bikemonster

Just too late to help coastal dwellers who ventured inland for the 94.7... If you live on the coast, but travel inland to compete at higher altitudes, be sure to deflate and reinflate your tyres when you get to your destination. Coastal is denser than air at altitude, and the weight penalty could mean the difference between staying with the bunch over the hills and watching them head off for the horizon. Conversely, Jo'burgers heading to the coast should not deflate their tyres to travel, but should capitalise on the less dense high altitude air that they have as it may help them on climbs.

There's a double edge to the 'smile and wave' approach. Take the example of a motorist who hoots behind you. He may be being an asrehole, or he may be giving you a warning that he is there. You smile and wave as he goes past. If he is giving you a warning of his presence, you have just acknowledged it graciously. If he is being an asrehole, you score the kharma points and he is very unlikely to stop and take out the hockey stick. On the other hand, if you flip the bird, the guy who was trying to do the right thing thinks "Phuck you bud!" and the guy who was being an asrehole is more likely to pull out that hockey stick. Smile and wave boys, smile and wave. ...'cos "cute and cuddly" is pushing it just a bit too far!

Smile and wave is really the only option, for more reasons than I have the patience to point out. The bravado (dying to spray pepper spray through some wnaker's window, no responsibility for self-defensive reaction etc.) are going to be REALLY handy against 1,500+ kg of fast moving steel, glass and plastic. Like somebody posted yesterday in the thread about the oupa who got thumped by a bunch of cyclists, you can choose to either make the situation better or worse. Those of us who have kids tell them that aggression does not solve anything, and usually makes unpleasant situations worse. Play nicely kids!

Based purely on the visible welds I am going to hazard a guess that it is a bike that is fairly low down the Orbea food chain. The external appearance of a weld tells you exactly zero about how good it is, but manufacturers generally 'tidy up' more the further up their particular food chain you go. As a f'rinstance, when I bought a Raleigh RC6000 it had smooth welds while the RC3000's that I saw all had un-smoothed welds.

Never mind Kid - I on the other hand can never leave a button un-pushed.

Last year some mates and I did a "training camp". Inverted commas 'cause we didn't acshly go anywhere, we just rode every day for a week or so. The plan was to alternate hard days (80km or so, including Helshoogte) and easy days (45km with no serious climbs). It seemed to do a great deal to up the fitness and strength levels. For the rest of the summer I rode twice during the week and once on the weekend and I had prolly my best summer of riding ever. I am hoping to repeat the formula this summer.

If the slow and fat riders ride together, I expect that the fast and skinny riders form the other bunch. You will find the 'caps lock' button on the left of the keyboard between the 'tab' and the 'shift' keys. Use it without fear - you will still be able to remove your headgear.

Funny, on the basis of a screen name you might expect somebody to be always ready with a joke, full of humour and the joys of spring. Funny, you might be wrong.

One vast bunch hung on the study door handle. Another vast bunch hung on the bedroom door handle. A slightly less vast bunch hung on the side of Mrs Bikemonster's dressing table mirror. Under the combined weight the house is slowly sinking...

Those of you who are unhappy with the Diadora suits do realise that there are people who consider cycling gear to be inappriate clothing to wear in public... If you do not like what you see, look the other way.

For sheer sex appeal you really can't get better than a chador! Just ask any ayatollah...so there's your spiritual reason for wearing one right there! A girl from Diadora In a chador, uh.. How I adore ya!

WTF? Did google and Telkom both go out of business on the same day?

This thread has been a learning experience. Henceforth I shall draft other cyclists by riding on top of them, using my newfound knowledge of aerodynamics. As an added bonus they will not even know that I am there because they will still be applying old-fashioned physics and looking behind themselves.

Thank you MichH and MWdJ...for a while back there I was thinking that I might have been a bit subtle. Not a likely prospect! No pain was involved - I didn't feel a thing - the tricky bit was distilling the phlogiston from bottled lightning. It's.........ALIVE!!!!!!

Thank you MichH. And my bit of shamelessness can restore your modesty for you.

A 10 speed crank will work with a 9 speed everything else. A compact crank needs a compact-specific front derailleur, AFAIK. But Mampara's idea is a good one. Although when I upgraded my last wife I did it piece by piece. Oh, the joy when I received the last part in the mail and completed the assembly!

Hi epoh My understanding (and I can not quote sources) is that regular exercise can be a major contributing factor to keeping diabetes at bay. Apparently it does not even have to be cycling, but that sounds like crazy talk to me.

Thug....erm, Mr Thug....erm, wait.... Oddball My guess would be that your Polar was picking up signals from somebody else's bike. And foot. Not a great theory, but it's just a guess. Had you chosen a "mode" (hold down bottom right button while HR is displayed, i.e., after first press of Big Red Button) that did not record running or data or bike data?

D'oh! Course it does! I hadn't even thought to look. Thanks bruce!

Hi TitusTi OK, I'll bite... The wrong reasons being? And the right reasons would be?

Hi Hubbers It occurred to me that knowing average heart rate and cadence are useful, but knowing the standard deviations (or some other measure of spread) would be useful. Has anybody looked into this, or are there any tools that I can download? Thanks in advance. bikemonster

In that price range you can pretty much pick any bike maker and your choice of material. You're also very unlikely to find a bike that sucks, so the bike that you like the look of will be the best one. Because you will be most keen to ride it. Have fun shopping around, and post some bragging pics once you've done the deed.

If you can get individual replacements for the Attack or Force tyre (I have only ever seen them sold as a pair), then there's nothing in it. Otherwise go with the GP4K's. I have used GP3K's for the last few years, and have a new pair of GP4K's which I "save" for special days. I know there is not much diff, but it's nice to know that I have new tyres on race days. Like them a lot.