Duane_Bosch

I've always taken my own MTB but on my last roadie trip with my wife we rented and the convenience was great. Just arrive and pick up your bike. No lugging huge boxes around. No stressing whether your bike will actually arrive. And yes. The wear and tear is unbelievable. a standard day in Morz (6000m of descending) is 50 runs at Paarl. I imagine whistler will be similar.

It's no worries going on your own. You'll make friends quickly. just be a friendly saffer. And legit ask a crew of similar ability. Hey I'm here on my own. Can I ride with you guys? Yes those spring loaded boys. I start using that about 6 months out to try and build up hand strength. Also on the topic of hands. Don't buy new gloves. Rather take nicely worn in gloves that you know won't give you blisters. I'd also suggest riding with a hydration pack that has a built in back protector. That takes care of 3 things. Water, spares, protection Can't help you in that last one. On the riding. Don't just send a trail blind. The trails do turn into a blur of fun but do at least 1 sighting lap before you bam a trail. Also if you do stop on trail pull right off. You NEVER stop in the trail. Ever.

I've not done Whistler but I've done Morzine and the surrounding parks 9 or 10 times. My 2c 1. If You're going late the trails will be rough with lots of braking bumps which means your body is going to take a beating. Take anti inflams. 1 in the morning 2 in the afternoon. 2. try to build up hand strength beforehand. Those hand strengthener goodies always worked for me 3. I'd highly recommend renting or buying a dh bike. Remember all of your altitude gain is free so riding a big DH rig doesn't come at a huge physical cost. Also when you get fatigued and start making mistakes a DH bike is way more forgiving. Something with VERY GOOD brakes. You can ride a 160mm bike but you want to be on a big bike. Especially if it's your first trip. You'll pick up something 2nd hand for not much money. 4. The youtube vids DO NOT do justice to the steepness of the trails and the size of the jumps. A Line will be quite challenging for a virgin Sa rider. The jumps on there are likely to be the biggest you've ever ridden. The trails are color coded so slowly work your way via the easier trails to A Line. If you just try send A Line on day 1 you'll likely hurt yourself. 5. Ride within yourself and finish the trip. You're on holiday not trying out for Rampage. You'll see loads of day 1 hero's with broken arms sucking beers while their mates are having the time of their life hitting laps. Don't be one of those guys. 6. Try your best to take it all in. You might never go back. *Edit 7. don't turn your nose up to the easier trails. The easy trails are the most fun ones. The worst green trail over there is likely to be way better than the best trail you've ever ridden here. Especially as you got to the top of it on a ski lift taking in amazing views and chatting to some like minded people. 8. These trips are the most fun with a crew of mates. Try to go with friends or try to make new ones when you are there and ride with them. Most people are super friendly and are happy to ride with a tag along. On our various trips we've often spent the day riding and having a beer afterwards with a total stranger.

This has been a while in the making. They're racing in AMA supercross next year in the 250 class so they aren't messing about. Bobby Hewett (Ex Husky team boss) is managing the team. Young hotshot Evan Ferry Has been signed on a multi year deal so they're looking to make an impact. BETA is also entering the AMA next year with Colt Nichols on the 450.

I used to put one of those grey PEP blankets between the tailgate pad and the tailgate. Bit of a mission getting it cut to size and getting all 3 bits to fit nicely together but it seemed to work.

This is going to be an unpopular opinion. My 2c. New components and Ali trump old worn high end stuff and carbon. That TCR is as old as god and is going to give you nothing but heartache. This is a lower spec but it's modern and IMO a MUCH better buy. It's in your neck of the woods and the sizing is right. You can buy this and not spend a cent for a long time. It even comes with MTB pedals so you'll have access to a big variety of cycling shoes to buy. The only potential issue is the steerer has been cut which could negatively affect fit. https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/item/road-bikes/636667/giant-contend-large

That place gets unbelievably hot. We stayed in one of those tented camps in the summer. It was SO hot. Having a hyena 1m away from me (a fence between us) whilst braaing was rather memorable.

The one ranger I have encountered in the reserve seemed more bothered by my mate recording his secret surf spot (Blackrocks) than catching any poachers. I've also witnessed 2 bakkie loads of poachers in full diving gear driving past the HB market to jump on boats at 9.30 on a Friday night. No skaam at all. From Tableview to Melkbos the catching of poachers is left to neighborhood watch groups. I'm sorry mate. They do a dismal job of catching poachers.

I know a guy who takes his bike with him to surf in the reserve for this very reason.

Running a Samsung blah blah (the new one) tablet. With an Elite Zumo. It's been collecting dust for a year. Thoughts of lockdown workouts still turn my stomach. My better half did a ride on mywoosh this morning. The only issue was that once my user had been connected to the trainer her user would not find the trainer. Switched bluetooth off and back on and off she went. She used a youtube playlist on her phone for tunes. It's not Zwift but it's not bad.

I honestly don't know. These are the ones I'm talking about. The yellow ones. They work well for me for low light winter riding/running https://revureplacementlenses.co.za/product/lenses-for-oakley-jawbreaker-oo9290/

I assume you've been? My wife isn't into bike racing at all but she's always been game for the random places I've chosen as holiday destinations and she said the island looks beautiful.

I don't really think it's a Stock vs Superbike comparison TBH. My point was that joe public can literally buy a bike (and finance it) that is capable of lap record speeds round the Isle of Man. Having said that I know James Hillier who is a top 10 guy used to put slicks on his stocker and race that in the 2 superbike races. I don't know if he still does that.

The TT is on my to do list for sure. Not the entire time. Just 2 days or so

Apologies for the racing talk. Last week Peter Hickman set an outright lap record at the TT of 136.358 AVERAGE speed around the TT course. That's 219kph. That's the new outright lap record around the TT. What makes this incredible is that this was set on his SUPERSTOCK bike. NOT the full blown 250 bhp WSBK spec superbike. This just shows how incredibly fast the bikes that us plebs can buy off of the showroom floor are. A stocker is basically a showroom bike with upgraded suspension, a power commander, an aftermarket pipe and a race fairing. The only thing you're allowed to do to the motor is change a gasket or 2.

Funny thing. When I was into motocross bikes the ads all say "never been raced". A good mate pointed out that you WANT a race bike. Yes the throttle has been held open but they are generally much better maintained than a farm bike.

Is IPTV legal? Not pointing fingers or any of that just a question.

I'm pretty sure what you've described there is a criminal offense in many countries that carries the same punishment as misgendering someone.

Michael Dunlop might just break uncle Joey's record for wins this year. He's already surpassed John McGuinness' tally. It's only proper that a Dunlop owns that record. Edit. Win #25 for young Dunlop with a 130.4mph lap on a 600cc Yam. Pretty sure that's a record. He's REALLY pulling finger this year. It's well known that he's.... um. A little difficult to deal with from a team management perspective. This year he seems to be running his own bikes and team which seems to really work for him. Also He doesn't do BSB like the other top guys. He's a pure road racer. Maybe the last top level one.

Yes indeed. From a layman's perspective I think the biggest difference between Moto GP bikes and WSBK bikes from a lap time perspective are the brakes. Moto GP bikes have carbon brakes which allow them to brake later and harder. Regarding the aero appearing on moto gp bike. Words cannot describe how absolutely hideous I think that stuff is.

I know it's racing but who doesn't like a few interesting factoids? Fancy a Moto GP vs WSBK lap time comparison? Alvaro Bautista recently did a 1:33.03 around Misano in testing on his WSBK Ducati. Which is almost 2 seconds slower than the all time lap record of Peco Bagnaia with a 1:31.06 On his Ducati Motougly. 2 seconds doesn't sound like much but if you look at the fastest lap times around Misano by bike and rider combo Bautista's time is only good for 101st place. Source: https://fastestlaps.com/tracks/misano

My wifey and I are planning our first overseas trip (funds dependent) since the covids came. We're planning on going to Nice late October/Early Nov. And by pure coincidence there's a half and a full marathon between Nice and Cannes on the 5th of November. If it all comes together it will be our first race. I've never run 21km before so that scares me a bit. At the moment we're doing 5km 3 times a week so we'd have to up our game quite a lot. the longest distance we've ever run is 14km And here @ScottCM is talking Comrades. Does not compute.

Update on The Ulf He's taken to man trailing incredibly well. So much so that we've joined K9 Search and Rescue and we're getting all very serious about it. He's a trailing dog which means we need a scent item and where the person was last seen to begin a search. He takes scent off the scent item, we do a circle around the scent item for him to detect a direction of travel. Then the harness goes on and it's GO TIME! The attached video he did a trail of about 1km with a few backtracks. He's got such a good nose and incredible drive. The only negative is he's actually too strong and my lead work is shocking. We work with 2 types of dog. Air Scenters. Those would have been used in the Turkey quake disaster. They are trained to indicate on any human scent. The dogs work off lead and there's typically a grid pattern search. Much like you'd do a normal search but a dog's nose is a lot better than a humans eyes. Cadaver dogs. Same as air scent dogs but they are trained to find dead scent. Dogs tend to shy away from dead scent. Trailing dogs. My guy is a trailing dog which means he's looking for a specific scent on a trail. We need a scent item and a last known location. We've done some really cool stuff like scent from a car seat and also scent from a body. We've also done aged trails. The one dog took scent from the mom and found a "missing" baby. This was in training in a controlled environment of course. The reward he's working for is play time with his tug toy. When he indicates (sits in front of his missing person/perp) the tug comes out and he gets rewarded with a whole lot of tug play. He's got a specific trailing harness so when that thing comes out he knows it's go time. WhatsApp Video 2023-04-03 at 08.19.26.mp4

My last thought on this. The winds here fairly light from now. It still blows but it's not crazy bad. For the best experience. Get an Uber XL to Hout Bay. Right to the bottom of Chapmans Peak. Ride from there. Go via Fish Hoek and Simons Town on the way out. That side is every bit as beautiful as the west side. On the way back go via Scarborough and Kommetjie. There's a great coffee stop in scarborough called the village hub. You'll re connect with your out route in Sun Valley. Ride over Chapmans Peak on the way back so you get to do it twice in 1 day. Total trip will be 75km with about 800m in climbing. If you want to go to the actual Cape Point add another 25km on to that for a total distance of 100km and about 1100m in climbing. You'll pay to enter the reserve and it's extra for a bike. The last time we did it my sister in law who is a foreigner paid very close to R400. I surf in the reserve fairly often and for me it's a sacred place. Take it slow and enjoy the sights. Get an Uber XL back from Hout Bay. I'd STRONGLY advise against catching a train for foreigners. I've ridden commuter trains in Italy and our local equivalents are terrible in comparison.

The train end in Simons Town and it's 10km from there to the gate of the reserve. Then from there it's another 12km to the point. As others have said. You do NOT want to use public transport in South Africa. The red bus https://www.citysightseeing.co.za/en/cape-town is a nice way to see the city and down as far as Hout Bay. It doesn't go over chapmans peak or to the reserve. I'd try to book an Uber or private shuttle. I assume you are staying in a hotel. If so they will be able to sort that out for you quite easily. If you can got to the point via Hout Bay and chapmans peak and head back to the city via Simons Town and Kalk Bay. They're both beautiful routes.