bikemonster

Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware. If you're buying something, do your homework. The seller may be clueless, the seller may be unscrupulous, the seller may just have looked around to see what prices are available and may indeed be trying to price their stuff fairly. Please note that the stuff that I have for sale is priced fairly, and that I have several clues and am chock-a-block full of scruples.

Pah. Lousy rant. Slightly messy layout and no real sense of anger. I'd give that a 3/10. I'd have given you a 4, possibly even a 5 but you forgot to complain about the sycophants who post "Gee dude, great price!" or the butt-cracks who point out that they can buy the same thing brand new at their LBS for 25% of the seller's asking price. You really can do better.

There is more BS written about cadence than just about any other topic in cycling. Here's my contribution. Disregard the articles you read. Ignore people who tell you that you should be spinning faster/slower. Different folks really do need different strokes. Identify what cadence works for you, then use a computer with cadence to try and stick close to that cadence.

Here's the clue that nobody has mentioned: http://roadsafety.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/freeway.jpg

Perhaps we could also get the roads widened so that we can have echelons that are 30 metres wide. Guttering is one of the ways of splitting a pack. We don't need road closures, we need both cyclists and motorists to abide by the rules of the road, that's all. If you have road closure for the elites, who's to say that the vets don't take their cycling seriously? Or the ladies? What about say A-E bunches? F-K bunch? K-Z?

If funrides are full, then the price is right. It's a pretty simple concept really. If you feel your money is better spent on something else, that's your choice. If you spend the money, it's because you agree that the price is right.

Is the recession getting to cyclists? I ask because this morning I was briefly behind a guy (B580 or similar) on the 99er who has clearly - and I do mean clearly - fallen on hard times. There comes a time in the life of every pair of cycling nicks when they need to be binned. This guy's shorts had passed that time quite a while ago. Does he not have friends to tell him? Or is he looking to find a new boyfriend? "Hold you line!" It makes sense to ask this of somebody who is rattling around like a squirrel on a pogo stick. But really, if somebody is not doing wild and crazy darting from side to side, then their line is wherever the **** they choose to ride their bike. If you're behind them, it's your job not to half-wheel them and overlap your front wheel over their rear. Don't yell "Hold your line!" just because you're riding like a zombie with sleep deprivation issues. And finally, if you're going to drink from your water bottle, just do it. If you're such a wobbler that you need to advertise the fact that you're about to take a drink so everybody can watch out for you, then I don't want you riding anwyhere near me. Take the bottle, drink and put it back. No need to toast the rest of the bunch. That's all really, as you were.

I've not used this technique myself, but I've seen the suggestion that you should get a hypodermic syringe and needle (from a chemist). Use the syringe to push the Slime into the tube. The small hole that the needle makes will be the first puncture that the Slime fixes.

Sorry Tjokkits but the Bicycling training programmes are laughable. They are based on implausible amounts of training time. Yes, you will achieve the target time (prolly) if you follow the training regime, but you will never want to see another bicycle in your life. I'm biased, but I think that my advice was at least as good as what you will find in Bicycling. Hell, even if you think my advice sucks, Cytomax's post is well worth following. James

Ride your bike. Lots. A key part of training is getting comfortable/used to the discomfort on your bike, and you don't get that from spinning classes. Don't worry about intensity, just ride as often as you can for as long as you can. If your cycling training has dropped to zero, start with a ride of 30 minutes to an hour, and try and make each ride slightly longer than the previous. For the first three rides or so, you will remember how fast you could ride when you were fit, but your legs won't. So keep the effort super-low for the first three rides or so. Aim to ride at least three times a week, preferably four, with one ride of 3 hours or more on the weekends. Don't beat yourself up if you miss a training ride, and realise that in the week before the Argus you can not make yourself fitter, but you CAN make yourself less fit. James PS - Congrats on the kid. PPS - Worst "I'm a new dad" post ever. =:-)

From personal experience, another variable may be your cadence. I find when I am rebuilding fitness after a break from the bike, if I end up getting tired and grinding rather than spinning, I get sore knees. As soon as I get back to spinning along everywhere, my knees get happier. James

Most illuminating! I'm here all week. Try the veal!

Some obvious suggestions.... 1. Ride your bike lots. 2. For every race that I have trained for (cycling and running), I have found that the 60% rule works for me. If I can cover 60% of the race distance over similar terrain to the race course, at my projected race pace, and finish feeling COMPLETELY comfortable an unstressed, then I am ready. It may be a statement of the obvious, but you need to train for the distance and also the intensity that you want to cover the Argus at. Doing only LSD rides will not magically make you fast, and shorter high intensity rides will not give you the endurance that you need. You may want to seek medical advice and opinion re: riding after your fusions (if you have not already done so), and you may also want to seek out the advice of somebody who is really good at bike setup if you are not comfortable on the bike. Being comfortable on the bike is often viewed as a bit of namby-pamby, softc0ck, lily-livered, wishy-washy, touchy-feely nonsense. But the thing is, if you are not comfortable on the bike, you will not be able to ride well. James

http://www.expatshop.co.za/images/products/Fissan%20Baby%20Paste_medium.jpg

If you're getting Cleen Green into bearings, then yes, you will be degreasing them. It's a very effective cleaner, but I am wary of using it on anything that is not tough as boots or very greasy and in need of degreasing. What's wrong with using paraffin on the oily bits? It may thin any lubricant, but it won't emulsify and remove it like CG will. James

Elvin, isn't that pretty obvious? What on earth are gears for but to let you maintain a comfortable cadence while your speed changes. Tomorrow's Tip: Unclipping before stopping may reduce knee injuries.

What if he used a regular digital camera? If it was a regular digital camera then it's time for an upgrade as the colours are pretty flat and lifeless. The point I was possibly making is that this is very much the Seffrican way. We speed, we disobey road signs when it suits us, we don't wear seatbelts and we bend the rules in a bazillion different ways. And then we quickly mount the high horses and foam at the mouth in moral outrage because "did you see what that guy just did...how dare he!" Woofie, if you really want to do something worthwhile with this pic, take it to the police station in the area with details of place, date and time. Posting it on the hub will give you a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside but that is all. See my previous para. James

That doesn't look very dangerous to me. In a few metres time the line becomes broken to allow the overtake. I'm guessing you used your phone to take the pic? James

Produx did some very trick carbon fibre panels for a Porsche GT2 (mega megabucks!) that races in Sports & GT Cars at Killarney. For bottomly care, I can recommend Fisan (which I discovered when son of bikemonster) was a teeny tiny. Not sure if Fisan is a South African brand though. Isn't USN South African? James

You can't run with the wolves and p!ss with the puppies!

Hi puncture. Welcome! The problem with riding on the wrong side of the road is that when you approach an intersection where you have right of way, you are not where a motorist is going to be expecting oncoming traffic to be. James

News Just In: Skilled professionals in charging high rates shocker!

Going back to the wheels thing...I did some googling yesterday evening, but didn't find anything that would change my mind. So, this morning, while riding my bike, I came up with a thought experiment. Get comfy... Let's put a cyclist on a set of rollers. That way there is no straight line acceleration at play, only the rotational acceleration of the wheels (and cranks and the rest of the drivetrain). Now, let's give the bike super-heavy wheels. It's only a thought experiment, so we can make the wheels as heavy as we like. Let's say 500kg each. Now, we ask the cyclist to pedal up to an indicated 30km/h on his bike computer. Remember, he's on rollers, so the bike itself is not accelerating. Basically we're asking the guy to spin up two heavy flywheels. It'll take a while. Now part 2 of the experiment. Replace the super-heavy wheels with super-light wheels. Let's give these wheels a weight of 500 grams each. Does anybody seriously think that the 500 gram wheels will take as long to spin up as the 500kg wheels? Now let's return to what passes for reality in your postcode. When a cyclist accelerates - and lightweight anything is only valuable for acceleration - he has to accelerate the whole package of bike plus rider from a lower speed to a higher speed. But he also has to spin up the wheels, and that is where the flywheel effect comes in. Of course in the real world, we do not go from 500kg wheels to 500g wheels but the effect is nevertheless real. Whether it will make a difference to your life depends on whether you are saving 500 grams, 50 grams or 5 grams. We can debate the size of the flywheel effect, and I agree that over a course (hi GoLefty!!) it will make feck all difference, but for acceleration it will make a difference. Remember this thread is about making a bike lighter, and again, over a course, the ability to ride cleverly, taking advantage of other peoples' draft and so on is way more important than scraping 200g off your bike here and there. For a very long time I was deeply sceptical of this whole notion (rotational inertia). Then I happened to change tyres from some heavy-ass sh!t that I'd bought solely because it matched the colour of my bike to Conti GP's. Suddenly climbing (a special case of acceleration) and acceleration were very different. Yes, I know, sample size of one and anecdotal evidence. Finally, and I promise it is finally, somebody suggested changing the saddle. Change a saddle to get comfortable. Change a saddle to save weight and long rides could start to feel like a traditional prison welcome.

OK Johan, I'll bite. Show us "the math" that proves that to be an old wives' tale. I'm no physicist, but as far as I am aware there is such a thing as rotational inertia. But I'd be happy to learn otherwise. James