RobynE 🚵‍♀️

I’ve done a lot of reading of older forum posts over the past couple of years and some of the posts are really funny if you read them now. There was MUCH disdain/lack of trust about 29”, tubeless, carbon MTB frames and 12 speed drivetrains 😂 😂

I think you also answered your own question in your opening post, give it a try and let us know how it goes 🤓

If you don’t come right closer to you this ticks all the boxes and is about as cheap as you can get Wheel on mp

I’m looking for something you might not throw away but probably wouldn’t feel comfortable selling for real money 😁 I’m replacing a shark-finned 10sp SLX 3x10 groupset. I’m after a 10 speed MTB cassette and chain pairing that still has a bit of life in it. Doesn’t have to be amazing but shouldn’t be slipping. Willing to pay not real money for it and we both go on our merry way 🫡

I was having a look at this but I’m super fat and unfit. Do you have the route available?

It depends on your rim width as well. The tyres can look and behave so differently depending on rim width. For example 45mm tyres on my DT Swiss tandem rims look very sad compared to the same tyres on wider rims. The rims are narrow - I think 19mm inner width. If you’re not a purist I would personally look at the 28mm Decathlon tyres for R449 a pop. I put 38mm tubed Decathlon tyres through things they never should have seen - proper MTB territory - on a 14kg hybrid bike carrying my inept, fat self, and didn’t get even a single puncture. (Then again I also put 28mm Innova cheap as chips slick road tyres and cheap tubes through 50km of corrugated North West/Limpopo gravel training on a 1980s tandem 😂 - The next day the rear had said No). On the hybrid the 40mm tubeless Pirelli Cinturatos that I put on looked only marginally different and I had a few punctures. They did handle a bit better but I think that was more to do with the tubeless setup (which I couldn’t do with the 38mm stock tyres). Those 38mm are still riding around with a local commuter. The Decathlon tyres are road tyres but they may surprise you in a good way with what you want to do.

Love Ryder stuff but when it comes to helmets getting one with MIPS is the way. Giant Contend and Scott Argo are two sub-2k offerings with MIPS. I have the Argo and quite literally forget it’s on my head. It’s very light and very comfortable but everyone’s heads are different so try before you buy.

You must use a Pursuit board. If you don’t have one you can buy one at registration.

⬆️ oh and on the racks. A 2 bike rack is actually a single bike rack and a 3 bike rack is a 2 bike rack. Brand new racks are more compliant to modern bike width but most racks you’ll find are designed for narrow mountain bikes and road bikes. So look for a 3 bike rack at least.

Howdy and welcome! 1. Speak to @RobertWhitehead. He’s in Pretoria and will build you a really nice bike where you’ll get a much better spec (and reliability) than any entry-level new bike. Your bikes will also retain their resale value. 2. Bikejackings aren’t too common. Use your normal sensibilities while out and about and you’ll be fine. Your bigger danger is vehicles. Flashing lights front and rear and always assume every single vehicle is a 2 tonne projectile being piloted by an ape looking at a cellphone. 3. Plenty in the Pretoria area and there’s also Northern Farm, Prime View, Taroko - all accessible for you. 4. Don’t stuff around trying to fit bikes in the back. Ball ache. Ruins the fun. Fine for one but *** for two. You’ll scratch and break things on the bikes and your car plastics and roof lining etc. Very annoying and kills the vibe. Towbar will be great. Plenty of bike racks to be had at Cash Converters for example. Stick to Thule, Buzz Rack and Holdfast as you can get replacement rubbers, straps etc and buying second hand they retain their value very well. I use a Buzz Rack platform rack for 3 bikes, my Holdfast wheelie is permanently mounted on my spare wheel for 1 bike, and 2 bikes (or the tandem) I use my Holdfast 2-bike hanging rack. All were bought 2nd hand from Cash Converters at probably 1/4 or 1/3 the price of new. 5. Store your bike however you like. I can’t see your link but if you want to buy one thing and never have to buy another, Steadyrack is the way. A lot of hanging racks don’t have the tyre/rim width capacity of modern mountain bikes, so you may end up with something that scratches your rims etc. Steadyrack is really convenient and you’ll never have to reinvent your storage idea. 6. Go for a 1x (one by ie single chain ring up front) drivetrain on both bikes with SRAM NX or Shimano Deore as minimum spec with a 10 (or 11) to 50 cassette and a 32t chain ring. Don’t bother with clipless pedals for now, just use decent, grippy flat pedals and when you’re ready you can go to clipless pedals and cleats. “Clipless” being a bit confusing - as it’s the system where your shoe clips onto the pedals. Good quality bib shorts (the ones with shoulder straps) are the way. Entry level Enjoy bibs aren’t bad, or lots of options on Temu. When starting out hydrate and eat little and often. Don’t wait until you’re half dead to stop and fuel yourself. Choose your bars, gels and gummies wisely as not all bowels agree with all product offerings and a bush #1 is always fine but a bush #2 is really not one for the memory bank. Good quality sunglasses and sun cream that doesn’t run into your eyes and burn your eyeballs out of your head and you’ll be away.

The people’s rider. Absolutely love this ⬆️

Prepare for a lot of climbing and make sure you manage your nutrition and hydration. It can be pretty brutal out there, especially if it’s hot on the day. There are some *epic* descents, but what goes down always goes up. Pace yourselves. The elevation profile doesn’t lie.

🤷‍♀️ it’s not a competition.

She does TdF as well - she was great last year.

As someone who has been in this situation (armed gunman/men coming into your space to commit a robbery) more times than probably anyone on here, what the guys did was the right thing to do in the circumstances. Just give them your stuff and know that at some point they’ll get their comeuppance, one way or another. All you can do.

My creak (which I would have sworn was coming from the BB/crank/seat tube area) came from the cassette (Sunrace I think) where the rivets had worked loose over time, though you couldn’t feel it by hand. Every time I pedalled it would creak. Changed to a SRAM 10-50 cassette and the creak was instantly gone. This was after much stripping and lubing and checking of a mountain of other things.

Spend some time not drinking and then see how ingrained, entrenched and acceptable alcohol consumption is. It’s actively encouraged. If every time you arrived somewhere/finished an event there was a tray of mind-and-behaviour-altering pills, would you pop one, two, three without thinking about it? I mean it’d only be one, right? People drink because it does things to the brain. No other reason. If it didn’t do anything to the brain we’d all be drinking 0% stuff. Alcohol makes us less/more talkative, less/more animated, it (without fail) lowers inhibitions. It is a social crutch. Even if the crutch is to support you through your own thoughts, ie drinking alone. Condolences to all who lost loved ones at the hands of drunken fools.

I did my fair share of drinking and driving etc when I was in my 20s. It was a life of corporate sales and action sports and consumption was very much ingrained. I reached the age of 31 and it was during that year I stopped doing it. At 39 I stopped drinking all together and now 6 years on I don’t regret a moment - except maybe all the moments I found my way home completely sheetfaced hoping the next day that I hadn’t hurt anyone or anything. I don’t believe I ever did but I still think about it. I am persistently SHOOK at the amount of 40+ people sitting around at restaurants, beer tents, wine tastings, etc, about to get behind the wheel. These are parents, grandparents. I’m not surprised by the youngsters, but people my age and older? Which leads me to think, that culture shift is so necessary. Whether you’re 20 or 60, you should not be drinking and driving. It should never be “acceptable”. Even if you had a couple of beers at home then drove to fetch your Friday night takeaway. I really *should* be as surprised with a 20 year old drinking and driving as I am a 60 year old. Sure, some people Uber etc. But let’s be real - more people get behind the wheel. The whole culture of alcohol is just so messed up. Cigarette advertising is shunned, but nicotine doesn’t destroy other people’s lives. Alcohol DESTROYS yet the consumption of it is glorified and celebrated. People just don’t seem to realise that dependency is dependency whether you have 1 or 6. If you can’t consistently manage a social setting without a drink in hand - you’re dependent. If you need a drink in your hand to wind down after the day, you’re dependent. If alcohol didn’t alter brainwaves it wouldn’t be consumed. It’s simple really. And it affects different people, differently. Bongi Mthethwa (sadly sharing a name with a great man - may he RIP) was living the Corona/Jack Daniels/Stella/Carling high life; a graduate doctor, revelling with friends at sunrise on the beach in arguably one of the most beautiful places in the world with his shiny blue BMW part of the backdrop, doing everything the booze ads say he should be doing if he’s made a success of himself - and then his shiny blue backdrop became a loaded blue weapon and he snuffed out someone else’s life. Because of drink.

You probably won’t be throwing it away, but I need a straight steerer 29” fork. In exchange you can have a tapered Rockshox 30. Lowers a bit faded but works 💯. Long story short but one of my bike mechs needs a new fork and I can give him this one (I changed to a Z2) but obvs the tapered steerer won’t work on entry level Norco bike. Really good guy. Uses the bike for commuting, community rides and he came with me to Trailseeker which we’ll be doing again in the new year.

@kermitt and @XAVAX both have duel sus tandems if I recall, maybe they can give you some pointers!

Mellow Velo at Broadacres is my suggestion. I see very happy Di2 users in and out while I hang around with my peasant groupo 😂

Marakele MTB is the week before - if you want to have a go at the exact opposite of Race To! Definitely not fast and definitely not flat - something of a suffer fest, but spectacular and lekker gees with the SanParks Honorary Rangers. Glad I don’t have to choose and can likely be last in two events on the trot 😂

Wednesday 20 May? Should it not be Saturday 30 May?

I don’t think of them as “one of the largest Scott dealers in the country” so it hadn’t crossed my mind. But that’s a fine plan, thanks 🙏

The toe cap of one of my BOA Comps has broken after my Sani Pass effort, and I think it would be a crying shame to bin an otherwise perfectly good pair of shoes. Who would I reach out to, to find out about repair/replacement?