What it the opposite of 5"?

This weekend the 5” experiment took a total 180 degree turnaround! On Saturday afternoon I assisted a friend in building up his Niner S.I.R 9 frame. This is a Reynolds 853 steel frame that is designed specifically for singlespeed use. It has regular drop-outs but features an eccentric bottom bracket for tensioning the chain. It was super easy to build up!

The frame is simply beautiful! The welding is perfection and the root beer colour sparkles in the sun! Having said all this, I did think that you would have to be absolutely crazy to ride one of these things! Since I am now a converted big travel, one bike guy, the idea of a fully rigid singlespeed is preposterous!

And then I rode it...

Big wheels really do roll over trail obstacles easier. On my short, but eventful test, I simply loved the bike! I rode it up a steep hill, which proved that you need some serious lung capacity to pilot a machine like this! We fitted a 32 front chainring with 16 teeth at the back. This seemed good ratio for the Groenkloof and your average Pretoria hacking.

Then I got to take it on some cool singletrack. It was a blast! The 29 inch wheels love to keep going once you have them up to speed and you find yourself pushing harder and harder, it is extremely tiring but great fun!

I am hoping to get my hands on the bike for some more extensive testing, but Matt loves his new bike so much, I am not sure it will be really soon. Watch this space!

Induna and Mankele

I am just back from taking the 5” experiment to Mpumalanga. We took a long weekend and did the MTN Big Induna race in Hazyview and then spent 2 days staying and riding at Mankele. South Africa’s own MTB park.

 

The race was a challenge, as usual. Anyone who underestimates the second half of the 75km Marathon is in for some pain and suffering. Some wet weather left slight muddy patches, but nothing that could not be ridden. The Yeti again, performed amazingly well. For the first time I found myself using the pro-pedal on some of the smoother tracks. After the hard riding of Magaliesberg and Rooiberg, the tracks at Hazyview seemed like groomed super tubes! The first 45km is fast and fun and the second 30km will leave you exhausted if you pushed too hard in the beginning. Again, the bike did not disappoint, and I found that I was riding the final quad trails faster than ever before.

 

We spent the next 2 days riding at Mankele. We also stayed in the 3 bedroom chalet, and I must say that this is really awesome accommodation. The facilities are clean and really first class. The establishment also has a bike wash area with hoses. All an MTB’er could ask for.

The riding is unbelievable! We only managed to take in the XC course and the singletrack around the huts. This was all challenging and great fun. I had dialled a bit more sag into the YETI 575 giving it a more supple feel. I then set the pro-pedal to the number 1 setting, giving a firm but comfortable ride when it was on. This allowed me to bomb through the rocky technical sections and still allowed me to climb the 30% inclines with great ease.

 

Be sure to take some spare with you, they don’t have anything that I could see in the shop and I did cut a tyre on the last run on the last day. The Bush Tunnel is one of the greatest pieces of singletrack that I have ever ridden and it begs to be ridden multiple times, so make sure you are fit but the time you make your booking to get the most out of the riding.

 

This weekend, I will be riding a local race in the east of Pretoria. Tygervalley. It is part of a new Nissan series. See you all there!

Mankele Pictures

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!

The 5 inch Experiment.

The hard tail is dead to me! Somewhere between old age and bad form I decided that I was not able to ride the hard tail format any longer. I recently revived the machine that I had done the TransBaviaans on last year, and for one weekend I suffered behind my mates, feeling every bump in the trail, and vowing that it was the last time I would ever ride a rigid rear again!

In fact, I believe that the 4 inch bike’s days are also numbered for me. I started riding an old 125mm rear bike with a 130mm front end more and more. I started noticing that I was having much more fun on my rides, and to my amazement, I was not really getting left behind by the group. There were things that I was not entirely happy with on this bike, and I started searching for a 5 inch bike that would suit my needs.

I settled on the YETI 575. True, this is almost a 6 inch bike and with my 130mm fork it is a little under-utilised, but man! Does it ride sweetly! I have not had it long, so watch out for a full review, but I decided to go and ride the Magalies Monster on the YETI this weekend. I had my reservations; after all. I do have a svelte 4 inch carbon race bike in the garage that weighs 11.2kgs. The YETI tips the scales at 12.5 kgs! Needless to say I was nervous that the bike would be too much for me and I would suffer on the climbs.

I can honestly say that I was not sorry for 1 minute that I chose the 575. I certainly would have been no faster on the 4 inch race bike. The terrain is so rough that I was literally floating over all the rocks and boulders. My body was much less fatigued at the end, except for the bruises sustained from 2 crashes. (It was only my second ride on the new frame, and we were still getting to know each other.)

I have some more races coming up and I believe that I will choose the big travel bike again. I will let you know how it works out. I am not sure that a 12kg + bike is on the cards for most of the skinny race snakes out there, but for a big guy like me, I really believe the extra travel to be an advantage. Obviously when you are 93kgs the weight of your bike matter a little less, but I truly believe that there is benefit for me in the extra travel.

 

 

More Radar Love

In this modern world of blogs, it can be very easy to forget that people
actually read these things! I wrote a review on my Oakley Radars some time
ago and I had pretty much forgotten about it. Then a few weeks ago we
received a query from our website. It was from the good people at Oakley.
Keep in mind that we do not receive anything for running this website, it is
merely the love of Mountain biking that keeps it going. So when we review
products it is stuff that we have actually bought. In a way it keeps things
honest. We certainly would not rate something because we were paid to do so.
Anyway, back to the mail. The people at Oakley were very happy with the
review that I gave the radars and they wanted me to test some of the lenses
that they provide. They supplied me with the lenses for early morning use
and late afternoon use. Initially I was sceptical as to the value of "time"
specific lenses. But having used, particularly, the early morning lenses I
can say that they really do wonders! They simply enhance the available light
to make early morning rides a pleasure! If you have some Radars, have a look
into lenses they offer, they really can make a difference.
I have also recently seen that Oakley will bring their Transitions
technology to the Radar lens format, meaning that the lenses will adjust
automatically to the available light. From what I have read, it is no easy
feat to use this technology on such a big lens, so well done to the boffins
at Oakley for making this happen.

Thanks to Oakley SA for sending the lenses, it is greatly appreciated.

Polar RS800CX Bike

I am sure that many of you are wondering about the unit from Polar. I have
been testing the new unit and I must say that it is an unbelievable training
tool.

Let me just start by saying that if you have no interest in finding your
real heart rate zones, or you simply want to see how fast you are going, or
if you do not have the time and patience to figure out how a device like
this works. Then please look elsewhere. There are plenty of good cheap bike
computers on the market that can tell you everything you need to know about
how fast you are going. If you are serious about training and improving your
performance, then you have come to the right place.

In the box.

The bike version ships with the following;

1 X RS800CX Watch unit
1 X W.I.N.D Speed sensor and magnet
1 X WEAR Link Chest strap.
1 X Infrared USB Dongle
1 X Bike mount bracket for unit

Polar Protrainer 5 software CD
CD with drivers for the Infrared USB Dongle.
Several Cable ties.

The new wrist unit is extremely attractive. Think of the old 625X/725X as
Kathy Bates and the RS800CX as Cameron Diaz. You will really want to wear
this as your watch everyday. It looks like it just landed here from space.

For the most part the features are pretty much the same as on the previous
units. I am not going to explore each feature, you can log on to
www.polar.fi for a full list of features. I am going to concentrate on the
new bits.

The display has 3 sections, this is much the same as before, but now, these
are 100% customizable using either the unit itself or, even easier, using
the Protrainer 5 software. You have 5 screens that you can scroll through
and you can see any configuration of data that your heart desires. Some of
the cool things are the graphics that show your heart rate. And possibly the
greatest improvement for me is that you can now see how much time you have
spent in zone, while you are training! For me this is invaluable. I have
very limited time to train and I have to be effective while I am out there.
This new feature really helps me to make my training goals for every
session.

And speaking of training goals. The new unit can actually hold your daily
training program and you can see graphically, each day how you are
performing against the program. You might be unfamiliar with the new
Protrainer 5 Software but you are able to use it to actually plan the
details of an exercise, all the way down to how much time in each zone, or
even intervals can be followed for a session.
What is not so cool?

This is a very short list. I am not mad about the side buttons for
scrolling, they are difficult to push. Having said that, they look so cool,
I don't care.

In summary; I am a huge fan of this unit! Everything that I did not like
about the previous models has now been totally sorted by the new unit! In
conjunction with the comprehensive software, it is in my opinion the
complete training system.

Eurobike Highlights

Eurobike has come and gone. And for me the highlight of the show was the new SCOTT Genius. Not only is it a great advance on the previous model. But it is the lightest 150mm travel frame and shock available. And for me, it rides really great!

 

On the second day of the show, the guys from SCOTT added an absolute showstopper to the stand. A genius that weighed 8.92kgs! The bike features hydraulic gear shifters, which actually seemed to work!

 

 

Eurobike 2008 Day 1 Pictures

 

Eurobike 2008 Day 1

This year Eurobike is once again dominated by lightweight parts. It seems all the innovation is going into making parts super light. On the bike front, I found some interesting suspension designs from Corratec.

 

The Trek lineup looks really hot for 2009 and my feeling is that some manufacturers are taking a step back. The new Epic from Specialized does not excite me at all. The rear shock is really tiny in real life, and I can only wonder what it rides like since I did not get a chance to ride it at the demo day. Giant must win the award for the most boring bikes of 2009! Then to make things worse, it seems that Rocky Mountain has an exact copy of the Giant.

 

Enjoy the pictures!

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