dirtman

Ons het vandag begin werk aan 'n nuwe 1,5 km stuk single track op die groen roete - sien geel lyn op kaart. Hoop om dit vroeg volgende week klaar te hê. Die doel is om die steil afdraend met die stormwaterslote net na die pienk "link" vanaf Zevenwacht uit te skakel. Sal daarna begin werk aan 'n nuwe stuk single track op die rooi roete.

There will be a gate just after the first bridge where the city council will put up a toll booth to collect toll fees for riding in Majik. The top part of Majik will also be fenced off with another toll booth. Just joking As I understand it there will be a gate which will allow access to the bottom part. This gate will either be manned by a security guard during the day or you will need to get an access control card to open the gate - not sure which is the correct alternative. Drop the guys at Tygerberg MTB club a line - they should have the right info.

Had my usual encounter with “blind” MTB riders this weekend on the Bottelary Hills MTB trails. After more than a year we still have the freeloaders who “don’t know they need to pay to ride the trails” or “who did not see the signs that they must pay”. So to all the freeloaders out there: You must have severe problems with your sight - how can’t you see a sign as big as the one in the photo? Even if you did not see the sign - do you really think a nature conservancy run by a group of farmers will spend more than R100K to develop a route and continue to improve the route just for the pleasure to see you riding over their farms? Also, all around you there are riders with day permits or annual permits on their bikes - do you think they got them for free? To the riders who do early rides before the permit sales open - thank you for buying permits in advance or paying on the route. To the freeloaders (especially the guy with the R60k bike who has been freeloading for more than a year now) - may your paths be “paved” with thorns, broken bikes, crashes and all that is bad!!

@ Hannes - jammer, maar geen "night rides" word toegelaat op die Bottelary roetes nie.

Glad you enjoyed the trails. Must agree re maintenance - Hellwarp and his farm workers are doing a great job with maintenance. The rebuilt of some of the green route single track was done by Bennet and his team. I did the flagging of a new section of single track on the red route last week. We hope to start building soon. Watch this space!!

@ Wannabe Jy kan van 8 vm af by Only One permitte koop. Caltex Star Mart op die hoek by die verkeersligte (Koelenhof) verkoop permitte 24 uur per dag.

Gaan ry die Bottelary Hills roetes - alle detail is by www.bottelaryhillsmtb.co.za. As jy alle roetes ry is dit tussen 4 en 5 ure, afhangende hoe fiks jy is.

Yes - it is via the back of the Eskom wind turbines (slent road) and then via a number of farms and returning via Joostenbergvlakte and Fisantekraal. Distance is between 90 and 100 km. PM me if you are still looking for details.

Had the privilege (or is at “suffer-lege”) to rode with Kevin and David about 3 weeks ago, showing them the Epic prologue route over Contermans, Kliprug and Hillcrest. I was two hours into a ride with my riding and trail building buddy on the Bottelary Hills trails when he got a call from Kevin (Kevin got his number via someone else) asking us if we can show them around the part of the prologue route over Contermans, Kliprug and Hillcrest. We agreed, but with another hour’s riding to get back to our car, we arrived at Contermans with 3 hours riding already in our legs. Being both in the grand masters category (combined age pushing 110 years), that was not very good preparation for a ride with contenders for the Epic crown. Kevin and David told us to take it easy, as they just wanted to recce the route. The problem is however that if Kevin Evans rides in your slipstream, one’s ego is not going to allow one to “take it easy” - so off we went into a howling north-westerly wind, with me going at about 200% heart rate while Kevin and David cruise behind me. Never before had I rode up en down Contermans, Kliprug and Hillcrest pushing that hard and that fast. We managed to complete the ride, but I had no idea how long it took - at the end I was just looking for my lungs and legs and trying to get my eyes to focus. Took me about a week to recover from that ride. So, in a few years time I will be sitting on the stoep of the old age home like Blokkies Joubert and tell everybody about the day that I stayed in front of Kevin Evans and David George all the way from Contermans to Hillcrest (and not mention that they did not have a choice, as they had no idea how the route went!)

There is no more 24 hr security at Hazendal - the note on the door of the hut should have been removed long time ago (sorry about that). Currently permits can only be bought (if you start from Bottelary Road) after opening time of the restaurants at Hazendal and The Only One - so if you ride early, please pay after your ride. Permits can also be bought in advance from bike shops as indicated on the website. Policing of the route will start within the next few weeks - just waiting on Hellwarp to finish harvesting his grapes so that we can get together to discuss the finer details. @ Mr. Legs - maps are not available yet at the starting points - we are still busy fine tuning the routes and will make another few changes this winter. In the meantime please print your own maps from the website.

@ Mr Legs Glad you enjoyed the route. There is a lot more single track on last part of the green route that you skipped - go and ride that next time. Also - more single track will be build this winter. Just keep a look-out for Hellwarp's posts on this forum. Lastly - thanks for paying for your ride. If all riders pay, more single track can be build - unfortunalety there are a lot of freeloaders who don't pay to ride.

@ Hairy: You should be OK doing the yellow and orange loops on a SS. Both green and red routes have long climbs to get to the top, with one or two steep gradients where you will struggle with a SS. Not sure if you will make it to the top without walking. Don't try the blue or the long green loop on a SS! @ Andre: There are fewer thorns around than last year this time when we were laying out the trails, but the risk of punctures is there if you ride tubes with no slime. As Hairy said, tubeless is the answer - not only for Bottelary, but for all vineyard trails.

Just some info on the MTB routes of the 99er taking place on 11 February. Last year there were a 35 km and a 10 km route. A lot of riders underestimated the 35 km route, especially the climb up Dorstberg (Meerendal Koppie). This year we have included a 20 km route as well, which does not include the Dorstberg climb. The 20 km, as well as the 8 km, start and finish at Meerendal, while the 35 km starts and finish at the Race Course together with the roadies. We have made two small changes to the 35 km route that will hopefully eliminate some of the bottlenecks of last year. We have cut out the steep downhill on the first piece of single track on Meerendal (the “mine shaft”) by cutting a temporary route via the wheat fields. We will also put a detour in around the top part of “Stairway to Heaven” to bypass the concrete pavers that caused serious problems and anxiety amongst some of the riders last year. The bridges over the fences at the dam will be put up for the race and all the routes will go across the dam wall. There seems to be fewer thorns this year, but there are still lots around, especially on the route over Diemersdal. Slime and tire-liners are a must, as well as at least two spare tubes. Try and stay on the racing line of the race-snakes up front and you should be fine. If you were thinking of converting to tubeless, now is the time to do so.

I think there is a gravel service road all the way along the Sishen Saldanha railway line - you can pick it up at Strandfontein. From Saldanha I think you will have to go inland towards Darling where there are number of gravel district roads that will take you close to Atlantis - closer to the coast will just be sand. Not sure about the roads from there - again there is a raliway line from Atlantis to Cape Town that should have a service road next to it.

It is now nearly a year since we have opened the Bottelary Trails and we haven't had any incidents - hopefully this will stay so. There are a lot of farming activities on all the farms that the trails cross, so any dodgy characters will be spotted quickly. There is also a full time ADT patrol patrolling the farms.

Has got nothing to do with the farmer not getting paid - the original agreement for access was for a certain period of time and the farmer decided not to renew. Discussions will hopefully resume in the new year and hopefully something can be sorted out or an alternative route can be found, but it won't be easy. In the meantime, please do not ride the corridor as it will kill any future chances of reopening the corridor.

Glad you enjoyed the ST - lots of effort (and money) went into that. More ST will be added next year, so please support the trails and buy day or annual permits. The trails are open all year round. For full details of the different route options (about 60 km in total) as well as where to start and where to buy permits, go to http://www.bottelaryhillsmtb.co.za/

I rode the new section of single track on the red route this morning and must congratulate Hellwarp on the building thereof. I did the lay-out of this single track (together with my riding buddy) and Hellwarp decided to build it with his team of farm workers. If one takes into account that this is his (and his crew’s) first ever single track project in extremely difficult terrain, I think they did a great job. To build more single track, funds are needed, so please buy permits when you ride the trails or even better buy an annual permit. If you find riders without permits on the route, please “sort” them out (in a good manner !!)

Just to let you know that we finished with the first piece of new single track yesterday - it is on the green route and links up with the current section of ST. It starts to your left about 20 metres before that nasty rutted right hand turn on the jeeptrack. Depending on the weather, Hellwarp will try and signpost it before the weekend - otherwise just look out for the ST exit on your left. There are 2 tree stumps just after the start blocking the ST - will try and remove it before the weekend, otherwise please step over it in the meantime. We are also currently working on three other sections of ST. One is a major project and will give you ST not found anywhere else in the northern suburbs. It is however extremely difficult building there and will take a few weeks to complete - target date is still the end of September, depending on the weather.

If you do green,red, yellow and blue, the total distance will be about 50 km and about a 4,5 hour ride for an average rider. @ covie - have started bundu-bashing the hills this week to mark out single track - will hopefully start building in a few week's time and have it open by the end of September, depending on the weather.

Hi Musashi There is (or should be - I have not been there since marking the route!) a marker on a vineyard pole in the red circle directing you to turn left. I assume you were so charged up to get to the top at the masts that you missed it! Did you ride all the way to the top? If so, well done, as it is a 110 m climb over a distance of just 800 m. PS: We have an extra route in the pipeline that will take you close to the masts, but we first need to check how wet it will be towards the end of winter to decide if it will be rideable and safe to open it or not.

I had the same experience on Wednesday morning (yesterday). 25% of all riders I stopped, did not have permits - which is about the same percentage as on other weekends. If you take a minimum of 100 riders over a weekend @ R30 each, an amount of R750 (25 permits @ R30) is lost per weekend. I am trying to persuade the farmers to make funds available to allow me to start building more single track (we have done the sections on the green loop), but with riders showing this kind of attitude it is not going to happen. Also - I have now found the same group of 4 riders two weeks in a row riding without permits - each time full of excuses and promising to buy permits the next time. How the hell do you live with yourself freeloading on other riders? Lastly, I could not believe that riders with annual permits will bring groups of their buddies to come and ride the trails without getting them to buy permits. If you did buy an annual permit, it means that you think the trails are worth the fee that you paid - why then invite your buddies for a group ride and not let them pay? (and then they are all on R25000 + bikes??)

If you do a funride, Cape Epic or any other race - you pay per rider and not per bike, so why would tandem riders expect to buy only one permit to ride the trails?

There are both red and purple arrows on the same route marker boards where the routes overlap, so it should be easy to follow the purple loop. There is a big A4 size sign where the purple route splits from the red route and a short but fairly steep downhill section immediately after the split - just be careful there, especially when it is wet. Just keep in mind that the purple arrows stop where you rejoin the yellow loop - from there just follow the yellow arrows as usual when you do the yellow loop

(hijack on) I think you are inviting an attack re your comment of not joining Tygerberg MTB to cycle in Majik - who do you think will maintain Majik if all riders have this attitude? As soos as it rains, Tygerberg will spent another few thousand rand on maintenance in Majik. You are basically freeloading on the paying members. The only reason you are able to legally ride in Majik is because of an agreement between Tygerberg MTB and the City council. (hijack off)