cat-i

the gate at the school side has been locked permanently for a while - to cyclists, at least. pedestrians still can get through, but the gate can only open wide enough to fit a pedestrian, bike won't go through ... that used to be part of my daily commute ... ahhh well just hae to enter at the bottom side, then

well that's crap! the medical aid should get the lawyer, in that case - good grief! good luck dude, get well & back on your bike soon.

aaawwwww gatiep that's so cute!

there you have the answer: stick with a hardtail

oh no! i will remember him for his wicked sense of humour. rest in peace, allan

cos i was spending some time at .... say 5000 metres - and added another track or 2 to my all-time-best MTB memories i'm out of danger now (if there ever was) - was just curious, cos never thought that it might be dangerous coming back to joburg-level after that

if you rode the schwinn for 9 years, you're used to riding technical stuff with the hardtail, and you'll be used to distance on the bike as well. see if you can get to a ride-before-you buy and feel the difference. i have both - and love both; and gonna take the hardtail to transbaviaans.

would you be in the same danger from training at altitude? like spending a few weeks at say 5000 m above sea level? danger while there? amd when coming back to normal altitudes?

hey zulu, read your post too late; taht was about the time i was out there this morning. haven't been lower than delta park for a while - it' not on my commute route, and on weekends i usually play somewhere else - but heck, that downhill from republic is a mess! and furter on, just before republic, where does all that water come from? oh wait - maybe i'd rather not know ...

have them the othre way around on my bike - sram shifters and shimano fd. no problems.

go ride both and see which one picks you. i have a trance and absolutely love the bike. it did ride2rhodes last year, joberg2c this year, so can do marathon distances. and it's more forgiving on technical stuff.

i tried to enter an event from the mtn-cycling website. you can register, and you get a password and everything. then when you view event details, all i got asked, was my id number - it took me to the next page where i could see and change details like address, telephone number and medical aid details. got curious, so from another computer (no cookies) tried to enter without logging in. yup, id number only. searched a little for someone else's id number and yup, i could not only view, but had the option to change, among other things, medical aid details. am i the only one who figured that this is not only a breach of security, but also very dangerous if someone changes my details? medical aid details would be useless when needed. i contacted the website-builders and they agreed to either delete my whole profile (the moment i enter an event, i'll be back on their db) or change my id number (in which case none of my results will be linked back to me). for the time being i'm happy with that - but am i the only one who think it's an issue? if not, then surely they would have done something about it? in the mean time, i'm not entering any events from that website until it's sorted

dash! ek't jou maande laas gesien - probably voor joberg2c! is tyd vir kuier - more-aand D&D???

we were supposed to train for this ride??? no-one ever told ME !!! groenkloof, yummy - enjoy and bring your lights and go test them at the D&D ride from the moo mall on thursday nights.

you not even playing on the hub anymore, and your posts is still growing faster than anyonme else's and approaching 30k ... enjoy the ladie's thingy - you gonna dress up for it? you have pink feathers, i believe? gonna be cold in boven, but looking forward to it - taking 2 newbies

i carry a tube, plugs and patches. have used plugs and patches, once needed an R10 note for a sidewallcut. never needed the patches (other peoples' bikes don't count)

schwynn - jou gemis gisteraand!

boven next weekend????

hey morewood - the tibet-snow reminded me a lot of my very first mountain bike tour way back - we cycled from ceres over gydo (?) and into the cederberg, dwarsrivier, then out to clanwilliam and back over middlebergpas - it snowed the day before our tour started and looked very much like the tibettan snow

bump - sorry - couldn't resist to be honest, it was colder when i arrived back in sunny SA the weekend! There were only two really cold days - the day before all that snow fell, and the icy wind when we cycled off the escarpment. The snow-day next to lake yumdrok was absolutely amazing, though - as were the drop from the escarpment back to nepall - -10 the morning at the top, to 41 degrees in the shade in nepal!

... and here it is with some tents, and a hill in the background.

here it is next to lake yamdruk (tibet)

heres my bike in some fresh snow in tibet.

The situation: So the rear derailleur broke in a remote area of tibet, far from any bike shop. It got caught in the spokes, and was bent badly, so that the top wheel-thingy de-railed the chain before it got to the bottom wheel-thingy. under chants of 'Remove the derailleur and make a singlespeed', some guys removed it and shortened the chain. Test it - chain climbs up to next gear (at back). Ok, lengthen chain again and put it on that cog - no luck, now it wants to climb down to the smaller one. The question: - Any advice on how to change the bike into singlespeed without a derailleur, and get it to work without the chain wanting to go to a different gear than the selected one? I tried to select what looked like the gear that was in line with the middle blade at front, but obviously it was not in line enough. Is it even possible to make a singlespeed without using a derailleur as tensioner? - Would it have been possible to bend the derailleur back in some way, and use it as a tensioner? Anyone has done this successfully before? Please send some instructions or pointers?

hey rob - pics will have to wait - i had to emergency-transplant some parts to the hardtail ... and now am waiting for a white frame for the hardtail, then build all the pink bitsies over on that one ... will post pics when done, promise ... in the mean time, here's the hartail