SSCC

I’d never buy a roof mounted bike rack again after driving into the garage with bikes up top. It looks like one could make the same mistake with this rack. Or would the wheels be lower than a standard garage door?

All sports drinks are essentially water, sugars, salt. The shitty ones add other crap like artificial colors, artificial flavors and preservatives. Energade is one of those. Plus it’s a low carb sports drink by modern standards so it fails on multiple fronts. If you’re mid ride and desperate and there is nothing else then it will do the job but its far from a good product.

That Energade is a good product?

Any recommendations for couriers to send a bike (boxed) from Cape Town up to somewhere on the garden route?

The “spirit of gravel” is already dead so he may as well build something he can sell to the Ironman group for big bucks in a few years (insert joke emoji)

No TT bars allowed. Benky used them before the rule was put in place the following year.

Fantastic event. Interesting route with good amount of variety. I loved it! Doesn’t that local coffee shop have a mobile coffee trailer? Seems like a missed opportunity to make 100+ coffees on race morning. Or perhaps Seattle would send a crew up for the day.

Most enthusiastic amateurs will be able to maintain 30 km/h for a long time, and the difference provided at this speed is still significant. Upgrading from the Trek Emonda ALR to the fastest bike in the test, you can save 7.03 to 13.62 watt It’s an interesting test. But change the wheels on the 2015 rim brake bike and the difference to every other bike in the test would be pretty small at 30kmhr. Let’s face it most amateurs don’t even average that riding solo.

Is the reason for the 50 chainring because you are using this as a road and gravel bike?

You’re doing the same mid week rides on the same routes (road) just switching from MTB to road bike? If that’s the case then the answer is no. If you were switching mid week actual MTB rides for road rides then the answer is perhaps, maybe.

Thanks for the link. I was looking at the recently. Such a good deal for essentially an alloy SL7.

Mainly cost. It’s hard for me to justify spending +R50k on yet another bike which is what a decent disc road bike will cost. Decent rim brake bikes are around for R20k. But ya I hear you on how good disc brakes are.

I’ve ridden disc brake gravel and mountain bikes exclusively for the last 9 years. Haven’t been on a rim brake bike in 10 years. I’m doing more road riding and started thinking about buying a rim brake road bike. Or alternatively a deep section wheelset with road tyres for the gravel bike. Thoughts? Cost is about the same.

The RS are faster and more supple. Plenty puncture protection for road and good gravel roads. Slightly less so for chunky dirt. If it’s a social DC Pirelli or RS would be fine. They are both about 10 to 20 watts slower than a top tier skinner road tyre if that matters to you.

It’s great you are putting this on but you guys are not the first to bring it to SA. In 2018 there was a gravel bike gravduro from Trails End hotel using many of the same trails including Hans Se Kop. It’s a great concept and should be a good day out.

This must be an open mold frame right? No bike company is designing its own disc brake bikes in 2024 with max 28mm tyre clearance.

Is that a typo - max tyre clearance 28mm?

Maple syrup is delicious but it’s 40 times the price of cane sugar and has no additional benefits for endurance sports.

Do you know the max tyre clearance on the Supersix rim brake frame?

I think for running or for extreme heat Mauten makes sense. The research I have read shows that their products have a faster gastric emptying time. But no greater exogenous carbohydrate oxidation per hour vs no hydrogel products. In layman’s language - the Mauten carbs move through the gut faster but it does not supply you with more “energy” per hour vs regular products. Maybe the faster gastric emptying is worth the very high product cost in some situations like a hot running race or triathlon in Hawaii but in other situations Maurten does not seem to provide an advantage.

There are many different grades or types of Maltodextrin. Some have almost no sweetness at all whereas others can be a lot sweeter. It’s a key ingredient because you want the very low sweetness type to counter the extreme sweetness of fructose. Point being they are not all the same so switching suppliers may give you a very different product.

There is not a huge difference in rainfall data between July and Sept in Swellendam. July gets a little more than Sept but on average has slightly less rain days.

Congrats! The headwind in the last 40km was proper. Good thing that the roads were dry and rolling pretty fast. I really hope the numbers for all distances bounce back because this is a superbly organized event. Very safe routes, well marshaled, excellent aid stations.

This should be a fun event. We did this exact type of gravel enduro event back in 2018 from Trails End. Lots of the same trails including Hans se Kop. The 100km is going to get a tougher day than most people realize.

Chris an informed opinion would be from someone that currently lives in Swellendam and had ridden those roads in the last 2 weeks. Not from childhood memories. You stated that it would be a mud fest based on rainfall that hit Cape Town. That’s not helpful or accurate.