TyronLab

I've only ever ridden it in its current form, so I'm keen to hear about it from when everyone had a moustache and drank Lion Lager (by choice). In all honesty, you'd both be surprised at what you can manage in a tough gear. We're just used to having the luxury of riding at constant power/cadence and the gears doing all the adjusting. I didn't think I could make it either. Not trying to be a hard man, just find it fun.

Oh no, dude, that ride was from a few months (and bikes) ago. I was just exploring the area a bit, figuring it out as I went along, thus the backtracking. Although, now that I've conquered Sylvia's on the SS with the big boy 42t chainring I'm keen to see how far I can stretch before needing to walk. I'll try this loop in full and if that works, Suikerbosrand. If you look up into the bright weekend morning sky and see a shockwave travel through it, followed by what sounds like two lightning bolts thwacking a heavy oak tree, those would be my kneecaps ejecting from my legs and rocketing into the atmosphere.

You totally should. Climbing up Van Riebeeck (Edenvale's main road) is a right of passage for any Jo'Burg cyclist in my opinion. The fact that you can get delicious pies and pastries at the top is just a win. You can string it together with other bits in the area to make for a proper bit of climbing (as far as Jozi goes anyway): https://www.strava.com/activities/6420993572 From the east it's: Efficient Engineering Greenstone Van Riebeeck Saheti School Club street Linksfield/Smoker's corner Cobbles/Kallenbach Sylvia's pass Sovereign Back up to Efficient Engineering

Dude, De Bakkery is De ******* Best! It's a staple at any work "function" (i.e. excuse to buy food on the company credit card) to get two boxes of their mini sausage rolls. I have inhaled fistfuls of them, and they have always been little cylindrical pockets of meaty perfection.

Originally planned a dirt/trail ride but my mountain bike's BB sounding like a rock crusher put pause to that. I had figured out a road route a few months ago I wanted to try, but in designing said route didn't consider doing it on a SS. Getting up and over Sylvia's Pass with 42x16 took pretty much every Newton meter I could muster to not have to engage 3rd gear (walking). Absolutely loved it though. I've been loving riding Hellfire, even in group rides. The Rook Scout is a crazy fun bike, and running it single speed just adds even more character to it. So much fun!

Is SBR still opening at 0600 now in winter, or is it 0700? Keen to do a loop or two on Sunday.

In that usage case a bike that's on the road end of the spectrum will suit you to a tee, so my Switch and the Revolt recommendations are good ones. Look, there's definitely a part of me that wants to recommend a Rook Scout with enough dough left over to make it properly rapid. I have a love affair with it (I'm on my second one) and steel bikes in general. You could get a Scout frameset, a good 1x11 / 1x12 gravel groupset, some nice aftermarket 700c wheels with 43s, and have a unique ripper that's comfy and gorgeous if a little heavier than a carbon one.

You've been sukkeling to get that thing sold for a bit now, which is a shame as it looks like fun bike. That's still closer to the racer end of the spectrum. The overwhelming majority of gravel bikes will have at the very least 40mm tyre clearance. Once you start looking for 45mm+ with reasonable clearance the options shrink down considerably and become dirt-drop MTBs. I've been on both ends of the spectrum, and if you won't be using it as a mountain bike the Titan Switch Pro was a phenomenal steed. It was responsive, agile, fast as hell, and surprisingly comfortable. I'd strongly suggest sticking to a bike (or factoring in the upgrade cost) with a gravel/mtb specific derailleur. The cassette options and, more importantly, clutch will make a big difference to your off-roading jaunts. Here was mine. With the change to a NW 1x chainring, the gravel derailleur, and shorter stem to shorten the reach a smidge it was a great racer-y bike. I still miss it sometimes.

"Best" and "Gravel" are pretty subjective. The bike that's best at being a mountainbike but a smidge more fun to get to and back from trails on the road is pretty different than one that's best at racing smooth, easy gravel roads. Some more context would be good.

Schmancy! Congratulations! For my $$ though I'd chuck the terminator gears and use the proceeds for a dropper. Those luverly suspendy bits need, NAY, deserve the bum wagging goodness of a dropper.

Yeah dude, rigids are the bomb diggity, mo' stanchions, mo' problems! Which wheelset do you have? Couldn't maybe just swap out the end caps to get it to be boost and through axle? If so, Rapide's PitchFork has, so far, taken all of the abuse I've thrown at it with a smile. Not sure if they have stock but @Kiwi will, unless the world comes to a grinding halt, definitely at least reply to you.

Since Jewbacca was helpful and basically closed the thread, I'll clarify that you'll look cool, but only to other rigid riders. Roadies think you're slow and mtb normies think you're a sucker for punishment.

Having fallen prey to my incessant lusting and reminiscing about a Rook Scout, and a SS, this bike unexpectedly jumped onto my bike rack this Saturday. It means I'll need to let Ou Stuk *** go to fund it, but I'm pleased as punch with that trade. Straddling a Scout again was like coming home to a clean house with a crisp Milk Stout already poured waiting on the counter. Single speeding is exactly what I'd hoped it would be, removing any form of filter from just experiencing riding a bike. My obsession with Stranger Things and being reckless enough to attempt most of one of our hilliest routes on its first outing has made me dub it Hellfire (what my quads were feeling grinding up Fisher's Hill). I was hollering and giggling like a maniac the whole ride, just pure unadulterated, unfiltered, comfortable and nimble fun! There's something primal about grinding up something steep at 40rpm, and once you reach terminal cadence on the flats you sit up and just enjoy the experience. As chalk and cheese a combo as you can get - A cheapo 650B steel singlespeed and a top-of-the-pops eTAP carbon-everything Grail.

I've given this advice a hundred times before, but de-tensioning the springs on your pedals, making it easier to clip in and out, makes clips much less scary off road. My pedals (PD-M520 Shimanos) have the springs almost completely unwound so I can clip out without thinking about it in almost any direction. If you use good technique (heels dropped) you won't unclip going down and you can still get the pedaling efficiency / fatigue benefit of being clipped in. I don't know why people ride with their feet bolted into super tight pedals, like a few of my buddies. It makes me moer nervous to ride their bikes, even on the road.

I've ridden a buddy's Canyon Grail, which has Red eTap gears, and it is awesome. Specifically the fact that its a push button, there's no lever travel involved. The actual movement of the derailleur isn't much faster, its the fact that its a button press that makes it feel instantaneous. That being said, the smidge of an improvement felt over a well-tuned mechanical setup doesn't in any way, shape or form equal the gigantic price difference. Being on the adventure side of riding and not the racing side also means that its just more things to faff with that, to me, detract from the enjoyment of the ride. The more you have to worry about the less you're just enjoying the experience of riding a bike (same reason I ride a rigid mtb). Also, drop your bike and you're on the hook for a R10k derailleur / shifter? Hard pass.

If you're riding in GP I honestly think a gravel bike will suit the vast majority of riders better than an aero race bike. Quasi-decent mechanical discs are fitted to even the lower end models and are pretty great these days, the geo won't make your back hurt, it'll most likely come with tubeless wheels and tyres from the floor (even if you're buying lower/mid range) and you always have the option to go with skinnier rubber, whereas you can't go wider than what a frame is designed for. I'd go disc brake OP. Drivetrain bits are consumable and upgradeable, but your frame's brake type is fixed. You can always upgrade when you replace parts which, seeing as you ride your bikes for 10+ years you'll likely do.

That is a gorgeous thing (the fact that its a bike is secondary). Why they would choose to use Times New Roman as a font escapes me though.

What happened to Woolnough and Harris? Both scratched close to 600km, between water points. Both guys I have had the honour of meeting and I was watching closely. Real pity. Also, I'm pretty stoked that in a sea of middle class white dudes, Omphile has travelled the second furthest distance and is still positive AF? Awesome!

That is a banger dude! Great shot!

After a lot of messing around with handlebar height, roll, stem length and angle, I zeroed in on some extra sweep being what was needed to get me 100% dialled into this bike. Unfortunately, the options for bars that have some extra sweep in SA are basically non-existent, until I found the Farr Supa-Moto bar on Takealot. Seems like they're doing some importing of Farr products still. Did my first long-ish (5hr) dirt ride with it yesterday, and I'm blown away by it. The extra sweep (16° vs standard bar 9°) made a huge difference to hand comfort, and I found myself in the normal grips position for 90% of the ride. With my old bars I used to switch out riding with my thumbs over the grip, or holding inboard of the brake levers, to relieve pressure in my palm. Used to have a bit of hand soreness or numbness after long dirt rides. No such problem now though. I also found that the bars seemed to be quite a bit more damped than previous bars I've used, reducing vibration substantially. Spent much more than I would have liked to on bars, but it was the same cost position as buying some SQLab 30x16s (except they didn't have the rise I wanted) or importing (or paying for the flight down to CPT to "borrow" @Jewbacca's) Surly Sunrise bars, Side bonus - they look moto AF with the rise at the ends.

I've thrown a normal power bank into a frame bag. You can pick up relatively cheap frame bags that can carry the rest of your riding paraphernalia too. Not sure how accommodating your frame is.

Steel most definitely is real. Please feel free to post more pics of that bike, looks like a ripper!

How much leniency or allowed variability is there in the route? Is it like Munga where you have to be exactly on course all the time, or is there more flexibility? Trying to just manage a frame bag and cycling GPS in the mud and rain was a mission for me, I can't imagine having to manage a paper printed map. The amount of times you stop and go "where the **** am I? This makes no sense" must be crazy.

I'm also dot watching, battling deep and unrelenting FOMO. I would love to do this some day, it seems like a blast. Such a long, slow burn (considering that the racing snakes average 9kph) must make you go so deep into your own soul you're either a shaman or a mental patient by the end. How are the winners determined though? Since you can start on multiple days, do they just use your total elapsed time between the start and end? Some day, when my ship comes in, I'll line up for this.

I'm hoping so, hopefully tuckering him out for when he slogs it with his dik family members (i.e. me) in the repeat... 😁