Mountain Biking in South Africa
Mountain Bike with the Average Guy - MTB equipment, racing, trails and tips.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
10 Years of Epic Riding
Friday, January 04, 2013
Burry Stander 1987 - 2013
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Riding into 2013
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
Shop more, Ride more
At our bookshop you will find the best MTB books available so you can learn how to train properly, fix your bike and learn some essential MTB skills. Our pick of the bunch are the TOP MTB trails book to take you to some new places during the holidays and the Joe Friel Paleo Diet for athletes to get you lean and strong for 2013.
The other essential tool for the holiday riding is a GPS so that you can explore some new trails and make sure you find your way back again. The Garmin Edge 800 bike GPS will be ideal for this.
If you need bike stuff then checkout the online stores on our shops page or find your local bike shop and see what is new.
Share your tips and experiences at our blog or leaving a comment on MTBOnline Facebook.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Thanks to all of you mountain bikers
We created our site back in 2004/2005 just as mountain biking was gathering momentum. Since then we have been sharing info, helping out and most of all having a blast riding our bikes with more and more people in more and more locations at more and more events. From humble beginnings our site mtbonline.co.za now services more than 13000 people per month who view more than 1000 pages a day from our site. The most popular pages are our shops page, races, mountain bikes for sale and MTB buyers guide.
Over the years we also added our average guy blog, newsletter and our facebook page to provide more regular info and as additional platforms to share more.
So if you have benefited from our info and like what we do why not share the MTB love and invite a friend, because the more the merrier.
Share your tips and experiences at our blog or leaving a comment on MTBOnline Facebook.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
MTB Trail Bucket list
Thursday, November 08, 2012
An Epic Fail
Friday, November 02, 2012
10 Years Untamed 2013 ABSA Cape Epic Route
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
How to start mountain biking FAQ
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
What to expect when you enter an MTB race?
Mountain biking is so much fun because of the variety of terrain and discovering the unexpected on a ride. If you are going out on a trail ride then this is exactly what you are after. But if you are going to ride in a race then the more you know the better, otherwise you may just not make it over that finish line.
On a road ride all you need to know is the distance and the expected amount of climbing and you will be able to pace yourself properly using some of your training rides as a benchmark. With a mountain bike race you will also need to consider the type of terrain. If you are on district roads, farm roads and smooth track then its going to mean an "easier" ride. However if the route has rocky tracks, tight singletrack, technical descents, loose climbs and steep up hills then you can be sure of a tough ride taking longer than you would expect. At the start it helps if you start with riders of similar ability and speed so that you can pace yourself. Once you are into the ride you can assess terrain first hand and review your speed and pace.
The route profile will also tell you where the major climbs are and how steep they are. This is vital info that you must use to pace your race and conserve your energy especially if you are expecting big climbs towards the end when you will be tired. Race routes will often be harder or at least seem harder than your training routes. That is because they also cater to fitter faster riders than you and you will be riding faster than normal so it becomes harder. So find out as much as you can but still go into it expecting the unexpected because being over confident can lead to real disappointment.
Friday, October 12, 2012
MTB'rs take note - How to ride a road bike properly
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
Which bike computer, gps, app do you use?
Then along came a electronic bike computer, small accurate and packed with features. Next was the heart rate monitor that gave you even more performance data. Then came the GPS, even more data, now you could navigate and track your routes. Today we also have power meters, some more data to keep us informed and make our rides interesting.
The internet and mobile devices introduced connectivity so now you can get mobile devices that can do all of these things, measure, track, calculate and record and you can access it centrally off the internet. But it still makes it difficult to workout what device, system and manufacturer you should go with. It all comes down to priorities.
If you want serious performance analysis and training information then go with a dedicated heart rate or power measurement system. If you want to navigate, track and measure while out riding then go with one of the GPS bike computers. Lastly if you want a bit of everything with little fuss and don't need packed features in either then go for one of the mobile apps than run off your mobile device.
Friday, September 28, 2012
More world class MTB action in KZN
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Its Bike Showtime!
The trends at the both shows this year seem to be the continued change and battle for wheel sizes in mountain bikes with many manufacturers releasing 650B or 27.5 inch bikes to fit in between the traditional 26inch size and the big 29inch wheels. Fox also released the 27.5 inch sid shock versions. Lights also continue to develop at a rapid rate with LED technology allowing smaller higher powered lights with lower power consumption, a great improvement over those old 5W clunkers with bottle sized batteries.
Electronics also continue to develop with Shimano showing off electronic hubs for commuter bikes and Fox displaying their electronic controls for shocks that allow the front and rear shock to communicate. More at Eurobike and Interbike.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Listen to your body
A week later I was feeling a lot better and did the very same interval exercise. This time I breezed through all 10 intervals and felt great. Thinking back to a week ago the penny dropped that I had made the right decision last week by listening to my body. By doing so, I had not lost out on some training but had in fact allowed my body to rest and recover allowing me to put in a good training effort a week later. Valuable lesson learned.