PaulTCR

Guys just be warned. The decription under Stage 1 on the jock web site (http://thejock.co.za/jock_classique.html) about the Brondal Road being fixed is a pack of lies. I live on the Brondal Road and use it regularly for road and mtb. It's as bad as it has ever been. A friend of mine spent three days in hospital recently after falling off his mtb because of potholes on the Brondal Road. Even the farmers in the Brondal Valley who use tractors and 4x4's have complained to the municipality about the state of the road. OK it's not the Paris Roubaix cobbles but for the organisers to have you believe 'the road is fixed' is completley misleading. They have just copied the spiel on the web page from last year (when it wasn't fixed either) and have changed the year at the top. I doubt any one of them has been down the road on a road bike recently cos if they have that basically makes them liars. All this for an increase in entry fees also. Pretty shameful.

I'm not much of a techie but have turned into a bit of a stravaholic - me and the wife even do the deed together right after our rides. We don't have matching bikes and avoid wearing matching kit but we do now have matching Garmin 500's after I upgraded from an old 305 last Christmas. This was great until we worked out that when she plugged her Garmin in it immediatley downloaded her ride to my Strava (I don't think plugging mine in has a reciprocal effect). There is probably a very simple, obvious setting that will solve the problem. But where the heck is it?

That is good news. The atmosphere was a bit flat when they spread it out over the whole w/e.

With regard to rules being rules. http://www.panoramatour.co.za/race-information/rules rule 21.3 states 'Riders are not permitted to ride on the opposite (right) side of the centerline on a public road', and that 'infringements of traffic regulations may result in disqualification.' From the same website: http://www.panoramatour.co.za/images/stories/2009/MTN_Panorama_Tour_Stage_2/PAN20380.JPG http://www.panoramatour.co.za/images/stories/2011/Panorama_Tour_2011-5071406_DSC_3795.JPG http://www.panoramatour.co.za/images/stories/2012/gallery/general/DSC_0287_640x430.jpg http://www.panoramatour.co.za/images/stories/2012/gallery/general/MTN%20%28323%29_640x430.jpg This seems commonplace with road races especially at the start and with the leading riders during the race. So can we conclude that there are rules but some rules are more flexible than others? If riding on the wrong side of the road is permissable, 'borrowing' a jacket can't be too high on the infingement scale.

Obviously not from CWC. They would have known to write 'We ARE clearing loads of stuff!!!'

My goodness that was a hard 65km? Anyone know the gps stats? Like total climb? Always a classic, varied, interesting race. I got 64.4km. 1686m of ascent. 4h43.20 and very tired legs.

Just a comment as no-one else has mentioned it. Having all the races on the same day, I found the general atmosphere a lot better than last year. Me and the missus also managed to do both our respective races without having to travel to Barberton twice.

Advendurance website says ascent for the 75k is 2350m. My records for the last two times I did it show 1742 and 1760. Has the route changed or have I got a dodgy GPS?

I do change hand position during longer rides but they are also handy when you get a puncture cos you can turn your bike upside down without scratching your gear position indicators or your trip computer/gps. Otherwise you'de have to take them off and you always forget in the rush to change the tube.

That's almost 30 a day, every day.

OK so there are some sad people like me - we should start a Face Book group Cycle Data Heads Anon. Another question then by way of comparison. How many do the pros do - they must keep records?

Do you have a job, or a wife. Do you need time to sleep and eat?

Mr. Excel says I rode on 176 days, so roughly every other day.

OK. My sad data records that I spent 327 hours cycling. That's almost 2 weeks solid.

How many sad Huber’s are there like me who record practically every pedal stroke and mindlessly spew it all onto a spread sheet. I have one page for each ride then another page to compare similar rides. Anyway, now we’re at the end of the year I am the proud owner of mindless information on how far and fast and high I went in 2010. Last two years were around the 4500 mark but this year went well with more training and more races. I had 5000 in mind but it soon became evident that 6000 might be attainable. I devised another spreadsheet page to tell me what percentage of 6000 I was on and what total I would reach if I continued at the current average rate. 94.7, Noon2Moon, Pilgrims, and Sabie Experience helped boost the figures in December and this last Tuesday saw the 6000 milestone. The Wife and I actually stopped and took a picture! Then, whilst entering the data that evening I noticed that 6205 would be a nice round figure to achieve as that would equate to an average of 17 km per day. So, today I was hard at it in 30+ temps making sure that even with the most major of mechanicals I could even push my bike the last few km to reach the target. A surprising stat is that during all this my ascent was in excess of 91000 metres. I bet there are many out there who would laugh at such figures. I remember someone asking the ‘how many have you done in a month’ question a while back and his total was three times my average. But for someone bordering on Masters and with a proper job, I don’t think 6205 is bad.

They should have a table on the rear of the LH leg which references to your weight. I put about half as much in again to get it to feel what I would consider normal.

Some of the above may well be true, we all have issues and generally good news is no news. I have friends that have waited a long time for parts from Antons and I even waited a good few months for some brake arches. However, the two road bikes I bought from Anton's were partially due to his approach and attitude to me, a died in the wool MTB'er. I was just mooching as I had a spare few minutes. He stopped what he was doing and took the time to engage me as a valuable customer, answering my ameturish questions. So I bought a second hand TCR 3. Less that a year later I had decided that road biking and I could get along and was in again talking about an upgrade. More time freely given in comparing this and that which eventually led to me buying a second hand TCR carbon. OK fair enough, so far all he has done is the sales pitch (which I must say you don't always get from the other shops in town), but then there was a problem. The bike went in for a service and there was a dint on the frame when I got it back. I told him about it, he assured me it wasn't from the service but, he would get it fixed for me. Took the bike back for the frame to be sent off to Cape Town and in the mean time he built all the parts onto another frame - Alliance I think, which I enjoyed for six weeks or so. Frame returned, bike built over again but a few months later tyhe fix began to delaminate. Back to Anton's and same story this time borrowing a Bianchi frame which I wasn't too keen on - but I had a bike. Few weeks later, frame returned, rebuild and again after a few months the mend was showing signs of strain. Anton made some calls and after a bit of negotiation with Giant as my old frame was just out of it's 5 year guarantee, I got a brand new frame with a lifetime guarantee. I had to wait a while for this to arrive from Thailand but now I have a really decent bike which I might not have had is Anton had of dug his heels in. So, yes, I'm sure some people will have issues with him, but I wanted to give my story. I would buy from him again.

Go look at the recent 'Just one more!' thread and then see if you want to miss out on Mankele.

Induna near Hazyview have enough excellent trails to keep you going for a few days. http://www.indunaadventures.com/mountainbiking.htm

On a serious note I've had this happen whilst running and biking. I just put it down to your body heating up as you exercise, the gasses inside also getting warm, expanding and having little option of where to vent themselves. Very natural body function so not too embarrassing as I figured it was happening to most other riders. Just be wary of people who stand to pedal for a few seconds but don't actually pull away from the bunch.

All this foreign stuff is great but get down to Induna in Hazyview - they have loads of stuff that looks just like this. In fact most of the Sabie/Grasskop area is much the same.

When all is said and done - and ridden, yesterdays 94.7 was just training for my recovery ride today!

How much should I be looking at for a second hand carbon GT Zaskar frame? I'd say it's in good condition with no apparent dinks.

I just did the Shenanigan this last weekend and spent 3 hrs bombing round the forests at night - fine fun. Some guys had small camping head torches and some fancy super nova like bike lights that cost half the price of a decent bike. I have a Fenix LD20 http://www.fenixtorch.co.uk/led_torches/fenix-ld20-r4.html which you can get in SA for about R700. It chucks out 200 whatevers of light and is plenty bright enough for 50 kph of off road downhill. It runs on 2 AA rechargables which last 1.5 hrs on max brightness (72 hrs on min brighness which is good for slower uphill climbs), weighs next to nothing, and when you've finished biking you can use it as a normal torch.

I just did the Shenanigan this last weekend and spent 3 hrs bombing round the forests at night - fine fun. Some guys had small camping head torches and some fancy super nova like bike lights that cost half the price of a decent bike. I have a Fenix LD20 http://www.fenixtorch.co.uk/led_torches/fenix-ld20-r4.html which you can get in SA for about R700. It chucks out 200 whatevers of light and is plenty bright enough for 50 kph of off road downhill. It runs on 2 AA rechargables which last 1.5 hrs on max brightness (72 hrs on min brighness which is good for slower uphill climbs), weighs next to nothing, and when you've finished biking you can use it as a normal torch.