tombeej

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

It's no theory boet. That spruit that feeds Emmarentia via the botanical gardens has its source in the Melville koppies a couple of kays away, then runs right down thru a little bit of Melville and then straight into the dams in the botanical gardens. There's no township upstream, no industrial area, only residential homes. The only possible source of e-coli would be from the sewage systems no longer able to service those homes effectively. Emmarentia has always been the cleanest dam in the greater JHB area. It was always the one place you could count on. If people are now detecting high e-coli levels in that dam (I left GP nearly 3 years ago) then there's no hope for water sports in Gauteng, the fat lady has sung. Makes me even gladder I'm back in mtb.

As mentioned earlier, the old rule of thumb I've followed successfully for years is to first ID whether it's staying as a head cold, or if it's progressed below the neck. If it remains above the neck, then your recovery will be relatively quick and you should actually be able to continue soon with LIGHT exercise. If it gets below your neck (or if you're running a temperature) then you're in the ***, time for total R&R. Maybe ride/spin with an HRM to see how your body reacts. If your HR starts to race, then you're not ready.

That's very interesting. I gave up paddling to return to mtb after a few years lay-off, partly because of the terrible decline in water quality of all our dams and rivers. Also another reason why I'm back living in KZN. Gauteng is just not friendly to any outdoor sports enthusiast anymore - whatever sport you participate in.

Those 3 big red/white buoys in the dam that make up a triangle are pretty much 1 measured kilometre. I've measured on my Garmin that if you follow the edge of the dam all the way around (i.e. including round that small bay at the wooden club scout shed on the far side of the dam wall), you'll get about 1.3 km. So with a little warm up and warm down, 1 full loop will get you that 1.5km. Oh, and because Sunday mid morning is when the beginners normally come down (because it's quietest then), you'll have the opportunity of brushing up on those lifesaving skills too :lol:

Three times during the week are completely out: Thursday evenings (time trial), Saturday mornings (long paddle), and Sunday mornings (social time trial). During the week there's always someone paddling early morning and evenings are quite busy. If you work (i.e. not a student and have to earn a buck), there's really only 1 time during the week that might be ok - Friday mornings. That's because everyone is resting after Thursday night time trial and the usual piss-up afterwards. Normally only about 2 - 3 boats on the water then. Then on the weekends: Saturday: once all the paddlers are off the water, it can get very quiet. Note that Saturdays is usually when people like to get in their long paddle of the week, so it will only get quiet after 10h00. Sunday: the social time trial runs from 08h00 to 09h00. From about 09h30 on a Sunday is a great time to swim.

Those people who say "you wouldn't catch me dead swimming in Emmarentia dam" are people who've never made use of that body of water before (i.e. making comments on a subject they have no experience in). Emmarentia dam is one of the cleanest dams in Gauteng, arguably the cleanest. 1. Do yourself a favour and walk upstream from the dam into the botanical gardens and tell me what you find. 3 small dams/ponds full of lillies and reeds is what you'll find. The water flowing down that stream from its source in the Melville koppies gets filtered 3 TIMES before it eventually makes its way into the dam. In winter you can often see right to the bottom if paddling in a canoe. 2. The canoeists who paddle that dam cause a circulation effect that constantly oxygenates the water. 3. Ask the fishermen who catch all the different types of fish in that dam - healthy, fat and numerous. In 10 years as a paddler at Emmarentia, I never heard of one single case of poisoning from the water. People get little cuts all the time from falling out of boats, etc. (esp when learning to paddle) and these cuts never get unduly infected. Little kiddies play around all day in the shallows in perfect safety (I'm sure gulping lots of mouthfuls in the process). If you want to swim in Emmarentia, go for it! In fact, the only danger you'll face is canoests.

From when I bought my first mtb back in 1995, to the various friends who've joined me in the sport since then, one little bit of advice when starting out. If you are going to buy new, don't stress too much about the brand. Within a given price band they're all much-of-a-muchness at the end of the day. However, before you walk your bike out the store, I really do recommend you have the front brake and the rear derailleur replaced with really good quality ones. The other components can slowly be replaced over time, but for me, these two items are non-negotiables right from the start. If you say that for now, you're only willing to focus on the front brake OR rear derailleur (not both), then spend your money on the rear derailleur. Trust me, get quality (e.g. minimum XT). Nothing worse than having issues with gear changing all the time, grinding and hopping frustrations at the first sign of a little mud or grass, etc. In my experience, what sucks the enjoyment out of mountain biking more than anything else, bar none, is gears that don't work they way you want them to.

You can be sure of this company. They have an excellent international reputation. I have purchased from their other site, scubastore.com. They are a Spanish site, but their customer support staff are all very well versed in English. If you want to purchase via paypal, but have problems getting the order through - get in touch with their customer services dept - they will guide you through from start to finish. They helped me really well. I also ordered via the DHL route. The van arrived at my house 3 days later. Just remember to have cash on hand because you have to pay the DHL guy his share before he will hand over your stock.