Where has your bike taken you today?

[Frosty]

Got to sleep in today, then finished the week with another IDT workout (100% indoors this week). This wet weather in winter is not something us Vaalies are familiar with. One week close to summer though.

[throttles]

[NotSoBigBen]

After a few days off because of some personal issues as well as crappy weather on the Highveld it was a lekker ride with Steely Dan doing long ride duty!

Not warm out there 🥶

[The Ouzo]

5km from home I realized I forgot my bottle and fastbar, so turned back to get them. 
 

had a lekker ride despite the wind, then 15km from home on the way back I decided to stop and see if the power was back on at home so that I could turn the geyser on and have hot water when I got home. That’s when I heard the hiss from the rear wheel. 
I thought it would hold until I got home so carried on. 
10km from home and I can feel I’m bouncing on each pedal stroke. 
Pull over, whip out a bomb and adapter and try and get it going. Only to realize the new adapter I bought won’t pierce the bomb. 
Had to make the call to the support team (aka wife and kids) to come fetch me. 
 

 

[ChrisF]

4 minutes ago, ouzo said:

5km from home I realized I forgot my bottle and fastbar, so turned back to get them. 
 

had a lekker ride despite the wind, then 15km from home on the way back I decided to stop and see if the power was back on at home so that I could turn the geyser on and have hot water when I got home. That’s when I heard the hiss from the rear wheel. 
I thought it would hold until I got home so carried on. 
10km from home and I can feel I’m bouncing on each pedal stroke. 
Pull over, whip out a bomb and adapter and try and get it going. Only to realize the new adapter I bought won’t pierce the bomb. 
Had to make the call to the support team (aka wife and kids) to come fetch me. 
 

 

 

Helped a gent last week with exact same issue .... new adapter not working.

 

No real way to test these without actually wasting a bomb .... 😬

[The Ouzo]

7 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

Helped a gent last week with exact same issue .... new adapter not working.

 

No real way to test these without actually wasting a bomb .... 😬

And this was the type of puncture that would have sealed without me knowing, had I not been lazy last weekend and taken the time to patch my tyre instead of just leaving the tube in. 
 

also, 3 groups of cyclists came past, only the last group asked if I needed help, but by that time my support crew were at the traffic light 50m away. 

[geomark]

Chasing sunny spots

[michaelbiker]

Our last ride in Talarn / Tremp, Spain. These pics were taken while we were checking out the steep sections of a trail called Serengueti. Blue trails in Spain require a different level of technical skills to blue trails in SA. Steep, technical with huge drops on either side but really well maintained by the local trail groups.

[SwissVan]

Batman ride up "the wall" twice on the road bike

 

 

The "wall" looks pretty insignificant in panoramic view

Edited June 26, 2022 by SwissVan

[SwissVan]

3 hours ago, ouzo said:

5km from home I realized I forgot my bottle and fastbar, so turned back to get them. 
 

had a lekker ride despite the wind, then 15km from home on the way back I decided to stop and see if the power was back on at home so that I could turn the geyser on and have hot water when I got home. That’s when I heard the hiss from the rear wheel. 
I thought it would hold until I got home so carried on. 
10km from home and I can feel I’m bouncing on each pedal stroke. 
Pull over, whip out a bomb and adapter and try and get it going. Only to realize the new adapter I bought won’t pierce the bomb. 
Had to make the call to the support team (aka wife and kids) to come fetch me. 
 

 

My old stomping grounds

[Hendel Clase]

Tried out Asidlale today. The views from the top are worth it

[Robbie Stewart]

On 6/21/2022 at 11:33 AM, Milosh said:

It takes all types to fill an event , if you are in A batch this does not happen , if you drop back live and let live , Dont Judge 

No-one is judging.

My take is that if I have to pay to ride an event and get held up on singletrack by folks too scared, too tired, to whatever to ride, then I opt out and will rather go ride where I have a much larger chance of free flowing trail ahead with no hooman obstacles. And yes, I'm not an A-batcher. I'm too big for that.

I found this out on the few events I have done. K2C comes to mind. People dismounting to walk underneath a bridge by Avontuur. On again a perfectly rideable strip of track. Once you get there you wonder why everyone is walking. I've also done some Nissan Trailseekers and have been help up by people walking on grass. Yes - grass. I don't "event" anymore because of that. 

But more power to everyone who finds some level of fun in that. I don't.

I find more fun in riding some techy, sketchy line where most folks would not go in any case, so for some people 3 hours on a mountain bike aquates to 50 odd kilometers. To me 3 hours would probably not take me further than probably 10 km from my car. But the fun I have on those rides is immeasurable. 

[SwissVan]

4 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

No-one is judging.

My take is that if I have to pay to ride an event and get held up on singletrack by folks too scared, too tired, to whatever to ride, then I opt out and will rather go ride where I have a much larger chance of free flowing trail ahead with no hooman obstacles. And yes, I'm not an A-batcher. I'm too big for that.

I found this out on the few events I have done. K2C comes to mind. People dismounting to walk underneath a bridge by Avontuur. On again a perfectly rideable strip of track. Once you get there you wonder why everyone is walking. I've also done some Nissan Trailseekers and have been help up by people walking on grass. Yes - grass. I don't "event" anymore because of that. 

But more power to everyone who finds some level of fun in that. I don't.

I find more fun in riding some techy, sketchy line where most folks would not go in any case, so for some people 3 hours on a mountain bike aquates to 50 odd kilometers. To me 3 hours would probably not take me further than probably 10 km from my car. But the fun I have on those rides is immeasurable. 

 

I concur to some degree (not specifically to this particular case), many years ago when i weighed 10kg less.....during that big 7 day event in your part of the world, my timing chip did not work during the prolog and we were penalized because the timing system said we broke the "stay within 1 minute of your team mate" rule and as a penalty we had to start in the last batch on Day 1  

Yo it was interesting to see how easily people get off and push, and I'm referring to riding uphill jeep track that is by no means steep or technical. 

[Jewbacca]

It's funny.

I went through a stage of bikes where I was like Robbie, I went through a stage of bikes where I wore lycra and raced and I went through a stage of bikes where I thought furtherer was betterer and plenty of other stages in between. At one stage I even judged everyone who was soft enough to use gears.

At those various stages of my bike journey I also judged others despite saying and telling myself I wasn't.

Slower unfit people, people not shredding sufficient gnar, people only riding 50km.... pffft. 

One day you get in the way of Hylton Turvey on Plumber and you realise you are pathetic. You get overtaken by a teenage Luke Moir while going balls deep up a hill or at xco practice, you get beaten by 5 days by Martin Dreyer despite pushing yourself to the absolute limit across SA and realise you are really not in a position to call anyone anything.

I just dig riding bikes. But cyclists are the worst.

We are all bike dorks, some new, some old, some in between. Usually the really good bike dorks don't have an opinion on other bike dorks as they are too busy being good and enjoying being good or working on being.... gooder

Peace and love bike dorks! hahahaha 

Hippy rant over

[ChrisF]

@Dale missing your pics bud.  Heal up quick 👍

 

[throttles]