stephenplumb

I used to commute from Umhlanga to UKZN back in the 90s. After my third crash I called it quits on road riding. Every single one of my mates that cycled a lot had been hit by a vehicle at least once. Even back then JHB was in the top 10 worst cities in the world for cycling. Driving standards have become considerably worse in the intervening years and that excludes the possibility of attacks mentioned above. It can probably be done, but you can also play russian roulette and may survive some time, but the odds are not in your favour. You are better advised to get a MTB and stick to organised venues that have some security. I am 5 mins drive from my office and would love to commute but it would mean crossing the R55 outside kyalami and given the number of drivers that wantonly drive through red traffic lights such I would not even consider it. If your kids are young give serious thought to your chances to continuing to see them. Stick to dirt.

That is a quick release. It can operate with no grease at all, but I would normally grease mine and any grease will work. It only serves a clamping function and there is no rational parts in direct contact with it, so any grease you have knocking about will do the job.

I have a buzzrack 3 bike carrier that handles 2 pygas pretty well. This is not the hanging type, but the one that has rails that hold the tyres in place and then some bars that grip the bike frames. For my purposes I fitted one of those tow pintel tow hitches that are available at Midas. That is the one with the vertical pin and tow hitch. This moves the whole thing about 2-3 inches further out and works great on my hilux with canopy. On the madams fortuner, there are no clearance issues as the rear window slopes away from the handle bars.

I voted for Minnar because he is home grown, but the two below should be worthy of consideration although perhaps at their peaks a little earlier than some of the current crop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Frischknecht https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Overend Both absolute beasts and as they say, those who accomplish much today, do so because they stand on the shoulders of Giants.

I was at Karkloof twice over the last week for the first time ever. I was there with my son and his mate. I was pretty apprehensive as they like the gung-ho death defying decents with gap jumps and rocks and things of that nature. I really prefer cross country type trails, but don't mind the odd jump that doesn't threaten to kill me. We went out on the 30km trail and I was further worried as it was mostly forest roads, which I was really enjoying. The wee critters then found some mobile app, that spoke of more serious decents and I plugged on with the 30km course, but ended up on the 20km route after thinking I had missed a sign. I met the urchins back at base and they were super excited. They really loved the place, and even the lazy one commented that the climbs were not as bad as normal, so he did not find it too hard. I went back on Saturday pm and did the full 30 and then when that got me back to base early, I did another 10. The pins are a bit sore now, but having found this gem, I am going to make a point of stopping there on every trip to KZN. For those that have not been, I would highly recommend it. Apparently the trails are all run by Sappi and they do sometimes close trails at short notice if there is a fire risk or if they are logging, so perhaps just check in advance if you are trekking that way.

I was recently at waterfall arms (a long way from the Western Cape) and they had a very nice tight fit vest that includes a holster that the glock 43X which I bought with the holster will fit into nicely. I was recently riding in the afternoon at the Big Red Barn up here and had the place pretty much to myself, but thought that I may be a bit exposed and have seen some down on their luck fellows pottering about. Hence the acquisition of the 43X and exercise friendly holster. Just a thought.

Many years ago I would have regarded myself as a pretty decent climber. Not exceptional, but good enough to make some pain in a roadie group. My son, riding his slakline, battles to ride slow enough for me these days with his Slakline. I am blaming covid lung, but it is mainly just increased bulk and complete lack of fitness, both of which are enemies of hills. It is quite demoralising when he rides past me with such contemptuous ease. Anyway, good luck with the choice. Don't think your plan B is a poor choice.

I have a hyrax, that I really enjoy and my son has a slackline that he seems to enjoy even more. I found Dean at pyga was very nice to deal with and they were able to deliver a bike within two weeks of ordering.

From my experience I would say, hypothetically of course, that one might wish to take out a very low value bicycle, or perhaps a frame that needs to be mended in the destination country. This of course would be declared on the way out. Ideally, again hypothetically, it would be declared as the bike one would be returning with. This is what I am told the pros used to do that would regularly travel overseas, in a thought experiment of course. Personally I would just buy a pyga as they seem very well specced and you avoid most of that pesky duty stuff and the tax man hounding you.

I had a rather big cycling accident at Uni, and the subsequent payout left me with a bit of cash to get a new bike. This would have been circa 1990/1. My mom was travelling to ireland and so I got her to get a bike for me. It was a Cannodale R2.8 series road frame, custom built with Shimano STI600 groupset, DT Swiss spokes and Mavic rims. I forget the minor components, but the only way to go higher was fitting Dura Ace and perhaps zipp wheels. That whole bike was R5.5k. I hesitate to let me wife know what my son's and my Pyga set me back, but suffice it to say that the sale of my old amarok pretty much covered the sons bike, and mine was an indulgence. I do love the pygas but the pricing is mental these days, but what choice do you have?

A hiking friend said that either your boots last forever, or you last forever. Same with tyres on cars. The longer they last they less they will grip. I clicked on this topic and saw on page 1 how someone was buying tyres for 125 ronts. I was at my local solomons in Woodmead on Saturday and picked up a 2.5x29 Assagai tyre for 999. I thought I was robbed unit i read the thread and realised that page one was many years back. Just be thankful you are not doing this professionally, as I know from the rally days that top teams would change tyres after each stage. This was because significant grip would be lost as soon as the shoulders of the tyres became even slightly rounded dramatically reducing grip. In that context, throwing a few notes occasionally seems quite reasonable, and is cheaper than medical bills from face planting.

Surely willing buyer willing seller applies?

I Well I bought a pyga for myself and my son so it is good to hear that they are well backed up. Following a face ending accident I also blew the better part of 30 gorillas on leat gear from the trail centre in PMB. So far so good, although riding with a full face lid and googles takes some getting used to. I have been chucking everything into the machine after each ride, and no issues so far - touches head!

I have to drag my son to these places and prefer more cross country style myself, but that means we pretty much go to enduro places. I like Wolverspruit the most because the felicities are very nice and they have options for a peasant like me to practice jumps and more advanced options for those lacking a frontal cortex. We were at Grootfontein two weekends back and I like the enduro trail, and the flow trail is quite nice. I did most of the enduro tracks, and I think you need to get used to them before going all out. Last of last weekend I did Iron Throne and it did not go well due to a barded wire incident that nearly killed me. Assuming that they barbed wire has now been removed from the trail, it remains very advanced and I noticed that my sons tyres went from New to almost completely destroyed in one day, so there is that. Giba george is still my favourite and we spent a lot of time there in December. Advanced enough to be fun, but not life threatening and much more enjoyable if you can get a shuttle.

I shall be getting the full face down hill helmet and googles and will probably even do cross country trails in that moving forward. My helmet was in two pieces, but I left it on my noggin until I got to the hospital. I actually have no idea how it got damaged as my head felt fine, and I felt my mouth took the brunt of the impact, but I am very glad I had glasses on as they asked my eye for sure.

Sorry good point. I don't really recall the structure but apparently it is part of a fence/gate that they erect every night and remove every morning. Perhaps they pull something along the barbed wire?

So i have just received a call from Charl who seems to run the trails. He said that after hearing of my incident he went up and saw that a tree had fallen on the wire, bringing it into my height and he can now see how it all happened. He said that he had been through there with his son the day before and all was well. Normally the wire that cause the damage is much higher and would have no chance of causing this type of damage. I told him that my main concern is that I don't want what happened to me to happen to anyone else, and given that he will be acting on this, I really don't want to take it any further. I am very lucky to be in a position that I can afford the medical bills and so won't bother with a lawyer to take things further. Charl mentioned that they are trying to fence some other part to keep the animals out and that would allow them to remove the fence i hit.

To be honest it could well have been, but as I am an old fart, and this trail is quite advanced, I was very much focused down on the ground, and not looking for barbed wire at head height, so I can't say for sure. ONce I got up, I was pissing blood like a wounded buffalo, so did not spend much time trying to take pictures etc, as I knew that getting to the hospital was going to be a priority.

This weekend I went to iron throne for the first time. I rode with my son and another very kindly fellow that seemed to know the trails a little better. On my second run down the flow trail, I came to a very rapid stop with a piece of barbed wire in my mouth that was hanging across the trail. at head height. I have spent Sunday and Monday am getting patched up at casualty and then with a plastic surgeon, and am very lucky not to have lost my eye. I am frankly staggered that I could be injured this way on a public trail that I paid money to ride. I was very lucky that I was not riding a little taller as my jugular would have been cut for sure if the barbed wire hit me a little lower down than my eye and mouth. I am not sure what the general impressions of Iron throne are, but when my wife informed the trail what had happened they were aware of this "fence" and said it was something to do with keeping game on one side of it. How you can have a single strand of barbed wire hanging at head height across a downhill trail that you are charing money for the public to use I don't know. I am still pondering litigation and suspect that this may be the only way to deal with this, but would really prefer not to close a place down that may offer some value to the cycling community, but I don't believe they should be allowed to operate in such an unsafe manner. I would strongly caution anyone against riding there unless they can assure you that this situation has been permanently rectified.