Karakoram

Thanks for sharing. It really is a monumental route. Hopefully one day I'd be able to do some of it.

Chris, no I haven't. Looked it up on Google - kinda out of my league.

I recently launched The Free Cycling Movement. The objective is to curate a diverse collection of short / shortish family-friendly cycling routes (called tours on the Komoot App), primarily designed for off-road adventures. These tour routes are accessible to all, without the encumbrance of trail access fees and documented on the popular Komoot App. Times are tough and sharing is caring. Spread the love, please suggest additional free South African tours for others to enjoy. (GPX files) Some of the tours already uploaded can be viewed here: https://www.komoot.com/user/926458051222?ref=wud WhatsApp chat group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/F53kxqT9YYL6bfrvFw6EZo

That is exactly correct. As I mentioned earlier, trail marking materials should ideally not have any re-sell value in order to discourage pilfering. Anything on metal gets stolen very quickly. Vandalism and deterioration due to harsh environmental conditions is another consideration.

This is nice signage. It has good stuff going for it. Would work well where the trail network is like a set-course dinner, but probably not as well where the trail network offering is more of a buffet-style (you can ride what you like - your choice of how you want to make up your route). It certainly has features that could be carried over when renewing the sign-posting of a trail network.

"Well marked" trails is common theme. The follow-on question is, what would the attributes of good trail markings be? Perhaps the following: Placing of trail marking boards to afford maximum visibility to the anticipated use speed of the trail. Fixture height of the board between .8 and 1.5 m above ground. Colour of the board support post - bright contrast to surroundings perhaps yellow. Board size adequate to host the content. Legible fonts at a distance of 4m. Board background - white. Board content - Trail direction arrow - black. Board content - Trail difficulty grade in accordance with IMBA standards. Board content - Route colour code. Board content - Text descriptor of route destination at regular intervals. Board content - Trail owner details Board content - Additional reflective arrow for night navigation

Thanks for the great feedback. It certainly is a challenging exercise to find the right balance of presenting useful information to trail users (of different skill levels) at an affordable level of effort to the trail owner. At the same time material used for trail signage shouldn't have any intrinsic value in order to discourage vandalism and pilfering - a very real problem in my experience.

I am quite pleased with the responses so far. What matters seems to be well marked colour coded trails, supported by minimal info board at the trail head and up to date Trail Forks map. It matches the hunch I have.

Hi Hubbers. Theoretically, if you were to visit a new riding area for the first time, what kind of trail-head map would you find useful/useless . My interest in the topic is from a map/signage maintainer's point of view. This is biased towards having a minimum level of detail that would remain current for a good deal of time (e.g. the metro map-style map below). This would be the best value for money option for the trail owner, but may be in conflict with what users/riders actually prefer. The more detail a trail-head map contains, the quicker it becomes outdated. Also bear in mind that map information diminishes in value as familiarity with the trail network builds. Assumptions: It is assumed that the actual trails are well marked, colour coded (e.g. Red Route), and altered quite frequently as new sections are added or changed due to land-owner requests. All trail changes are regularly uploaded to a comprehensive record of the trail network on Google Maps. In my opinion, there are about three trail-head map-style options available, what would you prefer? (Please mention it if there are other options). 1) Full colour Satellite image with the most trails marked out, directions and distances. 2) Simplified map background image with main trails, directions and distances. 3) Metro map style image showing main trails with distances, directions and elevation. Do people actually read maps? It doesn't appear so, judging by the number of riders found off route and going in the wrong direction...

I attended the launch of the re-branding of the Wannabees Cycling club in Somerset West, now known as the Winelands Cycling Club. Significantly, the event also included the launch of a regional permit allowing access to 9 ride areas, namely: Winelands Cycling Club Trails (Old Wannabee Trails) A to Z Grabouw Helderberg Trails Stellenbosch Trail Fund Trails MTO Jonkershoek Banhoek Conservancy Franschhoek trails Paarl trails Wellington: wild boar and scouts Sounds like other ride-areas in the greater winelands district are also keen to participate (2023). The cost of the Winelands Regional Permit is: Adult R 1500-00 Senior (> 65 years) R 1250-00 Youth (<18 years> R 1250-00 Each of the local trail networks will retain and sell their own local membership / permit offers for those that only want to ride a local network. The regional permits will attract riders from all over the winelands region, which requires that the boards must be available for collection at collection points closer to a rider's home-base. The participating ride areas have set up a variety of collection point for the regional boards. No need to ride all the way to Somerset West to collect your board from elsewhere. Riders will be able to select a preferred collection point whilst completing an on-line registration and payment. The new Winelands Cycling Club website is available at the following URL: https://www.winelandscyclingclub.co.za/

Cycling on the cheap - back to equipment. Who has considered an e-bike due to health problems, but have balked at the cost of these machines? I know of a few cyclist that haven't regained full lung capacity after Covid-19 and have switched to an e-bike to still enjoy cycling. My wife only has 50% lung capacity, loves cycling and cycle-touring but cannot keep up when we do distance. We decided to look at e-bikes, but we have a few very specific requirements. First of all, low cost, a step-thru frame would be great, the ability to fit racks and a good range. We found a South African supplier that had a product that perfectly matched our requirements. See https://pedego.co.za/. We settled on one of the Smart-e bikes at under R30,000 (https://pedego.co.za/product/smart-dais-e-mountain-bike/). It doesn't have the coolness factor of some mainstream e-bikes, but this bike ticked all of our requirement boxes. In July we rode our own version of the cancelled Around the Pot event, from Swellendam to Buffeljagsrivier, via the Malgas Pont. She could easily do the gravel travel distance of 85km, 1400m climbing, using pedal assist level 1 only (there are 5 levels altogether). After we stopped at Buffeljagsrivier, she had only used a quarter of the available battery capacity. (She is very light, which helps, but also put in a good deal of cycling effort to make the battery last the distance). We didn't know what the actual range of the bike would be, but we are now confident that it could easily do 95 to 100km with loaded panniers. The image below is the display of the bike after 85km distance:

What about First Ascent Gravel Mountain Bike Cycling Shoes https://www.sportsmanswarehouse.co.za/product/first-ascent-gravel-mountain-bike-cycling-shoes

I think I am going to try this recipe. Sound wholesome and good. Another favourite power snack I take along on longer rides are some dates. (Not the blind kind ????).

Yes, the soles are okay. Good when dry, but not as grippy when wet, overall not bad at all. The uppers of the K-Way shoes are water repellent which is way better than my aging Five Tens. They really soak up water from wet overgrown single track vegetation.

Speed agnostic MTB shifters. Shifts anything. (3 x 10, 2 x 9 etc). Sunrace SLM 10 MTB friction shifters. R155 for a pair including cables. (Shipping excluded). I've been using these shifters on two of my bicycles and they are bomb-proof, work extremely well and require no indexing setup. URL: https://www.ebay.com/itm/363462396584?hash=item54a00c0aa8:g:UIoAAOSwjVhfpm1W