TyronLab

The Cape Town envy is real yo... jeesh you guys have some great trails! I've actually been contemplating building a trail network on the Morninghill / Linksfield koppie. Pretty central location, good elevation to work with.

Out of interest have you ever tried the HG701 Ultegra chain from Shimano? I'm due for a chain replacement on my 11sp SLX group but I'm struggling to justify the 50% increase in price. From what I've read the 701 should give me the same R/km (https://cyclingtips.com/2019/12/the-best-bicycle-chain-durability-and-efficiency-tested/) but without the hefty R900 bill to swallow the same month my next offspring is popping out. Just looking for some actual experiences from hubbers.

Good luck for this weekend guys. I'll be overhearing the proceedings as I stay in the complex that borders the stadium grounds. You'll be racing along routes that I often train on. Be wary of the wind though, generally comes from N or NNW, so keep some in the tank for the slog back from Heidelberg into the wind. We've had a lot more wind than I'm used to this summer, but with luck it won't be too bad this weekend. Oh, and if you could all ride a lap of the stadium's MTB track so that it can see some wheels and wear the trail in a bit that'd be great... Its tame enough for your skinny tyres to handle.

Completely agree. I just hope he doesn't try and learn how to wheelie as its the only thing I can (and ever will) beat him in.

Was it something I said (too much of)?

I have a tried and tested formula for pre-race preparation. Stay up too late the night before fiddling with my bike, time mostly spent wiping things down, checking bolts etc. Get out of bed 13min after the optimistically-set alarm has gone off, now late already. Try to stealthily get dressed in a hurry in the proximity of my sleeping wife. Inevitably wake and annoy sleeping wife with "have you seen my chewbacca socks? I really want to wear my chewbacca socks. I was saving them and now they're not in my drawer.". Get to the kitchen to realise I didn't prepare the muesli-fruit-swedish yoghurt-angel tear breakfast of champions I had planned to the night before as I ran out of time (see point 1.) Munch down the rock hard, ice cold remainder of the McD's cheeseburger my daughter left over. Maybe some stale chips and a two-day old leftover boerewors hastily dunked in the mayonaise jar for some moisture as a side. Eat one of the Snackers I had bought specifically for the race while loading stuff in the car. Eat a banana in the car. Also meant for the race. Now only have one feed item left for the race. Eat said remaining item in the start chute.It's worked an absolute treat for me so far.

Gorgeous photos! I'm assuming you were there for some other reason and just rode a bike? Or did you go to Rwanda specifically to ride there?

Need some advice from the tyre gods please. I'm riding a Titan Plus Elite 27.5 bike with its stock tyres, Titan branded Chaoyang Hornets in 2.8 width on Sunringle Duroc 30 rims. These still have some life left in them but the center treads are showing signs of wear and will probably need to be replaced in the next few months. Since tyres are hellishly expensive I'm busy researching to get an idea of how much I need to save up. Riding I do: Road training - 50% Gravel / Jeep track riding - 30% Trail riding - 20% I generally ride my bike to a trail and back on the road, or next to it if possible, and being on the east rand of JHB that means 20-30km each way. Thus the large % of road. With that being said, I really don't care much for how fast I am on the road as its purely for training and for getting to places. I don't have a lot of experience w.r.t. trail riding, so I can't tell which deficiencies are due to my lack of skill or tyre choice, but the pros and cons of my current setup vs my previous 29x2.1 setup: Pro's: Much more comfort and bump absorption. (went from 100mm XC HT to 120mm trail HT)Increased straight line and cornering traction.What I've found as deficiencies with this setup: Can't run the tyre pressures most other guys with plus tyres do. If I go below 27/23PSI front/rear I get rim strikes even on our very tame trails (I'm 88kg). Have tried lower pressure and didn't have tyre roll, but could feel I was bottoming out the tyre on relatively small square edge impacts.Still struggle with grip even though it has improved from my previous bike. I have very little faith in my front end. A lot of our trails have flat or off-camber turns with sand over hard. Might be from my Moto-X background but I can rail a berm confidently and at a decent speed.Since the tread pattern is tight they're pretty sucky at shedding mud.I'm getting much more pedal strikes than I did previously. This also comes down to new bike's geometry and technique I guess, but its good context for the questions below.What I need help with: If I go down to 2.6" or 2.5" widths it'll most likely save me some money (had a look at 2.8" and 3.0" tyre prices ) but I'm scared I'll sacrifice the comfort I've come to know and get even more pedal strikes. Might be a better match for my rims though as they're only 27mm internal width. Much larger range of tyre choices too and might be a bit faster rolling.If I go up to 3.0" the tyres might be too wide for the rims, but I'll get additional pedal clearance and may be able to drop the pressures enough to get the true plus bike comfort and traction benefit for the longer gravel cruises I do (like the Transbaviaans I'm entered for).Looking at getting a pretty aggressive tyre in the front to help with confidence and traction, not too fussed about the rear. Discuss, ask, suggest... HELP!

Fun roadie group ride with the Bicycle Line crowd. Not brave enough for the 32kph group as yet, but getting there in the 28/29 group. Autumn is definitely upon us however, so numbers will start dwindling soon.

One day when I'm big... Absolute stunner dude! Colour matching is on-point too

Gooi us a route map there why don't you?

What's Buffelsdrift like? I'm keen to give it a spin but its a bit of a drive so don't want to waste it.

Where'd you get it from?

Proper LSD ride for once down to Heidelberg, up to the Telkom tower where I broke my Clavicle this time last year, and back. Felt great to get redemption while having a great ride with family. Caught in a spot of drizzle too, which was quite pleasant.

On a hardtail nogals. Nice!

Saw the post of Facebook. Solo seems a bit spendy at R700 for pre-entry? I'm assuming because gravel bikers are basically roadies so you charge 'em more? Other than that keen on doing it to get some safe off-road distance in the legs.

It is quickly becoming my favorite feature of this bike. I have received a lot of compliments from random riders about the bike's colour. Its so bright its almost luminescent, I'm pretty sure its a safety feature.

You can check my route below in the pic and the link. We usually meet up at the top of the Efficient Engineering hill then hit the climbs from there. If you want to join us, more than welcome to. I ride from Parkrand in Boksburg, but have guys that join from Bedfordview. https://www.strava.com/activities/3003388853

Even me I was there! Even though I'm in "base training" mode for Transbaviaans I somehow got roped into setting PRs on all of the tough climbs in our area (Greenstone, Edenvale rd, Linksfield, Sylvia's pass and up to Efficient Engineering from Edenvale road) by a similarly-matched buddy and my competitive spirit. Haven't worked that hard in a while!

So you opted for drivetrain facing the couch? Ballsy move! Nice looking bike.

Bit of solo time out on the bike getting dirty. 4000th km for the year done, which I'm very proud of.

Had a ride there a few days ago. Have to compliment the trail crew, since my last ride in June the trails have seen a lot of improvement and maintenance. Still not many features, but the route is well maintained, mostly clear and mostly well drained. Few spots with a lot of long grass encroaching on the trail, but not really hampering in any way. Maybe its the fact that I'm on a much more forgiving plus hardtail with some more travel, but I had a great time.

I had no idea there were trails there? Any further details you can share?

If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times. We can use our unemployment / hobo problem and our power stability problem as a fire/ice solution. Give every unemployed oke and/or hobo a bike with a dyno, communal living space and food, have him earn it and some $$ by pedaling. Keeps people off the streets, generates tons of clean energy, reduces crime and the load on our public healthcare system from weight-based diseases. I'll take the opportunity to coin it = Hobotricity ®

With life being a bit crazy at this stage I needed to get muddy at some stage this weekend just to balance it all out. Went out for an "easy" ride yet managed to set a new max HR. Luckily I had a rain jacket as I was caught in a few light showers. I've started settling on my ideal tyre pressure with the 2.8s, seems to be around 25PSI (~1.7 bar) front and back. Can't believe the difference in comfort and grip versus the 2.1/2.25 combo I had on the previous bike. And before anyone has a fit, the EMBP's track is really hardpacked, feels a lot like cement. To make sure I did no harm only rode the veld sections and hardpack trail sections.