Dunblane MTB outride

Greg and me took the opportunity to ride most of the 60km route that was done the previous weekend's MTB race. It was one of the best rides I have ever been on. I felt strong and the weather and conditions were simply fantastic (only one horse fly bite - urgh!!). We went a very fast pace, a lot faster then some of the shorter rides we have done before, in total we rode for 73km and averaged 22km per hour. We rode past a few MTB riders doing a similar route and I realise just how far I have come in the last 6 months (it must be the 7kgs I have recently lost that makes me a little faster...). This ride made me realise how lucky we are to be living in Africa and to have easy access to great outrides.

I made a short video of the ride to remember the fantastic open space of the great 'beautiful' outdoors, the lyrics of the song are to emphasise this (and my of course my beautiful wife) - there are no Broke Back Mountain connotations here.

Sunday 19th December 2010 ride

Armed with my new toys (29er and Garmin) I joined Greg, Gary and Justin for a great dirty Mountain Bike ride in the Benoni outback. It was good to ride with the boys again, at least this time I could keep up. We had a good ride past Dunblane and then into the plots (route shown below), the pace wasn't to fast and there were a few stops to navigate the water hazards.

I took a nice tumble riding through some thickesh mud, I was behind Greg as he always chooses the best line when I couldn't keep up the momentum and took a dive in the mud as pictured below.

At least it gave the boys (as pictured below) something to smile about.

Great ride, almost 70kms loads of water, mud and a few more horse fly bites to remind me that this sport is not for sissies.

First 100km up on the 29er

I did a few rides this last week on my new Giant Anthem X1 29er, wow what an awesome ride. I had a few early morning rides before work with Greg (just under 30km each) and a longer ride on Saturday with the Procycles team.

The Saturday ride was very memorable, we met at 05:30 at Procycles at Northmead, Benoni totalling 9 riders (including Paul, Ian and Glen from Procycles) and ventured out towards the mine dumps. Paul was the leader and really took us on an incredible route that I had never been on before. Some parts were technical and I struggled initially but the open single track and drop offs were incredible.  My sense of direction was really confused and I am not sure I would be able to assimilate the route that Paul took us on, when I thought we were almost back at Benoni we somehow ended up in Brakpan.

I had one classic fall - head over heals over my handlebars. I only realised at the end of the ride after Greg alerted me that my brakes were on different sides to what I was used to on my Trek MTB i.e. I thought I was putting on the back brake and instead pulled hard on the front causing the fall. These have now been swapped around and I won't be able to use this as a excuse anymore. It was really cool to ride with a big group of riders I think I will be doing this often in the future.

New 29er

After a dodgy week or so after my fall, life has taken a real awesome turn. I have purchased a new Giant Anthem X1 29er mountain bike (courtesy of a tax refund). I am fortunate to have Greg as a friend as he has immense technical knowledge about mountain bikes which really came in handy when choosing the right bike. After shopping around for a few weeks I think I got a really good deal with this new baby:

I couldn't wait for my first ride, unfortunately my front tubeless tyre didn't bead properly and with Greg's help we put in a temporary tube. Greg was awesome in helping me setting up the bike with the shock pressures, greasing the bearings etc. The first ride was incredible, much better then I would have anticipated -  I could actually keep up with Greg for a change.  The bike rolls very well and the upgrade in components is noticeable when changing gears and braking etc. I know I am going to have many years of fun on this baby.