Andymann

He got a lot of flack for that tweet - Tagged the wrong federation! Athletics South Australia, not Athletics South Africa

Haha - My brother had one of those on his Mini

18 March 2021 Who remembers..... When you could still greet someone by shaking their hand? When standing talking to someone with your hands in your pockets was considered rude? When you had a meeting with someone and they were actually in the same room as you? When Oil was $30 a barrel.... When having Corona meant abuse from your mates because it was a girls beer....

So I spent the weekend following the DJ Rally and by default both Brad and Darryn Binder. What brilliant guys - really approachable and so down to earth. I never got any vibe that they felt they were anything more than just two brothers who apart from being able to ride modern bikes really really quickly, were just riding old bikes with their Dad. In fact Darryn won the trophy for the youngest rider ( A trophy I won in '90, 91, 92 and 93) so I went over to chat to him and when I introduced myself he said, wow - you're the guy who has won this so many times - and proceeded to ask me how old I was when I started, what bike I ride - he was genuinely interested. One thing I did notice which was very impressive is that as he was walking back with the Trophy, the lid fell off - quick as a flash, and I mean really quick, he reached out and grabbed it about 50cm from the floor. His hand-eye co-ordination and reaction time is incredible.

Same engine - so performance very close, but we were worried about tyres. Very easy to get 18" and 21" tyres in Africa - not so much those fat ones on the TW. Also the rims were a worry - thousands of DT's in Africa - so things like hubs, spokes and rims were all easy to get. We had a test TW running around Pinetown with fat Shinko road tyres. It was an absolute blast....

So I got a random FB message last night - in 2008 I helped a couple from Canada who wanted to tour across Africa to deliver Mosquito nets and now they are writing a book about their adventure and wanted me to fill in a few gaps. I dug out my old Yamaha laptop and lo and behold still have all our original communication from when they contacted me. I spent a good few hours reading them again - brought back some great memories. I have attached a pdf of something I found this morning after a quick search on the net, but in a nutshell, Todd's brother died of Malaria in Africa, and Todd and Christina decided they wanted to make a difference. They had previously toured South America on XT350's which were readily available in Canada, but in SA we had discontinued them. TT250R's were out of the question because they were too expensive, and also very tall, TTR230's were not street legal, and they were not keen on DT175's because they were 2-strokes. So after much convincing, we settled on AG200's. They were very skeptical at first, but as the tour progressed, and you read their comments, they were absolutely blown away by them. To a point where they seriously considered taking them back to Canada. It's amazing how sometimes Yamaha manages to get something so right, but get the timing so wrong - have a look at an AG now, and tell me it wouldn't make a brilliant base for a dirt tracker project! 15475.pdf

The negative pulse pressure to anyone standing within 20m's eardrums

Looking at those eyes methinks Stella has eaten your Pot plant.....

And a belated shout-out to Grant from TWT for sorting out my light - I should have posted this earlier when my light was returned, but I really forgot. It was only this morning when I woke up to loadshedding and couldn't find my torch when I remembered my light on my bike. Instant daylight! Some useful info - Lezyne bicycle lights make brilliant auxiliary shaving lights during loadshedding...

Motorbike will probably be cheaper

Brad and Darryn are riding the DJ rally next month with their Dad. I'm riding one of the sweep vehicles. I'll buy Darryn a few beers on Friday night and ask him what Brad really thinks he can do

Valid concern you have - we were chatting to our Dog Trainer at puppy school and she said that the first 4 months of a puppy's life are the most important - they generally run around and are not phased by anything so the time to teach them the good habits is during that time. After 4 months, they begin to get more attentive to sounds and reactions and that's when the bad habits start. We were right on the limit with Lucy - but it goes without saying that 4 months in a cage at the SPCA didn't do her any good. What was also very interesting is that she said you can teach old dogs new tricks - right up to around 13 years of age. But its almost impossible to unlearn those bad experiences they might have had.

That, and the fact that we used old pieces of flat-bar which probably came off the original crate which brought out the Iscor Newcastle Blast Furnace parts my Dad helped assemble in the 70's!

Ya - the Japanese don't take too kindly to fiddling with theirs designs. Shimwells were fitting WR gearboxes, 18" Rear wheels and weighted flywheels to the YZ125 5 years before Yamaha "designed" the YZ125X. And every time they came out from Japan and we showed them what we were doing they never acknowledged anything - like they didn't think a small country like SA knew better. The back number plate holder on the XT660Z Tenere is a crap design and unbraced, would vibrate and break off. When I was testing the pre-production 660Z out Boschkop way I went through some whoops and the number plate holder broke off. My Dad and I welded up a bracket out of flat bar just to hold the broken part in position. It was a nice neat job and looked professional. When I showed the Rep from Yamaha he wasn't very impressed - almost disgusted. But when the production models arrived in SA, every bike had a bracket bracing the number plate holder, which was identical to the one my dad and I had welded....

So I finished watching and I'm sorry to admit that with mt DT rose-tinted spectacles I didn't even notice what the other guys were riding and when I saw TTR-225 I should have known that bike was going to walk the challenge. How do I know this - well in 2007 or 2008 I think, Wild Will Gillet rode a bog-standard TTR-230 (the 225 and 230 is the same bike - ours just had a plastic tank) to a top 10 place in the Roof of Africa - it started as a bit of a joke over a beer, but in the end we as Yamaha agreed to supply him a bike and he agreed to ride it. We put on a GYT-R silencer, and some preload washers on the forks with heavier oil, some Protaper bars with hand guards, and Mousses and sent him on his way. All we did at the stops was check spokes - only because from the previous Enduro Africa rides we knew the spokes had a habit of coming loose. He enjoyed riding that bike so much, that we seriously discussed putting a TTR230 motor into a YZ125 frame for the next year and sending him out again. He reckoned the Air-cooled engine, and the low end torque was perfect for that year's ride. it was just the brakes and suspension which held him back.....

At puppy training yesterday we were practicing dropping treats and then using the "Leave" and "Ok eat it" commands. Lucy-fer kept on missing the drop, and then spent ages hunting for the treat on the ground. Apparently, pointing it out and saying "There it is, you Chop" is frowned upon.... On a different note, the next puppy we get is going to be called Corona

Mixed feelings really - I was hoping the swim would have gone better - I was a minute faster than the 5th of Jan (which apparently in swimming terms is good), but I never felt strong. The MTB was a mixed bag - it was super muddy so they shortened the route by about 5kms which for me who is a strong MTB'er was a bit disappointing, but I made the best of it and made up quite a few places. Interestingly my mate who had his MTB over in the UK a few years ago was riding in the snow, so he fitted some super skinny 1.9 Snow specific tyres. When he moved back to SA he sold the bike but I bought the wheels (still fitted with said tyres). As the last Blyde I was grumbling to him about how crap the tyres were and that I was going to toss them. I didn't, and on Sunday I was hauling - snow tyres work brilliantly in thick mud! I just survived the run - had to stop twice to clear the mud off my shoes! It was so bad that a few of the leaders took off their shoes and were running in their socks.... Ended up with a 1:22 which was 14th - winning time was 1:08 I think. It's a brilliant venue though hey - I suppose mud will always be an issue anywhere if it rains, but from a logistics point of view it really works.

I've sneakily watched the first two episodes at work, and I'll watch the rest later. But if I was putting money on it, my bet would be on the DT. I've had 5 of those specific models (125 and 175) and grew up generally abusing my 175 as I learnt to ride. I even did an enduro in Newcastle on the 175 and it was fine. The tank took a hammering because it was steel, the bars were bent and the brakes I remember to be really bad in water. But it finished......and ahead of my mate on a KDX175 too

Ummmm - dunno about that continuous rhythm thing - I hear it mentioned in hushed tones like it's some special Zen thing. Nothing my way though! But I have gone from absolutely never will I ever do a triathlon to maybe I must look for a 70.3 towards the end of the year and see what it's all about. My wife coaches a few Juniors - I was chatting to one the other day and she casually mentioned that she was a bit tired because they were doing some intervals. What pace, I asked (because I think I know about swimming). 1:15 she says - what pace can you do? That was the end of that conversation.

So a little breakthrough today - 16th December I managed 300m consisting of 12 laps of the Virgin active pool resting every 100m. Last time out at Blyde I had to stop every 200m and walk around the Buoy. Today I managed 600m continuous. It's not the 2km+ that everyone else around me is doing, and also nowhere near the 1:50/100 everyone else seems to be able to do comfortably, but I'm doing Blyde again on Sunday and this time plan not to be last out of the Lagoon! There are still a few entries left btw if anyone is still keen for a fun day out....

About as silly as eating a Big Mac and drinking a Supersize Coke on the couch in the gym and earning 100 points, while doing a Saturday Duathlon Race Prep of 12min run with some strides up to race pace, 25min Bike with accelerations, and a 9min run off the bike getting you zero points. As the guys have mentioned many times, Vitality is not geared for athletes - I've given up worrying - I now subscribe to Ouzo's point 1 - forget about your points and do what your coach tells you to do.

Those are the best - 100% Dog

I've tweeted SashaF1 to has his opinion - I bet we've both missed someone!

Niki Lauda was probably the most successful. Won the '84 title after two years off. Not sure if their were some of the guys in the 50's and 60's who were more successful after a layoff though.

That's why all our dogs are on Bravecto. It's crazy expensive but tickbite fever is a horrible thing