wesley_r

I don't know what Karkloof et al are like, but I can tell you that if you want a challenge, do Eselfontein (in October usually). 25km, 40km and 70km options. The longer routes have gut busting climbs, miles of singletrack (some of which is proper forest singletrack - that gets ridden twice) and rocky, fast descents! Have you ridden many of the Cape Town trails? Outside of races, there is much of the terrain you seek to be ridden

according to http://www.vigne-a-vigne.com/ the 50km start time was 7:30 and cut off was at 12:30. Anyone finishing in under 5 hours should have received a medal as far as I am concerned. Anything less from the organisers is unacceptable, if I were you I'd drop them a mail and voice my displeasure.

according to the website, it was a timed event. I assume the Cape Times gazebo just after the finish would be where the timing was being done (manually) also - there was a photographer at the last corner before the straight to the finish i saw more than 3 marshals. or were they just spectators pointing me in the right direction? hard to tell

yeah it wasn't very exciting

maybe i was just having a bad day

Being somewhat unfit and unprepared I signed up for the 27km route. Apparently there were 600 riders in the 27km group @ R130 / head that's R78 000 for that field alone. My old man and I rode together and he sponsored, so I'm not complaining about the cost but they must have raked in a fair amount of cash for this one. I didn't find the organisation particularly bad, BUT hearing stories here of staff disappearing before cut-off - if that happened to me I'd be peaved. A goodie bag is not essential, but come on - it does leave you with that warm, fuzzy feeling I wasn't nuts about the 27km route. It was advertised as a "challenge for the novice" but in my opinion as a novice route it had too many climbs (even if it was meant to be challenging) and there was a lot of walking, and unfortunately too little singletrack. Most of the downhill bits were open, fast and in many places loose and rocky singletrack, so again, some novices might have had a hard time here.

Cap - good topic! My 2 cents - any protection is good. But I think that for far too long have we had to struggle with matching up body armour to neckbraces - only now is there a steady supply of "Leatt compatible" body suits / chest protectors on the market, but in my opinion still not enough. If a body armour suit was truly built to work WITH a neck brace, we'd have better distribution of force - the alledged collarbone breaking "wings" would instead spread impact over the whole shoulder area, and the alledged back braking brace over the entire back protector. Better yet, there would be a fancy layer of d30 or something for added impact absorbtion. This is my dream As for that pesky back brace, maybe the design of the new Leatt road motorcycle braces is the way to go: http://www.ratherberiding.co.za/neck-brace-for-boy-racers-leatt-stx/

forget the tyres, tell us how you like the heckler?

I'm sure he won't mind, it's for a good cause

that's another one - meta 5.5's go for a song 2nd hand (there's one here on the hub for R7500)

the lines are very blurred between disciplines, i think it's more a "sliding" scale than a set amount of travel per discipline XC > Trail > AM > FR/DH 100mm > > > > > > 200mm+ trail bikes can be anything from 120mm-140mm, AM bikes from 140mm-170mm, it all depends on the bike. My Mongoose 100mm hardtail is my "all mountain" bike, I have yet to chuck it off something really big, but I ride sections like the lower "black" route at Contermanskloof just fine on it (without the chicken run) - it's the only bike I can afford so I use it for whatever it's needed. It's been upgraded with burly wheels, shin-eating flat pedals and boobars Ideally what I'd like as a Trail / all-mountain rig is something like a 2nd hand GT force, Specialized Stumpy OR Enduro, Giant Reign, etc or if I come into some money the new Reign X (love it), Santa Cruz Butcher / Nomad, etc Personally I think 150mm is the magic number. I have nothing to base that on though

Hey guys, when you're out riding (or buying a bike) please keep a lookout for the following: A friend of mine's Gambler was stolen from his place in Stellenbosch last night sometime between 7pm and 2am. It's a white, small Scott Gambler (2008) with Truvativ Boobars and SRAM X0 gears, Fox rear shock, black Marzocchi 888 RV forks, Hussafelt cranks and white pedals. Phone Gustav - oh-7-too 402 9277

A friend of mine's Gambler was stolen from his place in Stellenbosch last night sometime between 7pm and 2am. It's a white, small Scott Gambler (2008) with Truvativ Boobars and SRAM X0 gears, Fox rear shock, black Marzocchi 888 RV forks, Hussafelt cranks and white pedals. Phone Gustav - oh-7-too 402 9277

unless it's the 10th time and your name is Dan Atherton. In which case you break your neck and wear a halo for 6 months. Not that a helmet would have helped though (he was wearing one). Just saying

to all of you out there that use and love lizard skins lock on grips - do you perhaps have a worn out old set you're no longer using, or some spare parts - i literally need 1 locking ring + the bolt. I lost a bolt somewhere (must have not tightened it properly) and like an idiot stripped the thread on the locking ring trying to get a different bolt from another brand of lock on grips in let me know if you have a spare, don't care how messed up it is, as long as it works... CWC says they're getting ring "packs" in, but only at the end of the month, and the grips i'm using at the moment as replacements suck!

hey Kiwi - it's March

I am not a fan of "cheap" helmet cams... not only is the image quality poorer, but the footage is often not as stable (I've seen footage from cheap cams with scan lines across it), or the mounting system is inferior. IMHO it's worth forking out for a decent HD cam... Read my review of the HD170 here: http://www.ratherberiding.co.za/review-drift-hd170-action-cam/ Yeah, it's not cheap. But it's good. The GoPro960 could also be an option... That's just my 2c

I agree and disagree... Agree that "trail" might be a better description, but I simply use the term "all mountain" since that's what the industry is labelling them as. Disagree, because as I see it. all mountain means pedalling up and bombing down all day long - "all of the mountain"... a full face is hot and heavy in that situation. Freeride and downhill are where I'd don a full face...

It seems there's been an increase in the number of what are being labelled as "all mountain" helmets - mtb-specific helmets with increased rear coverage for more risky trail / all mountain type riding... First there was the Fox Flux, and Giro's Xen and Hex... Then Specialized jump on board with the Vice And now we've got offerings from 661 and Lazer, as well as the Giro Xar - the replacement for the Xen (as well as other manufacturers jumping on board) What do think? Are you riding with an "all-mountain" lid, or if not do you plan to? Do you like the extra protection, or does the slight increase in weight and bulk put you off? I'm curious to see what the hub thinks. Sadly I think we'll only get half of these in SA...

dodgy

Some feedback after a couple of rides: 1. BooBars - feel weird when climbing, will take some getting used to. Definitely more aimed at the gravity crew than the XC / trail side of things I'd say, but hey if it works it works. The nice thing about climbing with them is the front is less twitchy over rough climbs, as you're more stable over the front of the bike. On the trail going down they are great. I don't know if cornering is any better, but general bike control definitely is. I've done a few small bumps and jumps and the second the bike leaves the ground it tracks true and straight - takeoffs and landings feel very controlled 2. Grips - no complaints. They look good and they are very comfy for both climbing and descending. 3. Pedals - love love love. DMR + Vans = k@k op 'n wolkombers, they really stick amazingly. Obviously that means more confidence on the trail as well! The sealed cartridge bearings also pedal very smoothly - very happy, but I am going to need shin guards, those pins are sharp!!

What blue bike? It was the same bike. I was wearing a blue shirt though

tube's valve was totally ripped from the force, also - after muscling the wheel off (I had a spare tube) I realised the sidewall was torn Same - Nevegal I wasn't going slowly... the second the tire blew it came off the rim and the wheel locked... I had the bike sideways in both directions and miraculously stayed on!!

absolutely nothing as far as i can tell... just a freak blowout

Thanks to the bike shed for the shuttle yesterday. I got one run of the singletrack (not the downhill course) in followed by a lovely hike from the tabletop back to the shed