Paul Ruinaard

Morning how big are you and how tall? And Where are you. Like they said, start with a cheap hardtail and progress from there.

It seems that the organisers of the events are learning and getting a lot more conservatice in terms of cancellation and focusing on safety. Theres nothing stoping the hard guys going and riding the route anyway, so if its your bundle feel free. As any cyclist is slightly crazy and has to enjoy pain as a way to go faster, there are always the people who feel that harder and tougher is a test of strength and measurement of their male genitalia. But TBH the chances of there being cold wet people hypothermic at the back of the pack is high and then its up to the emergency services to rescue them - organisers know this. Simply put those that run away live to fight another day. I have to respect the organisers decision looking at the forecasts as well.

Bwahaha dont ruin it for the Snowflakes - you mean you were not trying to intentionally bully them off ? I literally could take this whole string and cut paste from years ago. Every time the spring weather hits the cradle gets busy and everyone is particulalry keen to advise the other road users on how they should ride. Secondly If you have ever tried to marshall a large group of cyclists you will know that everyone thinks they are the best road handler in the bunch and WTF do you think you are doing telling me to ride single file?

Patty Marara mobile number visible on the above #justsaying. You can i am sure have a discussion with him if need be, or get some friends to have a call with him i am sure.

As they say in the classics, it's not the speed that kills you, it's the short sharp stop at the end aka acute concrete poisoning. FWIW As a kid i was always trying to see if i could get the cops to stop me haring down Judges Ave in Blackheath and trying to run over the Gat So Meter lines.

okay sorry i lumped them in with the climate activists. Catalan separatists are much better folks 🙂

Rant on: It still amazes me that none of these climate activists ever spend any time trying to find solutions to the issue at hand. Like real solutions and science that will address the problems. Innovations, thinking and ideas, actual innovation. No. Rather they take their fat lazy self entitled soy latte arses out to places that screw up everyone's days and create havoc with their demonstrations. But they add no value. IN the history of climate activism has anyone said "oh i see what these people are saying by their demonstrations and inconveniencing me and defacing art works, stopping public events. Let me go and join the climate activist movement" . Nope. Get in to a place and do some real work and come up with ideas. Piers Morgans interview with the vegan was a beauty: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=598136248576620 And this one with the Burning Man traffic blockade. Dont screw with these cops - see how these activists on the one side of the road decided to bugger off out of the road in a hurry. I personally think its high time one of these guys gets some consequences for their actions, like criminal charges etc.:

IMO : As per your line above UCI should have just mandated ordinary road bikes. Riding a TTT or even a TT bike in the rain and dark is dangerous and likely to result in accidents that cause injuries and potentially end careers. Its bad for everyone. I get these are pros and they are really good but they arent circus monkeys as Remco said. Accidents that have consequences are caused when unforeseeable circumstances arise and result in dangerous situations. You cant foresee everything agreed but this tilted in to the situation where the sponsors and the show outweighed the rights of the cyclist as participants. Always remember that without the Pros and teams and their dedicataion and skills you have nothing to show on TV anywyay other than a fun ride like the cycle tour which although you are interested, will not get global viewers in to see sponsors messages. The death on a descent in Switzerland was the same - why send people down unprotected dangerous descents in a situation where you could have finished safely on a mountaintop. You never see a 20% plus gradient at a finish unless its an uphill. Its because it would create a ludicrous dangerous situation.... Pros are paid to race and win and get nothing and disappear if they dont do it. Its a zero sum game. Best efforts dont get you a sponsor deal and a pay packet. Results are what matter. No contracts etc. for making sure everyone is safe and putting the riders first, unless you win at the same time. So the actual cyclists have no option and are the wrong people to enforce safety as they will always compromise given there is a chance of an unusual result - maybe a rider who is back of pack gets the leaders jersey for a day, massive TV coverage and sponsor visibility. Like Formula 1 had to, you need to have an independent body with this and a lot more medical support vehicles out on the course in potential crash areas. Remember the promotional caravan in the first TdF post covid spraying soap bubbles all over Stage 1 and then when it rained, the descent in the rain turning in to a glass skating rink for the top guys. Totally predicatble and avoidable if someone had complete oversight of what the convoy was doing and spraying as a promo , but when it rains the idea of a cool prmotional vehicle turns in to a lethal cocktail of soap on the wet roads. Some rideers crashe dbadly in that....

Hmm - like everything it works in cycles. Who remembers lockdown when there was an explosion of cycling. Everything has to work according to the demand and the market. Having personally semigrated the cycling scene in W Cape is very healthy especially gravel and MTB in winelands area. But the cradle is always busy in Jhb. However why do you want to race when a.) the price of races is ridiculous b.) they dont include road closure and c.) the cost of bikes has become stupid. d.) Training is impossible - dangerous and on the fine line of ludicrous to ride around on a bike in JHB traffic post load shedding. The only way road racing in JHB will survive is larger rides in remote areas with full road closure, or closed events on loops. As a guy who loves road riding and has raced plenty i would not be seen on a road race any time soon. I also only ride on a wide shoulder with tons of lights on or on a gravel bike with tons of lights on - so i can get off the road. Whatever happened to getting back on to Kyalami and the like - thats still the best training venue Jhb had.

The memories last longer than the financial pain. Hire the bike, do the rides, it will change your outlook for life. FWIW Whistler is a way out of Vancouver - I believe you can catch a train there as well. Lots of reasons to make it happen. Also FWIW this is the lift/DH riding - there's plenty of enduro type riding there as well which is pedal in. If you are really fit. YOu have made the mental commit now you just need to justify the spend. I also think you will find the costs of shipping a bike there and back are as much as hiring never mind the schlep of transporting it everywhere when you are there. If you really want to, a good idea is to try and buy something off pinkbike or ebay when there and bring it back. They drop last season's bikes for next to nothing at the shops but the DH bikes are way to big and burly for our type of riding here which is most pedal in.

some good tips here as well. Jealous. Enjoy. You will not be the same.

Have a look here on this video. You can actually see how smooth and groomed it is. Also on some of the jumps you can see the flags on the lips. This also shows you how big it is and how fast it is and how much time he spends in the air on just a section. So its broken in to sections. What he did in 6 minutes took me most of 30 to 40 minutes, mostly cause you are shattered, knees quivering and wrists and forarms broken from hanging on :-).

Points 3 to 8 - read them and listen. FWIW I havent done Morzine but from what I can tell from mates who have done both, Whistler is just next level compared and the trails are much better groomed than even in France. I am not a DH beast but as per what was said the bikes are so much bigger and longer and more squishy and the rubber so soft and grippy that you cannot really expect to be accustomed to it straight away. I literally had to adpat how i rode. You spend so little time pedalling and so much tome standing that you will not be accustioned to it. Secondly IMO the way they work is additive in Whistler. What I mean is you start on the easier trails and then justt let it flow, however the trail builders have made the trails in such a way they almost teach you at the top in a smaller form what will be coming at the bottom when you speed up and things get bigger. So you start off doing things at the top that are easier, walls, gaps etc that will be much bigger and gnarlier on the bottom of the trail you are on but because you have started small it builds your confidence up and then you start to feel comfortable. So you learn on the way down and feel more confident to get off the brakes. Thats at least on the inter trails. FWIW: A Line is so big and the likelihood of hurting yourself so high which will screw up your trip i just never even entertained it. Like was said - get as much braking as you can as its super steep and you get going very quickly very soon and then you will panic quite fast. Alos get all the body armour and protection - you can hire it all. FWIW I was there in September the weekend was like the last of the season and it was super hot up there so you can get very high temperatures - you can dehydrate. Also note when i was there everything was super safe and really well groomed - All lips are marked with flags on eaither side and the trails are groomed so you really trust what you are seeing. I found the braking stutters to be minimal in Whistler - they literally groom the trails. You can imagine what a seasons riding does. Enjoy - it will ruin you because i would say it ws really close to the ultimate

Having ridden there - simply put - hire there. Bikes are top quality and are new. You can hire everything. Just pre book as it gets busy. You can hire DH, Enduro etc as long as you plan. FWIW those runs are long and if you dont start to panic on your first ride up the lift when it starts to get steep you aren't normal. Also once you descend - the length of the trip down is just much longer than anything i have experienced in SA. Wrist pump etc, you will be shattered unless you are a DH beast... Enjoy

BTW also wrt age and comfort - if you are 60+ and that height you will need to ensure you ahve a good setup THAT FITS YOU rather than a race snake who has been told noting else. I cant stress show much of a difference this makes. FWIW I got 2 x bikes from a very reputable dealer recently and as a result got a free setup thrown in. I came home after they were convinced it was righta nd fitted 20 mm wider bars (I had 420 need 440) and then a 20 mm shorter stem. I also fitted my pedal extensions. Hey presto i am comfortable. So i dont lok elegant and flat and all aero and slammed on the bike but then again i am 59 , over 110kgs and riding for fun. I can only stress you will need to ensure that if you do go on a ride and decide to get a road bike, its likely you will be uncomfortable (you arent a small guy even height wise) but that can be fixed with a GOOD setup, and if you need help feel free to DM me as most shops do a vanilla setup in that they dont cater for older less flexible dudes like you may be. It will make the world of difference to how much you enjoy the ride and how you feel after 2 to 3 hours on a bike. If you get this wrong you will hate it. My VO2 Max and FTP all changed and went up by a large amount after proper setups.

always remember the maxim only a rich man can afford to buy twice. Cycling is cycling - the amount of effort required to ride in a bunch may differ but when it comes to a hill you will need to be able to produce individual effort. So you need to get comfortable with the skills and proximity you need to ride on a road bike to be efficient and fast. But its really cool when you get it right and if you are already tasting the drugs and interested then you are probably already sold and just a bit hesitant about putting down a whole lot of money for a bike. My 2 cents worth is borrow a bike and go for a ride with a road bunch from a bike shop or a local bike shop. If they know you are keen they will loan you a bike. You are getting in to a heck of a lot of detail prior to even riding the thing which is what its all about. Simply put a good quality second hand bike be it rim or disc is probably far better than you think and its also where everyone starts. We all get carried away by ego and wanting the nice stuff but TBH none of us need it. You can make do with a R15k second hand rim brake bike be it ally or carbon with 25 mm road tyres and will be as fast as hell and enjoy it immensely..

Yesterday at Banhoek with South Easter blowing hard - crisp and clear. You couldn't get a better setting. For someone who has never ridden there it was needless to say sublime, and its the only time I felt a pic i took of my rides warranted sharing here in this exalted company.

Depends what you wnat to achieve and how disciplined you are. Having a trainer in your house is very convenient but like they say it lacks the class vibe - however a discord chat server and some meetups quickly get you in to a setup like thta . TBH the other thing is as mentioned in comparison wattbikes are somewhat outdated and less immersive. You end up with training become gamified and you are chasing trophies in Zwift which you now wnat - new bikes, new routes, big climbs, etc. Zwift and trainers give you a virtual world to ride in - Wattbikes you ghavent got an Alpe du Zwift or a mast climb or a Ventop that is something to conquer. Also if you add your road bikes with power pedals etc then you get as much if not more details about your pedal stroke etc.

TBH its also very subjective. Some people like the hard core sphincter puckering riding you get on some of the trails. Others are there for the setting and the joy of good flow on a great trail. Not everyone wnats to huck the big drops. I even did the helicopter thing up the berg and whilst unique it wasnt sublime riding. Its more cow trails and ruts and drop offs than flow and berms and the like.

Having done both i suppose KK is pretty good as well, but the setting of Jonkers and the valley its in - on a good day that scenery is just world class. Then theres the after the ride agenda where its not just about coffee but going to a wine farm for lunch just up the road, or imbibing craft lagers. The KK country club and regions has some breweries and things but i think Jonkers takes it IMO for the whole package. THeres just unbelieveably veautifule rides everywhere here. I am biased - but i was sitting at a wine farm in the Banhoek the other day (oldenburg- google it) which is up a valley some of the banhoek trails go through and you just cannot believe the sheer beauty of the surrounds. So on balance with the whole package in mind i woud rather be in W cape than in KZN any day of the week. Pure riding - they are probably on par. You can get pretty gnarly at Jonkers and some fo the other trails flow lines are just sublime.

Haha Cool Heat have been cr@p forever and dont give a rats arse. Just shop internationally. THis thread gets revived every couple of years and its the same drama.

Any silicon spray does this. Just dont get it near brake pads as its a lubricant and designed to make things slip easier so your first attempt to stop may be quote dramantic. It also protects and restores any plastic or carbon and makes it easier to clean MTBs as mud wont stick to the tubes - bit like spray and cook used to be used for muddy races. After you wash the bike you spray it down - all the rubber, saddle, hoods etc - makes them gleam nicely and also easier to clean. You can buy it at Builders or any car store dont get hoodwinked in to bike specific brands.

Electronics fail. IMO you continually need to upgrade them as the costs and complexity of replacing batteries and buttons that wear is just too high especially if you arent tooled to do it. And the tools are costly and the likelihood of successful repair is low, so just bin it, offer a trae in and then send out. anew uniot. So the local distribution just gets warrnmaty replacement stocks from Garmin and swaps them out. Preserves your invesmants as it always has a trade in value and then you get the latest tech every couple of years. Nobody opens them up and the factories unlikely to do it as well. Everybody needs to understand electronics fail. Take them out in to harsh environmnets and then shake them around and wet them and put them in sun and they normally fail a lot more than what we see. When they fail you cant repair them - you throw them away. Hard drives etc - you only need to be in tech to know this. You may think they are expensive but they are minor miracles when you think of what they do all the time and you take it for granted. ANY technology item from ANY vendor fails. And its accepted in tech. If you get something back when the tech fails you are doing well. Perosnally Garmin has IMO done a great job and is so ubiquitous that its visible because everyone uses it. It used to be Polar and Suunto etc but everyone uses gramin - watches, head units, power pedals, back and front lights etc. I have used many different brands over the years and have concluded that garmin is without doubt the simplest ecosystem becasue the softwrae integrates with so many other sites and vendors and is so well known and deployed. Take a breather on this. like i said if you dela in tech you know it fails and it is impossible to rpeair . When you stikc in one ecosystem you simplify a lot of it and you get some investment protection. Its a good place to be. Mosy other vendors wouldnt bother.

what are some brands of ebike chains or how do you recognize them.

put it down to school fees and throw it away - i did similar when i just started out except it was a 250km road trip and i turned a tyre in to charcoal and bent a rim. As the man said be thanful those were alloy rims casue that would hev been a much uglier day.