River Rat

Klapperkop Safety Update Some of you may have noticed a change in personnel manning the entrance gates at Klapperkop Nature Reserve. These are security guards appointed and paid for by the Tshwane Metro Police, these guards are also tasked with patrolling the reserve to keep us safe. This is a huge win for us as it has taken us more than 4 years to get the Metro Police to accept their responsibility of making the reserve safe for all of us. The other good news is that from the 1st February 2019 the gate opening times will be aligned with those of Groenkloof Nature Reserve which are in Summer (September to April): 05:30 – 19:00 and Winter (May to August): 07:00 – 18:00. I want to thank all of you took the time to sign our Groenkloof Petition which was the start of this journey and a special thanks to Friends of Groenkloof and Klapperkop Nature Reserve, who were with me every step of the way. Now I can go ride my bike!

Camelbak Skyline LR10 3l Lumbar reservoir with a windbreaker falling out of it . I bought it for R700 +- on special at Chain Recation about a year ago.

Let me try, have a look at the maintenance costs and the resale value. The French cars have a business model that effectively traps you into their vehicles only, be very careful.

Sometimes Groenkloof just shows off.

He seems to be talking about a new one and the warranty extension is easy to do at the time of purchase.

If the warranty is attraction for the Hyundai you might want to check this link out https://www.4x4community.co.za/forum/showthread.php/308560-Hyundai-Umhlanga-swearing-at-at-customer There's also a number of threads dealing with your other options which will help with your research.

What a fantastic read! I'm not sure if you've inspired me ride or write, but I'm inspired! Thanks and well done.

You should read your own posts, I think you told me to bugger off and concentrate on trail advocacy or something to that effect and you told PhillipV that he would be doing CSA a favour if he did not pay his fine and renew his membership. I guess you're feeling like you're being picked on ( or that I'm simply trolling) but the truth is that I see your attitude aligned with that of the CSA and it is a problem. Most of the anti-CSA points made here are trying to get CSA to understand what they're doing wrong as far as the majority of cyclists are concerned. The response is either to ignore it or to say fix it yourself, I can't speak for the majority but this attitude simply alienates me more. I believe that CSA needs our numbers to get Alan Hatherly and so many others to the Olympics, the only way forward is to engage us as equal partners in your endeavours or hold out your hand to the Lotto. I have a lovely parallel and this might come as I surprise to you, in the late 1980s I tried to start a cycling section for our canoe club because so many of us were using the longer cycling events to train for Iron Man. We needed to be seeded to help us to ride in batches of equal ability, so I approached CSA to get the club affiliated, it was like talking to a brick wall. So I approached PPA who were basically barred by CSA from taking on members from outside Western Province, after 18 months of trying to convince CSA I gave up. At the same time there was another national organisation called CSA which stood for Canoeing South Africa. Canoeing was faced with a serious threat to their existence when a mad riverine landowner started shooting at canoeists paddling on the Crocodile River. Canoeing SA did not shrink away from the problem, they tackled it head on and convinced the entire country’s paddling fraternity that this issue needed to be defended in a court of law and they asked us to pay an additional R75 each towards a legal fund, which we did, the court case was won and a precedent for riverine law was set. This, from a bunch of volunteer administrators and today a number of posts in Canoeing SA are fully paid positions, they have shown for a number of years how to balance the need of elite racers with that of ordinary paddlers like myself ( we’re fondly referred to as fish and chips paddlers). At the recent world marathon champs SA produced K1 and K2 world champions to go with 24 medals in the masters, they also boast an Olympic Bronze medal. I have seen many of these medal winners spend their time on the banks of the rivers and dams coaching new comers to the sport because they know that it’s the fish & chips that is their ticket to the next world champs. Perhaps you and CSA can learn from this?

I'm starting to get the impression that according to you CSA would like less members.

You make my point but with so much more eloquence.

After all that :huh:

Thank you for clearing up your role for me. So here's the double edge sword I have decided that CSA is not my priority but it is yours. So what are YOU doing?

I'm not sure what role you play at CSA if any. But here's the problem you guys / CSA don't listen! So 90% (my estimate) of the cycling community really only want to ride their bikes and you would rather ignore them? So you don't need us? Really? If you're trying to promote CSA to someone like me you need to point out what CSA is doing right. You need to change my perception from CSA being a corrupt, incompetent and heavy handed organisation. My experience of CSA as someone who is forced to interact with them on the odd occasion that I do a race sanctioned by them, has left me with a very bad taste. I have watched them pull a lady out of the start chute in F batch because she was wearing a top without sleeves at Babbas Lodge race. I have personally been pulled aside and asked to produce my CSA license at the start of Sani by overzealous officials wanting to make an example of me, by the way CSA I'm still waiting for that apology. You quote Qhubeka as a good exmple of what CSA does, really I shudder to think what this wonderful initiative would be like if MTN was not involved. And by the way I have happily donated money to them and I will do so into the future as long as CSA keeps it's grubby hands off the money. So from my perspective CSA is the problem and if you care to read what I have written I don't sit on fences.

Right so if I read between the lines the success of CSA is dependent on the involvement of the cycling community as a whole. We can argue whether those that support CSA and whose cycling careers are dependent on it equate to 10% or not, but you have to acknowledge a huge majority don't. My earlier post stated my opinion as one the majority that I cannot see any benefit to me from CSA and looking at your responses it looks like you are not even attempting to bring me on board. Sharkie2 and Milkman tried the guilt trip while DND is basically telling me to shut up we don't need your opinion only your money. May I suggest a Dale Carnegie course?

This is where it all falls flat. The more you state rules and regulations the less interested I am, I really only want to ride my bike. I love watching Saffers on the world stage but I am not obsessed with it, I really only want ride my. You want me to volunteer to fix a problem that's not mine, I really only want to ride my bike!

I can't argue against your point but this represents perhaps 10% of cycling in SA and until CSA recognise this they're on a hiding to nothing. They need to find a way of giving something back to 90% of us otherwise CSA membership will remain a grudge purchase.

Perhaps the problem lies in the way CSA sanctions events, whatever they're doing now simply alienates them from their clients and potential clients.

Understandable, if you were there between 8 and 10am on Tuesday you might have seen my group of 5-6 doing laps.

I have just tallied the results of this snap survey across a variety of community, cycling and running platforms and we have had 152 responses so far. 133 people are prepared to pay an annual fee with 103 indicating that they would support a R250 annual fee per person and 30 were prepared to pay more. The remainder were not prepared to pay for extended access hours. The estimated cost per gate is roughly R25K, this is for an automated gate that is linked to the mobile numbers of paid up members. It is difficult to ascertain how many people that have indicated their willingness to pay will actually do so, but equally I think I have only canvassed half the potential market. So using the number of 133 at R250 we have just a bit more than enough for one gate. So I believe that we will need some sponsorship if we want two gates and I am actively looking for these kind hearted benefactors. If you know of anyone that’s prepared to come on board please give me their details. I have canvassed FGNR to act as the facilitator for the project and I am waiting for their feedback, I am hoping that we can get them to institute a membership fee equal to the R250 needed to fund this project.

At this stage we are only looking for a fee to fund an automatic gate to allow extended access. The gate guards are to be funded by Council with some possible assistance from the adjacent estates. Commercialization has been mooted but because we have a nature reserve and a heritage site to deal with so this calls for a Evironmental and Heritage impact assessments to be done first. Then Council will have to call for proposals in an open tender procurement process. I tried this approach two years ago without getting support from the officials involved, but this option is being championed by the ward councillor so who knows.

I get you, and what's rather strange is that since the gates have been closed I have received a number of complaints about the current opening hours. So to be clear you can still enter the reserve for free between 7am and 5pm, but this is about allowing access for those that want access after 5am and up and 7pm. As for the current security situation, it has improved dramatically for cyclists, runners and sightseers since the gates have been closed and access controlled. I'm rather surprised by this as the attendance by the guards has been haphazard to say the least but I expect this to improve in the near future and there is a good chance of Metro mounted police being stationed at the fort. As for the trails the intention is to use the excess annual fee to maintain and build more trails once the gates have been paid for. So watch this space your help could be needed!

Yep it's a great training option and there are usually between 30-50 cyclists and runners on the road between 5 and 7 in the morning. So I'm rather surprised that we are facing this level of apathy here while on some of the Facebook groups there's a strong support for the R250 option.

It looks like nobody has a problem with the current opening hours!

The safety and security system at Klapperkop although very haphazrd has had some postive effects in that the spate of muggings has stopped since the gates have been closed at night and access controlled during the day. The unintended consequences are that house break ins have spiked as criminals shift their focus, we are addressing this with Nature Conservation and the adjacent estates to improve day and night time security. Another aspect is that we are denied access to the reserve for early morning and evening training. Officially the open times are from 7am to 5pm but I am exploring a technical solution that would allow access to paid members from 5am to 7pm. To gauge the viability of this I need to get an indication on whether you would be prepared to pay an annual fee and how much. So if you would like to use Fort Klapperkop please indicate your preference in the poll in terms of an annual fee. I am doing this on various groups so please only particpate once.

He has been working this angle for some time now I hope the Councillor gets this right. However, TMPD have shown themselves to be unreliable partners in the past so let's hope their is a positive change.