New Bike Rack

A while back I started thinking about putting a bike rack onto my bakkie.
It was on our first Eselfontein weekend that I realised putting 3 bikes and luggage onto the Corsa makes for a tight squeeze and needs clever packing.

So I started formulating a plan. I wanted to pack three bikes and have lots of space for luggage on  a road trip.

So I started planning and sent drawings of what I wanted to my father. He was even more enthusiastic than me and immediately set off with the design.

Along the way things got lost in translation, and my father (bless him) decided that I needed a cover as well and he managed to source one of the last cheap tonneau covers available for my bakkie.

This meant that my design needed to change. This is where I got a bit of a brainwave and dug out my roof rack for my VW Fox that I drove in my varsity days. The foot pieces that fit into the roof gutter of the Fox fits over the knuckles that the Corsa has on the side of he load bin.

So while I went back to Cape Town for the week my father went to work on the rack.

So off my father went, got some square tubing, took out his grinder, had a bit of fun with it and hey presto, I had two new longer roof racks. He cut up the old bike rack I used for my Fox (also a home made rack) and welded that onto the roof rack bars. The beauty of our design is that it can be assembled using off-the-shelf Holdfast products, so no grinding or welding is required.

I went home for the weekend and Saturday was set out for some DIY.

First round of testing

We first put up the rack to see if everything works. For prototype testing being we used my only bicycle as the guinea pig. This entailed driving up and down the street seeing how stable the bike is on top of the rack. That shows trust in your father's workmanship. Preliminary trail runs were successful so we pulled off the rack and started installing the tonneau cover. Because we used the traditional cover that ties down with a rope we had to cut holes into the bakkie. I did not dig this at all, but luckily my dad has a steady hand with a drill. 

My dad with his creation.

While we were punching in the last of the pop rivets Freddie arrived on his new Merida 96 (very pretty.) After installing the tonneau cover and putting the rack back onto the bakkie we decided more prototype testing was needed. The first bike to go onto the rack was Freddie's, followed by my father's and then mine. We calculated that the value of the three Merida's on the rack is worth more than my bakkie (signs of misspent fortune's?) The second round of prototype testing went off without a glitch and me and Freddie decided that a Jonkershoek mission was exactly what we needed. Along the way we stopped to pick up a Damsel in distress, but unfortunately Freddie called dibs and she drove in his car to Jonkershoek, leaving me to drive alone with the sounds of loud rock n roll.

Mountainbikes worth more than the transporting vehicle

The first real road trip test is this weekend when me and Marike will be cruising over to Kommetjie for the weekend followed by an Hermanus mission next weekend. I can't wait!

Contermans Kloof Ride report

So after living in Durbanville for almost a year I've fianlly ridden Contermanskloof.

The ride started strangely when I realised I didn't bring cycling clothes. I only had shoes and my helmet. So I rode it in my boardies and one of Marike's cycling shirts. Very sexy.

But what a cool place to ride. The honesty box system is in place so after writing out our own permits and dropping our R25's into the box we set off.

The farm is part of the Tygerberg MTB club's plan to link up farms in the Durbanville Hills are with singletrack to form a network of trails.

One day when I grow up I'll ride all the trails, and hopefully in one ride.
The trail starts with a loop around the dam followed by a climb through the vineyards. The climb affords stunning views of the the Cape peninsula and when you reach the mast you look down on Durbanville, can see Stellenbosch, Cape Town and even Blaauwberg.

The climb up to the mast is tough, and gets steeper to the end. I'm proud to say Marike made it to the top with out putting her foot down. I didn't...

The downhills are super fun. The trails arew graded in Colour diamonds, with green easy, blue tecnical and black Expert. There is a double black diamond run as well. This is the DH course. Next time I want to go down that as well.
The singletrack descent is a good mix of technical and flowy riding, with fast sections mixed with steep rocky switchbacks. Great fun.

The loop took us about 1h15 to do, climbed 390m and I have no idea how far it is.

Next time I want to ride Hillcrest, will report back on that loop as well.

Happy trails

P

Eselfontein V2.0

Im the heart of the Boland, just outside Ceres, surrounded by mountains, is nirvana. MTB Nirvana. Is is a farm called Eselfontein, and it should be on you MTB Bucketlist.

This past weekend has been spent with the Parel Valley MTB Team at Eselfontein. It was a training camp and Hanri invited me and Marike to help her and John.

We drove up with John in his mommy wagon with two Meridas on the roof and a Silverback hanging off the back. We bumped and scraped our way up the rough road to the camp site.

How not to tie a bike to your bike rack...

Clean freshly serviced Merida.

When we eventually arrived we saw that the PV families knows how to camp. We might have been camping, but we were camping in style.

We ate like kings the whole weekend. The boys' parents pulled out all the stops to ensure everyone recieves the necessary nutrishion to ride hard. And then they gave us more food and pudding. I think I gained weight despite all the riding.

Curry Pot being finetuned.

Saturday morning I awoke with a fright when the calf size dogs barked loud enough to wake me up, after rushing out to protect the bikes and kids (in that order) I realised it was a jackal. As I said, MTB nirvana.

After ride briefing (keep left, pass right, no helmet no ride, don't ride over John if he hits a tree, the normal race briefing tipe stuff) and a route explanation (attempt) we set off in two groups.

John raced after the faster boys to ensure they don't get lost while he doesn't lead the way. (he didn't, they did, we all went riding up the wrong hill. Oops.)

With the faster guys under John's wing, Me, Hanri and Marike took the intermediate group on the same loop. After about two km's we had our first puncture. This was indicative of what lay ahead. I can honestly say that I have enough experience in fixing punctures, and that tubeless is the best upgrade to make to any MTB.

The routes on Eselfontein consists of singletrack connected with short farm road sections. On saturday we did 50kms in about 5 and a half hours. This included awesome sections with names like Snakebite, Philip's Creek, Dead Man Walking, Shapiro's drop, Silver Forest and Dark forest to name a few.

Lunch underneath the bridge.

Going up Dead Man Walking was tough. I clocked 34 degrees on my watch, we ran out of water, we had a few punctures and some of us were cramping. The beauty of Eselfontein is that it is easy to bail out en route and still have a lekker ride home. Dead Man Walking took a couple of casualties and a couple of riders called it a day. Last time I went up this climb I cramped and had a serious sense of humour failure. This time I went up strong and even managed to summit it in my middle blade. I was lank chuffed. I was also excited to see Marike on top of this climb and we ended up finishing the ride together. On the way home we jumped into a dam and filled our bottles. The down hill was awesome. Fast flowy singletrack intersperd with rocky sections that needed serious concentration levels at speed. Marike handled this with aplomb and I was stoked to see how much her technical riding improved. After buzzing through the Silver Forest we met up with John and Hanriu to have lunch underneath the bridge. After lunch we zipped through the silver forest and went home. 5 and a half hours later me and Marike did a hard 50km MTB ride.

I wolfed down lunch and retired to my hammock. 

Living la vida loca

While enjoying sundowners on the dam some of the boys came cruising past on their MTBs. They were just riding to have some fun. For me, that was beautifull. This is MTBing in its best form. Just being on the bike because you enjoy it.

Saturday night we did a night ride of about 12km. This fast loop was really fun, and riding through the Silver and Dark forests at night adds a new dimension to these trails.

Everyone slept like babies saturday night.

Sunday we did a more chilled ride of 27km. We still did most of the fast singletrack but skipped Dead Man Walking. John even stopped to take photo's of us taking the jump at Philip's Creek. Check out his blog to see some of the action.  Sunday also saw some pranks going down, with my bike spending most of the afternoon hiding from me, and John's bike was tied halfway up a tree.

All in all we had a great weekend. We rode all of the trails, did most of the singletrack twice and some even three times. The camping was fun, and the group of boys were awesome. They are strong riders and I hope they take this far. Best of luck to the team at SA's.

A special thanks has to go out to the parents for taking such great care of us. We ate like kings, the hot water cylinders had hot water in it after every ride and they seemed to sense what we needed before we even realised it. Another special thanks also has to go out to Hanri for organising everything.

Me and Marike ( left,) with John and Hanri.

Weekend away

My bags are packed, my MTB is serviced, I'm ready to go!

Friday we're heading off to Eselfontein near Ceres again. The previous weekend there was a blast, so I am very excited about going again.

This time Marike and I are joining Hanri and John in chaperoning the Parel Valley high school boys on a training camp.

It'll be another weekend of singletrack, chilling around the fire and having a good time.

My Merida has just returned from a service and TLC session at Cycle Addiction. New BB, new grips, new cables and a new tyre on the back wheel and a decent wash. My baby has never looked this great. Once again the guys at Cycle Addiction have outdone themselves.

All the more reason to go ride the crap out of her. Eselfontein, here I come!

Catch you on the flipside.
Happy trails.

Philip