dear mrclean, have you never heard of the north shore or wistler or wales? ...

[RiderX]

Real Mountain biking = Riding your bike in the mountains. Surprised how many people still doesnt seem to get this.

[Guest Omega Man]

the drakensberg is the one place in the world that i will object of the building of trails....and ghastly ski-lifts/cable-cars

You can hardly see them from a distance. They are far less unsightly than a road for instance. I say build it.

[Grebel]

If thats true - i need to know where so i can buy a couple of bobcats and some ditchwitches to go build trails!

 

I was waiting for that...!!

[Caerus]

the drakensberg is the one place in the world that i will object of the building of trails....and ghastly ski-lifts/cable-cars

There are trails there already, they just walk them at the moment.

[Eldron]

To answer your couple of questions...

 

1. There is a new hartees cable car system. new cable. 6 new gondolas. They still need to undergo testing and safety certification before use.

 

2. The is a way down the mountain, which the G.A.S. guys have been working hard on. Catch... it's a DH track.

 

Thats awesome news!

 

Well potentially awesome news...when you say DH do you mean us XCOers and such will coil our trousers rather than ride it? I'm happy to jump the smaller stuff and "whoop" the big stuff but draw the line at enough hang time to realise I could die....

[Wyatt Earp]

Watching supercycling - andrew mclean recons south africa is becoming to mountainbiking what hawaii is to surfing?! WTF am I missing something?

 

If I may ask you a simple question and no malicious intent behind it either.

When did you start mountain biking ?

 

Most of these "free ride, hardcore-I jump my bike and ride real gnarly trails, laugh at the lycra clan etc.etc.etc......" only started riding mountain bikes from when they opened their first lucky packet, which was yesterday.

The sport has been thriving and growing since the early 90's., of late it has almost exploded, we have great summers and great trails, especially for those who like to ride their bikes for long and far.

 

So in short, I think Andrew made a good yet comical statement.

Ask any surfer if they would like to ride waves from 5k's out, I am sure some would and others wouldn't.

I have been up ski-lifts with bikes and done the various runs on offer, quite frankly I get more fun out of riding my bike for as long as I can exploring my hood.

[RockCoach]

 

 

NEVER! I deny it categorically.

 

I also don't own a road bike. Or a track bike. Or a TT bike. And will most certainly NOT be competing at SA Duathlon Champs next month (sorry Patches).

 

Ok ok it's all true - I even have a TT helmet.

 

I'm so ashamed.

 

 

I think you are missing a cyclocross bike in your collection.

 

Talking about cyclocross...

I'd love to see someone call Brian Lopes or Greg Minnaar a dirt roadie because they ride cyclocross bikes. In fact didn't Brian become famous for bunny hopping the obstacles in cyclocross races?

[Guest Omega Man]

There are trails there already, they just walk them at the moment.

Can you imagine encountering a bunch of walkers on you DH bike smashing their trails half way down the berg? That would go down like a lead donut.

 

Not that I would ever condone something like that.

Edited May 21, 2012 by Omega Man

[patches]

patches, on 21 May 2012 - 03:36 , said:

To answer your couple of questions...

 

1. There is a new hartees cable car system. new cable. 6 new gondolas. They still need to undergo testing and safety certification before use.

 

2. The is a way down the mountain, which the G.A.S. guys have been working hard on. Catch... it's a DH track.

Thats awesome news!

 

Well potentially awesome news...when you say DH do you mean us XCOers and such will coil our trousers rather than ride it? I'm happy to jump the smaller stuff and "whoop" the big stuff but draw the line at enough hang time to realise I could die....

 

I'd say that you'll probably be fine. Gauteng dh courses by nature are more rocky than anything else.

 

I'm sure one the course is finished and the cable car is up and running, there will be an open day/race., I'll be sure to post it on the hub and roar interested to come have a look are welcome

[Eldron]

 

I think you are missing a cyclocross bike in your collection.

 

Talking about cyclocross...

I'd love to see someone call Brian Lopes or Greg Minnaar a dirt roadie because they ride cyclocross bikes. In fact didn't Brian become famous for bunny hopping the obstacles in cyclocross races?

 

Lopes is a legend! Twice Cali cyclocross champ!

[Caerus]

Can you imagine encountering a bunch of walkers on you DH bike smashing their trails half way down the berg? That would go down like a lead donut.

 

Not that I would ever condone something like that.

With GU satchets left behind.

[Kranswurm]

With GU satchets left behind.

 

Dont worry

Your average hiker is a regte vuil uil.

The most common being the white tissue used to wipe and discreatly tucked under or behind a bush

[Guest Omega Man]

Dont worry

Your average hiker is a regte vuil uil.

The most common being the white tissue used to wipe and discreatly tucked under or behind a bush

Well when you gotta go you gotta go.

[Grebel]

Can you imagine encountering a bunch of walkers on you DH bike smashing their trails half way down the berg? That would go down like a lead donut.

 

Not that I would ever condone something like that.

 

Ban the walkers. Problem solved

[Guest Omega Man]

I just want to say 1 tiny thing about Bike parks. Whistler bikepark has a trail called Top of the World. It has 5000 feet of verticle descending. That's more than 1.5km of verticle descending.

 

Chatel in France has 1.2km of verticle from top to bottom. I'd say it's about 7km of dh to the bottom.

 

Pleney in Morzine is 3.3km long with a verticle drop of 560m. (Honestly it felt a lot steeper)

 

Interesting when you compare that with the world cup track in PMB that is 3.12km long with a verticle drop of 416m. That's not bad actually.

Edited May 21, 2012 by Omega Man

[Beer4Recovery]

Well after watching Strength in Numbers last night I realized there is more too mountain biking than XC riding. **ck it, you get so stoked to see those guys riding!

 

We are flooded and brainwashed with XC and XC bikes - give us more options to expand the sport + there is enough terrain in South Africa were one would ride such bikes!

Edited May 21, 2012 by FuelEX