NGM

I don't want any of it either but you just never know when you might need single-serving rooibos infused shaving cream and estate agency fridge magnets. Geez, I think I might be a hoarder.

Hahahaha. I enjoyed watching this unfold. You: I love Sagan and he's a legend and whatnot but maybe we shouldn't say he's a great example because sometimes he does dumb stuff like drink and drive. Everyone: WHY DO YOU HATE HIM?

Yip I'd also like to know more about this and saw the same horrific photo and messages. I live very close to that area and ride that road often. I'm always a little skeptical of stuff forwarded around on whatsapp; it's just human nature to forward on dramatic stuff without thinking too much about it. So if anyone has any info about and apparent (rather brutal) bikejacking on Blaauwklippen road on the morning of Saturday the 13th Jan....

Just adding my 2c: My favorite gravel bike groupset is actually the GRX 2x10 (the 400 series, I think?). 30/45 in the front and 11-36 cassette. I was able to join the roadies without running out of gears too often, and that 30/36 granny gear allowed me to carry a pretty heavy load up a few passes (Franschhoek, etc) for a local bikepacking trip (including tent, clothes, sleeping bag, some food). And it was cheaper than the other GRX options. So it suited my needs as a "do it all" groupset. My only complaint is the gap between the two chainrings is quite big, but it's necessary to give the spread of gears that it has.

"The EUDR requires companies to digitally map their supply chains down to the plot where the raw materials were grown, which could potentially involve tracing millions of small farms in remote regions." - a tall order in rural africa. Although it does sound like a business opportunity.

Not entirely on-topic but this photo reminded me of an article I read recently which said that, because of climate change, the land available for producing arabica coffee is declining. Arabica has always been the bean of choice for coffee connoisseurs and what I'd imagine most of us drink. But more and more farmers, especially in south america, are switching to robusta (generally thought of as the poor man's alternative in the last few decades) because it is a far more hardy plant. This isn't the article (which is behind a wall street journal paywall) but it tells the story none the less: https://www.saveur.com/culture/robusta-coffee-trend/

I remember my first experience with black ice, in my first winter commuting in london. I approached an intersection at I'd guess 20kph and squeezed the brakes. My wheels stopped rotating much as I expected and yet to my surprise, my bike (and myself) continued onward at exactly 20kph. Friction-less stuff. I'm not sure how the brain works out the correct evasive action so quickly but it clearly didn't want my body to proceed through the busy intersection, and within fractions of a second my new braking system involved my body in a horizontal position with my right butt cheek and right wrist desperately dragging the tarmac to avoid any further forward motion. But this was london in the 2000s, where bike commuting was far less popular than today, and in turn far less organized than the bike commuting culture of the Netherlands. I expect the OP has perfectly well-gritted cycle lanes to enjoy.

Would also recommend acetone. It is highly flammable.

Hahah, ya best to ask at a local bike shop - in the end you will get better advice there than here.

Schwalbe marathon Plus are very popular commuting tyres in that part of the world. They are mostly famous for being hugely puncture resistant but I'm guessing if they had any issues with grip then they wouldn't be used year-round - which they are. I rode through several european countries on a bike tour a few years ago and almost all commuters and (ALL bike hire places) used Schwalbe marathon. They are not incredibly fast rolling (relative to a road bike tyre) but will be faster than you mtb tyre. I think there might even be some MTB version of the Marathon plus but I would rather use the widest non-mtb (non-knobbly) one you can find, as it's the knobbly-ness that is most likely reducing your contact area and making it slippery. My 2 cents.

Hahaha, don't, they're always very much appreciated (despite the somewhat sarcastic gif).

Seriously though, never stop with the 90s references.

Hahahah I'd happily read your avo break-up letter.

Well for most of the people I ride with I am The Jeff of the group and personally I'd be OK with guys titling their rides "*** slow because Jeff was with us" now and again.

Except that it's her job as a cycling journalist for an online publication to provide online content. The letter format was borderline satire and a follow-up to a series of "love-letters" written about bike products written by others. I'm sure bike journalists get tired of the same old "Ten best cycling destinations/gravel bikes/indoor trainers for 2024!" type of articles and would like to do something different now and then. If it resonated for some people (seems like it did) then that was the point. Let's be honest, we all know the guy that has to write "Chilled ride with Jeff" just to subtly emphasize to all his other strava bros that it was because Jeff was around that he rode slowly and otherwise he would have been crushing the segments like normal.

@Chain-L I see the original post is from 2022, but if you're asking for yourself and for the same area, then I'd suggest @Kimikaze who helps run a development team out of Strand and they will happily take any bike related donations. I think there are dropoff boxes scattered around strand, stellenbosch, SSW, etc.

Wanna bet? I started the festive 500 weighing 80kg. 510km and 8 days later I weighed... 81kgs. I'm not sure what I'm more proud of, my riding or my ability to destroy a plate of leftovers after a ride.

Staying off topic (and a month after your post); if you like the above, you may like these 2 movies: They seem boring at first but the cinematography, commentary and soundtrack is strangely hypnotic. They are works of art.

I agree with all of @Robbie Stewarts suggestions with the exception of red Phoenix. My preference would be to take irish up to the start of armageddon 6, then just ride it all the way down. I think the trails at the bottom become flying fox/corkscrew/Zululand? I forget the names, but for me they were more fun than red Phoenix - which is fantastic when it's been maintained but when I rode it 3 weeks back it was a rutted corrugated waste of a climb. But ya, if I had a morning to spend at jonkers I'd take bosluis up and firehut 2 & 3 down. Then irish up and armageddon & flying fox/corkscrew/zululand down. That said, I've not ridden neverending in years. I found it to be a bit more tame than all the others but still lots of fun. Worth mentioning that all of armageddon - zululand is "rollable", no unavoidable technical sections, but I definitely had to dab a foot down more than once in some of the rocky bits higher up, which I found quite gnarly in places.

I'm planning on riding from Grabouw (peregrine farm store) to home (stellenbosch) via franschhoek pass tomorrow, but I see that there is a road closure on the R321 in Vyeboom near theewaterskloof. I assume its just for repairs following the floods a few months back, and that I should be able to sneak through on a bike. Has anyone ridden this route recently and/or able to comment?

Stonehenge looking east?

Did you mean the town or were you just being affectionate?

This is likely to be what happened to me. I rode over helshoogte yesterday and 3 guys were standing around on the side of the road, just after Neil Ellis. As I got closer one guy ran at me and kept grabbing at my pocket, presumably to get my phone. I swatted his hand away a couple of times and stepped on the pedals. He chased for a while and then gave up. I stopped once I was about 50m away and stopped to look back. The other two guys that were with the original chaser said "He's just playing around" or something like that. Then they walked into the bushes. To be fair, it didn't look like it was part of their plan to chase me - it definitely wasn't some orchestrated attack and no weapons were involved. If only one of them had gotten in my way I wouldn't have been able to ride off to safety. But as haphazard as it was, I'm pretty sure the chaser would have taken my phone and/or wallet if he had gotten the upper hand. It's a busy road and while this had all happened a vehicle had slowed down on the other side of the road to see what was unfolding, as it was clear that I was trying to ride away from somebody. He drove off once I carried on pedaling uphill. I then remembered 2 riders behind me about 500m back, so I doubled back down the hill to ride with them past the same area and warn them of what had just happened. I'm guessing they then mentioned it on whatsapp groups and the news spread. Unless there was a more serious incident that I don't know about. Anyway, for the record, this is what it was in my opinion: an opportunistic and disorganized attempt at theft by a seemingly unarmed tik-kop. Since the advent of whatsapp and other forms of social media, it's very hard to know if crime is increasing or just our ability to hear about crime that's gotten so much faster. Assuming the report you @Wannabe heard was what happened to me, you did perfectly well to call it "an unconfirmed report of a bikejacking", and it's the right thing to do to let people know/spread the word. But it's also very easy to see how one could see the words "bikejacking on helshoogte" from 5 different whatsapp groups and really have it put a negative spin on your day. In truth I don't really know what to make of it. I ended up having a great ride to Franschoek and slept like a log last night, so clearly was not especially traumatized. But at the same time, the next time I ride past any dodgy looking guys and that little voice in my head that says "Just be careful here" that I've always silenced in that past and written off as paranoia... well it will no longer be silenced now, it's a really pity. 10 years of riding in stellenbosch and this is the first real "incident". I always ride solo and I think the fallout of this will be that I will ride in groups more, which I probably should be doing anyway.

@The OuzoI was going to add points 2 and 3 as my suggestions as well. I've done this several times and the easy years where when there was a group of us just rolling along at 25kph. Drafting, riding at a recovery pace, having people to chat to (riding and over coffee), having a reason/social pressure because you've committed... it all contributes to making it easier. And then in terms of recovery, I'm no great cyclist and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get up and go again each day. If you ride at an easyish pace the day before and keep your cadence high, its really not bad. I remember the day after doing 130km I thought "I really wont be able to do that again" and for the first 10km I was pretty sure that it would be rough. But then your legs loosen up and its as if you hadn't ridden the day before. I think I ended up doing another 130km and did 700km that year. I know there are people here that dwarf that, but my point is I'm pretty amateur and I got there a lot easier than I expected. Some other things that work for me: a foam roller and some stretches each evening wont hurt. I don't like to have any 0km riding days. I'd rather do a very easy 30km on an off day than do 0km, otherwise the next day my legs feel like they've gone to sleep. But guess some days it is unavoidable due to family commitments. Ultimately it was a challenge meant for the northern hemisphere. Short days and miserable weather. Generally speaking in the southern hemisphere our biggest challenge is not having the ability to do it, it's having the "permission". That and finding safe roads to ride on...

Mine was inspected by my LBS who said there were no signs of any issues, but they did take photos and sent them to cool heat. So that's that. I don't think I would feel comfortable with anything other than a replacement though. I don't blame my LBS in any way, they are just following the guidance. But I don't really see how some cranks are OK and some are not if they're the exact same model and made with the exact same tech. Maybe mine will never fail but I don't want to find out that I was wrong about that on the way down helshoogte. On the plus side this has coincided with me getting a smart indoor trainer so I think that bike might be "put out to pasture" anyway. If I'm going to break a crank, it may as well be in my living room.