bikemonster

Google weight set point theory. If you are fit and healthy, and in good shape (ask your girlfriend/boyfriend...one of each) then you have achieved all that there is to achieve. Pro cyclists are about as useful a guide for real life people as models are, often for similar reasons.

Different strokes for different folks. On race days I stick a piece of masking tape over the HR reading on my Polar. I don't want to know. I know how I feel, and I've also learnt that if I'm working hard to stay with the bunch, if I see a high HR I'll start thinking "Geez...high HR...I can't keep this up for long!" And as soon as you think it, it happens. I'd rather not know what the number is, and push my hardest if I have to, without letting my head get messed with.

Statement of the obvious - whatever advice you get, try it on a training ride. I'm not doing the DC, but I'm planning on enjoying a gourmet creation called the banana dog when I ride the One Tonner. Take a hot dog roll, add butter and peanut butter, and then add a banana. There may be more scientific options, but few that will taste as good!

W.r.t. carbon vs alu and my bullshitometer readings...sorry, this turned into a lengthy post. If you've ridden carbon and alu versions of the same bike, on the same day, over the same terrain, using the same everything and the same tyre pressures and then you tell me that the carbon rides plusher, I might believe you. I'm pretty sceptical that that's what anybody has done. Carbon is not a magical substitute for suspension. Depending on how it's been used, it can absorb road buzz. It got this reputation largely as a result of peoples' experience with it in road bikes. This is not to say that every carbon road bike offers a plush ride, or that every alu bike will rattle your fillings out. My road bike is carbon. And yes, it has a nicer ride than the alu bike it replaced. Of course, the bikes had different saddles, wheels, bars and tyres, so I can not claim on the basis of my experience that carbon makes for a better ride than alu. You can make more difference to the subjective feel of a bike's ride by messing about with tyre pressures than you can by changing fame material. (And bear in mind I am talking about the same frame design in different materials, not carbon bike A and alu bike Y). Borrow somebody's carbon hard tail MTB? Here's another can of worms for you...why would I want to do that when I can ride my own alu full susser? Finally, yes, the received wisdom is that carbon offers a better ride than alu. But the thing with received wisdom (for bikies) is that it is largely coloured by marketing spin and BS that sloppy journalists write in bike mags, and is not backed up by any kind of empirical testing. Received wisdom is usually flat out wrong.

Wil6, everybody is different. I realise that you have asked your question in %age terms, not absolute numbers. But even so, your question is a bit like asking what average height you should be during a bike race.

You think the "average guy in the street" spends R30k plus on a bike? Ha haaa indeed!

Wow! My bullsh!t-o-meter just went all the way to 11!

'kin hell! This turned into foodie corner pretty quick. Now, hands up - who has a Campagnolo corkscrew?

Surely if you have no rice, "there goes your chicken and seafood out the window"?

You miserable buggers are on your own. I had a great weekend. Rode MTB (sort of) with my 6 year old son yesterday, and road with a bunch of crazies this morning. As I write this, the pizzas that I made are in the oven. And I do believe that I will wash mine down with a beer. Life - better than all known alternatives!

Those pain meds may be fiercer than you think...

I don't think "hands down" is the right expression to use for a story regarding vasectomy difficulties. And calling it a hard luck story won't stand up either. Anyhoo, Clint, hope you bounce back from your fork failure.

I'm really intrigued at the notion that an SUV is somehow an object of lust and admiration. Not a comment on the bikes, just the marketing approach. SUV's are heavy, cumbersome neither-fish-nor-fowl things that are used for parking on the pavements at airports and outside schools in well to do areas. World's first two wheel SUV? That would prolly be a BMW R80 GS motorcycle...which now that I think about it pre-dated 4 wheel SUV's by about 20 years. As you were....

From the title, I was really worried this was going to be another religious thread. Relieved to see that despite the inclusion of Dogma, it isn't.

Sorry, but I am calling BS on this one. I mean, what are the chances of a roadie greeting a guy on a MTB? What do you take us for?

In a similar vein, "The Onion" website at one stage were selling yellow rubber bracelets with the motto "Cheat to Win".

There appears to be a cutting edge new trend in cycling, which I am hoping I could get in on, "on the ground floor", as it were. Tell me, do you encourage smoking amongst your members?

If you have a cold and you're on antibiotics you should prolly change your doctor. Wannabe, as others have said: call your doctor and get a real answer.

I asked already, dude. The answer, in all its mis-spelt glory, was: "Africans...because of the higher temperatures over the years they have thicker sculls to protect the brain."

Poor spelling and casual racism in a single post. What's not to like?

And which "they" would that be exactly?

Yes. That's the whole idea behind gloves! A helmet may help a bit? Define "a bit". I'd rather have that "a bit" of help next time I fall. That said, I don't get too bothered about total strangers doing dumb stuff that won't ever impact on me. Smile and wave boys, smile and wave!

1. I bought a second link (KMC - thanks Edman) so that's one less thing to worry about. 2. A removeable link is the only way to go for chain cleaning. Chain off, shake it around in a jar of paraffin. Drain off filthy paraffin to use as braai lighter fluid. Put chain in a jar of clean paraffin, shake vigorously, remove, dry and reapply to bike. 3. Soak a briquette in the foul paraffin to make a braai lighter. 4. Keep slightly dirty paraffin for use in step 2 next time around. 5. As a side-benefit, the removeable link is a good marker for where to start/finish lubing the chain.

I am enjoying that there are about three versions of this thread running concurrently. None yet in Group Rides, Stole Bikes or Competitions. Tomorrow maybe?