traaidmark

Howzit guys, Been living in Cape Town now all of two weeks, and already some interesting observations have been made. I haven't got the courage yet to do the full commute from Table View to Woodstock, but I am building up to that by afternoon rides to Milnerton and back: 1) There are a LOT more cyclists out and about in the afternoons than I usually had to deal with back up in Gauteng. 2) The cycle lanes are AMAZING! 3) The wind is k@k! but great when you turn around to go back home! 4) Fellow cyclists are really friendly, most of them wave and greet as I come huffing past. 5) A LOT of cyclists riding sans helmet... whaaaat?! All in all, amazing time here so far!

https://www.google.com/maps/preview?authuser=0#!q=53+Athens+Rd%2C+Cape+Town+7441%2C+South+Africa&data=!4m15!2m14!1m13!1s0x1dcc5f0dd2019803%3A0x21b265ae6949b8ec!3m8!1m3!1d2078!2d18.4854159!3d-33.8251931!3m2!1i1920!2i963!4f13.1!4m2!3d-33.82457!4d18.48435 Athens Road, close to sea.

I am so excited about moving. It sounds like it's going to be a blast. Lot's of new riding buddies!

hahaha there we go! Feeling much better about my impending loneliness already!

That's the aim. I wen't down a couple of weeks ago, and the traffic was amazing... ...ly bad. I always thought the Capetonians were just moaning. Nope, they weren't, the traffic is rough. I would rather spend that hour on the bike. I also think that there will be guys on the road with me, but you never really know until you get there and live there. Thanks mate!

Ah that would be great! Will get settled in and then we can hook up! (and I thought the Cape was clicky)

Traffic I am okay with, I generally err on the side of caution when dealing with vehicles. Ja I saw about the trails closing down, but hopefully there will be some open still by the time I get there (next week), so please guys, behave just for a little bit. Give us vaalies a chance to ride as well! Thanks for the help!

Hahahaha, Oom Riaan, dinge is ROF hierdie kant. Hierdie trek + werk + ALMAL IN DIE HELE WERELD wat wil baai se en braai en drink vat nogals sy toll. Ons het 0 dae oop tot ons trek, en baie maats begin nou knorrig raak daaroor.

This guy doesn't wear pink. wow, thanks for the quick help guys. *highfives all around*

Haai gaais, I am finally moving down to CT, and we will be living in Table View. My place of labour is situated in Woodstock (woodlands drive). The obvious goal is to try and get on the bike as much as possible for the commute, but I am hearing a LOT of conflicting stories about that. Some say it's the greatest thing in the world, others preach doom and gloom and that I will basically die the moment I clip into my pedals. Which is it? I know there's lot's of threads on this topic here, but they are all a bit confusing for me. I don't know Cape Town at all! What I have gathered so far though is that it's going to be a lekker cycle down to Paarden Eiland, and then from there on I am going to die all the way to work? Is the bit from Paarden Eiland to Woodstock that bad? Is Woodstock itself that bad to ride through? I saw on the myciti bus website that you are allowed to board with your bike, so then a cool option might be to cycle to Paarden Eiland, board the bus to Woodstock, and then just ride like a bat out of hell that's scared of the dark to Woodlands drive? Also, if I just do the bus, is the walk (like 1,7km) to woodlands drive going to be okay, or... will I die all the way? The wife has it easy, she is 2km from work. pah. I already checked that there are some lekker trails close by (Majik, Contermanskloof, Meerendal), so will probably become a member of Tygerberg club. I look forward to #slaapstad, and especially the cycling options there, but I am a bit wary of the safety issues. Sorry if I am bothering you okes with Yet Another CT Commute thread. I can offer beer to soothe the irritation.

How come an event with so many different disciplines is R35 and a single mtb race is in the hundreds? Surely this is a printing error?

My legs are slowly starting to get feeling back again. Well done to the 4 day riders, I just can't see myself going through that. Day 1 was absolutely awesome, day 2 nearly killed me. Was uber fun though!! Even got some medals (lolwhat?) out of it.

3 different urls? Also your link leading to the finance thingy is 404.

Just found out that I will indeed be GOING TO SABIE!!!! YAYA!!!!!!! *dansie* *dansie*

I know some GREAT routes there, but that was way before I had any fancy phone with gps. Ask the Cyclejunkie dude, there is a very nice route that I think he built. Rode it a few times. very nice.

I am somewhere between can't sleep cuz of mad excitement and can't sleep cuz I don't know whether I can still go. Horrible place to be. Also, if the latter, prepare to read my name in the Beeld soon.

My 2 cents, keep it simple for now. Learn to enjoy riding and having fun before killing yourself with a hectic training regime. I found that I got way fitter and lost a lot more weight by just having relaxed rides with the wife, rather than trying to outdo myself everytime with fast and hectic rides. Most importantly, I started enjoying my riding again!

What's the new toy? no pic or anything attached?

Yeah just the riser bars and stem makes a HUGE difference. Been doing those upgrades on every single bike I owned since I was a kid. One of my previous bikes was HUGE HUGE Giant xtc. It was way too big, even though it was correct. The bikes since then was normal XL size and they were perfect with the above upgrades. The bigger the bike the harder it becomes to ride them, so first do those upgrades before spending on a larger bike.

I clock in at just over 2m. I currently ride a Specialized xc pro XL size. Other than my seatpost being set quite high, and riser bars and steeper stem, I don't have many issues. Ocassionally I do get sore back and sore knees, but not too bad. I suppose those few cm's you have on me must make a huge difference. Also there is that weight penalty, being tall a normal weight for me is way higher than shorter people, huge penalty on climbs! For me the issue is finding lekker clothing, shoes etc. Finding secondhand bikes is impossible, and buying new always takes a long time for them to order the correct sizes!

So, like, is it like a common thing to do? I mean, do you do this every ride kind of thing? I have never ever used chamois cream, and to be honest, it's very close to buying other intimate products, I don't do it. Heeltemal te skaam...

I'm in. Doing the team lite with my dad. I am scared. I grew up in Sabie, I know those mountains, and how they can break you. Specially day 2, that climb is going to be insane.

hahahaha yeah, sal ook maar baggies dra van nou af.

I got these too. The legs are much shorter than my old ones, takes getting used to. They sit well though.

Have a look at Dailymile.com pretty similar to what you plan to do. While I personally love Dailymile, there are things I would like changed. They are a pretty awesome bunch too. I once mailed them asking to build a synch service for my cyclemeter app. Got instant response, and like a week later that feature was in beta. Something I would LOVE to have though (dunno if any other app does this), is a sort of "live" tracker. So the app on my phone records where I am etc, and on the site my wife can know how far from the end I am. Sort of like the Epic site does.