walkerr

Underwear - fresh underwear - that's what we're going through. I'm k@king myself so often our washing machine can't keep up.

Yay!!!! Check your inboxes folks. Route GPX is here.

Interesting idea. Also tend to try and stick 145 or below for long events. Doubt will wear HR for this one. Might see if i can put an alarm on my watch tho

Anyone new to distance rides and just aiming to finish I can recommend Map & Time of Day. First few very long rides I did I found it very demoralising to look down and see numbers showing it was 90km to the next water etc. I've since learned to detach myself and not sweat the numbers but they can be a kick in the teeth at your low points until you get used to it. Better to look up and focus on riding to the next post or rolbos or something you can see and visualize. Keep stats on a page 2 that you don't look at too often

If you zoom in at the very end, there's an interesting deviation. If that track is accurate, it suggests we may not be descending Bainskloof on the tar to get to the new finish point.

41? We'll be praying for it to be that cold ....

No plans on sleeping at VdeK - so you can have mine

28 Nov, midday

I can predict my dot will be proudly displaying a "lanterne rouge"

I know - had to officiate the start which is why I was there. Figured I may as well take the bike and get a night ride in. Munga rider Ryan joined too - was an excellent spin, weather was near ideal

No real benefit - easier to manage and use side by side. No fiddling under the bars to find switch in the dark

Front light wise the important part is I have 2 batteries - depending on how much hi beam I need for rough sections, that'll last me most of the ride without a recharge. The lamp unit weighs nothing - so why not have both batteries wired in to a working light to make it easy to swap across in the night when one battery dies. If you're gonna carry spare AAAs for your rear blinky, it's way more convenient to carry them in a working light than buried in the bottom of a pack. Etrex clears fine - the lights are out front on a short extender bar

Rigged and ready for night time test ride

Folks - if anyone in the Stellenbosch area wants a night ride to stretch legs and test kit, a group of us are going to be doing about 195 to 200km starting Friday 2nd @ just after 9pm. There's actually an official Audax starting at 9pm, which I have to officiate the start of. But that ride is 400km and all tar - plus a few of us need to be back by day break or soon after. So we're going to start about 10 mins behind the Audax so as not to interfere, and turn back early. It won't be an ideal test - yes it will be at night, and those of us doing Munga will be riding fully loaded MTB setup. It's also a a decent distance, and should show up any gross kit or setup issues. But we'll (probably) stick to much the same route as the Audax which means all tar - although if we get inspired we may go find the odd gravel shortcut. So far looks like 3 or 4 of us are in. PM me if interested.

Just for giggles, here's an interesting article on the cooling effect of hot vs cold drinks: Reason for sharing is having debate with buddy over ice cooling bottles (also mentioned above). I hate drinking luke warm / tepid water, and would much prefer a nice icey cool drink. But I've never felt the nasty warm water was actually impacting my hydration or cooling. So I went to look for some info on which was actually better from a body point of view. An ice drink makes you feel cooler, but is it actually helping your body core heat (which in hot weather is what really matters). Turns out - that ice, while lovely, may be better on the outside of your body than the inside https://www.runtastic.com/blog/en/stay-cool-warm-cold-drinks/

Camelbak chase - 1.5L. Interesting idea on bubblewrap, thx

Camelbak don't do 1L bottles. Have ridden with these for prolonged periods in 45C+. I'm not a fan of hot water, but it's survivable.

Yep - I may decant lube into smaller bottle if I can find. Not riding dynamo. In theory, with both those batteries charged I can probably do the whole event. Charger weighs little and is more of a just-in-case. I'll top one of the batteries up when I sleep anyhow given time and a spare outlet

Laid all my kit out at weekend to check my packing approach - probably looks like a lot, but after packing for TCR last year it feels like I'm taking nothing at all. And I've probably got backups and spares that a lot of folks would skip too

Possibly - but in my experience, with backlight use, about 50 to 70 hours is the range from a pair of Ultra Lithium AAs. I'll definitely be carrying a spare set as I'm expecting to ride at night a lot, and even on min backlight there is extra battery drain. Edit - you can also run on external USB power too (assuming you carry a USB cable). So worst case, your extender battery can keep the eTrex going. You need to set the backlight on max then though as the current drain is so low from the eTrex that most extender batteries think they have nothing connected and switch off after about 30 seconds

Will be running an eTrex and Wahoo Elemnt in combo.

Lovely - I'll remember to pack my trunks ... Edit - I remember riding through some town in Germany last year at 3am on TCR and the fuel station temp guage was still reading 35C. Couple of riders up ahead logged temps over 50C, and we had days in a row over 45C. You definitely need to adjust your riding to survive that kind of stuff.

Some nice goals you have there. BTW - soft tail? You big girl ... I'm riding hardtail. Come join the ass-bashing-party Edit: PS .... even thought about brining the Niner RLT9, but I'm just not that mad. Although, if you brought yours, we'd have a matching set!

No idea. Doubt it, but until we see it who knows. You joining us Gary?

Did I imagine a post somewhere saying the GPS route has been published already? I know according to race manual we get it the week before the ride but I am sure somewhere over the weekend I saw a post saying it was now available. Maybe I'm already getting Munga Hallucinations