If you ride you race?

What is it with bicycles and racing? There is something that happens when two bikes meet, be it on the trail, on the road, in the woods or on the playground.

 

Just take two kids who have just learned to ride, put them together and before you know it they will be racing. To see who can get there fastest or who can pass who. Two arbitary people can meet on the road, one on a daily commute with a single speed with no brakes and the other out for his training ride, you can be sure that if they get close  enough the race is on. Maybe it is just a combination of man and machine that want to discover what their potential is or maybe its is just because it is serious harmless fun.

 

Roadies have come out in the open ages ago, they blatantly admit wanting to be the fastest. But mountain bikers whether you ride trails, downhills or just commute, you have to admit that there is a bit of a racer in you, it just happens when you get on that bike.

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Help find stolen bikes

Bike theft is a world wide problem, don't think it only happens in SA. There is a great initiative setup to manage the trade in stolen bikes, it is called the National Bike Registry. They are appealing to all buyers and sellers in second hand/used bikes to list serial numbers of their bikes on the net. This in support of a campaign to put pressure on organized bike theft in South Africa ... sometimes under violent conditions. Visit the National Bicycle Registry South Africa at www.nbrza.co.za where you can list a stolen bike and check to see if a bike that you intend purchasing has been listed as stolen. Also report any incidents or keep an eye on @bicyclesafetysa on twitter.

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Handmade in South Africa

When you talk mountain bikes made in South Africa then there is one name that stands out head and shoulders above all else, MOREWOOD. The 100% South African bike brand cut their teeth on the downhill circuits of the world and made a big name for themselves outside of South Africa. Patrick Morewood was the man with the vision and the know how to build some of the finest downhill mountain bikes in the world. It was only in the late 2000's that they started to become more well known in South Africa. The factory is in Pietermaritzburg where they continue to handcraft beautiful mountain bikes including downhill, cross country and 29ers. Gary Perkin recently did a factory tour and made a superb video of their production facility. It is an awesome feeling watching a video like this and knowing that I ride one of these world class bikes with the cool label on the seat post that reads "Handmade in Pietermarizburg South Africa". http://vimeo.com/garyperkin/handmade

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Medeocre to winner, what does it take?

We received a mail from an aspiring mountain biker Rodney Pedro who is on a mission to become competitive. That got me thinking about what it takes to be world class mountain biker? What qualities do these super humans poses and how much of what they have is talent? Well the most comfortable answer for all of us is just to say that they have genetics and serious talent, that makes us all feel a lot better and lets us justify our own mediocre performance. 

Interestingly training guru Joe Friel has a different view on this. Writing in his blog about excellence he lists the qualities that by experience he has detected in successful athletes coached by himself. They are most importantly of all motivation then discipline, confidence, focus and patience. Notice that he didn't say anything about innate talent, physiology, skills, or even experience in the sport. All of these things can be developed and learned if the other predictors are there. Those predictors are also the same ones that differentiate people who can stick to training programs and those who can't. So if you really want to get on top of your improved fitness or performance then think about your motivation, discipline, confidence, focus and patience.

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Switzerland has it all - Eurobike and world champs

If you were wondering where you should be this week then we will tell you - Switzerland. That's not because they have the Alps and more MTB trails than you can dream about. Its because they have Eurobike 2011 and the MTB World Champs on this weekend. Eurobike is just one big bike party, sure its business but really, can you take anyone in the bike industry seriously? Judging by the photos from the #scottparty definitely not. Nevertheless there will be loads of new bike models and cool accessories and other bike bits coming out of this mega bike show.

The the MTB World Champs is underway in Champery and there are many South Africans riding, not just the big guns Burry and Greg but a whole crop of youngsters too. There will be coverage on Supersport 5 this weekend so look out for that or checkout Freecaster.tv for live coverage. Word on the trail is that the 29ers are getting hammered by the 26ers, interesting .... 

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