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For the past couple of weeks I have not seen my bike, I have not pedaled even a single revolution of a crank and I have not uttered one word of cycling jargon. I have put myself through this harrowing non-cycling experience in the interests of you, our future client. Confused? Read on-
- Instead of cruising through pristine new singletrack, I've been indoors, behind a desk learning about the latest clothing gear.
- Instead of trying to improve my technique on the local dirt jump track, I've been roaming around the mountains with a compass in my hand.
- Instead of truing some abused wheels after another fantastically hard ride, I've been taught about search and rescue techniques and first aid for snake bites (the real kind, not what we mtb'ers experience all too often)
You see, I have completed the first step in becoming a qualified adventure sports guide. More specifically an 'Advanced Mountain Leader' and boy, has it been fun!
In South Africa, all guides have to have this kind of qualification. When you book your holiday be sure to ask if your guide is qualified and ask to see his badge and card. This is the best way you can be assured of getting a legal, competent guide that knows what he is doing and how to go about doing it safely! 
The last 3 days of our course were practical days and we were lucky enough to do an off-trail hike in the snow covered Hex river mountain range (very close to where we do a lot of our riding). Here, we put into practice all we had learned in the classroom- Night navigation, steep ground rope work, orienteering, camp craft, search and rescue, mountain weather and a whole lot more I can't possibly fit in here.
A fantastic time was had hiking, socialising, learning and enjoying this incredible country in all it's splendour.
With all this completed, we will be able to offer an even better cycling holiday with an emphasis (as it always has been) on quality, fun and safety!
See you on the trails
Daniel
The strange thing about going through the bikes I've owned is that I haven't the foggiest idea of how I got rid of them, which poor soul I sold them to, or even for how much. The Wheeler 5900 was no different but I definitely remember the feeling of absolute relief when I did!
After my spine crushing experience with a terrible alumnium frame, I cleverly went straight back to the real stuff- steel! For a bargain price of R4000, I hooked up with the most classic steel framed bike I've ever owned. This bicycle was beautiful. Nothing fancy- triple butted chro-mo, clean welds full XT groupset (the most beautiful shimano groupo IMO), some of the first 'snake' stays to ever grace a bike. It was these features that made her (definitely a lady, this one) ride like a dream. It was a 1998 Diamond Back (Racing) Axis.
When it came to upgrade time, I stupidly stuck with the beefy looking Manitou's, this time wasting my hard earned money on the next model up. These still had elastomer's- but they were now split into 3 sections and the last section had been replaced by an inch long steel spring. A step in the right direction I suppose, but why did they have to take so long to get full steel spring forks right?!
The other two things that niggled me was the colour scheme- a full on American red, white and blue brash paint job and the fact that it had zero stand over clearance. Nada, zip, nought- this is the bike I learned to track stand on, solely because I had no other option! Proper old school frame geometry meant a very long non-sloping top tube . I remember gazing longingly at the 15&16 inch versions and their pretty sloping top tubes and sighing very loudly, wishing that I was short like Harry(sorry, couldn't resist!)
In trying to tell the story of any big falls I might have had on this bike, I've come to the realisation that I can't remember any. Maybe it was because it handled so well? I raced it all through my 'Intermediate Mens' years and even one year as 'Under23's' so I was definitely pushing it.
For the sake of this post though I'll mention one very big wipe that might have happened on this bike when I was up on holiday in Howick, Natal. I was riding with Tony Keytel and we had enjoyed a typical Howick ride through the Sappi Forests. All that remained was a steep, fast, flowing single track trail down Beacon Hill. I was really looking forward to this last bit as it had been a year or two since Tony had seen me riding last, and I was keen to show off what racing had done for my skills on a mtb.
I overtook Tony just before he entered the downhill trail and started picking up speed. The Savannah like landscape started rushing past me and everything started to blur. The dark line before me was perfect -smooth, shallow sweeping bends and no reason to pedal as gravity took care of that! The track started to get deeper as it sank into the ground from the combination of over-use and rain erosion.
Very quickly, the grass seemed to get higher around me and the trail dug it's way deeper into the ground. My speed was still climbing and a Windows™ warning 'BLA...DING!' sounded in my head, but I could still hear Tony's bike clattering behind me. So I kept off the brakes even when my pedals started skimming the sides of the clay earth that the singletrack was now embedded in.
My pedals only skimmed twice in fact- the first one was the warning and 2nd one was the lesson. As my pedal embedded itself into the side of the 'donga' the 2nd time, Mother Earth won the battle of momentum (p = mv) and flung me from my bike into the Cartwheel of Death (BTW, this was only a kilometer or two from Harry's Cartwheel of Death mentioned in post number 'Een'). According to Tony's scorecard, I executed a very graceful triple cartwheel and managed to follow the line of singletrack very accurately the whole way through the movement, resulting in a skeleton luge-like skid on my belly for the final few meters.
Lesson Learned!
Check out this perfect urban singletrack! Specially made for us, just meters from our home.
I'm getting side-tracked from my mumblings about previously owned bikes (stories below and above), but I couldn't resist taking this photo and putting it up here. Take note of how it's reserved for mountain bikers only- even the pedestrians don't use it!
Thanks to Neotel, for brightening up my commute and putting a big smile on my face yesterday. OK, so it's going to be tarred over soon, but hey! It's been fun while it's lasted...
BIG news!
Our website is live
www.irideafrica.com
We are still working on on online credit card payment system- in the mean time we will continue using our usual EFT (electronic funds tansfer) system
In December 1995, fresh out of school, I found myself catching a 2500km lift from Howick to Cape Town so I could start my studies. The only fact worth mentioning, was the mode of transport-a massive, long haul 18 wheeler truck! By now, my bike went wherever I went, so it was loosely attached to the John Deere combine harvester on the back.
The first few months of biking in Cape Town introduced me to two new aspects of riding that I hadn't come across in Natal- the curse of the (amazingly well designed) devil thorn and hectic bone rattling trails. The constant punctures were fixed pretty easily-bigger tyres and sealant. The crazy technical, rocky trails however, convinced me that I needed a new bike. Replacing my bottom bracket/headset at the end of every ride was becoming tiresome!
Eventually the measly savings were starting to look good and I had found a bike that looked like it would do the job. The only problem was that if I bought it that month, I wouldn't have enough money to feed myself for the 2nd half of the month. The only solution was that I would have to just starve. That bike was mine! So I proudly went and bought the worst bike and fork I have ever had the misfortune of owning.
It was a Wheeler 5900 with Manitou Mach5 Comp forks. It was absolutely beautiful to behold- metallic midnight blue paint job, big beefy looking aluminium tubing, clean welds, industrial looking silver fork. I was the happiest student on the planet! That was until, I took it onto my favourite trail.
The straight gauge aluminium tubing (even the seat/chain stays!) made the ride so harsh that I might as well have been picking up the rocks on the trail and beating my spine with them. The Mach5 forks 'springs' were 6 inch pieces of rock hard elastomer that resulted in about 2cm of travel, if I was lucky (only on+ 35 degree Celcius days!). To make matters worse, I still had to face the fact that I was going to be starving for the rest of the month!
Well, starving is a bit of an exaggeration. I did manage to sustain myself just fine. During the 3rd week of the month I was eating Weetbix cereal with water and no sugar for breakfast, lunch and supper.MMMM!
Monday & Tuesday of the last week was spent eating spaghetti with tomato sauce for breakfast, lunch and supper and for the rest of the week I was forced to tantilise my taste buds with plain old spaghetti for breakfast and supper (not enough for lunches!)
Besides all this moaning about the Wheeler, I did grow to love it in some weird way. I won my first race on it and it taught me a few valuable life lessons along the way-
(a) Never buy something without trying it out first (no matter how much you've read about it and no matter what the reviews say)
(b) Food is important! Not so much for sustenance, as mental and physical well being
(c) Steel is real!
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