Munga MTB TwentyTwentyTwo

[Rowl]

10 hours ago, gemmerbal said:

I am trying my hand at writing blogs, this seemed the most obvious in order for me to share the many photos and videos across multiple platforms.

Episode 1 is up and running, please have a look and let me know if you guys are experiencing any problems viewing the content:

https://tieniemaree.blogspot.com/2022/12/1-windmill-casino-to-rv1-vanderkloof.html

Lekker man, gooi nog!

[gemmerbal]

6 hours ago, warrencharlesza said:

great read!. how long into the race did your hands start having issues? do you know how long it takes for the numbness to subside after? Would love to do Munga but the hand issues concern me

The pins and needles in my fingers started late on the 2nd day of riding (i think, the rest of the blogs will confirm). I am still sitting with numbness in between the pinkie and ring finger in both hands as I type this. My understanding is that its an ulnar nerve compression. Its not a major issue insofar as being able to type and work a computer mouse as I have full mobility, however typing in my usual fashion with all fingers is slightly compromised. Its not uncomfortable or painful, its just a bit of a nuisance if I’m honest. 

Edited December 31, 2022 by gemmerbal

[gemmerbal]

next blog is up, it's slow going as I consult Strava Flyby for accurate times. no point in writing a flawed story afterall...

https://tieniemaree.blogspot.com/2023/01/rv1-vanderkloof-rv2-britstown.html

 

[gerriemtb]

5 hours ago, gemmerbal said:

next blog is up, it's slow going as I consult Strava Flyby for accurate times. no point in writing a flawed story afterall...

https://tieniemaree.blogspot.com/2023/01/rv1-vanderkloof-rv2-britstown.html

 

What an adventure! Thanks for taking us along through your writing.

[hboli4]

5 hours ago, gemmerbal said:

next blog is up, it's slow going as I consult Strava Flyby for accurate times. no point in writing a flawed story afterall...

https://tieniemaree.blogspot.com/2023/01/rv1-vanderkloof-rv2-britstown.html

 

Thanks Tienie - really enjoying the read and enjoying 'riding' again. I shared a boerie and brief chat with you at WP2.

[gemmerbal]

1 hour ago, hboli4 said:

Thanks Tienie - really enjoying the read and enjoying 'riding' again. I shared a boerie and brief chat with you at WP2.

Awesome! Wish I could say that I remember all the faces I met along my journey, but sadly I’m not blessed with a photographic memory. Was that WP2 where I came in after dark? The waterpoint just before Vanderkloof? How did the race go for you from there?

I’ve been back on the bike since, mostly my roadbike though. More hand positions 🤣

Edited January 10, 2023 by gemmerbal

[gemmerbal]

1 hour ago, gerriemtb said:

What an adventure! Thanks for taking us along through your writing.

It’s a pleasure. Things get interesting at Britstown, blog to follow soon!

[DJuice]

Thanks for taking the effort to write.

Enjoy reading, hopefully the kick in the butt I need to start moving.

 

[TyronLab]

3 minutes ago, gemmerbal said:

Awesome! Wish I could say that I remember all the faces I met along my journey, but sadly I’m not blessed with a photographic memory. Was that WP2 where I came in after dark? The waterpoint just before Vanderkloof? How did the race go for you from there?

I’ve been back on the back since, mostly my roadbike though. More hand positions 🤣

First off, big respect for completing this, it is no small feat and you should relish in the sense of pride and accomplishment you feel as you deserve it.

As far as hands go I can only speak about my Munga Grit experience, but the numbness and loss of dexterity subsides after a week or so. I personally blame flat bars for this. They're designed to provide a lot of leverage and a robust grip for aggressive technical riding, which they're great at. What they (and the human body) isn't designed for is hours upon hours of being in the same, slightly awkward position. I see you at least had bar ends, which at least offer some relief for your hands but are still an awkward position for your arms.

This is a personal preference thing, but I wouldn't do another endurance event with flat bars again, and lament the lack of reasonable local options for drop bar mountain bikes.

My Grit #1 was on flared drop bars and 1.85" 650B tyres, zero hand issues.

Grit #2 was on "high end" flat bars with additional sweep, 2.35" 29er tyres, had some pretty severe hand issues for a week afterwards.

[gemmerbal]

58 minutes ago, TyronLab said:

First off, big respect for completing this, it is no small feat and you should relish in the sense of pride and accomplishment you feel as you deserve it.

As far as hands go I can only speak about my Munga Grit experience, but the numbness and loss of dexterity subsides after a week or so. I personally blame flat bars for this. They're designed to provide a lot of leverage and a robust grip for aggressive technical riding, which they're great at. What they (and the human body) isn't designed for is hours upon hours of being in the same, slightly awkward position. I see you at least had bar ends, which at least offer some relief for your hands but are still an awkward position for your arms.

This is a personal preference thing, but I wouldn't do another endurance event with flat bars again, and lament the lack of reasonable local options for drop bar mountain bikes.

My Grit #1 was on flared drop bars and 1.85" 650B tyres, zero hand issues.

Grit #2 was on "high end" flat bars with additional sweep, 2.35" 29er tyres, had some pretty severe hand issues for a week afterwards.

Thanks Tyrone, appreciate the response.

To your point regarding the hand issues that I am still experiencing: I agree with your sentiment that flat bars are not designed for a 100+ hour ride. I would go further and say that not many bars are, and I will go even furtherer by saying the bar-ends I had on was probably my biggest mistake as the calluses/pressure points on my hands are exactly where the ulnar nerve passes thorugh, thus resulting in the numbness between my pinkie and ring finger. I did buy aero bars shortly before the race and gave it a shot but I couldn't convince myself that is was a good idea simply because I had no control over the bike while testing them on gravel and given that Munga is 99% gravel, it made no sense to me to go with them. It also posed more problems insofar as giving a feeling of it cluttering my space behind the bars and also me needing to find other places to fit my garmin, light etc etc. In short, it just caused more problems.

That brings me to your point about gravel/drop bars: this for me is the only logical solution and I am already investigating the options available for Munga 2.0   As you point out we have limited options available to us, even less if you want to do a test fit by popping into a brick-n-mortar store. But this is the only way forward for me I think. I have come across some options, but again, its online only so how do you know???

Cheers for the feedback! And let me tell you, I reckon if you can do the Grit, you can do the Full Monty. Come, you know you want to...  

Edited January 10, 2023 by gemmerbal

[TyronLab]

7 minutes ago, gemmerbal said:

Thanks Tyrone, appreciate the response.

To your point regarding the hand issues that I am still experiencing: I agree with your sentiment that flat bars are not designed for a 100+ hour ride. I would go further and say that not many bars are, and I will go even furtherer by saying the bar-ends I had on was probably my biggest mistake as the calluses/pressure points on my hands are exactly where the ulnar nerve passes thorugh, thus resulting in the numbness between my pinkie and ring finger. I did buy aero bars shortly before the race and gave it a shot but I couldn't convince myself that is was a good idea simply because I had no control over the bike while testing them on gravel and given that Munga is 99% gravel, it made no sense to me to go with them. It also posed more problems insofar as giving a feeling of it cluttering my space behind the bars and also me needing to find other places to fit my garmin, light etc etc. In short, it just caused more problems.

That brings me to your point about gravel/drop bars: this for me is the only logical solution and I am already investigating the options available for Munga 2.0   As you point out we have limited options available to us, even less if you want to do a test fit by popping into a brick-n-mortar store. But this is the only way forward for me I think. I have come across some options, but again, its online only so how do you know???

Cheers for the feedback! And let me tell you, I reckon if you can do the Grit, you can do the Full Monty. Come, you know you want to...  

I've gone through this exercise at length, and there is no easy and cheap answer. 

Easy but expensive way - Splash out R50k+ and import a Salsa Cutthroat / Curve Big Kev or Kevin of Steel. Have questionable aftermarket support and hope that it fits you well.

Complicated but cheap way - Scout for a mountain bike frame that has the right geo that you can convert it to drop bars (no easy feat let me tell you) and convert it. Sourcing compatible mountain bike and road bike parts can also either be easy and expensive or cheaper and a faff.

I've also considered the Surly Corner bar, which in theory should make it easier to convert a mountain bike, but the lack of a real hood position makes it limited.

There are reasonably priced drop bar mountain bikes available in the States and Europe for reasonable amounts of money, but importing (and the additional costs and risk related thereto) means you end up paying a lot for an ill-equipped bike.

Personally I've settled on a gravel bike that has reasonable clearance (my current Sequoia can take a 29/2.1" front and a 29/45mm at the back).

[taito]

3 hours ago, gerriemtb said:

What an adventure! Thanks for taking us along through your writing.

Thanks Gemmer great reading..as someone that has completed the Munga I can picture all the places you mentioned in the blog. I recall that nature reserve as a ~springhaas~ Raddit ran into my bike in that reserve.

I was one of the riders that missed that turn ont the rail line road. When I left the RV later that day i had to go back and re-ride that section.

I remember the winf being crazy on the way to Britstown.

 

[gemmerbal]

8 minutes ago, TyronLab said:

I've gone through this exercise at length, and there is no easy and cheap answer. 

Easy but expensive way - Splash out R50k+ and import a Salsa Cutthroat / Curve Big Kev or Kevin of Steel. Have questionable aftermarket support and hope that it fits you well.

Complicated but cheap way - Scout for a mountain bike frame that has the right geo that you can convert it to drop bars (no easy feat let me tell you) and convert it. Sourcing compatible mountain bike and road bike parts can also either be easy and expensive or cheaper and a faff.

I've also considered the Surly Corner bar, which in theory should make it easier to convert a mountain bike, but the lack of a real hood position makes it limited.

There are reasonably priced drop bar mountain bikes available in the States and Europe for reasonable amounts of money, but importing (and the additional costs and risk related thereto) means you end up paying a lot for an ill-equipped bike.

Personally I've settled on a gravel bike that has reasonable clearance (my current Sequoia can take a 29/2.1" front and a 29/45mm at the back).

I was leaning towards just klapping a set of drop bars on my dual suspension. I like the geometry of my Merida 96 and my fat bottom needs to have full suspension. I have previously (& subsequent to Munga) thought about getting a hardtail and converting it into a monster gravel cross (sufficient tyre clearance for 2.4 tyres) with a suspension fork at the front and obviously some drop bars. This is probably still a good option although it must be said I cannot justify having 3 bikes in my garage, it just makes no sense to me. Plus I like my Merida, it took me long enough to go from a hardtail to a DS (bought the 96 in January 2022 specifically for the Munga and traded my hardtail). Yes, it makes me cringe when it starts to rain as it did on that ride between WP4 and RV2 when I think about the muck that's potentially creeping into the pivots, and the suspension services can be costly if you are not careful (and ride Fox with replaceable parts) (I do prefer training on my roadbike for base miles which also helps to minimise the hours on the suspension), but set up correctly it's a great bike. The groupset is also easy enough to solve as long as I stick to 11spd. It is with 12spd that things can get silly expensive in that the only real options out there are AXS or Ekar (Ekar is obviously 13 spds - have you seen the Curve bike with the Ekar groupo on Instagram today???). That is until Shimano makes the expected 12spd GRX or a DI2 12spd MTB derailleur which could potentially be coupled to an Ultegra or Dura Ace shifter if the software allows.

It's a lot to ponder, but for me, for now, I am going to try and source a drop bar and give it a try on the 96. After that, who knows what is next...

[gemmerbal]

46 minutes ago, taito said:

Thanks Gemmer great reading..as someone that has completed the Munga I can picture all the places you mentioned in the blog. I recall that nature reserve as a ~springhaas~ Raddit ran into my bike in that reserve.

I was one of the riders that missed that turn ont the rail line road. When I left the RV later that day i had to go back and re-ride that section.

I remember the winf being crazy on the way to Britstown.

 

Well done in completing it, I had such a blast I cannot wait to get back to the starting line, even if it means struggling with my hands for a while! What still lingers with me is just the simplicity of actually doing the event: ride your bike, stop, eat, sleep, rinse and repeat. The first couple of days back home I felt as if something was missing, I needed to be on my bike surely? But once the adrenaline wore off and I started to feel the aches and pains from a 100hr ride, I was happy to be lying around the house for a day or 2, but that feeling didn’t last long!

Look, its an easy mistake to make if you are tired. Alex/Lip was very explicit about this section before Britstown and in hindsight I can understand why: if you are tired and not concentrating and end up weaving across the road in front of a truck its not going to end well. That road was very busy when Harko and I did that section and there’s not really anywhere to hide other than the service road next to the railway. 
 

Wind? Let me tell you about wind… 🙈🌪️🤣

[taito]

I found that me Feet were swollen for some days ,my backside needed TLC and I had a bit of numb slang..

On the last 100ks i had Carpal in my neck and really struggled to keep my head up. I went down Bainskloof with one hand holding my head up.

I had bar ends/tri bars /and normal grips that i just kept rotating and my hands we fine.

[jcza]

Well done gemmerbal! Look forward to the next write up. 

PS: Always interesting to see the hardmen in the broomwagon before Van Der Kloof 🤣