Mountain Bru

How's your cousin on the oil rig doing??

When does a "noname naked carbon handlebar" become legit though? There's a Trifox RHB300 MTB handlebar on Temu for R665, but Trifox somehow has a South African website that has the same bar for R1150 (out of stock but marked down from R1350), and Bike Addict has the bar for R960 (down from R1200). So given that Trifox has a SA website, and is sold by Bike Addict, are they out of the suspect "noname" category even though there's 10 other identical looking handlebars on Temu with random names that look "dodge"?

What I think is true of all these loyalty schemes and scams is that you have to be 100% committed to them to get the real benefit. On Vitality, you need to be on Diamond Status, and jump through all the hoops of shopping at the right place and buying petrol at the right garage etc to get real value back. On eBucks you need to be on Level 5 and do all your banking with FNB and jump through all of their hoops. It's seldom that you can maximize the benefit of 2 places at once because quite obviously, their loyalty program is geared to make you loyal to them, and not the other bank. I think we easily forget that all of these programs are behavior modification tools specifically designed to maximize the profit of Discovery/FNB/Momentum etc, and not benevolent programs designed to reward you and give you extra money for being such a good citizen. We're basically all just circus animals being given treats for obeying the commands of our trainers and punished for being disobedient or listening to the instructors from a different circus.

I think it's a pretty simple sum to figure out if it's worthwhile: Vitality fees are R359 for a single member, so R4308 per year. If you ignore the team vitality running and cycling clubs, then your main benefits are gonna be: Flights Sportsmans's Warehouse/Totalsports/Fitness Device/Nike Gear Gym Healthy Food Just do the sums and see if you're saving more than you're spending per month. No one can really answer for you without knowing exactly what you spend, and what other loyalty or reward programs you're on. For me, I would say I use the gear benefits maybe 4 times a year, which is around R2000 saved. Plus a flight or two which is probably around another R1000 saved. And then get R150 to R300 back a month from healthy food at Woolies, so it probably works out at least even for me, but your mileage may vary.

I'd recommend doing the Van Gaalens Trailseeker later in the year. Probably one of my favorite MTB races around Gauteng. Firstly - It's in June (I think), so it's not so hot. Secondly, the route is far more inspiring and interesting. The route also has numerous short gravel road sections which allow the bunches to spread out a bit, and for faster riders to easily overtake slower riders, so there's less bottlenecking and getting stuck behind people who get off their bike and block the trail every time there's a rock or an uphill or a butterfly anywhere near them.

For reference on the nature of the trail, here's a pic of the Cradle Moon Trail (59km, 1326m elevation on strava): And here's a pic of the Van Gaalens Trailseeker (70km, 1112m of elevation): I definitely much prefer the VG route where you can get into a rhythm and pedal away rather than spending your day making 100s of tight turns while riding around an uninspiring grass field. There are some nice parts of the Cradle Moon trail though, but large sections are pretty dull and left me wishing for the end.

For future reference, I'll leave this here in case anyone ever needs it: Trailseeker_Cradle_Moon.gpx

I had a disaster getting into the place. I should have been 30 minutes early, but ended up starting 4 minutes after the last batch had already left for the marathon, and spent the day passing 100s of people, many of whom should definitely not have been doing the marathon given the amount of suffering they were enduring. It felt like a really hard day though, even though it was only 58km. Apart from it getting really hot (max temp on the garmin was 37deg), I think that what makes the route tough is that there are very limited "straight" stretches of road where you can get into a rhythm and do a few km without braking, especially in the first half. The trail constantly turns back and forth, so you have to brake and accelerate constantly, which is pretty hard on the legs. There are also loads of short steep climbs, which are often pretty rocky, that need a burst of power to get up which also means spiking your power and draining your legs over and over. Overall - a pretty hard day.

Long shot, but any chance anyone has a GPX file for this route???

Also have a diverge with 42mm pathfinder pros on it. Pretty happy with them, but I find myself wanting larger tyres that can I run at lower pressures quite often. But even the 42mm pathfinders don't need to be super hard. There's a lot to consider in terms of tyre choice and pressure though. The terrain and conditions will play a role, but then your skill levels, weight and desires are also big factors. My desire for wider tyres though is driven by a desire for more grip and a softer ride, but comes at the expense of probably being a bit slower over tarmac or super hardpacked roads. On a 100km+ technical gravel ride though, I think the extra grip and more comfortable ride is faster than the advantages you could gain with narrower tyres on any tarmac sections, and probably subjectively more enjoyable. On your original question though, 42mm tyres are more than adequate, and at the right pressure, arguably better than 38s over some courses. Some guys will definitely be running narrower tyres, and some wider, but 42's are very common, and I considered it an upgrade to go from 38mm to 42mm tyres.

This 👆 No amount of gearing is gonna help you if the tank is empty. General advice is to eat between 60g to 80g of carbs per hour during a ride. If you're just drinking water, that means eating at least 3 of those green Farbars every hour, for the entire race. My guess is that you probably went out a bit too hard, but then didn't eat nearly enough, and then went pop (we've all been there). At high intensity, it's hard to eat and drink enough, and this is made even harder if you're in an unfamiliar group and are also worrying about not crashing. Your gut might also not be used to absorbing fuel while your HR is high. Best advice I think is to train your fuelling by reading the labels of your bars, gels, and drinks, and making sure you're getting at least 60g of carbs an hour on every training ride. And then.... Just enter gravel races and forget about keeping up with the roadies. Much more enjoyable experience 👌.

I used to have this opinion.... Then I tried on a spez helmet (the prevail II vent), and literally nothing compared to it in terms of comfort, weight, ventilation and safety rating. My previous helmet was a scott centric plus which I thought was amazing too, but the spez was leagues ahead of it from the first time I put it on my head. It's really one of those items that if it broke today, I'd buy the same thing again in a heartbeat. Maybe I'm getting just getting older, but I genuinely couldn't care if every rider I see had the exact same bike and kit as me. I just want to enjoy myself out on my bike, and so my only consideration is what's the lekkerdest for me regardless of what anyone else (or their dog) rides or owns.

Considering the original question again - It really depends on what gravel bike you're looking at, and how much you want to spend. If you just want to sell those 2 bikes and use only that money to buy a gravel bike, it's gonna have to be a cheap gravel bike, in which case I think you're better off sticking with the 2 bikes. But if you want to sell the 2 bikes and throw some cash into the equation, then things change because I think a higher-end gravel bike will be more capable on the road. You're gonna have to fork out for a carbon frame, and maybe carbon wheels too, if you want it to feel remotely like a road bike. In which case, maybe consider a secondhand Giant Revolt, but I think that would require you to put R15k to R20k into the deal after selling your current 2 bikes.

I think what might be a better or more interesting question than the OP is "If I have R50k to spend on bikes, how many bikes should I buy?" Basically, you could get a pretty decent carbon gravel bike with higher-end components for that money, but would you be better off buying a R25k road bike and R25k hardtail (for example)? You might have to compromise on not having the the best components on each bike, but you'd have the advantage of having a bike that's better suited to the terrain you're riding. Obviously maintenance is going to cost more on the 2 bike option, but in principle you'd ride each bike half as much, so that would kind of balance out. But some costs would be doubled, like if you wanted a power meter on each bike. (I know that for some, the answer is "buy an S-Works road, gravel, hard tail and dual-sus and an S-Works helmet to match each one and move on with life", but please spare a thought for us plebs that have more ambition than budget)

Why stop there? I think the best way to replace your road bike and MTB with a gravel bike is to have 2 wheelsets, 3 forks, 2 cassettes, 2 chain rings, and maybe even 3 different handlebars for road, gravel and MTB. Changing and bleeding brakes is hard though, so maybe have dedicated brakes attached to each handlebar and run the cables externally. Drive train can be AXS to avoid the hassle of cables. It might seem expensive at first, but at least you're saving by only having 1 frame, crank and power meter. And as an added bonus, you'll be a epic bike mechanic in no time with all the component switching you'll have to do. I can't see any issues with this plan 👌👌👌👌