Furbz

just going to slip this in here. The Officina Battaglin Portofino G A fully custom steel gravel bike with integrated cables and a carbon fork. this is art

Buy it. you will not regret it. I have one, the ride is telepathic. It gives me so much confidence over jumps or in the air. had no issues at all with dirt so far. if you slam the bars the switch levers will contact the top tube in a fall which is irritating as mine is scratched now and its expensive to fix and will certainly happen again. i did have the opportunity to swap out for the fox front fork, which i took. But thats personal preference. i just prefer the way fox forks ride. i have no interest in owning another bike as yet, i really really love the way mine rides.

My father did a 2h53 and some change on his SS. Won his category 65-69yrs old. He is 69! Went up suikerbossie in 5m08s at 339w! Ratio 50/17

Hey hey. Pedal in circle

Take a look at Mason bikes. Their steel road bike is the best riding bike on earth. Better than my colnago, cipo, bianchi, Ritte, parlee

Off topic. I bought some of the Isonam and thought there was a packaging issue as the tub only had 2cm of product in it. the tub measures 18cm to the top. i weighed it and it had the correct weight. so no harm there - its correct sure the product can compact in the tub - but not that much. What an epic waste of space. imagine how much they could save on shipping and plastic if they just package it in the right size tub. 80% of the tub is air 🤣

yes they will

having had both. really once you start riding its not the biggest issue. its a ratios thing and if you are happy you are riding a cadence maybe a bit above or below what you normally would. if that does not bother you then go for the 1x. its simple and looks great. if cadence is a bug bear then go 2x

No ways anyone can lean a bike over that far

Saw that, was being looked after by a few other riders when I came past. looked like a nasty knock to the head. hope he is ok

Long and short of it. I’ve used both Garmins and the Apple ultra. Apple is powerful. You can make phones calls, open your garage etc etc etc but it’s battery is rubbish. It needs to be charged so often it spends more time on the pad than on your wrist - which is painful if you are trying to track Heath data. the Garmin’s are excellent, but not a tech watch. It does health data like no one’s business. But don’t expect it to take calls or open the garage. imo garmin is the win for its battery life. the apples poor battery makes it a total loose for sleep data tracking and as a normal activity tracking. Epix vs Fenix, I tried both. The difference is battery life. I wear an Epix. The screen is just so much better and nicer to live with. and the battery life is a non issue as it charges so fast that putting in on charge when I shower and get ready for bed is more than enough to keep it going. i put mine on charge maybe once a week

For this bike the ENVE 4.5 wheels take the cake on the looks front for me. its just such a clean look. COMFORT - Zipp 353 or ENVE 3.4 ARs. Honestly, blindfolded i would not be able to tell which is which. the 25mm inner is superb. both are extremely comfortable. and even on the hills i would not be able to tell them apart. Its worth mentioning the ENVE 4.5 wheels have an inner of 25mm! thats wide for such a deep wheel. so they come in a close 2nd place loosing out as the depth does impact their vertical compliance. SPEED - Flats the ENVE 4.5 wheels seem to hold speed better than any of the other wheels. Its when you hit the hills the Zipp 454's feel that little more lively and willing to spin up a faster. If i was doing a flat TT i would put the ENVE 4.5s on over the Zipp 454 wheels. The Zipp 454 wheels are great all round wheels and are my go to hoops as they just "feel" great. STIFFNESS - Hmmm. tough one this. i'd say again the 454's just because they feel like they accelerate faster (they are lighter, as as a smaller guy this does impact me). The ENVE 4.5s are just as stiff - but for me feel more at home cruising at high speed. i also might not be the best person to answer this (69kgs and 1290w in a sprint makes me not really a sprinter) i think put a big boy on these and you might get a more reliable answer.

Every South African should listen to this: Des Latham History of South Africa. its on Spotify, Apple and i'm sure others. i knew more about other countries histories and struggled to find anything decent about South Africa. This is an unbiased look at the entire picture that is Southern Africa right from how the minerals ended up in RSA, colonisation, tribes, treks etc. Highly recommend it

send a set to me and i will add it to the poll

have a size 52 in stock if you like?

Does this count?

Have another one of these being built now. Sram Rival XPLR 10/44 paired with latest Sram force V2 1x crank. looking forward to seeing how this one turns out!

The best gravel wheels in existence are the ENVE AG25 wheels

i think we can all agree the organisers really should be made aware of this thread. otherwise it is all just hot air

Need to add, those guys handing out the water packets to the faster groups saved me from a really thirsty end. Managed to grab 2 along the way and finished both bottles on the bike before the end of the race. i felt like one of the tour riders for a brief moment being looked after by a soigneur!

Really enjoyed my ride in C, had a bunch of riding buddies all in the group. really made it easier to hang on when the going got tough! @Avo also noticed the guy on the E-bike. bizarre. he really should have kept out the way better. but either way not really an issue. I incorrectly assumed C would be an easier ride. Smokes we hauled ass! Timing issues a plenty on this race! 2h36 and some change for me. bizarrely my mate started maybe 15 meters behind me in the pen. we crossed the line together and according to official timing i was over a minute faster than him? another oddity was i was classified as 40+ (i'm 36) just odd. some of my mates got sms confirmations of there times. not for me. just odd. we got dropped off, did the ride and then hopped on the route and road home to Fourways at a far more sedate pace. we had no intensions of sticking around the stadium. just get bad vibes there. some people really do not train for this ride. we saw people on the side of the road lying down or sitting down taking a rest and they had not even made the first water point - long long day ahead of them if the finished. they looked absolutely shattered! water points were great - ice water down the back and on the legs really got the juices flowing again when the temperature started to pick up! i think they could have maybe had a little bit more food on offer.

JHB Stadium is an awful place. yes it works as a venue, but i really despise having to be there. its sorta like a hospital - its a really depressing place to be that just reminds me of how far JHB has fallen. Its hard not to notice just how run down and shoddy it looked. litter everywhere. half finished roads. dumped concrete and scrap everywhere. nevermind the riff raff that pestered people. its just not a safe area at all. i got dropped off, raced and left immediately after. I felt no pull towards wanting to stay in that area at all to experience the after race facilities - they did look pleasant though. but again, even with that i still had no intentions of sticking around is a crummy area of town. all the previous venues were leagues better than the stadium.

i'm 171cm. my 80cm inseam had me on a 54 2020 trek Madone SLR every other bike i ride is a 52.

that is officially this bikes name. GREEN WITH ENVE 🤩