V18

Fatbike along the beach

What I like about ezel. Every stage by itself is a hoot and totally rideable on fresh arms and minds. There is no dingleberries section that bring in an element of luck to offset your times. If you are ezel ranked. You are ranked equally and proper according to overall fitness, tech prowess, mental durability and lastly how well you and your bike get along. Whilst I really enjoyed the klipberg event, the dingleberries kinda put a line through my plan to compare times with buddies. How fast you can walk down a gully of loose rocks shouldn't be #enduro timing. I think it should be included. But yoh. Maybe on a timed section of its own. Maybe I'm just ****. Probably.

Ordered revgrips. Pitty I won't be doing ezel. Would have loved to see if they actually work on something like stage 4.

Jonkers big 7 is tougher. Ezel you can take your time. Hiking is actually very energy efficient I found. Nursing a semi-babelas also helps with the long effort.

Will be missing it this year it seems. Budget and family constraints. I do want FOMO updates. Think an ezel WhatsApp live location group would be cool. Mmmm. Probably no reception.

Ouberg?

What v12 said. I get this question a lot. Probably because it's such a grey matter (pun intended). So. Knocks to the head cause a multitude of minor injuries to the tissue inside your skull. And outside. But those for a different day. Injuries range from axon demyelinsation (cables lose their insulation) to axonal death (cables get cut) or neuron death (cells die and never come back). Other tissues such as veins and arteries can sustain micro tears without much clinical symptoms in the beginning. Post concussion syndrome is a vague term and is ever changing in the medical field. Symptoms can range from the dramatic: seizures and antero/retrograde amnesia to the less impressive but still annoying dull persistent headaches, irritability, nausea, mood disorders, forgetfulness, mental slowing, discoordination and even asymptomatic. Whilst all sound bad except the last, I actually think the last is the biggest problem to us hardy sportsmen. Have a concussion. Feel fine. Have another on top of silently healing brain tissue. Bazinga. Massive permanent damage. The 2 to 6 weeks rule is a thumbsuck based on mri/clinical and post mortem evidence. The truth is that neurons/axons can take flippen long to heal up. And some never do. Ask anyone who has had a severed/pinched nerve. The process of nerve healing is slow and and at best take place at the rate of wallerian degeneration (sounds counterintuitive but it's an amazing process). For me. If I have a concussion. 6 weeks minimum. Gym and stationary trainer. No riding bikes,sparring, rugby etc. The risk of falling on the greenest of routes is so much greater after a concussion Don't risk it. You only have one brain. And coming from glorious independence to semi dependent status is just tragic if it could have been avoided. Dont mess with concussions. More importantly. Make sure your significant other knows what to do with you if you have symptoms of one following and event. Ie. Dr+-scan and stay away from bikes for 6weeks if scan comes back as normal.

Can't believe how good these look.

Jip. I recon so. Power levels the same. Weight down. Clothing loose. Mostly extravascular fluid retention I recon. But the daily commute on a fasted tummy is doing wonders for my ketogenesis. Initially I felt pap and weak. Immediately (although shortly) energised after say, an apple. Now. Apple or not. Feels fine. Work in a hospital. Actually registered positive for ketones on my urine sample I did for interest sake. So this Carb free diet MUST work. Lipogram and uric acid will be done in about 6w to see if this is sustainable. Got to be careful not to chase one number and screw up seven others.

Down from dadbod 118.5kg to 113.6 in just under a week. Let's see where this Carb refusal will take me. (bar dairy lactose)

Sold my road bike a while back. Skittish on all but perfect tarmac. Got a cotic escapade with tubeless 40c tyres. Love it. Commute 20km everyday. No punctures. Hop side walks when I need to. Ride through parks. No suspension getting unnecessary cycling. Just chain and cable wear. Even hook the kids trailer to the back for some gravel road naptime exploring.

This brand just looks great. That is all.

So basically a shorty.

I'm rather excited about this one. Have never ridden there and at least this year I've been doing some training. Now just to mount handlebars to a vibroshake machine to plank my way out of arm pump... Or just go ride more.

Oval all the way. Kalbo makes great ones locally. Currently on absolute black. Not bad either and suits my bike colourway.

Profound

No one will ever ditch a banshee.

I had such a lekker day out. Everything worked. Bike. Legs. Trails. Tried out some new lightweight body armour too. Didn't get to put it to test but good to know its light and barely noticeable. Got to protect the dadbod.

Panaracer gravel King. Specialised sawtooth. Legit.

Don't overlooked the trp mechanicals. I've never set up mechanical brakes before these and these took me 10min. They wear evenly. So barrel adjuster only from there.

My lovely cotic escapade

I bought the frame and worked from there. Very happy with my result. Don't hate too much on trp spyre breaks. They're mechanical and do feel very different but with that tiny contact patch on unpredictable surfaces the last thing you want is XT hydraulic type power.

Maxxis aggressor rear and Shorty 2.5 front.

Meh. Ride the yari. It's fine the way it is. Unless you're reeeeaallllyyyy semipro/pro

Stock tyre choice is a very difficult thing to keep everyone happy. In our cycling group (we ride the same trails mostly) almost none of us have the same tyre choices. Perhaps it's better to keep the price down a little and let the customer themselves decide what rubber they want to fall in love with. I've never kept the stock rubber on a bike for longer than 3months anyway. It's a very choosy thing this. But ja. I'd ask the bike shop to buy them off me and slap on some fat spez butchers.