The Ouzo

that sounds like an accountants way of doing things

Someone asked me for a review of the bibs, I'm therefore going to assume there is some interest. I'm going to post here what I told him, Reviewing the bib after this weekends ride would be unfair on the bib. Firstly, even though I was going to, I never got around to giving it a wash before i used it. I've felt it before with other new bibs and again with this one, gives some discomfort, I find the chamois changes slightly after the first rinse. Then, it was one of those rides where nothing gelled, could not get a rhythm, lungs hurt for no reason, legs hurt for no reason, so after about 90 minutes every thing was hurting, including my butt. For those reasons I'll refrain from giving a review on the bib comfort just yet. what I will say is they look very well made, have a nice looking strip on the pants legs for folding them in place and are calling me to try them again. I'll give them another try either during the week or on the weekend again.

Cant they find alternative meds ?

popped into Cycle Lab on saturday, they advised to bring the shoes back today so they can get in touch with the Ryder rep. Apparently the Ryder shoes have a lifetime warranty, so once they chatted to the rep they'll let me know if its going to be fixed or the shoes replaced. Yesterdays ride revealed that the right shoe rattle undone over rumble strips too.

this is where i wish SA houses we built with drywall inside. There are a few internal walls I'd like to take down and other I'd like to move, much less of a daunting task when they are not brick and mortar

the idea was to do a long slow one, so I tried as much as I could to keep the effort down. It did help having a tail wind heading home.

One of those days, no rhythm, no power, no lungs.

thanks just wanted to know if its normal or if mine happened to be faulty

Following a post further up in this thread I decided to try email ATOP in Taiwan. 3 days now, no response. Since the shoes are still very new I'm going to take them back to the store I bought them from and see what course of action we get.

New bib arrived yesterday, tried it on last night. Snug where it needs to be snug, shoulders are tight enough that they wont be hanging loose when on the bike but not that tight that you cant stand up. Seems perfect, cant wait to take it for a spin this weekend.

snow in jhb

Is this the group that came out to bedfordview today ? I'm thinking of joining them for my Sunday ride(s)

Thats a pity. I'm hoping I can carry this fitness through to next year when events start running again.

hey we all have different tastes (thank goodness) .

sorry, I thought El Camino was crap. The only connection to Breaking Bad was some of the characters.

One other thing to be aware of. Many of these low interest deals are supsidised by the dealer, i.e. the dealer hands over part of their margin to the bank in order to buy you that rate from the bank. This then leaves the dealer no margin to discount that car to you. So have the numbers worked out for you on a normal finance deal with discount and one of their "special" low interest rate deals. Sometimes it does not make financial sense to take the low interest rate deal.

Again, its down to personal circumstances. I have a number of high earning customers that rather finance over 72 months for a cash flow perspective.

Good post I'd like to just add. The banks will give you a better interest rate the higher the amount you are financing, so if you have a big deposit, dont put it down straight away, finance the full amount, let the first installment go off, and then put the deposit into the account and ask the bank to recapitalize. This way you get the benefit of the low interest rate and the deposit.

yes and no. Yes because you dont HAVE to have a fancy car when a basic one will do the job just fine. No because something like a car is often NEEDED to get to work and earn that money. Then there is also the smart way of playing with money. To this I dont profess to be an expert at all. But i've been told that in some cases its better to pay the monthly installment than to pay the cash, even if you have the cash. Its not about the end price of the vehicle but rather to do with money on hand/cash flow.

If you do 20 000km per year for 3 years there will be fair wear and tear, the initial GFV value given to you when you take out the contract supposedly takes this into account, hence the mileage and time limit on the cars. The issue comes in when you are penalised even further for that fair wear and tear.

They are trying, hence Max's follow up email to me.

I would ad that you want to avoid guaranteed buybacks too. The customers that arrive here with German cars with GFV all have the same story. The brand they have bought has gone out of their way to find faults with the car they want to give back and have deducted insane amounts from the GFV they are supposed to be getting.

As fanie said, you are perhaps leaving out the bank initiation and monthly fees. But you basic assumption is correct, if the list price of the vehicle is R100k, and you take a 30% balloon, you will be paying off the R70k monthly with the 30k hanging over your head. But be aware, balloon is based on the base price of the vehicle excluding any extras, so if your 100k car is a 80k car with 20k extras, the 30% balloon is 30% of 80k edit to elaborate further. Balloon is not always a bad thing if you are aware of what you're in for. It allows you to buy a more expensive car and keep in your budget. You are planning to keep the car for a long period, so you have a few options. A) put some money aside every month so you can pay off the balloon at the end of the finance period B) put the money from A into the loan and pay off the balloon slowly C) at the end of the loan period finance the balloon portion. Yes all of the above mean you will be paying more than the sticker price by the time you are finished, but not many people can save up and buy a car cash these days. Just be very aware of the resale value of the car you are buying. If you get something with terrible resale and you decide after 3 years you want to get rid of it, you will be in a hole that is not easy to get out of. Also make sure that any insurance you take out on the vehicle has cover for the full amount of the loan, including the balloon. This calculator includes bank fees and allows you to play with different balloon amount etc. https://partners.wesbank.co.za/partners/calculators/repayment.xhtml?siteID=volvo

commuting with the bike 3 to 4 times a week, I realised very quickly when I get in my car other cars irritate me much more than when I'm on the bike.

Max took a while to respond, which was unusual, but apparently he has not been in the office for a few days, and since I emailed him directly its understandable. Anyway, he is dispatching me an XL whilst I'll be sending back the L. He then also followed up with another email with more sizing questions so that they can improve their sizing going forward.