bikemonster

Hi All As a recent convert to Italian (ciao bella!), there is one thing that I miss since saying 'sayonara' to Shimano: There is a lever-operated cam on Shimano brakes that allows the brake caliper to be opened just enough to allow the tyre to clear the brake pads. With Campag I need to persuade the tyre to clear the brake pads. Or is there some cunning stunt that I am missing? monster

Titus Ti, I think the mate is Steve Peat wherever he is, and not only in Ireland.

Aren't those/isn't that/are not....no, that's not working. I think it's Hans "No Way" Rey and his mate, and that the pics are indeed legit.

The Camelbak is worth the price for the ease of cleaning alone. It's just great design. After a ride I remove the bladder (Camelbak Rogue), rinse it several times, blow the tube dry, and dry the inside of the bladder with a towel. I remove the mouthpiece and rinse that thoroughly, blow it dry and chuck it in the bladder so it doesn't get lost. Pack gets hung up in my cupboard, bladder gets hung up in the spare shower on a Camelbak hanger to keep it open so the last bit of moisture can evaporate. After several years with a cheapie hydration pack that was more of an ongoing experiment in scary biology, I have had the Camelbak for a year. Definitely worth the price premium.

Well, there's the first problem. Either your mate's bike is built in mirror image or he's riding it backwards. My bike has the drive side on the right. As for the correct tightening, torque is measured in Lb-ft or Kg-m or N-m. Find the right torque setting to use and use an accurate torque wrench to do it right. Not enough torque and the thing will undo itself and too much torque will strip threads (or break bolts). Otherwise you could always try the traditional method: Tighten until eveythong goes loose and then back a 1/4 turn. Disclaimer: The last suggestion was a joke!

Comfort trumps lightness every time. It's very tricky to be speedy when your ringbit is screaming profanities. If you can be comfortable on a light saddle, so much the better, but if you can't the Arione is a good choice. I so-o-o-o-o-o wanted to like my SLR. It added about 5km/h to the bike's top speed just standing still, but damn it was uncomfortable for me, so it had to go. Much happier now, with a Selle Italia Signo Gel Flow, for the record.

Hi Dr Seuss The Arione has a longer "perch" than most saddles, and IIRC has more fore/aft adjustemnt too. It almost certainly has a different rail/deck height than the SLR as well. Get ready for the adjusting, but be consoled that any amount of adjusting HAS to be less of a PITA than a SLR.

narra, if Mrs narra is unhappy with the saddle, then it has to go. But, if you are casting your experienced cycling eyeball on the saddle and deciding that it is a lousy saddle, then hold your fire. One of the comfiest saddles I ever had was on an RC6000 that I bought a few years back. The first batch of RC6000's had "name brand" everything EXCEPT for the saddle, which was a TopGear cheapie. And, like I said, one of the best saddles I ever rode - I was very disappointed when the vinyl split and the thing had to be replaced. The only test of a saddle is the rider's bottom...

It's not rocket science: calories in vs. calories used. If you're eating more calories than you burn you will get fat. If you're burning more than you eat, you will lose weight. Doing "heavy miles" everyday may not be sustainable, or enjoyable, in which case you will stop doing any miles.

Interesting ride this morning, shade?

We usually ride at 5:00, but hey, it's silly season - not much traffic, and for those of us that have to go into work, prolly not a hell of a lot going on. The route is approx 45 km, so about an hour and a half, give or take.

If anybody is looking for a bike ride tomorrow morning... 6:00 Engen Hillside Garage (near the rose garden). Head out via Fisantekraal airfield, left at 4-way stop and back to Durbanville via Wellington road. Average speed prolly not less than 27km/h and not more than 30km/h, subject to our blustery training partner.

Duathlete, we need to be careful to avoid inciting actions by what is written. Deon Maas's greatest crime, as far as I can see, is that he is a lousy writer who is criminally unfunny. There is absolutely no linkage between what he wrote and what subsequently occurred. Accidents will always happen, and this is nothing more nor less than a tragic accident.

Ermmm, how many wrongs igzackly does it take to make a right? The restaurant manager was completely in the wrong to ask a customer to leave. But an "email to everybody you know" or a posting on a web forum will achieve nothing at all. No wait, that's not quite right. The aggrieved party gets to vent some spleen and think "that'll teach 'em!" without actually doing anything at all.

Duathlete, yes, it was OK for Deon Maas to write the article. Last week somebody posted a paraphrasing of Deon Maas's article. The paraphrasing achieved a lightness of touch that the original article seemingly failed to achieve. I say "seemingly" because I am not a native Afrikaans speaker, and any subtleties would have been lost on me. As you may know, possibly uniquely for the continent, our country has a constitution that allows freedom of speech. That's a good thing, but it does mean that from time to time EVERYBODY has to make the conscious deision to ignore or otherwise deal with other people saying things that they do not like. None of which detracts from the tragedy that has occurred. My condolences to the friends and family of the cyclist.

I've just noticed that Cervelo's post begins "Just received this in my email..." and the whole darn' thing is a copy-and-paste. Cheer me up! If the original guy had a problem he should have raised it with the manager. OK, he was 17 years old, so perhaps the guy's father should have raised it with the OB manager, with the young 'un in tow. (Sub text: look, son, this is how you deal with a problem in a mature fashion.) But here we have some anonymous whining that will not fix anything! If somebody has a problem, grow a ball and deal with it in a positive and constructive manner.

BS! When I installed my Connex link I used the general purpose chain breaker that comes with my Topeak 14,000-tools-on-a-stick gadget. With that heavy sucker it's a good thing I have a light bike!

I may have posted this before, but removeable links are just the best addition you can make to your bike. SRAM for 9-speed and Connex, as has been said for 10-speed. I truly do not understand why LBS's do not put these links on the chain as a matter of course. Nor do I understand why Campag and Shimano do not make their own removeable links. Cleaning the chain, cassette and jockey pulleys with the chain off the bike is a pleasure and cleaning the bike itself with no chain in the way is also a whole lot easier. Bonus tip: make something that looks like this (______________) about 10cm long out of wire to hold the two ends of the chain together while you replace the removed link.

Your legs will not be able to tell the difference between climbing and riding into a headwind - I usually refer to a headwind as a hill that you can not see. Then again, I also refer to a hill as a flat piece of ground that just happens to be pointing upwards, so my advice may not be terribly helpful.

Buy the cheapest Campy 10speed chain that you can find (regardless of gruppo).

slowpoke your TCR was not twitchy, it was scared. Scared you were going to hurt it again. Glad you were riding again though, twitchy or not. steve, you could always try the indoor trainer until balance returns.

Hmmmmm. This thread didn't head south, which is unusual. No, instead it's turned into handbags at dawn. No scratching, pinching or biting, ladies!

Sounds more like a shopping high than a cycling high to me. I get a similar rush by hanging out in the adhesives section of my local hardware store, but I don't tell other people about it. Oh, rats! I just did!

No he didn't. What Donkey acshly said was: "We can stay up all night swapping manly stories and in the morning i'm making wafffffflessssss!" No blueberries, Nellie, no Blueberries. Son-of-bikemonster and I have watched Shrek (I and II) more often than you have had hot wafffflessssss. We've got all the happiness we need....happy, happy, happy!