bustthesickness

Unlike some people, after I ride, I don't primp and preen my bike, faffing around Mr.Min'ing the thing. It's just going to get filthy again. I have a quicklink on the chain. After every ride, the chain comes off, gets soaked in degreaser, scrubbed and lubed. (it gets left off the bike, and put on before the next ride). For dry conditions I'll use Wynflon. For dusty or damp conditions, I use Rock n Roll and for those mud fests I use Squirt (although I try not to because of the sh*tty wax buildup it leaves. I also check my chain for stretch after every couple of rides.

yeah, I hope you got that photo with a zoom lens and didnt get close for that one

It's from fires in Gordon's bay.

Not a good enough reason to overgrade a trail. Let people learn how to read a trail guide, how to 'proceed with caution', to not just bomb down a track without knowing what's around the next bend.

Thanks Mint. That IS what I meant, which was why I provided a link to the IMBA grading chart. There is NO WAY that any trail at logwood is DOUBLE Black Diamond. The fact that many riders are still on their XC bikes, shaving their legs, donning spandex and going to bike parks with their 'bull bars' does not mean that we can't build a DBD trail. Mint, your long post above is very true. It IS why the Canadians have been at the forefront of hard trail riding since the beginning. It does serve to prove a point, that children need access to these hard routes in order to progress from an early age. I have been looking at several areas to build trails. All of them on private land. There is PLENTY of hard riding potential in SA. Heaps. It's just about working with what you have. We dont have vast tracts of unspoken for land, we have landowners. We need to get them involved and see the benefits of the sport.

They might no be up to your scratch or the latest fox vide scratc but they are certainly up to 90% of mtb rider's scratch. ...and you speak for the 90% then do you?

yeah, but I didnt say 'downhill park'. These parks [logwood & this] have supposed rated routes that are nowhere near up to scratch. Glad you worked at Linden cycles.

Eldron, where do you get these facts from? Where did it say that "beginner/intermediate with children" is the target market? Plenty of riders around that don't fit that bill. As far as I remember, they were building a bike park, not a kindergarten or day care. They will lose many riders if they don't build some proper challenging trails.

IMBA's definition of a Dbl Black diamond trail is a lot more severe than ours are. http://www.imba.com/resources/trail_building/itn_17_4_trail_difficulty.html Logwood has that one trail (dark side?) that has 2 nice tricky sections off the roof of that farmhouse, and a big box descent in the forest, but no drop offs and nothing you can't do on a hardtail.

and going to northern farm or groenkloof is not a trek for us east randers either??????? in all honesty riding in our area is flat fast and absolutely not technical at all....... all of the above will never be found in any race that has half a decent rating by any mountain biker we might as well be riding our road bikes on the dirt in the east rand (other than in the mine dumps) if you want to ride your mountain bike do technical stuff and test your limits go to the parks and enjoy it like i do eveytime i go through to groenkloof logwood MTN bike park and the likes!!!!! if you want to ride out to bapsfontein and petit rather ride your road bike!!!!! Groenkloof doesn't have very technical stuff to ride tho. That's why it was good to see another bike park opening up. The sad part is that there are very few technical trails in Groenkloof. The only tracks worth riding there are the hiking trails. It's because we are not creating a culture of hard riding that we end up with glory boy stunts like the big bridge at MTN. I fell off my chair laughing when I saw that one. WTH!!! Logwood has some more potential, but when you see guys on hard tails being able to ride the supposed hardest double BD routes it really becomes obvious that we're not riding to standard.

Really? I thought they were trying to advertise their product and turn a profit from cyclists with a R50/session fee?

Please refrain from swearing at people so much. If you are not familiar with bike parks, trail riding, obstacles, tricks and features, then your input on this thread is not needed. All you have done is attacked someone with a VALID point. Someone who actually should have an opinion [seeing he's been to many parks], has made a comment on the various things that bring the park down. I'll tell you what though, wait until your kid ets his/her face lashed open on the razor wire, and we'll see who gets treated in a 'civilized manner'. Especially when you see that the little 'waiver' you signed takes ALL of the responsibility for the safety of riders out of their hands. To build stunts out of cheap timber is just greedy. Park building is about sustainability. This comes from things like excellent drainage, good trail planning [chokes before bends, berms, careful erosion management]. Cheap bridges and crossing will rot and decay very fast. Trails that wash away or become rutted from parallel drainage issues have not been designed and built correctly.

Except that whoever put razor wire next to a trail IS an idiot maybe? this is VERY dangerous to say the least.... Anyway, what OPINION do you have Mud dee? Are you a free/am rider?

And so would the owners of the park. Nothing about your post is constructive. You shoot their effort down from the start. Rather thank them for what they did and give them some pointers where they can improve. When there wernt such facilities everybody moaned. Now that someone made the effort some still moan.....He did thank them, and give them pointers. Are you high?

jees, just because his feedback isnt all positive, doesnt mean you must flame him. Swearing, imposing suggestions etc. Vaulter has ridden at many parks before. Have you Mud dee? Do you MTB? Freeride? I found Vaulter's criticism to be very constructive in fact, and he raised many good points. Perhaps if the MTN park guys had done a bit more trail designing, they'd have built a better park, one that would be fun for intermediate/advanced riders as well.

that's quite a bit of initiative for a visdorpian! there was actually a great thread on this a while back pulling your socks (well, colonel's actually)... ps, love your city really do...have awesome memories of many, many visits Nope, I'm a Joziburger mate! Born and bread up North. Moved down here 6 months ago. People work hard here, maybe harder than Jozi. Well, thats in my field anyways. cheers

@ Holy Roller: Don't know what you base you negative opinions on Cape town on man? People work just as hard here. Just because our off time is spent in nature, on the beach etc. I mean, this comment from a person with over 16 000 posts on a forum!!! 16453 [28.81 posts per day]. How unproductive is that? bustthesickness2008-12-05 07:11:37

he he. I had an RDS9.0 a few years back. Even school kids used to laugh at that bike Really great bikes the Raleighs, they just got dragged through the mud when Game and Makro started selling cheap Raleigh branded rubbish. Worst thing the brand ever did. Anyway, I'm a 'goose boy for life

or power stations. this is why the whole place is maxxed out.

Nope, sorry cant help then. Got a spare 31

The best part is that eventually, it will be a jeep track in a couple of years, so we'll have more trails to ride, possibly even a single track, which will rock!

Easton? I used an EA70 for a while. What's the dia?

Dont bank on seeing Chapmans peak open for a very long time, if ever. The road is almost totally ruined from all of the failed attempts to stabilise the rock above it. The real problem was in fact alien vegitation taking over and claiming the space that the fynbos used to take. This fynbos was holding the surface together. Then Bombela and their bright sparks decided to lever off every losse rock they could find, letting them pound the road to bits when they fell off. Behind each loose rock, is another. So they did a nice little kick back deal with an overseas crowd to install attractive steel nets to catch the rocks. Then they gunnited the entire face, so it looks like the lost city! In the meantime, they kept letting trucks through, and the road has parts that are falling down the cliff face. IMO Chapmans is ruined for good. It has been mismanaged and bungled. Past the point of return I think, especially since the Cape town city budget is stretched so thinly thanks to the stadiums' costs. So every day, more and more grass grows out of the cracks in the road, and nature reclaims these things very fast. I was up there the other day and was shocked at the damage. Btw, this is what has happened to Tafel road, at the cable station.