dave303e

would not recommend a gravel bike there... Plenty of free gravel grinding that is relatively safe out Pretoria east side. For a 25 km you could park at Hazeldean Shopping Center, ride down past curro, through cowhouse and out to Rosemary hill and back. That will give you 23ish km, you can go further past rosemary on that road if you want a few more km. You can also go back past cowhouse up to boschkop and back via the dirt path next to lynnwood/graham road back to hazeldean. If you look at the strava heatmaps for Pretoria east from cowhouse or from hedianga area you will find plenty of fantastic gravel options...

like I said above, Son28 hub, K-light ultra and you have the latest and greatest of the above. And you can charge your phone or garmin along the way...

Depends what suits you. I have never had issues with the extreme lights. 2 hours is not a lot of runtime and they simple and very robust. You can get replacement batteries if you need as well. Really just a good option, if not as refined as some of the international products. My other bike light I have been running the last few months is a K-light Ultra racer powered by a son 28 hub. It is hands down one of the best lights for riding. At slow speed you get a nice wide light that does not shine too far ahead. As you pick up speed the beam stretches forward and gets brighter. At 20kmh it is as good as a car light. When you stop it stays on with a dull 'stand light' for about 4 minutes. But it involves wiring, a new front hub and some resistance when riding. It also powers a red flashing rear light and can charge a phone or gps. But it is overkill for the riding you describe

I am not racing Silk Road Mountain race on borrowed wheels, just not worth the risk of failure. Nick the wheel builder built me a new wheel with a son dyno hub for the front for the trip, that one I am not even mildly concerned about. I would have sent the rear down to him to get new spokes this week, but I have multiple 100 mile races in the next 2 weeks so I need the wheel fixed quickly unfortunately. My LBS is solid as well, they are rebuilding the wheel as well. I am in limbo in terms of getting a new wheel built anyway so I have matching rims and then maybe a hope hub rear. But I have time to think about that.

don't plan your water carry based on average conditions. Plan it for worst case scenario and/or if sh...t hits the fan.

They snapped at the nipple side, so not chain issues. Sounds like I will be rebuilding the wheel fully then. Thanks for the input.

yes just googled it - Reynolds TR429 Carbon Wheels

wheel is from mid 2022. Done plenty of km, most of them fairly easy riding. But still a lot of riding.

so a question to the wheel builders out there... I have just snapped a spoke, 2nd time I have managed it in 6 months. Just a single spoke on rear wheel each time. Is it cause for concern or just part of life? I don't do a lot of technical riding on the bike, but it does happen every now and then. My concern is a 2 week bikepacking race in August that will have the bike loaded. The wheels are Reynolds hubs and Reynolds carbon hoops. Not sure the exact model. I was going to take 1 or 2 spare spokes, now it seems maybe like 5?

So a few month ago I picked up one of these Stanley Fatmax battery pressure washers. It was nearly half price retail wise and I had an outbonus lying around. I knew from ordering it, it was never going to be a true pressure washer. it was never going to be super high pressure, but I didn't expect that. What I got however has been one of the more practical and used tools I own. I clean my bike with it, it uses a tiny amount of water and takes 2 mins, grab the hose plug in and go. It is a lot quicker than a normal high pressure hose. The pressure is good that I am not ruining bearings but it can just get the mud off nicely when needed. It's versatility and portability is what makes it super useful. It is portable like a petrol hose, but small and easy to move like a battery drill. I have used it at races/events where I can literally clean my bike using a 5l bottle of water and it's hose attachment. I took it camping and it was fantastic to clean bike daily pumping water out of a bucket. I think for stage mtb races and bike trips it will always go along now. Around the farm it has also been good, there has been a lot that we have cleaned in remote areas where the nearest hose is not close. I clean the water cribs with it, blast away the algae, super convenient. Definitely a nice to have, not a need. But a very very nice to have.

You can debate toughness for hours. Munga was also marketed as toughest. So are a million other events in the world. You never hear a Gurkha saying they are the toughest soldier in the world, but if you read the stories you never doubt that they are. My issue with freedom is that it is cheaper to fly to Kyrgyzstan and race Silk Road Mountain race than it is to just enter freedom. And if we going to argue about toughness(which is pointless), the first climb at Silk road this year is 90km long 3600m of elevation gain. After that you still have 1750km with over 20 000m of climbing to go in temperatures ranging from -10C to +40C... You also have to align tough to the person doing it and their experience. For example I have a sub 24 hour time for a 100mile(160km) trail run. I honestly found that running a normal road marathon on a flat course last year was a much bigger challenge for me. Just operating outside of my normal intensity and out of my wheel house really was a challenge. I have run 42's at ultra marathon pace more that In care to admit. In prep for my last 10 miler, the shortest Sunday run over a 4 month period was 38km. But I found hammering 42km at 100% chasing a pb was ridiculously tough. In fact for me I would find it easier to chase a 100mile pb than a marathon pb. Both are tough, but in very different ways and find what you enjoy and gives you a good reason WHY to do it. If you are chasing "the toughest race in the world" then that is your WHY, but realise that tough is different for everyone...

I was a die hard rouvy fan till they dropped the family pricing. Used to be super cheap for the mrs and I. I have bounced around a lot since then. I only to workouts in ERG, even easy rides I just set a wattage and trap for the hour or 2. I am on zwift now just for the volume of different workouts. More important to spend money on a tv and subscription to a streaming service for something to keep you entertained while riding.

leg length is the key here. My daughter loves riding on the foam seat on my bike, but both parents being smaller human beings means even though we shopped around for the shortest balance bike and cut it down in height even further. She can only now just reach the ground and start riding, she was 2 in Feb...

Fake your way into A batch and then run a marathon time for the kiddies race. Pathetic... I feel for athletes when big sponsorship deals go to these idiots and talented people working really hard miss out.

Polarisation and periodisation... Break your preparation time into blocks. Most people use 4 week blocks. So it is an easy rest week followed by 3 weeks, each week getting harder and harder in volume and intensity till the next block starts with an easy week again. The easy week is there to help you recover from the block mentally and physically. Polarisation happens within each week. Hard sessions need to be properly hard, easy sessions need to be very easy. If you have a hard session today, tomorrow must be an easy one. Again recovery between hard sessions so that you do not burn out. That is what my coach did with me and it really worked.