scotty

Why are you planning on only doing 70km. Regards what to take on the bike try taking an energy drink but one you know you will be OK with and have trained with, don't try anything new on race day. In the race there are also WP with water, coke and energade/powerade along the route. For 100km races i start off with 2 weetbix biscuits and a slice of toast about 2 hours prior then i take 1 bottle energy drink and 1 bottle water, a banana and and energy bar or jelly babies during the race.

Thanks. i think this was covered in the first few pages

Suddenly makes sense and will explain it. she's not blonde.

Heard a female cyclist came down quite hard yesterday, get well soon.

Being prepared and able is one thing, sure whether female or even male you need to be be capable, but tubes fail, valves are faulty, pumps can break so even if you want to hold onto your one tube in case you yourself have an issue at least inquire if the rider is OK or offer to phone someone in case the you cannot/don't want to do. She did have her cell phone and had already made the call but riders passing don't know this. Hence the topic header, where have all the real men gone.

Done one better, iv'e replace the tires with ones that are easier to get off the rim now

She was not alone, she was with her mentally disabled son who's also a graded Muay Thai expert so she's certainly safe, being from Benoni its close by i'll introduce you and you can tell him.

I get what you saying, in my time iv'e given out plenty tubes, bombs etc, some times the person will ask how do they contact me to replace and i tell them pass it on but there have been other times they just go their merry way without saying anything. I still have an expensive multi tool which someone lent me during a race when my crank came off, we agreed to meet at the end so i can give it back but i could not find him. I did post on the Hub at the time hoping he would come forward but nothing to date.

She had Tyre levers Spare tube Pump Multi Function tool kit Cell Phone Pretty much everything you need to go for short +/- 20km road ride.

I have given her the theory of it, but she battled to get the tire off the rim, had she been able to i have no doubt she would have been able to fix it herself.

So yesterday while i was battling the koppies round Irene a friend who iv'e recently introduced to cycling decided to go for a cycle, riding along Atlas road towards Bonearo Park she gets a flat, iv'e given her the theory of changing a tube and i had made sure she had all the requirements, but she struggled with it in practice, do you think 1 of the cyclist (MTB and road) that passed her offered to help, nil, not one. She eventually had to walk quite a distance to the garage and call someone to fetch her.

Went to Rietvlei today, did few laps of green and yellow route. Trails were in excellent condition and well marked.

I also keen to know about 4 way stops, when approaching a busy (or not) 4 way stop in a group, do you stop single file and go through 1 by 1 or go through as a group. A group in excess of 10 will hold up traffic quite a bit as 1 car goes, 1 cyclist goes, 1 car goes, 1 cyclist goes BUT this is the right legal way to do it and motorist will fully understand.

Are there any stats available broken down into car, truck, cyclists etc. I'm keen to see how many cyclists are involved in accidents of this nature.

Local comming up Eqstra spring classic 7th Sept, short but quite a challenging route http://www.springclassic.co.za/ http://www.cycleevents.co.za/category/mtb-events/ also list various races

Repeating some of the above, without driving too far there's Nothern Farm, Modderfontein, Benoni CC, Big Red Barn, Rietvlei and its next door neighbour Thaba trails. A number of these places also have races at them,

2nd hand will get you good value for money for the amount you looking at but if you want to buy new have a look at the site below for a bike guide for new, it displays all brands. http://www.bicycling.co.za/bike-buyers-guide/

Interesting concept considering complaints that the existing groups are too big.

I'd suggest Pinocciorello's, named after Pinoccio who's nose grew everytime he told a lie.

Titus having a mop tug o war with one of my other dogs

Did the 103km, race went ok for someone who was last on his road bike at the Carnival race and then i only raced the 60k so was happy enough with my time. Marshaling was good, had a near miss incident coming out of Springs where a car ignored marshal and turned in front of me, then just after we turned onto Rondebuilt road i was in a large group of mixed bag riders and some guys went down as they swerved to pass a shorter distance rider. Saw the accident at Hyperama which i heard after was the Metro police fault with 2 officers not communicating with each other and both indicating the 2 vehicles to drive at the same time. Was surprised to see only 1 metro policeman at the Rondebult/Northrand road which is a major intersection although he appeared to be doing a good job and was assisted by 2 marshals. Beer and boerrie rolls after rounded off a tiring but enjoyable ride.

Starting in C batch today there were 2 riders with JL number's that slipped in, overheard them telling their mates they entered late and tried for earlier seeding, both were spat out within the 1st 10km.

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Correct, number pinned at back of shirt.

Results are out http://www.spectrumsport.co.za/Portals/17/ResultDoc/Emperors_Mtb_20140412.pdf