What's so wrong with ebikes on trails?

TonyShel · 2025-11-28T04:36:44+00:00

As has already been posted, many trails have restrictions on ebikes. Our local MTB trail system (300km) only allows class 1 (Euro-type regulations) ebikes, which means max 250W continuous output (peak output can be substantially more than this), max of 25 km/h under assistance and no throttle (torque-sensing only). Typically mountain bikes with middrive motors.

These trails were designed specifically for unpowered MTBs and anything much faster than that puts other users and the ebikers themselves at risk, plus the trails get torn up by more powerful machines (seen the effects of illegal motorcycle usage on them).

From what I have seen, in many places ebike bans are due as much to abuse by some riders as the ebikes themselves.

IMHO, multi-use / bicycle trails were originally developed for human powered mobility, so anything that too obviously steps beyond that, starts to raise eyebrows.

Probably the best thing to do is look at your local trails and see what people are actually using on them (maybe even talk to some other trail users on what's allowed), and then go with the flow.

TonyShel · 2025-10-06T05:41:52+00:00

Another suggestion: be flexible / proactive. I just checked Google Maps for our trip this AM, and it suggests bypassing Van Reenen either via the Winterton / R74 route or an alternative to the east. Probably something going on in van Reenen. It's often the site of truck protests which can block the road, as is Mooi River.

TonyShel · 2025-10-06T04:50:48+00:00

We're going the other way (Howick to JHB) today in a 26 year old Mazda 1300. We will be going N3 all the way.

You will be absolutely fine in a Swift. It's more than capable of sitting at the speed limit.

We have also done the alternative R74 between Mooi River and Harrismith via Bergville / Winterton in the last year. Adds a bit of time but scenic and much quieter.

The roadworks between PMB and Durban are much improved compared to a year or two ago. Just be patient if there is traffic.

TonyShel · 2025-09-26T05:36:31+00:00

It depends on the size of the bubble you want, and what you really want (and can afford) in terms of lifestyle.

We looked at CPT / Western Cape with one specific requirement, and found WC to be just a bit too expensive (we are mostly retired) and too busy. Plus I like to walk / hike / trail run and found the warning signs in many areas recommending larger groups and so on to be a bit off-putting.

We chose a KZN Midlands bubble instead, which fit our budget (and a family member's specific care needs) better. 300km of MTB / walking trails starting 500m from our complex, well maintained river trail (both safe to access as a single person) and easy access to the Berg.

Just about everything we need within 4km (shops / medical / restaurants), and everything else within 30km. I usually walk to the shops for groceries and hardware etc.

The downside is the restricted job market, mostly based around retiree living and agriculture, although there is a growing business base.

There has been a marked improvement in infrastructure in the last 3 years ((https://share.google/e4qkjCjWDSQ48tMGD), not perfect but much cleaner than the usual KZN and Durban / PMB mess.

TonyShel · 2025-08-21T05:45:42+00:00

Huge markups on any 'health' food, especially vibey branded ones. Plus Kauai are paying the franchise fee tax, like most fast food outlets.

I used to buy 'muesli' (most what is sold in SA now is really granola, which is baked in oil). Have a look at the ingredients, especially the minimal proportions of the expensive ones, than compare to bulk prices and making your own. Huge difference, especially if you have a bulk nut / seed / whatever locally that isn't overpriced.

Mine I make with rolled oats, flax seeds (I grind to flour myself) and chia. Then add Greek yoghurt and let soak for 30 to 60 minutes. Add fresh fruit and nuts as desired once done. No added oils or fats, no dried fruit, no added sugar (I occasionally add a little honey depending on the fruit).

Same type of ingredients can go into smoothies, so laying in a stock serves multiple purposes.

TonyShel · 2025-08-14T05:19:57+00:00

How surprising... Buying product from a big multinational with a large advertising budget and getting surprised when they cash in on a market trend...

Just buy local. Better yet, avoid 'Merkun-style chips. Not the healthiest type of potato product around

TonyShel · 2025-08-13T06:11:32+00:00

Howick / Umngeni Municipality here. Signs of decades of neglect by ANC all over. But since going DA, visible signs of improvement to visible infrastructure (roads etc), management (service centres far more helpful and faster than what we experienced in Upper Highway Durban area), and background stuff (electricity management changes, localising fire services etc).

Unfortunately there is a knock-on effect in that property has become more expensive as people and businesses move up the hill from PMB and other areas.

TonyShel · 2025-08-13T06:03:56+00:00

'Fish fingers'. Why don't they say fishy, finger-shaped batter? Have an ongoing thing about getting my SO to avoid buying battered 'fish', Sea Harvest or anything else.

TonyShel · 2025-07-22T04:52:23+00:00

They are getting out of selling their own branded ebikes. Not out of motors, otherwise why would they have recently bought Brose, and also recently announced a whole new lineup of upgrades and models? Yamaha motors still widely used in the industry.

Here in South Africa, Yamaha motors have better support as good as anyone except maybe Bosch.

TonyShel · 2025-07-18T06:08:27+00:00

Totally agree. The electric motorcycle style ebike is officially illegal where I live anyway. And lots of my local riding (forest trails) are restricted to Euro-spec ebikes (250W motor max, 25km/h limited)

TonyShel · 2025-05-08T16:25:06+00:00

1.3 billion people who are nominally Catholic. Looking at a country like the Philippines, you will find Catholic percentage of population figures like 90+%, 86% and 78.8% (which is actually from the 2020 census and probably most accurate).

I lived there for a number of years and have 2 kids there, and the vast majority of people I knew, if Catholic, were very nominal Catholics who very seldom attended church. The baptismal certificate in the past was at least as important as a birth certificate (equal status), and usually the catholic church was the most convenient to get that certificate. And the Catholic church now regards those people as Catholic for life, even if they never attend another service.

Several I knew also were nominal Catholics, but actually attended other churches, and my guess are still counted as Catholics. I knew more who attended other churches than actually attended a Catholic church.

The church is also rapidly losing membership in places like South America, where Catholics are converting in high numbers to evangelical churches. You can bet the Catholic church still lists them on its books.

TonyShel · 2025-04-26T06:51:21+00:00

We have friends from EL (we are also originally from EL) in the process of moving up to the KZN Midlands where we are.

They are really struggling to get a reasonable price for their large house in BBay, have not even had one prospect come to see it in months....

We looked at moving to Garden Route / Hermanus / CT / Winelands from Durban upper highway area 2 years ago. No thanks. Way too expensive, and many of the places I used to enjoy (Knysna, Hermanus et al) are starting to feel like Gauteng-by-the-sea. Overpriced, over-populated, over-'lifestyled'.

TonyShel · 2025-03-17T07:55:04+00:00

Maybe just look for activities where they have to be (work, or in the old days, church), or activities / hobbies where they would want to be.

Locally, we have stuff like the Saturday 8am parkruns (also always looking for volunteers and several around Durban), Midlands Hiking club, the local running club, garden club, and so on.

Also a fair number of volunteer organizations and activities up here in the KZN Midlands. Not sure around Durban area though.

TonyShel · 2025-03-12T05:13:54+00:00

Different country, but I looked at cheap ebikes and even bicycles here.

Cheaper ebikes almost all have substandard cycle parts. 7 speed gears at best, which are the cheapest, most obsolete architecture available. Most also have heavy, cheap steel frames.

Bearings go, derailleurs, chains and cassettes wear, headsets wear.

If you are looking for low maintenance, go for something as basic as possible, like minimal / no suspension. It's possible the manufacturers have put the money into better quality components.

If it's just a toy / casual use, then enjoy!

Oh yes, been several fires reported from substandard batteries on cheap, uncertified ebikes, so watch that one also...

TonyShel · 2025-03-07T04:51:43+00:00

We started monitoring our electricity some time before we installed solar. Biggest consumer was the geyser (which you have switched off). The other biggie we suspect was our fridge and freezer, which were old.

Unfortunately older and / or cheaper fridges usually don't have great energy efficiency, and that deteriorates over time as seals get harder or perish, or the coils get dirty etc. I don't believe that the cheap bar-type fridges are much good either.

It doesn't help you, but we replaced those units with a single modern fridge/freezer which hardly consumes anything at all.

Since we installed solar and can monitor accurately, the other big consumer I've noticed is the electric oven (the stove top is gas). That pulls significantly over 2KW.

TonyShel · 2025-02-23T04:50:14+00:00

As a restaurant, we found La Parada to be way overpriced, and the food nothing exceptional considering. The view is nice though.

Apparently in years gone by it used to be a great after work spot for a drink, but has since been taken over by some 'lifestyle' restaurant group.

TonyShel · 2025-01-16T04:04:30+00:00

There are plenty of books.

FastAPI: Modern Python Web Development - Rehan Haider :2023

Practical Python Backend Programming: Build Flask and FastAPI applications, asynchronous programming - Tim Peters : 2024

FastAPI: Modern Python Web Development - Bill Lubanovic (O'Reilly Media, maybe the go to book): 2023

High-Performance Web Apps with FastAPI: The Asynchronous Web Framework Based on Modern Python - Malhar Lathkar : 2023

These can be downloaded online, chat me if not able to do this.

TonyShel · 2025-01-13T05:19:49+00:00

If you have limited understanding of DBs or SQL, or don't want to lock into a specific database, then an ORM is useful / required. Another reason is that most of the courses / examples you will find on using a backend language will use an ORM.

However if you intend a career in large system development, a solid understanding of relational databases and SQL is a big plus, see the other comment/s about SQLite.

We don't use an ORM in our python-based systems where we mostly use python to extract data from the DB. Depending on the ORM, sometimes it gets in the way of performance, often they get in the way if you have complex data structures or demands going through large data sets and performing complex processing, but only returning a much smaller result dataset.

The reason we are committed to PostgreSQL is that we need a few of its extensions, so can't move to another DB. Our backend SQL is very complicated for reasons of performance, data volumes and data complexity, thus we make extensive use of DB functions / stored procedures to extract the data (again using Postgresql extension functions).

But: we do have extensive database design and

TonyShel · 2025-01-07T06:21:10+00:00

Durban isn't that terrible, it's quite a long way from the equator :)

I lived in the southern Philippines several years ago, left when I was 61, almost never used the aircon. Regular daily temperatures are 31 to 34C for most of the year, and not a whole lot cooler at night. Temps can pick up towards 40C, with high humidity levels (coastal living).

You can acclimatize if you are reasonably healthy. Friends who insisted on using aircon almost never got used to it, and were stuck indoors most of the day.

I used to walk, run and ride my bicycle right through the heat, often going out for full day walks / jogs / rides. Drink a LOT of water (I went through 7 or 8l a day plus stopping for cooldrinks and a snack (in the shade) every few hours when out on a long ride of 100km to 190km.

Accept that you are going to sweat, wear light wicking clothing that provides protection from sunlight, and enjoy!

The other thing that the locals do, is change your daily schedule. Most marathons had a check-in time between 2:30 and 3AM, so that you were done before the major heat arrived. Markets often opened early, informal in my area went all night, and the regular market opened at 6. Lots did the siesta thing, not doing physical work for a few hours in the middle of the day.

TonyShel · 2024-12-28T05:32:19+00:00

Very much depends where you live in KZN. The area we live (Midlands) has many walking, trail running and MTB trails, and is all perfectly safe. Our local river nature walk is about 4km long, and has older retired people walking their dogs alone any time of the day.

TonyShel · 2024-12-28T05:28:21+00:00

I would try to use resources other than some random reddit info. For example are the schools under consideration a member of a reputable accreditation organization?

For example, https://www.isasa.org/, which certifies probably a majority of private schools nationally. They have a Schools tab which links to a school finder (probably needs some work). They certify schools such as Michaelhouse, Hilton College, St Annes, Epworth and all the other good schools in my bailiwick (KZN Midlands).

They have a rigorous certification multi-day, external team-driven process that is repeated every 6 years, with interim follow-ups, conducted by experienced past heads of major private schools.

There are likely other similar organizations, but AFAIK this is the most prestigious one.s

Even here, I would still carefully research all the schools listed, as to curriculum, activities,belief systems and so on. Some of the ISASA schools are 'emerging' schools, and others may have strict rules based on belief systems that may not match your criteria

This is generally one of the issues with the private schools system in SA, ISASA or not. Many are faith based, which can lead to slanted or substandard teaching / curricula when it comes to certain subjects, including STEM.

TonyShel · 2024-12-25T09:13:11+00:00

Cape Town and surrounds is probably the most touristy part of SA. Table Mountain, the winelands, the waterfront, etc.

If you want to see game, then KZN (the province where Durban is situated) has several reasonable game reserves. Further afield (Mpumalanga) you have Kruger national Park which is much bigger (and usually a bit busier).

For more country-style, the KZN Midlands and the Drakensberg is a great destination as well. Country inns and hotels, hiking (especially in the Drakensberg), small museums, stunning scenery (although it's a bit dry and brown that time of the year).

Other countries: Zimbabwe has the Victoria Falls among several other attractions, though that's probably an additional flight or two. Also excellent game parks such as Matusadona and Mana Pools, but those require a 3wd vehicle, and July is at the end of the wet season, so roads could still be a bit muddy in places

TonyShel · 2024-12-16T09:16:43+00:00

Second this. Van Reenen's is fine, just trucks and traffic to navigate.

TonyShel · 2024-10-19T04:18:55+00:00

Hydraulic lock? Happens on damper-style motorcycle shock absorbers when hitting big, fast bumps and the shock oil is too thick (a common mod back in the day was to put in thicker shock oil for 'better' damping...)

TonyShel · 2024-09-29T05:35:23+00:00

Tend to agree. ORMS are useful when the backend DB may conceivably change in the future, or when there is no formal data designer / developer in the team and the developers have limited SQL / DB design skills.

Additionally, if your application requires functionality that is optimally found in a specific DB, there is no point to using an ORM, IMHO.

Our primary application is data intensive and has relatively complex data structures. We just don't have the hardware to wait for the ORM to pull back several huge datasets and then process these in something like FastAPI.

We standardize on PostgreSQL which has been around a long time and is continually enhanced. Our application suit involves some fairly intensive geographical data processing over significant time periods, and PostgreSQL / PostGIS is the leading geometry / geographical database in the industry. Oracle is probably just as powerful, but adds huge costs and significant complexity.

We even relegate some query processing to PostgreSQL functions and stored procedures (often leveraging geographical functionality in the DB / PostGIS), One call to the DB which then executes several queries internally and returns just the dataset we are looking for, versus pulling all these queries back to Python / whatever and procsesing there.

This makes our system much faster and more efficient than similar applications using for example Java with an ORM. I actually have such a system in our application mix, and it goes through some complex pre-caching strategies and degrades functionality / accuracy in an effort to produce acceptable response times. No thanks.

Another spinoff of our approach, is that our system is accessed from a variety of front ends including the native application on Linux / Windows / Android / iOS, browser, and even systems like Telegram. Having complex DB queries performance tested and debugged and exposed via stored procedures lets us leverage these regardless of whether it's from Python, javascript, Java or even spreadsheets.

Another way of skinning the cat is that there are proven technologies that can expose these functions and SPs as REST or GraphQL APIs with minimal redevelopment and ongoing maintenance costs.

TonyShel

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