So I took the MTB to Bowmans on Tuesday to get the front brakes sorted. “No problem” they say. And they notice that the pop-loc control on my forks is stuck. “Let’s sort that out for you” they say. “Sure, I never use the thing, but go ahead” I reply, thinking that its just going to need some oil to loosen it up.

So Friday I collect the bike and I’m presented with a bill for R700. The mechanic tells me that he had to strip the forks to sort out the pop-loc. And it took 2 hours of his time and therefore cost R300. Well, thanks for phoning me before you decided to open the forks up, buddy. So instead of a R300 bill for a brake bleed, which I was expecting, I get whacked with double that. Not impressed!

On the +ive side though, they really gave the bike a good clean. Even the tyres. I would have paid 50 bucks just for the cleaning job.

Hitting the trail today so hopefully brakes are working perfectly…

Another Argus Cycle Tour has come and gone. This time I rode on the tandem with Uwe, my first time on a tandem in the Argus.

I know that I’m not at my best fitness, and Uwe isn’t the best climber in the world, so I thought that we’d struggle on the hills against some of the other tandems with 2 good climbers aboard. And I wasn’t wrong – we got dropped on Edinburgh drive, and chased back by Kendal Road. We got dropped on Smitswinkel, not by much though. We then surprisingly got dropped on Ocean View, and chased all the way until the Kommetjie township. Chappies saw us off the back again, but we managed to regain the bunch by the foot of Suikerbossie.

By now though, the leading bunch was wittled down to only 14 tandems, including us. Naturally we got dropped on Suikerbossie again, but we had another tandem for company, and we set about chasing again. We didn’t get much help from the other guys. We caught up with another tandem who just sucked wheel the whole way. We chased hard, with us doing most of the work, and we ended just 100m behind the front group of 11. Then the other 2 tandems jumped us, so we got 14th place, coming in a few seconds over 2:49.

Not bad considering our state of fitness. In fact I’m pretty happy :)

Rode the Cape Argus MTB Race at Boschendal last Sunday. I was really looking forward to racing the mtb again.

So I’m standing in the startpen waiting for the off and I squeeze my front brake lever… all the way to the bars! Woah! Not supposed to do that! Problem… and we’re off… Ok, so I figure I’ll stop at the top of the first proper climb and adjust things to get them working again.

So I stop and fiddle with brakes and calipers for about 5 minutes. The only result being that I make it even worse and now I have no front brakes at all. I descend very gently contemplating my next move, and hit a rock and get a rear pinch-flat. mmmph. Not a great day, is it? Mentally I’ve given up on the race now, so I fix the puncture at a leisurely pace and carry on the ride with some hard riding mixed with the occasional stop to help others with their punctures. Then I get another puncture about 1.5km’s from the finish and cross the line on a completely flat rear.

Nice ride, but crap race.

Never have had much luck with my Marta SL brakes. I’m going to try bleeding that front brake one more time, and if that doesn’t fix things for good I think they’ll be looking for a new home somewhere else.