Chris NewbyFraser

Fantastic area. Lots of green scenery. Can get big storms and stunningly cold if a late front blasts through. Pity they insist on the catering package. I would love to do the event but rather travel in from Harrismith each day where I would stay at the Bergview caravan park. But R1800 for the rides, plus the meals I would not eat plus the cost of travel is too high for 2 days. Pity. Any chance of a ride only entry fee?

Bought this tyre because of the price and it seemed like a good long distance tread for my general riding. Fitted onto the Giant sx2 front rim easily but it took some hard pumping with a floor pump, lots of Sunlight soap and manipulation to seat it with an air seal, and it needed high pressure for the beads to seat properly. I then left the wheel for a week and checked it for loss of air - minimal. It matched an equally new Crossmark 1 on air retention. On my first rides I tested it on harsh rock and general hardpack with some loose over hard and it performed well. Rolling is good on tar and roll noise is not very high. Cornering on tar is excellent. So far so good. After 2 months I have had no punctures and air retention (without topping up with sealant) remains very good (2lbs in a week at a pressure of 20lbs = 10%). Wear is non-existing - even the manufacturing rubber spikes held on far past the norm. Last Saturday I rode the FedGroup Redhill ride at Avianto. Lots of sharp rock and loose over hard. Now, I fancy my skill in singletrack but was forced to back off as the tyre seemed to lose traction in turns. On one nice tight but nicely radius'd turn with mild off-camber the tyre lost grip completely at slow speed (15kph?) and I planted my face in burnt veld ash. Thinking about this, I have concluded that the cause of this sketchy grip in sandy surfaces is due in part to the very tightly packed tyres knobs which are too close to allow grip and possibly the side knobs do not have a nice soft grippy material. Their website provide no durometer values nor do they say if it is a single or dual compound. In summary, I would say it is good value for a slower recreational rider. Lower price, long life and reliable. But I would not use it on the front again and will revert to Spez Ground Control. The Hornet will go on the back once the Crossmark is worn.

Shows that I am watching? Too many! I'm dumping dstv after TdF

Do you know of any other event organisers / event listings or event venues that publicise events, particularly mtb? I know of these: Cycle EventsBikehubCyclingsaROAG (KZN)Lowveld chain gang (Mpumalanga)AdvenduranceSpectrum sportBoutTime (seem to focus on northern half of SA)HA Toere (Limpopo)EntryninjaEntrytimeASGPPA (W Cape) Bicycling mag seems to have stopped listing events.

Scotland cricket beat the country south of them. Is that Pakistan? Oh, no, sorry, its England. Well, the Tartans beat the limeys 371/365. Thats a first. But, here's the kicker. Their captain is Kyle Coetzer. He has SA blood in him. Eastern Province blood -his uncle Grant Dugmore played for them.

It seems that South America is running short of cash. Only Peru can afford Dakar for 2019 so the race will stay inside that country for the entire route. Mostly sand dunes, they say. ASO say they will try stay on the continent for 2020 but if funding cannot be found they will look again to Africa. Portugal, Algeria, Angola and Namibia have been approached to see if they culd fund 2020. If it comes to Namibia I definitely will go look-see.

I have been camping and caravanning for adout 60 years, including a 9 month stint while cycle touring USA and Europe. All my bad experiences came from when using tents, be they single person or the family tents we tried. Caravanning is the way to go. Solves all packing problems and throws heaps of comfort and convenience into the mix, especially when the weather gets miserable. There are some really good used van buys out there for between R50k and R60k. The 1995 Jurgens Expo only weighs 790kg so it is easily towed by a 1600cc petrol car, sleeps 4 and fits under most car ports. Tents? Thats for hardcore types only.

Just for info. I have been buying from Jensonusa.com. Their pricing works out beter than from the UK. Also heard that Bikeinn in Spain does great prices

Reading the comments from Cape based Hubbers makes me envious. You folk have a fabulous collection of trails and open roads -all within reasonable reach from CTN city. We Jo'bergers don't have the same blessing (although we have bigger crime and better weather for the criminals..!), so for me, organised events are the better option. Riding alone in Jozi is a high risk game. Riding the same old open trail over and over is, well, for the less imaginative or the desperate. So, in my personal capacity, I am stuck with paying the occasional high'ish entry fee in order to get my cycling fix. But some events, like the Magalies, cannot, in any way, justify their price tag. Like Stuttafords, they will go out of business.

We have a conspiracy theorist at our work. He takes life very seriously and absolutely believes that man has never been to space, that satellites are probably high tech balloons but definitely not in space, the Mir and other space based research platforms are a fiction put out by governments and he recently stated that space might not exist at all. We stopped teasing him when we realised that he really believes that the majority of humans are being led by the nose by a global authority. He does not ride a bike.(i should ask why not)

Trying the true China route my china. Put a Chaoyang Hornet 2.2 on the front of my hardtail. Riding at 18lbs pressure. Rolls well-even fast, not very noisy on paved surface, coped well with very rocky section of Hobby Park purple route, corners securely. No wet stuff yet so I don't know if this is the typical Chinese high in nylon with no grip type of 'rubber' or if they have done the proper thing and made the tyre with grippy side rubber. I feel there are too many knobs for cornering, its overkill and adds weight.The knobs are tall with sloped sides which should help shed mud but with the tightly packed knob pattern, i suspect these tyres will be a true mud horror. Why buy? Cost about R100 less than other affordable tyres.

Wait till the 60's grab you.

Used these tubes for about 500km. Experience? One small puncture, found that, because the valve has no kock nut, valvd core unscrews easily, valve cord has no set depth when screwing it back in, valve stem pushes in when you try to pump a soft tyre. I have gone back to tubeless and will use this super light and strong tube as my emergency get home solution.

. Reply. More detail please

(Reply) i twice had a hyena come within a metre of my head while sitting around my braai at Crocodile Bridge (Knp). A month later the same(?) animal savaged a teenager in his tent.

Campgrounds are increasingly including mtb in their facilities description. It would be useful for camping Hubbers to let us know if the camp they stayed has created mtb routes (or not) and what they are like. I will create a listing for reference if enough dope/ er ...data comes in. Also include tips on how you carry bikes if you tow a big trailer or caravan, how do you secure bikes overnight when you camp, what do you camp in and vehicle you tow with etc. From my side: Port O Call in Trafalgar, KZN south coast. Fantastic camp, stunning beach but no bikes allowed. The Port Edward mtb trails are 15km away. The main coast road has a reasonable shoulder to support road rides.Rocky Bay - KZN south coast. No beach, lekker social camp and heaps of mtb trails (up to 40km) from the camp. Nice area for road ride too.Salt Rock KZN north coast. OK beach (very coarse sand)Bikes allowed. A short drive away from the enormous Holla trails area.Kruger Park camps: Letaba say no bikes but lots of kids riding around this past long weekend./ Berg en Dal - bikes allowed/ Skukuza - no bikes and has crazy trafficForever Resorts Swadini in east Limpopo; Bikes allowed. Arrange 4 mtb races each year. Some road riding in the valley (approx 30 km out and back) but avoid the main road to Hoedspruit which is narrow and trucked heavily.ATKV Die Eiland in Limpopo. A huge resort! MTB encouraged in large resort area with an annual mtb race as well as an 80km road race on the 40km access road.Mountain Splendour in KZN DRakensberg. Nice camp with lots of activities. Bike route for kids and very unfit parents. Otherwise excellent out and back road ride on the access road.Bushwillow Caravan Park in the Karkloof valley. Lovely secluded park. Lots of gravel road riding out from the camp and the Karkloof mtb trails are a mere 5km away.Midmar dam public resort in KZN. Heaps of camping space but the resort is a dump, boasts really *** ablutions, high noise factor from irresponsible campers and has poor security. Near to the Howick trail network.Mankele Bike Park. Mpumalanga. Pure mtb heaven in a lovely setting and reasonable camp for the activity of cycling.

My seriously independent and coool 17 year old Abyssinian Tomcat kicked the bucket recently. Left quite a hole in my daily life. Going to have to find another soulmate but these fella's don't come cheap.

I hared them and changed to hydraulic

Your bikes are lacking flared gravel bars. Get yourself a set of Salsa or Ritchey gravel bars and really have comfortable bikes

I bought the Specialized Diverge and it came with Spyre mechanical brakes. After too many unpleasant experiences I put on hydraulics. A whole new world opened up for me. Mechanical disk brakes are junk. They are worse than V-brakes

Mighty Mouse got all excited about these new type tubes on the Cadence show. So I bought three at R500 a pop! Now my bike is seriously lighter, the (tubed) tyres run soft like tubeless, my tubby bag had to be changed to something 2/3 smaller and I am R1500 poorer but happy. Funny tubes these! When new they are seriously small. Once used they expand (actually stretch)to the size of the tyre and don't shrink back to original size. They also require a bit of patience to re-seat tyres once that have expanded. The ride is lekker, even on my super stiff Giant XTC Carbon hardtail. I run my 2.1 non-tubeless Racing Ralph 29'r front tyre at 23lbs and the rear Cheongyang Hornet tubeless 2.2(actually a skinny 2.0) at 25lbs. Great ride. Rode a rocky route to test the minimal pinch flat boasts of Tubolito. So far no flats. The Cheonyang Hornet tyres seem a good buy, cheaper than other tyres (Cajees Horizon gave me a really good price). Lots pf tread, lots of grip. Have not tested their grip in really wet conditions but they seem fine for Jo'burg tracks so far. Only problem was getting them to seat on the particularly difficult Giant SXC-2 rims. These rims have lower sidewalls than other brands and the 'snake skin' side wall of the tyres kept popping off the low rims while trying to get them to settle in prior to inflating. I had similar problems with Schwalbe and Specialized tyres so the rims are the problem. Maybe Tubolito will be the end of sealant filled tyres? I wont go back to sealants............

Hey G-man Bring an event closer to GP, like the north or east Vrystaat. Your destinations are too far away to make financial sense for the country's major population hub. Massive Events organised a race in Lindley and it was sold out.

Juma? Is it on this year?

Go organise your own event and see what it costs you. The race uses public roads too so provincial fees apply, plus huge insurances and then there are the management costs. Think about the cost of a 100km road race? There is no difference with running a gravel road race. The province says it is a public road. On top of that, any organiser is entitled to make a profit, even a big one. If the market does not like it, they will stay away. Market forces will dictate the future success of the event. Also, look at the event page. It is billed as a gravel race, not MTB. They are asking for all sorts of categories of bikes and there is a need for gravel bike and tandem events. Good luck to Erik v Gaalen and his initiative

If this perennial Cyclelab behaviour continues, perhaps the aggrieved riders should seek an appointment with Andrew Kirby, top dog at Toyota, who are cyclelabs sponsor. A threat to withdraw will get MightyMouses ratpack back in line