Trackz

Two Kickr Cores, two in the bin, both lasted 3 years, often used, then popped, unrepairable. Both times it was the motherboard. Replaced with a Tacx, outlasting the Core's so far. This is my objective reality, nothing emotional. Love Wahoo products, HR belt lasting much longer than any of my previous Garmin belts.

Front only lasted 3 months till the first rain ride but was great while it lasted. Rear survived.

The interview is in two parts. Part 1 - The period leading up to Raceday. Part 2. Raceday and advise on how to develop the skills to ride an Olympic MTB course.

Sticky draft. Awfully annoying. We ride WTRL TTT every Thu and the lead rider has to sit up and soft pedal to let the next turn come past, else he effectively blocks. If you are next at 85-90% HR and the leader doesn't sit up, you not getting past ever. You'll need to go probably 20% harder to get past. As I said, very annoying. Even worse is when you're in a small group, passing another small group and you get stuck while the others go past and open a gap. Life in the "virtual fast lane" issues.

Sounds right. I had same query with Vitality. Family spend capped at R4000 in one month x 30% = R1200. So for R18000 spend, you will still get max R1200 back (R4000 capped x 30%).

"16th of March 2020 it was R16.63 to 1$" 7 June 2020 USDZAR R16.86... when are you expecting the next batch to land :-)

Ag no. Heart breaking to hear. Such a gentleman. Gave us his cheese & sardines lunch when he was Race Director at Race to Willowmore 2017 and a couple of us were craving food in the Baviaans. RIP Johann.

Hi Admin From the posts it sounds like you provided the tech backend ... so guessing then maybe you'll know if there's another for this year, ie Epic 2018? Thank you.

There are sections near Alma that are either like a beach or with deep corrugations that will test your suspension and patience. Pack Cataflam. Love riding there, hate riding there if that makes sense.

I got "tricked" into 36One two weeks before the race having told all and sundry its not for me, then announced its my first and last, now I'm not so sure any longer :-). Here's my thoughts ... https://makingtrackz.wordpress.com/2017/04/25/36one-race-report/

Hi Some advice on the water points please. What can one expect to find? - Solid food. I understand there will be food at CPs.. - To take along to next WP? Energy bars, gels, fruit, food, etc? Trying to work out of I need to take anything else/put in boxes wrt food or if whats at the WP will be sufficient? Many thanks

2006 Tour de France Stage 17, Floyd Landis' solo break away. I landed back in SA after a few days at the Tour the morning of that stage and watched the whole stage in the afternoon live with my then 14-year old son, cheering Landis like he was cycling on water. A day or so later things went pear-shaped. We still love cycling and the Tour, it has proven bigger than any doper, long live cycling, long live Le Tour!

Hijack On As an option there's always the Race to Rhodes in June, 500km 12,500m ascent, non-stop, unsupported, unmarked, map & compass navigation, breathtaking climbs & scenery, bike pushing & portaging, -10C temperatures, Vuvu chicken, Lehanas Pass, R6,000 entry fee, finishers whip. Hijack Off

I will concede as follows :-). - Their press release was clear. Sponsor withdrew -> economics didn't make sense - event cancelled. Nothing new there. - They did however say the prize money was guaranteed. If it wasn't, that speaks to integrity of the event going forward and that needs to be clarified in order to ensure they can be believed next time. Bit of damage control required.

I wouldn't waste any questions on the economics, guarantees, etc. It's inconvenient and embarrassing enough to the Munga team as it is and they have disclosed what they wanted to in their press release. Asking questions about the obvious will make your interview like Radio Jakaranda, they just repeat what's already in the public domain. I spoke to Alex in the week after the launch and I was honest to say I'd love to take on the challenge but I can't justify nor afford the entry fee. I think their are many others like me, we'd love to give it a bash and have no interest in the prize money. If they charged a R10k entry fee just for bragging rights & the right to ride the route, they'll attract a significant volume of riders, the winners can take my R10k with pleasure. I just want the bragging rights to be able to say I've completed the Munga. Make it like Freedom, Munga provides 2 Cokes & a slice of cheese at 500km at the Gariep Spaza, other than that you're on your own, if you bail call your mom, if your bike breaks, call a buddy or weld the frame, etc. My Q: Will they consider something like the above? My parting message to Alex: Ignore the critics, we all hope he can make the Munga work and help establish SA as the MTB epicentre of the world! :-)

Exact spot I saw them on Sunday, 21/9 11h00.

Re Klapperkop attempted robbery. Drove down George Storrar today, on corner with Herbert Baker, inside the fence, close to the spot where the attempted robbery took place last Saturday (as I understood) was at least one vagrant sitting under a tree. I'm guessing those vagrants call that spot home.

Pretoria East MTB is a Facebook Group that loves MTB. On Saturday 20 September our group is doing the WTF Hill Challenge to see who can ride the hill the most times between 6h00 and 11h00. WTF is a Strava segment in Pretoria East. It is not an organized race, it is a social group ride. WTF Hill Challenge. Big announcement! Johan-Dawid Engelbrecht from Plumb Tech 24/7 has kindly offered to put up the following prizes for the WTF Hill Challenge on Saturday morning (20 Sep 2014). Now known as the Plumb Tech 24/7 WTF Hill Challenge. 1st Prize: R1000 2nd Prize: R500 3rd Prize: R300 Lucky Draw: R250 (must have completed at least 3 repeats) In addition Plum Tech 24/7 will also provide a self-help cold drink stop at the top of the hill (while stocks last :-)). Event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/544020212393506/557112457750948/?notif_t=like Pretoria East MTB on Strava: http://www.strava.com/clubs/Pta-East-MTB Pretoria East MTB on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/134361270058168/ Just a reminder for the arrangements: - The WTF Hill Challenge is a self regulated normal Saturday social ride, it is not an formally organized race. There are no marshals or medical staff. - You start when you arrive and you finish when you leave. The official ride time is from 6h00-11h00. No registration, no number plates, just pitch up and ride and go home. - The WTF Hill is a public road and there is no road closure, please be careful and respectful of vehicles, assume they have right of way. - Cyclists will ride up at 10km/h with others coming down at 50km/h. Please keep left at all times and respect riders coming from the front. Collisions on this hill will likely have medical consequences. - In order to qualify for either boasting rights or prizes, you need to log your ride on Strava. Unfortunately this is the only way to regulate a social event. - There is a Strava Club for Pretoria East MTB. You need to join this club and log your ride on Strava. Please see the link below. - Please check the number of laps you have done and post this in your Ride Name so we can pick this up without having to open every ride, eg "WTF Hill Challenge 5 laps". - Strava is the sole judge and it is your responsibility to ensure you complete the lap completely so Strava can pick it up. Suggest you ride 20m or so past the top & bottom to make sure it is a complete lap. - Winners will be those with the most Strava completed hill repeats. - Plumb Tech 24/7 will do the lucky draw for those with more than 3 laps. - We will announce the winners on Tuesday on the Pretoria East MTB Facebook group. We will arrange a meeting at Ed's Diner, Parkview on Tuesday evening 18h00 to hand over the prize money, drink the obligatory milkshake and take a picture.

For what it's worth, I believe there are 2 issues in this whole debate which I think are mixed up. 1. The moral issue. From a moral perspective we are disappointed when our sport gets tainted or our hero's fail our trust. Pick your moral punishment but it should not be confused with regulatory punishment or consequences. Morally the punishment will manifest in social dynamics and this sentence is perhaps much worse than the regulatory punishment. Using moral measures to justify regulatory punishment measures seems inappropriate and driven by emotion rather than by what has been determined from a regulatory perspective, debated and agreed by the control authorities and may I add, the athletes themselves.. 2. The regulatory issue. The consequences for the guilty are clear and if someone has served their punishment one could reason it would be unfair to expect them to be punished beyond what the sport's regulation require. If there is a belief that the regulatory punishment is too soft, then fix the punishment terms but it surely cannot be right to extend punishment beyond the regulatory punishment. Almost seems illegal. Like sending a person back to jail after his term just because we don't like what he did. Let's give one another space to make mistakes, learn from them, pay our dues and become better people. I'd like to be treated that way so I'm happy to grant others the same opportunity. My 2c

If I recall it was steroids to help him recovery from injury as he had pressure put on him to ride for his team or risk losing his position. So he got a boost from a friend with the expectation it would be out of his system in a certain period. It wasn't and he got caught. Bad decision making I guess as with all drug offences. I don't want to wish harm on anyone but it has always bugged me that he is seen as a face of cycling. Maybe he does a lot of good and is outspoken against drugs and goes around teaching schools about the negative aspects of PED's.

Maybe my story will make you feel a bit better. In December 2013 I came across an identical looking bike (that twin front fork being the clincher) to yours while in Komatipoort. That one was Black and had a Chicago label, it looked run down and very old and I thought I had uncovered an antique. I was onto Google in a flash and had it nailed down to a pre-world war II Western Flyer that had been used by the Germans. My plan was to buy the Mozambique(n) owner a new bicycle in return for taking his "antique" so I can restore it, ride it at Critical Mass and look really cool. So as not to allude him of the treasure he was sitting on, I carefully asked him where he got the bicycle from. As it turns out the bicycle was less than 2 years old and someone had bought it for him from a store in Komatipoort. Earning food & water with no Cyclelab around, the steel bike had deteriorated rapidly. So I thought well the least I could do was help get the bike back in riding condition. So off to Komatipoort ... 2 pedals, 2 new tyres and 2 new tubes cost me about R600 and in the store there were several brand new identical bicycles for just over R1000. I think they come from India or China and are found all over in rural Africa. Although I hope for you that your bike is maybe something more scarce, I suspect it may well be the same bike. If you want I can post you some of those pictures.

https://www.strava.com/activities/177698904 There are options. Our considerations were as follows: - Start Pretoria East, end at Dullstroom, go past 300 - Gravel as far as possible and as easy as possible :-) - We headed South towards Bapsfontein to make up some distance early on, obviously not the most direct route - R25 N of Bronkhorstspruit quiet at night & safer, given no shoulder, in day time that's a problem section - We chose the R33 near Stoffberg from Loskop. It's tar and was a bit too busy on a Sat morning. Alternative was a gravel detour to the SE of Loskop but that went over a mountain :-). I would recommend the latter actually Now if you have a route from Benoni to the KZN coast, mostly on gravel ... that may earn you a long beer!

Do it again ... nope. Box ticked. Next one has to be 400+ and then it's so close to 500, why stop at 400? Maybe a non-stop Joberg2c?

Why stop at wheels size, why not also tyre width? Tyres on my old BMW F650GS: Front Tyre. 90/90 S21. Rear Tyre. 130/80-17 Fat bike rear paired with 29er front w upside down fork. May need a slightly different frame geometry . Geometry follows wheels anyway so if it makes sense for the wheels, the geometry can be made to look pretty. This months Critical Mass freak show may be the next Specialized Epic 2016 S-Works!

Nice one! Some good reading there. I have added a link to your blog on the Makingtrackz home page. Hope you don't mind.