Fly2High

We own 2 tandems , a local built Ravo road tandem and an imported Ventana MTB. The Ventana is a fullsus 29'er where the frame was imported but the rest was built up by Williams in Somerset west. My wife and I have just completed the Joberg2c on the MTB and it was as per the marketing, a journey. Well worth the 9 days. As far as I am concerned it is most likely the most "fun" you can have on a bicycle, the top speeds are phenomenal, the flats are great, the climbs are climbs. Neither of us are weight weenies so the MTB has been built to withstand "hits". We had an Envi Avalanche MTB 29'er before, most likely the best value for money bike I have ever purchased. I did change the group set and the wheels but paying R12k for the frame was well worth it. We sold the Envi as it was a hard tail and nine days on a hard tail did not appeal. The Ventana performed well, and we had no mechanicals for the 9 days. We enjoy the tandem and it is quite different than riding a single.

There are trails marked on Stellenrust Wine Farm, Dornier, Audacia and Alto within your "red line, but you need to be a Wannabees Cycling Club (WCC) member to ride those trails. See the WCC web page for more information. wannabteam.com

Race withdrawal: 24.1. If a rider elects to withdraw from the Race due to medical reasons and is unable to continue to a Race station, the rider must notify either the Race organizer or someone from the medial team and a vehicle will be dispatched to collect the rider and transport him to the nearest Race station. This vehicle will only carry the rider requiring medical attention. Alternatively, the rider requiring medical attention needs to push the SOS button on his tracking device which will action an emergency vehicle being dispatched to the GPS location of the rider. On pushing this SOS button the rider will no longer be able to continue in the Race. 24.2. If a rider wishes to withdraw from the Race for reasons other than medical, he can only make this decision at a Race station. Maybe that is why they withdraw at a race station ....

I have been riding tandem for about 14 years , the last 4 years ,road as well as MTB. 1) Pick a tandem type, road or MTB (mtb can be fitted with road tyres but not the other way round). Also determines gear ratios .. Decide how you want to ride, race or casual, that determines the bike. 2) Does she currently ride, important as it is extremely difficult to teach an adult to "ride a bicycle" as well as to be a stoker. 3) Sort out your terminology on the bike. (free means "do not pedal" and only when the pilot says so ... ) Stopping means stopping and the stoker might not unclip and stay seated. 4) Read articles about tandem riding. 5) Chat to other tandem riders and obtain a view of what works for them. Small things make a massive difference. 6) Pilot must not eat beans, will not expand on that... 7) Stoker must trust the pilot , read that slowly. S T O K E R must trust the Pilot. 8) Find a system that works for you: e.g all our food is in my pockets and gets served when asked for. 9) Find a LBS that knows tandems . It is a bit different than a normal bike. 10) I run 32c tyres on my road tandem.. Makes for a great smooth ride. 11) Fit a stoker seatpost with a bit of suspension. (makes for happy stoker) 12) Ensure you have decent wheels (hubs, spokes and rims ) none of the weight weenie stuff unless you both weigh less than 120kg. The wheelset must be able to carry a load of in excess of about 150-180Kg depending on your and her size. 13) Ensure your LBS installs a good braking system, I do not have discs on the road tandem but my LBS has fitted an excellent braking system. if you have discs , be careful, the tandem could then stop quicker than single bikes, makes for interesting rides. 14) If possible borrow a tandem, I do not loan out my tandems as they are expensive but other people do. 15) The first ride must be done alone (with your stoker) so that you can ignore other advice from the sidelines as it is quite difficult to get used to the "flex" of the bike as well as the delayed reaction from the rear wheel. Also the stoker must understand that any movement they make "telescopes " to the front and can cause major movement on the front wheel. So both riders need to be still and smooth on the bike. 16) Teach your stoker to release the pedals slightly when changing on the front . (as you normally do when riding on your own but now you have to let the stoker know) 17) Communicate, Communicate, Communicate, oh did I say you must communicate, The stoker most likely cannot see over you or around you, so talk to them and inform them of what is coming . Bumps, speed bumps, uphills, downhills, flats, corners .. Lots of articles out there. 18) Pilot is responsible for the stoker, quite important: e.g if you stop, you manage the bike and keep it upright till the stoker dismounts. 19) Ensure the tandem is the correct size for both of you. I hope this helps. We enjoy our tandem riding!!!

Some will say that there is precedent, and that wannabes lost some land access due to people riding epic tracks. For me it proves that the rule doesn't work - or I'm totally off course here and it needs to be monitored even more strictly. I'd hate it to be the latter. The Wannabees actually lost the potential of 15kms of single track (was planned and budgeted for) and a fantastic route along the mountain due to the route / segments being published on social media. It all again boils down to cyclists understanding that we cannot ride where we want to. (and I do not want to start a rant n rave about where we may and may not ride). We need to ensure we ride with the appropriate access rights. Monitoring social media does not work but we need to monitor ourselves else we will lose access.

pssst, do not tell anybody, but you could ride the R44 from Strand to Betty's bay, all along the mountain and sea as well ..

Fantastic News: Show support for the most scenic views in South Africa . See it as a training ride for next years ride..

No problem with investing, but TWENTY MILLION RAND ... a bit much. as I said earlier, to donate R350k out of a PPA income of R4mio for the CTCT is ok with me as a PPA member.

I would agree with you if they did not have a trust fund built up by members and events. As a member I am happy to vote that they use some of the money for a donation to the "fire"

PPA received in excess of R4mio from the CTCT last year, and then "saved" R5mio into a trust fund. R350k is not going to break the bank if you look at the PPA Financial report.

As I understand it CTCT and PPA share the profit of the Cycle Tour. Last year PPA received an income of excess of R4mio from the CTCT.. PPA then kindly put R5mio into a trust fund that has now grown to R20mio. I think it is a valid question to ask if PPA cannot donate half of the profits they get from the CTCT to the fire efforts. As a PPA member I would rather see that happen than a trust fund growing by another R5mio this year.

If I read the minutes of the PPA AGM, then the ruling was only for PPA as an event organiser. "Acting Judge KM Savage ordered that the applicant, the Pedal Power Association, does not require the prior sanction or approval of the first respondent, Cycling South Africa, or members of the first respondent, in respect of cycling events organised by the applicant, including fun rides or league rides." Applicant was PPA ... My understanding is that CTCT Trust is the organiser of the CTCT and not PPA .. hence CTCT Trust should apply .. but three PPA Exco sit on the CTCT Trust ..

Condolences to the family and extended people affected by the death of a loved one. But, until each and every one of us cyclists start to do something about our abhorrent conditions this will continue. I do not say I do something but I do know I have taken actions in the past and will do so in future. I apologise in advance for raising the above paragraph in this thread but each and every one of us should be posting our condolences and then (if we have not before) go to our local cycling representative, councillor, cycling club, etc and lobby and lobby and lobby and lobby.... ad nauseum to eventually rectify the situation.

Blind buck ... No Idea .. I am not part of the committee.

Funds have not been paid yet, so this means that WCC have funded Southey Vines Bike Park.

Nope, that is why I have Club /Event organiser.. PPA is a club / Event organiser, the others are event orgnisers and I do sincerely hope they show a profit. From a Southey Vines view, no PPA funded money has as yet been spent there at all ... Currently Southey Vines has been funded by the Wannabees Cycling Club. As far as I am aware, I will check, the PPA funding has not been paid into the WCC bank account . yet.

http://www.pedalpower.org.za/agm/ Download the 2014 AGM reports and take a look .. As I said, even if I am generous with the expenses and just took the membership number 19760 and divided into the expense number it is a bit concerning.

Not from my side .. , I am very happy with what WPCA do with their limited funding. As I stated in prior posts, they run quite a large amount of events during the year at a fraction of the cost that PPA does.

Income of R8,391,313. eight million three hundred and ninety-one thousand three hundred and thirteen rand. Direct Cycling expense as taken from financial statements. Total Expense Total Operating Expenses 3,958,524 Expense as I see for direct cyclists / members.. There are lots of other expenses. I do appreciate the amount spent on Womens cycling .. Funrides 106,383 Marshals 31,727 MTB Projects 1,191 Timekeeping - Race Administration Expenses 258,000 Timekeeping - Transponder Expenses 34,106 Women's Cycling 4,386 PPA own events 62,569 I add to a total of R498,362 , so we can start the debate about the other expenses being for cycling ... but .. there are legal fees of R308,534.00 This is very close to total cycling expense. If I take the above cycling expense and divide by the number of members. 19760 then R25.22 (twenty five rand and 22 cents ) was spent on each member. If I am geneorus and take total expenses R3.9mio and divide by number of members 19760, then R200.33 was spent per member out of a Subscription fee of R310.00. Therefore a third of my subscription was spent and the rest put into a trust fund ... I do not buy into the idea that a club / event organiser should be showing a profit.

1) PPA won a court case for PPA organised events so that those events need not be sanctioned by CSA 2) CTCT organises an event commonly referred to as "The Argus" 3) 3 of the EXCO of PPA serve on the CTCT board. 4) The court case was won in February 2014 (11 months ago). 5) CTCT never requested CSA to sanction the event. 6) CSA has the legal right to sanction events for South Africa. Out of the above a host of questions have arisen.. the most important for me as a participant: Why did CTCT not request a sanction from CSA? surely the CTCT exco must have been aware of the requirement.

If you received the latest Buzz (newsletter) the times for the various rides are listed, else check out the web site calendar. last week-end we had "the Monster" where members rode the various MTB trails and about 6 people rode the complete network of about 98km's. also see the Facebook page. else in message my id and we can chat...

Apparently CSA want R10.00 per rider to be paid ..

I disagree about PPA and money, please go and have a look at the PPA Trust fund with R20mio in it, that is membership fees, collected due to members paying subs, due to you and me riding events and PPA collecting a slice . Heck, PPA could pay each and every CSA license needed and it would not make a dent in the cash box. Why does PPA need a Trust fund? PPA Income for last year was in excess of R8.3mio of which R4.7mio came from the Tour.. R3.5mio from Subs(membership fees), Do you want to tell me the CSA payment of R350,000.00 is going to make a difference . They then donated R15.6mio to a trust fund .. What the frig .. This is your and my money sitting in some fund doing what, helping whom, assisting cycling in what manner. Every claim PPA has on their site about assisting events is subscription fees that have been paid and club members expect that from a club. I expect a MTB board from my club, I expect that an event organiser should have some form of timing. PPA states it as a subsidy ... I will also agree that CSA is not snowy white in all of the above but ...

The club I belong to, Wannabees cycling Club is affiliated to WPCA . No racing teams but the club covers road and MTB . Some club members race : Road, MTB , Track & Downhill. Wannabteam.com

Please check WPCA , they hold different races year round , as mentioned previously, this past week-end an XCO event (at Rhebokskloof) was held, from sprogs to Geriatrics (although, I will not call Linus van Onselen a geriatric) . A downhill event as well, on Helderberg Trails in S/West. A series of MTB eliminator was held over the last 3 week-ends as well. In the road season there is about 1 road race every week end. Last year done by Lights for Linea and also races done by WPCA. a WP Time Trial was held a couple of weeks back, a local lad , Greg de Vink(I think U18) went to Africa champs and won there as well. Quite a bit of local CSA sanctioned races happening. I will agree that they (WPCA) are not as good in the marketing hype as some other event organisers but they do hold and organise races (MTB, Road, Track etc) .