News — Qhubeka Fund

As if cycling 4,630km up Africa wasn’t enough of a challenge, Cam decided to include the 89km Comrades Ultra Marathon into her 2016 calendar! And yes, in case you’re wondering, the 1st picture is of her finishing the Full IronMan in 2015 (that’s a 3.8km swim, 180km cycle & 42km marathon!)

This Sunday morning 16,000 runners will line up in Pietermaritzburg City Center waiting for the rooster call which signals the start of the 2016 Comrades down run. Camilla has been training towards this over the past eight months and she’s ready to tackle those 89km all the way down to the finish line in Durban. Cam managed a sub-4hr qualifier marathon which places her in the D start batch, far ahead of the guys in H batch who’ll take about 12 minutes to even reach the start line after the official start at 05:30 this Sunday.

Cam will be running in support of our chosen charity Qhubeka. For further info on how you can make a donation please visit our Givengain page.

Keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates of Cam’s race on Sunday. Good luck Cam!!!

We’ve been blown away by the generosity of people who have so willingly supported the Qhubeka charity in support of our #Joburg2Kili expedition. When we combined the donations made via GivenGain and direct EFT deposits we were thrilled to find that we’ve surpassed the half way mark of our goal to raise R100,000 for Qhubeka. The total amount raised to date is R55,620 which equates to 19 bicycles which will be handed out to children to enable them to ride themselves to school instead of walking an hour or more to and from school each day.

Thank you so much to everyone who have so kindly donated thus far. Please know that 100% of your donations go straight to Qhubeka and that your donations will make a significant impact in a child’s life.

Qhubeka have kindly invited the #Joburg2Kili team to attend a distribution day in June where they’ll be handing over some of the bikes to children in need. We’re really looking forward to this experience and we’ll be sure to post plenty pictures online!

If you would like to donate, please do so by clicking this link to our GivenGain page. THANK YOU!

We will be riding Qhubeka Buffalo bicycles as part of the #Joburg2Kili expedition. Many people have asked us what makes these bicycles different from normal road and mountain bikes so we thought we would put together this post to introduce you to these bicycles.

SO WHAT IS A QHUBEKA BUFFALO BICYCLE?

The Qhubeka Buffalo bicycle is a robust, single-speed bicycle engineered specifically for African terrain and load requirements.It is designed by World Bicycle Relief in Chicago USA, tested and assembled in South Africa. The bicycles are built to be as tough as the fierce African buffalo, a symbol of strength and power; hence the brand name Buffalo Bicycle.

Here are a few key stats on the Qhubeka Buffalo bicycle with some extra notes on how we have customized the bicycles for our expedition:

• One size fits all – This has proven a bit problematic for Warrick who is 6’4” tall so we have had to get a new saddle post for him and also lengthened the handlebar stem.
• Single-speed – Yes it has NO gears which is going to make climbing hills more challenging but we should come back with very strong, muscular legs after this trip.
• Rear carrier which can carry up to 100kg – We have removed this from Camilla’s bicycle and put on a lighter pannier onto Warrick’s bicycle which will carry a daypack including water, nutrition and medical supplies for each ride.
• Bicycle weighs about 23kg – To put this in perspective an average road bike weighs between 6-10kg and an average mountain bike weighs between 8-13kg. We have reduced the weight of the bicycles slightly by removing the steel pannier carrier and chain-guard and exchanging the steel mud-guards with plastic mud-guards.
• Back-pedal braking system – This braking system has taken time to get used to especially as we have put our cleat pedals onto the bicycles which makes stopping more challenging as you have to remember to uncleat and back-pedal at the same time. We have also now included a front caliper brake onto each bike just as an extra precaution.
• Kickstand – This is our favourite feature of the bicycle. The kickstand means we do not have to worry about leaning our bikes up against something when we take a break from riding. We can literally just rack them up on the kickstand wherever we are.
• Rotatable handlebar – We have removed this handlebar and replaced it with a riser handlebar with funky ESI grips
• Ergonomic saddle – As saddle comfort is going to be vital to this expedition we have replaced the standard saddles with a Sportourer saddle each.
• Bell – We have both enjoyed giving the bell a ring as we pass fellow riders and commuters on some training rides.
• Bicycle pump, bicycle lock, multi-tool and metal tyre levers – this is a great starter pack of all the basics we will need to maintain the bicycles on our expedition
• Helmet – It is really fantastic that a helmet is included with each bicycle as it is essential to wear a helmet whilst riding for safety. As we have been cyclists for many years and already have helmets, we have decided to donate our Qhubeka helmets to two people who do not have helmets whilst riding.

In summary, the Qhubeka bicycles are built for Africa so we are looking forward to proving their durability on this expedition.