Cranky

Modderfontein is open to 10pm on Wednesday nights. There are sometimes races on the first Wednesday of every month - I think the series (Over the Moon MTB) starts again in Feb 2016.

I have seen a rinkhals there before, and it reared up and spread its hood.

My first stage race was Berg and Bush. Very relaxed, excellent organisation. The 2-day event is a good start.

No, still in the making.

True, but it has got much worse since Greenstone was developed. I have lived in Modderfontein for 13 years. In the first few years, my dogs and many others swam in dam 1 often, and there were lots of birds. No one lets their dog swim there anymore. It stinks. How people can fish there and eat what they catch I don't know.

As far as I know, the Chinese already sold the Westlake area to Balwin properties, the guys who have built most of the apartments in Greenstone. Seehttp://www.balwin.co.za/westlake-eco-estate-soon-to-be-released/

But as you say, the reserve will be surrounded by huge development. Currently there are many migrants (like European bee-eaters, red-chested cuckoo) coming into the area, and small animals (like jackals, genets, duiker) outside the designated reserve area. The river systems already have been polluted by the Greenstone development.

Before Zendai, Heartland had always planned to develop the land too. The reserve fence is currently incomplete allowing us to ride on the large adjacent area of land too. Once that is developed, the small reserve will remain, but whether we will still be able to ride there I don't know. Obviously total trail length will be drastically reduced, and wildlife like antelope and zebras probably will need to be relocated. I reckon we have about 5-10 years left to enjoy the trails.

Just out of interest, I searched classifieds here, MTB only, by four brands. These are the number of results found (bikes for sale) for each: Specialized - 84 Giant - 83 Merida - 73 Scott - 64 So not that many Specialized bikes for sale, relatively.

Yip, I follow a few of the Specialized shops on Facebook and they are selling a lot of bikes, and seem to be opening new concept stores all the time. I believe Specialized is the most popular brand by far in races like Cape Epic and Sani2c.

If you are coming from Sandton direction, it will be quicker to go via Marlboro then new section of Centenary Road past Linbro Park then under Guateng tracks just next to reserve entrance.

The Modderfontein Conservation Society tried to a manage the reserve section, which wasn't open to the public generally and was full of alien vegetation etc. Unfortunately the Zendai building operations have started. Centenary Road will be connected to Linbro Park soon, a road will be built under the bridge near the reserve entrance, and the Westlake Eco-estate (yeah right) will be developed next to Lakeside Village.

Just as an extra thought: The PWC Cycle Park in Bryanston charged R50 when they opened and now charge R60 for a single visit. The trails there, while well maintained, are far shorter in total distance, there is no wildlife to conserve, and less security is needed than at Modder. They charge only R15 entry for trail runners. Part of the entry fee at Modder goes to conserving the reserve (e.g. the many indigenous trees planted recently), part goes to the trails and other facilities. It's frustrating that the Parkrunners get in for free, but then Parkrun is run by volunteers and no maintenance is required if a 1000 people squash a 5km running path flat every week. I do think the runners should pay for bog roll too, though.

Modder USN is restricted to 1200 riders over the three distances, so should be fine. Plenty of parking, and some jeep track to sort out the bunches at the start. Just get there early to avoid entry queue into reserve, or park at 33 HighStreet and ride about 5km to start.

Multi-entry ticket is the way to go. I just picked up a new card for R400 (and will get another before the price increase). That's just over R28 a ride. Even if the price goes up to R500, that's just over R35, still relatively good.