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Have seen a whatsApp report of a two eBike robbery above Rhodes Memorial this weekend. Two attackers, one with large knife and the other using a rock as a weapon. Victims were not harmed thankfully but their bikes were stolen. No doubt all the relevant authorities have been notified and the crims are long gone...

I have some Skull Monton socks - look cool and no chafing. Hope this helps 🙂

I wonder if an alloy rim would have survived Matt Beers better? Apart from the spelling a good article. Let's hope Luke finds a team. Maybe he and Candice should privateer together?

A long pant or even a jean pant are lekker to wear when its cold and you not riding a marathon.

Spoken like a true South African MTB rider. Tight DH clothing and lycra bibs have nothing in common really. DH riders don't ride with any kind of ass padding and plenty of body and knee/hip/shin protection . Your question should rather be "I wonder why South Africans insist on riding in super thin lycra which does nothing to protect them in the event of a fall when the rest of the world ride in trail or DH shorts over lycra or even long pants at times".

No it's a fashion death sentence and makes no sense if you're actually looking for more protection i.e the knee pads. Your hips are uber vulnerable in a fall and lycra is totally useless as skin protection. The trail shorts you should be waring with knee pads need not be super baggie or thick but a decent pair not only adds protection but saves you from a style faux pas par excellence.

MTB as a competitive sport is actually booming in the gravity zone. Red Bull are adding more Hardline races and urban DH events and there are continental series being started to get newer riders into the DHWC which is now more limited in team numbers but will be highly competitive. I certainly don't support the "Big Media" take over, but its not all doom and gloom.

Its pretty rough out there. I'd get a 160mm enduro bike if I were you.

I used to cast from my phone but found lots of buffering and video and dialogue out of sync asa result - not a problem until you notice a woman talking like a man or vice versa.

In this case, I had no time to react at all, so if it was a bus, I'd have slammed into the side at 30km/h. I was just lucky, but it does illustrate that sometimes doing nothing can be the safest way out of trouble.

I've never been doored but I have had a car pull out right in front of me from a side street. I didn't even have time to brake and I did a full summersault over the car. I landed safely with negligible injuries. Had I managed to swerve who knows what might have happened. All I meant with my suggestion that you need to consciously train yourself not to swerve in certain situations such as - narrow road with parked cars and following traffic, roads with a high likelihood of pedestrians crossing the road and so on. I didn't say this was the solution but rather that its part of defensive riding, which includes checking what's coming from behind as often as possible. Some of you wallies just want to argue about nothing and deliberately infer your own nonsense interpretations onto what is said for effect.

Okay, you just want to argue. Should I post twice too? Nah, you win.

Of course we don't get to see what the motorist did to incur that reaction...

Probably not criminally, but there is a potential civil claim that would be based on negligence and causation.

No, he does. Yes, we've all had close calls multiple times with cars. Yes they don't give a toss, but you can mitigate the risk by riding ultra defensively. That's all.

Hence my point that its your bet bet to try not to swerve. Train yourself and in reality it can work like that.

This latest incident really brings home how dangerous road cycling and certain sections of road are. Hard to train yourself not to swerve but your best bet when you get a sudden door open or some other obstacle in front of you must be to brake and hit the driver/door rather than try to turn unless you are certain the road is clear behind you.

I need a wear and tear replacement for my legs. Anyone?

The most dangerous thing about Table Mountain is that it is in close proximity to the City and has easy access for hikers (and crims of course). The ease of access belies the danger it poses to inexperienced hikers. More people have died or been seriously injured falling or coming to some other grief than have ever been harmed in muggings. Security on TM has been stepped up considerably of late so the risk of a mugging has been reduced. That said, I agree with others who have advised to get a guide. Try Awol Tours. They do hiking and MTB guiding.

Many of the MTB stage races are gravel events in reality, aren't they?

What seems to happen is dirt gets in around the rear of the piston and causes problems. All I did was dismantle and thoroughly clean the piston and lever mechanism and reassemble with silicone grease on the piston and silicone spray on the lever mechanism. This totally revived some leaky 785 levers I am still using.

AH just needs to get a few TUE's and he'll be there like a mare.

Going to be very interesting to see how AH does. What kind of team has he joined - top tier or not? I wonder how many XCO races he will be at...

Ya, no orange trails that i have ever seen. Reds are blues. Red Phoenix is a blue graded trail Cobra at Hoogies is a blue. The upper section of DH0 is a double black for the upper section. The AM trail at Tokai is also black and even more so than it ever was. Trails change - Phoenix can get gnarly and even when well maintained is a high consequence trail due to the speed and exposure.

Jonketshoek uses what you refer to as the forestry system. A red is a blue in IMBA speak. Maps may differ and for instance on Trailforks a double black is shown as a red trail on the map but described as a double black. This is to differentiate it from a single black diamond on the map. It can cause confusion.