BuffsVintageBikes

No one is low balling anyone here, the market dictates what the bikes are selling for. There's a C40 in CT for R13K that's been on the market for months, hence my price suggestion. The fact that yours aren't selling is an indication that the market can no longer support that price point, at this moment in time anyway. That of course might change in a year or two... hopefully anyway because we all want to see the vintage bike market flourish.

Crickets chirping 😄

Wrapped up my 21st Argus/CTCT with a time of 3:18:31 on a tandem with a very good mate who wrapped up his 36 Tour. We had a great day out despite the wind and I think we did alright for 2 okes who lent a tandem from a mate to try something different for a change ☺️ Only thing I'm struggling with today is a sore butt from not being able to stand on the bike without falling off 🤪 Missed one big fall going through Ocean View by a few millimeters after someone collected one of those chevron boards and took some riders down with him. The rest of the ride was pretty incident free and enjoyable 🤙

Looks like he was dying for a drink 🙃

You almost make the suffering sound like fun 😄 Well done 🤙

Thanks for the updates Mamil 🤙 I was keen to give it a dig in Masters this year until my fall in Oct derailed my preparation plans. Hopefully I can join you there in 2025. All the best for the next few days 🤙

Great bikes, I raced one back in the day as well. Frames were pretty stiff and responsive. Mine ran a Chorus 10 speed groupset.

This WC Gravel schedule is just about impossible to following if you're a working class citizen. Let's break it down: 3 events in May, almost back to back. Fine for sponsored Elites, not so lekka for Vets & Masters who need some recovery time. All 3 of these races are away games at Houhoek, McGregor and Oudtshoorn. Okay, Houhoek you can maybe make a day of it if you're prepared to leave home at 4am. Entry fees for all 3 is close to 3.5K, never mind traveling costs and accommodation. So add in an extra 6K. That's R9 500 for your races in May 😲 Then the same thing happens in Sept, this time racing 3 weekends in a row at events of over 140km's long. Recovery time in mid winter is so over rated 🙄 Another R9K out the budget. Then you can only miss 1 race so best you don't get sick or injured on your 1 sit-out event otherwise you're out of the running. If they're going to present these series they need to be a little more realistic about the time & cost implications for riders. I get that it's not easy to put a race schedule together but it doesn't help to say at the end of the year that the series was poorly represented and not worth pursuing going forward when the schedule is extremely difficult & expensive to follow. I was keen to give it a bash this year but sadly that's not going to happen.

Yeah, we entered as a tandem pairing. I'll follow it up at registration but I'm not holding out much hope of a late seeding change. Still looking forward to the ride though, we had a great Tour de PPA on the bike so hoping the Tour goes as well 🤙

This had me chuckling because in our fall, around 15 riders went down and about 6 or 7 carbon bikes got written off completely, from cracked frames, snapped handlebars, stems & forks to carbon wheels shattered 😲 My steel Colnago broke a rear spoke 😄 I just wish I was as tough as my bike 😄

Yeah Dale, I feel your pain boet, I went down in the bunch in Oct and broken my collarbone and stuffed up my knee. That after a year of dieting and dedicated training to get myself back into racing shape and finally hitting numbers in training I hadn't seen in the last 15 years and finally about to do a DC again. It was bitter pill to swallow and I was seriously angry by the end of that first week. But time heals and you get stronger and you get back on the bike and start building again. Like the old quote goes "it doesn't matter how many times you get knocked down, only how many times you stand back up". Stand up brother (when you can) and celebrate all the small victories and thank the creator for still being alive 🤙

Doing my 21st CTCT as pilot on a tandem this year as well with a good mate (doing his 36th) stoking the blue train. Bit disappointed we didn't make the Racing Tandem bunch. He got the seeding but I'm 1B so I guess we'll have to drop back to my group? Pity because being among the solo's is a PITA when you're guiding that tandem at speed. Rim brakes on a tandem and disk brakes on solo bikes = disaster waiting to happen ☠️ Guess we'll be on the front as much as possible.

Strongs with the recovery Dale, terrible ordeal to experience. I just got an whatsapp of a cyclist fatality in Paarl this morning as well. It's carnage on our roads, the telltale signs of a lawless society.

Is that a square taper BB? I'll scratch around and see if I have anything that can help. I've got a Sora rear derailleur but it unfortunately on a bike I bought that's still lying in PE. That Triple crank could be a problem though, most are double.

And just like that, cyclists are suddenly all into Beetroot 🙃

This race was my first experience racing a tandem with a long time cycling mate. This was our experience of this race. There’s no nice way to say this, IMHO the officiating by PPA and CSA was a cluster &%$ of note. I've never experience such poor and irresponsibility decision making in any race I've ridden in the past 35yrs. They can hang their heads in shame... and go back and do their safety and commissaires courses over again because clearly they were sleeping through the last one. Neutralizing A bunch through the suburbs and none of the other bunches was the first brainless decision. What did they expect was going to happen? Tandems caught A bunch halfway through the neighbourhood already. Okay no great train smash just yet because there were luckily only a few of us but a lot of the A's hooked the tandem towards Fisantekraal to try stay with the bunch so their race was influenced. B then catches A at Fisantekraal (being driven by strong A riders that started in B) and because they had line of site on A when they hit Wellington road already due to the neutralization of A. The group doubles in size and the chaos begins. Near the airfield they apparently neutralize the race for the first time. I say apparently because we're we're just off the back and catch up to the bunch. There's no official standing there giving clear instructions of how to proceed, just cyclists standing around asking WTF is going on and cars everywhere. Some riders start riding again, we don't know which group may ride or if we can ride with them because no one is giving instructions. Some of the other tandems rolled through so we decide to go for fear of them getting away. At the 4 way stop, a marshal stops his bike in the middle of the 4 way and there's a massive crash. Thankfully we're still chasing at this point and miss the carnage. The whole bunch slows down and threads through the carnage not knowing if we should stop or not. But now we're in no-mans land and unsure of how to proceed. Do we go hard and risk getting neutralized again or do we sit up and wait and risk never catching the other tandems? They then neutralize the race for a second time on the road toward Eendsaamheid and exactly the same thing happens due to no clear instructions, just plenty of very pissed off cyclists asking questions. This time 3 other tandems roll through with riders not waiting any longer but we decide to rather wait for instructions instead of riding in a constant state of confusion. None are forthcoming so the riders take it on themselves to start riding again. Front of B catches A again (as expected) and the group swells again. At the dip at Eendsaamheid there’s another huge crash. We’re now in chase mode again trying to catch the tandems that rolled through. We eventually pull two of them back but one has gotten away and hooked onto the back of A, never to be seen again. But our motivation is now low and our legs shattered from two big stop & start efforts and we’re all rather despondent with the whole situation. We catch a lot of riders who have had enough and are calling family to fetch them and some who have turned around and are riding back home. You cannot have a fair race when it's influenced so negatively. We eventually sat up and then just rolled the rest of the race, turning it into a more tactical race for the remaining tandems rather than outright speed. Once the initial chaos had passed we ended up enjoying the race but the poor decision making and officiating really put a huge damper on this race. IMHO they were clearly to blame for the carnage out there. I won't be riding another PPA race again until they get their act together.

The w/kg on those laaities are mind blowing 😲

Weird because the frames are custom made to your measurements. The only carbon brand in the country that offers this service apparently. I met one of the owners, Robert, at the 99er and got to check out his and his partners bikes. The one was spray by Jared and the other by James, both local painters as well. Truly beautiful bikes, even if carbon isn't my jam ☺️ They seem like good value for money bikes if you look what else is available in that price range, especially since they are custom.

Ah man, sorry to hear. That's such a common scam on FB Marketplace. Such a lovely bike as well, I'll keep my eye out on the vintage scene to see if it pops up.

I'm currently running Rambler 45c's at 2 bar and I'm finding them a great all-round tire (excuse the pun). Sidewalls are maybe a little too thin to risk lower pressures but it's a compromise. Weirdly enough, they feel like they roll a whole lot better than the stock 38's that came on my Revolt.

Something worth mentioning due to me seeing it happening in past Epics, is to resist the urge to eat yourself into a coma at breakfast. If you're accustomed to only eating a bowl of oats and a banana for breakfast then stick to that. Resist adding in the scrambled eggs, bacon, croissants etc. thinking it will help you even more. Your body isn't used to processing so much, so early. While you're expecting it to give you a boost, all your body is doing is sending all your reserves to your gut to try and process this extra food before it can try deliver some energy. I see it every year with the young previously disadvantaged youngsters, they're not used to being presented with such an incredible spread and they go to town (totally understandably as well), only to blow spectacularly on the first big climb of the day and often chunder up breakfast.

You guys are missing the most obvious... David Mercer from Mercer bikes here in CT. He'll build you an absolutely drop dead gorgeous steel frame gravel bike 🤙 https://mercerbikes.co.za/custom-bicycles/

In the R10K - R15 price range depending on condition and parts

Ignore that, I see now we're taking about Hardtails 😊 At that price CABAL is a good option. Local company and a custom built carbon frame with a custom spray job 🤙

Spot on Paul, the weight of the e-bike only really makes a difference on steeper drags. A fit rider could quite easily sit in a bunch on an e-bike, especially if it's a gravel or roadbike, which weigh somewhat less than the mountain bikes.