The Ouzo

everybody knows a heavier bike is faster, just look at how fast ebikes are ?

cant remember what the Alpina was, but could not have been more than 8 spd. And no wimpy compact chainrings either, I seem to recall running 44/24 as my lowest gearing. Jan Smuts past the zoo with 80km in the legs was torture.

that old route was tough

yeah I remember thinking that too. In those days just finishing 100km was a massive thing for me. Its also the only event where ive done sub 3 hours for 100km.

And was actually a fast one, unlike the current version of it. I have fond memories of this race. - huddled in the basement of PnP in our start pens - cruising at 40-50km/h in groups of 50+ cyclists, the only noises you hear is the whirr of drivetrains and 19mm tyres on the tar - hitting over 90km/h down the hill towards Swartkoppies - cleats melting into the tar in the PnP parking lot after the finish - picnics with the family on the Vaal after the race - meeting the person who is now my wife at one of these picnics

as mcuh as I'm glad some street justice was handed out, I cant help but think this guy will be out there again soon, only this time better armed and possibly violent. Whats the answer, I dont know. The inner East Rander in me would love more PKs to be handed out though.

Lately it’s not often that it’s light enough when I ride for pics.

you know whats really sad about this, that was 2016, 8 years later and its much much worse out there.

this is the issue I have with these things too. If I'm pulling out something that resembles a real gun, then it better shoot real bullets, because the bad guy with a gun is not going to take the time to asses if that thing is firing real bullets at him or not.

There certainly are a good few climbs in that section, but this elevation graph, an extract from my last ride to harties, is from around the kyalami area through to broederstroom in harties. Plenty more elevation drop vs elevation gain.

its wild out there too

From P&S to Harties is predominantly down hill, so I would imagine a much quicker than 30km/h average for that section. I can comment on the Pliansberg out ride, but I've done Drake's Parys outride (also 200km). I elected to take the slowest group as I also had no idea how I would fair over 200km. Our group stopped at each water point (they were 40km apart) and the time taken at each stop was determined by the group. I would imagine all the groups would stop and take in some nutrition, this is not a race but rather a "tour". Given your stats above I would think the middle group would be just fine for you. The slow group was to slow for me at some points, but after 160km when fatigue set in I was glad to be in that group. Although I think a faster group might have made it a little bit better. I never saw any photos or medals or anything that was advertised post ride, I've made peace with it and accepted my Strava/Garmin longest ride badge for it. I may still do this Pilansberg ride, and the Parys ride again. Funds and time will dictate.

washing the helmet after every ride is not really an option, I find, especially in winter, that it does not dry quick enough for the next days ride, therefore mine gets a once a week wash, the day before my rest day,

exactly the reason I dont own a firearm. I know what happens when I see red mist, and having access to a FA would probably lead me to doing something very very stupid. But it also scares the crap out of me sometimes, knowing that I have no way of defending my family should we have a home invasion.

hahaha, also thought of going in with a sub R1k bid.

for some reason I kinda like it

the other important factor to take into account is that many of these attacks happen by surprise, so very little to no time to pull any sort of weapon out.

I also recall a mtb event heading through KNP over a couple of days.

Mine goes into the shower with me after every ride and gets rinsed off. But my helmet is the smelly problem, and I'd bet the same solution for you will work for me.

on this topic. I've found that once the stench is there its basically impossible to get rid of with normal washing. Has anyone used any of those antibacterial sports sprays to get rid of the smell ? was it successful and which one did you use?

I solved that with some anti rattle tape that auto electricians use.

with so few items in that huge saddle bag you can most definitely go smaller. Forget about putting your phone in there, that just inviting problems.

I dont get the fascination with wrap straps, everything is out there exposed to the elements.

if you're ruining the aesthetics of the bike by mounting bombs on your bottle cage then you as might as well use a saddle bag. I have bombs in the saddle bag, but bombs and tubeless sealant dont mix well (or so the story goes), so the pump goes with me. With all that in your pockets your jersey must hang rather low. my phone gets its own pocket, nothing else goes in there, if I must put something there it wont be anything hard that can possible scratch the phone. I had one of these until I lost it during the wet argus a few years back. Small, compact, neat.

a tube from temu, probably comes pre punctured.