Dusty

At Brosterlea apparently. Proper cold!

Those are fair prices.

I haven't heard how they are dealing with level 4 restrictions. I guess if riders opt to be out during curfew it will be on them. I have heard that covid negative tests were required prior to the start and also possibly being tested along the way.

Seems that the race leader Alex, has had a fall on Politique Kraal and hurt some ribs. Hopefully he can still finish. He's got a long way to go. Only on day 2. Having said that he is at Queens Mercy on morning two, which is mind blowingly quick.

I also have a Silverback bike, not the Stratos, but aslo DUB with NX crank. The BB specified for my bike is a road BB. I'm not sure if there is any difference with seals in road vs mtb but only the road one fits. First BB lasted about 5k kms. Second one not so much after quite a bit of wet riding. They ceratinly haven't lasted as well as previous BBS for me.

This game may just go down to the wire.

@Sepia I did the Massive Eastern Cape Passes bikepacking route recently with a mate who did it on an ebike. I have attached his write up as there is some good stuff to be gleaned on bikepacking with an ebike. He does give the details of his ebike, but more importantly it does show that ebikes can work really well for bikeacking/touring. Ebike Massive Eastern Cape Passes.docx

@copperheadWhere are you staying in the Tankwa?

Cycled up Bastervoetpad Pass in the E Cape recently. Proper climb/push, but the views are worth it.

This and stretching.

Interesting. I'm going to try this.

An overnight bikepacking trip in the NW province this weekend. Got a tad hot on Saturday.

New addition to the family, Mae, is keeping everyone on their toes.

We've got the same tent and have used it in snow, torrential rain and high altitudes and we survived. Brilliant for the price and easily available in SA

I had the same cassette in Kyrgyzstan when we went and I used a 34 Oval up front as I was confident that I could ride most routes with that. Big mistake. Factor in altitude and not so much. The 30 is a great idea and if you could get a 50 on the back it would be even better.

Hello Brandon If you go to the cycletouring website they have a wide range of bags and they have measurements in the descriptions. That's the route I went. My wife's bike wouldn't fit any of their bags , so for her we had to have a frame bag custom made.

I use one and that is correct.

We did a bikepacking trip around the Eastern Cape mountains in December. Nothing short of spectacular. In 5 days we saw 2 pedestrians.

I have gone that route as I figure that like steel, a cracked carbon frame can be repaired just about anywhere with some resin and matting. Alu not so much. I do wrap the frame at the contact points with my bags, with tape, to protect it.

Got this fellow on my 6 weight on the Vaal recently. I got smashed up by the previous 7 fish which were even bigger. It was a day to remember. The cats were starving!

I had some success contacting them on their international website. Shouldn't have to, but perhaps an option?

Has anyone ridden here since the proclaimed opening? My experience with the staff at Suikebosrand brings out the cynic in me.

You are correct it does involve literally watching a dot. I'm sure FC will publish a link before tomorrow when the first batch kicks off. It's normally on the MaProgress platform if I'm not mistaken. Edit: Here it is https://rasa20.maprogress.com/

This should be interesting to watch. A bit of rain forecast

Moving the goalposts again......