birthday ride in groenkloof (sunday 13 feb)

A curios giraffe from this morning's Groenkloof-ride.

Breakfast, coffee and ice-cream at Moyos next door afterwards.

aaaaah, such is life :)

The 11 principles of Mountain Biking Economy

Scarcity means that if there's too many people riding your favourite single-track, you have to go find another place to play. Mountain Biking Economy is the study of how mountain bikers manage their resources (weekends, bikes, single-track and riding buddies) to ensure adequate happy-hormone levels.


A dude named Mankiw coined 10 economic principles; i've added an 11the because mountain biking is sligthly more complicated than other economies:

1. There will always be a trade-off between different singletracks. To ride some great technical climbies and bridgies at Teak Place, you give up some cool giraffes in Groenkloof.
2. The 'cost' of riding in one place is what you gave up by not riding at another.
3. The benefit of riding always exceeds the benefit of not riding. It's is better to ride just a little bit on a weekend if time won't allow more, than to not ride at all.
4. Mountain Bikers respond to incentives. The better the tracks, company, variety, remoteness, roughness, stories and wildlife, the more riders will want to go there.
5. Trade can make everyone better off. You show me your favourite trails, and I'll show you mine.
6. Mountain bikers attract mountain bikers. The more mountain bikers you know, the bigger the possibility of getting invited to more exciting places to ride.
7. Don't rely on governments and other people to get it right. But sometimes they do (Groenkloof comes to mind)
8. A mountain biking community's standard of living is directly proportional to the variety of single-track close by. Happy mountain bikers are more productive, hence earn more, hence have more time to play.
9. Inflation is when all your buddies ride very expensive bikes, and you have to get a bike with more travel and tyres with more grip, so that you could keep up with them on the downhills. Either change jobs so you can also afford a very abusable High-Tec all-mountain bike and adventures like Freedom Challenge, or change riding buddies.
10. Mountain bikers face a trade-off between riding and working. The ideal is to always be able to ride, but most riders have to work to afford their hobbies.
11. If the spruit is swamped for weeks on end, or if all free time is used up for studies, dabbling into trail running or even just writing about mountain biking provides some relief :)

Time to say Goodbye

Snow at Lake Yamdruk, Tibet

A bike tour around Ireland, across Scotland and then on to Holland; a 3-day bike tour through the Baviaanskloof; another 3-day tour from Cape to Agulhas; a ride through the Himalayas from Lhasa to Katmandu. Some spectacular riding in Swaziland after we DNF'd a Swazi Extreme.

Two Sabie Experiences, a Sani2C, a TransBaviaans. Magalies Monster, Sudwala Mankele, a 24 hours at Northern Farms, Lionman, Sabie Classic. Sabie Shenanigans and Midlands Mally. A few proper adventure races, and a lot of sprints.
A wartrail where we had to outcycle a snowstorm up Lundean's nek.


Plenty of Groenkloofs, Spruits, Dark & Dirties and weekends in Waterval Boven.

Even an Argus tour or two.

I was a champion, I DNF'd, I was last, and I finished everywhere in between.

I broke a derrailleur in the Himalayas and on a Magalies Monster; broke the seat post bolt on a Sabie Shenanigans and another one on TransBaviaans a few weeks later. Broke a front derrailleur on Sabie classic mud and fitted the new front derrailleur after the first Sani2C stage, because there was no time to fix it inbetween. Phoned a friend late one Friday evening for instructions on how to make the rigid's 7-speed backwheel work on the Schwinn's 8-speed shifters 'cos the broken spokes would not have lasted for Lionman the next day. I learnt how to fit shifter cables at a very muddy (aren't they always?) Sabie Experience. I experienced the enlightenment of tubeless; the transformation from v-brakes to hydraulic disks; the upgrading to a proper (and working!) front shock.

I got horribly lost in the midlands at night during a Midlands Mally - and during some daylight Rogaines, and on some adventure races. On bunted Mountain bike events too -Wartrail and Induna, among other. I rode much faster than I should have on some downhills on Sani2C and in Sabie. Came off my bike very hard at a D&D ride a week before G4 challenge. And lots of other times, too. Some scars, some blood, lots of fun.

The Schwinn could do it all. Proper singletrack, pannier-touring on backroads, dirtroads and singletrack; locally and abroad; into headwinds, in thunderstorms, and by moonlight; through mud, snow and rivers.

It's time to say Goodbye to the trusted Schwinn - it's in the bike shop to get a new frame.

It had a full life, and will have lots of stories to tell when it get to the place where good bikes go. I hope the XTC would match the Schwinn's undying spirit!

Some of my favourite memories of the Schwinn:

An old castle in Ireland. Heard about it at the youth hostel where i stayed the night before, and spent the whole morning searching for it.

Giant's Causeway, Ireland. There was some very good singletrack against the mountains above the sea after this - one of the prettiest coastlines the Schwinn had the honour to ride.

Some spectacular singletrack on the Great Glen Way in Scotland. Have to go back there one day to go ride in GlenAfric ... without panniers  ...  notice the slick there on the front wheel ... which is what i did the singletrack below with.

More Great Glenn way.

Getting caught in the rain in the spruit ... those white things are not flowers, it's hailstones.

Team Dark&Dirty just before the Transbavians start. In the middle is Hans Wolfaardt (airbus plane crash May 2010)

Baviaanskloof

Just before the pannier-clips broke off in the Baviaanskloof. Nothing cable-tie couldn't fix.

Potala Palace, Lhasa

Some prayer flags at the top of Yulong pass, Tibet

The hardtail at a campsite next to Rongbuk Monastry, a few kays from Base Camp.

The tyranny of the 'AND'

Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) suggests replacing the Tyranny of the OR with the Genius of the AND (in his book Built to Last)

In theory:
There's more possibilities in life than having to choose. Do both.
Not 'ride your bike OR study' but rather 'ride your bike AND study'.

This was exactly what i thought last year when i had to make up my mind about doing an MBA ... OR exploring lovely new places on my MTB. Embracing the Genius of the AND.

This AND-ing got me in trouble now:
The Argus tour is on 13 March. I've done a few (20 and three quarters, to be exact) so I thought i could dress up, Afrikaburn-style, and go have fun - not too concerned about less-than-ideal training time. Classes in Capetown start the day after that, so I'll sommer be in the area, ready for the challenge. The genius of the AND. Easy-peasy.

Except that I didn't bargain about all kinds of other interesting temptations that would appear on the radar. Like Trans Lesotho, which starts 2 days after classes finished in Capetown. In Lesotho.

I also didn't bargain on my boss' generosity to give me that extra leave to go do this ride :)

How on earth am i going to manage both? The AND suddenly became a tyrant. I have around 5 weeks to put in some serious training (inbetween business as usual, getting some sleep, and some serious MBA deadlines.) And I have to work out the logistics to get me and my roadiebike in Capetown for the Argus, then classes, then to Lesotho in time for the other ride.

Training starts tomorrow with a ride with some of my favourite ride-buddies. And if I ignore the logistics-problem for long enough, it might go away :)

mountainbiking lessons from an MBA class

Instead of riding this weekend, I was attending marathon lecture-sessions - from 8 in the morning till 9 in the evening, and then some homework.

Subject after subject and lecture after lecture it sounded exactly like mountain biking theory.

Lesson 1: Don't be scared of technical sections - challenge yourself

(from the business writing class)

You can buy a dual suspension with lots of travel and have it professionally set up; you can do some weights in the gym; even run a little bit and attend regular spinning classes. This will certainly make the uphills easier. But the only thing that will make you ride single track faster, is riding it. Add variety. You won't get better if you always ride only the tracks that you can ride already.

Same way that you can learn how balance sheets work and be comfortable with them, and have a super-fast computer to balance your sheets on, and know Excel inside & out. But you won't go anywhere if you only know how to balance sheets. If you're not willing to explain these to colleagues, or present them to management, you'll balance sheets till you retire. (Which is not a bad thing if you want to balance sheets ... or only want to ride up hills.) 

But if you want to ride fast down hills too, only way to do that, is to ride them.

Lesson 2: Confidence is everything

(from the presentations class)

Well, not everything, but a lot. If you don't believe that you'll clear an obstacle, you probably won't. And then when you fall, you say - 'see, i told you so'. 

But that's because you prepared for failure. Only way to build this confidence, is to go ride single track. Often. 'till you like it, and then there will be no turning back.

Same like when you have to stretch yourself a bit at work - when you have to do something that you're uncomfortable with. Do it till you like it - and when you like it, take on the next thing that you don't like.

Lesson 3: Small steps

(from the leadership class)

Lessons 1 and 2 don't mean that you have to go ride the provincial downhill course. Not a week after you bought your first bike, anyway. Ride things that are on the edge of your ability - not two miles above it. Learn to deal with unexpected surprises along the way - small surprises that you're a little unsure of. Go ride the green tracks at the bike park; first slow, then faster and faster. Till you've mastered them. Go play on the blue - carefully, till you know what the unexpected surprises are, then quicker. Go back to the green often. Only then you'll carefully go check out the black routes. And check that your medical aid is up to date, too. 

Same like you won't promote the shop floor supervisor directly to CEO, even though he was the best supervisor the company has ever had. Challenge him first by progressive (or horizontal) managing positions in different departments, so that the errors are contained; so that he stays confident; and so that he can learn. By the  time he gets to the top, he'll be addicted to learning and used to not having all the answers all the time.

Lesson 4: Darling may not be the best place for mountain biking

(from the research methodology class)

The research example happened to be about the Feasibility of Wind Farms in Darling. From the amount of research that was already done on this topic, it looked like there's a lot of wind in that area. So by induction it may be too windy to cycle there.  There's no wind in Joberg - I'll think i'll stay here for a while longer :)

Another extra-ordinary ride on the same weekend

The other extra-ordinary ride was on Sunday in the ordinary Groenkloof. Except that there's nothing ordinary about Groenkloof.

It was wet and deserted - besides Zu & myself, we saw one adventure racing team on what looked like hiking training, and 3 other cyclists with huge grins. 

 There's a lot more singletrack than when i saw it last. Something for everyone: some gravelroad, fast flowing singletrack, downhill switchbacks, technical singletrack, some highergrade technical singletrack (which I'll have to go back for, because I couldn't clear it) and enough reason to stop and take pictures if you overestimated your fitness levels :)

Note to self: go there more often - and next time take running shoes with.

Still the best R23.00 you could spend in Pretoria.

an extra-ordinary ride

When Dawn invited me for the umpteenth time to ride with them, i said yes 'cos the weatherman promised a very wet weekend with lots of rain. The festive season took it's toll on me: I was a little heavier and a lot slower than the last time i rode with them, and i didn't want to ride with them, cos i knew i'd hold them up.

But when the alarm went off long before dawn on Saturday morning, there was no sign of even a remote cloud. There were no more excuses: I had to get up, dress up and pitch up.

And was I glad i did!

It must be some of Joburgs' coolest tracks: We left from the Carlswald shopping centre in Midrand. It was 60-odd kays of singletrack, jeeptrack, dirt road, some long climbs, even longer downhills, very pretty views, and a coke-stop in Gerhardsville.

It must be Jozi's coolest crowd: Most of them have cycled the Freedom Challenge all the way to Cape Town. Those who didn't, have cycled the first bit till Rhodes - so all of us have carried our bikes over Lehanna :)

All of them extra-ordinary riders, very humble, very strong, but with nothing to prove. They waited patiently at the climbies, they laughed with me right back to the world and the prettyness, muddyness and joyfullness of the tracks and our aliveness.

An extra-ordinary ride with extra-ordinary people. 

Thank you Dawn for inviting me - and Dave, Doug, Derek, Ben, Fiona, Henry - for babysitting me on the uphills, chasing me on the downhills, laughing with me on rivercrossings, sharing your chocolate brownie recipes and potatoes, lubing my chain, challenging me on the climbies and dreaming up more adventures. And the M&B breakfast afterwards. Like always, an honour to ride with you :)