Mountain Bru

What does he have against gravel bikes?

Or otherwise had 1 year to wear a different jersey, and then afterwards just had a gold band on their jersey like the previous world/national champs. I also think it's pretty ridiculous that for 4 years (or 3 in this case) someone gets to rock out in gold

@DonatelloOnPinarello This is my whole point from the other thread. There really is a market for gravel tours. Many of us are already doing these kind of "events" ourselves, and having to go through the "effort" of finding cool routes and places to stay. There's no medic. There's probably very little support or mechanics. All you need a credit card and some basic bike mechanic skills somewhere in the group. Maybe as a "big event organizer", this doesn't seem very lucrative and there's too much admin with medics and support or whatever. But my idea isn't that big event organizers should be creating these events and trying to milk the cycling community, it's that guest house/campsite/lodge owners should be organizing smaller event/challenges as a way to get traffic through their accommodation. Like if your income comes from getting people to stay at your place, then pre-organized gravel events are a great way to get more customers. Like if 3 places teamed up, made a cool route in the area, and then sold accommodation packages and gave people GPX files of the route, they could possibly get a lot of traffic. And without all the overheads of a "big event", a 3 day tour cost like R700 a day rather than R3000 a day like most stage races. The point though is that you're marketing your accommodation as part of gravel tour to maximize profits on your accommodation, not trying to make money off an event.

I do this every December with a few friends as an end of year "switch off". Million times cheaper than a stage race, stop and eat watermelon on the side of the road when it gets hot, make a sneaky coffee when the mood strikes, sneaky sprints on random little climbs just for pretend bragging rights, no one shouting at you to hold your line..... It's by far better than any race I've done. If I could do this more often, I'd pick it over any race (Hence my suggestion of "bike packing" races, which are basically just these kinds of trips but someone else organizes it for you and you don't need a wife) For example, this is one of the best water points I've ever stopped at:

This makes me think of this: I'm sure every proposed solution will have potential problems. And it is extremely unlikely that anything that's implemented will work 100% on the first attempt. But the point is to try things, get feedback, improve, and try again. Yes, maybe if you have more water points, certain ones will still be overcrowded. But maybe they won't be. Who knows? Maybe at the top of the big climb where everyone always stops is a good place to have another waterpoint 2km down the road and encourage people to freewheel down the hill a bit rather than stopping immediately. Yes, stocking those points might be harder, but it's not impossible. Maybe having "non-timed" neutral sections in longer races will help to thin the field and prevent build up at waterpoints? Who knows? Maybe having "food only", "water only" and "sports drink only" water points will help to reduce congestion so the dude that wants to down a cup of coke isn't held up by the guy that wants an energy bar and to fill his bottle. Things might cost more, communicate that and charge 20% more on your entry fee. If it's obvious that the extra money is needed to make sure the event takes place, I don't think you'll struggle to get entries, especially when every other race is being cancelled. The point though, is that there are 100s of ways to change things up to give things a better chance of working if you really want to. Or you can just postpone the event.

Didn't read all of this so maybe I missed something... But the point on lazy organizers isn't that they're lazy to organize events. It's that they're lazy to innovate. The landscape of what is possible and feasible is different. Trying to organize "traditional" events in these new circumstances is just asking for trouble. I think that's what Jewbacca was getting at... In "before covid" times, the way of doing business as a property owner made sense and the supply/demand characteristics allowed for certain things, like asking for deposits or whatever. But those circumstances don't exist anymore, and so trying to do business as if they did would just not work. The customer you're trying to serve is completely different, and so you have to approach the business in a completely new way - like not asking for deposits. But bike organizers seem (at least from our perspective) to be trying to run events as if we're living in the "before covid" times, and I think that's the problem. There's a few exceptions though that I can think of. For example, some races offer a 100% refund policy if the race is cancelled for covid reasons at any time. A 100% refund policy was unheard of before, but some people innovated, and now I will literally only enter events with a 100% refund policy. I'm sure it's a hell of lot more effort from the organizers side, and they've no doubt had to be super creative to make it possible, and they probably need to delay buying stock and not commit funds until the last minute etc etc, but consequently their events will be better supported if they do take place. Another example is Buffelsdrift bike park had a "Big 5 challenge" where you needed to complete 5 laps of a 50km loop over a weekend. It wasn't really a race, there was no prize giving or medals, and it wasn't super well organized on the day to be honest, but it was something different, and I enjoyed it nonetheless. They did it on their own trails, didn't close the park to other riders, and only had 1 water point at around 30km into the loop. In my opinion, this is a great example of an "innovative event" which I would never have bothered with pre-covid, but under the current circumstances was willing to attend, and actually enjoyed it.

Gonna apply option 2.... And then research the FAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK out of stuff afterwards when I know what really didn't work and what can be improved for the next trip..... Only problem, I have no way to mount stuff on a bike... So panniers are in order. Been looking at the Ortlieb stuff.... very nice, but crazy expensive in comparison to the stuff on aliexpress. Is the verdict that it's worth it? What about the Thule options? Also, anyone in Pretoria (maybe even JHB) willing to loan their pannier and bag system out in exchange for a 6 cold beverages of your choice? Keen to give things a try before dropping many moola on a set of bags.

Event is postponed until next year... Hoe you guys are aware

Thinking of @Jewbacca's trouble with tenants, what do you guys think of "bike packing" races? Almost like a stage race, but not everyone is doing the stages at the same time, but everyone stays at the same places when they do it. Not everyone wants to do hardcore million km races where they have to fend for themselves like the Munga. Some guys do races just so that someone else organizes a nice ride for them, sorts out all of the logistics, and maybe gives them some form of ranking afterwards. If a group of guest house/campsite owners got together, organized a beautiful route between their accommodations, and then made a "bike packing" race where you get timed from exit of one to entry on another (or from some point outside of town to another point in the next town), they could basically offer a 3 or 4 day "stage race" where riders could start on any day of the week, and then move along a set route each day to complete the race. And then at the end of the month, the winner of each stage and the overall "GC" is announced. (Timing by strava I guess) In my mind, this would be a gravel race, be in the western cape, and be "semi-supported" in that breakfast and dinner are provided, but everything else is your own problem. Maybe also with a "crate" system that is transported from one place to the next each day. And like 100 -120 km a day. The big win for the guys planning the story would be that they'd get people using their accommodation more regularly if the event was popular. And there would likely be good exposure from more cyclists seeing their place as a good option for future bike packing adventures. And for the riders, you basically have a bike packing adventure planned for you, and it's also a race if that's what you're into, and it basically can't be cancelled unless guest houses have to close and you can't ride your bicycle outside anymore. Does this already exist though? I often have "novel" ideas and then find out it's already a thing that I'm unaware of.

Shucks man. Sounds like a super crap time, but I guess this season will pass, especially with the vaccines being rolled out to more and more people. I agree though that there are many ways to have an event that would reduce risk, especially mtb races. Road races are trickier because of the desire to ride in bunches, but most people would prefer no "bunches" on mtb races. And if you did away with start bunches, and gave everyone a rough start time, and then let everyone start whenever they wanted between like 6am and 9am, there would be way less exposure between riders. Water points could also be made to be lower risk by making them bigger, spreading the field out more, having more stops so that there's fewer people at each stop, handing out water sachets and asking riders to keep moving rather than stand at the tables, not having any tables to sit and eat at at the finish etc etc etc. But all of this is admin, and I guess at some point the event stops being financially viable. What I do think though is that there is a market now for well organized, "covid safe" events because loads of guys want to do races/events and everything is being cancelled.

Such a convenient excuse for why you need a camelbak rather than admitting you actually need 2 cages on your bike......

Guess I'm not cool in that case ????‍♂️ If the OP wants a silver Scott Centric+ (size medium), one just became available.

Just get one that matches your bike so you look pro

All depends on you head I guess. I'm pretty happy with my Scott Centric+, which will be in you price range

Seems the teams aren't all confirmed, but it's definitely time for some wild hot takes even though I haven't looked at the parkour........ Rogla dominates the Vuelta..... We spend 3 weeks wondering what would have happened if Rogla didn't crash 73 times at the tour.... Ineos fight to have a man on the podium again but aren't able to match Rogla...... (maybe even finish 2nd and 3rd) Pidcock is kept on a leash riding for Bernal & Yates.... (#freepidcock trends on twitter) Jakobson wins a stage and everyone cries big man tears..... Ewan doesn't finish..... Landa fights to stay on the podium in the final TT.... Breakaway cohesion is non-existent. 30km solo attacks from the break win stages... Matthews comes 2nd on at least one stage.... Rim brakes will win a mountain top finish, proving nothing, but will be discussed anyway.... Padun wins a stage.... Conspiracies fly about why he wasn't at the tour....

It's nice....... For a trail bike..... Unpopular opinion here.... I think XC bikes are sexier than stretched out trail bikes where it looks like the front wheel has beef with the back wheel and is trying to escape..... (Boys..... it's Tuesday..... save your pitchforks for Friday)

Thanks

Who wood do this to a bike?

While we're trading cranks..... I have 175mm M8100 XT cranks in really good condition. If anyone has a 170mm M8100 crankset, I'd love to swap. Also..... pink font is a good sub for comic sans. (Serious about the cranks though)

Read this :

Turns out you need a new bike, helmet, shoes and bike rack... and a free tubeless upgrade. But don't stress, they'll give you a good deal on all the stuff you don't need.

Lifting your pedal up 5mm should theoretically make pedal strikes happen less, but in all honesty I think it's bad technique if you pedal strike a lot, not a crank length problem. Ride over the rocky stuff with level pedals. If you must pedal, judge the rocks nicely so you pass them with your "impacting pedal" at 12 o clock when you pass it, even if you've gotta free wheel a bit.

Just filed my return.... And then got asked to submit supporting documents. Is that the same as being audited? 2 days turnaround would be magical

Never heard of 150mm cranks... is that even a thing? Sounds like it could be pretty harsh on the knees though.... Gonna need to put some proper force on those cranks to produce watts, and I think the deadspot at the top/bottom of the stroke gets bigger with shorter cranks too.