The Big Bad Norm

Usual waste of time, was hoping to find some deals, but cant even get into site, Evo bikes site is up and running will rather look elsewhere, pointless if CWC cant get their act together another year, same rubbish.

Have done a few Sanis now. Good: 1. Great race villages and food 2. Mckenzie Chill area 3. Mckenzie upgrades to showers (although the quality of work done is terrible) 4. Glen Cairns registration 5. Water points Bad: 1 Clothing sizes and quality. Quality not as good as previous years. Size as usual terrible. the cut off jacket was ok, but the hoodie was far too large 2. Bike wash at Jolivet, we qued for over 40min to get our bikes washed, it was chaos. And then you coudlnt find anywhere to strore your bikes afterwards 3. Day 3 finish parking and organisation was poor, there simply isnt enough parking to cater for everyone. 4.GPS was a waste of time, it kept telling me I was of course, when clearly I wasnt. 5. Clen Cairns registration was poor, no signs visible regarding where you had to stand, and when you get to the front, there is a sign stuck to the table, which you cannot see as it is waste high and all the guys are in front of it. 6. Begging kids, although not sure what can be done about it. I had one or two very large (fat) kids begging for sweets.......clearly they have already had too many! 7. Que for the showers at Mackenzie, we had to wait over 30min to shower. Last year there wasnt any que? I dont know if it was just me, but I did the race, and a lot of the single track was very rutted, and not as smooth as I remember it from the past. The price is getting to expensive now, and the "corporate" feel has crept into a race that I have always wanted to do. I say it every year, but I think next year will be my last.

Not sure where you got your info from @CMY44 Website confirms: 21.1km runners will pass the lion and rhino park. Location: Start at Makiti Wedding Venue, opposite the Sterkfontein Caves, in the Cradle of Humankind No details mentioed at all regarding road closure. I dont think this is a massive race, so full closure prob not going to happen, assume bikes will be fine, as the runners will use the cycle lane, the cyclists will have a hard time, so I would rather mtb on the Monday, or as one of the guys mentioned, start I would say at least after 9. 21km race starts at 07:00 so will take even the quick runners around 2hours to complete.

If you have a bakkie, and no canopy, my mate loaded the roof carriers onto the roof racks which were clampped onto his load bin. Makes me jealous everytime I see them. I think the roof rack type racks are excellent, but not for an SUV or bakkie as your height is a massive issue. I have the new Ranger, and just to get up to the roof I would need a ladder, so to load bikes on top of roof racks onto a bakkie would be a serious mission. I would rather find a way to put roof racks onto the trailer then you can mount the racks onto them, much simpler. Only issue you then have is you can only transport your bikes using the trailer.

Thanks Patches, and well said. Whilst there is some truth in NoSoBigBens post, I do find that there is too much negativity flying around, surely more could have been said than simply poiintly out the faults in my post?

Well I read this thread with interest last week, before taking in a few rides this last weekend. Being a regular runner and rider in and around the Emerentia park, I can see both sides of the story. When running it is often annoying when a cyclist comes blasting past you without notice, no bell or any means of making their presence known. As a mtbiker myself I know how annoying this can be, and will often ring my bell at least 3 or 4 times, but like myslef whilst running you dont always hear the bell/shout until it is too late as I am wearing earphones. This is very annoying but there isnt really much that can be done about it, other than perhaps runners/walkers sticking to their designated paths and mtbikers stick to theirs! But good luck enforcing that! But I digress the reason for writting, is over the saturday I happened to be caught up in the Delta Park run(bad planning I know), which had hundreds of runners. My mate and myself waited for a while, but realised it was going to take a while so did the climb at a slow pace and stayed on the left. This worked ok, but once we got to the top and turned left towards the 2nd park it did get a bit narrow, but anyone that knows that area will I hope agree it is still wide enough. I followed my mate practically on the grass on the left, going slowly, and ringing my bell. This was greeted by just about everyone with a great sense of humour, asking where the ice creams were? But as ever there is always one! This woman shouted get off the F#@%ing path at the both of us. This peed me off no end, and I promptly told her, her fortune. Apologies to all cyclists if I have perhaps let the side down, but I struggle to see how I could have done anything more to ensure we were as obliging as possible. I was on the left going very slowly and ringing my bell constantly letting them know I was there. Yes we were going against the flow of traffic, but we all have to share the park dont we? I suppose its differnet strokes for different folks, and yes it will always take one idiot to let the team down, but it is a two way street. A runner will most of the time come off 2nd best to a mtb in the in the event of a collision, but runners/walkers also need to do what they can and work with us bikers. Why dont we each stop and hug a runner/walker whilst in the park and lets end this once and for all, I just want to get along, this world is filled with too much aggression as it is, lets leave that at home and just enjoy the day. I would urge all bikers to get a bell and ring every opportunity you get. If you ride the spruit, it is almost impossible to ride without one, there are too many blind corners, and to be able to announce your pressence I think is very important.

Thanks good point forgot about that......maybe I will just ride bandit style

I ride the spruit most weekends, from Bryanston drive to Northcliff hill and back. There are a few spots that I wouldnt do late in the afternoon, like from Ballyclare to the PnP on William Nicol, and maybe from PNP to Fratelis, but from there to Emerantia park and Delta park its great. Some people bad mouth the spruit, but I basically cycle to it from home, and have ridden it for years and never felt I needed to be concerned. During the rainy season, I would watch out for some of the mud pits that can be deeper than you think, and I never know whats in the mud.......so use a camel pack, if you want to avoid a muddy bottle, but that goes for most placed these days! Happy to give you a guide this Sunday, we will more than likely start at the PnP from around 8 and will do around 35km with a stop at Vida Cafe for a coffee in Greenside before heading back to the PnP for around 10:30ish

I greet in winter, as I respect the guys out there in 2 degree temperature, those are the hard core guys that have earned a greeting from me. Come ride in the Cradle on a sat morning, now that the 94.7 is around the corner, and you will end up greeting thousands. I greet if I greeted, otherwise sorry Im there to cycle hard, and cant be worried with hurting your feelings if I didnt greet you. Can we also have an end to this complaint as it comes up time and time again! Can we please worry about more important things such as taxis killing cyclists!

check the Sani2C facebook page, this is the 3rd time they have said they are fixing the problem! I dont have any faith in the system working properly. Sorry I have an entry, not paid confirmed mind you! But have spent hours on this, and phoned Entelect who concluded the online entry for me. Otherwise I would be in the same boat as everyone else.

I 100% agree!

I am in payment made.....so will wait for confirmation. After struggling for ages, I did get through to the add participant screen, but once I concluded the screen, it just bombed. After following the advice on the Facebook Sani2c comments section, from other peeps also struggling, I phoned Intelect direct on 0119943300 spoke to Damian. He was very helpful, and confirmed I was in fact entered subject to payment. I didnt receive the confirmation e-mail, so he arranged for it to be sent again. He concluded the entry on the phone, and entered shirt size number etc, then e-mailed me direct from his inbox the banking details. Thanks Damian, you may work for a crap company, but you were a star. Was done in 5min!

I have been trying since 11:00 Sight just hangs. Have managed to get to the add 2nd particiapnt screen, but when proceeding it just bombs out again! Really is a waste of time now. Suggest everyone tries in like 5 hours time That will allow me to hopefully conclude my Race entry!

@Benjamin, you are only allowed to enter the specific race you did last year. Judy said once substitutions etc open up, they can then look to swap you around to the Adventure or Trail etc.

So spoke to Judy this AM at Sani2c contact She confirmed as I did the race last year, I am unable to enter for the Adventure this year. I had to go through the whole process yesterday from 10:00 managed to getn onto the system at 18:30 loaded all the details only to receive an e-mail saying I do not qualify??? So Judy has removed my "entry" for the Adventure, and I must now try for the Race entry which opens at 11:00. Well suprise suprise, network error after network error now being received after clicking on the link from Farmer Glen to enter the Race. I am sure there are 700 odd of us trying to now enter the Race but I have limited time now, and need to enter ASAP as I will not be around a pc for the next few days, and dont have time to mess about with this. Surley these guys vould get it right the 2nd time round!