Crime and cronyism, why the apathy?

Our country has degenerated from “IF I ever get affected by crime” to “When I get affected by crime, the question is how violent will it be”

A while ago I stared into the barrel of a gun for the second time in my life, and could see the intent of the guy holding it….”fight me and I pull the trigger”

So I decided that he can take what he wants, and whatever is not insured I will have to replace out of my own pocket.  I originally insured my bicycle in case I crash in a race, my thoughts never covered the possibility that someone would want it enough to take it from me at the business end of a gun.  But luckily it was insured, and I was able to replace at least some of what was taken from me. Continue reading Crime and cronyism, why the apathy?

Guess what I’m collecting tomorrow

I first saw the Cervelo S5 last year November.  WHAT A BIKE!

I’ve been ogling it whenever I get a chance since.  2 weeks ago I got bikejacked (wrote a whole post about that, but never clicked publish, way too morbid).  Luckily I was insured, and luckily I found some sympathetic people in the industry willing to give me some discount and advice on how to get this bike within my current budget.

Cervelo S5

I picked up the SRAM Red groupset today, with an ITM handlebar and stem (in white).  Tomorrow I pick up the frame and can then start building, hopefully having everything ready for the Saturday morning ride.  For now I’ll have to use my race wheels, but will get a new set of training wheels soon.

Bike Upgrade Before Joberg2C

Seeing that my budget did not allow me to buy myself a dual-suspension 29er for the Joberg2C, I’ve had to choose some new weaponry for my current bike to get at least some comfort.

Fulcrum Red Metal 3 WheelsetFirstly, I’ve upgraded my wheels to Fulcrum Red Metal 3, these are strong, and more importantly, they’re tubeless ready.  I’ve been riding with tubes all along, but seeing that my bike is a hardtail, I’m trying to get the tyres to take a bit more of the shock, instead of my backside.  A tubeless setup allows me to run a much lower tyre pressure, give the sidewalls more flex, and more shock absorbing ability.

Continue reading Bike Upgrade Before Joberg2C

People say I’m mad, but the voices in my head says I’m getting better

After an absence of over a week, I'm back and writing.  The reason for my absence?

I did a cycle tour from Joburg to Durban.  690km in 5 days.  And what fun the tour was.

Therewere 13 of us riding, with the last stage being the Amashova race fromMaritzburg to Durban.  On the Saturday night we decided with the tiredlegs, we'll ride the race as a group, so we all hung back and took overthe D bunch, and controlled it from the word go.   In the end, therewere 5 of us who pulled the whole group to a 3:03 finish, which is byno means a bad time for the race.

This was something that I'dbeen looking forward to for a long time, and will definitely do again. By far the longest tour I've done, but now I want to go bigger andbetter.  So I need some suggestions on start and end destinations for alonger tour, I'm thinking around 1000 – 1200 km 7-8 days.  Preferablyonroad, I don't have the budget at this point to buy a MTB good enoughto do a tour like that.