PieterJvR

Looks like someone did an update to 1.81 for lots of people like JohanDiv said - found it strange that my BMI went up from from this morning

Great! Thank you very much

How do you guys measure body fat percentage? I don't have a personal trainer or biokineticist I go to for regular measurements, etc Can I purchase a body fat caliper from Takealot, Sportsmanswarehouse or any of those places and use that or is there a better or more accurate way?

If you don't mind corrugations and your back side doesn't get sore, then HT. Not worth it to spend money on the HT unless you have cash burning a hole in your pocket, so take it like it is (except maybe for a comfortable saddle ) Personally I would take the dual suspension trail bike. I have done a 135km in that area and it is pancake flat, with lots of corrugation and soft sand - and since it is flat you don't get time to rest - you constantly pedal and you sit on your saddle 95% of the time.

I would also say Cogent Industries, however that is in Pretoria and I see you are in Jhb South. If you up for the drive, go for it - Jacques knows his stuff and will give you very good advice as well. Not too familiar with the shops in Jhb, but from what other hubbers have said I would say Sprocket & Jack, and David Marshall (on the hub)

Thanks for the info, I normally train late afternoons/early evenings in the week and mornings on the weekend. Will see how this goes for a few weeks - am pretty sure I will be able to sustain it.

Depends on what you classify as monster hills Nothing really long, few short steep hills - mostly on tar... Either way you going to have to do a few repeats... Longest hill close by is probably Klapperkop, otherwise head west and go over Breedt's Nek a few times (very boring though but good exercise especially from the Shebeen side). Haven't been there in a few months but probably a bit washed out with the amount of rain in the last few weeks, so a bit more of a challenge. Midrand is also not flat, but nothing major in elevation - so depends on how fast you go I guess how hard it will be. Otherwise the east or Pretoria can also be used, once again doing a few repeats - but Solomon Mahlangu, Atterbury extension, Saints, WTF and Nkwe in a combination can help with hill training.

Thought it might, will give it a go for the first two months of the year and see how I feel. Worst it can be is that it feels crap, but I must just push through. Thanks Thanks, will give this a try for a while. And agree on the highlighted bit

I have thought of doing this before, just had one concern and that was how I will feel on the bike without eating in the morning and then only eating at midday. This is however dependent on one of 2 things. Did you follow this fasting process even when doing a 3-4 hour ride the next morning? Or only when doing a 1-2 hour ride? I can probably go read up on it but find real world experience more valuable.

I am in as well (again ). Need to loose about 13kg as an initial goal and hopefully 6-10 by the end of March (in time for C2T), would love to loose 17-19kg by the end of October however. Did well at the beginning of last year and also cycled a lot, then life got in the way and laziness, basically did a third of my normal rides and gym visits after Baviaans last year, also picked up 7kg from September. Take-away's was probably the biggest culprit. I know what I am supposed to do with regards to eating and it is similar to what JohanDiv mentioned yesterday, also went back to the gym this week to work on strength and core.

Is Jeannie Dreyer not riding this year?

As per the "Two The Core Trails Modderfontein" facebook page, the routes were reversed (again) on the weekend. I haven't been there recently myself so don't know of any other changes

It really depends on what type of night riding you want to do and for how long. If you just planning on doing the odd night ride with friends or even a race and it won't last longer than 2-3 hours I would go for the Core+ Light from extremelights, see link here: https://www.extremelights.co.za/collections/bicycle-lights/products/core-bicycle-light-2 If you planning on doing overnight riding, i.e. 24 hour events where you will be descending long down hills and need "more" light then you can maybe look at a more expensive option with more lumens, i.e. https://www.extremelights.co.za/collections/bicycle-lights/products/endurance-bicycle-light-1 I would go for the extremelights options purely for their after sales service and the fact that their products are durable and last quite long.

Your calculations looks correct, I mapped the route (exactly like last year just in reverse) on ridewithGPS(including going through Steyn City) and after 48km (getting onto the M1) total elevation was on 903m. Total distance for the route was 96.4 and elevation was 1388m. Here is the link: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28704823 And here is the elevation for the route:

Thanks Gents, some food for thought... Guess I will also play around a bit more with different foot positions when using my flats.

I don't mean to derail this thread, but is there a "correct" (read ideal) position when riding with flats? I ride with cleats normally due to the type of riding and races I do, but have in the last few months bought five tens and flats which I swap to on occasion. However I sometimes feel if I keep my foot in relatively the same position (ball of foot) on the pedal as when riding with cleats that my foot want to slide off the pedal when I drop my heels. Common sense tells me to pedal with the middle of my foot to prevent this, but I am so used to pedal with the ball of my foot that it feels weird and I am scared that I might develop some knee pain due to this.

I would try spectrum sports or Racetec first, Racetec did the timing on Spectrum Sports' behalf as far as I understand it

Have you checked here? http://results.spectrumsport.co.za/Portals/17/ResultDoc/Garmin_MTB_Classic_20180825.pdf

189cm, XL Spez - was previously on a Large Scott. Always felt cramped on the Scott, my height kind of put me in between the L and XL in the Scott range, and I think the shop tried to flog the Large and at that point I didn't know enough about bike sizes to dispute their recommendation. Road Bike is a 56cm - don't think it is exactly the right size for me, but I ride it less than 5 times a year so don't really mind.

I also have a Bosal 2 bike rack, still use it to this day. I also have a Holdfast 3 bike rack - it is bulletproof and very sturdy (also heavy though compared to a Thule). What I do like about the Holdfast however is that the spacing between the bikes is a bit more than with a Thule - making it easier to load 3 large bikes. Only reason I went with the Holdfast over the Thule when I bought the rack was because of the price difference, 5k vs 10k. If you can afford a Thule/Volvo rack go for it, after that I would say Holdfast as I haven't used the others yet. If you do get the Thule rack just make sure the knobs that hold the round bar (the ones the arms attach to) is lockable (the earlier ones could just be loosened and removed).

Good outcome, I think the highlighted bit gave them some additional motivation for them to replace your saddle. Unfortunate that it had to get to this point for them to replace it though

There you go, and CAAD4 is in Jhb

Have a look at their website, seems they have some gpx files available to download - don't think it has been updated recently though but the main trail network at Northern Farms hasn't really changed: http://www.northernfarm.co.za/northern-farm-mtb There are quite a lot of jeep track and some easy to ride single track (on green and blue trails) so Northern Farms should be ok for your wife, however saying that there are some hills to get back to the trail head so if she is not very fit she might struggle a bit in the beginning

I had the model just below the Elite (but it was the same ALU frame and DT Swiss M210 shock) sold the whole bike at the beginning of the year for R14,5k. Don't know what a good price for the frame only would be but you can probably work it out from that. I maintained my bike well, pivots, etc and the chainstay still cracked - was replaced under warranty by Scott. The cracks normally formed more or less in the same place (at least the ones I saw) on all the chainstays due to the position of the pivot just above the BB. The area it cracked was where the bend was on the drive side, just behind the chain rings (on either the inside or outside of the chainstay. So I would look out for that. People often complained about the shock as well, I once had an issue that the shock was loosing pressure but a normal service fixed it - the only negative about the shock was that bike shops had to send it to Scott SA to service (not sure if that is still the case). Other than that it was a good bike, really enjoyed it - only sold it because I was looking for something a bit more trail orientated.

Northern Farms as Bonus say. Otherwise perhaps Modderfontein which is closer to you - I haven't been there in a while but you should be able to do a 2-3 hour ride easily, if you repeat some bits you can do 4 hours