grateful for this image. A real time warp…

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A corner is just a straight piece of road that's bent.

Hmmm..... stumbled onto this again

I'm all for old SADF stories, but you're talking kak, china. Appreciate the creative writing aspect, but you clearly have no knowledge of the infantry bike platoons which were called "bike squad" in the SADF.

It's all about FACTS.

The photo in question is of a Platoon 13 section in 1983, the oke on the far right was Mathews, 2nd from left Neumann, known as "Alfred E". I recognise most of the others, would have to look up the names. I knew them well, I was almost convinced to go to the bush with them, but sanity prevailed and I got out of the SADF and never looked back. PL. 13 was split into sections and operated out of different bases. One was Ruacana, another at Ogongo, if memory serves, can't remember the third, but can ask my mate who was in that platoon.

The bikes are 1982 Honda XR 500R "ProLinks", I explained the XR lineage up to that point in a previous post. The R model was only made in 1981 and 82. It was a major leap in 4T tech at the time, and was state of the art for 1982.

Your splabbing about why the one bike doesn't have a numberplate etc is all nonsense.

While the name "bike squad" was never officially assigned (in fact, most PFs hated it), and groups of tossers riding motorcycles all over the world (check them in Vietnam and Japan and Kenya) call themselves "bike squad" --- it had a very specific meaning in SADF context, ie. the specialist infantry platoons trained at Okatope and Osihvelo (initially) then Potch from 1981, that went to 1 SWASPES at Otavi for operational deployment to Ovamboland.

As mentioned, that spanned Platoons 1-14. After that, the Potch-based unit became a messenger service and despatch rider type thing around Joburg. They started getting Suzuki DR 500s in 1983, and were somewhat involved in riot control etc. in Soweto and elsewhere. Never went on ops again.

There WAS a 2 SWASPES, a "local" unit in Ovamboland later -- probably 1986 to 88. All I've ever been able to dig up about it is, one troop got killed on the tar road one evening, jaaging somewhere without his helmet on, hit a donkey or something on a bridge, smashed his coconut, MORT. It was NOT a SADF unit, so most likely Ovambos or Caprivian troops... anathema to machines.

RPs or MPs or signallers playing around with roadbikes, or some samajaoor's messenger riding between V-Heights and Heidelberg or Joburg or Brakpan did NOT constitute Bike Squad in the SADF context.

Unless it was organised highly-trained INFANTRY PLATOONS on operations, it wasn't "bike squad", but if it makes anybody feel better to say so, gaan aan.


Big difference between "creative writing" and "FACT". If you're interested in the latter, go check this:

https://www.bikesquadrider.org/

Hey there, Upsun.

Hmm! Touchy subject, it seems.

You: I'm all for old SADF stories, but you're talking kak, china. Appreciate the creative writing aspect, but you clearly have no knowledge of the infantry bike platoons which were called "bike squad" in the SADF.

It’s all about FACTS.”

Dude – I was IN the Bike Squad. Still got the scars to prove it. Just because it wasn’t in your time makes it no less a fact. My writing is about MY time and experiences there. To say I don’t know anything about it comes across as just a poor attempt at one-upmanship - like your bike squad was better than my bike squad. My d*ck is big enough – I’m not interested in a competition.

However, my recollections have nothing to do with SWASPES or any of the operatives who served in it. Having said which, the infantry bike platoons didn’t just happen out of the blue. They had to evolve from something. That something is the early Bike Squads at 1Sigs in Heidelberg and 2Sigs in Voortrekkerhoogte and all iterations that came before.

You: "RPs or MPs or signallers playing around with roadbikes, or some samajaoor's messenger riding between V-Heights and Heidelberg or Joburg or Brakpan did NOT constitute Bike Squad in the SADF context."

Well, the army I was called up to serve in was indeed the SADF. The squad of motorcycles that I volunteered to be part of was indeed called the Bike Squad. As much as you seem to dislike the use of the name, it remains a fact.

Speaking of facts, the name Pro-link refers to Honda’s monoshock cantilever linkage suspension design that reduced unsprung weight and improved suspension travel – a huge benefit for competitive traction. Hence the term: Pro-link which, by the way, was fitted to the XR500 since 1979. The XRs you refer to were the first XRs to feature that new RFVC (Radial Four Valve Chamber) in 1982, which gave them extra oomf across the rev range. (and the 'R' designation for being race ready - as was my own XL600 R) Later iterations of the XR and XL series all had the Pro-link suspension but were not neccessarily designated as such. For instance, in 1981, the CBX 1000 also had Pro-link suspension. It was not unique to the XRs. (Ed: In my reply to Tally-Ho above I did erroneously write that the 500R came out in 1979 - a cross-eyes typo.)

But you know, the lowly XL350s (dual rear shocks and swing arm) like the ones I rode in the Bike Squad in 1974 are pictured in action in the very site you refer to (bikesquadrider.org). Despite their shortcomings, they made a contribution to the combat environment. Further confirmation that what came before has as important a role to play as what came after.

Like it or not, the Bike Squad that you refer to as the only one that matters was not just the romantic consequence of a love affair between a Witdooring tree and a hak-en-steek bush up there in SWA. Its foundations were laid years before in early Bike Squad evolution.

We are all part of military history, bro - just at different times. We may not all know every aspect of that history, hence my speculation about random photos from a time that was not mine, presented to me by interested parties. While I was not - nor claimed to be - part of SWASPES mounted infantry (Bike Squad) and did not see action on the border, I was however part of its evolution into the feared fighting force that it became – with or without my participation. So what I write about is no less significant.

If it weren’t for Isaac Newton figuring gravity from a falling apple, Einstein would not have been able to give us e=mc2. So Newton’s early contribution was far from insignificant. Ditto for the early Bike Squad.

At the time of my conscription, the Bike Squad was state of the art, with the latest available machinery. It evolved into the mounted fighting unit that was deployed under SWASPES. That seems to be when you became involved and yet you seem to be dismissive of the early beginnings that made it possible. Early Bike Squad was an evolutionary stage in history - as was Kitty Hawk and the V2. To suggest that they don’t deserve a place in aviation history suggests a lack of appreciation for the huge contributions that those very old technologies represented.

So I was in the Bike Squad long before it became a formidable fighting force, just as Kitty Hawk happened long before it evolved into an F-35. Without Kitty Hawk, there would be no F-35. Ditto again for the early Bike Squad, as much as that lowly association may displease you. The egg in a nest is no less significant than the bird that comes out of it.

My comments re the images are simply that – comments. I don't think I ever claimed to know anything about those images. So I’ll sportingly take your ‘splabbing' comment on the nose. However, my time in Heidelberg in the very early Bike Squad days, as I’ve posted, are as accurate as I can recall – admissions to a cloudy brain notwithstanding. Unless you can produce some archival records to show up deflections in my memory, I stand by them.

As for creative writing, you can claim it's kak all you want. All I can say is: you weren’t there, china, I was - and it was a good few years before your time too. No one can argue that you’re a stickler for detail. Actually, so am I. But can you imagine reading my long posts with any interest or even an involuntary smile, if I only listed string after string of facts without some engaging creativity?

The topic of war is never fun. But education CAN be fun if you let it, whatever the subject.

Finally, I wrote only about my personal experiences in the early Bike Squad. Thanks to my posts, I think folks can clearly see that it was NOT part of any fighting force at the time - a FACT that I made no bones about. However, despite all the shenanigans we got up to, it remains a hitherto untold part of history, however insignificant or unrelated you may consider it to be.

Try telling the okes who flew the old Harvards that their part in the SAAF had nothing to do with its evolution (before it became a ground force) and see if you don’t get bits of old Dakota landing gear dropped on your house from 10,000ft.

A parting shot:
Newton laid the groundwork for (e=mc2)
Kitty Hawk laid the groundwork for the F-35
Bike Squad pre 1974 laid the groundwork for Bike Squad 1979-83.

Respect all round, I think.

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PS:
You mentioned in an earlier post that you might get around to writing a book sometime. With all your facts, I’m not sure why you haven’t already done so. Let’s see that book, Upsun. You clearly have the content and an apparent need to set the record straight. You never know – it could turn out to be a bestseller. As I’ve been trying to explain to you, everything starts somewhere. Evolution and greatness both stand on the shoulders of early beginnings and the work of others. Your book could become a significant stepping stone in the evolutionary path of the Bike Squad in its heyday. By the looks of it, it’s already busy burning a hole in your pencil box.

Which reminds me, I still have some kak to talk… sorry – stories to write about my time in the Bike Squad in the early 70’s. Just got a lot going on atm.

Thanks again for the forum.

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A corner is just a straight piece of road that's bent.