Mountain Bru

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 👌👌👌👌

I flirted too much with this question last year, and eventually added a Spez Diverge to the stables to go alongside the dual sus (Spez Epic) and road bike (Wilier Cento10Air). My findings: I'm not competing for a win at any races, so adding 10 or 15 minutes onto my road race time because I have 42mm tyres on my gravel bike rather than 28mm GP5000s on my road bike is purely an ego issue - no one but you cares about your "sub-3" time. I often wish my gravel bike was a hard tail on the rough offroad stuff. The 10 or 20mm of travel in the future shock definitely helps, but nowhere near as much as a 100mm travel fork. Some "gravel races" should really just be called MTB races, and you'll be much faster on a hardtail (looking at you Cullinan2Tonteldoos). Some MTB races are so tame that you'd be faster on a gravel bike. The Diverge is nowhere near as stiff and responsive as a road bike. It's heavy and feels slow on the road compared to an aggressive and stiff road bike. But other gravel bikes might be different. It's 1000 times more relaxing to ride a gravel bike on the road and not have to worry about every bump and pot hole. It's also lekker not having your brains rattled out on a super stiff road bike. But you're definitely slower. Gearing can be an issue on the road. I have a 2x GRX system on the Diverge to try get around this, and even then, you spin out long before the roadies with a 53-11 ratio. This, coupled with the added rolling resistance of the wider tyres, means you might get dropped by the bunch on downhills if you're a lightweight. Tyre clearance becomes a big deal on gravel bikes - to make up for the lack of suspension, you end up wanting to run larger volume tyres. But when you're putting a 2.2 on your gravel bike, you basically have a rigid - drop bar - hard tail. N+1 will always apply In summary - if you love riding a road bike, a gravel bike just isn't gonna replace that feeling. But if you only dabble on the road now and then, a gravel bike is more than good enough. Every bike has it's perfect terrain, and the further you get from that, the worse your experience is gonna be. Cruising on a gravel bike on a smooth gravel road is unbelievably lekker though. To help answer your question though - What gravel bike are you looking at?? If you imagine a spectrum from road bike to hard tail, you can kind of get a gravel bike that fits anywhere in between. A spez crux is probably the closest to a road bike, and I reckon the new stigmata with a 40mm travel fork is super close to being a drop bar hard tail.

Anyone missing a Giant? https://web.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1039700620552872/?ref=browse_tab&referral_code=marketplace_general&referral_story_type=general&tracking={"qid"%3A"-3374886891578946064"%2C"mf_story_key"%3A"989446772127879523"%2C"commerce_rank_obj"%3A"{\"target_id\"%3A989446772127879523%2C\"target_type\"%3A6%2C\"primary_position\"%3A102%2C\"ranking_signature\"%3A276178150206193148%2C\"commerce_channel\"%3A501%2C\"value\"%3A5.4535244804279e-5%2C\"upsell_type\"%3A3515%2C\"candidate_retrieval_source_map\"%3A{\"6560104760771272\"%3A3001%2C\"23970782575870572\"%3A3501%2C\"24120730970845609\"%3A3501%2C\"6838680449558884\"%3A3002%2C\"6643328309079745\"%3A3502}%2C\"grouping_info\"%3Anull}"%2C"lightning_feed_qid"%3A"-3374983373581427863"%2C"lightning_feed_ranking_signature"%3A"276178150206193148"%2C"ftmd_400706"%3A"111112l"}

Probably need to add more details to get a proper answer. What gravel bike vs what road bike, and are you at the pointy end of races or doing cruisy road rides with your mates with no thought of watts or FTPs or aerodynamics. My 2c - A higher end gravel bike can probably meet most people's needs on the road, especially with 2 sets of wheels. But an entry level gravel bike will probably leave you wanting more on the road, especially if you're used to a lightweight carbon road bike with top end components.

Glad to hear some positive news about them before I commit. It seems like a super useful option for some use cases, with the main advantage being that it's compact and 100% portable. For the guys saying a battery box would be cheaper, could you show me how a home-made battery box would work out much cheaper? I did some calcs a while ago when I was looking into dual battery systems purely for running a camping fridge in the car, and this is what I came up with once you replicate those EcoFlow units and all their features. Granted this calc has a 105Ah battery in it vs the 720Wh in the Ecoflow, but once you include all the faf of buying the components and wiring everything together, it really doesn't seem like a better solution. Only place I see to save it by getting a cheaper DC-DC Charger, but that seems like the worst place to try and save.

Also, those rechargeable LED light bulbs are absolute game changers. (https://www.takealot.com/eurolux-battery-globe-light-es/PLID46854849) Between having a few of those, a gas stove, UPS for the modem, and a laptop with like 8 hours battery life, I barely notice when the powers off for 2 hours.

Anyone tried one of these: https://www.takealot.com/ecoflow-river-pro-720wh-portable-power-station-black/PLID73199269 Seems like a pretty good solution for an IDT and fan during load shedding (although I haven't checked the capacities), and has the advantage of being able to be taken camping and run your fridge and lights and stuff, and can charge directly from a solar panel or car charger. (If it seems pricey, consider the costs of a car dual battery system - battery, inverter, solenoid/DC-DC converter, solar charge controller, battery charger, all the little bits and pieces like a housing, usb ports, volt displays etc. And then you have a system thats wired to your car and you can't carry around)

Only had good service with them. Here's a link if you're looking to get a quote: https://www.naked.insure/?utm_source=naked_referral&utm_campaign=UKT79384

Tucked in short sleeve shirt.... That makes all the difference

Clearly someone isn't an engineer..... ???? But I do agree. Being an expert in one thing in no way suggests you're competent at anything else. I'll never forget at a engineering conference a few years ago where Pat Morewood spoke about how he designs bike frames. It was quite a techy conference, so all the other talks had been on complex ways to use software in design, and then Mr Morewood got up and his answer to "how do you design bikes" was basically "I draw it on a piece of paper, and then we make a prototype, and then I sit on the bike and decide if I like how it feels". There was audible confusion amongst the group of engineers that are used to analyzing everything to death. Such a good example of how being a "analysis expert" in no way means you're good at sitting on a bike and deciding if the geometry is good.

This is why I have an indoor training playlist that I only listen to when on the IDT, and maybe sometimes on a hard ride outdoors if I dare to have 1 earphone in, but none of those songs ever ever EVER get listened to at any other time. It's amazing how our brains make associations with things and can get triggered into a specific state by stuff. For me, the IDT playlist now auto-triggers "dig deep, here's comes a sufferfest" zone.