SSCC

The Munga unsupported? There are 10 water points and 5 race villages. They provide riders with rooms, beds, meals at any time of the day. Medical backup with paramedics spread out across the route. It's a fully supported race. A fully supported race across 1,100km. Have a think about what that means in terms of logistics and costs. Do you imagine that a hotel that serves as one of the race villages is free to the race organizers? Or a luxury lodge in the Tankwa is free? The TCR is an unsupported race that will cost most riders about R50k to do. The GBP350 cost of entry is insignificant in the overall cost that each rider pays to do this race.

If you buy some something from Takealot or Amazon you have to return it before they refund you. The seller is right to ask you to return it before refunding.

Totally. The race scene in SA (particularly the WP) is ridiculously good. It's crazy but the gravel / MTB races offerings are way better than the USA. No comparison. Around the Pot is outstanding value. So is the new Gravel DC, Swartberg etc. People need to realize that the subsidized PPA events that cost R350 are not a realistic benchmark. At the same time you don't need to pay R2,000 for a GPX file. Get some mates together and go do a big day out for free.

The Munga is worth every cent IMO. I think you would be hard pressed to find someone that has done the event that does not feel that way. There are maybe 6 people each year that enter the Munga for a chance to win some cash. Of those 6 perhaps 3 of them won't enter if there is no prize purse. Every other person that enters could not care less about prize money. There is also no comparison between self supported races like TD or AZTR and the Munga or Freedom Challenge. In fact people used to the unbelievable level of service at those SA events would likely not dig the "free" self supported scene at all (for many reasons). BTW the TD will likely cost you about R40k to do excluding flights. That's just the cost of food and some accommodation on the route. You can do it for less but not many people camp out every single night. It's the most expense free race in the world. What I feel is getting out of hand is self supported races that provide a GPX file and nothing else and charge a few thousand for entry. There is just no value in that.

You could also say ; Cycling is a contributory factor to Shermer's neck. Saddles are a contributory factor to saddles sores. Many people fail with aerobars because they don't come from a TT or triathlon background and think they can just slap aerobars on their bike a couple of weeks before their race. So sure if you don't set them up right for long distance riding (high, wide, short reach to pads) and you don't put in 100+ hours on them to condition your neck and back then you are likely to fail.

You don't really need a high powered headlamp for the Munga. There is no real single track so you are not turning sharp corners and a handlebar light works just fine. To light up your GPS get a small ultralight headlamp from a running / outdoor store. I've got one that weighs 30g + 12g for the 2 coin batteries. If you get Shermer's neck raise your bars, shorten your reach and get a very light helmet. Learn to relax when you ride and not hold tension in your hands, arms, shoulders, neck, face, jaw. Do some off-bike body conditioning. If you cant get comfortable with aerobars then you have them setup wrong. Setup right you should be able to fall asleep on them and have no neck or saddle pain.

Lynskey makes excellent frames. How's it handle the corrugated roads of the Weltevrede loop?

South Africa is at least 10 years behind the other places I have lived and we are slow to catch on. The vegan movement is only just gaining momentum here and the lessons still have to be learned. That can only come with time. Lets check back in another 6 years or so when you been on this way of eating for a decent length of time. Anyway I'm out. I just wanted to share my experience and perhaps help people like you that are new to this. Cheers.

My own experience mirrors some of what I hear from other long term vegans. Blood work. Things may only start to show up after quite a few years. Time spend out of the city in the country actually growing my own food. Veganism is largely an urban phenomenon. I believe it comes about from a disconnection from nature. Disconnection from the cycle of birth and death. We have zero real exposure to that living in a city. We have no connection with animals besides our pets. Then you watch one of those movies and read the China study. The abuse animals suffer in factory farms is intolerable. Perhaps humans great crime. Stopping eating meat is a logical step. But when you remove yourself from a big city environment you really get to understand our place in nature and things change. Just to add - some country folks I know that hunt or manage their own animals for food are more vegan then any vegan I ever met i.e. they really love animals and respect them in a way that city people will never understand.

Again unless you account for confounding factors the data is not worth anything. All of the communities that show increased longevity are not vegan. They eat predominately a plant based diet that includes some meat and or fish and usually some dairy products. I'm not trying to be argumentative but at 4 years you are very new to this. Many of the "founders" or early adopters or promoters of the vegan and raw food movement are no longer vegan. These are not casual adopters but people that built nutrition companies who's sole aim was to sell vegan products and live the vegan lifestyle. In other words it was their life, identity and how they made (make) their living. So it can take a long time (decade or more) to figure some of this stuff out. I personally think veganism is a worthwhile experiment but like any ideology it can be a trap. People become so identified with the ideology that they lose their ability to make decisions based on intuition. Their body may be telling them one thing but their desire to conform to the ideals that they have created overrides intuition and reason.

Not a vegan study. There are significant difference between vegetarian and vegan diets as you know. These studies are also pretty worthless. Unless you remove all of the confounding factors such as smoking, alcohol, lifestyle, exercise, income, stress levels from work and relationships, urban vs rural you end up with garbage statistics. And because there has never been a single large vegan society in human history (vegetarian yes) we can't make any sensible claims about it's long term viability. The best we can say at this point is that it seems to work in the short or medium term for some people. Additionally that is may work long term for some but it certainly does not work for everyone. I'm not bashing veganism. I went down that road over ten years ago. A worthwhile question to ask anyone promoting a vegan diet is - how long you have been on it and what is your age? When I mean on it I mean a continuous stretch of time with ZERO animal products.

I'm looking for a Munga entry if anyone has entered but can't make the event. Thanks.

Did you guys read the article before reacting to the entry price? At R1,000 per team member the organizers are just covering costs.

It's usually the brake calipers that are the problem not the frame. I've used 28's with Ultegra brakes but could not inflate them past 70psi or they would rub. It also depends on the manufacture as some tyres are wider and taller then others.

Well said. I think this is s fair and balanced review of the organizers races in the Cape so far. I also felt that whoever designed the Meerendal Ashburton route in 2015 had never actually riden a mountain bike. That said I will continue to support them at least for one more year. Last chance if you will.

How tough would the Swartberg descent be on a road bike with 25c tyres? Anyone one done it.

How tough would the Swartberg descent be on a road bike with 25c tyres? Anyone one done it.

South Africa does not have the same level of political correctness (thank goodness) as the USA. While the Spur imagery is offensive to many Americans it does my have the same significance in SA. Our venacular includes terms like coloured to describe a person of mixed race. In the USA that would be highly offensive. In SA its accepted. Same with guys cycling in Lycra showing their knees. In some cultures that's offensive as men should not show their un-covered legs. With all of this you have to consider culture and location.

The direct model often sets a retail price that the dealers can't match. By selling direct the brand gives away some of the 35% the dealer would have made by trimming the retail price. End result brand makes a higher margin and consumer gets better pricing. That's why dealers don't like the direct model and usually won't support brands that go this route.