Quote from: Andre Jute on May 23, 2024, 05:04:47 am

But the best cycling was that long, long descent from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.

Andre,
Anyway we camped at a Caravan Park at Umhlanga Rocks for a couple of days and rode into the Durban beachfront each day where all the action for twenty year olds could be found.
The return to PMB took considerably longer than the down hill run!

My girlfriend was a champion ice skater, so we were often in Durban because they had the best ice rink in the country, almost on the beach, as it happens. We divided the work. I coasted downhill on the bike while she drove behind me, then she cycled uphill to PMB while I drove behind her.

You have an amazing memory, Mike. The only other place I remember in Durban is the Royal Hotel where I took long lunches to stop myself throttling several of the actors in the premiere of one of my plays, but I can't remember the name of the theatre, or even which play it was -- I want to say the Star, but that's in Johannesburg, where Spike Milligan never let me forget I fell into the orchestra pit with the Irish juvenile lead in another play that premiered there, poncing around for an encore before an opening night crowd singing along with our version of a Gilbert and Sullivan song, the only line now remaining with me is "I never thought of taking a tickey for myself at all." Well, actually, after Mr Milligan on a later occasion himself fell into the same orchestra pit, he never brought it up first. I was not so sensitive.

From a cyclist's perspective, I never thought much of South Africa's absolutely wonderful main national roads, built after the war by Italian engineers who had been prisoners of war and decided to stay. (Of course, as a sporting motorist in the habit of setting records on public roads, I loved those Italian engineers -- and their daughters too.) Too tempting for motorists to speed and endanger a cyclist. And when you went off the main roads, a lot of the lesser roads were newly graded earth, treacherous loose stuff for bi-wheelers, and generally hard work. The surfaces on the smaller Irish roads and lanes, all blacktop, I ride may be nasty in spots and at times, but they keep the speed of motorists down in best cases (for a cyclist) to a crawl.

Amazing how many people with South African experience come on this Thorn forum. I suppose it's a sign of our bicycling sophistication...

The riders in the Isle of Man TT are practising this week, in case you forgot, and presumably racing next week. In Northern Ireland motorbike road racing is a national sport, so I'm about to investigate which of the NI channels will carry the IoM racing; we live in the far south of Ireland but we get all the NI channels by satellite: it's just a matter of sorting them out from about 500 other channels.

Cape Town, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, could be a misery in any season, not only the cold, wet winters. In the summer there was the maddening Cape Doctor, a wind that could and did drive people beyond mere distraction into sociopathic behaviour. All the same, I'm not so sure the hot, muggy daily thunderstorms of the Transvaal Highveld were any more pleasant. Still, if you were in Big Business in South Africa, or the arts for that matter, it was Cape Town or Johannesburg (or for politics nearby Pretoria, another beautiful city). But the best cycling was that long, long descent from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.

Lovely writeup, John, and as always a superb eye for framing the photographs just right. I just loved that sweeping turn on the road in the budding spring between the tall, straight trees, with the fortunate cyclist as the only traffic.

I'm not so sure even the Nile is a mile wide except in its estuary. Mind you, the Lee, a good wide river in Cork City, with enough draft right in the middle of the city to take a major sailing ship that the Dutch use to train naval cadets, less than thirty miles away is a six inch dribble that on a hill walk I stepped across without noticing it until a geography teacher asked us to show some respect. On the other hand, the Torrens, an impressive river in downtown Adelaide down under, is a miserable little stream just outside the city, and it's impressive girth is explained by being dammed up at the other end of the city.

Keats! Laughing out Loud.

Andre,
Pietermaritzburg to Durban was my first cycle tour.
Raleigh Sports bike old size 26"wheels, steel rims and Sturmey Archer AW three speed hub.
As the steel rims did not provide much braking in the wet I later upgraded to Sturmey Archer drum brakes  which of course required a new rear hub with the drum brake.
Anyway we camped at a Caravan Park at Umhlanga Rocks for a couple of days and rode into the Durban beachfront  each day where all the action for twenty year olds could be found.
The return to PMB took considerably longer than the down hill run!

🤣 noooo don’t get me started with that one. Mind you, I was never convinced Mr Ed could actually talk. Call me cynical but… 🐴

It might help if we knew the size tires you want to run, wide, narrow, etc. 

I’m having some trouble working out which rims I need. I get that I’m looking for something a bit unusual and there are probably more sensible options. But I am where I am…

So I need a rim

- Tubeless ready, so I can run tubeless when I’m ready
- 700c / 622
- 32 spoke
- Tough enough for touring with a few days of stuff on the bike / light gravel 

Most of the rims I’ve found don’t have all of these. Most of the rim brake rims seem to prioritise weight rather than being tough enough for touring. Most of the tough rims for loaded touring / gravel don’t have a braking surface for rim brakes. Other options aren’t tubeless ready.

I’m going to build the rim on to my Rohloff hub. And yeah I know - I should probably sell the hub and buy a completely different bike that already has disks and tubeless. But I’m attached to it and if there’s a way of making my set up work I’d like to do it.

 I appreciate there may not be a rim that fits the job.

But if you know of one please let me know.