aquaratza

So exciting but also a bit concerning - hopefully I haven't bitten off more than I can chew haha.

It was fun ride, much easier than I was expecting (I'm not complaining), I loved the climbs but: - they directed a lot of cars into the mud - my friends had to help push my Polo out of the mud. - the water points had a lot of sugar and not much else, maybe I missed the potatoes ? - they stuck photographers on sections where everyone piled up but when it came to the EPIC RIVER CROSSING where my shoes got soaked there was no one to capture the *magic* hahahaha, oh well, gopro next time. I avoided the food/family thing afterwards. FLEEEEE Generally it was a nice event but I think the Tygerberg MTB Club has spoilt me... I get amazing views and pristine trails every time I leave the house. I'm pretty new to this MTB race thing but I'm surprised no one has come up with a solution to people bunching up at single track climbs.

Some friends and I are in for Sunday yay. I got an e-mail, it says "NO number collections, late entries, substitutions or distance changes on race day." What is a "number collection" ? The board ? Thanks for the Strava route @ Rouxenator. -edit- I phoned them and they said the boards have to be collected the day before the race, just fyi.

Thanks for the heads up.

Hi guys Not sure if this is the right place to post this. I recently rode the Oatlands corridor and I couldn't get the gate next to Vissershok Road to open with the standard code... not sure if something is wrong with it. Looks like the signs on the gate have been damaged. Also, I just wanted to say a general thanks for all the work that's been done lately - even though the storm and the cows have already had their way with Oatlands haha (it's been 3 days).

ahahahaha, it seems to be the thing now if you bomb past someone they say (joke?) you're on an eBike .

Largely agree with @ Mamil. I joined some friends for this event. We took it easy as one of our riders was slow. The single track blockages/queues were a bit frustrating. You work hard, get up the hill and then come to a stop for a few minutes hahahaha. I feel like they needed some gating/buffering on difficult sections to improve the quality of the ride for everyone. Some portions of the trail (on day 1 towards the end) disintegrated pretty badly/erosion. I feel like a conservative ass for disliking the eBikes... but yeah. I can hear those motors working hard. I feel like the eBikes often allow people who haven't really worked to ride that event (and lack experience) the upper hand and then they clog up the trail. "Training" and then reaping the rewards of that training, for me, is a big part of why I ride. It feels amazing when you know *you* did it.

Hi I'm planning on visiting Cairns in Australia for a few weeks. I was wondering if anyone here had any experience hiring bicycles and/or riding trails in the Cairns area ? I spent a few weeks in Tenerife late last year, during which I hired two basic hard tails and cycled with my SO through the pine plantations. We alternated between MTB and diving on alternate days. It was awesome. I'm hoping to recreate that kind of experience in Australia. Any advice/ideas would be great. Thanks

I'm booked to ride this with some friends, we're apparently going to take it "easy". Super excited.

Is there any chance I could buy a second board under my name/ID for when a friend/family comes to visit ? It would be really cool to be able to ride the club trails with them. Also, the trails rock ( ), thanks again for the hard work

Thanks for the info IMPACT, I'll either try a different route or defer my ride to Monday

Hi everyone I just had an awesome early morning MTB ride at Contermanskloof I recently bought a road bike and I'd like to take it out for a proper spin tomorrow (Sunday 23 February 2019). I'd ideally like to cycle with someone for safety and the social thing humans sometimes do. I don't mind what bike you use if you decide to join. I'm flexible, promise. I'm thinking of starting at around 07:00 to avoid the heat. I stay in Sonstraal, Durbanville. I'm not a hardcore cyclist; I cycle for fun and fitness and I'm relatively new to cycling in general. For those interested I'll probably aim for an average power output of 180w, but once again I'm flexible if someone joins . It's not a race, it's just fun, exploration, fitness. I'm thinking, very roughly, of this route : https://www.strava.com/routes/17273795 which is about 39 KM in length. If someone joins who wants to go further, that'd be cool. A detour could be made for Hillcrest or the DairyShed for coffee, snacks, refreshments, etc. The ride is a bit of an experiment because part of the ride is gravel and I have no idea how my road bike will deal with that - but it's a fairly short gravel segment, I think it'll be fine . I have cycled this route a few times on my mountain bike. Feel free to send me a message if anyone's interested.

I bought a Specialized Roubaix SL4 Sport through the classifieds (not disk brakes). I want to give road cycling a go. The bike is very cool. It's pretty, unbelievably light (especially compared to my Camber). I'm investigating putting gravel wheels/tyres onto it. There are a few fun back roads near Durbanville including lots of gravel to explore. It's probably not possible to install gravel tyres/wheels, there's very little clearance between the front fork and the current tyre (enough for a finger). Does anyone have any experience or advice for putting gravel wheels onto a Roubaix SL4 ? Unreasonable ? Buy a Diverge ? Stick to your MTB ? Thanks

He had the colour set to white.

I recently picked up my boards. I don't mind pink generally (I dive with a pink SMB) but yeah, pink was an unfortunate choice for the TMTBC boards . The older blue boards looked nicer. Also, while riding yesterday at Meerendal I came across an open gate from Meerendal to Diemersdal. It was unmarked except for a "disclaimer" board. Is this maybe part of a new trail ?

e-bikes look like a lot of fun and I am tempted to get one haha, but ultimately it seems like the coming age of the e-bike is akin to the hordes about to flood through the gates. Being fit enough to access the trails is it's own reward and relying on an e-bike to get you there feels like it diminishes that challenge/reward. It feels like a cheat. MTB carries some respect because it's self-powered and promotes fitness/health. I think this helps persuade land owners to allow it. Traditionally-powered bikes/quads are very damaging to the land/trails. But maybe you're physically incapable of accessing the trails due to some underlying condition (disability?) and in these cases power-assistance seems acceptable. I don't want the trails to go away...

TMTBC trails are awesome. I discovered MTB properly a few months ago and I almost can't believe how lucky I am to have so many cool trails on my doorstep. Also, I'm sure a lot of happy trail riders won't contribute to this thread because they just want to ride... so while it may look like everyone is negative, I'm sure this isn't the case. I'll certainly be buying next year's membership To all the land owners, thank you for making your beautiful lands available to MTB riders, you rock! And of course thank you to the TMTBC and the trail builders

"like strippers at the water points" "It used to be invitation only (Sanlam staff & clients), now it's open for everybody." ^ cool thanks Skubarra. Dorstberg gate rawwwwr

- Update - I got to go through the gate this Sunday, but from the quarry side into Meerendal. We routed in through the entrance to what I think is called the Fair Cape Loop and eventually up through the quarry to the Meerendal Dorstberg gate. It was hard work, I had to walk some bits of it. While it was fun to do for a change I'm not sure I'd do it routinely. I figured I'd post some photos if anyone in future is curious : This is looking towards the North, Meerendal is towards the right of the image. The path to the gate curves around the water. This is looking up towards the gate. and then things got too crazy to allow camera use

There's apparently a mountain bike race happening this weekend (17/18 November 2018) at Meerendal - but there doesn't seem to be any mention of it on Bikehub ? Maybe my search skills on the incredible edible internet suck ? Is anyone here taking part in it ? Why is it called "invitational" (especially seeing as people can sign up for it) ? It looks like it'll go through the Dorstberg gate (!!!) at the end of the second day.

I should just point out that (1) I don't go randomly riding on private land (as tempting as it is ) (I pay my fees) and (2) to ride that trail you'd need to carry bolt cutters to get through the lock . I was just curious why it's closed. It could be a nice circuit* to ride (and avoid the tight road down the hill from Meerendal). *circuit : Durbanville -> Meerendal -> Malanshoogte -> Adderley Road -> Durbanville (for me about 53 KM, it's a pretty ride) lol @ sanctioned race

haha, more trails are better than less, explore! Thanks for the info

Apologies in advance if this has been asked before but at the top of the Dorstberg trail at Meerendal there's a gate. On Strava one can see that a long time ago (2012) people used to ride beyond the gate and down onto what looks like the Olief farm (Malanshoogte Road and the M58). There's at least one Strava segment in this area called "Dorstberg through quarry" which was mostly ridden in 2013 and last ridden in 2017. I was just wondering what happened to this trail ? Why did the gate get locked/trail get closed ? Thanks!

Do you just upload the .fit files ? You can sync the Bolt/Elmnt with Dropbox and Google Drive, then I'd guess you'd grab the files from there and upload to Garmin Connect.