Paul Ruinaard

I decided to do what i have always threatened to do - go and ride it for enjoyment and fun - after all it is one of the most beautiful routes in the world. I also decided that maybe an ebike would be the way to do that seen as though i cant get serious about being competitive on that. I have done the 21 completes in rain, wind, wind, fires over Ou Kaaps etc so i think its time to stop worrying about survival and PB's and start to think about a cold one at the Chapmans peak hotel pn the way. Try and get a 6 hour time instead of a 3 as a goal...

Buy new tyres - the casings will be significantly reduced in flexibility by that stage as well unless you have had a sealant malfunction. Also add less sealant the next time when you top up. All the time you spend screwing about with latex that sticks everywhere could be spent on the bike or dowining a pint with mates.

as per above second hand ebikes mena no manufacturers warranty. Ask me how i know. Lots more to go wrong and when they do go wrong they are modular to replace so you cnat just take to the local bike shop. Motors are a unit as are batteries. Cost lots

I ride alone a lot but i am very slecetive of my routes and locations i ride alone vs in a bunch. I dont like congested routes with traffic if alone or narrow roads. I also ride with flashing lights front and back, with the Garmin accident feature enabled. I also use the conduction headphones when i am alone so at least i can hear traffic and Garmin Varia radar which warns when approached from behind. Its my therpay and i like it - very right brained when i am riding - dont know where the time went. I have learned its good for me. I am lucky i have safe routes and can choose big shoulders on the side of roads on many of them...

I swear by my Gramin Varia when integrated in to the Garmin head unit - i even have had people ride with me start to listen to its alarms and act knowing. acar is appraoching from the rear. If you dont have the money for that then just something with an intermittent strobe. Front lights similar - the garmin lihgt is i think overrrated for the front - its not easy to attach. TBH I couldnt care less about cars and lumens or brightness. IMO the brighter the better and the more random the strobe pattern the better as it gets you noticed. This society doesnt obey any rules whilst driving so if someone overtakes oncoming to you and thinks you are a motorbike because your light is so bright they will treat you with more respect.

Hmm: A Specialized creo egravel bike is governed to about 42 kmh but they are very aero and so with a good rider aboard it you can pedal it on the flats or slight uphills like a road bike. I will saty with any high speed bunch even though i am above what the asisstance level is. Also remember that with the range extender batteries (which come with them) they are good for 135kms on lowest setting so 95 kms on high i.e. Turbo is a easy when you are using zero battery for a lot of the route. If you are going up hills on Turbo you will blow most groups to bits so it doesnt help - rather pull them up.

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.