Duane_Bosch

Nice question @Quintin Baker Multiple issues for you to deal with there. And you haven't even asked which app to use yet. First up forget wheel on trainers. They absolutely suck. Yes they are cheaper but you are going to just end up with a cobweb collector lying in the garage. One trainer can work IN THEORY. Most trainers will have all the little adapters so you can run all of those setups but you aren't realistically going to swap out cassettes and axle attachments every time someone wants to do a workout. Also. If you share a trainer you're going to be the one doing the bike swapping. Trust me I know. The zwift cog will solve your cassette issues but it won't solve your axle issue. If you want to use a single trainer for all 3 of you the only realistic thing to buy is a smart bike or a spinning bike. That will give you the adjustability you need. I know some spinning bikes are compatible with cycling apps but more than that I don't know. Here is a 2nd hand smart bike that will give you everything you need. But 35k for a 2nd hand bike that can't actually go anywhere is a number. https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/item/indoor-trainers-and-accessories/844191/tacx-neobike-smart-trainer Another alternative is to buy 2 trainers. You can get a 2nd hand one for around 8k. One for you and one to share between your wife and son. You'll also need to get them a cheapie bike to mount on the trainer permanently so the axle issue goes away. The reason i say they share a trainer is because they are closer in size and might be able to reach a compromise ITO a trainer bike. Also you can then train together which is less torturous. The third alternative is to join a gym and do some spinning classes. Don't laugh. You can get super strong if you smash 3 spinning classes a week.

Yes that will work fine.

This is a bit more heavy after the passing of Graham Howes.

The problem us saffers have is we've been spoiled with Greg and think that only guys that have a legit shot at the win should race at worlds. There's maybe 5 guys right now that are in with a chance of a win. And maybe 10 who have a legitimate shot at the podium. If only those people raced the whole thing would be over in an afternoon. Theo is a world class rider who fulfilled CSA's criteria and fully deserves to be there. He's a multi time SA champion and when he tips in to a race run he's not "having a jol" He's going as hard as he possibly can. The way he earns his living is a different thing entirely.

Ok Report back time. My other half and I got back from (mostly) Spain yesterday where we did a bit of riding whilst on holiday. So not a full on riding trip. For the part of our trip where we did some riding we were based in Ronda. Ronda is about 100km inland from Malaga in the Andalucía region of Spain Some 100% opinion based feedback The Riding As a pure road riding destination I'd rate Mallorca higher. There's much more climbing and more known/famous routes in Mallorca. But Ronda was a better holiday location where you can take the family and still smash out some road rides. The roads were quiet. Even the A roads were super quiet and the Spanish drivers were VERY courteous and respectful of cyclists. I've never felt safer on a road than in Andalusia. We had 1 gps fail but the routes I planned were by and large great. There are no massive Alpine cols in this region but there's more than enough climbing to get the legs burning. It was super hot and my other half is a proper rooikoppie so we had to get out early and make sure we were back by 11 before the heat of the day became unbearable. The bikes We rented bikes from cyclesronda (highly recommended) The bikes were their low end bikes which were Ali framed, 105 equipped Stevens bikes. They were super well maintained and I literally had to raise my saddle by 5mm. That is all of the setup we did. We took our own pedals, gps's and lights. The owner of the shop gave us gpx files for routes that he recommended. We used those and the ones I'd put together to map out rides. General feedback The way we navigate in the world has changed in the past 5 years. If you're traveling into Europe it's best to set up an Esim from a company like Airolo before you go. You can get regional sims which will work all over Europe. Or if you have a phone from the stone age like me you can do what we did and buy a sim on arrival. This worked out more expensive than the airolo option and it was quite stressful knowing I had to source a sim basically at the airport Turkish airlines is ***. If you want to pre book seats even in economy you have to pay. I've never had to do this before. Also somehow the seats are super uncomfortable and the legroom is non existent. Even for a midget like me. We could only access our airbnb in Istanbul in the afternoon. We had to find a place to store our luggage and we were super tired. Looking back I should have just rented the place from the day before so we could get in. Have a nap and a shower and store our gear before hitting the city. The lesson is if you arrive in the morning just book the accommodation from the night before so you have a base to work from on arrival Getting around is expensive. We rented a car from a website called doyouspain.com. I specifically booked an automatic VW golf because I didn't want to faf with gears whilst driving on the wrong side of the road. What they gave us was a Seat Cupra wagon. OMG what an amazing car!! The car was great but parking, petrol and tolls will quickly eat into your budget. The lesson is rent a car but do so for as short a time as possible. Istanbul was great but I don't need to go there again. It's a great city but it is siff and people are getting in your face the entire time. The street food is amazing but the touristy spots like the blue mosque are overrun by sheeple following tour guides. If you do go get an istanbulcard at the train station at the airport. That pretty much makes getting around the city free. Don't go on one of those bosphorous cruises for 10 Euro but rather use your Istanbulcard and catch the normal ferry to the Asia side for around 2 Euro. It's pretty much the same thing.

He doesn't really earn a living from "racing" as such. He gets paid by Fox Europe and Monster and is more of a "free racer" as they say. There's maybe 10 (probably closer to 5) people on the whole planet that can do the darkfest line, race hardline and race at a world cup level. Theo is one of them. Is he fast enough to race at the highest level? Absolutely! Is he fast enough to race at Worlds? Absolutely! Will he win. Probably not. Disclaimer. I'm a fan. That track is SCARY AS HELL. I've ridden the top 2/3 of it (The bottom 1/3 can't be ridden out of races) and there are sections that I simply could not ride and slid down on my shoes and backside. The most impressive SA rider for me was Frankie Du Toit. Just making it down that hill in 1 piece is impressive. The whole track is STEEEEEEEP. And then there are even steeper bits. And then there are WTF bits. And then there sections that are steeper than any normal human can comprehend riding a bicycle down. You literally get the feeling of exposure the same way you get that feeling if you're rock climbing on an exposed wall. Honestly it was a terrifying experience just being on that track. Once was enough to convince me that it was completely out of my league.

When lockdown happened I was mega into Zwift. Doing training programs like a madman. Then for the last 3 years I honestly couldn't even comprehend getting on an indoor trainer. Then the Mali arrived and it got even worse. Cycling pretty much disappeared from the exercise regime. My wife and I are going to Spain at the end of this month to do some holidaying and a bit of riding so we're currently on a Mywoosh training program to mostly try and get our backsides used to saddles again. I must say Mywoosh is pretty damned good. Like really really good! We only do the workouts. No freeriding. We both do the workouts on my bike so no need to change bikes. I've set up a TV in the garage and we just take my laptop in there and off we go. I've downloaded a bunch of motocross and mtb stuff so that keeps me sane.

Ok so now that everything is booked and paid for and visa's have been approved I can tell all of you fine cats what my wife and I are up to. We're going to Spain to do some light riding and micro running at the end of this month. We were set on Spain pretty early on. We went to Mallorca in 2019 and absolutely loved that so we figured let's do another part of Spain. Originally I wanted to go to Girona and Andorra but my wife wasn't thaaat enthusiastic about Girona. Then my windows background showed an image of a beautiful bridge. I googled that and it was Ronda in Spain. I did also try to float the idea of going back to Morzine but that went down like a lead donut. We are going to (mostly) the Andalusia region of Spain. Our destinations are as follows. Istanbul 2 days, Ronda Spain 7 days, Tangier Morocco 2 days, Frigiliana Spain 2 days, Home We are flying into Malaga via Istanbul on Turkish. The price differential between spending 2 days in Istanbul vs One hit to Malaga was literally 7k each so we are going to spend 2 days floating around Isatnbul Then on to Malaga For our first Spain leg we are staying in Ronda. We've rented a car for 11 days and we're renting bikes for 5 days. We rented bikes in Mallorca before and that was completely painless. Yes it's costing 280 euro but hacking with 2 bikes if you're going to more than 1 destination really sucks the joy out of it. I've mapped out a few riding and trail running routes on komoot (see below) and I've downloaded the gpx files to my gps. Mostly easy stuff but this is by design. We're on holiday. I still need to do some planning ITO activities but we've got a good base to work from. Then we've booked 2 nights in Tangier. We've booked a ferry across to Tangier. The rental car has to be parked somewhere coz we're picking that up on the way back. We aren't allowed to put it on a ferry and it's not allowed to leave Europe. We've got a day trip out to the blue city from Tangier planned. Then it's back to Spain and a little town just off of the coast called frigiliana for 2 nights. Then home. So far we've spent around 75k between the 2 of us. But everything is paid for. The only thing outstanding is food and beer. We could have done it for less if we made more use of busses and trains and didn't rent a car but it is what it is. I'm no expert but I have done 12 cycling trips to Europe. (mostly to Morzine) and I have accompanied at least 30 people over there so I do have a bit of first hand knowledge. When it comes to going to Europe to ride these are my thoughts. The sandpit airlines are generally cheapest and you don't pay for a bike. Emirates, Qatar, Etihad The price of airline tickets seem to be heavily influenced by school holidays. Much more than pre covid IMO so try to fly outside of school holiday and euro summer holiday times. The organized stuff like Edusport takes the hassle out of it but that does come at a price. If you aren't the type to scour maps and figure out routes and obsessing over aibbnb's then an organized thing is best. Getting around costs so staying in one place will save you a ton of money Figure out if you are going on a riding holiday or a holiday that will involve some riding. If you're going on a holiday that involves some riding then you should definitely rent. If you do rent a car try to make it for as short a time as possible Bars and restaurants are going to kill your budget so try to rather airbnb so you can cook your own food on most nights Plan your riding. If you're planning on Ventoux for example plan to hit it early when you are still fresh and you can also reschedule if you have bad weather or a mechanical. I planned to do the Joux Plane with my other half in 2016 and one broken spoke and no bike shops open ended that If you're going mountain biking don't try to turn yourself into Greg or Alan Hatherley before the trip. You're just going to injure yourself. If you're going road riding consider renting. Mountain biking is a different story IMO That's all I can think of right now.

World Supercross coming to CAYPE TOWNE! Dec 13. Tomac, Roczen and a bunch of others! Tickets are on sale.

You need to go have lasik surgery.

Yissie those look sick! To be fair they weren't exactly obvious on the site. The Danube bike path one looks very nice.

What type of trip are you looking at doing? Point to point bike packing Road MTB? If you are prepared to be in a single area you can easily do it yourself. I've done multiple trips to France. One to Italy and one to Mallorca to cycle. All self planned and all great. My other half and I are busy sorting out a trip to Spain in September. We're basing ourselves in Ronda and I'm planning running and cycling routes using komoot and garmin heat maps. If you're planning a road bike trip rent there rather.

Love Love Love it! I have to go to the TT at least once in my life.

It's disappointing to me that people that are into bikes are not commenting on the TT........

From my experience the sandpit airlines are best to fly with a bike. But like I said renting a roadie in Europe is best. You should be able to get a 105 equipped carbon bike for around 30 Euro a day depending on where you are and you'll get it cheaper if you book for a longer time.

I've flown Turkish before and I paid $90 each way for a bike. There is no way to escape it. Speaking sweetly to the check in lady will not work. My advice. Rent a bike there. My wife and I went to Mallorca in 2019 and we rented bikes there. Irrespective of airline I'll NEVER take my own road bike to Europe again. It was such a painless experience. Renting is much much much more convenient. You book the bike online, take your helmet, shoes, gps and saddle if you're picky and it's done. No hassles with oversize luggage. No stressing about your bike not arriving. No stressing that some over zealous baggage handler is doing to destroy your pride and joy. My other half and I are flying Turkish to Andalucía in September and we're renting bikes. For the record. We're spending 2 days in Istanbul on the way there because the price differential between doing the stop over and going to Malaga in one hit was 8k. Each.

YES! Rory Kirk taking the W at the dirt masters in Winterberg

Ja I used to bounce between Zwift, Rouvy and Sufferfest. I would just line up my subscriptions so I don't pay for 2 in the same month. As a general comment. I REALLY wish Zwift or Mywoosh would just put all of the B roads on Mallorca into a map. That place is a cyclists paradise.

Zwift allows you 25km free a month so you can smash out test there once a month?

*Monolog alert! Of the 2 I'd go for option 3 which is Mywoosh. It is a bit resource intensive so you do need a bit of a good device to run it off. It's best feature is that it's free. IMO Of the 2 Zwift is better as a training tool whereas Rouvy is cool if you want to "ride" some routes you've ridden before or plan to ride in the future. As an overall experience Zwift is better. You have to bear the following in mind tho. 1. Mywoosh is free so I'd go for that over Rouvy or Zwift 2. Most of them have a free week or 2 so you can sample before committing 3. You aren't married to any of them so you can bounce between them if you get bored with whichever. However! Nothing is going to change the fact that you are pushing pedals and going nowhere so maybe do the following. Assuming you're running it on a laptop. 1. Get a semi dedicated training space going 2. Get a good fan. Preferably one with a remote so you can warm up a bit and then switch it on. Or put the fan on up front but wear a t shirt while you warm up and shed that. You don't need to spend 6k on the Wahoo one 3. Get a 2nd monitor and play youtubes or netflix or whatever on there to make the misery bearable. 4. Get onto a training program and just bash that out. 5. Get some sort of desk to hold your displays at eye level. There are many cheap options you don't have to spend thousands on the wahoo one 6. Get some earbud headphones so your family doesn't have to hear your youtubes while you are sweating 7. If you can get a cheapie training bike that lives on the trainer permanently. 8. Get a cheap yoga mat to collect the sweat. 9. You'll need a heart rate monitor.

As far as I know Bryton is no longer distributed in SA so if you do have issues there is no backup. For a more budget friendly gps I'd get one of those XOSS units. They are brought in by omnico.

I live in HB so can confirm. 26th Dec 2023 I helped a a cyclist who'd been liberated of her bike by a guy who hit her on the back of her head with a steel pipe. You DO NOT want to be riding past IY on a bicycle. Apart from the ever present risk of taking a steel pipe to the back of your head there's also an almost permanent river of poo flowing down the road. @Ed345 Kalk bay is a great spot to do some road riding from. Just keep an eye on windy/windguru coz Kalk Bay is very protected and just around the corner in fishhoek it can be blowing a gale.

I wonder where you'd base yourself as an XC pro? Loads of roadies and triathletes base themselves in Girona and the DH/Enduro guys seem to gravitate to Morz and Schladming area. The wifey and I are planning to head to Girona in June.

Yissie. I really feel for these young guns chasing their dreams.

Training river crossings. Some dogs are fine with it some not so much. My guy is in the second group so we have to train them.