Mamil

Having recently acquired an e-bike (a Trek Fuel Ex) which has a modest 350 watt motor and a 350 watt hour battery, I can say that I absolutely love it. I can head off for a 5 hour ride on the trails, do a distance that would be ridiculously hard on my analogue bike and come back feeling quite fresh. Perusal of my stats afterwards shows that I've enjoyed a TITS ride in mid zone 2, and had more fun than 5 hours of analogue trail riding would give me for double the effort and double the recovery. It does however signal I might need a username change -does e-bike acquisition mark the transition from middle aged in lycra (MAMIL) to old man on an e-bike (OMEB)?

Plus one for the fexo and beclate spray and salex rinse.

One of my closest shaves yet today. A GP vehicle on Victoria Road left hand wheels in the yellow lane. Expletives from the darkest corner of the mamilian vocab. He stopped and waited for me and a Swiss sounding family apologised. I was gearing up for a social media worthy moment. I gruffly welcomed them to the country and said please watch out for cyclists. Think they were mortified to have caused me a problem ... Amazing what adrenaline can do for the 2 minute power.

Love what I see there already - really like that I could look at the map and not immediately be asked for my email address and a login. I'll definitely be a regular.

Back group riders can make some real back marker moves too - just running out of steam on SMits and stopping in the middle of the road --- losing control because hasn't changed into a manageable gear and suddenly veering to one side ....

Pure narcissism operationalised

Can't wait for all the specials on 29ers

My XL Trek Fuel doesn't fit through a standard door frame if I have it up on the back wheel pushing it through the house - How much bigger would a 32" be in a size XL I wonder - what would happen to the geometry? Wrestling my bike up a steep swtchback is a test of my poor technique - I wonder what a 32 would be like? One thing's for sure - I'm not buying another bike for at least 3 years ...promise

If you consider that 2 salaries have to be paid for that - the guy in the washbay and the mechanic who indexed the gears, plus the consumables, electricity and tax - I would say from the shop's perspective that's about right. If you can wash your own bike and know how to index gears properly, then it's not a value proposition.

I can see it now -- MUUB!!!

I wanna ride it.... See your logo spread broad across the mamil moobs... There must be a brand with a strong sense of irony out there.....

I think its supposed to be "Watch out I only have one hand on the bars and may veer or stop pedaling as I take a swig or put the bottle back or god forbid drop the bottle into your front wheel" but I don't think its really necessary.

Yoh that's an amazing thing you've built there. Agree with you about that bunch riding phenomenon - Leaders of a big batch accelerate down the hill so group strings out as the middle and tailgunners crest the previous hill or come off a flat - this strings things out - middle and tailgunners think ""Oh **** I better stop on the gas"and smash out 500 watts for 10 seconds just as the front runners slow up on the hill - mid level guys slam on anchors and by the time the ripple hits the bottom third of the bunch people are shouting and skidding into each other's wheels. Nerve wracking.

I read it but looks very much to me like political verbiage The proof of the pudding ... New infrastructure is being developed, new roads, influx of population, - the big takeaway is economic growth at all costs - the "transformative power of cycling" as an ethos directing policy and development is not visible - as any ride around the peninsula on non-CTCT day or indeed, on the ride back home after the event shows us. More cars, more LDVs, more traffic, while existing infrastructure rots and is used as taxi drop off and ad hoc loading zone ...... Let's not forget the origins of CTCT - the big ride in to protest the lack of infrastructure - this is now about the natural beauty of our city and economic growth - the raison d'etre is a distant struggling also ran afterthought. This is the nauseating part because we know the people who have died and some of us see the real potential of the bicycle as a solution to the mess that plays itself out daily on the roads And to edit it - I don't appreciate the "some peo[le aren't happy unless they moaning" stuff - it's more playing the man instead of the issue - I'm open to having positive developments beyond the lip service paid in the draft policy on NMT and the political theatrics pointed out. Where are the actual improvements that show that cycling is in any way a priority - not only for the privileged sports people but as a solution to an integrated plan to improve the liveability of the urban environment?

Nothing like the love of a good woman

I started at the back of 1e. Got dropped by 1f at smits. stopped fir coffee and pain au chocolat at hout bay. Was nice not to take it as seriously as I have in the past.

Experience perhaps?

back of course ... actually magnets because its never made sense to pay so much for a jersey and then stick holes in it.

Well I've pinned the number to a jersey, chosen a pair of socks and zip tied my board to my bike. Watch out 1E - one tailgunning mamil en route. I have just poured myself a small whiskey though so .....

He's a politician - grandstanding cos it's what they do - His blurb in the CTCT magazine nauseated me given the carnage we have discussed and witnessed on the roads - as did Hill -lewis' self congratulatory platitudes. The ZA political scenario is such that "best run" is barely adequate - we celebrate mediocrity because the landscape of comparison is so utterly desolate. As for your "back in your hole comment" - you routinely make such ad hominem comments here - they don't leave a positive impression.

... At the traffic light I contemplated the morning and watched a child sling his backpack over his shoulder I thought about the hatred being formented in minds like his under a barrage of bombs and i wondered where this little boy would be when the next cycle of revenge made its turn. Mods.. . Delete it if you must

Yassus I'm feeling narfi about this ride

Exactly. Their blurb in the ctct is nauseating and an insult to our fellow cyclists who have been killed and robbed and beaten up

Anyone know the age of the oldest entrant in the epic this year? Stats on average age and age distribution in non-elite field?

Which would be a huge loss