Big bike ride of the week : 1/3 strong, 1/3 technical problems, 1/5 exhausted
We clocked about 73km’s this morning. Headed out to Northern Farms, Hennops River, Diepsloot, Dainfern and home – 5hrs15 door to door. We tried to stick to the pavement as much as we could. For a big chunk of time we were really very strong – unstoppable in fact. The ride was riddled with technical upsets – Mike blew a back tire and I broke my chain. Fixing the tire was easy – the chain had us baffled for 40 minutes. In 3 years of endurance riding we have never had to fix a chain.
As per usual I tried to capture the mood of the ride with my handy little waterproof camera. I can safely say that when you lug a camera around you really start to see … on account of always looking out for a photo opportunity.
Riding past Diepsloot informal settlement
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- Riding past Diepsloot informal settlement
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- Puncture repair
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- Chain repair
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- Broken chain
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- Northern Farms area
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- Dainfern pipeline
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- Cheese : Mike and Rob
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- Near the end – taking strain
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- Johannesburg skyline – taken from Grosvenor Road/ William Nichol
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- Johannesburg skyline
Johannesburg skyline
you are doing such a great job with this rob and loving seeing it evolving and very inspiring.You are inspiring me to do similiar, entitled something like, “it not all about the Goal.” Your pal, Si.
Hi Guys
Awesome blog. I too am a MTB’er . Have also completed a number of multi day stage races, the culmination being last years Cape Epic. I would have loved to do it again this year but my budget needs to recover. these races are not cheap. Entry fee for Epic 2011 is R14950 per rider – EINA!!
A hint for you with the chain problem. Get a bunch of magic links from your local bike shop. Then break your chain with a chain breaker tool and replace the broken link with a magic link. Keep a couple of the magic links in your puncture kit.
With the installed link you can easily remove the chain to clean it, and if you break the chain again, you won’t need to fiddle with a normal Shimano / SRAM chain pin, but again just replace the broken link with a magic link – amazing invention. All of my bikes have them fitted. one of the first things I do when putting a new chain on etc.
Keep up the interesting blog, and good luck for the Joberg2C – I might just take it on myself in future as it seems to be one of the only ways to get to ride the Sani2C tracks – normal Sani2C entries are rarer than hens teeth.
Cheers
Rick
Hey Rick
Thanks for the encouragement and the tip about the chain.
Cheers
Rob