Keep Pedaling

"My front wheel is clicking but only if im riding it. Check backpack for little fellow from The Gods Must Be Crazy - failing that, bearings click when then need servicing or replacing.

"Visit the Bryanston bike park - it's a great place to build skills and confidence." Actually, rather don't - there are lots of tricky things there intended for more experienced riders. I have personally seen some new riders come very short there. Rather do northern farms or even Krugersdorp Game Reserve. Don't ride alone if you are new to the sport.

"It seems like they build a great piece followed by a sh*te piece" My old varsity Trail Building Psychology 101 textbook. If you only build good trails the bikers will complain like women at a tea party. Be sure to intersperse good trail with intentionally constucted bad trail, and they will happy as pigs in butter.

"Offer classes on bicycle maintenance and repair and make ure you have a good wrench." ...or even better a good wench.

40km. If you don't feel like you have been steamrollered after a race you are not trying hard enough.

"there is a guy selling a new frame and fork for R3000,00 price seems really worth it to me." Just beware of scammers if you are buying over the hub and the price seems too good to be true.

"Did you pick up a pair of lungs? I lost mine quite early in the race... " Me too. Proberly because I don't have the will force to train in cold weather, which means since April.

Until Metro stop concentrating 98% of efforts on speeding and drunk driving fines/bribes the driving will get worse and worse to the point where it is completely lawless. Much of the blame for general detoriation must lie with them.

"And I always argue about what the average rider is looking to achieve. He is surely not looking to win races but often is looking to get fitter. Surely pedalling that 12kg bike up the hill is going to achieve this quicker than doing so with a 9kg bike?" If that were the case then people would purposely buy heavier bikes.

Do you think they jumped the fence?

"An when you have to carry the bike." +1 ...or lift it over a gate.

The is no authorative question answer to this question. Guys who tried time trials up Alp du Huep (spelling?) found a kg made a few seconds difference and filling the wheels with water made a few more seonds difference but nothing major. If you spent the money in shaving 2kg off your bike on a good cycling coach the performance difference will probabally be major...Barry excluded, of course.

I already have number boards. Can I collect my seeding stickers on the morning of the race? Anyone know?

Yet another thing. You need a better recovery system for injured riders. There are points where you intersect jeep track but there is no marker and phone number to tell the recovery vehicle/medics where to pick you up. My wife's injured knee gave up at the 10km mark but she had to walk on it for another 10km to the 1st water point. I also saw the medics have to run along long sections of single track to help injured riders and then carry them and their back a long way back. Also saw medics not knowing how far to go to the injured riders.

Another thing. Waterpoint spacing on a 45km loops should be 15km, 25km, 35km. Not 20km, 40km, 44km as was the case here.

"you could just have them built up. Normal rear hub, longer spokes and then the hoop" Noob question. Do hoops come in different sizes for 26, 29 and 650B or do you just use more or less depending on spoke length?

"bike maintainance without breaking a fingernail" I would be willing to pay good money for someone to teach my wife: 1. How to get her own chain back on. 2. How to identify there is something wrong with her bike before the ride starts. 3. How to identify her fork is locked out and it is not her bike that is 'uncomfortable'.

*sigh*

"The only way to learn how to ride sand is to ride in it" "bettter opportunity to hone ones cornering skills and see how far one can push the limits of cornering on dirt" I can ride soft sand better than most (zero falls) and push the corners till traction starts to give. But after 2km the novelty wears off - to say nothing of 30km.

Schrader to Presta valve for using a garage compressor. Buy 5 and hide them in different places, at least three of which are in your car.

"Does anybody know if I can register on race day?" Pre-enty only. Numbers limited to 2000 entrants which was reached some time ago. You only hope is to 'illegally' buy an entry from someone else.

Looks like a very serious affair. Does it have an integrated carbon seatpost? How much did it weigh?

"Looking at the results and considering how flat the race was it seems very slow." 15+ km soft sand follwed by single track that winds back on itself so quickly you can't accelorate. The last 14km was fast flowing but even that was speed limited.

Bela Bela is really the perfect location to host event for people from JHB. Lots of places to stay and not too far to drive. Keep them coming, just have a mtb'er and not a quad biker prepare the track please.

20km of soft sand singletrack traffic jam.