6 Today

My oldest boy turned 6 today!

They both make me very proud and I'd do anything for them. I'm now the very proud Dad of a 6 and 3 year old.

This was taken a few days ago when they decided to wash their bikes just like Daddy was washing his.

I'm Loving It!

So here's my new baby. it's a BMC Fourstroke 02. Yep, I finally gave in and hung up my old hardtail and I must be honest and say that my bum is very grateful! In truth it is only the frame that is new, as the components are mostly from my Mongoose. The only new bits of kit are the SRAM X9 front derailleur and the KCNC Scandium SC Pro-Lite seat post.

I've had the new rig for a few weeks and it rides beautifully! It eats up the rocks and roots and is simply magnificent on singletrack. The rear shock is a DT Swiss XM180 and it seems to be a very ready performer.

I did miss the dynamics of the hardtail initially, but (and it's a very big but) the positives of the softtail far outweigh the dynamic advantages of the hardtail. Equally however, I have come to realise that a softtail can make a mediocre MTB'er look better than they might actually be. On a hardtail you have to work that bit harder, pick your lines a bit smarter and be prepared for the 'twitch' of the front wheel, especially on a racing frame. Whereas a softtail allows the rider to bump over stuff without really thinking about it too much. Certainly you don't have to be quite so picky over which line you follow over the rocky sections. Truth be told I am that mediocre MTB'er and I'm loving just how forgiving the new rig is!!! Have to say though, I'm really pleased that I cut my MTB teeth on a hardtail.

I only have two gripes so far, the first is a lack of water-bottle points as there is plenty of space for a second bottle on the underside of the top tube. The other gripe is that the wheel-base is about 2 inches longer so it doesn't fit into the back of my bakkie quite as well as the hardtail used to. Having said that we're getting a new bakkie in the next day or two so that will deal with that issue.

All in all I'm very very happy and I think this was a wise move before the Cape Epic. One of the biggest reasons for dropping out of the race is rider fatigue and a softtail should go some way to mitigating that particular problem. Hopefully my training will do the rest.

There has been a spate of robberies on bike shops in the Cape town area recently. Two weeks ago Helderberg Cycle World was ram-raided with half a dozen top end bikes being stolen. Last night as we were out riding we heard that William's Bike Shop in somerset West has also been robbed. Amazingly this one happened in daylight! Apparently a bike shop in Franschhoek was also robbed a few weeks ago.

Here's a list of what was stolen:
1) White Rocky Mountain Slayer SCX Unmistakable Green Chris King Hubs and Headset (details on www.williamsbikeshop.co.za)
2) Blue and White Rocky Mountain ETSX
3) 2009 Giant Anthem X1 - charcoal & silver
4) 2008 Giant Anthem 1 Blue and Silver (customer's bike)
5) Giant Fixed gear bike - black ( silver fork)

If you have any info or know anything please contact the police or William at his shop 021 8510919

Please pass this info onto any bike shops in your area, especially secondhand shops as this will help to put an end to this.

It's clear that these scum bags are well organised and seem know what they're stealing, they certainly appear to be quite choosy!

Weekly Summary

This was supposed to be a 'Load' week on the Polar programme with 16 hours of riding but after the disasters of Monday & Tuesday's rides (see post below) I was really down on my hours. Had both rides gone to plan I would have ridden 11 hours but as it was I was almost 6 hours down. I had also planned to ride with the local bike shop on Wed morning which was planned as a 4 hour ride but without my bike I thought I would have to bail out. However I had a bit of a brainwave and decided to use my Giant Boulder (the bike I use for the the school run) for the ride. So after a couple of hours on Tuesday night spent prep'ing the bike I had a decent ride of 4½ hours with Petie (owner of the bike shop).

On Saturday I managed a short and gentle 2 hours on the road bike with Paul (Epic Partner) which was great as we rode to Stellenbosch and back. It was good to do a gentle road ride to keep the legs spinning.

So after all this I finally managed to get 13 hours in, leaving me just 3 hours short, so I've re-jigged my programme and decided to make this a Recovery week and bump the programme forward by one week. Thankfully my taper period at the end of the programme has enough space to allow for this. So next week will be a 'load' week.

Hopefully I'll have no more weeks like this one!

Stats for (recovery) week:
Ride time: 13:13 (target: 11:00)
Distance: 203km
Kcal's burnt: 8854
Total ascent: 2725m (ish)

Not A Great Start!

The start of this week has been one I hope not to repeat - ever!

On Monday, I set off early for my usual 6 hour ride and all was going well until I got to Jonkershoek. The Southeaster had been blowing quite violently for a few days. Anyway, as I entered the park I was about to turn left when I heard a huge gust of wind and a strange noise so decided to go a different way. Just as I moved one of the big oak trees fell down right where I'd been.

A little while later on some single-track I was almost taken out by a bok who was running straight towards me at a phenomenal pace. I think he was a bit confused and didn't realise quite how fast I was going at the time. Thankfully he missed me.

Frustratingly this was all topped off 4½ hours into the ride when the hanger ripped off leaving me in a bit of a pickle (the gear set-up on this test rig has never been right). I managed to make the bike into a single speed with the aim of completing my ride but this only lasted for about 30 minutes before the whole gear setup jammed. Thankfully Paul (my Epic partner) came and picked me up and took the bike to the shop.

I got the bike back on Tuesday ready for my usual night-ride with Paul, but after 1½ hours the derailleur cage got caught in the back wheel and was ripped in two (see photo). Thankfully the wife came to the rescue and got me home.

Hopefully the rest of the week will improve, although I'm not sure how as I'm supposed to be riding in the morning but am without bike.

Weekly Summary

This week has been a load week on the Polar programme and my target was 16½ hours which I managed very comfortably. I'm really enjoying doing longer rides, mainly because I love being on the bike so much but it also means I get a decent amount of rest between rides which is great. Something else I'm really enjoying is an amazing level of fitness which allows me to do certain rides that I would never have dreamt of not so long ago. One such ride is my new favourite of riding from home to Jonkershoek, playing on the single track for up to 2 hours and then riding home again. Twice now I've been a bit naughty on the way home and sailed past some roadies on the hills coming out of Stellenbosch. I've then really stamped on the gears to make them work really hard to stay with me, however they've not yet succeeded. That's very childish (and not great for the heart rate) but lots of fun!

Today I also did my first ever ride on a soft-tail. Paul (my Epic partner) works at the local bike shop and has been talking me into trying a softtail so eventually I agreed to try a BMC. The shop had a Fourstroke frame lying around so they transferred the components over from my Mongoose to the BMC. The jury is still out but there were certain things I did enjoy. I liked the comfort but at 40+ who wouldn't? The longer wheelbase makes for a more planted feel on singletrack and on rocky climbs and it was great on some really rocky singletrack to be able to just bounce over stuff that I couldn't on my hardtail. Sadly, the bike was very poorly setup so I'll need to tinker with it to really appreciate its finer qualities. Also, my XT front derailleur wouldn't fit so the bike shop stuck a crappy Deore derailleur on the front and I struggled to change from middle down to granny which was frustrating. I'll give it several more goes before I finally make up my mind, so stay tuned.

Stats for (overload) week:
Ride time: 16:57 (target: 16:30)
Distance: 254km
Kcal's burnt: 11840
total ascent: 3745m

Pure Pleasure!

My riding is pure pleasure at the moment! Since making the conscious decision to leave the road bike alone (for a while) and concentrate on the mountain bike I'm really enjoying my riding again. Don't get me wrong, I love the road bike, but mountain biking is where my passion is and let's be honest, mountain biking is a whole lot more fun than pounding tarmac.

I made the conscious decision a couple of weeks ago to do the rest of my Epic training on my mountain bike. Basically my base fitness is in place so it's time to get back to building my MTB skills and getting some intensity work in. In doing so I've also opted to do fewer rides but longer in duration. So this week for example is an 'overload' week of 16 hours and I've already done 11½ hours in two rides which is fantastic! My next ride will be a 5 hour ride on Saturday afternoon. Also, in deciding to do longer rides to get the hours in I'm finding that a 5 to 6 hour MTB ride is a very different ball game to the same amount of time spent on the road. Not least the sheer rolling resistance of the knobbly tires makes for a different kind of ride. Mainly though, I was finding 5+ hours on the road quite tedious whilst on the MTB one simply doesn't have time to consider the tedium of turning the cranks for hours on end. Having said that, it is much easier to manage the heart rate zones on the road.

I'm also quite excited as I'm going to be trying out a BMC Trailfox for the next week. My bike shop (Helderberg Cycle World) are transferring all my bits off the Mongoose onto the BMC so I can get a feel for the differences and make an informed decision as to which would be best for the Epic. I'm picking the BMC up on Friday and hope to have a ride over the weekend. If not, I'll definitely get to ride it on my normal Monday morning ride.

Tests

This week I've been a guinea pig for a researcher at Stellenbosch University's Sport Performance Institute (SUSPI). The researcher is studying the optimal way to recover after high intensity sessions (ice baths vs swimming pool vs active recovery). The only down side is the very early morning starts!

The first day involved the VO2Max test which basically involves riding yourself into the ground whilst having all manner of things measured and fingers pricked for lactate readings. By the end I wanted to puke but managed to hold on. Having established a baseline, today was the 100k time trial but unfortunately the computer crashed so I've got to go back to do that bit again.

This is a great study and really beneficial to myself as the first set of tests are to establish a baseline prior to undertaking the scientifically controlled 100k time trial in the lab. The key benefit for me is that I received a detailed report containing information regarding fitness levels and performance capacities such as:
• aerobic capacity (VO2max),
• power to weight ratio (climbing ability),
• lactate threshold at power output and heart rate,
• anaerobic ability (sprinting ability) and
• cycling efficiency.
I've also been given a thorough breakdown of my optimal heart rate zones which are now programmed into my heart rate monitor ready for my rides. This is great as the Polar training programme gives generic heart rate zones but now I have personal zones based on scientific data. Brilliant!

I'll not bore you with the details but I now have some vital info which will help me train much much smarter which is far better than training harder!

Awareness Test

Mid-Week Fun

Having introduced you to my bikes, I thought you might enjoy seeing my unicycles. I don't ride them as much as I'd like, which is a shame as they're really good fun and riding one is a real crowd pleaser! The red one is my main unicycle. It's a DM Ringmaster and is really top drawer in terms of quality. DM Engineering used aircraft tubing and welding techniques to build their unicycles and they were all hand-made. Sadly due to cheap & crappy chinese imports DM had to cease production as they couldn't compete. The black one is a Pashley (more famous for wheel chairs), It's also handmade but nowhere near as good quality as the DM. I mostly use this one for workshops and training others to ride.

My Ringmaster has traveled extensively with me and was probably best used in Zimbabwe when we worked for a street-kid shelter. I taught some of the kids to ride and one, a guy called Anton really took to it.

I've also used the unicycles at church and in Emyezweni Pre-School in the Lwandle township here in Somerset West.

I don't know much about the science behind unicycling, but I do know that sustained periods of riding uses similar amounts of energy as running. Also, they're great for developing balance which is always useful on singletrack.








Anton mastering the unicycle in Harare


Me trying not to fall off


Entertaining the kids at emyezweni


I got my first unicycle as a 30th birthday present from the wife and then taught myself to ride whilst at bible college. I figured I would need to have something to show for my time there so mastering my unicycle seemed like a good use of my time. And it was!

Let Me Introduce You..

Thought I'd introduce you to the last bike in my 'stable'. This really is a bottom-end cheapie, but it's a workhorse so doesn't need to be anything fancy. The bike is a Giant Boulder and the only change to the original spec' is a pair of Ryder SPD pedals. However, the really fun bit is the Raleigh trail-a-bike (see here & here for info) at the back. Getting the whole thing to work has been a mission. I've just had a shim made for the seat post clamp and then needed new bolts for it. However, the thread is imperial so hard to come by out here. Thankfully after much to-ing and fro-ing, a local bike shop came up trumps.







My boys love riding to and being picked up from school on this. I use a 5led flashing rear light and a reflective arm to help traffic steer clear. I'm also trying to get a flag for it. The locals love seeing me and one of the boys on it. Traffic often slows down (invariably to gawp) past us and we're often given way to at junctions. The boys love greeting people as they ride past and ringing the bell.

The trip to school is only 4k's there and back but we have to go up a fairly steep (but short) hill. I enjoy this as the trail-a-bike weighs 20kg's and with the kids weighing around the same it makes for good training.

Road Bike

So here's the new road bike. The frame is a 2008 BMC SL01 which came with an Easton EC70 fork.
The groupset is Campagnolo Veloce 10 speed (2008) and the wheels are Campagnolo Vento shod with Vredestein Ricorso tyres. The pedals are Time RXS First, the stem and Handlebars are Scud by Amoeba, the seat post is KCNC whilst the saddle (Selle Italia C2) is carried over from the old bike. I also have two RavX nylon bottle cages and a Topeak tubbie under the saddle.

The bike is a bit of a work in progress as the steerer tube hasn't been cut to final size yet and no doubt fine tuning will happen over the next few rides.

I'm really happy as I've never been involved in building a bike up from scratch. Having been offered the frame at a substantial discount, I then spent time chatting it all over with my local bike shop and the bike you see is the result, all within my original budget. Cool!

Very Happy!

The title of this post says it all! My local bike shop agreed straight away that the frame would have to be replaced and the Mongoose agent worked hard to get a replacement frame as quickly as possible. So having returned my bike to the shop on Monday, I walked away on Thursday with a brand new frame with all my old kit bolted onto it. Click here to see why it needed replacing and the original spec' for my bike can be seen here.

Having ridden the previous frame quite hard for almost a year leaving it heavily scratched and with a few significant dents in it, I now have a gleaming bike scratches & dents.

Mongoose also replaced the saddle under warranty which I'm really happy about. I had originally replaced the original broken saddle with a Fizik Gobi XM which is a great saddle and very comfortable, but to be honest the Kore I-Beam Enduro is the most comfortable saddle I've ever ridden on!!

My only complaint about the Kore saddle is the way it bolts onto the Kore I-Beam Seat Post. The seat post is specific to the Kore saddle and if/when the saddle breaks (because the beam which runs along the centre underneath is nylon) the seatpost, which is also carbon fibre and thus expensive, is rendered useless. Having said that I noted on the Kore website that they now sell a rail adapter which I should try and get hold off ASAP.

Anyway, I'm very happy!

Weekly Summary

Sometimes when things don't work out and plans are frustrated you just have to find a solution that works for yourself. I did this a while ago when I got myself a cheap road bike for three reasons. Firstly, I wanted to ride the Cape Argus on a road bike, secondly I plan to do all my base fitness training and interval training for the Cape Epic on it and thirdly, when I can find no-one else to go mountain biking with or the guys let me down I can always get on the road bike and just ride for a couple of hours. So that's what I did this week, I've had a week of road rides which is OK and quite a lot of fun but I would rather be on my mountain bike!

The weeks stats:
Ride time: 8:40
Kcal: 6389
Distance: 204
HR Zones: Light - 3:53, Moderate - 3:50, Hard -54

I generally try to keep my heart rate around 70% on the road bike as that's the key zone for building base fitness and also for fat burning. I tend to try and ride for about three hours at a time so often have to be up and out of the house between 6 & 6.30am. Summer is much better as you can ride from about 5ish.

So this would be an opportune moment to introduce you to my road bike. It really is nothing special, just a plain and simple thing but honest to. It's a Schwinn Fastback Sport, Schwinn's entry level road bike so it was cheap but also reasonably well spec'd for the price with no house-brand, cost-cutting parts. It comes with a carbon fork, Shimano Tiagra rear dérailleur and Shimano Sora front dérailleur and Sora brake levers & shifters. Ritchey and FSA parts are also to be found together with Alex rims, Truvatic chainset (without the girly third ring!) and a Selle Italia saddle. It even came with some SPD clipless pedals! All in all not bad for an entry level bike! As I said the idea is to do some specific stuff with it after which I'll probably give it away. If the roadie bug really bites I'll upgrade to something a bit better. Having said that, I'm already planning to participate in this year's Die Burger road race in November and the Construction Du Cap 99er early next year which are both seeding events for next year's Cape Argus.

My Bike

I ride a 2007 Mongoose Meteore Team which is a stunning piece of kit! Fully spec'd it weighs in at 10.7Kgs and is very much geared up for cross country racing. The frame is shot-peened alloy with carbon fibre being found on the crank-set, handlebars, seat-post, brake-levers, gear-shifters and the rear derailluer arm. The only changes to the original spec' are: seat post (Easton EC70), saddle (Selle Italia C2), pedals (Ryder) and the tubeless tyre conversion. I run on Maxxis Crossmark UST with Stans fluid in the tyres.

I've had a lot of fun on this bike so far and have no intention of changing it in the near future, anyway, my wife would kill me if I even uttered any thoughts of changing/upgrading!