bikemonster

Why not just get a trusted watchmaker to change the battery? I know Polar "recommend" that they be allowed to do everything all the time, but once I've paid for the sucker it's mine. Chest strap and sensor batteries I change myself, and a watchmaker gets the gig of replacing HRM batteries when needed.

I'm surprised nobody else has asked this all-important question. What magazine was he reading?

Igzackerly! PPA H bunch listen up: In the Bay City ride on Sunday, I will be starting my celebratory moves in the first 500 metres or so. Manners, people, manners!

Legal weight is 6.9kg. But who cares? For us weekend warriors (and if you are not earning your living from riding a bike that definitely includes you, dear reader), nobody is likely to weigh our bike anytime soon. For pro riders their body fat is often so low that they are border line unhealthy, and there just is not any more body fat that can safely be shed. At that point, weight loss really is about the bike. (Edited to correct minimum bike weight.)bikemonster2010-02-22 09:19:30

No difference. But bragging rights, that's the thing! That and the satisfaction of having a bike similar to a pro's bike.

If you're looking to upgrade with around R15K and potentially a bike to sell, you should also go and see what R17-R20K will buy you by way of a new bike. You may find it more cost effective to replace than to upgrade.

Slang: Meat and two veg, or is that too generic? BTW, Holy, you may want to go and do a quick edit as you are currently claiming to be "beecake", whatever that is.

Pedals - I once had some pedals that had a near-incurable creak. Fixed after the LBS could not sort it (new bike) by using some plumbers PTFE tape on the pedal spindle threads.

And who is Ulrich?

It's called the taint. 'Cause taint balls and taint arse either. Showoff smarty-pants people also refer to it as the perineum. At a guess you would prolly need to move your saddle forward. I stand by my earlier comment that a saddle replacement may be in order. On one of my bikes I had a saddle that I could never get comfortable on, numb nuts were a regular occurrence and no matter what I did and how I set the saddle up, I was forever having to push myself back on the saddle. A new saddle sorted the problem. Your mileage may vary.

Don't eat the yellow snow? I think it depends on where in the hold your bike ends up. Either part or all of the hold is pressurised. At least part of the hold must be pressurised or whenever people freight their household pets by air, Tiddles and Fido would arrive at the other end a bluey-purple colour and frozen.

It's because it's a Raleigh, that's a well known design fault, especially with the RC2000 and the RC3000. It's a side effect of the amount and type of aluminium used in those bikes. The higher-specced Raleighs do not seem to have the same problem. Naahhh! Not really. Three most likely (honest!) culprits are: 1. Bike set up 2. Saddle 3. Not moving around enough on the bike 1 and 3 cost nothing to change. 3 is the easiest to sort out, by just remembering to change your position on the saddle from time to time. My money is on the saddle though, so to speak. And now for the bad news. Bike saddles are the one piece of componentry where price is not even a vague indicator of how well it will work for you. You need to find a saddle that makes your bum hum. The closest to a universally revered saddle that I know of is the Fi:zik Arione, mostly because it has a long "perch" which allows for many different comfortable positions on the saddle. Cue somebody coming along to say that they have never sat on a worse saddle than the Arione...bikemonster2010-02-22 04:38:57

If you're *really* shaky on the bike, use the method that I've seen recommended for kids: 1. Remove the pedals. 2. Put the saddle super-low so that you can rest your feet flat on the ground. 3. Scoot yourself along, maybe on a GENTLE downhill and get used to the idea of freewheeling and balancing. 4. When you are comfortable balancing a moving bike, put the pedals back on the bike and get used to pedalling. 5. Raise the saddle back to a sensible height in small increments. 6. Don't give a rat's ass about anybody's opinion while you're learning. Nobody is born knowing how to ride a bike. ([brag mode] Actually that last bit is a small lie, son of bikemonster seemed to know exactly what do when he got his bike for his 5th birthday. [/brag mode])

For a road bike, Finish Line Dry Teflon Lube. One drop per link on a clean chain. For a MTB, mud mixed with fish oil and...oh I'm making stuff up. I don't know. Who cares what those dirty guys use?

Road or MTB?

Dear Ms Squishy Here's how it is. Us (happily) married guys are like dogs barking at cars. We like to pretend that we would know exactly what to do if we caught one, but really it's a lie. We look. We don't look wistfully. We don't look with a view to swapping anything out. We just look. My bike has Camagnolo, but I still really like the look of the single-sided Shimano crank design. Whoever a guy is married to, there are a bazillion better looking women out there. This is true even if you are married to a combination of Eva Mendes, Marilyn Monroe, Megan Fox and Gwyneth Paltrow, with hints of Cate Blanchett. (The same logic naturally applies from a woman's point of view, too.) We like to look at our wives too. Do not repeat this to anybody, or my man card will be revoked, but if we stay faithful (and many of us do) it's because of the way you are, not the way you look. For most of us, looking at women is proof of one thing and one thing only: that we still have a pulse. The day I stop looking is the day my poephol relaxes and my tootsies curl. Now cut your poor bf/husband/bondage slave some slack! James

Now here's a thing with Biopace... Somebody once told me "You can't spin Biopace!" I am a monster-sized sceptic. I also spin like a demented hamster on speed. A few year's back I was visiting family in Sydney, and the loaner bike that was pulled out had Biopace. I joined up with a group ride on the Saturday morning, and did my darnedest to spin Biopace, and felt like I was succeeding. But climbing was impossible, and I am usually a reasonable climber. On the Sunday ride, I figured that as Biopace was designed for freds, I would ride like a fred and grind up the climbs. Lo and behold, I fairly flew up the hill by adopting a completely unnatural pedalling style. All the usual caveats apply, anecdotal evidence, sample size of 1, but it may just be that Biopace works really well, but works really well for the kind of person who doesn't buy bikes. And if anybody's interested, I have a small size Lejeune road bike with Biopace (and a lovely 80's paint job) that will prolly come up for sale in the next week or two. James

From the continuous cable routing thread: The South African Consumer Protection Act makes it unlawful for the manufacturer to refuse a non-modification related guarantee. Hard to see how painting a frame could cause it to crack.

Any plans to add single speed road bikes to the line up?

Any other purchases we should hold fire on?

You'll notice that the text on the last pic talks about a Dura-Ace RD, although this is clearly on a MTB.

Crikey you're brave ianrodger! I thought you were sticking your neck out on That Other thread, but this is really looking for trouble. You will be struck with great vengeance and furious anger for that!

I see what you did there!