Skubarra

Then I have to insist that you stay away on Saturday and for this race 😉

Seems this weekend we will have great weather for Race to the Sea - so hopefully our luck is turning...

I suspect it has been quietly dropped from the calendar 😔

Sure its something that can be or was fixed with an update on the app My view if you want something simple and cheap that can do a basic job the XOSS will work fine, if you are hoping for something similar to a Garmin at a fraction of the price you will be disappointed.

I have the cheaper Xoss for a back-up for when the Garmin acts up so can't really comment on the maps (which is the actual info you are looking for). My unit is very basic and lacks the options you have on the Garmin, but its reliable and does the job, had no issues syncing with Strava, phone & heart rate monitor. Looking at the manual @droo posted you have the option to load maps via the app.

The guest house owner where we usually stay told me the benefit for the town is not as big as we cyclists might imagine. On long weekends the town is usually full of visitors anyway so its not a big difference to them whether there is a race happening or not. Actually they make a bit of a loss because many cyclists only come through for the night before and leave right after the race (so the guesthouses lose out on long weekend bookings) + most of us are also not the biggest drinkers & eaters and many bring their own nutrition for the day before the race so the restaurants also don't really make a killing.

Yes. Not 100% sure about the backroads near Klaarstroom but for the rest all public roads and a great option for a one day round trip if you are fit. Add in Die Hel / Calitzdorp/ Seweweekspoort and you can do lekker gravel roads for a week.

I did last year's version on a broodmes - was still a great ride. One of the best & most scenic routes in the WC. Waterpoints & finishing venue were great too. I'm sure you will have an adventure.

Lets pray the weather & the route holds for Race to the Sea!! Welcome to your first "mtb event", but beware - you might just find after this event you want to trade in your mtb for a gravel bike 🤣

Did you see any gravel bikes this weekend?

We didn't even see the fruit or sweets at CP2, might have been delivered later in the day. We were riding for time, packed light and didn't use the boxes so it was a serious downer when there was nothing of use at the waterpoints. Sosaties and soup are nice but you cant exactly put it in your backpocket... I got seriously gatvol of gu's by the second half of the race 🤣 Haven't done other Baviaans races recently to know if this is a once-off but I would suggest if you want nutrition and energy drinks for the ride itself pack it in the boxes.

Organised by the Cape Town Cycle Tour Trust - so they would use the Racetec entry portal

My second Baviaans, last time I rode was in 2015 so didn't remember much from the first one... Great route, great scenery. Was flippen tough on a gravel bike, route definitely more suited to mtb's. Waterpoints disappointing if you weren't interested in doing the Baviaans at a scenic pace with restaurant stops - no nutrition like bars, bananas, energy drinks etc. Really not that difficult to get right. The crap singletrack replaced with crap grass route through the fields, uggh why...? As mentioned above, finishing venue was great. Great event overall, hopefully not 10 years before I am back again. Good luck to the guys doing repeat next week, hope you also have great weather and lots of tailwinds!

Yes, and apparently graded roads for large parts and no singletrack at the end I'm hoping you are taking your gravel bike!

A while back I had a similar incident on the Jip de Jager downhill, distracted lady on her cellphone drifting into the very wide yellow lane and almost taking me out. Managed to brake and avoid her as she almost hit the curb. Another time I saw another lady on the cell phone hit the curb close to the Durbanville golf course where the road made a slight turn that she obviously missed as she was distracted, resulting in a nice flat tire and bent rim for her. But every time I cycle past that spot I can't help but wonder if there happened to be a cyclist between her and the pavement how ugly it could have turned out.

That section was soul destroying. 220km in, so near the end, on a tar road, you can see Jeffrey's lights - and then suddenly they reroute you onto this 5km of torture.

I also see they changed the finishing venue (and cut out that 💩 singletrack section right at the finish!)

This ^ As long as you stick to the public roads you will have no issues. People regularly cycle through there.

Not a sleight against you personally but this doesn't make sense to me from an insurance perspective. If you paid R10K for a secondhand bike then surely its replacement value is also R10K (ie the value of a similar second hand bike?). Otherwise its an instant R20K profit for you if your bike gets stolen the day after you bought it. Unless the R10K was a "steal" and not what the bike was actually worth (Not that I would pretend to understand all aspects of bike insurance)

Part you are possibly missing here is that it is likely the call of the local authorities and not up to the organisers. If as of today the pont is still closed indefinitely I doubt they would have granted permission for the organisers to use the pont on Saturday. Its not like the organisers can just rock up in Malgas on Friday, see if the pont is open and then decide to use it on Saturday. For me its obvious at this point that the possibility of bad weather affecting this race every year is way beyond anecdotal but I get what you are trying to achieve. Thanks for the offer of the case of beer but it feels like very bad karma to bet on something like this, as you mentioned the access road seems to be wiped out and I gather that will have to be fixed first anyway before the pont will re-open and I doubt this will happen this week.

Less then R10k and most of the time on the indoor trainer rim brakes a no brainer R20K+ then at least be aware of the limitations of a well specced rim brake bike, if you can get a decent frame & disc brakes for that price you can upgrade the rest over time when the budget allows - that is what I would opt for now if I could go 2 years back in time.

A bit premature of the organisers to make a call about the pont without consulting with @Shebeen first 😉 But good news that the weather looks ok for Saturday, should still be a lekker ride even without the pont.

This is exactly what I did 2 years ago, but going down a mountain pass this weekend in wet conditions at 80km/h+ I really would not have minded something that noticeably slowed down my bike when I pulled the brake levers. Point is, there are times when disc breaks really add value to your ride experience but its not something you can upgrade to once you bought a bike with rim brakes. Fine for entry level & tight budgets but if you are going to make a substantial investment in your road ride you need to know what you are committing yourself to. And yes, you can still get good deals for carbon wheels for rim brakes but already your options are much more limited compared to disc brakes, not a trend that I see reversing. Clearly rim brakes (like 26ers) will always have their fanboys but for everyone else remember you are buying outdated tech that you can't upgrade, that's the reason the bike with awesome components is so cheap.

Disc brakes are the future but for sub R10K and mostly for the trainer rim brakes will do just fine, again just check that the frame gives you enough clearance for the thicker tyres.

I would also like to think conditions would have cleared up enough by then for the pont to re-open , I just don't share your supreme confidence that it will definitely happen. The pont FB group should keep us updated.