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The Cape Town envy is real yo... jeesh you guys have some great trails!
This thread help me pull the trigger on a holiday place in Somerset West last year.
We go there for a long weekend every month
This weekend we will be riding the MTB race in Banhoek
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What race is on Saturday? My toppie is doing it.
Two The Core - Rover Ride
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46
25
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40mm of rain forecast for Saturday afternoon so he better ride fast.
If you ride there regularly, you'll know how awesome this park can be, if maintained to a standard!
Sadly this standard has not been there in recent memory...
BUT ....Winter in coming!!!
I do ride there regularly as I live 5kms away. So I do get the variation in the maintenance cycle. And look forward to the trails after Saturday's race 
hook up with the
rideright people and you dont even need to ride the event. my riding partner has seen most of the trails in the Stb area, in 3 years I have not been on a ride with TDFN where he hasn't shown me some old piece of trail or something.
I will ask for his details for when I am next there at end of March
..
That's why this year I'm not entering this event, I can ride that valley whenever I feel like it, thus I don't have to sit behind Captain Slowly. The medal is not worth the frustration.
I ride these events to build up my knowledge of the trails in the Stellenbosch/Somerset West area as I plan to semi retire there next year.
Did a green loop yesterday with a little bit of the yellow loop, a fair bit of work has been done, but on the 2nd turn off for the yellow loop, Yellow Hartebees reverse I think it is, there are patches where you literally cant see past your front wheel, not pleasant or safe, the slow reeds have been cut back nicely, so I was really excited about doing the fast reeds, what a let down, still very much overgrown, reeds slapping you in the face and arms, again, not pleasant or safe, from there on the trails where pretty good, but a lot of work still needs to be done
I did the Red route on Saturday and apart from a hundred metres of overgrown path on the section that goes up through the fence I thought the track was normal. My thoughts during this section were - we complain when the tracks are not "technical" enough to challenge our awesome skills and then complain when we don't have Sani2C manicured perfection.
Just this little 25km section I did was already miiiles more technical than anything on the previous years 60km route. Steep loose rocky climbs(people will push this guaranteed).. Descents with loose and sharp rocks with sandy patches here and there, dry river bed crossings with boulders that like to catch your front wheel.. and just the two sugarbowl singletrack pockets are already far more technical than anything we faced in last years race. I can't see how people are going to ride that steep switchbacks down if last years capabilities I saw is anything to go by. I can already see major pile ups happening down the singletracks.
I am a poor climber so I will be near the back of the field. So my feeling is that ,although I am reasonably capable of riding technical sections, I will be hiking a bike for some time.
I don't like walking so I wonder whether it will be better to move to the 30km
Better not rain in 30 min time. I have white socks again. For like 2 weeks I been wearing dark socks and its been clear skies for commutes. Now I opt for white and the clouds are building here............
I am sitting in my office near where you stay and it's still dry. So your white socks may have survived.
2
I rode that same section on my way to work this morning.
Boart Longyear, long history of drilling and drilling/mining equipment, SA company and part of the Anglo American stable back in the day.
I was the South African FD for this company in the mid 2000s. Worst employment period of my life.
No ... they would make you "disappear"
But I did not implicate any of the Elites
I hope admin is taking note, and will ban those users admitting to using bar ends ....
In the USA I would be jailed for life as I have three strikes against me:-
MTB Barends
Road saddle bag and unshaven legs
Shortish socks.
6
Still on all our mtbs 
Hello All,
I am considering getting one of these Livall smart helmets for my commuting
https://livall.co.za/product/mt1-mountain-bike-helmet/
Does anyone have one and be willing to comment on the usefulness and effectiveness of these smart features?
Apart the built in lights I like the walkie talkie feature as my wife disappears on the uphills and I need to let her know that I am still moving or she turns around and comes back down to look for me
Most of this thread has commented on the fact that this is a safe route. Myself included. This happened earlier today (17/01) between Strand and GB. Not the first in this area.
I cannot see what the incident was? My wife and I regularly ride through the Strand to the Steenbras Dam climb.
I agree
We rode there about 10 days ago. The one open veld near the R42 had about 200 wild animals grazing in it.
We even saw a young jackal running across the road
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My wife and I decided to do this race for the 1st time so the opinions of you have done it previously are very interesting
Although I am a lot younger than Long Wheel Base’s dad - a mere 62- the amount of climbing concerns me way more than any technical sections.
Apart from Breedts Nek us Gautengers have to travel far to find big climbs to train on
I played baseball and softball for many years.
Chirping or sledging is a huge part of the game.
As my position was one the closest to the opposition batters my secondary duty was to "talk" to them in order to get them to lose focus.
That also make me a target but I learnt very early on to be able to either zone it out or use it to motivate me
When we played against Western Province, in particular ,those players used to ask the crowd sitting near my position to also sledge me. These were some of the nicest games I played in as afterwards those same players and spectators would socialise with my team. No hard feelings or resentment.
The 360 degrees views that you get on your way up, Hout Bay, False Bay, Table Mountain from behind, Noordhoek, Chapmans Peak, Cape Point, Hangklip (where the above ride is) must be one of the greatest anywhere! That is, if you can see the view through your bleeding eyeballs! On your way down, there is no view because you better concentrate and look at where you are going!
By the way, when you stand at the mast, you are only a few metres below the highest point of Table Mountain (Maclears Beacon on the front table). If you climbed up that past, you would have been higher. Cool useless facts!
As a fellow useless facts collector I did check out on Google whether I had reached the highest point in Cape Town.
Fortunately it was a clear day and I did stop a few times to "admire" the view and get some feeling back into my legs.
The down run was not as bad as I thought it was going to be -XTR brakes and 180 mm rotor on the front
I was more nervous of riding between a few baboons who were sitting on either side of the track. I did not realise the females are so big.
I spent 10 days in Somerset West over the holidays but did not get to do this ride. I am glad that my original post gave someone else an awesome day out.
It was our first extended period in our holiday apartment and as I have a preference for off road riding we checked a few of the local bike parks instead of tar riding.
By co-incidence we decided to ride up to the Tokai Mast on the day after Nic Dlamini's incident. This ride was as hard as I had imagined it would be. As a certified non - climber I felt a great deal of satisfaction when I arrived at the mast ( 20 minutes after my wife)
Is there a list of units down and why?
I know traditionally Tube Leaks are one of the biggest reasons but I'd be interested to know what is actually going on.
I guess the Duvha unit that was "accelerated to destruction" a few years ago is all fixed now?
No.
Duvha runs on 5 boilers still as I heard a figure of about 3 billion to replace the broken one.
One of my friends works at Eskom.
I am in Batch D so I will be behind the e-bikers after the 1st climb.
Maybe I will be so slow that the traffic jam will have disappeared before I get to the top
[Event] The MTB Challenge
in Events
Posted
I had as hard a day out in Banhoek as I anticipated
I am a poor climber and struggled up some of those long steep slopes and so had to push my bike a lot.
Then because I was tired I did not attempt those loose switchbacks. My excuse is that I don't have a dropper seat post but after seeing a few riders in front of me wipe out I took the safe option.
I had to help a few riders who had fallen down the slopes. Luckily just bruised egos for them.
I did try and act like a wide eyed tourist taking in the sights and sounds. An awesome place to ride but it was hard to be happy that the fires (and smoke) did not affect us when many others were in danger of losing lives and property.
I thought that the 30km course would have been too easy but the 60km one was too long for me. I was never an endurance athlete and ageing has deleted what I had.
My wife ,who loves climbing , finished an hour ahead of me.