beanz

This is a really tough one. On the one hand I recognise that these people are for the most part just going about the (very hard) business of living. They generally don't bother me and I greet them as I ride past, and they usually greet back. If it could stay that way I wouldn't have a problem with it. On the other hand clearly the scope and scale of the problem is escalating, and if nothing is done about it, it could well become so extensive that 1) the element of crime inevitably manifests, and 2) the area becomes a no go area, and that part of the spruit is lost to cyclists and other recreational users. I have a big problem with the amount of litter left lying around. Unfortunately it's one of these situations where by doing nothing about it, you are encouraging it. The need is so great that if it nobody objects, more people will move in, and it will soon become a fully fledged settlement/squatter camp. Once that happens it's pretty much a done deal. It not about whether it's a nice section to ride or not. It's more that it links the north and the south section of the spruit. I agree that the government/council should provide people with a viable alternative, but let's get real here.

From the race description on http://advendurance....es/trailseeker3 "This is an extreme challenge, especially when the area is blessed with rain. We offer 8.54 km, 17.3km, 35.6km and 66.1km routes of extreme mountain bike exhilaration that is not to be underestimated by even the most extreme mountain bikers." Sounds pretty clear to me. The word "extreme" is only used 3 times in once sentence. It's no secret that Van Gaalen is technical. I don't think there's any misrepresentation. I hope they don't dumb it down. Then it becomes just another "dirt-roadie" race. There's plenty of these on offer. If people want real mountain biking races, which they do, they must expect to be challenged technically. I for one relish the challenge. And if one's skills are found wanting that's an incentive to brush up on them in the mean time and come back better prepared next time round. Or go do easier events that are known to be less technical.

I'm also keen to check this out. I like the idea of the SX over the standard trance for the 34mm fork and extra travel, but it's quite a bit pricier, at least going by the prices elsewhere. I don't know what they're going to rush you for one of these over here with the rand falling out of bed. Also, some of the component choices are a bit dodge. E.g. Deore brakes - wouldn't you want to up the spec on the brakes for a machine like this - but maybe they are ok. Also heavy zee cranks might be a bit much and the 1x10 setup may not ideal if you still have to pedal up the hill. The new trance SX advance with the X01 groupset has none of these issues and just looks the berries. But it's big bucks and I don't even know if they're going to bring it to SA. Being an anthem rider I'm a big fan of the giant suspension and I'm sure the trance is just as good. My pet hate with Giant is the Overdrive 2 steerer. It does mean you got to get the fork right up front because you can hardly give it away if you want to upgrade it.

Nice one! The 70 was hard - maybe not as much climbing as some of the others but very challenging. Enjoyed the technical bits, especially the descent. Well organised, good vibe at the venue. Congestion not too bad for the number of people involved. In all a big thumbs up all round.

sorry double post

This is good practical advice. I get so overwhelmed by all the trips and adventure on my bucket list that I end up doing none of them.

Are they still married?

Not applicable in my case! Me - old geezer, married. Oh that reminds me: Point no 4: Negotiate a pink pass. How did I forget that one? Looks like good fun, but it's out of my league. One day, maybe. Happy to hit the small ones for now.

This is exactly what concerns me! I have been slowly starting to take more interest in this thread from zero to the point where I'm getting really keen on signing up. However I would need to: 1. Offload my Joberg2c entry for next year. That will provide the finance. 2. Acquire a bike more suited for the territory, plus some of the other essential extras. 3. Upgrade my riding skills in a big way. These can probably be taken care of in the months ahead. But I'm concerned about if or how I would get excited about riding the spruit and doing trailseekers afterwards

Thanks

I wasn't sure if it needed to be rebled after I cut the hose, as no fluid seemed to escape, but I was keen to try my hand at doing the bleed anyway. But what's the trick?

I recently got a reverb. What a cool upgrade that was. A marvellous piece of engineering. Definitely the best thing I could have done for my bike. Installation wasn't too hard. I shortened the hose and bled it using the bleed kit provided myself, and I'm generally a bit DIY challenged. Wasn't that bad, cutting the hose took 2 seconds with a retractable utility knife on a breadboard and a sharp firm movement. Bleeding was a bit of a pain, but I got the job done in the end and the remote works flawlessly. I don't have internal cable routing or guides on my frame, so I've routed the cable under the top tube and fastened it using velcro ties. Not as untidy as it sounds. The thinking was I could easily swap back the old seatpost in a few minutes. Needless to say, having ridden with the dropper post, I can't see that happening any time soon. If weight is your concern, adding the reverb only added 340g to the weight of my bike. An insubstantial penalty considering the benefits. And I had to lose the saddlebag - you can't have one with a dropper. Must say, never did like the big gonad dangling off the back of my bike that much anyway. But what a difference it makes to the ride. I'm using it all the time, at least as often as the front shifter. When I hit twisty singletrack or just need to be able to corner, I just lower it an inch or 2, so I can still pedal properly, but can corner and manoevre so much better in this position with a lower center of gravity. And if it drops steeply it goes down down the full 125mm. And anything in between it goes somewhere inbetween. Infinite adjustability is definitely the way forward. Some droppers confine you to 3 set positions. It's so easy to operate, it just takes a few rides to get dialled. The movement is super smooth. Dropper posts are already standard issue on medium to high end longer travel bikes, but you could argue that it's on shorter travel xc bike with a steep head angle that you need it the most. No more needing to hang your arse over the back and burn it on the back tyre, nor having to risk your nuts trying get back over to the front of the bike. Since getting it I've been able descend so much faster and feel more safe that I feel like I have an unfair advantage. I'm getting down faster than guys who are better riders than me. But most importantly I'm having more fun on the bike and and in particular enjoying the freedom of simply being able to move around the bike without the saddle getting in the way. I also balked at the cost, but it was worth every cent.

I did the Berg and Bush training camp this last weekend here and these trails are incredible. And it's pretty much all single track. Chris Mecklenbourg from All-Out-Adventures really does deserve some recognition here as he's done a fantastic job creating these trails that these really must be amongst the best in the country. And I don't think he's quite done yet. The Grotto trail will surely come to be spoken of in the same breath as other legendary must-do trails like the harkerville red route. It starts with some fast flowing quad bike track from All Out Adventures down into the valley. It meanders along for a few kilometers in the valley before hitting a steep stiff climb up to and through the Cavern hotel to the higher contour level. The next 8-10 km is a sublime section of ridge riding; up, along the contour, then a drop down, a narrow bridge river crossing, a sharp bend followed by a steep punchy climb. Some sections right along the edge. It's as mentally demanding as physically as you're on your toes the whole time. But wow exhilirating doesn't go anyway to describing it. Then you get to the crest of the ridge, where you might want to take a short break to admire the panoramic views, with the entire northern and central berg from the Amphitheatre to Catherdral Peak on the one side, and the escarpment stretching across the other, before flooding your veins with adrenalin winding down on the 250-300m descent to the tugela valley. Then it's a short section on the river valley, before a steep climb out past the Hlahlanathi resort followed by a final section of up and down single track back to the Adventure Centre. And with 760m or climbing, mostly of the short sharp steep variety, on a 25km route, you're well knackered. I lost count of the number of bridges, there must have been about 20 - 25 of them on this loop alone, some amply wide, others narrow enough to put you on your best behaviour. And fence ramps (don't know what they're called) so you don't have to get off your bike. And it's not just this one - there's lots of other great trails that are equally spectacular and special that you could take days to explore and come back to. Chris has put an amazing amount of effort (and poured plenty of cash) into creating something incredibly awesome. So if you want true proper mountain biking, you owe it to yourself to go there and check out these trails.

I've got quite a few thaba blue GPS tracks, but they all involve me getting lost. The problem is the part b of the blue track on the koppie seems to be in the opposite direction of the xc track. It gets very confusing. Haven't figured it out. But I've enjoyed it every time. Very tough though. Rietvlei blue sections are just as confusing but not quite as tough.

I'd like to do this one for sure I looked at their website - it looks like it's a bit of a mix. The top end of the field are the bigshots of the enduro scene, but there's plenty of amateurs further down the field. That's if you go according the the race results. But one of the guided weeks would be great too.

From which side, the M1, or from Sandton drive? Either way you should be looking to avoid riding on Grayston drive in any direction, or cranking up your life insurance. There's plenty of side road alternatives to get into Sandton, and your pavement hopping options are better on a mountain bike.

Cool, thanks Mike

What time do you okes normally finish if you start at 8 on Saturday? I have orders from HQ to be back in jhb by one.

I'd love to do a VG ride - don't think I can make Saturday, but Sunday I could if anyone's going out then.

That's good to hear

Entered for the 70. Is congestion likely to be a problem like on some of the other trailseekers?

I know this topic has been hammered to death, but most it's mostly been subjective opinion and conjecture. Giant have supposedly tried to do a scientific assessment and have been flamed for it, labeled as just pure marketing spin. Their basic assertion is that although 650b (or 27.5 or whatever they want to call it) sits in between 26 and 29, it is closer to 26 where 26 is strong (weight, stiffness) and closer to 29 where 29 is strong (rolling resistance, contact patch). It turns out that they actually do have a point. Firstly, about the wheel sizes: 26, 650b and 29er are 559mm, 584mm and 622mm in diameter. Then add on 2 inches of tyre thickness (50.8mm) gives 26.01, 26.99 and 28.59 inches respectively. So 650b is just under 40% of the way between 26 and 29. Really 27.5 and 29er should be called 27 and 28.5er respectively because that's what size they are, but that's just an aside that would just confuse things further. Anyway, to get back to the Giant's claims. Weight and stiffness: I don't think that anyone would argue that 650b is closer to 26 than 29er in weight, and also in wheel stiffness for the same metal thickness in the spoke and rim. Weight in particular scales linearly with wheel size. I would argue that stiffness is an inverse square relationship, like strength of a magnetic field, so 650b would be much closer to 26 than 29er. I can motivate that but not now. As for frame stiffness, that's hard to quantify other than experimentally, a 29er's is going to need a shorter headtube to keep the bars at the right height. That's probably going to make it less stiff. As for the bottom bracket I can't see what difference wheel size would make really. The only thing I can think of is this coming down to the longer chainstays on the 29er. Rolling resistance: Giant seem to have botched their calcs here. Using simple high school trigonometry, a 26, 650b and 29er would hit a 6cm obstacle at an angle of 35.08, 34.41 and 33.47 degrees respectively. So none of the x - 4 and x - 6 degrees that they suggest, but rather x - 0.66 and x - 0.94. But the numbers do speak in their favour. E.g. for an obstacle of 12cm, the 26 will hit at an angle of x = 50.45 , a 650b at x - 1 degrees and a 29er at x - 1.4 degrees. Whatever size obstacle you choose, it does seem to back up their claims. I haven't taken into account the effect of tyre deformation here, but I don't think this will change the outcome much. Contact patch: This is much harder to theoretically analyse, but they may still have a point. On first thought, if you double the size of a wheel is that you double the contact patch. This is not the case. The size of the contact patch is determined by wheelsize, tyre volume, tyre pressure, and load (rider + bike weight). So to double the contact patch you'd actually need to double the wheelsize, quadruple the volume, double the load and keep the pressure the same. By going to the bigger size wheels, you scale the volume linearly and keep the load the same. This means that the increasing the wheelsize give diminishing marginal returns in terms of contact patch size. This may well result in the gain in contact patch size got from going from 26 to 650b may be larger than that going from 65b to 29er. Whether or not this "technical analysis" translates into a better, faster, more fun ride, we're back in the realm of the subjective personal experience. Sorry for the ramblings!

Anyone have any idea of what the pricing is going to be for the 2014 range? Up big time with the rand falling out of bed, but just a question of how much. I reckon if the pricing is good the Trance 27.5 will be a big seller as the do-all play bike. I don't think there's going to be that much of a market here for the 27.5 anthem, except maybe in the smaller sizes. I wouldn't buy an anthem 29er, or pretty much any 29er for that matter, smaller than medium. But I can't see the 29er going anywhere soon. A 100mm 29er is still the right bike for XCM and stage races, which is what everyone here seems to be in to. The 27.5 anthem looks like it would be the thing to have for XCO, but that's not a big market in this place. Concerning the wheel size debate, I can't see why you wouldn't want bigger wheels as long as you get the geometry sussed (excuse the pun) for the riding you're doing. It looks like they are building the longer travel 650b/27.5's these days without having to make any compromises on geometry (that you have to make for a long travel 29er). 650b is really just a new improved version of 26. I think it's too close to the 26 for them to both have a long term future.

Really cool race. The race starts off with Egbert, a distinctive Marico character with a beard down to his waist, blowing the kudu horn. The first 12kms follow the valley up the dirt road, pretty fast with some climbing. Then it turns off into the bush, crosses the river, and hits a long climb up into the kloof above. The next 30 odd ks is just marvellous stuff, with great views into the valley and great riding, fast punishing descents down slippery loose shale, several river crossings, some short steep climbs, and a nice fast section wending through the river valley. All of it rideable, with the possible exception of an uphill section halfway through that just gets ridculously steep. The last 12ks is hoofing it back on the dirt road, mainly downhill. By that stage the body and bike is a bit relieved, because it's taken a bit of a hammering. Overall a very satisfying ride. The shorter distances are less technically demanding so there's really something for everyone. The whole vibe around the event is super chilled and has that special Marico flavour made famous by Herman Charles Bosman. The community gets involved - the post race vibe at the Feesterrein is very cool, with good food made by the locals. There's marimba players and other live music, not the usual rubbish blaring out at most events. All proceeds from the race are apparently fed straight back into uplifting the community. Conspicuous in their absent are the big corporates and in general any form of commercialism. I think the organisers are just too chilled to interact with sponsors.

Anyone other than myself doing this one this year? i.e. Tomorrow?