Zelda la Grange is your average 'biker chick'

Nelson Mandela's longtime aide, Zelda la Grange - who owns a pair of designer Jimmy Choo biker boots - is everything but your average "biker chick".

Her riding gear may not feature the obligatory skull motif or clothes that scream, "Born to Party, Forced to Work".

But her BMW 800GS, which retails for about R60000, makes up for that and brings out the adventurer in her.

"I have a child in me that refuses to grow up," she says. "I love playing, and biking provides that outlet."

La Grange, 41, who has already clocked thousands of kilometres after buying her first motorbike eight years ago, revealed that she often stole time in her schedule for a dash on the open road.

"Sometimes I don't ride for weeks and then, suddenly, I wake up and decide that I need to ride."

She says hours on the road are a "retreat" from her busy life, despite her workload diminishing somewhat after Mandela formally retired from public life in 2004.

She says the fundraising work she does on behalf of Mandela's charitable foundations takes up a large chunk of her time.

This month, she and about 20 local celebrities, including actors and radio presenters, completed a 2200km ride over eight days for the annual Bikers for Mandela Day road trip.

The trip was part of world celebrations to commemorate Mandela's birthday.

The group included 5FM presenter DJ Fresh and Isidingo star Jack Devnarain and were involved in revamping children's playgrounds, planting trees and helping to refurbish orphanages.

Once described by Britain's Observer newspaper as Mandela's honorary granddaughter, La Grange says she uses the time on her bike to unwind.

"It has become, in a way, a good excuse not to be available to anyone ... and to simply be with my own thoughts ... by myself, in my helmet."

Riding off-road, however, she says, can be quite a challenge.

"I'm very nervous, (but) my next challenge is to overcome my fear of riding on gravel and loose sand. I'm very nervous (now). It's very different from when I was a child and fearless."

Eight years ago, she acquired a BMW 1150, but it was only after she got her second bike, the BMW 800GS, in 2009 that she began taking biking seriously.

"Now I love it. (Initially) I really had difficulty being in charge of my bike, as it's a heavy machine."

La Grange, who discovered old photographs of her grandmother riding a motorbike in the 1940s, believes that the thrill of owning a bike runs in her genes.

"On both my mother's and my father's side, there's always been this peculiar interest. So I guess it's in our blood."

She says she's one of a growing number of women bikers. "People, generally, think riding a motorbike is not feminine," she says, adding that she goes on rides in her Jimmy Choo boots, which retail for between R4000 and R7500.

La Grange has, over the years, gained a reputation as Mandela's de-facto gatekeeper and joined the President's Office as a 24-year-old typist in 1994.

Since 1996, she has accompanied him on more than 96 international trips and met just about every famous person in the world.