rob!

Funny, hey, the Epic lost appeal (to me) when it lost the image of being a long trek from east to west. Now they do loops with the same start and finish (which is an exaggeration). I'd assume the cost must have come down a bit but the entry prices rise and rise. Taht's not very sustainable and the current development is quite interesting. There are many other stage races, Pioneer Track was mentioned but even doing the Transalp including flights is not more expensive then the Epic. But that was discussed long ago. Let's see where it goes, perhaps the prices will be changed in the future.

Interesting. I've always wanted to do it and am certainly fit enough to just jump on. Once the ticket prices have reached 20k I'll consider it. :-)

Alloy!

Cannondale RZ ONE TWENTY XLR 2 - your fork won'tfit, but it's an awesome frame! My complete bike with that frame comes in at 11.5 kg with "standard" parts.

Clubs, clubs, clubs...

I come from a country and a continent with plenty of bike lanes. Most of them are not suitable for road riding. They are great for cruising and the MTB but usually not for the road bike. Which is why road "racers" hardly ever use them. Sometimes they are suitable and I am happy to use them, but in generally not. That's just as it is. Now go to bed and play with the wife!

:DReminiscensing...the times where he was all ears

You'll enjoy it now without the threat of bullets flying past you. But don't go through the trouble of exchanging currency. You can use them Rands, the change received will be NAM $.

Have you ever been to NAM?

Ok, if anyone wants to chicken out and sell me his solo entry give me a shout!

You must see very intersting stuff! I did an internship with a ground handling company in Belgium once and literally stood next to the planes laughing my ass off about the way the packers handled the luggage without any concerns at all. Very funny.

Nah, not too bad. The MTB is already scratched anyways and if you don't care that much... But the chicken is probably one in a hundred. When you see what fuzz cyclists usually make about their pretty bike the preferred choice would probably be that the bike is in the cockpit behind the pilot.

Ja, well, Mr Chicken and I had the transport discussion many times. The main difference between us is that he doesn't care about bike scratches in the same way as I do. To put it simply, he doesn't care while I want to scratch my bike myself. To comment on chicken's comments: 1. Having just wrapped my bike, taken pedals and seat post off and turned the handle bar I was standing at the gate of CPT airport and saw how the packers where pulling my bike across the runway, dropping bags on it and pushing the bike around with their feet. I'd have loved to go down there and do the same to them. 2. I love boxes for their practicallity - the box fits on the back seat of most cars (saying this I've done it with Audi A4's, Golf 3,4, 5 and 6 as well as a Nissan Almera and Mercedes A-Clss). Yes, a complete bike with wheels. 3. SAA transports bikes for free on domestic flights. Using a box you can chuck other stuff in the box as well. The conclusion is that irrespective of the chosen way of packing the bike you can be lucky or unlucky. Do what you feel more comfortable with, I go the card board box way and will fly up like this to Jozi on Friday. I've never had any issues with this, even on international flights. Proper bike cases are overprized in my eyes and weigh too much by themselves. Which is a bummer if you are a normal traveller bound to weight limits. Cheaper bike bags offer less protection than the good cardboard bike box. Lekker slaap, liefie!

A cardboard box with a bit of padding inside will suffice. The bike is for free with SAA on doemstics flights so you don't have to pay. I have flown with both SAA and Kulula with just rolling my bike to the plane (padded, tyres a bit deflated, seat post out and handlebar parallel to top tube). However on the SAA flight I could see my bike being mishandled when they loaded the plane so it's always gonna be travelling in a box from now on.

Does the new task include moving repeatedly posted pics into one folder? *thiniking of guy with bike in tent, trail riding on the cliffs by HJ ...

Schoolkids would also have taken this topic to the next stage, but obviously not limited to them. I am not offended by the threat, it just nicely shows your personality.

8000,- for the package? Does that include spares? If not its anoth high fee charged by the epic organizers!

Well, while you shouldn't use bleach on your bibs a normal laundry cycle should relieve you of your problem. Once in a while everyone has a skidmark on his shammy but it's not diccifult to clean. But perhaps you shouldn't leave them bibs lying around for weeks before washing them.

Yeah Super Mario, you are a ****.

Bla Bla Your legs make the bike fast. If you don't want the comfort of a dual susser then buy the hardtail and hammer it. I just ordered a new dual susser. But with 26" wheels. Everything else is rubbish and my legs will make sure I beat most of the 29er - and if not it's not about the bike but the machine powering the bike.

I'm lloking for a solo entry - anyone keen to sell his entry to me or has a friend who has a friend that knows a guy that ...?

The hubbers should have done the one or other ride instead of posting in this usefless thread this much. This could also help against their underperfomrnance!

Fast like the wind! I'll PM you.

I enjoyed the race! The gravel section was easy to ride, the flat course allowed for a fast race, although I'd have preferred the bunch to split up a bit. The potholes could have been a bit less, but you find them anywhere and if the bunch points potholes out well it's not a problem. And the very bad patches as through Rawsonsville are actually something the riders should be aware of and make suzre they see enough of the road ahead of them and keep a distance. Otherwise it's probably quite known what the roads are like. If you pitch up with you most expensive set up it's your own fault.

****, I'm only 'D' so don't qualify.