The Ouzo

My normal Saturday pre work route, anti-clockwise around ORT. todays objective was zone 2 ride, head wind on the way out made it slow progress. I started having issues changing gears, started with a general not jumping to the next cog very easily, then it would skip a cog here and there. By the time I got half way I was riding a single speed with the occasional shift possible here and there. a quick 30 second investigation about 2km from home had me thinking it’s just the cable sticking under the BB. after work and lunch today I pulled the bike out to sort it out. Cable under BB moving freely, so i start cleaning and lubing everywhere the inner goes into the outer. Doesn’t help. Through all of this I’m starting to feel the levers are not feeling right. no problem I think, I’ve had this issue with older sti’s, they just need and clean and a lube. So I set about doing this, but it’s not helping. this is when I decide to get the hoods further out the way and take off the plastic covers inside the levers. this is where i see (I’m not wearing my specs) strands of fiber. Strange as I never use a cloth that could leave fibers. investigate further and discover those fibers are actually frayed cable, gear cable has let go. long story short I’ve changed the rear gear cable for tomorrows ride.

double my mileage for the year, I'll hit the 5k km mark tomorrow

it also has an angry screwdriver and a straight screwdriver

this relies on the e-bike user to be honest or the oom and tannie at the chutes to know what to look for

I dont know e-bikes well enough, but surely power assist up the hills at 25km/h, down the other side they have the weight to get higher speeds, flats etc. they join bunches and can move along in excess of 30km/h. I'm not saying there was no cheating involved, just that in my mind its possible to avg faster than 28 in that race on an e-bike.

Easy to put rules in place, not so easy to enforce. I wonder how they will enforce this ? With the latest e-bikes being very difficult to distinguish from a normal bike they may need to invest in some technology to identify them. Also wonder how they determined the time limit ?

I'm still adverse to paying for bottles, but will take a look at them

Useless Thread revival All my free bottles have been +/- 750ml and lately I've been riding with 800ml bottles. decided the other day to use the smaller bottle, from CTCT race number collection, on my morning rides as I generally dont drink much on the ride. I must say that its rather nice to use a smaller bottle, somehow it just fits the hand better making it easier to handle. The 750ml ones are obviously beneficial on the longer rides as they hold more, but I think I'll start keeping an eye out for the smaller ones

disappointed that the shoes just go underneath, you need a compartmentalised aerated drawer for them

lets add a second set of brackets with target time

did my first one in '98, seeded in O, 18km/h average. Ouch!!

your wife lives in the bog ?

done. even though my ppa membership is not valid.

how? link on the website is not active yet.

Headed out to the deep south to help my dad fit a new chlorinator to his pool. Was supposed to be 55km but turned to early so landed up at 46. Wind was from behind going out and I cruised through. then at around mid day I headed back home, thankfully the wind had dropped but it was still not easy. showered at and lay down to rest for 10minutes, 45minutes later I work up with my daughter putting a blanket on me and giving me a kiss.

Anyone else having issues with strava the last 2 days? if I refresh my feed it will just pop up a cancelled message. I managed to get the feed refreshed yesterday and everything was working fine again. It was working fine this morning too, then I get the alert that someone gave me kudos so I decided to see who did what today. Nope, cancelled error message pops up. decide let me log out and log back in. no can do.

I just dont want to land up in a dodgy area (I mean more dodgy than the deep south )

most folks seem to do it on gravel, and I've been sent a possible gravel route, but I'd like to stick to tar

I would like to try it in a fitter state one day. the times I did it with CTCT I was not fit so it was 9km of french lessons

it does feel rather strange to have them so close together, also having CTCT a month away from 947 feels strange.

My longest ride on Strava is 110km. Since lockdown I've enjoyed watching youtube stories and also reading stories here on the hub of folks that have done longer distances and it appeals to me. Not quiet the bike touring thing with bags etc. just yet, but I would like to start off with breaking the 100 mile barrier. Whilst I do most of my cycling alone, I would like to do this one with a mate. So I ran the idea past him and based on the 110km route we did in march as a "virtual CTCT" he was not keen to head out north to pretoria, but rather out south. It got me reminiscing of the old FastOne days where we would end near the Vaal and have the family meet us there for a picnic. Has anyone headed out that way on tar, any routes to avoid, any routes I MUST include for whatever reason. Any good places that are must stops along the way for a beverage or snack ? The idea is a chilled ride, the only stat to keep an eye on during the ride being the mileage.

I'm not stopping at 21! has this discussion with my folks the other day when I picked them up from the airport. We were chatting about my race, my mom chirps "So are you going to get to 20 and then stop" , my reply "heck no, I'm going to be that 80+ year old that still rides CTCT every year"

I think we got very lucky with a perfect window in the weather for that weekend.

I'm not to stressed about the lights though, I guess because I ride with them every day and the front light sits under my GPS mount so its out of sight. The warmer clothing required for the morning is more of an issue though.