JJDT

Interesting start this year...wonder why all the changes. From history riding this event every time there is changes to the start/finish at the event it means that possibly a change of venue is on the cards for the near future. Maybe I'm wrong this time but this is just my experience and view. As for time I do not think that I will be close to last years time due some health issues over the last 8 weeks or so. Looking at 3:30...anything faster will be a huge bonus.

Will also look at things that I value as a good deal.

Did you do the Parys outride this year...remember that we discussed ways on how to achieve 200km. Never got to do the event, but now that you mention it and if you did the event how was the ride.

Looks like Frosty do have a privileged account with the organisers for him to receive his details before most of us on here 😁

For me at this stage: Magalies Gravel Grinder 150km - February (Bailed last year, need to conquer this beast) Tour Durban MTB Event - April (Tentative) Race to the Sun - May

I will not stress, could not recall any tech sections. The 25km is aimed at mass participation for an enjoyable event. Most of the racing snakes will be hopefully in the front. Just enjoy the ride.

Sometimes you need to learn the "hard way"😀.

The entertainment/food stall area was behind the stadium. Wanted to buy a beer after the first race that was held at the stadium. Only had cash with me and then they only accepted card payments, that was the only time I went to that area. Doubt if we will go through the stadium by looking at the video clip. It will then mean the entrance/exit is at exactly in the same tunnel. This will mean that you do a "parade lap".

So no stadium walk through this year...which was a waste of time anyway imo. That last drag to the finish will be somewhat tough if you are going for the sprint downhill only to realise that you have burned the last matches and you need to drag yourself to the finish. The parking will be a challenge as I presume the field on the right hand side where us early birds used to park will now be used as the entertainment/food stall area.

How on earth did they calculate that avg.😕 @Spinnekop what was your avg time last year and I presume that the sharp end of A Batch were all together until the finish

Thanks Frosty, the reason for my post is the actual rules of the payback. I'm healthy and rarely see the inside of the consulting rooms. Now I have a hearing disability and need to make use of hearing aids. These units are expensive and although DH pays a large sum towards these units. When I claim for a new unit my savings account is used and that will put me in the self payment gap and thus I claim one unit in the first year and the second unit in the second year. Come payback time DH calculates all claims and immediately I'm in the above 30% claim bracket not because of health issues but for an item I need to make life easier. In hindsight I was quick to react instead of just do the maths and then decide.

Adding a gym session to your training program is excellent and for me I would follow the same approach, but I just do 2 gym sessions a week. My approach is some what flexible, if I feel I would rather ride instead of a gym session I go for a ride and also vice versa when I do not feel like riding I will go to the gym. Received an-mail from a person who I do follow on MTB fitness he summed this up nicely on what you experience. He basically explained the theory around training and a toilet roll. If you take a toilet roll and remove 4 sheets and look at the roll and will not notice any change. The same on the next week remove another 4 sheets and still it will show no movement. But after a few months we will start to notice the difference. It is the same as we start a training program, initially we will see no results but after a few months we will notice the difference. Here I'm also guilty as we recover from injury or sickness we want to see progress within a few days and then get frustrated if we have one high and the next a low, instead we just need to focus and patience do reward well.

Discovery with their changes now is using the endurance athletes criteria for everybody. I would love to see the ratio for people who are endurance athletes (registered) vs normal athletes. Time to consider vitality...(savings on life policy) vs saving the vitality fees and losing the every few years cash back bonus on the policy.

Their administration still amazes me. Received a WA message at 14:28 yesterday stating that I'm re-seeded to batch H. Received another message at 17:32 which is exactly the same as my original message received stating my batch and start time. I just hope the ride will be better than the administration and hopefully they did not forget to close one of the roads among the route.

Their queuing system is totally flawed it seems. I requested a re-seeding on website link entered all the info and a short motivation why. Received my re-seeding now, up from K - H after I requested G again as per last year. Not really satisfied but at least it is somewhat better. Now how come a few Hub Members who clearly stated that they requested a re-seeding a few days ago receive no response, but some receive a response within 24 hours. It does not seem that they do have a queuing system at all, it is like randomly choosing a request and not per time in.

Thinking about this seeding fiasco again. Will the organisers be able to cope with the huge demand of re-seeding requests? I only know of a few riders(Bikehub responses) that their seeding is also a mess. Hopefully they will consider to do a re-run of the seeding based on the possible huge number of re-seeding requests if everybody deem that their seeding is incorrect, which actually is.

Was there a race in 2020, can't seem to remember if there was a race? Found my results untill 2019 on racetec and the last 2021 and 2022 finishtime results.

Where do you query the number of races completed? I'm doing no 21 this year and it shows 18. The seeding is also a disgrace as I did a 3:18 last year and seeded in K last year was F.

Now with your question answered, do you still want to upgrade if your 830 will do the same job with a power bank? Just a curious observation.

Q1 No for seeding they look at past races completed, they will have the data. Q2 Yes

These guys with their Cortina's are smoking some good stuff...the person/s who buys it do have some better groceries that clouds their mind even more.

If you are a cyclist whether MTB or Road and did the transition to Gravel (Gravel Racing with a purpose built Gravel Bike) you should be able to handle some technical bits. On the road in midrace it starts to rain buckets of water and you are on a steep descent doing 50km/h + on a now wet road and know there is a sharp turn ahead you will know what to do in order not to crash. The same applies to MTB where some skill is needed to negotiate some tech sections to avoid crashing. Those skills can be applied to gravel if there is some tech section look ahead and plan. I do not recall that it was that difficult as per category winners comments.

The only reason I took it to Cyclelab is because there are no shops in our area that do know e-bikes. The only place that have some knowledge of e-bikes is West Rand Cycles, but they only know Specialized E-Bikes. Back on topic tried to adjust the cable but the more I fiddle the more oil is seeping out. I also tried to remove the entire seat post but it seems to be stuck with the cable. To replace the cable it seems that you need to remove the entire motor as the housing is running between the motor and the frame to the bottom of the seat tube. Searched for maintenance on these posts I found a manual and there is no mention of oil in this post, now even more confused about the source of the oil.

The seat post is a Merida Comp TR. No adjustments were made by us, and thanks for the confirmation about grease, lube and spray. I must add that last year after a year of ownership the bike was booked with Cycle Lab for a major service stating that both the suspensions needs to looked at and assumed that the dropper post will also be looked at. The mechanic contacted my wife stating that a major service was not needed and the both the suspensions looked fine. At found it strange at the time but left it there seeing that they know what to look for. I have made it my mission to aquire much knowledge as possible over the past year of what is true and what is not true. It seems now that the post is dire need of a proper service and adjustment.

Thanks for your input, but my concern is the oil that was found. If the cable tension was not correct it would've started noticeably during rides that it is problem?