tombeej

I live 2km from the trail head, and besides long weekend rides, sometimes hit the trails before work too. There's so much variety - from easy flat rides for noobies, to small kiddie trails, to the big 85km route that the Golovan X-Plore race uses (http://www.golovane.co.za). It really is a special place for mtb. The routes all start out from Collisheen Estate, just outside Ballito. Here are the co-ordinates for Collisheen: 29° 29.501'S 31° 10.903'E

Now this has to be the thread winner!

I live 60km from work and been toying with the idea of commuting, at least just once a week to start with. With a 120-130km round trip, I've been thinking about driving in to the office, leaving the car there, cycling home in the evening and then return on my bike the next morning. Depending how it goes, I can up the weekly frequency. After reading this thread, I am now determined to stop the procrastinating and take the plunge. Weather permitting, Monday is the day! Love this thread!

Now why did you have to go and insult my family like that. I come from long line of clown warriors and I’m proud of it. Like that fellow clown Big Guy, I’m also interested to hear about the science around radial & cross on the same wheel. Edit: that bike really does look like perfection tho

Agree with SwissVan, unless you are chronically deficient in magnesium, this might be an expensive and unnecessary supplement to take. I also haven't read any research that say it has a major role to play in terms of muscle recovery. As I understand it, the main electrolytes that need replacing are sodium, potassium and calcium. Magnesium is sometimes referred to as 'the forgotten electrolyte'. Sure, if you are deficient then a full course of slow-mag (i.e. until you finish the bottle) should set you right. I'm also a swimmer. For a while last year I was cramping badly in the pool, especially once I went past 50 or 60 laps. Had a thought I may be magnesium deficient, so I went onto slow-mag for a while. By the time I finished the course, I was 100% again. I'm not taking any magnesium supplements now because I don't feel it's necessary. Again, for muscle recovery, I'd say the glycogen window, plus the proper protein (whey) & general electrolyte replenishment would be the best things to focus on. Here's a nice article I found on the subject: http://hammernutrition.co.za/knowledge/recover-well

Sure, magnesium and calcium are two important electrolytes that need to be replenished after exercise (the other main ones being sodium and potassium), and chronically low levels in the body will lead to increased chance of cramping during high intensity exercise (although some say Mag phos is better for that). However, as I understand it, that's just one small aspect of your recovery regimen. I would guess the most important things to deal with after a long session or race are: 1. Taking full advantage of the 'glycogen window' right after the session 2. Correct protein intake (esp. whey) for muscle repair

Wasn't a key objective of this tour to help put SA on the world cycling map? Also, I'm sure there are some barely healed wounds from SA's in PE, and now this palava. Fair enough, we should wait to hear from the tour organisers what forced them to stop the stage... now three times. In the mean time, Phil's question still needs to be answered: "How could the organisers not have managed to keep the roads open through Sandton - after all, they do it perfectly every year with the 94.7?"

And now a second stop, just 1:30 after the first one! Hear Phil Liggett trying to say, in that very professional and politically correct manner of his, how he's never seen this before in an international bike tour, and basically how disappointing (unprofessional) it is for the tour. Will be interesting if cyclejourno can get some first-hand comments from the riders about this - that second stop they looked really p1ssed.

X-7 for the Comp. Frame is the same for the Comp, Elite and Team as far as I'm aware. Road the Elite for over a year, really enjoyed it and had no problems at all. Typical steep steerer tube angle makes for twitchy handling (std for a hardtail), and great climber. Not going to win any prizes for DH or technical riding, but that's not what it's meant for. From my perspective a very nice entry level racing hardtail.

Apologies, I just assumed the hanger and derailleur are one unit. Still, guy did say it was brand new... I now retire with tail between legs.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/pain.html#knees

Thanks, that's what I thought. Another reason why I won't move to tubeless yet. Would rather continue saving for a new frame instead.

Griffith, is that you?! Haven't had a dive since 31st Dec. The ocean won't let me in - too many overflowing rivers sending their brown muck into the sea. Mtb is my other passion

OK but that's what I'm saying, I currently use slicks during the week and only switch to nobbies on Friday evening. My question is about whether you can buy tubeless slicks, or do I have to keep a whole separate wheelset for them if I decide to switch to tubeless nobbies...

I got a question: I'm still on tubes, haven't made the switch yet. My question relates to putting road slicks onto my wheels for road training during the week. Are there special tubeless road tyres too for mtb? Or do you have to keep a separate wheelset just for that?

cyfermaster, I'm sure you'll admit if I ask you, you've been training and racing like that for years. In other words, your body has been adapted over a long time to that regimen. As an example, if a noobie entering the epic for the first time tries your format, their wheels would likely fall off by the end of the first day and they'll struggle to get up for day 2. What I'm trying to say is that people should not read experienced cyclists stories about how they can ride all day, day after day, on water alone, and think they can emulate that. Take me for instance. I'm still trying to get back into this sport after a few years layoff. I know that if I tried to race past 2hrs on water alone, it will end badly for me. I need to know my own limitations and give my body the chance to adapt over time. I also think age has a role to play. I'm no longer in my twenties. My body does not bounce back from a bonk like it did before. I need to take more care in the fuel I race on (and the steps I need to take during recovery) especially if I want to get up the next day for another session.

Looks like a nice bike. Specs on the components?

I've read research where the human body can only convert about 250 - 280 carbohydrate calories per hour from the liver to muscles. So if you consume any more than that (and note it doesn't matter if its gels or bananas or peanut butter sarmies), the body will not digest it - it will remain in your bowels. A medium sized banana has about 110 calories in it (similar to a GU - although much better because its a slow release complex carb). This means your body cannot absorb much more than 2 bananas an hour while riding. I've also read similar stats to what Gumpole quoted in terms of how many calories an athlete will burn in an hour, i.e. 800 - 1,200 per hour. So we know that it is impossible for us to come close to replenishing our all our glycogen stores we've lost just by drinking or eating carbs. That deficit is made up from one source: your fat reserves. Again, it's all about how well your body is able to access its fat reserves. That only comes with training and adaptation. Training with water only helps that.

Not sure what you mean by "bonking stage might be close". A bonk happens on a particular ride after a certain amount of time in the saddle, when your glycogen levels are totally depleted and your blood sugar levels are at dangerously low levels. With your training, you're most likely adapted quite a bit so that your bonking point is now actually further away than when you first started 6 months ago. Lower body fat percentage doesn't mean you'll bonk sooner. Top cyclists who are well trained can go forever without bonking compared to someone carrying a little extra around the belly. It's all about adaptation, not about body fat percentage. Only way to find out where your personal point of no return is, is to get on your bike with water only and start riding. Some people might hit the wall at 2:45, others at 4:00. I personally believe it's a good thing to know, because you'll have a much better understanding of your own body and abilities. That way, you can also control how and when it happens ('controlled experiment') instead of ending up in a death march on a long point-to-point race.

Wasn't sure, so Googled the question. Picked this up on Wikipedia: Bonk training "Bonk training" is an exercise program designed for weight loss. It suggests the following strategy on an empty stomach the first thing in the morning, when glycogen store levels are low: consume coffee or caffeine equivalent to 2 or 3 cups of coffee, run or cycle at a casual pace (60% of max heart rate) for 20–90 minutes, have a normal breakfast right after exercising. Proponents claim this will force the body to "bonk" shortly into the exercise, and subsequently burn more fat to generate the energy. It is not clear how medically sound this idea is; exerting too much energy and "bonking hard," or experiencing severe hypoglycemia, can be dangerous.

... or choose a route where all the climbing takes place in the first half of the ride so that you can freewheel most of the way home if you bonk. If you're out on the trails, select a route that has an 'emergency exit', i.e. a nice tar road (preferably down hill) that can take you back to your car.

Those guys who can go 3hrs just on water are well-trained individuals whose bodies are very efficient in tapping into their fat reserves for additional energy stores once their glycogen levels have been depleted in their muscles and liver. Their years of training allows their bodies to maintain blood sugar levels more effectively than untrained individuals. They might very well be on a 'fat burning' training run. They use only water on purpose in order to force the body to switch to the fat reserves instead of getting everything from the fuel we put into it (Cytomax, etc.). Just drinking good quality drinks all the time makes your body lazy and doesn't allow it to develop that ability to switch efficiently to the fat reserves when needed. If you're wanting to incorporate that sort of training into your own program, perhaps stick some gels in your hydration pack and have your route pass relatively close to your start point quite regularly (like doing multiple loops) because you'll still be figuring out where your 'point of no return' is, i.e. at what time/distance do you hit full depletion and 'bonk'. The gels might help you to recover enough to make it back to the car, but you don't want to be too far away.

Folks, the people who are saying 'bent hanger' or 'worn cassette', read his post again - he's got brand new XT for both. How can a brand new hanger be bent - are you saying the LBS bent it during installation? And XT cassettes don't wear out when pushing the bike out of the bike shop to your car. The suggestion has been said many times already: most likely cable issue. It's also a relatively cheap and simple test to run (i.e. install a new one). I was under the assumption that when you replace sprocket & chain together, besides the middle ring you also need to replace the cable. I'm happy to be corrected though.

Seems to me there's some sort of undercurrent of oversensitive bitterness about people who own 4x4's in particular. I'm not a psychologist, so I won't try to unpack that one. Actually, for me the most dangerous cars on the road are not necessarily 4x4 owners, but actually young people in their little student type cars very early on a Saturday or Sunday morning. The only reason they're out there at that hour, with a car full of people and music blaring, is because they're coming home from the nightclub and they're pissed out of their minds. I have had many more nasty incidents with these types of people than 4x4 owners (in fact those early morning weekend rides in the city used to terrify me. Happy I now live in the country). How many of the people in this thread who are complaining about 4x4's fit into that category, i.e. 20-somethings who haven't had their license very long yet still rate their driving skills up there with Michael Schumacher? And we haven't even started about taxis (lost a friend to one of those). What other category of car owner can we think up, there are lots. In the mean time, take a deep breath and go find a 4x4 owner to make friends with