Modderfontein Bike Park - what's happening

[Grey Hubs]

So I eventually rode Modders yesterday.

 

Firstly, the single track is looking GREAT! thanks to the guys for all the work there.

A few new bridges.

Looks like a fire has taken care of some of the long grass and removed the reeds. I'm a bit sad about the reeds, hopefully they grow back!

 

Well...never mine the "snakes" reported lately. My encounter yesterday was a first for me!

 

So, I'm blitzing through Modders on my Rocky Mountain and get to my favourite part - the River Section!

I enter the trees and ride over the new bridge section and over the older wooden bridge.

I duck under a very low tree and a few seconds later, a grey bird flys right in front of my face...I wright this off to timing and perhaps a misguided pigeon.

My focus is all on the trail as I carve the corners as fast as I can....BAM something smacks me on my helmet! As I was still debating to myself if this was a branch I might have missed...BAM another aerial assault that was so hard, it knock my helmet forward

Sprinting on the return leg I get tagged once more before I exit the trees.

 

So I don't know what bird smacked my helmet 3 times but I hope we won't be disturbing a nesting pair in those trees!

 

Please take care in this section! Perhaps the bird watchers can determine what bird it was...I was not going to hang around to pick out the colour and shape

Edited July 16, 2020 by Grey Hubs

[madmarc]

So I eventually rode Modders yesterday.

 

Firstly, the single track is looking GREAT! thanks to the guys for all the work there.

A few new bridges.

Looks like a fire has taken care of some of the long grass and removed the reeds. I'm a bit sad about the reeds, hopefully they grow back!

 

Well...never mine the "snakes" reported lately. My encounter yesterday was a first for me!

 

So, I'm blitzing through Modders on my Rocky Mountain and get to my favourite part - the River Section!

I enter the trees and ride over the new bridge section and over the older wooden bridge.

I duck under a very low tree and a few seconds later, a grey bird flys right in front of my face...I wright this off to timing and perhaps a misguided pigeon.

My focus is all on the trail as I carve the corners as fast as I can....BAM something smacks me on my helmet! As I was still debating to myself if this was a branch I might have missed...BAM another aerial assault that was so hard, it knock my helmet forward

Sprinting on the return leg I get tagged once more before I exit the trees.

 

So I don't know what bird smacked my helmet 3 times but I hope we won't be disturbing a nesting pair in those trees!

 

Please take care in this section! Perhaps the bird watchers can determine what bird it was...I was not going to hang around to pick out the colour and shape

 

Only bird i can think of that would act like that is a crow - very territorial and aggressive if they have babies the feel are being threatened.

[Grey Hubs]

Only bird i can think of that would act like that is a crow - very territorial and aggressive if they have babies the feel are being threatened.

Mmmmm...I think I would have notice black and white. From what I remember, definitely grey.

[Muttley]

Perhaps a plover.. I think:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG0C7hZsy78 

[JK7]

WOW! This happened to me on the river section 2 weeks ago.

 

1st time it came past my face I thought "who is throwing a Frisbee here!?"  And then the thing bombed my helmet and I saw was a bird. Felt bad for it. Clearly defending some eggs or their youngsters

 

 

I duck under a very low tree and a few seconds later, a grey bird flys right in front of my face...I wright this off to timing and perhaps a misguided pigeon.

My focus is all on the trail as I carve the corners as fast as I can....BAM something smacks me on my helmet! As I was still debating to myself if this was a branch I might have missed...BAM another aerial assault that was so hard, it knock my helmet forward

[Grey Hubs]

WOW! This happened to me on the river section 2 weeks ago.

 

1st time it came past my face I thought "who is throwing a Frisbee here!?"  And then the thing bombed my helmet and I saw was a bird. Felt bad for it. Clearly defending some eggs or their youngsters

At least I'm not alone! Was wondering if the Miltons I'm using to clean out the bladder was starting to cause hallucinations    

[JK7]

I also clean mine with Miltons, so let's not rule that out! 

 

Messaged my ridding mates to tell him about this thread. 1 mate responds with: 

"I had a bird just miss me on the river-rocker section" 

 

Also +- 2 weeks ago.  Kinda feel bad for the bird; must be stressful. 

[Uni]

was also there yesterday. lots of Kiewiets around defending their nests especially around the bottom bit of the cleared reeds. I just slow down and go around them, no issues.

[JK7]

But... Strava times bro 

I just slow down  

 

 

(please understand I am being facetious, don't flame roast me)  

[Long Wheel Base]

But... Strava times bro 

 

 

(please understand I am being facetious, don't flame roast me)  

Uni not a bro..................... sis.

[NotSoBigBen]

The 7km radius is mainly for chemical fallout - I wasn't aware they still manufactured chemicals as most plants were shutdown.

 

When i worked there the main most dangerous were

 

Ammonia

Sulfuric Acid

Nitric Acid

 

From there the clever scientists developed all kinds of products like fertilizer - pool acid - chlorine etc etc

 

In the process their largest production was Ammonium Nitrate (Ammonia + Nitric acid) which when mixed with Lime becomes LAN that you buy for your grass. It's not volatile but can be used for homemade bombs when you add an accelerant and an ignition source - If you wanna know how ask Timothy McViegh, he blew up some building in Oklahoma using the stuff.

 

But when mixed with diesel becomes the white granular explosive used in open cast mining. Think it was sold under the name Energex at the time. This is where the mixing stations were used, the recipe had to be exact or it would explode and the reason why the stations were unmanned during mixing and where most of the Modders explosions happened. Once its mixed its fairly safe to handle and needs a detonator to set it off.

 

Other explosives were cable type called cordite mainly used in underground mining - this type never exploded per se but rather burnt very quickly (40 000 ft/sec) so when wound into a coil and inserted into a hole in the rockface it had the same explosice effect.

 

Another was PE4 which is a putty based explosive like you see in the movies - This is mainly used in demolition with shaped charges for directional demolition. Also mainly used by military - lots of bridges and buildings in Mozambique & Angola no longer exist thanks to this stuff.

 

The other main fertilizer manufactured was Urea (Ammonia + Liquid Carbon Dioxide) used to boost crops for agriculture, it ends up containing over 50% nitrogen - So if you don't have an icebox to keep your beers cold - throw 1/5 a kilo Urea into a bucket of water and chuck your beers in - within a few minutes the water temp reduces down to about 3 deg C just make sure you rinse the bottle before you open the beer or your hair will grow 1 inch per day.

 

Other chemicals were

 

Copper Sulphate - Water treatment

Aluminium Sulphate - Host of uses

Lead Sulphate - Not sure

Copper OxiChloride - Wood treatment - Thats the green colour on wooden poles

Arsenic Acid - The sh%t your wife will use to kill you one day.

CO2 - Dry ice. Here they produced CO2 for 29c / ton and sold it for 290 ronds / ton

 

Okay history lesson over

Very interesting, pray do tell where do I get some of this 'Urea' magic, 'hair growth of 1 inch a day' [emoji12]

[CAAD4]

Flashback to long blonde hair and the PWC bike park.....

[Kranswurm]

So I eventually rode Modders yesterday.

 

Firstly, the single track is looking GREAT! thanks to the guys for all the work there.

A few new bridges.

Looks like a fire has taken care of some of the long grass and removed the reeds. I'm a bit sad about the reeds, hopefully they grow back!

 

Well...never mine the "snakes" reported lately. My encounter yesterday was a first for me!

 

So, I'm blitzing through Modders on my Rocky Mountain and get to my favourite part - the River Section!

I enter the trees and ride over the new bridge section and over the older wooden bridge.

I duck under a very low tree and a few seconds later, a grey bird flys right in front of my face...I wright this off to timing and perhaps a misguided pigeon.

My focus is all on the trail as I carve the corners as fast as I can....BAM something smacks me on my helmet! As I was still debating to myself if this was a branch I might have missed...BAM another aerial assault that was so hard, it knock my helmet forward

Sprinting on the return leg I get tagged once more before I exit the trees.

 

So I don't know what bird smacked my helmet 3 times but I hope we won't be disturbing a nesting pair in those trees!

 

Please take care in this section! Perhaps the bird watchers can determine what bird it was...I was not going to hang around to pick out the colour and shape

Could be a raptor of some sort.They are territorial and will aggressively dive bomb you.On the down hill section through the trees at Lebanon we used to be bombed regularly.

[Dieter ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

Yeah I have had that bird dive bomb me a few times! It's like a lizard buzzard or similar? It's terrifying! Gave me a nice cackle the last time too... I'm going to go for a run there this week and bring a monocular with to try see him! 

We say a fat snake there today as well. Trails are looking great   Went past the ruins but sadly they aren't included anymore. 

[mtbsmurf]

Was also dive bombed on Saturday - once on the way up the river trail and twice on the way down.  Felt like a chicken landed on my helmet.  On the way down, I saw them after they hit me, two large grey/black birds. 

[TyronLab]

Rode there yesterday for the first time since December, did the 40km red trail in its entireity.

 

Big ups to the Taroko team, I've never seen the trails in as good a condition as they are now. Lots of very obvious work has gone in like trimming of encroaching grass and shrubbery, filling in of some of the deeper ruts and general upkeep. Think some of the grass burns helped with this.

 

One of my previous comments still remains that there are a lot of sections where the single track is uphill but the following jeep track is downhill, think there has to be some way to switch these around and have some more downhill goodness as there's definitely some elevation to play with. Second half of the red is definitely the best section of the entire trail.

 

Had a spill on the long flowy downhill ~35km in (highlighted below). Tip for anyone riding there, some of the corners there are off-camber, and that specific one has a secondary track that's been created where other guys have obviously overshot the corner, and the transition to it is even more off-camber. My front wheel slipped in and caused a washout. Could be remedied with some maintenance (and ideally a berm to keep more momentum), but that's minor.

 

 

Also got harassed by that bird at the river, which is probably the tightest / fastest section of trail that I was really enjoying trying to ride hard. Bird just took it up a notch haha!

 

Great job guys!

Edited July 20, 2020 by TyronLab