BuffsVintageBikes

These Fords bring back memories. My uncle was co-owner of a Ford dealership in KWT in the 70/80/90's and my mother worked there as well. The one evening she came home in a Ford Cortina XR6 Interceptor sprayed in the iconic Gunston colours. I was a teenager and nearly spontaneously combusted in my jockey's 😲 Unfortunately it wasn't for sale, only a few were custom sprayed in that livery but the whole family got to go for a burn around the block in it. I can still recall the look on my old mans face when he stepped on the loud pedal 😄

I can tell you one thing for certain, it'll never be cheaper than the 1st year it's being presented 😄 I did the very first Cape Epic in 2004 and was so grateful for that because after that it was beyond my gov salary budget 😊

I'm also wondering if the majority of the route is going to follow the Cape Cross tour route from Plett 2 CT, which uses a lot of the original 2004 Cape Epic route (excluding the small bits of single track). I bikepacked that route last year on my gravel bike and it's the perfect blend of gravel & tar 🤙 I see Ashleigh MP and her husband are coming over here in Jan to lead a tour group over that route as well.

I wondered when this would finally happen. I heard a little rumour that Kevin Vermaak was planning on launching one soon as well. Now I'm wondering if Dryland heard the same rumour and tried to get theirs out the door first before all the details were ironed out, just to have the status of "First ever gravel stage race in SA"? Just thinking out loud.

Mark's Bicycle Workshop in Bellville stocks some of the basic nut & bolt stuff but nothing high end.

It's been winter and the social cyclists haven't been very active so things have quietened down a little. It's bound to pick up once the weather improves. On Hellshoogte, just wait at the bottom until one or two riders come past and ride up in a small group rather than alone. I've never had an issue there but its so sporadic, you just never know when your number gets pulled. The road from Stellies to the Jonkershoek gate is always a great addition to any ride 🤙

This isn't a gravel bike and for any tar road locally, a 28C tire is more than sufficient (well for the WC at least). In our bunch ride in the evening's, I've yet to spot anyone on anything above a 28C tire. GCN's latest video, where Ollie tests cheap/expensive tires on an indoor simulator, is rather interesting, give it a watch.

Nice looking bike 🤙

Glad their bonus's never came from my pocket. A couple of weeks ago I finally climbed up onto my roof and removed the old skottel dish and dumped it in the trash. They won't ever be seeing me again.

Well he is Australian

Either way, he/the team going to make a fist of it, that's for sure. For me it's going to be interesting to see how his temperament holds up to the challenge. He's shown before that he can sometimes be his own worst enemy.

At sunset last night at the top of the Devonvalley climb, looking onto the Stellenbosch mountains

Nice to hear they will be refunding those of us that entered.

Anodizing or painting with Cerakote is the only way if you want the coating to last and yes, you'll need to strip the levers.

I guess that would explain it although the team car was right behind her after she crashed. I'm assuming comms from car to the front riders was then down?

Very unusual race tactics yesterday. I wonder what that mood was like in the bus afterwards 😄

You see his power numbers? 311W normalized for 5 plus hours... not to shabby for a day on the bike 😲

No idea, I didn't really take much notice. They're all pretty much generically branded anyway. The tubes are orange with black valves and come in a little blue box. They actually look pretty decent, I can't really see any difference between them and the R450 ones from a LBS. They do warn you however that you shouldn't inflate them above 5bar but I run 28C tires and don't go higher than that anyway.

I've bought quite a few things from Temu and will continue to do so until such a time they start charging for shipping. Latest order had a few TPU tubes at R86 each (lets hope they don't let go going down Baainskloof), a couple of bike tools, deraillure hanger extenders and some MTB Spur grip type bars ends that worked so well at the 361 Half that I bought sets for my gravel bike and dual as well.

I'm in as well. Now to watch the weather forecast intensely for the next 9 days and hope another cold front doesn't batter us that weekend #gatvolofwinter

Or you can just do what @Zebra did at Eroica last year.... ride casually past a mate and mention very politely that he could see what he had for breakfast through the back of his shorts 😄

My steel Ti Raleigh in Reynolds 753 tubing is sub 9kgs as well 😄 Gotta love the marketing machine.

I'm keen to enter but with the weather being so unpredictable I'm a little unsure whether I should use my hardtail or the gravel bike. I see the entry portal wants you to specify whether you're entering as an "Individual" or a "Gravel bike". That a rather an unusual option to have to chose from and doesn't leave you with much wiggle room on the day 🙄 Guess it won't matter much either way for a mid packer.

Generally when your chamois cream starts oozing through your shorts and starts frothing around your naught then it's time to replace them 😉

I've done this before. The incident happened just before Worcester coming towards CT. The guy overtook 5 vehicles on a blind rise. I was the 2nd car in the queue and as he got next to me he realized he wasn't going to make it and came into my lane, forcing me to take evasive action and swerve left. I had my two girls in the back seat and the red mist descend. The traffic was so congested that he was never more than a few vehicles ahead of me until I saw him pull into the big One Stop on the other side of Worcester. I followed him into the One Stop and found him in the queue at Vida. A big oke about a head taller than me but I was beyond caring. What I said to him cannot be repeated here but he and everyone else in that One Stop understood exactly how I felt about his mothers Porche. My outburst caught him so by surprise that he never even retaliated but simply apologized for his poor driving. His excuse.... "My wife needed the bathroom really badly" Frikkin idiot, I'm sommer worked up all over again just telling the story and lus to moer him... pity he was so big 😊 Hopefully he thinks twice before doing that again.