Mass Ride
From 8am on Sunday, riders began meeting on the roof of the Shelly Centre for the biggest noise of all, a mass ride of several thousand motorcycles along a 34km route through Port Shepstone, Ramsgate and back to Margate.
Local traffic officers turned away four-wheeled vehicles and what looked like the entire population of the area turned out with camp chairs, beach umbrellas and cooler bags to watch the parade as wave after wave of gleaming motorcycles rumbled by, taking more than an hour to pass any given point.
Ride in Bike Show
Monday morning saw the street outside the Harley Hotel closed to traffic once again as the best of the best of the custom machines were ridden into the show enclosure and parked in neat rows, to receive a final polish while waiting for the judges with their “ums” and “ahs” and inscrutable scribblings on grubby clipboards.
The winners received their trophies amid muted applause - concours is a serious business - but the music was still pumping down on Beach Road till late on Monday afternoon, only to be replaced by the sound of engines, gentler now, as thousands of riders packed their gear and saddled up for the long ride home, carrying with them the memory of the biggest, loudest Africa Bike Week yet.
