cat-i

Last weekend on the way to Mankele I discovered a very noticable power decrease when driving up hills with the car's lights are on. Switch lights off, car goes. Switched lights off, car won't go. I took the Micra to the Micra-shop; they discovered that the power-reduction does not happen when the Thule lightbar (model 976)is unplugged. Their explanation: My micra (and all other small cars) was not designed to pull things, so the wiring does not have feedback-protection from single-contact light units. The single-contact lightbar feeds back and interferes with the ABS pump. This could damage the abs pump (among other things). Bigger cars dont have this problem, as they have built-in feedback-protection. My questions: - Surely there are other small cars that carry bicycles around - has anyone else experienced this with a thule light bar on a small car? - The electrician said any 'double contact light unit' would work fine. What brand of lightbar would be plug 'n play, i.e. which light bar can i buy off the shelve, plug in, and it will work?

you dont have a skedonk lying around somewhere that you can ride on? maybe an old chopper? or the bike you used to ride to school with?

... there's rumours of you not being too slow on the laps??? congrats

read an article about the umkomaas floating bridge in engineering news - that one was quite a mission; it's designed to slide off one side when water levels rise.

net reendruppels; more gaan die spruit skoon wees vir my commute werktoe

it's raining it's raining it's raining!!!!!!!

intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

daggapad saturday breakfast ride on a friend's newly-discovered tracks on sunday

i wont ride in melville koppies on my own. from alberts farm to delta park i often ride alone and never felt unsafe. put funtains on your list too.

travelling is on ice for a few years, have to finish the darn studies first:( but judging by the length of the to-do-after-studies list, it will take about 3 years to catch up ... i'll let you know when you can start reading - or better, still, when i need travel mates

gauteng dont have weather, we have climate - it's always sunny ride through the spruit this afternoon was so nice, it's almost a sin to to call it 'training'

i've never updated any 'easypay' account cos i don't have one. i often win lottos, but i can't remember giving anyone any details accept wicount, crc and the muffin-shop (which always swipe the card where i can see) i guess that's the end of wicount and crc specials - at least i should be able to pay the house off a bit quicker

anyone know if this hole was completely plugged? bought from CRC last week when they had the special. also bought the bike park 4 entry tickets from wicount last night. got a call this morning from my bank about 4 * R180 transactions and a R275 transactions that were all made last night within minutes from each other, all from EASYPAY E-COMMERCE anyone else had any issues? (trying to see find where the card details was compromised)

dont stop me now, haven a good time, haven' such a good time and it's a beautiful daaaaayyyyy

possible. i learnt to cycle in jonkershoek when i was a student, and later learnt to cycle properly when i worked in george. but let me know when you up here one day. i want to see the grin on your face when you cycle daggapad. or when you race around a corner on singletrack and then have to stop because there's zebra standing on the track and in no hurry to get out of your way. then, when i'm in cape town again, you could show me some of your best

wow, great idea - thx!

SPRINGbokkie-ride tonight. i'm working on a project with a deadline so will have to miss it ... hopefully next week

in al die jare van D&D was daar nog net een insident. veiligheid is hulle nommer 1 prioriteit; hulle maak seker die groep is bymekaar; daar is altyd 'n sweeper, hulle weet waar die mugg-areas is en sny dit uit. ek voel baie veiliger saam met hulle op 'n donderdagaand, as saam met shoprides in dieselfde area op 'n saterdagoggend. seriously.

rietvlei, with some seriously fun tracks, some technical stuff, and some gnarly downhills. groenkloof, where you get to cycle with zebra and giraffe. fountains just next door if you have energy left. (dont miss fountains, it's huge fun) mtn bikepark with fun singletracks and some technical tracks, depending on what you feel like learning for the day. king's kloof, where you can learn to ride downhills (or test your medical aid's boundaries ) van gaalens - daggapad, it doesn't get much better than that voortrekker, if you get bored of the smooth trails at fountains then there's all the free places: the D&D rides every thursday night, outrides fro the epic shoppie (and several others) on saturdays, commuting to work throught he spruit (how lucky can you get?) ... naah, i think we're ok for now - as it is, there's too many places to ride and too few weekends. ok, teak place recently closed down, so i guess you do have to feel sorry for us

it does not matter what i am 'at heart'. what matters for me is that i get the most enjoyment i can out of my bike. without too high a risk of getting mugged. commuting to work does it for me - so does manicured trails, smooth paths, no dongas. some of the best riding i've done was on cattletrack on ride 2 rhodes, and non-tracks in lesotho - but even if i had the leave to do ride2thosed, translesotho, joberg2c every year ... but where do i ride on all the other days?

have shower now - was the first question i asked when i was at the interview didn't have a last place, possible but difficult to get clean and wash hair (helmet hair & all) in a basin ... much better now

dont kow what it cost now - but lat year it was R300 for 10 entries, had to use it up in 6 months. R600 for 20 times over 6 months was plenty, because i go to other places inbetween. except if you work right next to it; then it would make sense to want to go there more often.

so there's nothing i can do, if i want to ride this race, i'll have to accept that they splash my info all over the place and that anyone can edit it, that's it? heard back from the office today: <quote> Facebook is going to be the only security option in future. If you are concerned about your personal information, then you will have to set up a Facebook account and link it to your profile. </quote>

Finally got a reply. The are not going to put the password back on, it will be phased out and security will be through facebook. and until then, there will be no security whatsoever. Is this legal?

I do very few races nowadays. Partially because of the really stupid entry systems that i sometimes encounter. So twice a year when i want to access the entry sites, i've forgotten the password that i set up almost a year ago. 94.7's site put me in a loop with 'this is not working, try that' and then 'that is not working, try this'. Eventually after 7 emails to and fro between the web designers and myself, i had the password reset, then reset again, and then the ID number was broken, but 3 days later I was in and could enter, yaaaaay. Now with the argus website, there's no place at all to request a password reset or reminder. There is a message that tell me to press a (non-existing) button if i need to reset the password. So i email the website people ... who then promptly totally removed the password. So now, with an ID number and a name, you can go in and change whatever details you like. and get my residential address, medical aid details, phone number, family's phone number, shoe size, whatever. I have requested a password, but no response. 1. This is the umpteenth time this happened (information with no security on entry sites). Do other people just not complain? Or do they complain, but the webmasters just don't care? 2. Is there any law in South Africa that would protect me from this type of information about me lying around for anyone to see? Is there any way to get them to put proper security in place? 3. With entry fees 'starting' at R300, why can't they afford someone with some experience, some education & a little common sense to build the website? Or just to test it? there. I feel better already.