DanMan

Hi, I am 190cm and ride a L Specialized Epic. I am about 2 cm away from max seat length and the stem is medium long. I could get a longer one if need be. My body fits into the bike geometry but on the upper end. If I had to buy a XL I would be mid-range with the bike geometry. To answer your question, yes you will be able to comfortably fit on a L but an XL will also work. I will come down to your personal preference.

Gravel has its own rules under MTB in the CyclingSA Rulebook. Yes, gravel bikes cannot compete against MTB as drop handlebars are not allowed. The organizers should just sanction their events as gravel and not MTB. Then everybody can compete.

I did it back in September. Really badly washed out. It's become very technical to descend and hard to climb. There are not much smooth sections left to get a rhythm. You are concentrating most of the way up to hold your line or accelerate over loose rock. If you are quite fit and strong then this can be a quality training session! Otherwise, you going to fight the bike all the way up and down, and your HR will be in the red most of the time...

West Rand Cycling Club | Bionic Cycling Club They start from Saddlewoods @ 8 on a Saturday

Thanks for your replies @Frosty and @Jewbacca. Like you've said CyclingSA needs to find direction in what they want to do. If they want to focus on elite/Tops guys, then great more power to them. But then they should not make statements that their membership numbers a dwindling and they cannot understand why. Me as a CyclingSA member find it very frustrating to engage with CyclingSA on this topic. I always get generic answers like "It's new something new and we should support it, or we are working on something". It just feels like no one takes responsibility to answer these questions or take necessary action/steps to rectify the situation. I just feel the BikeHub is the only place I can air my frustrations. At least fellow hubbers will respond🤣

Hi Frosty, I am trying to understand what you are saying when you say "What they are trying to do is good" As you summed it up the race organisers have to foot the bill for the events and they take the risk. My question is what is CyclingSA bringing to the table to support the events? From my perspective all I am seeing is CyclingSA drew up a document to say the following races are in a series and here are the points you could earn if you perform at them. But from there you only get a pat on the back as confirmed by Zeffer. There is more value for me to go do a seeding race to get a better seeding for the CTCT or 94.7 as I am getting something back for my efforts. I honestly cannot see why I must travel to do these races nominated by CyclingSA. Yes this is a brand-new initiative but it's not selling anything of value to attract new riders. Like I said before I would love to support my federation but I cannot see what their aim is here.

I understand its baby steps but the same applies also for new race organizers. What I don't get is Cycling SA launches this product that makes no commercial sense, expect us the riders (Consumers) to buy into this and hope it grows? I am not trying to pick a fight or bad mouth this initiative but if something is not well thought out from the beginning it cannot succeed in the long run. I am a member of Cycling SA but I cannot see what this brings to the table if the points ultimately don't matter and I can go do these races by myself as a CyclingSA member or not. There is no value for me as the rider other than participating in these races, which I can do already. Please provide value to me and I will support you to the ends of the earth, but I cannot see this going anywhere. Regards A concerned Cycling SA member

Ok we got races confirmed and age categories defined, and you allocate points to the results. So a winner is determined by the end of the series. What do they win? What do the points mean for the rest of the riders? I am just trying to understand what the benefit is of traveling and doing all these races? Are these ranking connected to colours in any way?

Here is a new road race Buffelstrap Road Cycle Challenge – Lenick Promotions

I had a "Newish" secondhand bike break on me. Because I wasn't the original owner, I couldn't claim the warranty. Since then, I was a bit skeptical spending so much on a secondhand bike.

My observation could be inaccurate or like you said you and your mates are the outliers but who will know? It would be interesting to know when you spend that kind of money on a secondhand bike did you not consider buying new? And what made you decide buying that bike instead of new?

I think there is ceiling price of around 40k for a secondhand bike. Any higher and the buyer could just consider buying new even if it's a lower model. I don't see people spending 100K on secondhand bike even if it was new 200K plus. I do think people need to realize that market value has a cap for 2nd hand bikes. You would be lucky if you can get more than 50% of the original price of your bike. If you want to sell you need to be comfortable selling at a lower price than what you expect your bike is worth. That might be the only offers you get...

It was dodge coming through those intersections in the end. Too much traffic for marshals to control. It felt like an accident was waiting to happen

My point exactly! As I see it, we are at the mercy of race organizers/timing companies unfortunately. I cannot see CSA ever taking charge to fix this.

Hi Frosty What if the organisers/timing companies don't want to share/use the CyclingSA database? I feel timing companies make their money from selling the seeding data.