W@nted

Welcome to NL! Yip and when the sun eventually comes out you have to grab the bike and ride! oh, and stay away from markplaats.nl if you want to stay within your budget…just bought a set of favero power pedals for 250 euros 🤯

Not a comparison, sorry, but I loved my barista express. Great quality and a great way to dive into the barista rabbit hole. I bought mine second hand for R6k, so that made it a no brainer for me.

Thanks for this! My travelling is a bit easier since I am staying in the Netherlands

This looks awesome. Need to commit to this or amateur Paris Roubaix.

Haha the bridge is 10km away from where we are. Wind was hectic! Even here in Middelburg I have seen flags waving in different directions. Feels like the gusts hit you from all directions. These dutch are crazy people. Saw on Strava guys doing a casual 90km ride during yesterday’s winds

I arrived in NL 3 weeks ago. Bought a commuter (stadsfiets) to commute to work. I sold my mtb in sa and brought my road bike on the plane. Commuter bikes are super cheap here. We bought second hand bikes for between 80 and 150 euros each. All equipped with shimano 7 speed rear hub and dynamo in the front hub for the front light. i am however struggling to gel with the stadsfiets setup. Way too upright. Especially in the wind. I think I might be selling the commuter soon and buy a cheapish gravel bike… Just fit some mudguards and rear rack if required for shopping. I have seen some nice grave bikes used as commuters, just make sure it is parked out of sight and locked. All the commuter bicycles are equipped with a lock around the rear wheel, but you can just pick the bike up and carry it away. in short, I would buy a second hand gravel bike here for commuting… I am enjoying the road and gravel riding on the bicycle lanes! Good luck with the last admin and more admin when you arrive. Welcome to pm me for any info, as we are going through the process…

Oh and I am using the paraffin wax and ptfe mixture.

250km on the MTB. Road bike (mix of trainer and road) I get about 300km before the drivetrain gets a bit noisy. Note the mtb km are dry and dusty, no mud.

I am getting around 230km per wax treatment. I must say, it is a bit of a hassle, but I enjoy the absence of any chain degreaser and scrubbing the chain when washing the bike. I just remove the chain, pour boiling water over it and dunk it in the melted wax.

This is a good suggestion. However, how sustainable it is I do not know. Maintaining a public road costs a lot of money. Especially longer distances. Also, out of experience, fixing potholes with bags of ready mix tar does not last. Especially when sharing the road with trucks. It is a losing battle.

Gravel racing is the future. (At least outside of WC province). Public roads are getting worse by the day.

Where on dstv can we watch the short track race?? edit, I am too early

Check the road bar tape on rapide website… Thank me later.😁

On my last kmc x11 chain on my road bike, I replaced it after 15k km (0.5 wear on parktool checker)… using smoove lube… Many of those km were on the idt though, but still, the life of the chain surprised me.

Crash makes sense. Was wondering what was going on with his brake lever in the first pic.

I have been of the bike for almost 3 weeks. Started of as a chest infection and just will not clear. Been through antibiotics, cortisone and tamiflu. Now just dosing with vitC to the max. So frustrating. Tried a zone 2 ride the weekend, hr ok, but muscles sore afterwards. Hopefully the vitamins help.

Wrong thread? What does the team format of epic have to do with xco wins?

Have a look at the winning time by the pros. This is a good indication of how tough the route is. I did the old route in 2011. Almost had me in tears… All other routes of similar distance is “tame” compared to the monster. I have skipped it the last 3 years, it is sad that the numbers are so down. Used to be well supported. Wonder why though, route getting too easy or too hard? 😬

The magalies monster is known for being a tough race. (Now a bit easier compared to the route of 2011 round). It even says so in the race brief/description. The terrain is what makes it the monster, you will always suffer on this 65km loop. Sounds like another edition where it lived ip to its reputation. I could not ride it this year, so cannot comment on the food stalls though. Sorry if the food was not on par, that should not be the case. As mentioned, the monster is not supposed to be a manicured mtb trial. It is tough. Supposed to be tough. Be proud of yourself if you finished it.

So I managed to fix a slipping seatpost (aluminium post in carbon frame). Tried carbon friction paste, no success using the indicated torque values on the clamp… Then tried the old chalk trick. Works a charm! Basically applied chalk on the clamp area. No slippage. I am however not sure what the long term effect can be on the alu/carbon?

Thread revive. Where can one do lactate threshold testing in jhb in 2023?

I have ditched the wax pot from takealot. Took 60min to melt the wax. I took out the inner of that pot and just use it in a double boiler fashion now. (Submerged in bigger pot with boiling water). Melts the wax in 6 minutes. I must say the drivetrain feels super smooth the first 40km. Still trying to figure out exactly when to re wax. On the trainer it sounds dry, but not squeeking dry after about 150km. MTB is still quiet after about 90km, will push it further. When do you guys re wax the chain?

I had a piece of glass cut my rear tire during maluti. Also did not want to seal properly. Even with a normal “worm” plug it did not want to keep pressure, but got me home. At home I took off the tire, removed the plug and cleaned the inside. Sanded the inside and applied a norma tube patch inside the tire. Works a charm. Holding pressure, no issues. also applied some rubber shoe glue to the outside of the cut. I think applying a patch on the inside of the tire is the best way forward👍🏻

Remember to straighten your helmet ⛑️ when bonking. We do not want another Roglic moment.