Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2018 i Bicycling South Africa

I WAS CARRIED AWAY INTO A WORLD A LONG WAY FROM MY OFFICE when I read Bruce Hughes’ piece on his touring adventure from Pietermaritzburg up Sani Pass into Lesotho and on to Clarens (see ‘Paradise Groad’, p56). // I READ HOW HE AND HIS RIDING PARTNER WERE CAUGHT IN ONE OF THOSE THUNDERSTORMS IN WHICH YOU LITERALLY FEAR FOR YOUR LIFE , AND THEN EXPERIENCE THE PRIMAL ELATION OF SURVIVAL WHEN IT’S ALL OVER. // I READ HOW THEY CLIMBED THE PASS, STRUGGLING FOR GEARS, but then revelled in the joy of long descents that shot them out of the mountains into a picturesque valley. AND I JUST WANTED TO BE THEM. // “THE A1 FROM SANI…

INSPECTOR(S) GADGET OUR ART DIRECTOR & EDITOR – THEY TRY TO CALL FIRST DIBS ON ALL HIGH-END TEST BIKES (BUT RARELY GET THEM). 1 / Oakley AR03 +/-R3 000 The MIPS-equipped ARO3 has large front vents to keep your head cool, even on the hottest days. And Boa’s FS1-1 retention system – similar to what you’d find on a Boa-equipped shoe – is thinner than most, which reduces pressure when you’re wearing sunglasses. We got our hands on a test version, but they’re not yet freely available in SA. – MF 2 / MatBlac Dual Quickdraw R745 Minimalist wallets are a must – but not so minimalist that there’s no room to sneak in an extra card or cash. – MF 3 / Omata One Cycling Computer R8 100 We’ve…

UCI MEN'S WORLD ROAD CHAMPIONSHIPS, INNSBRUCK After surviving the fearsome climb up the Hőttinger Hőll in Innsbruck – with gradients of 28%, at times – 38-year-old Alejandro Valverde found himself in a select group of four in the final stretch, and was able to use his superior sprinting ability to finish fastest. He now has the gold, having finished runner-up twice and third four times since his debut in 2003. 22-30 SEPTEMBER 2018 VALVERDE, Alejandro RUNNERS-UP BARDET, Romain WOODS, Michael ALEJANDRO VALVERDE REACHES SEVENTH HEAVEN A total of 188 riders started the 258km course in western Austria, which included a massive 4 670m of climbing. Huge crowds lined the streets on the circuit as the early lead group of 11 – including South Africa's Jacques Janse van Rensburg – maintained…

I puffed my way up the Via di Matraia, the road taking us from Lucca into the Pizzorne mountains of the Italian province of Tuscany – in granny gear, grunting up the 12% gradient and barely moving forward. Though I could feel the warm October sun on my neck and the cool mountain breeze on my brow, it was still hard going. But I could think of a thousand other places I’d rather not be – and the summit was close, with the promise of an icy beer… My wife turned 40 last year, and to mark the occasion we joined her sister and husband with friends on an Italian cycle tour, from Pisa to Florence; all taken care of by Macs Adventure, a Glasgow-based tour operator specialising in adventure…

Shifting is a lot like skiing: it’s easy to learn, but difficult to master. If you’re new to cycling, the concept of shifting gears can be crazy confusing. If you’re an old pro, it’s an intuitive part of the sport that’s as simple as it is necessary. But no matter where you fall on the shifting spectrum, paying closer attention to this underrated skill can result in improvements as simple as a more effortless spin, or something as monumental as a race-winning move. The Easiest Way to Improve: Know When to Shift Aside from learning how to shift, understanding when to shift is most important. Shift to an easier gear on hills or when you’re riding into the wind. Use a harder gear on flats or if the wind is…

1 / BICYCLE EMPOWERMENT NETWORK (BEN) BEN gives hope and freedom to previously disadvantaged people by giving them bicycles, providing access to basic services such as health care and education. You can get involved either by donating bicycles and equipment or by volunteering your time to repair and maintain bikes and help with fundraising. benbikes.org.za/contribute 2 / BUILD-A-BIKE SA Founded in August 2011, after a call for people to donate their unwanted bikes and parts. This NPO builds bikes from the parts they receive, and donates these bikes to recipients on a nomination basis. You can donate old parts or bike equipment and kits. Organisations can sponsor the initiative. If you know of anyone who needs a bike, you can nominate them. buildabikesa.com 3 / QHUBEKA Qhubeka was founded in…

MEGAN FAY / MTBER Make every mountain-bike ride better: pack a cooler box with a few Weiss’s, and stash it in the car to share a cold one with your friends afterwards. —A.C. SHILTON / WRITER I have one simple tip for avoiding injuries during the holiday season: take your bike with you to Grandma’s, and sneak off to ride when you can. I find the likelihood of me injuring an in-law decreases exponentially with every minute I spend out on my bicycle. ANTHONY SIRACUS / BIKE ADVOCATE Learn to DIY! Start with the Park Tools Big Blue Book of Bike Repair, read up, slowly invest in a stand and tools, and learn basic repairs as you go along. It’s deeply empowering to learn to fix your own bike. But…

A dropped chain typically happens when shifting between the big and small ring in the front, or when shifting under too much pressure. If your chain slides off the chainring, the first thing to do is to slowly and safely pull over and step off your bike. Push the rear jockey wheels (the mini wheels that hang below the cogset) towards the front wheel to give yourself some slack. Then grab your chain and manually guide it back onto the chainring. Lift your rear wheel off the ground and turn the pedals over a few times with your hand to make sure it’s running smoothly. Fair warning: your hands will get covered in grease when you touch the chain, so you may want to keep a pair of medical gloves…

Since 2004, more than 30 million GoPro Hero cameras have been sold, and GoPro has led the field in Point Of View (POV) action cameras. This compact, rugged and lightweight camera is perfect for documenting epic ride experiences, and at only 116g, the new Hero 7 is packed with new tech. The new HyperSmooth stabilisation is touted as rivalling that of a gimbal, and is good enough to record stable footage on the move. TimeWarp turns your footage into a stabilised time-lapse video with varying speeds, while you can also livestream directly from the camera. Audio capture has been improved, and the resolution ranges from 1080p to high-quality 4K HD. Photo quality is retained, at 12 megapixels and 30 frames per second for action stills. GOPRO HERO 7 BLACK EDITION…

If you have a thing for bicycles – and if you’re reading this, clearly you do – you could spend a lot of money in a particular bookshop in London. Not just any bookshop. Foyle’s at 107 Charing Cross Road is, as they like telling you, world famous. It’s four spacious floors of books, books and more books, with a larney café perched on the fifth. And so to the third floor; where if you turn left at the landing, you will find – according to a sign – works on ‘business, computing, law, mind, body and spirit, psychology and technical’. What if you turn left? ‘Gardening, medical, natural history, popular science, sport, transport’. Sport? Does that include cycling? Hell yes. Pages and pages and yet more pages on pedalling…

Strava Summit Despite the bad rap of the Stravassoles, super-popular Strava has a load of features. Still the most popular workout app. While most are happy to use the free version, Strava's Premium subscription has always been available, and unlocks a wealth of data. Premium has now been replaced by Strava Summit, which allows you to choose from a variety of different packages. These allow you to adapt the data you want to pull out, and adapt what you want to pay for. Training Pack is for training data, plans etc. Analysis Pack pulls power data, overlapping Training Pack to some extent. Safety Pack works with a beacon for emergency alerts, and a heat map of your routes. strava.com Relive Relive connects to a range of devices, including Garmin, and…