Brian Fantana

Contact Chandelier Game Reserve, the start venue. In 2011 they took my car from Chandelier(where we stayed the Friday evening) to Groot Brak on the Saturday morning. They also provided a shuttle service that year. All these services were free of charge if you used their accomodation.

From Brian Lopes' and Lee McCormack's book: Set Up for Success Some simple bike changes will accelerate your wheelie, manual, and hop mastery. In order of ease and importance: Drop your seat. The lower your saddle, the bigger and more fluid your movements. Switch to flat pedals. This is the only way to guarantee you’re not pulling on the pedals. Shorten your stem. Moving your bars higher and closer gives youmore range and better balance

I really hope Giniel shows them this year. Awesome that he has a photo of Burry on his car. I am also supporting Race2Recovery http://www.race2recovery.com/ . They are an amputee rally team consisting of UK and US war veterans and they are riding the Dakar in order to generate funds for charity.

I only have one bike, but I have three sets of pedals. One XC spd pair, one trail spd pair and a pair of Nukeproof flats. For racing or long rides I use spd's, but I dedicate one week a month to skills, and then I use the flat pedals and appropiate shoes. My skills have improved exponentially since doing this, and to be honest, the flat pedal/shoe combo works so good that I have even done a few 50km rides with them, without feeling disadvantaged at all. If you want to improve your skills you need to fit flat pedals and lower that freakin saddle!! It will open the door to a brand new world of technical riding.

Fat Tracks MTB club will have a MTB ride in memory of Burry Stander starting Saturday 5 Jan 10:00 at Augustyn Bros Bicycle shop. Keep an eye on the Fat Tracks Facebook page and website for details.

Also check out Independant Fabrication. They manufacture frames according to the geometry and size you specify.

Hi there, The Monarch is behaving very good so far, it is the Monarch RT3 High Volume. I am really satisfied with the suspension performance of the Shova, and my previous frame was an Intense 5.5, so I know more or less how good suspension should feel.

That will work great. And Fork-Up makes some nice adapters which will enable you to mount bikes with thru axle forks this way.

Phone the factory and ask them for a photo. They are very helpful.

On my way to a camping weekend.

The new route is very cool. A nice challenge. I am going to ride the 80km MTB and the road race. In the road race there will be a very good chance of a breakaway staying away till the finish.

I agree that a rigid bike improves certain aspects of you skill. I rode a rigid ss 29er for a few years. This improves line choices, and forces you to loose the tension in those arms. On the flip side of this I have to say that my 150mm trail bike have improved other aspects of my skill. With the relaxed head angle and long travel it is extremely challenging(in the beginning) to climb very steep ascents. However my style adapted and I now ride up climbs with my trail bike where some of my buddies are pushing their XC bikes. There are also a few chest height drops, and a gap jump on one of my local trails which I would not have attempted before I had a trail bike, yet now I ride those sections all the time. On a hardtail one tends to stomp on the pedals when you get tired. On a full suspension trail bike, especially a long travel one you need to adapt your pedalling style in order to improve efficiency.

Definitely coarser than espresso. Espresso grind is very fine, which gives gives the coffee a larger effective contact surface area with the water. The way I understand it, his means that if it is in contact with the water for longer than 30s it over extracts. The Aeropress process takes longer than 30s which means that you will over extract if you use espresso grind. So the longer the brew method the coarser the grind should be, to prevent over extraction.

Barista Throwdown in Cape Town tommorow: http://www.thecoffeemag.co.za/blog/2/84/barista-throwdown

That is not the crema. That is the water and coffee mixture which still has to be pressed through a paper filter. An Aeropress does not create crema, nor does it make espresso. It does make a delicious coffee, which if diluted with hot water will kick the a$$ of many Americanos served in certain "coffee" shops(more like toasted sarmie shops if you ask me). Aeropress coffee has a bold flavour without any bitternes. You just need to get the grind setting on your grinder right and off you go!!

Yes, the course on Grant's farm is the Thornhill XCO course, very nice. We had quite a few XCO provincials there. The problem is many of the PE mountain bikers are gravel road riders, which means that XCO courses like Woodridge and Thornhill do not get the support they derserve. Which might be why the Thornhill course have not been fixed yet.

Aeropress coffee is far superior in flavour to Moka pot in my opinion. A moka pot extracts at high tempreature, low pressure and for a fairly long time, which kind of breaks all three rules. With an Aeropress you can control temperature and time, with a certain extent of pressure control(still quite low pressure). I have two stainless steel Bialetti Moka pots, and although they make good coffee, I really enjoy the Aeropress results(same beans, same grinder) more.

One of the best places to ride in PE area is Hayterdale trails. Lots of great singletrack, built by avid mountain bikers. The entire farm is dedicated to mtb trails. The trail is close to the Addo main camp. You can have a brilliant post ride lunch at Lenmore on your way back to PE. My second choice trail is Woodridge College XCO course. For an endurance session Longmore forest will provide a very good workout.

My favourite song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc18xt5wQnk

Oh yes, and like GBguy mentioned earlier on this thread: The freshness of your beans(less than 2 weeks past roast date), and the quality of your grinder has a way bigger influence on the taste of the coffee than the machine you use to prepare it.

I have been using this Hario Skerton hand grinder for a few months now, with good results in conjunction with the Aeropress. The inner burr was a bit wobbly so I decided to mod it straight out of the box before the first use. I machined a teflon bush and pressed it into the housing, and pressed three TLA810 needle bearings into the teflon bush. The shaft runs straight like an arrow and the grind is good for Aeropress or filter. I don't think you will get a uniform enough grind for espresso though. It takes about 2-3 mitnutes to grind enough beans for a strong cup, but I only drink coffee over weekends, so it's not such a big factor to me. Next grinder will definitely be this one (OE Lido): http://www.orphanespresso.com/OE-LIDO-Manual-Coffee-Grinder_p_4682.html

I have been involved with trail building in our region for quite some time. I have never seen any trail runners or hikers building any trails in our region, yet they feel that they have right of way on a trail that was built for mtb in the first place. Moerse irritating. I believe that signage is key, to eliminate confusion. In New Zealand many mtb trails are marked "MTB Only" and "No Hikers"

I will also be in Canon Rocks for a few days around the 25th. Will pm you closer to the time.

The monster will always remain a special race to me, as it was my first ever mtb race. I think I need to fly down to Gautengeleng and ride my 3rd monster in 2013.

I know what I am going to do this evening (release the inner grease monkey ):