Tygerberg MTB Trails

[Renier]

8 hours ago, Bub Marley said:

So with the weather looking good this weekend, I really want to get back out on the trails. We still have rain till wednesday I think but hopefully dry weather after that.

 

Taking into account all of this, any suggestions on what the best trail to hit would be? I was at Hoogies couple of weeks back and that farm road before getting to the trails was full of mud. Im assuming going down welvergenoegd by diep river will be clogged as well. Conties perhaps, but cheeky corners was closed last time i went. Not sure about supertubes. I did Hillcrest 2 weeks back and because of the rocky terrain actually had a tumble as the rocks were still damped so slid out. 

 

So yeah anyone that’s been out recently and can confirm the best trails to hit purely on current trail conditions. I dont really care which farm tbh, Im just desperate to get out but obviously would prefer to skip the trails where more damage was taken.

We are still doing the night ride at Bloemendal when it is not raining on a Thursday.
The trails are actually fairly dry, the Flow Trail, Lombard's and Veer Factor are all good to ride, even if it is a couple of days after the rain.
The only parts that are muddy, are some of the farm roads.
As you climb up next to Home Run, stay to the right after you go past the Kuilvoergat, then cross home run at the next left.
You can then climb up next to the flow trail and take the road across to D'aria's side, or if you'r feeling strong, go straight up next to the flow trail.
The intersection near the top of home run is a bog, but if you choose your line and keep a steady pace, the mud isn't too bad, only my tyres got muddy last week.
Can't say anything for the rest of our trails at the moment, though.

[MORNE]

8 hours ago, Bub Marley said:

So with the weather looking good this weekend, I really want to get back out on the trails. We still have rain till wednesday I think but hopefully dry weather after that.

 

Taking into account all of this, any suggestions on what the best trail to hit would be? I was at Hoogies couple of weeks back and that farm road before getting to the trails was full of mud. Im assuming going down welvergenoegd by diep river will be clogged as well. Conties perhaps, but cheeky corners was closed last time i went. Not sure about supertubes. I did Hillcrest 2 weeks back and because of the rocky terrain actually had a tumble as the rocks were still damped so slid out. 

 

So yeah anyone that’s been out recently and can confirm the best trails to hit purely on current trail conditions. I dont really care which farm tbh, Im just desperate to get out but obviously would prefer to skip the trails where more damage was taken.

‘Daaler is in PR shape at the moment. Just moist enough to make it loamy and super grippy with the right rubber. 0 mud.  Lots of us have been doing laps down there the past few weekends. Park at 360. Trees have been doing a great job protecting it. All the higher trails are mint, rhino 1 too

Edited August 26 by MORNE

[Bub Marley]

2 hours ago, MORNE said:

‘Daaler is in PR shape at the moment. Just moist enough to make it loamy and super grippy with the right rubber. 0 mud.  Lots of us have been doing laps down there the past few weekends. Park at 360. Trees have been doing a great job protecting it. All the higher trails are mint, rhino 1 too

Is the entire upper bloemies good to ride or just bloemendaaler? I know most of upper bloemies was in dire need of maintenance before the rains already but can’t remember now if that was actually repaired or not. 

[Robbie Stewart]

13 hours ago, MORNE said:

‘Daaler is in PR shape at the moment. Just moist enough to make it loamy and super grippy with the right rubber. 0 mud.  Lots of us have been doing laps down there the past few weekends. Park at 360. Trees have been doing a great job protecting it. All the higher trails are mint, rhino 1 too

I rode the Daaler two weekends ago and it was really running good. I forgot how much fun that line is. 

It needs a couple bigger jumps though ( hint hint nudge nudge wink wink to the TMTBC )

[MORNE]

22 hours ago, Bub Marley said:

Is the entire upper bloemies good to ride or just bloemendaaler? I know most of upper bloemies was in dire need of maintenance before the rains already but can’t remember now if that was actually repaired or not. 

What is ‘the rest’ of upper bloem? (Serious question)

There is nothing else up there worth the effort?😅. Everything between bloemendal trail head and the climb to the tower is just ‘on the way to somewhere’😊

Edited August 27 by MORNE

[Mamil]

I stopped at the dairy shed for the first time in a while on Sunday and was struck by how many cars there were in the parking - the trails are busier than they were for sure  and also just how many e-bikes there were. A rough tally of the 10 or 12 bikes lying around was roughly 60 / 40 in favour of the assisted variety.

[Robbie Stewart]

On 8/28/2024 at 11:24 AM, Mamil said:

I stopped at the dairy shed for the first time in a while on Sunday and was struck by how many cars there were in the parking - the trails are busier than they were for sure  and also just how many e-bikes there were. A rough tally of the 10 or 12 bikes lying around was roughly 60 / 40 in favour of the assisted variety.

Contrary to popular opinion, e-bikes make trail riding so much more fun. I ride with some mates who have a variety of flavours, ranging from Levo SL, Kinevo and others, and they ride like your run of the mill enduro bike with the added benefit of allowing laps. A few weeks ago we did the Bloemendaler and they did laps while I tried to keep up with my analogue bike. On the second lap I got given some push-assistance from the back going up again and it made the climb relatively painless. On the descent I lost them ahead of me by the second corner. Putting the bike in turbo mode on the down just gives an unbelievable level of power whenever you need to pedal to get back to speed, which is something you'd expect from a super fit athlete. I'm tempted myself. By comparison I was in the red all the way down trying to follow but I simply couldn't keep the pace. On average I reached the bottom around 8 seconds slower every time.

[Bub Marley]

10 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

Contrary to popular opinion, e-bikes make trail riding so much more fun. I ride with some mates who have a variety of flavours, ranging from Levo SL, Kinevo and others, and they ride like your run of the mill enduro bike with the added benefit of allowing laps. A few weeks ago we did the Bloemendaler and they did laps while I tried to keep up with my analogue bike. On the second lap I got given some push-assistance from the back going up again and it made the climb relatively painless. On the descent I lost them ahead of me by the second corner. Putting the bike in turbo mode on the down just gives an unbelievable level of power whenever you need to pedal to get back to speed, which is something you'd expect from a super fit athlete. I'm tempted myself. By comparison I was in the red all the way down trying to follow but I simply couldn't keep the pace. On average I reached the bottom around 8 seconds slower every time.

Forgive my ignorance here but why would you need turbo mode going downhill? Or have I misunderstood?

[Johnny82]

59 minutes ago, Bub Marley said:

Forgive my ignorance here but why would you need turbo mode going downhill? Or have I misunderstood?

I would guess it is because they have watched Top Gun too many times and feel the "need for speed" too much 😆

[Super Sywurm]

58 minutes ago, Bub Marley said:

Forgive my ignorance here but why would you need turbo mode going downhill? Or have I misunderstood?

Do it full power everywhere, no shortcuts.  Just like the Springboks will do tomorrow. 

That is what an e-bike is for.

 

 

(me riding at the back on my analog bike)🙈

[Mamil]

1 hour ago, Bub Marley said:

Forgive my ignorance here but why would you need turbo mode going downhill? Or have I misunderstood?

Accelerating out of turns I imagine. Those 4 or 5 powerful pedal strokes as you come out of a sharp corner or feature to get back up to speed. If you've got an extra 250 watts in a 3 or 4 second burst it will make all the difference.

I can see the appeal of it but I just can't help my prejudiced judgements of some of the e-bikers. "they don't understand the terrain" I tell myself as I toil up spykers, "they're not as fit as I am" I mutter into the wind as one wrhrrr whrrr whyrrs away from me on the conties climb ....

[Bub Marley]

7 minutes ago, Mamil said:

Accelerating out of turns I imagine. Those 4 or 5 powerful pedal strokes as you come out of a sharp corner or feature to get back up to speed. If you've got an extra 250 watts in a 3 or 4 second burst it will make all the difference.

I can see the appeal of it but I just can't help my prejudiced judgements of some of the e-bikers. "they don't understand the terrain" I tell myself as I toil up spykers, "they're not as fit as I am" I mutter into the wind as one wrhrrr whrrr whyrrs away from me on the conties climb ....

If this is the case then yeah, I don’t think they’re gonna be doing there reputation any more favours in terms appeasing everyone. Whether they care or not is a different question. I guess this is what Patrick keeps rambling on about in every update he does. 

 

I’m not really sure how I feel about this. I’m all for e-bikes assisting people especially going uphill. But slamming the thing in turbo mode on a descent to accelerate out of corners, i dunno man.

[Mamil]

1 hour ago, Bub Marley said:

If this is the case then yeah, I don’t think they’re gonna be doing there reputation any more favours in terms appeasing everyone. Whether they care or not is a different question. I guess this is what Patrick keeps rambling on about in every update he does. 

 

I’m not really sure how I feel about this. I’m all for e-bikes assisting people especially going uphill. But slamming the thing in turbo mode on a descent to accelerate out of corners, i dunno man.

Not sure I see the problem with that. It's the braking in corners that causes the problems. We all accelerate out of corners, this is just someone with nino schurter watts inntje legs. 

[Robbie Stewart]

4 hours ago, Bub Marley said:

Forgive my ignorance here but why would you need turbo mode going downhill? Or have I misunderstood?

Take the trail we were riding as an example. About a third of the way down I was still on the group, but then the trail has a slightly upwards trend, just enough to make it so that you need to take some pedal strokes to keep your speed. Throw in some not so efficient jumps at some odd places that require speed, which is lost because of the ascending nature of the track at that point, and the assisted bikes were able to accelerate away, hit and clear the jumps, and leave me in their proverbial dust just trying to hold on to the train, never mind attack the jumps. I faltered on both objectives. I could not clear any of the jumps nor keep up with the group.

E-bikes make trail riding more fun in that way, to me at least. It's not about needing all the power in the world, its about having some extra kilowatts available when the legs say NO!

[Robbie Stewart]

3 hours ago, Mamil said:

Accelerating out of turns I imagine. Those 4 or 5 powerful pedal strokes as you come out of a sharp corner or feature to get back up to speed. If you've got an extra 250 watts in a 3 or 4 second burst it will make all the difference.

I can see the appeal of it but I just can't help my prejudiced judgements of some of the e-bikers. "they don't understand the terrain" I tell myself as I toil up spykers, "they're not as fit as I am" I mutter into the wind as one wrhrrr whrrr whyrrs away from me on the conties climb ....

exactly the point. It's about the extra power when you need it. I was given the opportunity to ride a mates eeb up the Conties mast climb. It was the one and only time I managed to pull that climb in one go without getting off in 12 years of riding there. Was it easy? HECK NO! I was cooked by the time I stopped by the mast. I had to have a sit down for a bit. People who think riding an e-bike is for lazy people are missing the point, completely.

And I will just mention that seeing as I am now riding with eebs all the time, I am much faster on the climbs overall because I am forever trying to keep up. Sometimes they call me out to slow down. Granted, they are not smashing the hill in turbo mode to conserve battery power, but still, they ascend just fast enough to keep me in a elevated state of energy expenditure. That has done my fitness a world of good.

I won't be spending money on one soon though, as I just bought a new bike and had some other very large expenses as well recently, so I will be sticking with my Stumpy EVO, but I'll definitely be wishing I was on one on every ride.

[Bub Marley]

4 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

Take the trail we were riding as an example. About a third of the way down I was still on the group, but then the trail has a slightly upwards trend, just enough to make it so that you need to take some pedal strokes to keep your speed. Throw in some not so efficient jumps at some odd places that require speed, which is lost because of the ascending nature of the track at that point, and the assisted bikes were able to accelerate away, hit and clear the jumps, and leave me in their proverbial dust just trying to hold on to the train, never mind attack the jumps. I faltered on both objectives. I could not clear any of the jumps nor keep up with the group.

E-bikes make trail riding more fun in that way, to me at least. It's not about needing all the power in the world, its about having some extra kilowatts available when the legs say NO!

Sounds like cheating to me😂. 
 

I think I should maybe test one out proper before I comment on it but yeah I dunno I’m still old school I think. Wont be buying one anytime soon as well. Bikes are so blady expensive as it stands just maintaining 3 of them is enough for now.