dexterdent

Yeah I tried watching a bit but it felt like this: "There goes Specialized Rider XX into the John Deere corner. They used Paris Roubaix and Flanders as a nice warmup for this Bass Pro pothole section. That pedal stroke was sponsored by Haagen Dazz and should be good for the upcoming sprint point, presented by Dairy Queen." I'm surprised they didn't make the riders stop for a few minutes to fit in some more ads and a halftime show. I count 45 sponsors on their website!

Slightly off topic, but is there any other shoe you would recommend? I'm looking for something light, 2-bolt, hopefully breezy, for road and gravel. Googling basically gets me to the Recon and Shimano RX-801, but if there are other options I should be looking at I'd be very happy to save some bucks.

Yeah had some 1A plonker shouting that in the Bakoven area as well - easy to ignore when you are likely the third 1B group catching and passing him when he runs out of wheels to suck again.

I can't wait and like every year it will be awesome/horrible depending on weather/mechanicals and I'll still love it and be back the year after. I'm still in the "do it as fast as you and your wallet can allow" phase, but have done enough playing around with the stats to know that your time on the day is mostly a function of the weather and your seeding, so I don't let mildly arbitrary time targets take away from my enjoyment (or sense of progression). For me, I get more value from trying to finish as well as possible in my group.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. #bikemaths

Yeah it's an Evolve Cima with their inhouse Kreuza handlbars. I have Ultegra DI2 on it, Lun Routte SE wheels, will be running either Favero power pedals or a 4iiii crank arm. GP5000 S TR tubeless tyres. I'm not the most experienced at high-end frames like this, but I have seen a few of them in shops and this frame compares very favourably in terms of the quality of workmanship. Will only be able to take it out on the weekend. I got it from Evolve directly (i.e. from China). The experience was great - support was fast and knowledgeable, and even added a free aero bottle and cage (which I might not end up using). I ordered and paid on 26 Jan, was kept up to date until it got shipped through FedEx (~25 USD extra) on 6 Jan, and it got here on the 16th. Tax was less than expected and prepaid through the FedEx portal. My one worry as choosing the right handlebar specs - I spent a bit of time on geometry geeks. In hindsight I should probably have gone with a bikefit at a location that has an SL8 (they are very similar) and then used that to choose the handlebar, but it looks like my math worked out. ECC did the build very quickly and at a very reasonable price: And here it is back at home: I keep staring it it (I work from home and it sits behind me in my office...).

I'm getting a new bike! Got a good price on an Ultegra DI2 groupset, so found the perfect frame for me - packaging seriously good and looks amazing.

Looks like many local suppliers, and some of them are not really that much more expensive than aliexpress (and avoids SAPO, which has up to last year been great for me but seems to suck now).

Maybe not available on Temu, but certainly on Aliexpress (and even some local shops). The Xoss X2 heart rate monitor solved all of my HRM-related issues which include: 2 Wahoo Tickr's broken within a year, didn't even bother with warranty the 2nd time Sigma HRM broken within 2 years Garmin strap made about 6 months, new Temu straps outlasted the unit itself I think that most HRM's can't survive battery replacements for whatever reason, and as such the internal battery of the Xoss solves it - mines been going strong for 1.5 years.

They seem slightly cheaper on the direct Favero site, but I'd compare courier costs. You should only have to pay VAT on 110% of the value (i.e. 16.5% VAT), no duties as far as I know.

I bought something from Forkmods in Australia, and unfortunately they used SAPO. Suffice to say it has now been stuck at JIMC for a month and customer service just says "they are experiencing some delays, no ETA". Pity, because previously SAPO has not really given me problems. TEMU has been much better. I think the lack of itemised invoice is due to the way they bring packages into the country - so far it feels like I tend to pay less duties/VAT on every package than expected.

I'm pretty far down the rabbit whole of getting myself a new road bike: https://www.evolvebicycles.com/product-category/frame/ The frame size is pretty easy to choose, but I need to make sure I choose the correct stem/seatpost. My current roadbike does not have nice published geometry data (I have measured it, but lower confidence), but my gravel bike, on which I have also done a bikefit and am very happy with, does. So if I compare the two I get this: https://bikeinsights.com/compare?geometries=67ce8e5aaa8c97001b264019,5fa21a950cb1bf00179dcf19, The similar reach implies to me that I should get the same stem (i.e. 80mm)- it's a one piece so I have to get this right first time. I suppose there could be slight differences in the handlebar shape too which might impact this. The harder part for me is the seatpost choice: Any advice on how to choose this? My Rondo seatpost has about 170mm of exposed post from the clamp to the rails, and the seat is clamped mostly to the front part of the rails (i.e. the seat is relatively further back from the handlebars). It's a Easton EC90 20mm offset post. I'm not asking for anyone to do the work for me - mostly interested in how to figure this out.

This is a very useful context setting. It seems to me that we don't have a cycling versus motorist issue, we have an everyone versus bad/drunk drivers issue. In the many years I have lived and driven my car in Cape Town I have never been pulled over for a breathalyzer*. If this means they only pull over people who drive carelessly and then test them, it sends the message you can drive drunk as long as you drive safely (which of course is not possible). I suspect spending R180m on more roadblocks and random testing might save more lives than an N2 wall. *FYI, I don't really drink alcohol, and certainly not when driving.

Interesting - my Lun Routte road wheels also need bearing replacement a little more frequently than I would expect (it's pretty cheap though). Wonder if there is a more long term solution? The bike shop (who I trust completely) said they were pretty small bearings so that might be the reason.

This accidentally got added to my basket when I needed to buy a new freehub body for my road bike: Got delivered in 8 days from order from China.

I am very far from an expert on this, but as far as I could tell the following three things are the most important: 1. Sodium - get this from table salt 2. Potassium - get this from "low-sodium salt" (instead of pure NaCl), low sodium salt is often 50% KCl. Just check the ingredient list 3. Magnesium - harder to get in a cheap way, I just trust that my morning multivit has enough and it doesn't seem that urgent timing wise There's also calcium but I don't know enough about that. There's some cramping-related stuff here but I think I drink enough milk that it hasn't really bothered me. I found it useful to add this to my home made energy drink until I felt like I was getting enough in - this amount seems to vary significant from person to person. Take this advice with a grain of salt - if you are really interested go speak to an expert.

This almost makes it worth it to be a PPA member? Entry Fees for paid-up PPA Members: 109 km - R700 42 km - R500 General Entries will open on Monday, 6 October 2025 at 13h00 : 109 km - R940 42 km - R500 R300 PPA member rates, so only a R60 premium which I'll make up somewhere else. Unlikely to regret it I think.

I did the 124.5km, and the route, organization and marshals were all great. Likely to be back! I got a bit overexcited at the start and felt bad that only about two people were putting turns in in our big group so went and helped out bit. My seatpost came loose just as we turned into the wind, which set up a 10-15 min chase that probably burnt almost all of my matches - limped most of the way to the 80km turn off unable to really hold any wheels while also having a chain fall of a jockey wheel (and being too tired to realise what the problem was and fix it - a friendly guy pointed it out). That long climb into the headwind after the 80km turn-off broke me. I could never see more than 2 other people, and every time we got close we shared some moaning and then pushed on (literally pushed on some of the ramps). The start of that downhill was a bit scary with a crosswind seemingly out to move my front wheel 2m to the left without having the rest of the bike follow. Some nice downwind cruising and a surprise emergency waterpoint just before the tar probably saved my life. Because the tar drag into what felt like a hurricane had me wondering if I actually liked cycling at all, and that maybe I should stick to zwift racing. The strava section says it took me almost 40 minutes at 200W to do 10km with 115m of climbing, but it felt harder than Alpe de Huez. From there back home needed almost no pedaling and I felt like a sailboat. Passed a beautiful puffy on the smooth gravel roads back in, and rolled to the end in just over 6 hours. Legitimately my toughest day out on a bike ever, and I have cycled MUCH further, higher and longer. I tend to not measure my own success against others but rather against myself, so I'm pretty proud of making it through parts that I could have easily quit. Thanks Greyton!

The gpx on the website has this little in and out at ~53km: Is it real or will I get a little lost seeing as though by then I should be well and truly dropped and solo?

I decided it was time to try my 3km commute to work on my bicycle again this morning. Nearly got taken out by a Beyers Security bakkie turning right across Roeland Street into Hope without looking. Like in, he ended up stopping 3cm away from my leg after I jumped away. Two other motorists stopped to ask if I was fine. I probably shared the road peacefully with >100 others this morning. Rules / Laws are not going to fix this - most of the people that cause these accidents are either horrible drivers technically, or they are ignorant of the laws. The only way to fix this is proper consequences for actions. We just need a few of the very guilty people to spend some very public time behind bars for the news to spread. Killing someone by opening your car door indiscriminately, turning right across a lane without looking, or tailgating a cyclist without proper following distance (or many of the others ways drivers kill cyclists) should be so scary to any driver that the actions are just not possible anymore.

Called the top 3 exactly!

I've been very annoyed with pretty much all the HRM's I've had over the last few years. Sigma worked fine for 3 years and then as soon as I started doing more hours it broke, two Wahoo's that broke within a year (one replaced under warranty, didn't even bother with the next), Garmin HRM strap broke within 6 months (works well with generic Temu straps, but once the first battery change happens it motors through batteries). So looks like HRM's need to be seen as consumables, and if so, might as well get the cheap ones. Some cheap Magene's on Aliexpress, but I'm going for the Xoss X2 Pro which has a rechargeable sealed battery and can be found or sub-R500. Aliexpress tends to go through the post office which (at at least in my area) has always worked pretty well. Let's see if this might be the answer to my problem.

I did this a couple of weeks ago. Whatsapped the highest guest house who were really friendly and allowed access. You do pass a "Private road" gate but as per above, this might not really be private. Best practice to ask IMO. Those last 5km were the hardest climb I've done on my gravel bike, loved it! Section of around 5km @11-12% average with 14-16% bumps.

I use Silca Secret Wax and OrangeSeal. I'm completely converted to the immersion waxing methodology, mostly because it feels like way LESS hassle than cleaning chains all the time (I recently had a trip with a hired bicycle and had to go back to drip lube - no thanks). A local source of premium hotwax will be awesome - I'll buy some soon. Would it be a waste to mix the EnduroWax with the last bit of Silca I have left? Regarding sealant - I tried EnduroSeal before on my road bike and found it extremely lacking beyond like 3 bar. Recently also had issues on my gravel bike where it just would not seal a very small hole beyond 1.5 bar. In both cases Orangeseal sorted it pretty much permanently. Based on what I'm reading here, I think I might just have gotten a dud batch (or kept it too long) and I will try again.

Based on the heat and location, anyone that even makes it to halfway in today's stage has my respect. It's hot enough I'd be worried about my tyres melting. Even though I think outside of the racing part, the epic has become way too corporate and paying almost R100/km to ride trails you can do any other weekend seems crazy to me (maybe I'm just poor, do what you want with your money).