Eurobike Demo Day

I have just come back from the demo day where I managed to ride 7 bikes. And pretty much, tire myself out! What you have to remember at these events is that if you want to ride lots of bikes you need to be pretty fit.

 

I started out riding the Scott Spark 20. This is really a great bike. it is very XC biased and seems pretty fast. The 120mm travel up front seems to work well and the bike still climbs very well. The rear with 110mm is very good and the tracloc lever on the handlebar helps you to keep everything in control.

 

I them moved to the new Scott Genius, and for me this was the best bike of the day. The tracloc lever adjusts travel from 150mm to 93mm to locked out and to match, up front there is a Fox Talas, with 3 adjustable travel settings. The bike rides really light, and the question I kept on asking myself was; with no weight penalty at all, why wouldn’t you want this as your do it all bike. I am pretty sure this bike can be raced, and you can have a stack of fun on it!

 

Then I rode the Trek EX. This was a very good bike too. Full carbon and very active. The only issue I seemed to have was that my heel kept on clipping the seat stay.

 

The worst bike of the day was next, the Marin Wolf Ridge, for me, the bike just didn’t work. The XL was way too small and the rear suspension seems to not really reach its full potential.

 

I rode the Merida 96 for about 500m then took it back. It was too small and the rear suspension felt much like my hardtail. The bike is way to firm in the beginning of the stroke.

 

The Specialized Stumpjumper, rode very well. The futureshock was a problem for me. I could not get the rebound right and when I tried to wheelie it made big cluncking noises! When I hit the first roots on the technical downhill the bike nearly three me off! I guess I just needed some help to get the set up right?

 

Then on to the Cannondale Scalpel. This bike, is like a road bike! it has super aggressive angles that make you feel like you are riding downhill all the time, the lefty worked pretty well, to my surprise. But the rear is terrible! I found that the bike worked the best when it was locked out at the back. Can you believe that?

 

Tomorrow the show starts, so watch this space for more updates on what is hot in MTB!

Eurobike Demo Day

 

Cape Epic 2009 - the innovation continues

The Cape Epic was just a figment of imagination in Kevin Vermaak’s mind 5 years ago. Since then it has become world famous and spawned a whole multi day stage racing culture in South Africa. It is the benchmark that people have come to know and trust. They have also come to know what to expect which is exactly the reason why it has to change again.

So of course when the organisers announced that the race will no longer start in Knysna and the prologue will take place in Cape Town, there were more and enough sceptics and I told you sos. Oh no they must be in trouble or they are just tying to make more money, is it now tour de winelands, and so on. Lets not forget that when the epic came along there were just as many sceptics out there with their theories on why it would not work, how expensive it was etc.

If there is one thing you can be sure of at the Epic then it is that it will challenge your limits, it will be well organised and it will keep you guessing with new innovations. That is after all what the epic is all about, pushing the boundaries and stretching your limits. That is exactly what they are doing again and hopefully will continue to do as the dream lives on.

Riding the Stellenbosch MTB Challenge this weekend I was reminded of just how difficult a shorter route with lots of climbing and lots of singletrack can be. So if the 2009 Epic is to be shorter stages with more climbing and more technical riding with shorter distances then don’t think it will be any easier. One thing is for sure, it will be way more interesting riding and that has always been an area for improvement at the Epic.

So bringing the race to the people may not be such a bad thing after all. Just have a little faith. Somehow they always seem to know what we want before most of us even realise it. Isn’t that what you would expect from a world class brand?

Read about the new 2009 route.

Raleigh 2009 Marathon Bikes

The guys at Raleigh have been hard at work through the winter sorting out the new 2009 marathon mountain bikes. We got a sneak preview of their latest models. These pics are straight from the photo studio, some of them not even touched up yet. A completely new frame design has been adopted.

For the last 3 years these bikes have been single pivot systems and now they have gone the 4 bar linkage route. This frame design has been well tested at the Cape Epic with 3 of these new frames finishing the toughest Cape Epic yet. David George raved about this prototype frame as it helped him stick with the world champs on the downhills and powered him into 3rd place on the podium. The average guys were also on these frames and loved them, in fact rumour has it that they never want to ride anything else. The comfy suspension with full lock out and the space for two bottle cages make this an ideal marathon race bike.

Expect these bikes to offer great value again as Raleigh brings European frame design and a top range component mix to provide great bikes. If you want top of the range then look at the Marathon LTD model with XTR groupset, but its going to cost you.

I reckon the pick of the bunch is going to be the XT spec Marathon 9

All in all great looking bikes with an equally impressive suspension system.

Sweet trails, new trails and old trails

I am continually amazed at how new trails seem to pop up and old trails re-invent themselves. With winter hitting the Western Cape and the epic slog a fading memory, it is time to find and ride some new trails. I spend the winter months riding less frequently but trying to keep it interesting by exploring some new routes and mixing some of the old ones up a bit.



Thanks to some motorcross bikes, not often that I say that, we have a new little piece of sweet singletrack. Its got everything, short steep sections, corners, rolling bumps, rocks, fast sweeping turns and drop offs. Yesterday we rode 25km odd, that took us almost 2 hours to do. It was quite different from the normal 40km 2hr riding routes.



It is more like a cross country course and made me remember how much fun those types of courses are. With marathon riding having become so popular the lost art of technical track riding needed to be revisited. It is a welcome change and it is a great way to vary your riding. Being so different to the normal riding it is great variation and excellent for spicing up a training routine, really windy days, or to improve technical riding skills. My roadie friend has seen a marked improvement after just 2 or 3 weeks of riding this route regularly.



So don't think there is nowhere to ride, there always is, it is just a matter of mixing it up andding in some variation. Now I just need to get that helmet cam so that I can show you what I mean

Cape Epic Day 8 - Team BBb nightmare

After a great start to Cape Epic 2008 we finished day 8 and the end of the race with a real downer. My cold got very bad at the end of Day 7 so I woke up to Day 8 feeling half dead. Normally the last day is great fun as you give you last bit of energy, suck up the atmosphere and arrive at the finish feeling a great sense of achievement. But this time around it was very different for us as I struggled strainght off the start line.

 

There was no chance of not riding, so off we went. By day 7 we had moved upto 56 GC, but it quickly became evident that there would be no improvement to that, instead it would be all damage control. The route was great again with alot of climbing to make up the 1700m ascent over 62km. Albert was feeling good so he was able to pull me over most of the big climbs. Halfway through the day at the first water point most of the major climbs were over and I had a little bit more power so we managed to maintain our position in the field and ride into the finish without loosing more time. It was one of the longest and hardest 4 hours on a bike ever for me, I am glad and lucky to have made it. But am now paying the price with a long slow receovery period.

 

The dinner at Spier was great and it was nice to spend more time with our lovelly wives and start the re-integration process back to normality after yet another Cape Hectic.

 

We also got our customary winners photo with the Team Cannondal winners Raul and Jakob

Epic Day 8 pics

 

Cape epic day 7 - Team BBB shorter but harder

Day 7 was average for us, we started well but I was completely exhausted at the finish. I struggled to eat and had no power in my legs. I also had a mini sense of humour failure with riding my third epic with a cold again. We still managed to finish in the 60's and actually moved up a few spots in the gc into the 50's. So all was not lost.

The route was great with some nice scenic climbs ans many kilometres of singletrack. One more day to end off a hard epic, I will have to see how I feel tomorrow.

Epic day 7 pics

Cape epic day 6 - Team BBB top 50

Stage 6 Bredaarsdorp to Hermanus was a great day for us. I finally felt good again and even found myself on the front a few times. The start was comfortable with no dust because the nights rain had settled the ground.

Today we had some real racing on our hands, we were riding together with all the teams who are close to us on the leader board so everyone was watching each other. After the first climb most of us regrouped and headed to the second water point. We got out of the wp first and stated the long salmansdam climb first. It was a long hot climb on typical sandy rocky cape fynbos type ground. The scenery was beautiful but you had to concentrate on the track to stay upright. The decent was fast loose and rocky pushing your bike in all directions. We made it over the climb and decended quickly to stay ahead of the other teams.

From there it was pretty flat for the rest of the way with a brief tar section, more rolling sandy and rocky farm tracks, a terrible sandy corrugated road, bumpy sandy dune tracks, short beach section and then the finish at the old Hermanus harbour. We helped a team with a chain breaking tool and then rode with them to the finish joining up with another bunch. 6 hours in the saddle again earned us 50th spot overall, and we had to work hard for that.

Our support team were at two vantage points today to encourage us which was great, and then they were at the finish feeding and helping us recover. Tonight we broke out of the race village to get some burgers at the spur with team weaseldoo.

Epic day 6 pics

Cape epic day 5 - Better day for Team BBB

Stage 5 from Swellendam to Bredaarsdorp was the longest epic stage so far 147km. We made it in under 7 hours, it was another long hard day day. This has been a really hard epic so far with 5 long hard days in a row.

Today had a really fast start and we did the first 48 km to wp1 in well under 2hrs. Then through de hoop it was rocky and sandy but vey scenic right next to the sea. After wp2 there was an awesome 3km rocky downhill leading to an isolated dam in a valley. The last stretch was windy and long, another rocky section broke the monotony before a fast tar finish.

The Cannondale leading team finished today after riding the last 16km on a bare rim! - amazing!

Epic day 5 pics

Cape epic day 4 - Team BBB

Today was hard for us, and the finish made it one of the toughest stages so far. We started fast with the front bunch but could only hold on for so long. Then we filtered through the field a bit until we reached Grootvadersbosch. After that we held our own until the end including the killer finish that had 3 nasty steep hills before Swellendam.

There were lots of casualties today with some really bad falls. Also a few more teams pulled out including some top names. We also started to see singles today as partnerless riders soldiered on.

It was another long hot day out making this one of the hardest epics so far

Epic day 4 pics