The Ouzo

could calling it an untimed demonstration / promotion not exempt it from needing to be CSA sanctioned ?

and the car whilst we're at it

Thanks mate. It was an ambitious challenge. Now for a couple of days of rest before I look at the bike again.

Right, so post ride analysis. It was always going to be a tough climb back home, plenty elevation gain on the return leg Weather predictions had a cross to tail wind heading out and a tail wind pushing us home. We were putting alot of faith in that tail wind. Left home slightly later than we wanted to at 6:40 and it was very quickly apparent that we would have mostly headwind heading out. Oh well, its all down hill right ? Multiple stops along the way for little nature breaks and we were in good spirits, trying to keep the nutrition going and just enjoying being out there. And what a site as you come over the last hill and see Harties in the distance. The achievement of getting to a place under your own steam when you've only ever taken motorised transport to get there (an its a long way with motorised transport) is so good. The mileage hit 100km as we crossed the water, we stopped, took some pics, headed to other side of the bridge just to say we did it, then turned around and cycled back to a get something to eat. We were 1 hour behind schedule by now, but hey, there is a tail wind to push us home right ? We probably ate the wrong thing, steak and chips before riding is probably not the right idea. But it was delicious. 2 x red ambulances to wash it down, and because the food took so long to get to us it caused a delay in timing, so we ate and left right away. That first climb out of broedestroom killed us. About 7km @ 5% and heat was pounding us. This is where things started to unravel, we did not drink or eat enough. By the time we got to Pedal and Sprocket to meet with my mates family for a quick snack my gut was complaining. I could not eat or drink anything. I was forcing myself to nibble on a fast bar and sip some diluted coke. We left from there and did about another 25km of slow riding before stopping on the side of the road for a breather. My mate was finished. This is when we made the call, given our pace, and the distance to go, we would not be able to complete the entire ride in daylight. So I called for backup to meet us Mall of Africa. 15km away. Whilst making the call a very kind gentleman in a Merc going in the opposite direction did a u-turn and came to check if we need assistance. Heading down to Kyalami and the sun was fading fast, from there left onto Allandale and we rode inside the roadworks section up to the Mall. My wife's office is just down hill from the mall and we rolled into the parking lot as the clock ticked over to 170km. I must say I was a little concerned about how traffic would be on those roads, and there was a fair amount of it, but for the most part people gave us space and we only really had one incident with a Taxi turning into the road from the opposite side whilst we were heading down a hill at over 60km/h. It was a great ride though. The take aways being our nutrition and hydration were a big problem, our timing could have been better, and then for me I need to get my bike fit checked as I suffered really badly from neck and shoulder pain. With just 30km left of the ride I'm sure I could have made it back, but my mate was absolutely stuffed, plus it was now dark, I was the only one with lights (and I'm not sure they would have lasted much longer) and there was some not so lekker areas to ride through. We made the right call on the day, but I'd like to try again one day.

People complain when these cars are bought and never driven. But if you see how people dont GUF about other peoples stuff you'd understand why. Then people moan when these cars are driven but the owners take precautions like this because they know people dont GUF. I dont care if my car costs R10k or R10m, its my money, I have to pay for the repairs, so stay the hell away from my car with your car door/hand bags/belt buckles etc.

Sunrise to sunset short of the 200km we wanted to do, but ran out of daylight and fitness

the smaller a bikini the more you pay

ouch. heal up soon

This will be a double century, never done one before

I’m actually wondering how much of this higher pricing is based on orders for these parts having to have been placed maybe 6 - 12 months back already. So whilst international prices have since come down, importers have paid the old price for these items and obviously need to pass these higher prices on.

Much appreciated. I will join soon I promise.

Route is straight out and back. But there should be plenty garages etc. along the way due to the area it goes through. the question was more along the lines of what to buy from these garages to replenish nutrition. baling out will be taken care of by calling on family to come and fetch 😂 although the wife had already said to me “call an Uber”

The last 2 lines of that advert is how people buy these

So heres a question on a related note. If doing a long ride, you can only take so much with you. What can one buy at convenience stores to top up bottles along the route? I'm planning on being on the road for around 9 hours, low intensity touring pace. Nutrition that I've planned to take along Gel (probably sufficient quantity for the full ride) Some FastBars (I dont like the farbar flavours so went with fastbars) 1 bottle regular cycling drink, plus a small bag with additional powder so i can make a second bottle 1 bottle plain water Meal stop at a cafe/restaurant half way.

now if some could come up with a better way of attaching race numbers to cycling tops without making holes in the expensive fabirc that would be great. (and no, I'm told those magnet thingies dont work that well)

So heres the thing. Less riders riding there make those riding easier targets as there are fewer people around. on the other hand, less people riding means fewer opportunities and hopefully these guys move on

yes, I'm again seriously considering riding with a club due to the increase in incidents lately. There is a certain hub member that keeps enticing me join the morning rides, but they happen a full hour earlier than when I normally ride in the mornings, so its taking some serious thinking. I would have joined them this morning, but it being my wifes birthday I though it best to not wake her early today.

maybe I'm stating the obvious, but do you bed in the brakes when you change pads and or rotors?

On sunday I'm doing my first ever 200k ride, I'm thinking of perhaps taking the week after as a rest week, zero exercise at all.

I’m finding I’m having to dig deep for motivation to get out and ride these days. But once I’m out there I enjoy it.

Load shedding has totally stuffed the 2 batteries in my one garage door motor. It had lost its limit settings and wont let me program new one because of insufficient power. Following a long thread on mybroadband the guys fit batteries with a high aH rating. These are also bigger in physical size and dont fit in the battery compartment, so the guys are building external "cages" to house them. Initially I thought i'd have to drop the entire motor to get to the batteries, but I managed to find a short enough screwdriver to get in there and unscrew the screws. I have 2 x 12v 9ah LA batteries that I bought for a UPS, the ups decided to let its smoke escape shortly after installing the batteries. Tested their voltage and they were still good, just a bit flat. I stuck them in the open battery department to connect them up and test with the thoughts of, if they work I'll build a "cage" to house them. But even though they dont fit the compartment properly, they still sit securely inside, all be it without being able to close the compartment after. First test and there was enough power to start the programming sequence, but not enough to finish. So I've left them on charge, the door on manual release for now. Once programmed I'm hoping the extra capacity will see me through the load shedding. for now I still want to trace the conduit going to the garage, I can see where it enters the garage but not on the house side. The idea is to run power through there (it currently only holds the wire for the alarm PIR in the garage) from the Inverter. That way we're not depleting tiny batteries in the garage motors during loadshedding.

my daily morning rides are fueled with just water. They are just short of 60 minutes. But I can feel if I have not eaten properly the night before, then i just cant give enough on the ride that morning. I should definitely be fueling pre-ride, just to lazy to wake up that little bit earlier.

Check one of the latest GCN vids, pro are apparently cramming close to 200g of carbs per hour.

Cyclelab is sometimes cheaper than other places. just recently bought 2 boxes of fast bars from them, cheaper than what dischem has them when in special. R49 vs R55 (I also happened to have a voucher so landed up not paying a cent for them, but that’s a different story)

and depending on which cell network you are on you may not have signal in certain areas. (I know cell C is a problem)