My new fork

I had this baby installed on my MTB on friday.
If someone told me beforehand that this upgrade would make such a difference I would not have believed them.

But oh my soul this fork is amazing. It feels like riding on butter. This is luxury.

So far I've done about 50kms of riding on it, and plan to do another 110km this week. I can't wait.

Happy trails
Peace

Holiday

At last I am on holiday.

Rockshox Reba RLT

So today I do my last admin and then I am off to the Baai. Any Baai between Somerset West and Mosselbaai, with Gans Baai, Struis Baai and Vlees Baai playing big roles in my life this summer. But tonight it is pringle Baai though.

But first I need to go pick up my shiny new Rockshox Reba RLT. I can't wait!

On the cards for the holiday is lots of sleep, lots of braaivleis, lots of beach and lots of MTB miles. Will also do a Gans Baai - Struis Baai trip on the MTB next week. There is nothing like 2 days of a 100km each to help your aerobic base along.

Safe travels everyone and see you on the other side of the New Year. Merry Christmas.

Philip

Heart Racing

Pimp new gloves. Thanks Dad!

I decided to do a quick loop in Majik Forest after work today. When I got home after work I reckoned I had about 40mins to an hour of sunlight. So I quickly jumped into my fun MTB attire (read baggies and full finger gloves) and set off to Majik. With the sun setting fast  I klapped the hill something silly. I forced myself to stay in the middle blade in front and two down at the back. This makes for a lekker ratio to really crank it about halfway up I glanced at my watch and saw that my heart was beating at 200bpm. I dropped a gear and forced myself to accelerate even more till the end of the first climb. I forced my heart rate up to 208bpm. Theoretically my max should be at 196 (220-age) but I have managed to push it up to 210 in the sportslab before.

It feels weird pushing this hard. Besides not being able to get in enough air ( I swear it feels like I'm sucking in air through my ears as well) you get tunnel vision, my hands and shoulders go a bit numb and your legs and lungs are burning like crazy. Make no mistake, this is fun. In a sado-masochistic way.

The next climb I pushed myself again, again up to about 200. at the top of the singletrack I had to stop and rest. A good sign of fitness is how fast you recover and thus how fast your heart rate decreases after strenous activity.  Mine definitaly isn't where it needs to be but the season is only starting. After getting my heart and breathing under control I dropped into the singletrack. Majik has an awesoem downhill singletrack that is great for just having fun. What a brilliant way to unwind after a hard day. The only way someone can understand this is by riding. Only a surfer might know the surfing feeling, but only a MTBer will experience what I did this afternoon.

I might do the same tomorrow after work but I have a sneaky suspicion that I'm rather going for a sunset cruise on the Sea Point Promenade.Apparently some of the girls that frequent the area are very pretty.
That will also get my heart rate up...

Happy trails everyone

 Peace

P

Long holiday rides

Right now it is crazy crunch time at the office, but in little more than a week it will all be over. In three weeks time I'm taking leave, and I am planning to do some very long rides on my off time.

At first I will be in our holiday house in Uilkraal.
The multitude of gravel roads in the area means I can literally ride at a low intensity for hours on my MTB. Through thehubsa.co.za I've hooked up with a couple of guys who also need to do long rides, so I won't be riding alone. Somewhere in this time I want to ride from Gansbaai to Struisbaai, stay the night and return the next day. This is a 100km one way trip. This means I will be taking a big backpack with me with clothes, food, and alot of water and energy drinks.

Somewhere after christmas I am shooting up to the Garden Route area with my mate Jannik. The plan is to end up in Vleesbaai, but I am hoping to ride Harkerville and me and Gavin are toying with the idea of riding the old 7 passes route between Knysna and George on the MTB's. I've done this ride on the first day of the Cape Epic in 2006 so I have first hand experience of how long this ride is. This was the day that I stopped using a speedometer. It was just too demotivating to see that I've done 30km and still need to do 90km for the day. It was during the epic that I realised that I can ride really long if I keep my tempo down and keep on refuelling myself.

These long rides are meant to build my aerobic base for the 24hr race at the end of Jan and also to set the tone for the 3day tour I want to do in March.

I can't wait to get the time in the saddle, and if I plan my things correctly, I'll get to spend enough time on the beaches to burn away the sexy cycling tan. Fun times.

Happy trails all

P

Photos

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

Goals and Training plans

I have always enjoyed my training more when I had a goal to work for.

My new goal is the 24hrs of Wiesenhof in January. Once again I want to ride it in the Solo category. Just Me, Myself and the voices in my head.

The idea is not to win the race, but rather to push myself to the limits of my endurance and way past the percieved limits of my body. By not training for the 24hr I can easily reach my body's limit, but there is no fun in that. I want to be in good form so that I can go (relatively) faster, and I want to ride through the night. To achieve that I need to become a monster.

I've set up a 16week training plan that will culminate the week before the 24hr. At the end of the base building phase of the plan I will be doing 12hrs of riding a week. As the 24hr race is about endurance more than strength I might deviate from the plan to extend the base phase another 2 weeks to add a couple of 6-8hrs rides over the weekends.

The plan I developed uses the Polar 16 week training program to give me a breakdown of weekly hour totals I need to do. The daily breakdown is up to me to tweak the rides according to events and days available to me.

To get hours into my legs I will commute into Cape Town from my flat. I will do some epic long rides over the weekends and put in as many night rides as I can. The night rides are a necessity in training for the 24hr, and happen to be great fun as well.

All this riding will be best when shared with others, so feel free to join me.

Happy trails everyone

Peace
P

MTBing and Camaraderie

Through riding I've met a bunch of cool people.

Some of my best friends are mountain bikers, and I've introduced the MTB bug to some of my friends that have gone on to great heights.

There is something about riding that binds us together. Obviously you get A-Holes everywhere, and on a ride/race you will always get someone who won't take the time to greet you or help you when you have a trail side issue, but they are in the minority.

When I've had broken chains, punctures, cramps and even fallen off the bike there has always been someone who stopped and asked whether I'm fine, need help and even people who give up their races to get me to a hospital as soon as possible.

The Stanford race was a good example of this. In the span of 5km's I met 5 people, and we rallied together and motivated each when the going got tough. The random chit chat helped us to take our minds of the pain, and Philip Grutter's cramp stop pills helped me to finish. He didn't hesitate to give me the pills even though he was near cramping himself.

In the 06 Epic random people who I've never met helped me to push my team mate when he got sick. After doing about 130kms from Hermanus to Franschoek they still helped me to push Sybrand the last 5km's home. We made it, and finished the race, but to this day I believe it was only possible because we got help from total strangers.

On the other side of the coin I've had some great fun doing rides with friends where we had no goal other than to get into the mountain and have FUN. By sharing in the beauty of nature, in the fun of the trails and just being out there, we magnify the magic of mountainbiking.

That is essentially what MTBing means to me. It is magic. A potent cocktail of endorphins, adrenalin, thrills and friendship.

By sharing this magic, we are spreading the love, and that is beautiful.

Happy trails

Phlip

Mountainbiking and pain

Sometimes riding mountainbikes go hand in hand with pain.

There are three kinds of pain on a mountain bike.
Pain from Falling. Lets face it, it happens.
Pain from Overuse.
Pain from pushing your limits.

Falling
This past weekend I managed to fall again. Lately I havent had any bad falls, so was very fortunate up to now. Well that streak ended with a bang, and lots of scraping and a bit of swearing.
I am remembering all the disinfecting, bandaging and strapping skills I've picked up over the years. I've also bolstered my first aid kit with extra bactroban, betadine, bandages and gauze.

Pain from overuse
The repetitive nature of riding means that our jonts and muscles take a lot of strain, especially if a rider picks up his mileage very quickly. Every year at the 24 hour I push myself into tendonitis at the back of my right knee. I've made peace with it, but I really need to start paying attention to it. It is caused by a muscle imbalance between my Hamstrings and my Quads, as well as my hamstrings being to short. A proper bike setup should also help.

Pain from pushing too hard.
This is a good pain. The pain you feel when youride at a pace that is crazy stupid and you can hear your heart beating and your legs scream at you to slow down or stop and your lungs are clapping hands like a psycopath while your vision becomes like staring at a dark tunnel and the light is tinged red. And then you drop a gear and push harder for the last part of the hill or sprint to the finish line.
There is also a pain you get when you have been riding at a hard tempo for a while, say a MTB race and you press on and ride full tilt for the last 5 kms and then collapse from exhaustion after you cross the line.
I like this kind of pain. It's like a drug, and you feel like a warrior when you are cranking in your big blade after doing 50kms of hard riding. There is something satisfying about crossing the finish line knowing you gave your all.

The only way to improve is by working harder, and that means sometimers you will have to go through pain.
This is what seperates us from the TV crowd. We take the pain as part and parcel of the game. We learn to live with it, to embrace it, and to ignore it.

And pain makes beer taste better...

Stanford race report

The Stanford 57km race is one of the hardest one day races I've ever done.

My dad and I burned through early morning in my bakkie. It was his first race in three years and we were both pretty psyched.

The race started fast. At about 4 km I took a reality check and dropped off the back of the bunch. At 5km while taking a sip of water a rock grew in front of my front wheel and I promptly fell my ass of. Great way to start the day.

We started climbing for what felt like forever. We reached the radio mast on top of the mountain and reached the first waterpoint. By this time I already finished a bottle so I refilled my bottle. The first aid lady wanted to clean my knee wound but i reckoned the blood and dust coagulated lekker so I pushed on. We raced down the mountain down a long rocky road. We lost almost all the elevation we gained going up to the mast, but now we were on the wrong side of the mountain. Not good. We raced down wind for a long stretch dreading turning back into the wind. This eventually happened and we realised the wind was howling. Not good either. After the second waterpoint we started climbing again. This climb killed me. The section between WP2 and WP3 was hard. It was one long drag of a climb that had me in the worst cramps I've experienced in my life. On this part of the route I met two other Philips, 2 ladies in Oak Valley Wines gear and Werner Hattingh. The camaraderie here was great. Everybody kakked off so we chatted and motivated each other. At Wp3 i felt elated. Especially after the kind ladies told me it 's 8km downhill all the way (they lied.) They informed me that I was rider number 15 and 12th man. The first aid lady wanted to clean my knee again but only warned me to be carefull on the downhill when I pushed on.

The downhill was bliss. It was long, fast, flowing, rocky at places, and quite sketchy, but most of all it was fun. I managed to pass the two Oak Valley ladies on the way down.

At the bottom there was a couple of short climbs. On the first climb I cramped in my calves, hammies and quads. I got of the bike to stretch the cramps out. Big mistake. If you stretch one muscle group the other two spasmed. I ended up sitting in a neutral position praying for the pain to go away. When the pain faded I got up again and headed home. I havent been so glad to see a race venue since day 7 of epic 2006.

At the finish my dad, Marike, Sheila, Nadia and Hilke were waiting for us, and I must have drinked a truck load of coke.

I really enjoyed this ride in a masochistic way. I will be back next year, and I WILL be stronger. The hills won't beat me again.

Afterwards the race experience unravelled a bit. The lady at the line told me I was 25th, meaning 12 people took the easier detour at Wp2 but still got placed ahead of me. Nadia fell and got hurt quite badly. My father, Harry, Sheila and Marike got lost due to bad route markings and Marike's 8k trail run turned into a 30min run and she barely broke a sweat as it was like 4kms. There were no first aid personnel at the finish and the first aid kit they had there didn't have any anti septic. Marike helped me and Nadia using the first aid kit I always have in my bakkie.

At the end of the day a great race with an awesome route was spoiled abit by the organisers dropping the ball. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and will return next year, but I hope they improve.

PS: My knee looks like it got attacked by a cheesegrater. Will post pics later. I'm taking the week off from the bike to give my wounds time to heal.

Happy trails everyone
Phlip

What is it about the allure of something new that just wants you to go play with it?

I popped in at my parents for the night, and my father was kind enough to pick up my new wheel and to sort out the admin for me as well. Thanks dad.

I can't believe how smoothly the hub spins and how light the wheel is. They are DT Swiss 4.2d rims built on Novatec Ultralight hubs laced with DT double butted spokes. The wheel weighs 830grams. Tyres are Kenda Karma Tubeless models. I'm glad to be off the weight weenie tyres and back on a tubeless front wheel. 2 punctures in one day lead to a serious sense of humour failure. The combination of thicker tubeless tyres and Stans sealant prevents punctures and gives me a bit more peace of mind. After sliding around a bit in Eselfontein the Karma's traction will also be making a welcome return to my riding style.

On the wishlist for next month is a new BB, a fresh set of gear cables, , a bigger disc brake rotor, a new Karma for the back wheel and maybe even a new chain, cluster and chainring combo, but that might have to wait until winter is done and dusted. I also plan on finally building up the Single Speed MTB out of my old parts.

But first on the cards is the Stanford race this weekend and the Caledon race next weekend. Stanford will be my dad's comeback race. I'm especially excited to be going racing with him again.

A word of thanks have to go out to Cycle Addiction for their help, patience and for building my wheel. Thanks also to my dad for helping out with the admin when there was issues with the suppliers, and also for just always having my back when I need it. Thanks dad, much appreciated.

I hope everyone has a great week.

Enjoy life and happy trails!

Philip

Eselfontein report.

I am a broken man. Well not broken, but definately hurting.

We've just returned from Eselfontein, a farm outside Ceres that has a longtime reputation under mountainbikers as a bit of a mecca. Well it is true.

I did about 8hrs of riding, covering 67km in two days and still I didnt ride every trail.

We were a group of 19 riders that made the eco hut camp our home. The eco huts are thatch and reed walled huts that are built using trees as corner poles. There is a huge communal braai and kitchen kuier area, and 2 bath rooms. For hot water there is a wood fired donkey.

We were the last too arrive so we quickly setup our tents and joined the others around the fire. It was a jol. Wine, beer, braaivleis and mountainbike stories were shared and set the tone for the weekend.

The routes at Eselfontein are mostly singletrack with only a few gravel road sections. The singletracks vary from technical and rocky to fast and flowy.

The saturday ride was quite an adventure. We got lost, I punctured twice, cramped and Clive bonked and I bonked. Freddie broke a spoke and Dick fell. Dick's fall was quite serious and we were scared that he was concussed. This was a turning point of the ride for me and a couple of us separated from the group and focussed on getting him home safely.

It was after this that i decided I have to come back to Eselfontein. I have to ride it when my bike that is hundreds and when I am prepared. I won't let the mountain hurt me like that again.

The ride ended up being about 48kms and 5h30 long. Dick was concussed and my legs were toast. Even with all the misfortune I had a great ride. A hot shower and a shovelfull of food and I felt like a new man again.

The other groups also had great rides, the girls had technical difficulties but still soldiered on for a second loop and also did a 5hr ride.

For supper Ulandi and Reenen made potjiekos and we helped ourself to some more of wine, braai and beer action. We swapped some war stories from our ride.

A couple of diehards went for a night ride, but the majority felt to spent for that and it turned into an early night compared to the previous night.

Sunday was real slow, but after a monster breakfast was built by John and his team we were all up for a ride again.

Some more epic singletrack followed albeit at a slower overall pace and with more stops. We managed to get lost again and had to bundu bash our way a bit to get home. Gabri put his derailleur through his spokes and we had to do a singlespeed conversion to get him home. We rode some more singletrack back to the dam at our camp. Everyone got into the dam in our cycling clothes. On this ride we did 18km in 30c heat so the dam was just what we needed.

We didnt really have any food left, so we broke up camp and headed to the Spur in Ceres.

Overall we had a couple of mechanicals, William, Nadia, Charl and myself punctured, Freddie broke a spoke, Hanri had gear issues, Marikes hub bearings gave up the ghost, Charl's shifter fell apart, JJ bent his derailleur hanger and Gabri and Clive ripped their derailleurs of. Notable falls were John down Shapiro's drop, and Dick getting concussed. Almost everyone had scratches and bruises.

All in all it was a great weekend, and I can't wait to gou back and do it all again. But only after my legs have recovered.

Happy trails
Phlippie

Local suppliers' service levels

Much has been said lately about the issue of parralel and grey imports of cycling products in South Africa.

Grey/parralel imports happens when the local agents are bypassed by the end user. Eg me ordering a crank from an online store based in USA.

Also at the moment there is a furore about apparent price fixing agreements between retailers and suppliers.

The reason there are grey imports into SA is because local cyclists can get parts cheaper if they bypass the local supply chain. A wider range of products is also now available to the discerning buyer. With most of the overseas online stores offering free shipping if orders are above a certain threshold, groups of people have been combining orders into bulk orders to make use of the free shipping service. The downside to this is that the local supplier is under no obligation to help you if you have warrantee issues with products.

This has led to local suppliers feeling the pinch as sales that would have gone through them have bypassed them and the LBS. So bike shops have also seen a drop in their profits.

The only recourse suppliers and LBS have is to increase service levels and reduce profit margins.

I bought a proprietary wheelset about a month ago. Shortly there after I rode into a hole and consequently the front wheel is a write off.

And here my problems started. The local supplier couldn't supply me with a new rim. They assured my LBS that I will have to buy a wheel and that they have stock.

I put in an insurance claim for a new wheel after recieving a quote. The insurance approved and paid out the quote in less than a week (kudos to Santam) and I instructed my LBS to order the wheel.

The following day my LBS phoned me to say they are unable to get me a wheel. Apparently the supplier has a discrepancy between what they have on their system and what they have in stock. They couldn't find the wheel in their warehouse.

I now have to wait at least 6 weeks as the supplier needs to order it for me from overseas.

The LBS has been brilliant throughout the whole episode and can only be commended for their service, but they have been let down by their supplier.

The reality is that the only reason I didnt take my money overseas or even to one of the local online stores is because the insurance payed the claim directly into their account. If it was paid out to me I would have ordered a different wheel from an online supplier where I would have been able to afford it.

I honestly think the distribution chain in SA is based on an archaic business model. Some of the stores and suppliers have opened their eyes to this and adapted to the changing market.

Unfortunately the supplier for my wheel is letting down the stores and tarnishing the view I have of our suppliers in SA.

The main reason I didnt order overseas was because I wanted the peace of mind offered by having backup for my wheels if something went wrong.

Unfortunately for the LBS I will shop around on the internet from now on.

Oh, and I can't see myself buying any proprietary items again. If the parts arent interchangeable and readily available you can be held for ransom by the local suppliers. Not cool.

Fortunately I have a spare wheelset so my riding hasn't been affected and I will still be riding myself silly this weekend at Eselfontein.

Happy trails everyone.

Philip

edit: 30 Aug 2010
Malan Cycle Addiction has come to the rescue and is building me a lekker front wheel that will be stronger than the fulcrum wheels and only weighs 830gr. I can't to get my hands on it and to make it dirty...

Singletrack and new wheels.

I just got a call from my insurance broker.

The claim I put in for a new front wheel has been approved. So I'll be rolling on Fulcrum wheels once again.

I really must commend Santam and my broker Fanie Viviers for their great service. Its been less than a week and they've sorted me out no questions asked.

The race is on to see wether I get them in time for the weekend.

We're going to Eselfontein near Ceres for a MTB weekend. I've been hearing legend stories about the Eselfontein singletrack for years. Apparently you can do a 70km loop with 40km of single track. Yes please!

It helps that we are a group of 20 MTB'ers going and that I'm taking a cooler box full of meat and beer. But more of that next week.

Happy trails!

MTB Photoshoot

Saturday was photoshoot day. Me, Fred, John and Marike joined Johann Swart at G-Spot in Stellies for a photoshoot with all his flashes and his new wireless trigger.

It was fun doing the same sections over and over while Johann clicked away. Redoing sections helped Johann to get the shots right, and helped us to get our lines right. We also did some train runs where we followed each other closely. This made for great shots, and it is lank cool seeing two other riders railig the berms just in front of you.

Marike must have gone up and down 6 times while we were fooling around, and it was cool seeing her going down faster every time she came past.

All in it was a fun day spent on a great trail and I can't wait to go do it again. We're getting faster every time and Johann's photos are also getting better. Win-win situation.

To check out photo's go to Johann's blog.
http://johannswart.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/singletrack-minded-others/

Night riding is fun!

So I went night riding in Eden last night.

It was with Myra on a sedate ride, but with me, John, Freddie, Werner and Marike there the pace on the climbs was faster than I thought it would be. We were about 11 riders in the group, so we had quite a bit of fun joking and chatting and tuning each other. And plenty of rest on the hills.

I learned of some new singletrack combinations, and also rode some singletrack sections I havent done in a year. Sacrilege!

Halfway through the ride I realised that night riding with a lekker bunch of people is way more fun than sitting at home and watching series. Which is what my plan was as it looked like rain.

In Dalsig there is a trail called G-Spot, it is insanely fun. With a fast upper section and a swoopy bermed lower section that can only be described as surfing on a MTB. We went down that piece of heaven 3 times, the last time I was sandwiched between Marike and Myra, and could talk Marike through the lines while Myra could follow mine.

It was then that I came to the following epiphany:
Mountainbiking is an experience meant to be shared, and helping others and sharing your knowledge adds tremendous value to your ride. Sometimes seeing someone else nail a corner for the first time is just as satisfying as nailing it yourself.

So I'm thinking of doing a play session at the Delvera 4x track sometime with the girls so that we can do some flowing skills type stuff. Pull in if you want to join in the fun...

Peace

Back in Town

So after a bit of a holiday I am back in Cape Town.
Durban is nice and the water is warm, but man did I miss my MTB.

A quick visit to Cycle Addiction and I am still not back on my Fulcrum wheel. It seems the damage is way worse than I expected.

Nevertheless I plan on on doing a Majik night ride with Jonkershoek on saturday and maybe Tokai on sunday. I need my singletrack fix.

See you out on the trails

Peace

Die Burger MTB Race report

Saturday 31 August was the day for one of the biggest MTB races in the Western Cape.
Die Burger MTB Challenge is the new name for the Stellenbosch MTB Challenge. This event is one of Dirtopia's premier events, and if you only do one race in the winter, let it be this one.

Having scored VIP Parking tickets with my entry, I pulled in at Markotter with a bit of nerves.
After a quick bike prep I realised I forgot my timing chip in the flat. Epic Fail.

Nevertheless, I met Freddie and Phanus, and after a quick goodbye and goodluck kissy to my Marike (my girlfriend and Lucky charm) I headed off to the start chute with the boys.

Usually I take time to warm up as this helps me to deal with the frenetic pace after the start gun. But I had to settle for some stretching combined with shooting the breeze with those around me. John rocked up in the nick of time again, so it was good seeing everyone before the start.

As usual, after the gun clapped everyone sped off. I managed to get to the front of the pack by bunnyhopping the sidewalk and racing forward. It was quite cool seeing the Sportsmans Warehouse bakkie as the lead vehicle, even though my lungs were already clapping hands at me.

We quickly got the bit of tar behind us and went up to theCoetzenburg Cross. Going up the Proefplaas side of the mountain is not one of my favourite climbs, and when we reached the cross I was feeling the lack of hill training. We quickly despatched the contour road and the downhill on the back side of the hill.

I saw Johann Swart (johannswart.wordpress.com) with his camera on one of the hairpin bends and promptly whipped my back wheel to the side so that he could get a lekker shot. I also promptly learned that my back wheel has zero to no grip when leaned over (note to self: never change tyres before a big race) and so set the tone for most of the day's corner. Tokyo drift style. It might be slower, but sideways is way more fun.

At the Hangbrug I saw Jandre Robbertze (robbertze.wordpress.com) also with his camera and tried to keep my feet dry by popping a wheelie over the river. Didnt work. The water was cold.

After Hangbrug we went up Botmanskop, and if I didn't catch Rolf along the way that climb would have hurt me more than it did. But alas, a conversation with Rolf always takes the mind off the hurt and I managed to get all the way up without pushing.
The downhill on the Helshoogte Pass side dished up some nice sideways fun. Managed to catch Freddie just before Helshoogte and we descended the old pass together.

From here on we entered private areas and everything was new to me. I lost Freddie somewhere in Rustenberg farm where we had a bit of a headwind and fast farm road descents. As we went up Delheim we heard some dude with a PA from what must have been 60km's away. It was nice listening to him talk thrash, but knowing that I had to mission against the wind carrying his voice over to us. Hiding in a bunch I managed to finally reach the water point. The goodies they had on offer looked very enticing, but I decided to press on and make some ground on the group that stopped for water.

It was here that we entered the first singletrack. The singletrack in Delheim is amazing.  This is the stuff dreams were made of. I don't know how many pieces of singletrack we rode, how long it took, how far it was or how fast I went through it. IT WAS FUN!!! I had a permasmile for the rest of the day and weekend because of that singletrack. Insane stuff.Minstrels will one day write songs about this singletrack.

In one of the many pieces of singletrack I managed to catch John and stuck with him until the water point. He missioned of and I only saw glimpses of him for the rest of the day.

After the singletrack I caught Freddie again, one of us managed to take a wrong turn. We stuck together for the rest of the race. We cruised over Elsenburg until we reached Welgevonden where we met up with the 42km route. There were a lot of the 42k riders on the road at this stage..

The kind speedcop (never thought I'd write that) blocked off the whole R101 so that we could cross the road unhindered to ascend Papegaaiberg.

Papegaaiberg is neither long, steep or high, but after 50kms it hurt. Freddie and I mustered up our last strength to ride it up. I must admit, we cruised past a lot of the 42km guys, I felt like a warrior knowing that I could still have enough speed to pass them like that after doing 50km's. We caught Bernice on one of the climbs, and she caught a very gay remark I made when Freddie asked me "does this feel okay." Sorry Bernice.

Before we knew it we were chasing down Papegaaiberg. For once I was grateful that we bypassed the singletrack as the bottleneck would have been insane.

In town we followed all the bergie roads to enable us to avoid tar all the way to Markotter. In all honesty I don't think we did more than 1km of tar road on the 60km.

As we approached the finish line my body decided to punish me for ignoring its pain the whole day, and I got a huge cramp in my calf. Thanks Fred for staying by me here when I could barely pedal the last 100m.

After 3h18 Min's i crossed the line next to my buddy Fred. We saw John and Marike, and learned that John finished 1min in front of us, and Marike also just finished the 42km. Me and Fred finished in 41 and 42 positions overall, and placed 6th and 7th in our group. I'm pretty chuffed.

All in all a awesome day and I can't wait for the next Dirtopia event. Meurant's course combined with Arina's organising skills made a great event. Thanks guys.

PS: I got an email from Racetec today. They saw me cross the line without my chip and manually took my time. Looks like I might be getting an official time still. Bargain!

About me.

Hi, I'm Philip.
I've been riding bicycles since I was yaaaay high. Never stopped, never want to stop.
My bicycle became a mountainbike, my riding became more serious, up to the point where I realise that I am a mountainbiking geek. The only worse geek is a computer geek.

As I'm writing this I am still in my riding gear, with blood on my knee, and wondering when I am going to fix the spoke I broke in my brand new front wheel. You have to realise that I tend to fall a lot.

You would think that 10 years of riding experience would teach me how to ride properly. Sadly, I've only learned how to fall properly.

In the last couple of years I have experienced some weird stuff on my mountainbike..
I have experienced pain, elation, adrenalin, endorphins, happiness, suffering, saddle sores, seen broken arms, lots of blood, the most awesome views, made best friends, dragged said friends over mountains, ridden down mountains, realised that pain is relative, that pain  can be blanked out, that the human body can be pushed way further that we think it can. And finally, I have learned to do all this with a smile, and experience true joy.
This is me sharing it with the world.