Jaco Steyn

I'll be at the finish line, assisting my son that's doing the photo finish for the race commissaires. If you're a hubber, shout out a hello to me and my son when you pass the finish line...….

I spoke to a supevisor of the sporting goods department at Makro Vaal on Saturday, and I stood by her while she looked up on the system to see which branches still had some available. Makro alberton had 7 and Woodmead had 13. I cannot remember which other ones in the Gauteng area also still had some available, but there were more, I just cannot remember at which branches.

I got mine at Makro Vaal, they only received 10, with a waiting list of 20. They phoned me on Tuesday at 11:00 I arrived there just before 12:00. Assembled it that afternoon after work and fine tuned everything the next day, once again after work. I used it to commute to work and back on Thursday and Friday, and, what a pleasure! This will be used to replace my daily commuter, a 10 year old Cannondale F7 (26"). Therefore no real MTB'ing will be involved most of the time. Build quality - Excellent! I would almost say a little better than my old 'Dale. Shifting precision - As good as can be expected from the Acera R/D. I have not really made use of the F/D. Brakes - Those Tektro hydrolic brakes stops on a dime! I almost fell my a$$ off the fist time, being accostumed to the older mechanical brakes. What would I improve/upgrade - For what I need it for, nothing, except tomaybe put in sludge in the tubes and a tyre liner to protect me from the thorns and small pieces of glass on my way to work and back. I almost was tempted to put up a photo of my ride as well, but then remembered the MTB purists here on the Hub will have a field day commenting on the reflectors on the bicycle...... This unfortunately is a factory requirement at Sasol that it must have both front (white) and rear(red) reflectors on it according to the Road Traffic Act.

Look at post #318 on page 20 of this thread.

Thanks for posting the photos. This looks like it will be a perfect replacement for my daily commuter bike. My old Cannondale F7 has served me loyally for the last 9 years, but it's time for a new one to last me for my last 5 odd years before possibly retiring after what then will be 40 years at Sasol. Yesterday I was 35 years at Sasol...... I have been cycling to work and back (currently) for about 30 years now, and for the price of possibly a single car installment, I can continue saving on fuel expenses.

I went to Makro Vaal, and they haven't yet received their stock. The told me that the Woodmead branch did have stock, but I'm deffinitely not going to drive from Sasolburg to the northern side of Johannesburg with the price of petrol these days. The indicated to me that they hope to get theirs on Tuesday.

I try to do this race whenever I am free, but unfortunately that hasn't been the case for some time now. I am off to Mount Amanzi for a week, mostly to give my VERY dedicated and hard-working wife a bit of a well deserved break. She is a housewife which takes her work very seriously, e.g. our ENTIRE house gets cleaned each and every day, weekends included. When I get home there's always a meal prepared. And also to celebrate her 51st birthday, and my 35 years long service at Sasol. Coincidentally my wife's birthday and my work appointment anniversary falls on the same date.

I also had a look at it at Makro Vaal. Seriously considering this to replace my 8 year old commuter MTB, which also is a Cannondale. I have no need for the latest and greatest components just to cycle to work and back. I am however holding back a bit for the Trial 5 which I think is the better deal at only R500 more.

I have done the JB Train tours thing too in the past, and it was AWESOME! I met people on that trip that I still keep in contact with. But, that too has become a very expensive option, and the travel dates and arrival times were not to everybody's liking. You arrive in CT on the Saturday afternoon somewhere between 14:00 - 15:00 in the afternoon, so you have no or little time to go to the expo. Then the train departs back to JHB later that week on the Wedneday or Thursday. you have a lot of free time after the race, but none before the race. The last time I enquired about these tours, it worked out cheaper to fly down on something like a Kulula package deal that included flights, accomodation and car rental. This year's deal was ±R6500 for both me and my son, which wasn't too bad, and we stayed about 1,5km away from the start. If you shop around well in advance, you can get some good deals. We booked this trip about 7 months in advance.

Sitting it out next year, after having an awesome one this year. Awesome as in not having a good time, but as in a good day's riding in wonderfull weather. My son improved his time with about 90 minutes, and I did my 3rd best time ever. However, main reason for sitting out is my eldest son's wife is expecting their first end of December, so my riding partner will not be able to go down. And, it's a DAMN expensive excercise for us here up north! ±R10K for a couple of days in the Cape is forcing us to limit how often we can go down for the World Funride Championship.

Nope, working at Sasol. Will be there for 35 years on the 6th of October.

I hope that they have something similar at the end of October. I am getting some long service money and will be in the market for a decent entry level MTB. This will mostly be used to commute to work and back. My Cannondale have served me faithfully and faultlessly for about 8 years, but it's time for something new.

I have a MASSIVE saddle bag on my road bike, and would not have it otherwise. It has space for three CO2 cannisters, three tubes, three tyre levers, master links for 9, 10 and 11 speed chains, a chain breaker, different sizes of cable ties and short pieces of 9, 10 and 11 speed chains. The last items I keep mostly to help out those that feel it isn't cool to carry a saddle bag, and have encountered problems with their chains. I have helped out numerous felllow cyclists in getting them back into the race. I almost stopped hellping out other cyclists after encountering THE rudest youngster at the Telkom Satellite Challenge a couple of years back.whose chain broke, and I stopped to help him by using one of my master links. He kept on rushing me on, telling me that he was in a hurry to get back to his bunch. After I helped him, he just sped of without any word of thanks.

My guess would be to visit their official website? https://www.capetowncycletour.com/

Lucky for me I have access to an ultrasonic bath, which REALLY cleans out all of the grit and gunk from the chain. I do this every couple of months, and after it's been cleaned out properly and completely dry, I lubricate it well after putting it back on the bike.

HaHa! My "boy" actually is just over 30 years old, but he has fairly recently adopted my loving of cycling. He has however hinted that it perhaps is time to get some decent shoes and pedals. When I gave him my old bike, it actually had some Shimano SPD R540 pedals on, but he said he wasn't feeling very confident about cycling with cycling shoes. We still have them and he probably will get proper cycling shoes in the not too distant future.

To add on to this, kudos to my son for improving from just under 6 hours (05:41)for his last cycle tour to 04:11 this year! He also lost 36kg since then, and also started doing marathons. He "quickly" worked in a 1/2 marathon the weekend befo re the "Argus", finishing it in 1:53. He is currently riding with my 2008 Raleigh RC4500 with sneakers and strap in pedals.

That's exactly how I understood it to work, as it was explained to me by a Racetec official. Since then I have always started my Garmin the moment the start signal goes off, and stopped it when I crossed the timing mat at the finish line. My recorded time and official time on the Racetec website usually corresponds very well.

My son and I arrived back home yesterday evening after flying back from Cape Town. This, without a doubt, was my best cycle tour ever! Not best in terms of time, but because of how much I enjoyed it! I am by no means in the league of most of the cyclists here on the Hub, being a middle aged (55), slightly overweight cyclist. My best time ever was 03:57 WAY back in 2007 and this year my time was 04:26. This was my third best time ever. After finishing without having to stop even once for water, and thought how good I felt after each of the climbs I realised that i could have pushed myself a bit harder and maybe even achieved a personal best. But, I went out with the intention to go out and enjoy a day out in the saddle enjoying the views, scenery, camaraderie and the awesome support from all the spectators. Without them this race would just not be the same. My thoughts goes out to the families of those that have succumbed doing what they loved. Hopefully I will be back in another year or two, but I am limiting myself after I have done 10 in succession to only once every couple of years. At about R10K for a couple of days in the Cape it isn't a cheap thrill!

Thanks!!

I turned 55 yesterday, and my son and I went out for a ride from Sasolburg to Parys and back, which is almost exactly a 80km round trip. We pushed it a bit, seeing it will be our last longish distance before the CTCT. Our bicycles are going down to CT this Thursday. We did it in under 3 hours, and I got 13 trophies on Strava! 10 of them was PRs. I was quite chuffed with myself! Ha Ha!

I got myself some sunglasses at Dischem which has built-in reading glasses that works VERY well for my cycling needs. It cost about R140 and they're on the same rack where the other normal clear reading glasses is. I can even see 3 fields on my Garmin Edge now!

My son is riding with my old Raleigh RC4500. Red, yellow and black. He did not do as good as last year (He came in at 7th last year with a time of 1:24), but he currently is focusing more on the Sasol marathon in Sasolburg which is this Saturday, the 3rd of February. Thereafter he will concentrate once again on cycling, and he is hoping for a PB on the CTCT.

I also did the shorter route with my son, which kicked my ass! He came in at no 37. But I am satisfied with my results. I rode almost the same time as last year (±1.46), but improved my overall position from 111 to 93, slightly worse in my start group position (from 17 down to 21) but again improved in my age group of 50-59 down from 28 to 17.

This is exactly why I stopped riding this race. I cannot drive from Sasolburg to JHB for number collection and then again the next day. about 3-4 years ago I have e-mailed the organisers numerous times to find out if I can collect my number the morning of the race, but I was completely ignored. With that attitude I have since then never entered an ASG organised race again, and will not enter one until they have an morning collection option for us "out of towners".