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2 hours ago, Fisan said:I did for 5 seconds.
But I come from a place where everyone, including their dog, owns a Spez.
I will never.
Honestly, I know the feeling, but I am on my 3rd Spez helmet in a row(never own a spez bike) but the helmets just work with my head and are light and safe and don't look totally dorky.
Added benefit for AR is that you can wear a normal headlamp over the helmet without cable ties etc.
19 minutes ago, Shebeen said:They should try VIP parking to anyone who arrives in one of their vehicles. uh mean okes would moan, but why not?!
It is probably not far off. Advendurance did it for Toyota for the Warrior races a few years back already, So it was likely tabled as a possibility.
Try a casquette for a few rides and see if it helps. It is a lot easier to chuck a casquette in the wash than mission with helmet liners.
Also for helmets I always used to run muck off foam fresh on motorbike helmets, spray on and then pop it on a fan to dry. I would wash the liners and then use muck off a few times and then do a full wash again.
Ya I would look a lot further than just a carb drink...
Breakfast is key, being able to wake up and wolf down food is a good skill to build, it took me months of force feeding but now I wake up hungry.
Between wake up and start getting in a bottle of rehydrate will be a good idea.
Startline snack or 2 is the start of your race eating, nerves are up and hr will already be up.
Then your personal goal for carb intake per hour during the ride. You will hear numbers from 20-140grams an hour. Do some testing at see what point your stomach reacts. Then don't go near that in the race. I would start off with more solid items and as you tire out move to relying more on gels and drinks. The chewable jelly's from Gu, biogen and 32gi are also easy to get down in the transition from solid foods to gels etc.
I would always have a sachet of maurten in a pocket just incase of a bonk. 60grams in 500ml will get you functioning again and then you need to back off the pace a bit and follow it up with other food.
You also need to gauge the effort to input ratio and understand how on the last few days the effort may be less but you will need more.
Post race is also key, getting the right food and fluid in right away and following it up through to the next day. I am a fan of a last minute before bed protein bar.
You have spent a shedload on a race, there are good sports dieticians around who are not badly priced and will put together a good plan with what you need to get in during the race. It is a good start. A lot of them do a lot of educating you on concepts/ratios and timing as opposed to telling you exactly what to eat. I have a really good grid to work with for race day, it has changed the way I race.
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33 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:Jokes aside, there have been a few horror stories of people being impaled by their own or someone elses handlebars. One guy chopped the end of his pinkie finger off when he caught it between a plugless bar end and a rock.
I'd put some plugs in. Just to be sure 😉
ya it is a big safety thing. It always has me wondering why the UCI hasn't followed the FIM in making levers with ball ends mandatory. If the bar end can penetrate that lever can too.
If it is a one way trip, why not just get a box from a bike store here and fly it back with you, throw the box away on the other side. Some stores will even pack the bike for you nicely.
relocation sale but wants to swap for speakers also doesn't seem logical
Remember weather stations are placed in Stevenson screens. Stevenson screens standardize the environment for the various sensors. This is a well over a hundred year old world wide standard. So your Garmin with sun from above and heat from the road below is not accurate. It never will be, sorry to burst bubbles. And your watch is even more of a joke in terms of temperature.
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Realistically with an eagle drivetrain a 32tooth in Gauteng is pretty useless. Given that 1/4 the population and 1/3rd of the gdp in GP, there is likely a fair percentage of bikes with eagle in GP.
If you run the analytics on your gear usage with an AXS set up you can figure out the best front chainring to run to get the most out of your gears/legs. I have a 32,34 and a 36 tooth front chainring in rotation. The 32 is great for big elevation rides and super long rides where you will never manage to output huge power day after day. For expeditions quite a few go to a 28 even.
If you look at even a 34tooth on a 120km ride in PTA, there is no time spent in the granny gears even with wtf and a few other PTA east 'climbs' thrown in.
But C2T where it is longer and there is a good wad of proper climbing the 34tooth is a perfect fit.
Yes those are both mostly gravel, but the reality is there is a lot of 'mtb' gravel riding done in GP.
Singletrack is short enough to push watts that you don't need a 32tooth. Below you can see Rosemary hill with a 5km to and from the folks farm to Rosemary hill. 34tooth is perfect and I am not a huge power output rider.
38 minutes ago, mazambaan said:forges some very strong, very tough and multi skilled athletes, particularly "in the wild" as it were. Pleasure to tour with such people.
100%, some proper machines
like the ginger stepchild of the multisport world...
1 minute ago, Jewbacca said:@dave303e the AR cheat seriously has me hooked.... seriously?! hahahaha
I mean, I REALLY want to know who it is but I also don't in case it's someone I know 😝
Unfortunately you probably do know the name/face. I don't know if you know him well though.
The bnb visit from transition was one thing, another area their media team went and met them at another bnb on route and brought them meds for the jippo guts. That whole area was out of bounds for media and supporters.
A previous race as a part of another team he was more than 400m away from his team members looking for a cp(they didn't find it and then he proved the map was just slightly wrong so they still were awarded the cp).
On 1/3/2024 at 4:45 PM, Jewbacca said:The algorithm also fed me this today.
I think the problem with digital media and the need to constantly create content to stay relevant and earn money from the industry leads to pieces like this.
I only read the first couple of paragraphs before the worlds smallest violin started playing and my mind started asking me 'why do they care?' and 'Why does any of that affect you?'.
I am not active on STRAVA for many reasons, one of them is how good friends portray themselves on the platform. Many people I like in person give me the absolute creeps on social media, so I prefer not to see it.
I also find the Garmin platform has a far more comprehensive overall idea of what I'm up to without being on a social media platform.
I'd imagine the weirdo's creeping on people in the new DM add on would be a bigger deterrent for women.
Men unfortunately DO have a predatory nature and can turn anything into a dating/pick up platform.
I have to admit that my skill set makes me incredibly dangerous in tracking data an specifically spatial data. Social media is the least of your worries, all the general tracking data I have ever bought has been gathered by 3rd party apps, usually unsuspecting ones. Certain providers have over 450 000 apps gathering data so whether you like it or not, the odds are good that your data is going to a central repository and being sold. Work location, home location, path to purchase and areas visited. Thankfully the resellers are using it to help mostly in placing retail stores, one or two of the resellers have been shut down in a big way for dodgy practices( dating apps for military purpose and law enforcement using cellphone data sans warrant). I see last week a major supplier x-mode got stricter hoops to jump through for their supply chain.
This is what can make it dangerous though, the wrong person with impulses getting hold of the wrong data. Things like strava can also provide clarity, I have found a person in AR who has cheated multiple times. It is so bad that the person is now hiding his ARWC activity because we tackled him straight at prize giving for getting in a media vehicle and getting take from transition to a bnb to sleep...
On 1/3/2024 at 6:39 PM, Jewbacca said:I didn't know this. I am not a data person, so it was easy to disconnect from STRAVA as I was already private ergo not on any leaderboards and didn't really farm my own data.
I wear my Garmin watch 99% of the time so it autonomously gives me an idea of when I'm tired, over training etc which I find more insightful metric than weight of KM or Meters Climbed etc
Being fit and functional and healthy trumps weight of numbers.
For me there are better reasons to quit STRAVA than most of what the writer mentioned. I believe many athletes who track their metrics have an unhealthy relationship with exercise
this is too true, but if it wasn't exercise it would probably be drugs, booze or something else
On 1/4/2024 at 12:24 PM, Kom said:There is another great piece floating on Cycling Weekly about "Why I ride alone"
I think the surge scenario is one of the mentioned contributing factors ... 😝
Others include -> fixing other riders mechanical issues (Read poor serviced bike), extended coffee breaks, too much free (unsolicited) advise including "Your saddle looks to high, you should consider aero bottles, why arent you on 30mm tires, i hate Di2 etc etc" 🤣
And sometimes you want an easy ride and they don't or vice versa, you will never get faster only riding with slower people...
On 1/4/2024 at 3:56 PM, 'Dale said:Strava means 'to strive' in Swedish. That is the ethos of this superb app. The Heat Map is cool, and also the ability to plan routes, even from my smartie phone. It is a private company, of course, and they can do whatever they want with ongoing iterations.
Comparison anxiety is a quiet epidemic with rising prevalence of those using social media platforms. Compare yourself to others and measure yourself against others' images of success or failure and one can be at risk to be insecure / smaller than or superior / bigger than. I do match myself against my friends and long may the chirps and street sign sprints flow.
Compare yourself to one's version of yesterday and last month and one can greatly benefit from measuring one's achievements and tracking one's athletic growth arc.
(I suspect the article was to entertain and to be satirical. If not, storm in a coffee cup.)
Heat map had the potential to and could very well have gotten people killed when it uncovered military operations.
On 1/5/2024 at 7:03 AM, Shebeen said:I got this click bait on my feed, so dramatic.
I really like strava, all the negatives can be controlled. As a tech company they have bigger issues, like actually making money for shareholders. I'm happy to pay subscription, even if I don't use the premium features much.
If it shutdown tomorrow it would be a big loss.
They give you the tools to manage it. The mental capacity to use and apply the tools is another story.
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https://www.bikeboxcompany.co.za/product-page/mtb-bikebox
Not a bad option either.
The titan is a really good looking bag though.
The last 2 major adventure races I raced ended in major jippo guts. From advice from doctors, research and experience this is what I found.
There are 2 major reasons for getting it in a race
You either going to catch it from food, water or sanitary conditions or you will have ingested food your stomach cannot handle(usually to many carbs).
Food is the easiest way to be careful. Race bars and gels are safe. Be weary of big open platters of food and big containers at water stations. You never know who had a bossie and then grabbed a potato and has been wearing the same gloves a few days in a row. So a sealed bar or gel that you have had in your own pocket is a far safer bet.
Drinks - I now treat everything, use the tablets as instructed. If you have sachets of carb drink powder, tape a tablet to the side and then drop it in as you mix it. Give it some time before drinking though. If you are using fizzy rehydrate tablets, place a treatment tablet between each fizzy tab so you always dump one of each as you mix. If it is a really good source of water(ie coming straight out a borehole or a clean mountain stream with no settlement above) then go for it and enjoy. I am weary of the big plastic jugs at races, seen far too many just filled from the nearest tap.
Wash your hands regularly, change your gloves daily, hands out of mouth.
River water in SA is dodge at best, so if you swim keep your mouth shut, be careful dipping caps in water and things like that.
The other cause is too many carbs, if you get the farts from 3 or 4 gels your stomach is likely battling. What often happens is you get desperate mid race and start hammering drinks an gels left right and center. What was a fart after 3 becomes much more lively when you do it day after day and more and more... So train how you plan on racing. Get those gels and high carb drinks in plenty while training, you will see you stomach will get batter at handling it over time. I had 8 gels in a 2 hour run yesterday and didn't flinch, but it has been a long time in getting ready for it. Also 8 caffeine gels will destroy you. So make sure your gels are not all caffeinated.
Treatment- this is a big one and can save your race.
Nausea- A lot of nausea tablets can be taken as a suppository, so pack 2 to carry on you at all times. Try take the 1st one, if you throw up that one then the 2nd one goes in the back door for a guaranteed success.
General - Kantrexil seems to work great mid race- I have had a doctor prescribe it to me now as a just in case during the race. The stuff just works. It is an antibiotic though so speak to your doctor first. Lot's of doctors will give you good advice to prepare or for just in case.
SmectaGo- picture a gu gel but to stop the loose stools. Super convenient to carry/pack and super effective. Can confirm you can take it while riding with ease.
Then if you get sick - up the amount of fuel you are putting in and up the amount of rehydrate as well.
That is my 2c and learnings. But speak to a doc, they are often happy to give you a backup plan for if the stool sample hits the fan.
My old man forwarded me the message about the bust of pta east bike jackers. See below copy, he is on a plot boschkop side so it was on their security whatsapp group. It seems to me more the norther pta east area as opposed to souther/olifants area...
"Breakthrough in Cyclist/Jogger Armed Robberies.
An intelligence led operation was held last night, and 2 suspects have been apprehended.
We have been tracking one of the suspects for a while, but our informants could only give us one Firstname. That's very difficult to do as the name is very common. During patrols yesterday, we got verification of our prime suspects and a second suspect's first name. The intelligence led us to a wide area in a nearby township. Luckily, we have a good relationship with Township's CPF. Information was shared, and informants gave us an indication that the suspects were in a very busy Tavern.
An operation was planned with some of our partners and Boschkop SAPS.
The team entered the tavern, and although the tavern's clientele were not happy to see them, the team found the suspects wearing stolen Security Armed Response uniform. The suspects were taken to their place of residence, and we found multiple weapons and stolen goods. Suspects were handed over to Boschkop SAPS.
Although further intel received last night indicate that the suspects might be linked to a larger gang and could also be involved in other serious crimes, we are happy to have these two suspects in custody.
SAPS will continue with the investigation, and hopefully, the arrest will lead to further arrests.
Although we are very certain that these are our suspects, we will continue with vissibility and patrols on the new road.
Well done to the team, and it shows the team won't sleep till we have these suspects terrorizing our community.
Involved in the operation:
Boschkop SAPS
Boschkop CPF
Lakes Security Forum
Pretoria Traffic and Roads
Alpha Security Forum
Silverton CPF Nellmaphius Task team"
On 1/12/2024 at 5:15 PM, Mokgaga'a mmakubela! said:sold already 😳😳
and this is why we will always have bike theft in SA, there is always a willing buyer...
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On 1/3/2024 at 5:51 PM, Frosty said:Almost all of Intervals.icu data can be linked into Excel, and simply updated using the refresh button (F9). The API has allowed a lot more automation.
boy oh boy what a game changer. Thank you for this
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Ya I also pick and choose where to use them, 100 milers I will always have a pair with the 2nding team just for when the sh hits the proverbial fan as Jewbacca mentioned.
Fast runnable 100 miler like Karkloof I would definitely have a pair for in case. But I wouldn't carry them the whole way.
For me big climbs are where they pay themselves off, you can pull your way up them. As an adventure racer I do some paddling training, I have got a good background in swimming and I am really good with a spade. So I have a solid upper body to put into the poles which saves the legs in a big way. If you have aid stations often they allow you to pick up and drop off poles as and when you need them so you can plan your race around that. UTMB you can see the top guys are poles out every climb and away for the runnable sections.
Back to a point I made earlier and Jewbacca also mentioned, storing poles and accessing them is key. If it is a faf you end up carrying them on your pack the whole way or in your hands the whole way. If your bag has a good way to put them away without taking pack off then you will use them better. Watch the top guys at UTMB, they take out and put away poles at pace with no faffing.
4 minutes ago, Roul said:Why not start with a flatbar and rigid fork?
You're going to spend money on shifters and brakes and you might find the bike doesn't lend itself to the setup or you don't enjoy it as much as you want. This also won't result in any throwaway parts.
this^^^
I have a similar build. Every time I look at a gravel bar option it leads to new shifters, new brakes and unless you are happy to trust and adaption a new derailleur as well. Gravel shifters and brakes are expensive and like hens teeth second hand.
Change the tyres, a rigid or lauf fork on there, narrow the bar a bit, slap a big 40 tooth chainring up front and enjoy it till you ready to commit further to a full gravel build...
On 1/10/2024 at 3:14 PM, Holmsie said:Howzit all,
Any recommendations on value-for-money trekking/trail running poles. Looking specifically for 3-piece Z-frame models (edit)..and adjustable length.
Any advice/recommendations ito of what features to look out for/avoid, carbon vs alu, weight, folding size etc ?
I like the look of Leki (see below) but I'm pretty open to all suggestions.
Black Series FX Carbon (leki.co.za)
Cross Trail Lite TA (leki.co.za)
Cheers and thanks
Unpopular opinion, these are not made for sharing so decide they are yours and get the right length for you and don't get adjustable Z poles. Any telescopic system will fail eventually and they are just a faf all the time.
Z poles are the best way to go, personally the black diamond distance carbon ones are amazing, they are light and they are solid. Mine have taken a lot of abuse and are still perfect.
I am weary of the glove models vs standard fixed straps. Saw a person at ARWC who lost the glove during the race and then had a trekking pole with no strap/glove, makes it really useless.
Carbon for the weight, aluminum for the price. Up to you.
Z poles can be a pain to carry when you not using them. Salomon make a quiver that you can attach to a bag. It works great and you can get them in and out of there in a flash with no faffing.
I like the way coffee was referred to as a drug. It has actually been an interesting journey for me over the last year. A GERD diagnosis means I need to manage my stomach closely otherwise my daily intake of rennies and regular mid race chunders is quite alarming to say the least. So I started with a few dietary changes and then the dietitian recommended ditching caffeine.......
The first few weeks were rough. Remember many state that caffeine is the single best legal performance enhancing drug available.
If you were to replace the word coffee/caffeine with cocaine and explain your day in terms of caffeine intake it would go something like this:
Wake up and the first thing you do is have cocaine and breakfast, then you head to work and have some more as you sit down to get going. Mid morning when your energy dips a little you take a break and grab some more cocaine to get you to lunch. After lunch the digestion makes you slower so you have more cocaine to get you to the end of the work day. Then late evening before bed you have one last hit before bed. Sound familiar to a lot on here?
It was really a big hit for me, the first 3 weeks on decaf coffee was rough. I felt tired and sleepy the whole time. Now I feel a lot better, it has seriously helped manage the GERD to a point where I am off the meds and feeling better than ever. I do now use normal coffee strategically(yes like doping) but it is was an interesting adjustment.
Regarding the amount of coffee I drink- I still follow the usual routine. Coffee for me is a process, a break at work, an enjoyment on a long drive, a relaxing evening tipple and I still jump at the chance to get the mocha pot going on the gas cooker with a view. It is just caffeine free. Working with fresh beans makes decaf so good that very very few people can tell the difference in taste. The beauty of decaf is that you can have 10 a day and not feel guilty or have the jitters/runs...
14 minutes ago, NickGM said: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/
That is an interesting article. I read another article a few weeks back and followed it up with confirmation from a family member on the ground. There is a bit of a push to revive the Arabica production in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe again.
13 minutes ago, Shebeen said:Am I right in saying this diet was a total fad?
or do people still follow it, but just not talk about it like crossfit/vegan/ironman?
hahahahahaha, oh boy that is a poke at a bear. That being said my registered dietician had me at 80grams of carbs an hour for our little EC jaunt last year. I reused cycling shorts, socks and other stuff to pack extra food in the crates but it was definitely worth it. She also got my GERD to a point where I can manage it without medicine and my quality of life is vastly improved...
Remember fad diets are a great business plan.
Bring out a new diet and market it.
People try it out and lose weight and rave about it. Books, juicers, food, random food and other cr...p is bought.
months later the diet is unsustainable and the person fails to follow it.
The person then regains weight(and a few extra kg) often because their stomach has been trained against it. ( after banting did you notice how many people couldn't handle carbs well)
Januworry 1st - rinse and repeat with a new diet...
Ask any person who has spoken to you about dieting, the odds are they have tried more than one fad diet...
Advice on Hubs and Freebodies
in Technical Q&A
Posted
Few things.
You can go 1x12 with an NX cassette on an HG freehub body. It is one less hassle to sort now, works with GX shifter/derailleur as well. It is a consideration to have. Not sure your 1x11 set up and the ratios, but it will no doubt be an upgrade. When it comes time to do a cassette then you can go to a GX cassette and do the freehub then.
I tried to sell a freehub body off a Scott for a bit after moving from and NX to GX eagle cassette, eventually I just sent it with the bike when I sold the bike. Not huge market out there and you certainly only going to get a small portion of what the new one costs.
For me just going to a GX 10-52 cassette from a NX 11-50 was the big game changer, that little bit of extra range on either end of the drivetrain. It was 100% worth it in the end.