Rooiberg EcoRide

This weekend saw the continuation of the 5” experiment on the rocky slopes of Rooiberg. The relatively new 2 day stage race is held just outside Warmbaths near the now ghost town of Rooiberg.

I must thank my sponsor; Regent Lighting Solutions for making it possible for me to attend the event.

It seems that my last 2 outings; at the Magalies Monster and now at Rooiberg, the YETI 575 was the perfect bike. Day 1 is a hugely rough ride! There are plenty of rocks in the area, and the route was probably 85% single track, sometimes over some very cool off-camber sections and traversing big rocks and rocky dry river beds. For me it was a blast! The bike performed like I would have expected it to. I never lost momentum no matter how rough the track was. The great thing about the 575 is that you can stay seated and power through the hardest sections on the trail.

The day’s highlight was definitely a section called “Donga” I only wished I could have gone back and ridden it again! For some riders day 1 would be slightly disappointing, as a rather large fire broke out along the route. Meaning that most of the mid to back pack had to get re-routed. I was lucky enough to make it through before the fire became an angry beast, forcing riders to turn away and re-route.

Day 2 is a far more flowing affair. After averaging only 16.6km/h on day 1 the fast jeep track of day 2 was very welcome. Here again the YETI surprised me. On the long flat sections the bike still pedalled extremely well. I was also never aware that I was riding over 12kgs of bike. And when things turned rough again near the end of the day, the 575 simply danced over the rocks and gained me a few positions in the last kilometres, notably over very exhausted looking hard tail riders.

So far the 5” experiment has been a huge success for me. We now move to the Big Induna and some playing at Mankele this weekend.

It would be remiss of me not to mention Grant Usher at this point. While I am moving swiftly towards a 5 inch bike as my bike of choice for all riding along comes Mr. Usher. Cool Heat built his fully rigid Niner single speed on Friday Night before the event. He then proceeded to beat most of the field on what can really only be described as one of the hardest courses in the country over 2 days. So if you feel that the 5” revolution is not for you, have a hat to Grant next time you bump into him. He loves telling you about how happy he is with his new bike!