Singletrack Revolution

Mountain bike trails in South Africa have come a long way in the last few years.The biggest winner of all must be Gauteng where there really used to be nothing. If you think that riding in Gauteng means dodging hijackers, mine dumps and traffic then I think you need to get off the road and head for the hills. A combination of the need for safer riding areas, more riders and a lack of quality riding has been the catalyst for the creation of some world class MTB trails.

The trails around van Gaalens in the Magaliesberg continue to lengthen and now you can easily spend 5 hours riding everything from steep rocky singletrack to undulating riverine forest trails to smooth flowing contoured singletrack.In Pretoria the Groenkloof trails draw hundreds of riders everyday with the shady parking, post ride facilities, technical trails and safe environment. Teak place in the Cradle of Humankind also has a packed parking lot on the weekends. A new kid on the block is Kingskloofmtb on the Krugersdorp hill. And so the list continues to grow. Its the new wave riding on the back of the MTB race explosion and means more MTB trails to ride. So get out there and pay your trail fees to support those who are making it all possible.

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How to fly with your bike

Flying with your bike used to be the domain of pros but now it is a regular activity for almost any keen cyclist. Nowadays events are all over the country, flights affordable and time of the essence, so you have to fly with your bike. This traumatic experience is manageable by knowing how to pack your bike and transport your bike so that the airlines don't end up destroying it. There is no fool proof method, you can wheel it on, use a cardboard box, soft bike bag or a hard shell case. They all have their pros and cons, it just depends on your budget, love for your bike and unfortunately a fair amount of luck. Check our guide and options for transporting your bike.

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Train right and don’t look back

Training for mountain bike races does not have to be a complicated process. You can keep it simple and get results buy sticking to a few key principles.

Routine, routine, routine, get into a regular routine, something that fits in with your daily life, time constrains and family responsibility – stick it into your diary

Make the time a routine but vary the content. If you do the same average training everyday then you can expect the same average results. Make your training sessions either hard or easy but not in the middle because that's just average.

Easy, hard, harder, REST, - easy hard, harder, REST ……

Do any one of these and you will see results, do all 3 and you will never look back.

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MTB rain, mud and riding

Mountain bikers apparently like mud, right? Maybe, but should we not ask the bikes how they feel about that? With all the rain around the country lately (except the sunny Cape of course) our trails have turned into one big mud hole. That means that even the shortest of rides will take you through some of the sticky wet stuff. Make no mistake it is great fun but it comes with a price. The price of time spent cleaning the bike and then of course the wear and tear on that drive train, brake pads and bearings.

 

So what are the options, grin and bear it and follow a quick wash routine. Or follow the example of our UK MTB friends who ride in the wet all the time, go single speed or 1 x 9 and minimise some of that wear and tear and chain suck. But whatever you do don't use the rain as an excuse, because that is just not on!

 

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Be thankful to farmers

Mountain bikers in South Africa have a rather interesting and sometimes precarious relationship with the land on which they ride. Unlike surfers who ride the ocean that belongs to everyone and the roadies who ride on public roads and the sky divers who fly the open skies, mountain bikers either find themselves as part time tenants, guests or trespassers of someone else's land. Land ownership in South Africa usually means fences and private access unlike the UK where the right of way law allows the public to use a network of traditional routes and thoroughfares. 

Luckily we seem to have more and more friendly farmers who are willing to allow us to leave a few tyre tracks on their land. Even better are the enterprising farmers who are prepared to lay on some specially crafted singletrack for us to ride on. Our future to ride seems to be linked very closely to the farming community and their willingness to share their land with us. It is something to appreciate and to remember that every time you are out on the dirt you are borrowing someone else's land, so look after it and be thankful because there is lots more where that came from. 

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The Epic rolls on

The Cape Epic mountain bike race is the undisputed leader in mtb and cycling events in South Africa and becoming a serious contender internationally. Somehow founder and director Kevin Vermaak finds a way of lifting the bar every year. In 2011 they have done it again so you can look forward to watching the first and last stage live on TV thanks to Supersport. If you have not had a chance to participate in this event or to go to one of the stages then this is the next best thing. It is a spectacle not to be missed, the racing starts on 27 March. Checkout our epic guide for more info on this race.

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Single Speedsters

Single speed bikes were basically the first bikes ever invented and for many of us the first bike that we owned was a single speed. Then came 3 gears and then more and more and more speeds, and just last year Shimano came out with a 3 x 10, so that makes 30 gears in total. So what do you get for that you may ask, 30 times faster? 30 times easier? 30 times more opportunities for failure or 30 times more expensive? If you ask a single speeder he will say the last two reasons definitely, and I don't think he would be too far off the mark.

If single speed is something that appeals to you then be sure to check out www.singlespeed.co.za. Don't be fooled by the funny kit, these guys can go fast without even having to change gear once! If you are really really keen then check out the single speed world championships recently held in New Zealand!

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Riding into 2011

Welcome to 2011 and happy trails.

Hopefully some of you were lucky enough to get out and ride some new trails over December. Well that's exactly what we did, and we took our helmet cam along for the ride to Wolfberg MTB trail in the Cederberg.

The 2011 MTB race calendar is full of events, it is going to be another awesome year for MTB racing in South Africa. Advendurance recently announced the 4 Ultra marathon races in the national MTB series have been given UCI status. The first of which is Attakwas this Saturday in Oudtshoorn.

Then of course there are the big ones Epic, Joberg2C and Sani2C. Somewhere in between all of those there is also the MTB World Cup in Pietermaritzburg South Africa from 23-24 April.

And that is just the first 4 months of 2011, so get on your bike and get out there.

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Wolfberg mountain bike singletrack Cederberg - Video

Shop to ride this XMAS

Its unheard of that we advocate anything but riding your bike. However it is the festive (shopping) season so you need to get with it. But don't get sucked into those overcrowded malls and dodgy discount stores. Rather go online and get it done quick and easy so that you can get out and ride your bike while the rest of the plebs stand in cues.

As far as mountain biking goes we have got you covered with a shopping list to make you smile

Mountain bike books on trails, skills, training and maintenance

MTB Sunglasses from Oakley and Adidas

Garmin GPS for your bike

Olympus Tough Camera to take on rides

Ipod Nano for tunes

Some rocking tunes 

Have a great festive season and remember if you eat and drink lots its ok, just means that you need to ride more.

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Ride your bike and loose the behind

Just five minutes of riding a bicycle each day can help a younger woman keep the pounds off, the team at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston reported.

"Small daily increments in bicycling helped women control their weight. But the more time women spent bicycling, the better," said Harvard's Rania Mekary, who worked on the study.

Mekary's team studied 18,414 healthy women who had not yet gone through menopause taking part in the Brigham and Women's Hospital-based Nurses' Health Study, an ongoing study of women's health over time.

On average, the nurses gained about 20 pounds (9.3 kilograms) over the 16-year period.

The women who did not bicycle in 1989 who had started by 2005 were a quarter less likely to have gained weight, even if they rode for just five minutes a day, the researchers said.

"Unlike discretionary gym time, bicycling could replace time spent in a car for necessary travel of some distance to work, shops or school as activities of daily living," the researchers wrote.

"Bicycling could then be an unconscious form of exercise because the trip's destination, and not the exercise, could be the goal." - Reuters


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Track your rides online for free

I recently came across this really cool and free online GPS tracking software called Endomondo. What is great about this system is that all you need is to register on the site to download the app to your GPS mobile device and off you go, its really as easy as that.

Endomondo is a sports community based on free real-time GPS tracking of running, cycling, etc. It has live tracking so your loved ones and friends can track your progress in events or when you are out on that monster ride in the middle of nowhere. 

It works with all the major phone brands and operating systems as well as Garmin and Polar wear link. You can share your rides and routes with others through facebook, twitter etc and build your own ride network and set up your privacy settings. If you are using it or want to share routes then drop us a line at our Facebook page

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Top 10 mistakes of self coached athletes

Joe Friel is a guru when it comes to endurance training and has written bestseller books like "The mountain bikers training bible" on mountain bike training. Here are his top 10 mistakes made by self coached athletes 

#10 Too much emphasis on miles/kilometers. The key to race success is appropriate intensity

#9 Too much emphasis on heart rate. Your engine is muscle.

#8 Set goals much too high to motivate greatness. Does opposite. Goals must be just out of reach.

#7 Haphazard training. High goals require a purpose for every workout.

#6 Inconsistent training. High goals? Don't miss workouts. Ever.

#5 Too little rest, not enough race intensity before race. Rehearse race every 72hrs for 1-3 wks prior.

#4 Workouts too intense. Increasingly train at intensity you intend to race in last 12 weeks.

#3 Base—start Build period too early. Develop endurance, force & skills before race intensity.

#2 Too many hard days. Not enough easy days. To go truly hard you must be ready.

#1 Poor ability to pace properly. Learn to negative split workouts, intervals & races.

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Suspension makes all the difference

I was reminded again today just how much of a difference suspension has made to mountain biking. At a time when rigid single speeds and hardtail 29ers are in fashion, don't be fooled into thinking that suspension is just another gimmick.

On my morning ride I locked our my front fork and forgot to unlock before doing one of my favorite singletrack sections. Its a route that I ride almost everyday and it took just one little stone to send me off coarse and nearly miss out a whole section of track. I couldn't workout what had happened till I realised that my fork was still locked out.

The suspension takes care of a lot of small bumps that you would never even know about unless of course you did't have any suspension. Another dead giveaway is when you have a rider on a hardtail trying to follow the same line as someone on a full suspension on a technical downhill. Even with exceptional skills its unlikely that the hardtail will be able to follow right behind the full suspension.

So if you don't have suspension, then think about getting it. If you do have it, make sure that it is on firstly and tuned properly and working the way it should.

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Where was my bike made?

Some bike companies have a few secrets. And one of those secrets is where your bike is made or who actually made it. The bike companies like it that way because many of them rely upon the same factories to build their bikes!

The big picture is pretty clear: around 95% of the bikes sold in the U.S. are made in China or Taiwan by a handful of manufacturers of which Giant is the largest.

Generally speaking, low to mid level bikes are made in China and mid to high level bikes are made inTaiwan. The exception is carbon; many manufacturers use Chinese manufacturers to make their carbon frames – even their high-end racing frames.

More here