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Trails were too wet today, so did a slightly soggy urban route. Nicest bike stand I have ever used- solid chunk of timber!

Pleasant morning in the forest.

I have done this and gotten NTN bearings (I think I had to buy a minimum quantity/set of 10 from a supplier in the Joburg industrial heartland when I only needed 8). That was about 16 years ago when I had a lot of time to kill doing all the research and homework needed. I think they performed better than the OEM ones, I used the bike for 4 more years, and the youngster I donated it to after that had it at least another 4. Would I do it again now - not a chance, when I got a new bike last year I ordered a spare bearing set from the manufacturer at the same time.

New toilet block construction at the local trailhead. Nice to see rates and taxes being used for our community.

No pictures and not me, but in the last school holidays my son experimented with building his own watches. Order a bare Seiko NH35 automatic movement, then combine kit cases, faces, hands and bracelet from online vendors and assemble with a cheap watchmaker toolkit so as to come up with something that is probably close to being unique. They aren’t Rolex’s for sure, but I think it would be quite rewarding to do something like that.

Wildlife was getting up close and cocky whilst I was catching my breath in the 88% humidity this morning at the one trail end.

Lug and tube construction propped up on lug and tube construction.

Some glamour photography, Fuji XT-5, 18-55 mm, post processing by my son in Lightroom.

Some local fields for glamour photography. I’ll drop some other pics in the Photographer thread.

Where did my bike get taken to today? Got spoilt with a shuttle morning at the local trails- the annual thank you day for trail care volunteers. Doing uphill in air conditioned comfort is something I can get used to!

Brand new trail at my locals given the finishing touches by us volunteers before despatching the youngest of us down it on their Spez after the ribbon cutting. Some history by the side of the new trail- my best guess from the rusted parts is the remains of a pre WW2 tractor. The area wasn’t always a forest reserve, it was logged up to 1950 (I think) and was an army and navy training area back in WW2.

Thank you, I have high hopes for this steed! As an aside, the Atherton sales consultant I dealt with there comes from PMB, so we were able to work out we only had a single degree of separation, having one person in common. Also, if you bypass the website and speak to them directly I found out it unlocks the secret MacDonalds menu options, and you have zero limits as to what you can spec. Great folk- nothing was too much effort.

A photo-essay. Big box arrived, from Wales. Unpacked in the multipurpose room and bike graveyard(aka the second lounge). Some assembly required. Excuse the poor photo framing- too exciting! The old and the new! Check how bike geometry has changed over the years.

There’s a trail under here? Aftermath of a supercell thunderstorm in my local trails last Sunday- 96 km/hr gusts, 4cm hail, and 60 000 people out of power (me included). The popular trails are cleared, the unpopular ones are impassable. My son and I moved some small trees off the track but some are too big. And another big storm predicted for this afternoon. On the plus side, the trail features I helped build last week came through great and ride well!

Not a pretty sight, but here I am doing my first ever stint as a dirt moving trail care volunteer at my local council owned mtb trails. Today’s task was formalising and improving what is an unsanctioned track that I didn’t even know existed. Called “Buffalo Girls”, presumably because it goes around the outside. Looking forward to riding it myself now, once my muscles recover.