Swartbrand Run

Like all good things, the Swartbrand Run was put together by a few friends over a couple of beers. The idea behind the Swartbrand Run was to have a short break from the family and children before everyone went back to work after the Christmas holidays.

The name Swartbrand comes from founder Colin Blackburn’s surname which has been translated directly into Afrikaans. The first Swartbrand Run started off with a handful of riders; twenty-one years later it has grown to 70-80 riders annually.

No children and woman are allowed and its aimed more at classic than modern motorcycles. It usually falls on the same weekend as the Classic Motorcycles Club’s first meeting of the year and that is where we end up after the ride.

I attended my first Swartbrand Run in 2015 on my BSA, we met early on a Saturday morning at a Total garage on Malibongwe Drive (Hans Strydom, R512). Not far from there we stopped for the most important meal of the day to line our stomachs.

Kyle Harvey from The Workshop fixing a R- Series BMW before we started.

Staying off the highways, we took the back roads through Magalies. Just before Derby we stopped at Swallows Inn where we had the first couple of cold ones.

Next stop was Derby Hotel. The friendly people from Derby looked after us and provided us with snacks to ensure that things didn’t get too wild.

Next up was Koster Sportsclub. This is an old Bowls and Golf club. Once again the locals welcomed us with snacks and ice cold beverages.

Before we reached our final destination, there was one more stop at “Barney’s Bridge”.

On one of the very first runs it was so hot that one of the riders, Barney suggested that they stopped at the bridge for a couple of cold beers. This bridge was repainted by some of the riders and a name plaque “Barney’s Bridge” was added.

Since then it became a tradition to stop there and have a “take-away” beer.

Every time from here on it seems like the weather turns for the worst, this year we got tuck in a hail storm and the year before that heavy rain. We made it through to our campsite in Rustenburg.