the guy that cycled round Africa

[Delgado]

One of the most inspirational books I've read.  This oke has more guts than I could think of having. 

I was also extremely shocked at how little the cycling industry wanted to know about his endevour.  Just gives one a little perspective of what the cycling industry is about!  Money' date=' and LOTS of it, with a "bugger you Jack" type of attitude.

One other thing, no major SA sponsors for his Africa trip!!!!  His major sponsor, Windhoek.  Nou hoe flippen nou???
[/quote'] ...and just for the record he is a Natal Sharks fan!!!

 

Shame!!!!!! All the support but no cup!!!!!!!! (since 1997!!!!)

...true but an IQ greater than 20!!

[Guest Big H]

One of the most inspirational books I've read.  This oke has more guts than I could think of having. 

I was also extremely shocked at how little the cycling industry wanted to know about his endevour.  Just gives one a little perspective of what the cycling industry is about!  Money' date=' and LOTS of it, with a "bugger you Jack" type of attitude.

One other thing, no major SA sponsors for his Africa trip!!!!  His major sponsor, Windhoek.  Nou hoe flippen nou???
[/quote'] ...and just for the record he is a Natal Sharks fan!!!

 

Shame!!!!!! All the support but no cup!!!!!!!! (since 1997!!!!)

...true but an IQ greater than 20!!

 

And the experts that measured their IQ..... surely not locals because nobody with brains live there.

[Delgado]

One of the most inspirational books I've read.  This oke has more guts than I could think of having. 

I was also extremely shocked at how little the cycling industry wanted to know about his endevour.  Just gives one a little perspective of what the cycling industry is about!  Money' date=' and LOTS of it, with a "bugger you Jack" type of attitude.

One other thing, no major SA sponsors for his Africa trip!!!!  His major sponsor, Windhoek.  Nou hoe flippen nou???
[/quote'] ...and just for the record he is a Natal Sharks fan!!!

 

Shame!!!!!! All the support but no cup!!!!!!!! (since 1997!!!!)

...true but an IQ greater than 20!!

 

And the experts that measured their IQ..... surely not locals because nobody with brains live there.

We only use MENSA standards in the Kingdom of Natal!! 

[Johan Bornman]

I approached Riaan once, wanting to know all about the technical stuff of his epic ride. He couldn't even tell me how many tubes he went through. He said "hundreds," which I think is completely unlikely.  I was interested in things like the longevity of brake pads, clusters, chains etc. He either didn't keep tally or was totally disinterested.

 

It's a pity, that type of data could be useful to some geeks here on the hub.

 

 

[Guest Big H]

I approached Riaan once' date=' wanting to know all about the technical stuff of his epic ride. He couldn't even tell me how many tubes he went through. He said "hundreds," which I think is completely unlikely.  I was interested in things like the longevity of brake pads, clusters, chains etc. He either didn't keep tally or was totally disinterested.

 

It's a pity, that type of data could be useful to some geeks here on the hub.

 

 

[/quote']

 

Contact Flip van Dyk(e????) by flip@stukkiefietsencom He travelled through Africa and is somewhere in the East (I think) now. He might have kept records. I repaired the rear axle and freewheel of his bicycle when we met him in Mozambique. Also contact Alexander Leissner at radler@kaptour.at The couple travelled around the world and kept meticilous record of their bicycles. They have now now "retired" and I am not sure if the email address is still active.

[batgirl]

i think ill wirte about reading about guys like him:D

[hagar]

who is gonna keep tack of how may tubes they have used in two years ???  too many to remember really trival but for what he did was a experince of a lifetime and it nearly cost him his life !!! excellent book and was well worth the read 

[Johan Bornman]

who is gonna keep tack of how may tubes they have used in two years ???  too many to remember really trival but for what he did was a experince of a lifetime and it nearly cost him his life !!! excellent book and was well worth the read 

 

I think a journey like Riaan's has many facets to it. I just don't believe that if he had really used "hundreds of tubes" and "dozens of chains" that he could just have forgotten about them. Fill a box with 100 tubes and you'll see what a mountain it is. Fill a box with 100 chains and you'll have a heavy mountain. I'm interested in how he sourced it in the bundu, how he dealt with the problems that we solve in well-equipped workshops etc etc.

 

For instance, the Tour de France has spawned books on the individual's ups and downs, on the drug scandal and more. The TDF book I enjoyed was Tales from the Toolbox. Here the mechanic described how his riders wore out their brakes in a single day's race - the Paris Roubais. He describes how he screwed up on Hamilton's BB and Hamilton paid the price, etc etc.

 

The world has many vantage points from where I'd like to study it.

 

 

Johan Bornman2008-08-29 09:52:53

[Johan Bornman]

Contact Flip van Dyk(e????) by flip@stukkiefietsencom He travelled through Africa and is somewhere in the East (I think) now. He might have kept records. I repaired the rear axle and freewheel of his bicycle when we met him in Mozambique. Also contact Alexander Leissner at radler@kaptour.at The couple travelled around the world and kept meticilous record of their bicycles. They have now now "retired" and I am not sure if the email address is still active.

 

Dankie Hendrik, ek het 'n nota gemaak van hierdie kontakte. Eendag gaan ek nog met so 'n persoon 'n onderhoud voer en dit opskryk. Miskien vir my webwerf, miskien vir 'n boek.

 

 

[IanJ]

who is gonna keep tack of how may tubes they have used in two years ???  too many to remember really trival but for what he did was a experince of a lifetime and it nearly cost him his life !!! excellent book and was well worth the read 

 

I think a journey like Riaan's has many facets to it. I just don't believe that if he had really used "hundreds of tubes" and "dozens of chains" that he could just have forgotten about them. Fill a box with 100 tubes and you'll see what a mountain it is. Fill a box with 100 chains and you'll have a heavy mountain. I'm interested in how he sourced it in the bundu' date=' how he dealt with the problems that we solve in well-equipped workshops etc etc.

 

For instance, the Tour de France has spawned books on the individual's ups and downs, on the drug scandal and more. The TDF book I enjoyed was Tales from the Toolbox. Here the mechanic described how his riders wore out their brakes in a single day's race - the Paris Roubais. He describes how he screwed up on Hamilton's BB and Hamilton paid the price, etc etc.

 

The world has many vantage points from where I'd like to study it.

 

 

[/quote']

 

Johan I presume you haven't read the book, many of the details you are referring are covered in the book but not statistically. There are plenty of stories of him having to put his bike on a truck and catching a lift to the nearest town to find the local "mechanic". He always went back to where he stopped though to complete the journey.

 

I seem to rememebr that his biggest problem was spokes breaking.

 

If you would like to borrow the book I will gladly lend it to you.

 

 

 

[Sean Badenhorst]

In the cycle industry's defence, some non-athletic guy asking for a bike and spares to ride around the coast of Africa alone, is kind of unusual.

 

I'm not condoning a lack of support, but when I worked at Ride and Bicycling, I used to get scores of requests for support or bikes or something for people doing some or other 'adventure' journey. Adventure means different things to different people of course.

 

The fact that Riaan actually completed his adventure is amazing. I remember when he set off thinking he wouldn't make it ? and I'm an optimist!

 

I still interact quite regularly with many of the bike importers and can tell you they get inundated with sponsorship requests all the time. Just because they didn't support Riaan, doesn't mean they're mean. They may have just exhausted their sponsorship budget on some or other meaningful cause.

 

Slightly related, but worth telling, I remember not long after we'd launched Bicycling, this Kevin chap, dressed in a smart suit, having a meeting with us to tell us about this mountain bike stage race he was planning to organise from Knysna to Stellenbosch that would become the biggest thing to hit mountain biking in SA and asking us to be a media partner.

 

We thought his plan was a bit ambitious and said that once the first edition had been completed we could talk again. Little did we know the Cape Epic would achieve such success in such a short time.

 

Well done to Riaan and Kevin for proving me wrong. That kind of passion and determination are qualities that separate talkers from doers.

 

 

 

 

 

[Johan Bornman]

Johan I presume you haven't read the book' date=' many of the details you are referring are covered in the book but not statistically. There are plenty of stories of him having to put his bike on a truck and catching a lift to the nearest town to find the local "mechanic". He always went back to where he stopped though to complete the journey.

 

I seem to rememebr that his biggest problem was spokes breaking.

 

If you would like to borrow the book I will gladly lend it to you.

 

 

 

[/quote']

 

Ian, I have not read the book, you're right. I'd love to and would like to take you up on your offer. In return I'll open my cycling library to you. Details via PM.

 

As a slight aside, when I recently moved, I had to pack 67 boxes with books I purchased over the years. I stored them for two years and when I finally ended up in a place where we decided to settle, I decided that masses of books is one of the burdens in life. We cleaned out, donated 97% of our stock to the local library, which we also joined and kept a fewd reference books and some of my precious Denys Reitz books and a small collection of JM Coetzee. It think the latter should also go to the library.

 

I'm damned if I'm falling into the book trap again, so thanks for the offer of a loan.

 

 

 

Johan Bornman2008-08-30 06:25:12

[Johan Bornman]

In the cycle industry's defence' date=' some non-athletic guy asking for a bike and spares to ride around the coast of Africa alone, is kind of unusual.

I'm not condoning a lack of support, but when I worked at Ride and Bicycling, I used to get scores of requests for support or bikes or something for people doing some or other 'adventure' journey. Adventure means different things to different people of course.

 

 

cut cut cut cut

 

 

[/quote']

Having worked for one or two very prominent companies, I've handled scores of requests for sponsorship.

 

99.9% of these sponsorship requests were just requests for support. They wanted either money or equipment. Very few of the would-be adventurers had any real proposal. They seem to forget that we sponsor things so that a marketing campaign can be wrapped around it and the whole shebang then  becomes a legitimate marketing activity.

 

Sometimes you're sympathetic and just give something, usually in the form of merchandise, but I wish more of them came with some well thought out ideas of how to leverage some publicity, marketing or advertising out of the concept.

 

You may say that it's the marketer's job to do that but generally they're working according to an annual marketing plan with strict rules and guidelines imposed by some multinational's head office in the US or Europe. As it is, they're battling to execute that and now to lose focus and fit an around-africa trip by a bearded, media-naive man with a bicycle into the plan is a serious diversion. (I'm not referring to Riaan here, I have no idea if he's media savvy or indeed even has a beard).

 

As if that's not enough, they come to you three weeks before the event starts. That's not enough to even buy a pencil in a corporation, nevermind a R200 000 jaunt for someone.

 

The likes of Kevin Vermaak are rare. He clearly knows how to wrap marketing and adventure into something palatable, marketable and saleable. I wish I had more of his ilk in my days. Perhaps there should be a sponsorship module in the education of the average sportsperson/adventurer.

 

Finally, the other difficulty, even if there is a well laid out media plan, is to convince the board to sponsor X or Y. No matter what you propose, there's always one individual who will boycot it. If a great Moto X athlete comes with a proposal, some exec will hate Moto X because he's a MTBer and block it. If you come with sailing, you'll find a speed boat freak on the panel, etc etc. They rarely see the big picture of these things but see it as something that's against whatever sport/passtime they support.

 

For the marketing guy, it doesn't matter if your athlete summitts Everest or wins the 100m freestyle. The medium is irrelevant, it's the message and association with a winner that's important.

 

Here I dont have advice for athletes/adventurers seeking sponsorship other than to hang out at bars and find the type of ego that loves saying he/she (probably the latter) is a personal friend of Ryk N and will therefore be the driving force on the board.

 

I've seen more sponsorships where the approach was made to a senior non-marketing exec succeed than ones that were made to marketing execs. Success refers to the person getting the money, not the sponsorship working for the company.

 

Sympathy sponsorships are another matter and don't have to earn their keep. If you're a friend of Harry O and he gives you a million to climb a mountain, he expects nothing more than a picture or two.

 

I still think the Barloworld sponsorship came from someone on the board who has a passion for cycling and managed to steer the money his/her way. Had it been made for the right reasons Barloworld would have had to make it work and we would have seen much more of the association. As it is, they pulled out when the heat got turned on. You don't sponsor a cycling team without a plan for when the drugs hit the fan. You deal with it, expell the individual/s and carry on. You just pray your star is not the naughty one.

 

 

 

 

[Dirtbreath]

Trip stats pg 702 of the book.

[Shebeen]

i haven't read the book yet (gave it to mom for  Xmas, and now dad has stolen it before i could swipe it) - so please correct me if i'm wrong,

 

but i think Mongoose did step in and help him out when his first bike (a mongoose) got stukkend beyond bloudraad repair.

[Tumbleweed]

john robbie, who says he wrote the foreword to the book (haven't read it), was just on the radio saying manser's been arrested. not sure why. tune in just after 7 to find out.