Globalti
Legendary Member
Greetings from Johannesburg. Up at 5.15 this morning to go out with my agent and some friends for a ride around the Suikerbosrand, or Sugarbush Rand. This is a nature reserve about 40kms east of Jo'burg where there's no traffic so you can ride around the game drive. I was lent a Scott bike:
One size too small for me, stiff skitttish alu fork and a triple with a massive 62 then something like a 48 and a 36. Unfortunately though the chain wouldn't shift onto the small ring so I had to stop at the foot of each hill (there are many) and shift it by hand. As a consequence of mashing up in the middle ring my knees are sore as hell now.
This is the happy bunch who I rode with, I'm the tall one.
I don't mind admitting that they were all stronger than me, the two women left me for dead and the bloke had done a big MTB ride the day before. This was my view most of the time:
The route is 62 kms long and I reckon we must have climbed around 3000 ft, the penultimate climb was 3 kms and had to be a good 1000 ft. Did I suffer! It was windy too, often a stiff head wind. Here's a route profile I found on a SA bike forum, dunno why it has the kms like that:
(Might as well link you to the actual forum page)
http://www.thehubsa.co.za/forum_posts.asp?TID=38199&PN=2
I have a new respect for South African cyclists especially the female ones. Mind you one of these was a top competitive cyclist and runner who works as a sports physio and they get to ride stuff like this every weekend and never have to worry about bad weather.....
One size too small for me, stiff skitttish alu fork and a triple with a massive 62 then something like a 48 and a 36. Unfortunately though the chain wouldn't shift onto the small ring so I had to stop at the foot of each hill (there are many) and shift it by hand. As a consequence of mashing up in the middle ring my knees are sore as hell now.
This is the happy bunch who I rode with, I'm the tall one.
I don't mind admitting that they were all stronger than me, the two women left me for dead and the bloke had done a big MTB ride the day before. This was my view most of the time:
The route is 62 kms long and I reckon we must have climbed around 3000 ft, the penultimate climb was 3 kms and had to be a good 1000 ft. Did I suffer! It was windy too, often a stiff head wind. Here's a route profile I found on a SA bike forum, dunno why it has the kms like that:
(Might as well link you to the actual forum page)
http://www.thehubsa.co.za/forum_posts.asp?TID=38199&PN=2
I have a new respect for South African cyclists especially the female ones. Mind you one of these was a top competitive cyclist and runner who works as a sports physio and they get to ride stuff like this every weekend and never have to worry about bad weather.....
