GuyP

While harder to mount and dismount than 'normal' tyres, as long as you keep the beads in the centre of the rim during the process, I can mount them with my hands only, and dismount them with dodgy plastic levers. In the world of soft kevlar beads, people forget these little tricks!

My wife uses those Schwalbes with SmartGuard on all three her bikes now - road, hardtail and full suss - after her recent fun&games at the cradle, and has successfully pulled drawing pins out of them without getting a puncture. She won't ride anything else now, even though she carries a weight penalty. As a girl who often rides on her own, she says she simply doesn't need the uphill of a puncture, anywhere. I ride them on my hardtail commuter. Man, they're heavy! But they're also fantastically durable, with 3700Km on mine so far with plenty tread remaining, even at the back! I don't want punctures commuting, especially given that there's so much glass around these days! I even pulled out a piece of wire last week that had penetrated about 3mm! Highly recommended, but you couldn't ride these on a race machine!

Nice! At this stage mine's just getting me to work and back - 72Km - although today I did take a detour to the MTN cycle park after work on the way home for a quick hour of fun.

Doing my cycle commute, there were, as usual, plenty things to rant and rave about: Starting from Clearwater Mall, northwest Johannesburg area, the first rant was the (increasing?) amount of litter (and glass) at the INFORMAL Makro 'taxi rank' across Hendrik Potgieter from Clearwater. Luckily the sun was in my eyes so I couldn't see it all... Then there was quite a beautiful ride in the fresh, cool morning air along Witkoppen. Just before the dome, I saw a house on the left had erected a new razorwire fence, top to bottom. That left me wondering what inspired that recent action. The rest of the way to Pineslopes was quite uneventful. On the short downhill to Main, a taxi tried to veer left over me. Then up the hill towards Paulshof I saw half a brake disc, not brake pad, half of the actual disc! Some taxi is no doubt driving around with wholly inadequate brakes again! Turning left at Rivonia, and having another taxi trying to veer left over me, I carried on and up the dual carriageway towards Megawatt Park. It's a great hill to train on, but again, there was plenty of glass. I've seen LOTS of glass on the roads the last couple of months - what's happening out there? Turning left down towards Waterfall Estate was great, all the way into the valley, where I stopped at that new brick bridge, which is actually not bad looking compared to all the concrete stuff out there. I looked down - the Jukskei was flowing nicely, but there was an awful amount of South Africa's national flower at the high water mark spoiling quite a pretty setting. I wonder how the estate managers in that expensive estate are going to keep that clean... I carried on up the hill, over Allandale and into Vorna Valley, turning right into Le Roux and riding along the footpath. Geez, there was glass everywhere. Again, what's going on out there? I turned left at BP and a while later, got to my office to start the day and reflect on the ride, 36Km later. As much litter and glass as I saw, getting to the office energised and ready for the day is probably the biggest rave of all. It would be so much nicer though if folks would just pick up after themselves, and keep their bottles to themselves too, although no doubt they're beer bottles thrown out of the car so that there's no incriminating evidence for the cops to use when they stop the idiots at a roadblock somewhere.

I will, but nobody wants to come with me! Some or other family issues?????

Brilliant!!!

Nice! Hijacking? I thought it was simply all the good things you could see, only at a place like Mountain Sanctuary Park these days, for when you're not MTBing! It's been a while, but adding to your list, omega centauri, M104, the planetary / open cluster combo in Puppis, the eskimo in Gemini, ngc5128.... and many more. I wonder if Triangulum maybe refers to the rear triangle on a full susser, or to bicycle triangles in general...

On a good ol' alt-az mount no doubt!

Oh, the diversity of hubber interests! What 'scopes have you got? I haven't taken out my 8" SC in ages - maybe I should head out there too!

It can't be more than about 5Kms or so back to the road from Mountain Sanctuary, and then probably not more than 10Km right to the top from there. So it's not long, but you may need a fully functional granny gear to make the most of it! I seem to recall they had to routes, one to the east and one to the west. The one on the west is part of the Magalies Monster, while the one on the east is probably a bit easier, with SOME smooth bits

The last time I was there (abt 18 months ago) they were under 10Km and quite rocky! Not easy riding! But it's close to Breedts Nek if you're looking for a workout!

Simply, good disc brakes are great for everything, whether they be decent mechanical brakes, or hydraulic. I've got bikes with everything, from Shimano mechanical, Avid mechanical, Juicy's, Hayes, Magura and even Avid Carbon On the other hand v-brakes are light, easy to maintain, and smooth as butter with sealed, low friction cables (only one bike with v's, being Avid Ultimate with Gore cables). However, they're not for wet or muddy conditions, with limited brakes on the former, and too much rim wear on the latter, especially on Fulcrum Zero V's! Ultimately, I love the simplicity and feel of the v, but prefer the all-round competence of the disc.

I'm afraid I don't know, but even better, have you thought about when you might be doing it again?

Food fit for a king!

Fantastic! You guys planning on riding it again?

Sounds like you had a blast! Well done! Are you perhaps going to post the route? Maybe more hubbers will go and try it out!

Dead right Headshot! I rode my 20 year old steel bike with downshifters (but, errmmm, with trued wheels ), and did 94.7 in 2h47. Then, after saving some legs on that 1st lap, did the 2nd lap straight thereafter in about 3:30, all on good ol' steel! Fair enough times for a clunker, at least to me! What surprised me starting at the back for the 2nd lap was how much really, really beautiful premium kit there is there, and at the same time, some kit that I'm sure was barely mobile and that must have weighed more than the rider! Oh well, I don't hold it against them that cyclists buy whatever they want, but when those same pretentious tjops look down on my clunker, Raleigh or whatever it is I'm riding on the day, I suggest you rather leave your podium placing to do the talking! Indeed, I'm more impressed by the performance of the brave guys and girls at the back on those incredible clunkers than those poseurs who couldn't do any better than them time-wise!

Me too, none of us need this cr@p in our lives!

Yep, my double header is also the road race twice, the second time as part training for the 320Km on 6 Dec, a charity ride

What's of additional concern is the number of YOUNG girls cycling SOLO there these days - they can less afford to be stranded on the side of the road (compared to adults) because of some idiot and his very apparent vendetta!

at least she's mobile again, thanks Big H! None of us have met Ken, but is he enough of a lowlife to tackle women? If so, we should gang up, hunt him down and get him to deal with some men instead!!!

My wife is sitting with three punctures near Kenjara Lodge - looks like the drawing pin gang is at it again. Watch out!!!

Off the top of my head, over the last 10 years or so: A 9mm pointed in the eyeball during an armed robbery, a mugging, a pickpocketing, a house robbery (nobody home), a brick thrown at car in Mpumalanga, a campsite raided, and two attempted (but unsuccessful) car thefts - maybe amateurs, an attempted car hijacking with a smack on the head in the process ... list probably goes on! Enough to put you on edge that's for sure!

Cool, have fun! Probably also best to join a club these days to cycle in groups, as much as solo cycling can be its own elixir!

Teak place - I haven't heard of a single incident there in the two years I've been going!