TyronLab

I'm looking at getting some black kit due to staining all my current kit (99% of which is sponsored and contains a lot of white) with mud and looking grotty. That image makes me nervous for two reasons: I am of the hairy variety, so whomsoever should experience the misfortune of being stuck behind me may end up perma-vomiting to the point of dehydration and subsequent expiry should my shorts ever lose their opaqueness.Maybe I should worry about other types of stains showing if I get black lycra stuck behind that image again.... (yes, I totally just went there)

Yup, Bicycle Line has daily rides (except Mondays), road, with average speeds ranging from 23kph to 32kph+ depending on group. Start at 04:40 in the mornings, usually at the very least a 20-strong group, but peaks in the summer close to 94.7 and through december with 40 guys. I have been dropped and left behind on one or two occasions, but never in the slowest group as they'll always wait for everyone.

I'm part of an MTB WhatsApp group that's Based in Parkrand / Sunward Park in Boksburg. Very accommodating, all skill and fitness levels welcome. Think this is a great initiative as lots of guys are nervous about taking their first mtb steps solo.

First time venturing into this thread as I've very recently started running as the universe coalesced it into my life more than me actually wanting to start doing it. Up until a week ago I firmly maintained "why run when humanity has figured out a much more efficient mode of transport called riding a bike?!?". I had tried running for a handful of weeks 6 years ago to lose some weight, but that initiative died a quick and silent death. Somehow within the last two weeks I was given an old disused Maxed treadmill and bought a Garmin 735XT, which is primarily a running watch (even though I bought it as the cheapest sturdy navigation watch I could find for MTB). With it being two new toys that complimented each other I tried a 5K on the treadmill and ran for ~32 min. My buddy that runs at work told me that's a fair time, but I should try an outdoor run to get the watch calibrated and improve its accuracy. So I went out this morning for an outdoor 5K in my complex and did a 28:54. I used my cycling HR gauge to manage my pace and ran consistently in my lower Z4 range, increasing it to upper Z4 at the end of the run. Now, quite surprisingly, I actually enjoyed that a lot more than I thought I would. Its a lot quicker and a lot less schlep than going out for a ride (in winter at least), and seems to give me a pretty decent workout in a much shorter time than a ride would. While I don't see it becoming my primary activity, I'm excited by the prospect of its shorter duration allowing me to get more than two or three activities a week in. Now that I have more of an appreciation for it, if you've completed a Comrades, I consider you a ******* beast.

Glad I wasn't the only one grinding it out this weekend. I painstaking drew up a route based on Pikey's gravel grind and my need to conquer Camaro road, spent hours double checking Komoot against the 3D view of Google Maps... So obviously this ride entailed hiking-a-bike, bundu bashing, triple checking the GPS, backtracking and all other manners of "exploration". Coldest I've ever been on the bike, by far. So cold on Klipriver that the outer 3mm layer of water in my bottles, and the nozzle, froze. Managed to grind it up Camaro, although I also found out at that moment that my rear deraileur's adjustment wasn't correct, so it kept on jumping out of the 42 tooth granny. So I slogged it up there in 30/36 with the fat takkies. At least rode all the way up, until I got to the little dirt turn-off at the top which takes you onto the grass mound between the last row of houses and the highway. Needless to say, I had to push up there, but was rewarded with this: Unfortunately i found that some of the dirt tracks I had planned to ride were enclosed within enormous nature estates. Overall still a great ride, and great to finally conquer Camaro and get a 5 hour spin in.

Not at all. It's the Makro close to Carnival City. Pretty basic non-technical dirt roads. You can use this as reference (that ride). Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/Nk3eSq75Q7

I keep expecting a horde of zombies to slowly appear through the fog. Whenever I see a patch of fog like that on a ride I automatically clench up as I know the temp is instantaneously going to drop by a few degrees.

Gooi us a route map there, or link to strava activity? Looks like somewhere I've ridden before, but if not looks like somewhere I want to ride soon.

Samsung S9 actually. Still having a fiddle with it, but more of an inconvenience than a train smash. i'll post should I figure out a solution.

More exploring was the order of the day on Saturday. Saw a dirt road leading to a mielie field a few weeks ago close to our local Makro, decided to see where it leads. Would you believe, it took me on a 25km loop circling this farmer's field, past a military base, and spat me out close to one of my local known routes. So, tallying all up, I've got around 100km of dirt starting 2km from my house without any looping or returning on the same route involved. Still loving the new bike. The front tyre's casing seems to be very susceptible to small thorns puncturing it (whereas previous tyres I've had and the rear tyre seems to shrug them off without it penetrating through). Not an issue, as sealant seems to be taking care of it. Also testing out new Garmin 735XT. Absolutely loving it so far, only issue I'm having is that it disconnects from my phone for a few seconds every few minutes, screwing up the LiveTrack.

Thanks for the replies all. I'm keen to give it a go this or next weekend, I'll definitely let you know as I don't want to tackle it for the first time solo. My usual riding buddies aren't very technically inclined or motivated, much prefer big distance on non-technical terrain. It'll be a proper test of my new bike and me since it doesn't have the dropper I've now become accustomed to on my previous bike.

What's the condition of Thaba now post lockdown? I've been meaning to give it a go at some stage as its relatively close to me and by accounts gives some decent technical riding options.

Yup. Original Sishen town is now gone, they have a handful of residents in Dingleton that are refusing to budge and are trying to milk Anglo for every penny they can. Good for them I guess.

For anyone wanting to get into mining, this is what you'll be doing 90% of the time on site. A whoooooooooooole lot of bakkie sitting, waiting and pointing at things, and some more standing around with the sun blikseming you, waiting and pointing at things. I've been there during a rainstorm, but not during lightning. I can imagine its an unpleasant experience.

I'm not quite sure why you'd go there if not for work... For a mine... If you aren't there to supply the mine, you're supplying a supplier of the mine. For those that haven't had the pleasure of experiencing the sprawling metropolis of Kathu yet, below gives some scale. Blue is the entirety of the town of Kathu (including golf course), green is just the one mine that it's there for. Look, its an impressively large hole in the ground, and they dig 70% iron content iron ore out there (the actual rock looks like cast iron).

Yup, those are 29x3.0 monsters. They're handling exactly the way I wanted them too, but a little more polarizing than I thought they would be. I.e, they're even better on the dirt than I expected them to be (those tiny knobs grip soos 'n drol op 'n wol kombers), but they're also worse on tar than I expected them to be. I can compensate for the bad tar performance by upping the pressure a bit, but that compromises the dirt performance, so i just ride off road more

I can't see mention of this yet, but dayum that red paint job is a thing of beauty. To be frank, waaaaay too nice a paint job for a mountain bike (same argument I've always had with R25k optional pearlescent paintjobs on Range Rovers, that also have incredible off road capability). Or maybe everyone else babies their bikes a lot more than I do? Kickass looking XC race bike though, looks raring to go even just standing there. Can I buy one? No. Would I buy one if I had the cash? Still no. The Spez Epic is the X5/Prado of the mtb world. Its new and fancy for a few months then you're just another upper middle management dude that bought an upper middle management car. Sure, it makes sense to buy, and many people buy them because they're sensible to buy and are great at what they're designed for, they're just a bit me-too. For reference, I'm an Alfa and Landy loving guy, so give me something horribly expensive and not as good at its job any day of the week if its out-of-the-ordinary and puts a smile on someone's face that plays an instrument or has a wacky haircut.

Had a business trip to Kathu for a few days, decided to make lemonade and take my bike along, super glad I did! Managed to get two sunset rides in (which is weird to me as I always ride in the mornings). Have you ever flown over something or some place and though "I'd really rike to ride there one day"? Well I did, and you should. Even though the "view" and subsequent planned photo was a bit of a let-down (a solar panel farm is much less sci-fi and much more industrial than my internal optimist envisioned), it was awesome to actually take the time and make the effort and do something outside of your comfort zone just for fun. Now that I've done some proper sinkplaatpad with the Hulkbuster I'm even more driven to try the Munga out (initally the Grit this year at least). Look, not exactly the most technically challenging riding or any elevation to speak of, but there's something about the arid red landscape, absolute silence, clear skies and infinite view that's alluring.

Thanks for making me scoff down my lunch at 09:15 in the morning after seeing that burger. Only been to the circus once, had a great breakfast that was reasonably priced. The Circus is to Alberton what Broodblik is to Benoni. Well spotted old chap! You're spot on. I've always wanted to explore it since I've been a little kid imagining ripping dirtbikes in the veld alongside the car while driving somewhere with my parents. For interest sake, they're busy re-mining the dumps. With the advancement of technology its actually viable as they're getting a substantial amount of minerals out of it that the original processing didn't get to. So the site is active again. Positive side-effect is that the dumps (and associated dust) are busy disappearing. Soon the east rand won't even have mine dumps to classify as hills.

I'm hoping so! She's been riding alongside us during our daily walks with some success, but last week suddenly it "clicked". She's riding much harder, putting her feet on the top tube as her first trick, skidding the rear tyre, the works. Loving it! I don't even blame you, its an absolute stunner! Daai bars is so breed soos wat paasnaweek lank is... Very cool bike! Haven't seen many Metas in the wild (way too hardcore for our GP XC crowd), but one of my favourite hardcore hardtails.

Took The Hulkbuster out for its first proper test yesterday. Went exploring some old disused mine dump access roads and pipelines in my area ('Capies have picturesque gravel passes, we have mine dumps, making lemonade and all that). Hit some toxic looking sludge-mud mine run-off that I thought was solid, managed to cover my shoes, kit and bike in gunk. Pretty sure I inhaled some cyanide. FUN! If very nippy fun. Ran into two vagrants under the bridge, seemed friendly but I decided, randomly, that I could use a 5min VO2 max interval... Still loving this bike, can't believe the difference in comfort, grip and confidence. Having issues with the seatpost sliding into the frame when seated pedalling on bumpy surfaces. Tightened up the clamp to the point where I'm not comfortable doing it any more, might need to look at an assembly compound. As icing on the cake, took my first ride with my daughter when I got home. She's finally built up enough confidence and skill to ride alongside me. Absolutely fantastic experience!

Wow that's an absolute beaut! Congrats! Flowers and breakfast in bed go a long way to soothe new bike viciousness... #justsaying

Or spun in a different light, there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad preparation and inappropriate kit.

Incredible how a bike can change your riding. Was out for a workout this morning, but I was chasing fun and mobility rather than average speed and distance. Really glad my wife muttered "You're not going to go riding, its too cold and you're too tired" at 05:30 this morning as that's all the motivation I needed to layer up and get out there in the wind and the cold. This bike is an absolute dream off the beaten path, but you need to put your best thigh forward when you're on tarmac. All the more reason to stick to as much dirt as I can!