Bub Marley

No such thing as a bullet proof tyre with tubes. No matter how robust your tyres are, if you ride over junk it’ll puncture. Best option is tubeless. There could also be little bits of junk stuck in the tyre. Sometimes these thin wires penetrate, and get stuck and keep puncturing the tube. So yeah, inspect the tyre thoroughly and remove anything stuck in there.

Just looking at that link now. I mean 5k is a lot of dough to spend on castelli. If you’re willing to spend that amount then Assos all the way.

Either Mille or Equipe depending on your body shape. Equipe is a tighter/racier fit so perfect if you are slim with no tummy. Mille is slightly roomier so probably better for most people. The Mille GT which is the entry level one can be picked up for around R2.5k marked down and it’s the best value for money bib out there in my opinion.

What material is this? Just being honest here but that does not look like great quality. Compare that to assos and you’d never find a hole like that. Its just feels more premium.

Road Bike - If it doesn’t rain, then maybe every 2-3 weeks. I will give it a wipe off in between though. If it rains, bike is pretty filthy so immediate wash. MTB - After almost every ride especially this winter where it’s been terrible. If its dry you can ride for longer but I just prefer a clean bike versus a dusty one.

Any update on the state of our roads? My DC Team were planning on a long ride to Franschhoek this weekend however seems like Franschhoek pass still closed? Anyone have an update on Franschhoek Pass, Bains Kloof, Chappies etc? Trying to plan a route.

Cool. I’ve followed them now. Yeah looks like a fantastic route. Wont manage this year as it’s too close by now but perhaps next year I can plan this in advance. What sort of numbers will an event like this pull? I also wouldn’t want to drive 8 hours and then only like 30 people rock up. Graaff-Reinet is pretty isolated so that would be my only concern.

That’s not really how it works mate. You can’t follow something if you have no idea it even exists. And just logging onto the website, I do not see any links to any instagram page. It’s upto the organisers to make the event more noticeable.

So just an update on this for anyone who cares or who signed up for team vitality. After going back and forth with them for over 2 months, they finally started adding the missing races which counted last year but were missing on the calendar for 2023. Is pretty ridiculous that I had to literally go at them non stop for what is basically just a complete lack of interest on their part to update the calendar. But anyways, they finally did it which means at least 50% back on 2 races I did plus another 2 coming up which they confirmed will be added as well. Makes the membership worth it now.

Agreed. This would actually be quite handy. Some of these races really need to up their marketing game. I’ve never heard of Road to desolation till I saw this thread. Also Greyton Pie Run. Never heard of it before. Jar from Dirt, the PPA gravel race needs to added to list as well.

This year I did Ronde Van Riebeeck, Old Hermon & Boland Gravel Monster. Was also planning on doing the Jar from Dirt PPA one but that got postpones to December. For next year, I’ve pencilled in Ronde (Half miler) again, The Gallows, Old Hermon, Race to the Sea & Stanford 100miler. Ronde was great value. Old Hermon was well supported also at a great price. Boland Gravel Monster was probably the best route but way overpriced with essentially a cheap cap in a goodie bag. Wasn’t well supported also so not sure Ill do that again. Swartberg 100 is an UCI approved event. It’s the OG of gravel. I really want to do it but wont have much time to train with Ramadan just finishing. Maybe 2025 I will enter for it.

Stripping the paint will not give you the finish you are looking for. The carbon layup will need to be done from the beginning of the process. Is why bikes like Cipollini and Time as examples are so beautiful because the weaving is done according to their own process. They also specifically design their bikes to showcase the weave. Most manufacturers don’t do this though so the weave is normally not that neat as it will be painted over anyway. You could possibly have a combination of paint with a few flashes of bare carbon parts. Best would be to speak to a professional.

90% of people greet back. Again people just moaning for the sake of moaning. I can’t believe that 10% of people that don’t greet back affected you so much that you felt the need to start a new topic on Bikehub.

You clearly have no idea how events work. When I did the Ronde Van Riebeeck earlier in the year, we had a 2 hour delay because there was not enough ambulances available. Just because you are okay to take a risk does not change anything. There are protocols to be followed and unfortunately if the emergency services are not available then that’s that. There is nothing the organisers can do. If you want to take the risk then do the route on your own but you can’t expect to still do it under the K2C umbrella. They will be liable for everything. But there is no stopping you from doing it on your own. However if you crash, then there is no emergency services around. So you will suffer on your own.

All the costs the organizers incurred don’t simply just go away. It’s unfortunate but there’s always risk with the weather. That’s why people tend to enter as late as possible because their is no protection for the buyer. I mentioned this in another thread but the only way around this is insurance on events. Pay an additional R50 bucks or whatever for some insurance. Then at least we are somewhat protected. Unfortunately, I don’t think we have insurance for events and stuff like this. But this was my experience in another country having lived overseas for 5 years.

What a miserable winter this has been for us.

Also just wrt to Assos pricing. I see them on sale regularly either on Onedayonly, Cyclelab, Solomons. So just be patient and wait for the sale. You should be able to get a Mille for 2.5k sometimes even less.

I’ve used 2 so far. Campionissimo. This is an older model which is now discontinued. By far the best bib I have ever worn. This one retailed for like 7k. I picked it up at 50% off when they were clearing stock. This one has 2 independent chamois working together. It’s pretty sick. I also have the Mille GT. This one is the entry level one and is more than sufficient for most people. Also get no discomfort at all. My only small gripe with the Mille is the leg grippers tend to shift up. I think it’s because the cut is supposed to be more relaxed and not suited to my body shape. So I think next time I would rather go for the Equipe range as its more fitting. It is a minor issue though and doesn’t really affect the chamois/bum area at all.

You say wasteful. It’s more stupid to me. Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. They knew this was coming so had more than enough time to prepare for it. I don’t see what the big issue is. Let us buy the board now and remove it from the cycletour entry. Or if we’ve paid for it already, let us collect it beforehand so we dont need to pay extra for races. I also just bought a permanent mtb board from them recently. All these costs add up.

Well thankfully I’m not crazy enough to attempt over 200km on a mtb. My limit is 100 miles. That’s it. Not a smidge more thank you very much.

My local mechanic here in Cape Town has a Look XC bike also with a similar design. Looks absolutely beautiful tbh. Wrt the topic. I’ve tried to get my XC bike more gravel friendly. I’ve bought a Farr Aero clip on bar which i love just to alternate some hand positions and get slightly more aero. Also put on Vittoria Terreno XC tyres. To me these are the fastest rolling tyres I’ve used so far. Not the grippiest for technical stuff but perfect for gravel races. It also depends on what your goals are. If you are actually racing for position then your biggest drawback is without a doubt going to be gearing. I’d say that has a bigger impact than flat bars. However, if you’re not racing and just doing it for fun and fitness or whatever then yeah that’s what most guys are doing. Just bear in mind that if you change the forks to rigid then you’re essentially removing the mtb aspect. So if you wanna do techy trails and only have 1 bike then clearly this is not the best. If however you have another bike for the techy stuff, then I’d just get the gravel bike one time instead of gaffing around trying to convert.

I think if you’re doing a multi day event, then perhaps adding some chamois cream might help a bit given the consecutive days of training load.

Problem here is when you enter for durbie dash, there’s no option to buy permanent board. You have to add a disposable chip.

Get you a bib that fits properly and kiss the chamois cream goodbye. Assos does a great job of separating the pad from the bib which eliminates that chafing irritation.

So we’re actually going to be riding with these massive boards on the front of our road bikes? **** me. Are these double numbers only for the elites? The rest of us get the horizontal single number which is also obnoxiously large for some reason.