Jump to content

Mamil

Members
  • Posts

    3278
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Mamil

  1. 2 hours ago, Brawler said:

    What type of riding do you intend on doing? The recommended bikes are decent XC options but will suck for the more exciting trails at Tokai.

    I would hold out for a nice aggressive hard tail like a Merida Big Trail or Trek Roscoe 7. They can still pedal very well but you can also have fun on them. A do-it-all bike.

    I'm sure you will find one for 15-20k and they are relatively well spec'd for a beginner. 

     

    Here is one for R20k brand new:

    https://www.trekbikes.com/za/en_ZA/bikes/mountain-bikes/trail-mountain-bikes/roscoe/roscoe-7/p/35116/

    That is a proper bargain 

  2. 1 hour ago, Skubarra said:

    I am wired a bit differently, I am quite happy to start out on entry level stuff and upgrade where needed over time. Think that gives a good appreciation of where extra money spent actually adds value and where gains are negligible. I find value in that "journey". Always feel a newbie starting out on a high-end bike cant really appreciate what they are getting (or not getting) for their money 😀

    My first bike in 2015 was an entry level Momsen Hardtail - 3x drivetrain, narrow handlebars, very heavy - rode most of the local XC races on that and the Houwhoek tour a couple of times and a CTCT and then a Merida dual suss and then .... and after that .... each one has revealed a lot.

    ALthough how that momsen didn't kill me while hooking me on the sport I don't know

  3. 16 hours ago, Shandef007 said:

    I'm not 100% sure where the Chapmans peak lookout point is but yes the climb is steep, I go as far as the start of donkey trail.

    Ja I often ride there. Sorry to hear about this experience for your part and what it means for all of us.

    Looks a gorgeous machine. Hope you get it back

  4. 6 minutes ago, Scary Rider said:

    Jewie, on the topic of partners being equal and all...who's going to team up with you on an BMX? Maybe @Mamil??🤔😉

    Thread hijack ...

    What we have to understand about @Jewbaccais that he's a proper athlete who doesn't take himself too seriously unlike this mamil who has minimal ability and plans training, nutrition, race strategy meticulously to mitigate this dearth of talent. 

    So he arrives at the water point  having ridden the last 30km with empty bidons, announces that he doesn't have anyone to feed him, eats half a banana and the soggy end of a leftover boerie roll, and then takes a short nap before finishing ahead of me and my carefully mixed malto and fructose drink, my imported energy bars and my perfectly timed taper.

    It would not be a good marriage.

    To wit, I'm carefully curating my bike setup for munga at the end of the year, dynamo lights, losing the Camelbak in favour of saddle mounted bottle cages, painstaking selection of handlebar bag, fussing over whether aero bars will work for me. I'm already training, riding trial events .... Etc etc 

    @Jewbaccawill get his BMX out the back of the garage, brush the cobwebs off, do a loop of the green belt in preparation, lube his chain and be asleep at the third race village when I get there.

  5. 30 minutes ago, peetwindhoek said:

    Been wanting to do this ever since a friend told me you cannot call yourself a roadie if you have not done this. Or was he referring to Tour de Boland... Not sure.
    And then Mamil's updates this year has made me seriously "lus". But then I will not be able to DesestDash this year if I want to do Tour de Cap. 

    "Would you like honey or condensed milk on your bread?" asked Rabbit
    "Both" said Pooh, but then not to sound greedy added "But don't worry about the bread"

     

  6. Winde has a standing invitation to ride with me through early Friday afternoon traffic from Camp's bay through to Southern suburbs - he can dispense with the blue light escort he enjoyed on his recent publicity stunt ride with the PPA and deal with the Clover truck accelerating towards the red robot as the cycle lane ends just outside the waterfront, and the SUV squeezing past in the cycle lane ...

    The roads jammed packed with frustrated motorists in vehicles with obscene amounts of kilowatts idling in fumes of lung clogging diesel - the roads clogged like the arteries of the corpulent cayenne driver, whose rosy cheeks are patinaed with the telltale maroon lattice of high blood pressure the legacy of too many boozy business lunches while he hoots at the uber driver in his unroadworthy base model Toyota with broken mirrors and a scrape down the left hand door.

    Meanwhile me and the frightened looking pick n pay e bike delivery rider, exchange glances in recognition of the danger each of us is in. He looks barely in control of his steed and very frightened of the mayhem blocking the intersection ahead of us. An indifferent traffic cop, himself looking like he'd rather be having another boerie roll, stands in the middle of the intersection, offering no indication of whether he's overriding the robots or just passing the time of day. His firearm is slung low on his hip which makes me think twice about telling him he's not really helping the situation.

    What a mess.

    Earlier I descended through Kommetjie and on the way out, completely unprovoked, an ageing hippie, scrawny and brown from too much THC and sun flips me the bird for no reason whatsoever other than I'm a mamil on a bike in what I think is a nice looking ciovita outfit. Clearly some cyclist or other has called him something rude before.

    Later, on the Woodstock bridge, a little girl young enough to be my daughter flips me again cos I told her to wait one second while I filter to the left. I caught her 200 meters further on where the gridlock frustrated her progress again and told her she could be my daughter, and would she ride me off the road like that if I were her father. She gave some sassy retort, about me being old and I asked her where her mom was circa 2000 before leaving her behind. She overtook me again just as I entered my neighbourhood and I stopped next to her and gently reminded her to be careful who she flipped off because the next one may not be quite as nice as I am. To her credit she went red and coyly called me papa. 

    And I was thinking about Dale and the rider knocked over near Simonstown the other week and just how dangerous this is and how simply it could be changed if there was political will to do so - all the resources devoted to making sure that cars have space, roads, parking, and fuel and .. and and ... when our population could be reaping the rewards of cycling - the quiet, the health, the cleaner air .... all the benefits we all know.

    rant off - it was a lekker ride for on my Friday off.

    But seriously Winde - stop mouthing off about how muich you support cycling and actually do something.

    WhatsAppImage2024-03-22at15_55.32_78680b91.jpg.25d41478472f27368a238b8159050911.jpg

     

  7. 3 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

    @Mamil are you TRYING to get me divorced?!

    I am WAY off the pace, but may be less useless after getting ready for November

    Come @Jewbacca... It's an absolute blast. GC racing, small group, mostly friendly people ... "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" ... "Tempus fugit" ... "...and at my back I always hear, time's winged chariot drawing near" and all that jazz.

    Seriously I don't think de Villiers cycling is very good at marketing but the event adds something to the local racing scene so I want to support it.  

  8. Received this mailer for next year 

    Following an amazing 3rd edition of the Tour du Cap, entries are now open for the 2025 Tour, which takes place on 3-7 March 2025 in the lead-up the Cape Town Cycle Tour.
     
    Riders who enter before Friday 29 March will pay a preferential entry fee of R3600 before the fee reverts to the normal price of R4300.
     
    To enter, go to https://myactive.cc/TourduCap2025
     
    The tour route and format will remain the same for 2025 – all the route info is on www.tourducap.co.za


    To ease rider logistics, the tour is based at Kleine Vallej in Wellington for all 5 days, and all stages start at Kleine Valleij. All the stages also conclude at Kleine Valleij, with the exception of the queen stage 4, which finishes at the top of Du Toitskloof Pass in Paarl.

    The tour features two mountain top finishes, two flat finishes and an individual hill climb time trial. The 2024 route features more substance and the difficulty and length has increased.

    The hill climb time trail (stage 2) takes place on Bainskloof Pass and Bainskloof also plays host to the finish of the opening stage. The 2nd and 5th stages will dish up something for the sprinters while the 4th stage will likely be the decider over 132km and 1983m of vertical ascent, finishing at the top of Du Toitskloof Pass.

    The total distance is 464km while the elevation is 5245m.

    With the tour based at Kleine Valleij in Wellington, it eases rider logistics by vesting at the same venue every day.

    Riders can ideally book accommodation in Wellington for all five days. Once accommodation in Wellington is full, Paarl is also a nice option, only 13km from the venue.

    Entries for the tour are limited to 250 and are filling up nicely. For all the Tour info, click to www.tourducap.co.za
     
    For enquiries, email denishuman.cycling@outlook.com

  9. 54 minutes ago, tinmug said:

    If I can add my 2c worth of possibly-useful info: pay attention to the groupset on the bike before you peel back the velcro on your wallet (if I gauge your age correctly; i.e only a little younger than I am 😀). 

    When I returned to the sport I first bought a good frame (I get points for that), but an iffy crank/derailleur/shifters/brakes. Mere weeks later I paid again to upgrade those bits.

    You quickly learn where the quality lies – and what is overkill – and settle on something reliable, durable and pleasant to work with. I am not siding with one brand over the other – I ride what I used in the Eighties and that works just fine for me, wife rides my Eighties brand and the new brand on two different bikes and she's absolutely content with both – but will campaign for a certain level within each brand. I am rambling too much.

    Welcome, and enjoy the new venture. 👏

    That's good advice. Take a chain checker tool to any viewing.

  10. 5 minutes ago, 'Dale said:

    Lots of tears of gratitude and relief today, Peoples. So many achievements unlocked on my pathway to recovery after my visit to my orthopaedic surgeon.

    Spoon cast and bandaging removed and my ankle is looking good after two weeks of post-op recovery. Stitches on my soft tissue wound around the right calf removed as well; about 40 - 50 of them, excluding about a dozen of internal stitches that will remain and eventually dissolve. 

    I am welcoming in the rehabilitation phase with physiotherapy starting on Friday. It is also time to ask my wife to lift me to the gym with my moon boot and crutches for next 3 weeks so I can go pomp my mossels. 

    I can feel my life force is slowly returning, like a tide coming back in, and I begin to look forward to the horizon.

    IMG_6063.jpeg

    Lekker. Excellent news. 

  11. 13 minutes ago, Kom said:

    Dear PPA,

    Well played on timing the discounted CTCT '25 entries, i dont mind renewing my membership!

    As a though, why not offer a full bundle which includes Winelands, Tour de PPA etc

    Chat soon - KOM

    image.png.b68f5c139fa3ae2304b61e4536a683be.png

    Here's that point where I rescind my annual decision that the risks are not worth it and I compulsively enter again.

  12. After the tour and finding my S.O. on the short route and realizing just how broken my legs were as she dropped me on Edinburgh drive on her Titan nitric ebike, we rode back  on the cycle path taking the Woodstock ramp. Dodge I know but I thought I'd risk that and was sure there would be a police presence there because of the tour. (There wasn't)

    This morning as I weaved through the log jam of cars all headed into town I had a mental picture of that first-class piece of infrastructure, a real asset to the city, lying derelict and empty while the roads are clogged and the air choking with unburnt hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide and the picture of Winde crossing the line and just how far away we are from a sustainable, environmentally responsible, health-promoting way of life and how little will, despite the mouthings of politicians, there is to attain this.

    How many of the people in those cars would believe that their 40 minute traffic session into the CBD would be a 15 minute morning bike ride?  Andif they knew would they take it up?

    Maybe the problem on the cycle lane isn't policing so much as it's that no-one uses it. What if even 20% of the people in the traffic were on the bike lane?

  13. The event is perfect as is I feel - yes it's a commitment but if you treat it as a holiday you're spending on your bike then ...

    The problem is the marketing - poorly advertised and de villiers cycling is using it's mailing list to spam me with stuff for other events which speaks volumes about the marketing - it needs a proper social media presence and a "brand" to appeal to more riders.

    It's an important event I think - GC racing for age groups (there was a 17yr old young lady racing) - elites and for ordinary B and C batchers like me.

    I bumped into the crew from the open group at the CTCT finish and we had a reunion photo - good fun and a lekker gees.

    Here's some of the little bunch that finished stage 5 together at the end - that's me hiding in the back with my bike in the air.!

    IMG-20240308-WA0007-768x1024.jpg.ed7893e78972fcd002a3b01526995423.jpg

     

     

  14. 16 minutes ago, PygaSchmyga said:

    I was supporting riders in Noordhoek this year, at the base of Chappies and heard such a ridiculous story from the marshals.  Apparently there was a chap on an e-bike pushing riders up some of the climbs to book faster times.  They flagged him because it seemed like there was some sort of arrangement where he would come back to a specific spot and meet riders who I guess must have prearranged this.  Sounds like he did a bunch of trips for several riders.  Not sure of what the outcome was, but they were certainly looking for him

     

    11 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

    There was a guy on one of those electric one wheel things pushing people up suikerbossie too

    hahahaha

    This makes about as much sense to.me as the weight dopers on zwift.

    Can't understand why anyone would want to do this. Surely it can't be to claim a sub 3 or sub 4? Why?

  15. 9 minutes ago, bleedToWin said:

    Hey, I made the Mamil highlight reel!

    Was very disappointing to see my vets title defence go up in smoke with 30min spent next to the road with a sidewall cut. Luckily a kind rider saved my ride with some extensive tools from his saddle bag (I believe that's what it's called... 🤔) and I didn't have to DNF.

    I chased onto Mamil's group (HR ramp early in the below chart) then sat in a bit contemplating my options (and feeling sorry for myself). I decided to pay back the kindness of the stranger that saved me towards the larger cycling community by pulling the group I now found myself in and waiting whenever they dropped the wheel. At Bain's one gent was climbing well and we could see the open cat front riders so I gave him the help he needed to bridge.

    Nice zone 2 ride to prep for my TT the next day... 😉

    image.png.d2b423ef1a276081a117a70965a3c20c.png

    Ha Ha - We could have used your services in Stage 3 and in Stage 5 too!!

    For context - Zone 2 upper limit for this mamil is 245 and I weigh 92kg

  16. 1 minute ago, Phillippe Coetzee said:

    I should probably add I am on a dual sus mtb with 2.4 tyres 😂

    You would need to be an incredible athlete to get a sub 3 on that setup. In fact I would venture that it's impossible - gearing, rolling resistance, aerodynamics, acceleration, top speed all well short of what's needed

  17. 37 minutes ago, cadenceblur said:

    Would also love to know, I reckon race management as well? or does this just go out of the window when you need to push to keep with the bunch? I definitely feel this is an area that I need help with - despite doing so many tours!

     

    45 minutes ago, Phillippe Coetzee said:

    So a serious question.

    For the people who did it around 3 hours. I would love to work to get to something like that but I am a little in the dark.

    what is the trick to the whole operation when it comes to preparation, is the amount of riding you do(km), the speed you do it at or the total you climb in your rides ?

    How many km a year will be sufficient?

    Any feedback will be appreciated, really trying to achieve some goals 🙏🏼

    I have never done a sub three. Of the 7 I've done so far 3:08 is my fastest although this year my fitness is better than it was on my fastest CTCT.

    I have found youtube channels on periodised and polarized training immensely beneficial and disciplining myself to ride in low aerobic and zone 2 on long rides has been a key part of this.

     

  18. 1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

    I guess it also comes back to the conduct of the cyclists. 

    It's 5km in, if everybody knows it's a dodgy section and realistically the race can't be won there, why not just ride together at a mild panic instead of absolute do or die sillyness?

    We all control how we conduct ourselves, so if people are playing argy bargy on hospital bend while sitting in the group, then the issue is with them. 

    Block them out or give them a mouthful.

    Talk about it together in the start chute. 

    It's always been a dangerous part of the race, but also a place of almost no consequence, so I don't understand why people in the racing group need to ride aggressively there.

    You have a better chance of a sub3 if more of you stay upright and together

    I agree in principle and it might work in elite bunch but in 1A there are 400 mamils all gassed from trying to hold on up the off-ramp and the freeway, anoxic, frontal lobes shut down by adrenalin .... 

    Cones are are really stupid idea. You can't see them from in the bunch, they can be easily moved or knocked ... Narrowing the road early is a fabulous idea but it needs a long line of those plastic bulwark things that the road works guys use. Big. Immovable, bright yellow chest high jobbies.

    I don't think I'm up for the melee ... Think I'll ride at the back of 1A and try tag onto B somewhere just before Edinburgh. 

Settings My Forum Content My Followed Content Forum Settings Ad Messages My Ads My Favourites My Saved Alerts My Pay Deals Help Logout