@ndy

I have only taken up triathlons this year and as I only owned an MTB I was only intending to do off road tri's. I have got qute sucked in by it all and recently thought I would go all out and buy a TT bike for road events. Having borrowed a road bike for my two previous road Tri's I thought TT bikes were the way to go but now I see some races are not allowing the aero bars. Can anyone advise me of good ways to convert or should I just get a road bike as well?

It was a great race but I also was held up by 75 km back markers. It was supposed to be invitational but you could just call and tell them you completed ____ stage race and you were in. I suppose its always fair to allow people to appeal their seeding so this is always likely to happen.

Good idea.

Like these?

Kites use a very similar clips to prevent the airflow between the main bladder and the struts. If you are in Gauteng you could contact Liquid Force. I think Kyle the importer used to be somewhere near fourways.

There seeding might be like the PPA system which gives a higher score depending on what the winners times are. If this is the case there will be a low score for the 60km race as all the pro's and other top riders are probably doing the 75. I am still counting my 2013 grape escape seeding points in the PPA system because all the Epic guys that raced had very fast times and my (way down the field) result has a high beta factor. I have had a few recent results in the top 25% but they do not score me as many points because of the lack of top guys at the front.

There must be more events as I only did the 42 last year and of all the other events listed here I did the Spur MTB Classic. This year I am seeded B.

Georges, Find a long room. Mark your wheel and the floor with a bit of tape or something similar. Line up the tape on the wheel with the tape on the floor. Slowly ride along the room and stop when the tape on the wheel reaches the floor again. Mark that spot and measure between the two marks. If you are lucky enough to have a long enough area for more than one revolution then your measurement accuracy increases. I do it sitting on the bike with my normal tyre pressure just to be sure I get the most accurate result I can. Hope this helps.

Sounds like a good idea. I had no idea there was a Facebook page. I'll check it out.

I live 5 km's from that trail and I never go to that part alone. I have heard first hand of at two bike jackings there one happened just before I arrived on the scene and i'm pretty certain there has been more than that. Lately I have heard about wires being strung across the trails also. In my opinion there isn't enough being done to warn people how dangerous this spot is. The staff at the lodge just let everyone through who is on their own even though the rules state not to do so.

"I don't agree that you can not be a coach over the internet" +1 My coach hasn't seen me train apart from an early pool session. I just keep him updated about my input and results. I also ask plenty of questions over email or whatsapp. I would prefer to have some 1 on 1 sessions but it is already a bit pricey for a personalised training program and I'm very satisfied with my improvement.

The theory behind using it instead of whey is that its doesn't produce as much amino acids which are the primary cause of muscle fatigue. After a bit of research I haven't found many articles to back this up apart from what is written by hammer themselves or people selling hammer. So hardly conclusive. I just like the more savoury taste of the espresso. .

I changed from cadence classic to hammer perpetuem because a dietician advised me that the soy protein in Hammer is better than the whey protein in Cadence. I cant say I noticed a big difference although I did think the cadence was a bit sweet for me while riding. I have still been using the chocolate cadence recovery because it tastes good, its like sterrie stumpy.

I have a coach for triathlons. I started with him for the Grabouw xterra as it was my first tri so wanted to get a good idea of what to do. I was so happy with the results I have stuck with him. I only started running at the beggining of december and back then 10km took me about 90 minutes. Then a few weeks ago I ran the 10km of the Cape Town ITU in 47 minutes I didn't expect such rapid improvement and I certainly don't think I could have done it without the coach.

My Garmin said the ascent was 1324. It was my first tru cape although I have trained there a lot. It is one of my favourite places to ride I think they picked out a great route.

Check out the Silverback Sola. My friend has just bought one and he loves it. It has very good components when compared to other brands. The Sola has replaced the Vida model which was also a very good bike.

Great race! The organisation could be improved but I hope this becomes an annual event.

All the forecasts I see show rain on saturday. Windguru Cape Town shows medium rain around 8. getting lighter towards 11 and nothing in the afternoon.

I'm also in wave three at 8:30 which suprised me as Its only my third tri and I thought a noob like myself would get a later start. On the radio this morning Richard Murray was talking about the water being so cold they might make it a one lap swim. Any one heard more? It looks like it could be a chilly race in the rain.

I like silverback for a few reasons. 1. They are an SA brand. The design office is here they are tested here. They are German owned and for international marketing reasons fly the German flag. 2. They have a proper R and D philosophy, they don't just go to china and pick a bike from a manufacturer and put a label on it they design test and develop their products. 3. The value for money regarding the spec is better than most of the mainstream brands.. 4. I'm no engineer but I work with composites and it is refreshing to see a brand design a bike around the build material and not succumb to marketing hype i.e. The storm is their premium carbon hardtail and the vida the aluminium. They look different as they should knowing that the properties of both materials are significantly different. By the way I do not know the guys at silverback although I did meet one of their designers once. I do not own a Silverback, I ride and love my Santa Cruz , Silverback is just a brand I like.

It was also my first triathlon and I really enjoyed it. The swim was hectic I wasnt expecting to be bashing into people for so long into it but I went a bit wayward on the way back and was in plenty of clear space. I have been training on the MTB route for the last few weeks. It was a great ride on a superb course. I was a bit dissapointed that none of my technical knowledge paid off as I had to take the more difficult sections very slowly or dismount because of traffic. I drank too much on the ride and learnt a valuable lesson as during the run I felt bloated for the first half hr but I managed it at a reasonable pace in the end. I used to swim a lot as a youngster so my time for the swim was good. Then for the rest of the race I had a lot of people passing me especially on the climbs. I came in in 3:59 so I have a good marker. I'm looking forward to more in the future.

If You are fixing maintaining or building PM me for any materials you might need. I work for a large composite manufacturing company who pay to dispose of carbon, aramid and glass fibre every day. if you want to get some free bike or dinghy / size composite materials please get in touch a few Hubbers have already helped with my garbage. I also have out of date but perfectly fine (in my point of view) epoxy resins but i obviously cannot send it.

Slight hi jack alert! I have often thought about the weight factor but from a different angle. Because my bike and I weigh close to 100 kg it is easy to consider losing 1 kg as 1% of my all up weight. I would like to know how much a loss of 1 kg makes towards lowering climbing effort. I assume this would be a relatively easy calculation if one can take out some variables like surface and wind resistance but I'm not sure how to calculate it. I have lost nearly 10 kgs in the last two years and it has made a big difference for sure. For motivation I try and tell myself that 1 kg = 1% easier climbing but I know it can't be that simple.

I want to start doing some x triathlons probably starting with the x tera in February. I have used fittrack before for mtb training. Has anyone used it? Their plan for the x tera is a bit light I would rather be putting more hours in than I saw on their plans. I am used to training 8 - 12 hrs a week but now i see it is a bit different with more sessions of lower hrs so i'm really unsure of how to get something structured. Any advice is most welcome as I have little idea what i'm doing.

I rode a small part of the route (Ongegund, Schaapenberg trails) last friday after the adventure came through then again last night and it was a lot drier last night. But then it rained a bit. I heard from my LBS that it was still muddy on the Grabouw side yesterday. I'm thinking and hoping the conditions are a bit drier than last friday.