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.

Now I'm Tempted

Having experienced a few punctures, particularly on the road bike and having been frustrated by how much effort is required to inflate a tyre up to 8Bar I decided to go for the CO2 Bomb route. It saves a lot of time and effort!

So I got the gadget home from the shop and had a flick through the instructions and came across the fantastic afterthought at the end of the caution: "(Don't be tempted to place your tongue on canister!)"

I really hadn't given the idea of placing my tongue on the canister any thought, but now the inner child is seriously tempted to give it a go. Thankfully, the 'outer adult' tells me this would be daft!

I wonder if I could sue Ryder for failing to tell me not to do it?

Silent Nights

The absence of posts has been for two reasons; firstly, I was in the UK for seven weeks and only returned home (yes SA is now home!) on the 31st of July. Secondly, I've been waiting on three friends to make their minds up as to whether or not any of them could afford to do the Epic next year. Regarding the Epic, I'll unveil my official partner early next week at the latest. So, seven weeks in Blighty is quite enough for anyone but especially when it entails an enforced period of non-riding. I had a plan to get a cheap mountain bike but that plan fell through. I then made a few other attempts to acquire a cheap (but reasonably well spec'ed) bike but I think on reflection that my standards were simply too high and so I had to endure the full seven weeks without a single ride.

The good news is that since returning, I've been on the bikes three times a week and very quickly got back to a decent level of fitness. I'm still not quite 100% fit but not far off now.

More good news.. I'm really enjoying riding with my recently acquired Polar S725X and am amazed by the plethora of information it offers. Also, the Polar Pro-Trainer 5 software is a great tool for analysing all the data. The profile is of last Thursday's early morning ride in Grabouw with Petie and gang from Helderberg Cycle World. This is just one of many cool features in the Polar software.