Chingy182

I've ridden on Wortelgat road before and into the reserve. You quickly start hitting a few sandy sections and before long you are pushing your bike through thick sand constantly. Just a side note that there have also been a few incidents on Wortelgat road with cyclists being knocked down. Quite a lot of speeding on that gravel road with puffs of dust making visibility very poor. Then the sun also hits that road at very awkward angles early morning and late afternoon. Can't say that I particularly enjoyed cycling on that road.

Yeah a 3rd option would be an upgrade to 11-speed But I also forgot for a moment that her mtb is Thru-Axle and my road bike is Quick-Release... Thanks for the painful reminder

Hi Sam I don't have any solutions for you, but I am in the exact same boat. I have an indoor trainer that I use with my road bike. I am 1.9m tall and my wife is 1.6m To complicate matters even further, my bike on the trainer is an 11-speed and her bike is a 10-speed. We are left with 2 options, which is to buy a bike somewhere midway between both of our sizes and just fiddle with the adjustments every ride (both maybe left a little uncomfortable) or just to bite the bullet and buy her an IDT too (not really feasible at this stage with finances).

My best Strava year to date: Distance 5,932.9 km Time 287h 6m Elev Gain 78,220 m Rides 154 At one point 7000km and 90 000 elevation was on the cards, but a lazy last 3 months of the year had the final say.

RIP Cois Like most of the other people here, I have never met Francois in real life. Unfortunately, I don't think I have ever had the words of wisdom or the guts to comment anything on this 105+ page thread, BUT I have read every single page. Every time I have dealt with some personal struggles I needed to bring myself back to this thread to gain some perspective of what real problems look like and to count my blessings rather. I have kept Francois in my mind on many, many of my longer rides as the mind starts to drift into thought. And I will continue to do so. He is a true warrior and an inspiration to so many of us here. @*Reinet* Marais My deepest condolences to you in this time. I would love to think that Francois has left you with a wonderful gift in this thread and I would like to encourage you to read through these pages some day to see just what a big impact he has made on so many of us, the love and support from so many hubbers and his love and dedication to YOU.

I got a bit of Deja vu reading this. Haven't done 17 Tours, but in my handful +1 I've fallen into the trap of chasing the pack from the start, only to bonk around 70km and crawl to the finish. This year I consciously went out at my own tempo up to Wynberg Hill and from there set out to grab a lekker group along the M3 and suck wheel to Smits. Things went a bit pear shaped from the Red Hill chill zone all the way into Noordhoek where the group completely disintegrated with people stopping for refreshments etc. and me having to fight my way through with only 2 or 3 other people trying to chase the pack. This effort took a lot of wind out of my sails that I was saving up for Chappies and Suikerbossie. It's crazy how quickly a 10m gap can turn into 50m and it's goodbye/good luck to you.

Like I said in a previous post, I really started to feel sorry for the tannie having to take quite a lot of abuse. The more time I've had to reflect on the fiasco, the more I remember how adamant she was on only 300 cyclists allowed through at a time. Not sure how she managed to keep track of 300 D riders and 300 E riders coming through and manage to keep a good headcount of it all. Only 110 riders ending up in 1D kinda sums it up.

Yes, I agree. Passing through Lakeside I thought to myself what are people living around these areas to do if they only starting around 09h00 or later. Initially, I was a bit upset at having to start in 2D, but resigned to the fact and not let that upset me too much. Happy to see nobody from 1D did sub 3hours - got a PB in 3h27 and potentially I could have gone sub 3h20. Not going to let 7 minutes stand in my way of happiness.

Seems like D and E batch has this mix up and serious confusion. Also meant to start 1D and ended up leaving with 2D as a result. Lots of guys just decided to jump out of the closed chute anyway and move ahead to where they needed to be. I eventually felt sorry for the ladies trying to manage the situation and receiving abuse from all directions.

Horrified reading all of these incidents. I lived in Milnerton until August 2020 and cycled ALL of these roads frequently alone to the start of the trails. I never really anticipated that the rot would extend as far as Klein Roosboom/Durbanville Hills side.

Hi, Sandero here. I parked at the bottom fields and managed to approach the exit with a bit of an angle and gave some foot at the right moment, trying to avoid spinning out. Boer maak 'n plan.

2021 Edition just got the rug pulled

Is this the same as the "Missing Link" trail or something completely different? If so, can you please share access point, etc?

I saw a FB post matching this description of happening on the Banhoek trails on Saturday morning around 11h30

From La Parada your best bet will be Tokai mtb trails - Day permit is R97 CASH at the gate. You can easily cycle from the Restaurant to the start (maybe 6-7km). If you want a nice challenge go straight up to the top of the mast, as you come down again where you will pass a little picnic table bench, you go straight up there which will take you into Silvermine reserve. Cycle up the tar road to the first car park on your right and head back onto jeep track. Keep following the road and just about 100m before you reach the top of the climb, there is a path that veers off to the right known as the DONKEY trail. This takes you right back down and back into Tokai trails. Here you can head back up the same path you did heading towards silvermine reserve and go up to the right where the road splits again and ride down the COBRA (black trail) and continue all the way down the rest of the snake trails towards the exit gate. This should give you LOADS of elevation and a good 70 odd km and some really cool trails. Disclaimer - access points to Cobra and Donkey trails are not very well marked. The bike shop down the road from the start of the trails (at the roundabout) has a really cool picture of all the trails on their wall that you can take a picture of to help you with a bit of guidance. First time on Tokai trails, it's quite easy to get a bit lost.

So, I have received some feedback from the event organisers... Gravel bikes are allowed at the race. Interesting side note: They are only aware of 1 rider who has done the race on a gravel bike in the events' history. Do I take that as a sign that I rather ride my mtb or do I become nr 2

Thanks. More food for thought. I am not under any illusion of coming in under the top 15-20% of riders. Maybe just have a lekker personal "fast race".

Thanks for the input. I will also just find out from the race organisers if Gravel Bikes are permitted, because you never know As for flowing single track, ie. no big rock gardens or drops, I can manage quite easy with the gravel bike through all this and then have a lekker beast at my disposal on the open roads. Happy to hear I can pack light in terms of what snacks I stuff down my back pocket

Re-opening this thread for some advise. I've entered for the 2021 edition (Covid-pending) Can you ride this on a gravel bike or is a mtb the preferred choice? I felt like there is some vague mention of single track in the 40km route and not sure if the 80km will also be traversing some of this.

Quick question on the Makro vouchers: How do they actually work? You receive a voucher code, do you activate it to your Makro M-Card App or do you simply show this to the person at the checkout counter to redeem? Or can you only use it for online purchases?

How many times did you swat at your screen?

I've used them a couple of times, thought their service was good enough, considering everything in this country. Something I am not happy about this time around; I added some marked down items on the website to my basket, only to be told that the prices with suppliers have gone up. Almost added R1500 to my original order - I just left it and will wait for a special deal when it arrives again. I do want to support them more.

It's happened to me on a few occasions. I pop them a mail to let them know and usually get a response back saying they are aware of the issue and Safe Days will be offered retrospectively, etc... Usually is resolved and I do get my days allocated. Right now I am getting my Safe Days, so no issue my side.

Thanks Gen Even better then

A quick calculation on my current Myriad discount of 60% being on Level 5, Private Club, etc. vs 40% in 2021 if I don't do the health assessment. It will be about R120pm increase on my monthly premium (R1440 total for the year). Now divide that up by 2x fitness assessment at R400 each, then I'd only be saving around R600 for the year. Juice does not seem worth the squeeze