River Rat

Man if that thing could cook and clean I'd marry it.

Contador sosatie!

She definitely was on the 70, she passed me on the hill before the long downhill. I was trying to catch her but she never passed me so I guess she only did one lap. Anyone seen the results?

Trelawney, I stopped for a brief moment and what struck me was how in the lady with the pink shirt took charge, good on her . I think she sacrificed her race to take care of a fellow rider which is even more admirable. I took off to find a marshall but someone thankfully got to them before me and the truck was on the way to collect him. I must admit when I saw they had graded the jeep track I was uncomfortable because the grader tends to hide the imperfections in the track with loose sand. The 70km riders and 35km racers were mixing it on the downhill, so in a way I was not surprised to see the rider down. Any news on the rider's condition?

Anyone thinking of closing off their Sani2c training with Breedts ride this weekend?

All you missed was one of the less pleasant posts on the Hub but kudo's to the OP for correcting his mistake. @twiggyza we all make mistakes it's what we do about it that defines us!

If you're referring to the fall at 25km I would also like to know how he is. I did not see it happen and I arrived a few minutes later where other riders were attending to him. He really looked out of it and I was most pleased to see the bakkie coming to collect him. I hope he is okay.

When it comes to brakes Shimano wins hands down. As for the rear dérailleur it's much of a muchness and similarly with the shifters unless like me you prefer gripshifts in which case you have no choice but SRAM. Front dérailleurs are a little more complicated, here SLX beats SRAM X7 in terms of longevity but I believe the X9 compares favorably to the XT when it comes to muddy conditions.

Avids are a bitch to maintain. The bleeding process is far more complicated than that of a Shimano, even my LBS struggled. The fluid used by Avid is really nasty stuff and one drop on your paint work and it's damaged. I'm just waiting for my current Avid Elixir RSL to give me a stitch more trouble and I will replace them with Shimano's on my 29er. I have already done this on my 26er where I replaced my Avid Juciy 3's. In fact the Juicy 3s are available for free if you want them ( I just cannot sell these with a good conscience).

Cejay just looking at the gear ratios you used on Notties I can see why you could see no difference between on the uphills. A 26 front 36 back gives a Gain Ratio of 1.55 compare to a conventional 22f and 34 b which has a Gain Ratio of 1.48 not too much of a difference. However when it comes to the big blade your 39f and 11b has a Gain Ratio of 7.63 vs 44f and 11b Gain Ratio of 8.61 which is quite large. So according to the calculations you would have been at a disadvantage on the 13km downhill, was this actually the case?

Cejay I'm sure you're right and it clearly works for you. As it stands I have a problem on hills and I can't see the adavantage for me taking into account my type of riding to change to a 2x10. I know this is a typical engineering approach but these calcs confirm my experience on where the advantages are between the 29er and 26er when it comes to top speed. So I tend to rely on them. Good luck for Joberg2c, are you riding your 29er?

Hey TZmtb this is what I did on Sabie until I buckled my front rim and that left me limping to the finish. I guess its a case of too much weight + not enough talent , too much speed + too little brains or any combination of the 4. At the back of the field very few pass me on a downhill which is not he case on the uphill where 90% of the back markers nail me. So I need all the help I can get!

About 4000kms which also matches what I got from my SRAM x7 on by 26er, which I changed to an x9 when it failed. The x9 performs significantly better even after about 3000kms.

Mellow, on most technical routes I can't fault your thinking, but on Sabie Classic and Notties I found that 30% of my race was either climbing or descending. This is why I am using this in my comparison. I am getting the bike ready for Sani which I'm assuming will be similar.

On the notties to himeville race my SRAM X7 front dérailleur decided to give up the ghost. It would not downshift onto my granny gear, I understand from my Lbs that the springs do weaken overtime so this is not unexpected. Finding a SRAM 3x10 front dérailleur direct mount is virtually impossible ( to fit a specialized epic 29er) as it would seem that SRAM are moving towards 2x10 exclusively. In fact, chain reaction inform me that do not stock SRAM 3x10 in a direct mount configuration anymore. This got me thinking of changing to 2x10 and I tried to simulate the top speed and lowest speed (climbing) of my current set up. I found an interesting link that allows you to compare different chainring and cassette combinations http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html. The results surprised me and really questions the move to a 2x10 configuration for the average rider. Top speed - the max size for a chainring that can be accommodated by SRAM is 42t while Shimano gives 44t. The smallest cassette I could find is 11t, so to get the same top speed on my bike by getting a Shimano FD this is achievable. But what is significant (for me) is the difference between a 42t and 44t is 5% in top end. Lowest speed - the key variable here is the maximum delta between the two chainrings which for both manufacturers is 14t. So if I maintain my 44t the smallest the small chain ring can be is 30t which means I cannot simulate the 22t x 32t currently on my bike since the largest gear for a cassette is 36t which would lose about 20% climbing ability. If the calc on the link is anything to go by. To get to the same climbing ratio with a 36t gear you would need to change to a 26/40t chainring set up, and this would lose you a whopping 10% top speed. (Even this combo would not quite simulate my current ratio at the low end) So in conclusion if your riding is like mine where I struggle on climbs ( I have a chronic back problem so any potential improvement here is limited) and you try to make up for lost time on the downhills then a 2x10 configuration will not give you an optimal range. Fortunately Shimano still make a suitable 3x10 FD so I can continue with my current set up, SRAM's loss I guess? Ps - it is also quite interesting to see the advantage a 29er gains over a 26er in top speed and what it loses in climbing ability when considering similar gear ratios. My experience is that the 29er makes up for it in terms of rolling resistance but this is an entirely different debate.

I think this girl is real star in the making. Interesting that we are not seeing similar headlines for the SA men.

All he wanted was to give some insurance quotes!

Not enough info will do that to you!

Thanks Dangle, it will be interesting to swop notes here after the Sani2c on how they compare, as I think this might give the Notties a unique place on the calendar as the ultimate prep race for Sani. As a marker I really used this race as a training ride and I made sure my average heart rate was 10% below my normal race pace ( If I could call my crawl that). I did not feel fatiqued but I could feel the distance accumulating in my legs so it will be interesting to reflect on the Sani in this context once completed.

Thanks Devlin that confirms my thinking. Now to get through the last 3 weeks of training.

How would this route compare to day 2 of Sani2c in terms of toughness? Would it be correct to assume that if you finished this race comfortably that you would not have problems on Sani?

I still don't get it, we rode on the tar later on so what gives? In the context of the race it really just createdunnecessary bottlenecks plus unfortunately for some less experienced riders a fall and race over. We might as well have hit the tar and got on with it IMHO. But I still would have enjoyed a few more technical challenges along the way although it might have made the day a lot longer than it already was!

Tough ride, excellent prep for Sani2c and fantastic scenery but not the most spectacular race if you like technical stuff. I just wonder why they even bothered with that little bit of single track at the start.

See all of you tomorrow for what looks like a long day on the bike for me, enjoy.

Whaaaat, no 3 x 10? SRAM have lost the plot!