The Bull Shark

Don't let Adele Kirsten catch you trying to sell toy guns that looks like Semi-auto rifles to kids.

We hates you.

I have a fairly decent AV setup with Onkyo AV amp and 5 decent speakers, and there are parts of Interstellar that gave me goosebumps. To understand the ending of Interstellar, you have to understand the work of Kip Thorne, and the physics of BRANEs.

Me and the wife went for a quicky up and down Helderberg late this afternoon. I hate cameraman shadow, but the sun was quite low and I wanted the mountain in the backdrop.

Time to come ride in the Overstrand platteland.

Where is your surfski, mate?

Mayfair, dude. They were larnies man. 1999, freshly unbanned.

Man, you don't know the half of it. I had to fight for those 3. Made a few turns to Tygerberg's Infertility Clinic. Most demoralising having to go into a room stacked with porn mags, only to leave with a cup.

I am too slow to suck my son's wheel. On the downhills, yes, but not once it goes flat or uphill.

4 MTBs, 1 MTB doing roady duty until I can finish the 3rd proper roady build, and 2 proper roadies in weekly use. Then I also have 2 other MTBs that needs to be sold soon and 2 kiddies bikes, also that needs to get homes soon. My home looks like some bike shops. No, I have 3 kids. My wife was hinting the other day about a 4th, and I said no way am I gonna stand at primary school sports grounds and sit though kiddie school concerts when I am retired. My wife is 9 years younger than me, but one have to put a stake in the ground sometime.

Lotsa good 26ers on the market. No need to be picky when starting. I raced many races on my 26er, and I am still struggling to beat my Strava time down Helderberg XCO ST that I set with my 26er. Only beat it once on my 29er, and only be 3 seconds. And youngsters would do well to start collecting tools to service their own bikes. Lots of videos on the net that shows how. The issue I found was the fuel and cost of upkeep. To race MTB properly your steed must be in top mechanical shape, and parts ain't cheap.

Watching my inbox like a hawk...

Things are different in my home. I had to put the brakes on my wife, as she wanted to do each and every race she can think of. The problem is there is only one bloke in this house that has to do all the race organisation and making sure all of the 7 bikes in our home is race ready, week in week out. And that costs money and time. Luckily road bikes are a bit easier on the pocket.

Will do W2W this year, and was planning for the Berg & Bush next year, but my son will be writing his Matric exams next year, which will cause problems. Maybe we will see what will work for our calendar. Definitely planning to do the Eselfontein next year.

Yes, so far all my Veritas tools came from Lee Valley. Their service is second to none. When I purchased my Shoulder Planes, one of the plane's were damaged in shipping. Mr Lee himself answered my e-mail ans shipped me the replacement part free of charge without requesting any photos for evidence. Also, when I bought my spoke shave set, they supplied 2 of the same type. He shipped my the correct spoke shave without asking me to ship the duplicate back. The cost, shipping included was slightly less than what Hardware Center asks at current shipping rates. A few years ago shipping were much cheaper than now.

Which is why I purchased an Imperial drill set from Lee Valley a few years ago. With woodworking I prefer using Imperial.

Still can't get over that weird stem it has on. Irritates my practical sensibilities everytime I see it.

Yes, thinking of almost Roubo type bench, but I will have Record Quick-Action vice on front and Veritas Twin Screw on end, like the Samurai's bench. Yes, rectangular dog holes. Base has bunch of beefy mortice joints that are wedged and glued. The stretchers are bolted on. Those stretchers are 144 X 70 beams. The rest is 100 X 70.

Right now, here is where I am at: And also progressing slowly to get my garage organised, although my Husky keeps on leaving surprises on my garage floor: BTW, that bike there in the pic is my gardener's Gary Fischer. All my bikes sleep safely in my home.

Congrats on your project. My bench has been in construction for how long. With me it has been the other way around. I am so much on my bike on weekends training for the W2W that I don't get no time for nothing else. Did a 30km ride from my home in Strand to Helderberg top and back on Friday afternoon late, and then did a 75km ride to a T-junction just before Franschhoek via Hels and back on Saturday morning. When I walked into my home I just flopped onto the bed and waited for the rugga to begin, so no amount of shavings were made.

Boks were the better team today, but simple mistakes costs us.

De Ellendig, jou toffie!

Always better to laminate on the long edge, not the short.

A pity we were all there exposed in the sun. Last year we were under the trees. I think more people would have stayed on after the race if we were under the shady trees. But I also enjoyed the race. Chatted to a few people on the road, and the ST manners were all good.

At least Pure Savage got a podium, even though the youngsters were scarce in the 45km.