tinmug

That's true. They'll need a commentator, some media chaps with cameras and microphones and a helicopter. Uh, hang on ... 😅 In all fairness I have no idea what the mileage was out of the earlier attempts for live broadcasting, I can only imagine they had far more peeps watching the teenager clips on social media. I'll just have to go fly my own bloody helicopter there and see what happens. 😜

Thanks DD. I was hoping we'd some a live feed again – I have an attention span exceeding 10-second Twitter clips. 😉

Here we are again. Wondering what on earth is going on. Did they start at 1500 today? Who knows. Struggling to understand why a medical aid company or a whatever it is the other company sells would give so much money for so little publicity in return? Not much happening on social media either. Any insights into the race appreciated. 🤷‍♂️

It is available on Apple TV.

Regrettably have had really bad service from Cycleworx (as in bike came bike non-functional and damaged), so I tend to trek east for expertise. Don't know Frankie Fietse at all.

A different perspective, and refreshing that the author is transparent about his friendship with CS. It’s long-form journalism, and it did raise a handful of new details for me (bear in mind the limitations of what can be said before Armstrong’s case has played out). I thought it was okay and worth the time to read. I haven’t read Outside content for several decades - since long before they had a web presence, in print - so cannot comment on the quality of Before vs Present. But thanks for your thoughts on this either way.

Ultra-lightweight Maxxis. 😉

Hopefully with better tyres ... 😜

Why do you say it was a 'terrible article'?

Yes.

Saldanha airfield? (Or the air force base?) Time?

Don't forget the West Coast National Park for low traffic.

Cycling is awesome, and a great way to explore scenery. Can't recommend a bike but cycling in dry dune sand is bordering on impossible. But plenty else to explore and just about any mountain bike will have you up and running in no time. Speaking of which, where along the West Coast can beach trails be found?

Now the fun starts: De Ruyter has resigned. 🙈🙉🙊

How?

Alan made one mistake: when the trail petered out he tried to find where it went instead of doing a 180. Apart from that he remained calm and for the most part sounds like he was pretty much in control of the situation. Following the screens above it's crazy how tantalisingly close he was to farm land. An emergency blanket is not a bad thing to carry in your tool baggie: weighs nothing, takes up little space and has a huge range of uses, including high reflectivity. Following a river downstream was probably the best possible idea (especially once establishing no cell reception on the ridge lines – very tall tree cover in this area). If only he'd followed the trail back when it started running thin ...

So what actually happened to Alan? Full recovery likely?

Should be easy(-ish) to catch the bastards then: park a car with a nice bike somewhere and sit and wait with a video camera and cattle prodder.

Yep, and ask for a COC (insurance likes that, even if it's not yet required). As mentioned above the cables, switches and lugs are pricey. It will probably take them better part of a day to wire the whole lot up, but then you can chuckle when load-shedding hits (until we get 8+ hour sheds, then you're going to need more batteries and PV panels ... and that's coming).

Yep, sounds about right. That's why we all want Victron-level stuff. 😉

@Madone69 You will likely have your DB split between essentials (lights, plugs) and non-essentials (stove, geyser) - this is pretty basic and straightforward to do (or rather: have done). You'll need override switches between DB and inverter (allowing grid feed to inverter, inverter feed to DB etc). Isolator switches between battery and inverter. And that's about it.

Donate some bucks to a worthy (animal) charity instead of buying stuff you probably don't need. 👍

Victron. 😂 (if you can afford it) I'm the wrong guy to ask: what I know is only from speaking with installers and much reading on various forums (powerforum.co.za is good place for local info). I started with a Kodak inverter; wasn't at all happy with it, then had that pulled off and replaced with a Sunsynk (seems to be rated highly by a number of people) – a lot cheaper than Victron and has appointed agents/official representation in SA. As it turns out I did have a problem, had to work via the Cape Town supplier (which was a joke), but managed to get it all sorted out in the end. Reasonable cost compared with Axpert/Mecer/Kodak etc, QUIET, manufacturer-made app (that's a big one) and very good interface. Plus the ability to shape battery charge throughout a daily cycle (better for the batteries). Construction quality looks good, and doesn't have the horror stories I've heard so much of about other makes.

Thanks. What inverter are you currently running? It seems that the Axpert, Synerji, Mecer and Kodak inverters are all (barring a few minor differences) the same. And all of them with iffy support ... and have heard of many of them with MPPT failures. Buyer beware. 🙈

Ouch. What brand is your inverter? Edit: Don't worry, saw your subsequent post. 👍 I'm mentally filing away what works and what doesn't for future reference. Mistake I first made was inadequate research and this burnt me a little, but believe I now have a reasonable (and expandable) system (Sunsynk inverter, Revov batteries, JA Solar PV panels). We learn as we go ... ... one thing is for sure: we are all going to have to become independent of Eskom (but luckily tech is becoming cheaper by the day). Just beware of the flood of sub-par (c)rap out there.