Topes...yeah speed bumps, in Africa

[larrysimpson]

I have motorcycled through Africa a few times and through Mexico and Central and South America and Cuba.

After a while somethings can get kind of jumbled and some things merge together in a sticky goo in the memory banks.

Fact is I can't remember what country in Africa had the biggest and the most topes to slow down traffic for safety purposes and typically as a boon to roadside entrepreneurs selling their goods. I should remember because my butt and knees took a beating here and there, at least after the first hundred topes in a given day.

So I am thinking Malawi had the biggest and most, with the most developed roadside trade flourishing on their flank. Am I right? Other views? Would love to be set straight on this.

Thanks
Larry

[mollydog]

Only ridden Morocco on a bike, visited several other African countries sans bike. No recall of Topes, but know them well in Mexico and Latin America.

Riding my former Vstrom over Topes was irritating with limited ground clearance, high weight and limited suspension quality for off road. The Cushion Link (shock linkage) would bottom out and take a whack if you hit the Tope too fast. Not good. In small towns the tail-backs due to Topes would go for miles back, all crawling at 5 mph.

But on any well set up lighter weight dual sport bike Topes are just not an issue. On my Suzuki DR650 I don't even slow down. I can hit them at 50 mph bike sucks them right up, feels like a ripple.

When faced with massive tail backs in towns I typically ride the center line and make good progress past all the congestion, not noticing the Topes. In some cases they don't extend the Tope all the way across, so even better.

I just stand up and ride over them. Just watch out for cops parked on side of road in small towns. The commercial tie in is the same in Latin America, everything from Red Cross donation teams, to selling Lotto tickets to coupons for Discos.

[Magnon]

I remember the humps in Kenya being quite viscious. Made worse because the whole road was usually covered in the red dust or mud making them blend in and hard to spot.