mountain_lion

AFAIK you can get it from any MTO office. Me and the Mrs got ours at Jonkershoek. They want and ID / Passport photo, which they laminate onto your permit card. All done by hand... We paid the fee and dropped off our photos at the Jonkershoek gate one Saturday and collected our cards the weekend after at the gate. I have only used my permit at Jonkershoek, but as I understand it, it is vallid at all MTO forests where MTBs are allowed, so should get you in to Grabouw as well. Best will be confirm with MTO.

The road from Stellenbosch dead-ends at the Jonkershoek entry gate. Is beautiful and the veld is starting to recover nicely from last year's terrible fire. Unfortunately the fire destroyed the best single track in Jonkershoek. Us locals called it Never-ending-story, but the signs labelled it Elioti (I think). I doubt if it will be repaired. Not only was considerable damage done while clearing the burnt trees (they are not done yet), but the intensity of the fire was so fierce that the soil burnt as well. After the fire the winter rains did the rest; large sections of the trail were washed away by landslides. Fortunately the Canary trails were spared by the fire and they still offer some great riding. Of course there are many other nice single tracks too...

I prefer to go in the other direction; i.e. climb up past the dam and then bomb down the longer straight section on the east side. You can get some good air over some of the drainage bumps, but be careful there are now some nasty ditches that can catch you out...

There is also some very nice riding to be done around the Idas Valley dams in your back yard!

You can also buy an annual cycling permit, which gets you into all MTO forest areas for a whole year. Should be valid for Tokai too. Cost R300 for a couple. Not sure how much for individual. Wild cards are only for Nature Conservation areas. So for Jonkershoek Wild Cards are only valid if you go hiking above the plantation areas.

Jip, rather get a (entry level) road bike for road riding. You can even go the flat handle bar route, like I did for my wife when she started out on the road. Bike is for sale now; based in the Cape, but postage is possible... https://www.bikehub.co.za/forum_posts.asp?TID=69298

Definitely not worth upgrading from a RP2 to RP23. Normally just set and forget. I had an RP23 on my old 2007 Anthem, but now ride the 2010 X2 with RP2. Don't miss the extra settings at all. Go with the X2; the 2010 spec is more than adequate. If you have extra cash rather spend it on a nice tubeless wheel set (see if you can make an upgrade deal with the LBS; they keep the spec wheels, which they can sell as new).

And you call yourself an engineer !?? I guess if I was earning in Euros like you, parting with the cash would have been easier. On the other hand, I have built so many DIY lights over the years (started in 1997, first LED light in 2008), so don't think I will ever stop playing with the stuff.

Johannes, watter LEDs het jy in daai monster? Lyk baie nice!

How does shipping work? cost? Did not see this on the site, even after adding something to the shopping cart. Will be nice to be able to get an indication of shipping cost without having to register on the site first or at least which service is used for shipping. No problem with registering before being able to finalise an order; just want to see the complete picture before going through the hassle of registering.

Ditto!! If I can get a Sani2C entry for next year, will do that instead of Argus. Sounds like it is worth travelling all the way from the Cape for that.

Support was great along the route; much better than last year (I guess the supporters got blown away). Finnish lost its atmosphere when it was moved from Maiden's Cove to Greenpoint years ago, but due to the number of cyclist there was just no choice. I am sure the finish area will be much better next year when all the construction work around the stadium is done.

Oakpics take fantastic photos. Much better than anybody else out there, but their admin and turnaround time for getting the pics up and orders out are pathetic. I have mentioned this to Hannes and he admits they have problems... hope they do something about it soon.

3:44 from K. Stayed with the main K bunch up to halfway, but the bunch split many times after that and I just did not have the legs to stay in contact. Think my body is a bit run down. Anyway, the road bike will not be touched for many months now; MTB all the way!!

Switch off problems on rough terrain is most likely due to batteries losing contact momentarily due to vibration. Padding up the batteries and/or contact springs usually solves the problem. Some brands of batteries are slightly longer than other, providing a tighter fit and less problems. Garmin 60CSX may be a few years old by now, but is a very nice versatile unit. The size has pro & cons e.g. nice large screen, but bulky & heavy on the bike. If you get a good mount (not the plastic Garmin one) it should work fine.

Do a search for "hot foot" or "Morton's Neuroma" (here on the Hub and Google). Been discussed many times.

This is very good advice. Price and specs are factors too, but you need to feel comfortable on the bike. Test ride as many as possible. The bike will choose you...

XC : Giant Anthem X2 More aggressive trail riding: Trance X2 I ride the Anthem X2, which is tough enough for a bit of trail riding without feeling heavy when going XC. The other bikes mentioned here are are fine too, but bang for buck, the Giants are tops.

Did a 3:25 in 1999 (105km) on a Trek 730 hybrid, 13kg of CrMb steel. Still got the bike; use it when I commute to work by bike (not very often though ).

I am also not a good climber and thus switched to a compact crank on the road. Since I went the compact route a year ago, there was one ride with a strong tail wind where I could have done with a higher gear ratio, but I still managed to hang on to the bunch. There have been many rides where I would not have been able to hang on to the bunch on the hills if I had been riding a standard crank. With the compact I find I can stay in the big ring much longer and don't need to change the font as often as with a standard crank.

Between the Mrs and myself, we use two 305's bought in 2007. Mostly mountain biking (and I like the technical stuff & bombing downhill). Not had single problem with either unit ever. Guess we are just lucky. Would not mind upgrading to the 705, but our 305s are still going strong. If you guys are not getting any joy out of Avnic with your problematic units, I guess my chance of an out of warrantee upgrade is zero!

My bikes are specified under all risks with Alexander Forbes. Covered for recreational (not pro) racing.