The Ouzo

been using cyclemeter on the iphone for over a year now, its brilliant. have done over 5hours with it running, plus tunes playing and not had an issue. Also, the fact that it can announce your data at preset intervals means you dont really have to mount it to the bike. I carry mine in my shirt pocket. the wahoo fitness stuff looks great, might get it this year and chuck off the aging polar stuff.

I saw him the other day too. kinda reminded me of those youtube clips where the people where neon lights and are filmed at night.

been doing it for about 15 years. if done right, and precautions taken (like the OP listed) the risks is minimised (still there, but minimised). And like was stated, stick to the left hand side. I'm always at the very left edge, almost just out of the slip. the best is the faces of the people in the cars around you, always amazed. Better yet though is to slip a car pulling away slowly from a traffic light, and then you come past them and wave. LOVE the look on the faces. alas right now I'm to unfit to do any of this. I tried twice the other day to slip a Clover truck on Atlas road, could no hold on for more than 100 - 200m.

we only have each other (cyclists) to blame. I try as much as possible to stick to the rules of the road (and common sense i.e. 1ton steel cage vs +/- 100kg rider+bike) , but I so often see groups of riders taking over the entire road when there is no need to, guys skipping red lights and then flipping off the cars that hoot at them etc. its no wonder we are hated by motorists. it does go both ways though and some motorists go out of their way to try and push you off the road, but as mentioned above, 1 ton steel cage vs 100kg rider+bike, the steel cage will always win.

I am embarrassed to be a cyclist throw blame anywhere you like, the fact of the matter is SA motorists are gatvol of cyclists. riding in bunches where they shouldnt, skipping lights and hurling abuse at anyone who tries to confront them. Shameful behavior. I did a race a week or 2 back, they clearly stated that there are no road closures and to keep left, this race covered some seriously busy roads, roads that are bumper to bumper with traffic on normal weekends, let alone with closed intersections. But what did my fellow cyclists do, they no only took over one lane, but 2 sometimes 3 lanes. As far as advertising the event goes it was pitiful. The only reason I knew about it was that a fellow cyclist sent me a link. When I eventually heard the ad on 94.7 it was bad, more of a "by the way we there will be some cyclists on the road" type ad. And expecting people to got to a web address to see if they may or may not be affected by the race is also stupid, the ad was no nonchalant that most people would have forgotten about it halfway through the next ad. its time for a clean sweep of cycling in SA. From the riders at ground level right through to top brass.

in the days before clipless pedals, stopped at a light, leaned over to the left to undo the toe strap and fell over to the right, bounced off my thigh. Entering a mates driveway, his paving had gaps in in between, my front wheel went into the gap, I wanted to go right but the bike wanted to go straight.

I keep my old tubes for this. I cut a piece of tube and slide the bomb inside it. Then they dont rattle in the saddle bag or freeze your hand when you use them,

some of us are like Vtecs and like to rev, others are like turbo diesels and can make power with very little revs

Alpina with Shimano 105 group set. was in metalic red.

changing tube every other week because I punctures has started costing to much, so I've resorted to patching them. The problem I have it how do you get all the air out of the tube so that you can fold it up nice and tight again to fit in your saddle bag ? anyone got any tips ?

normally just change the tube, but if its an end of month ride (i.e. the cash she is finished) then I keep the tube and later on deflate tube (my theory is an inflated tube will be pushing the glue away from teh hole) roughen up the surface apply glue let it dry until sticky apply patch and leave for an hour or so before inflating.

ok, a few things here. 1) anti inflammatories. my doc has me on a 1 month course of the stuff due to my Planta tendon being inflamed. When i asked about exercise he said to continue cycling it should not be a problem. 2) iburfen. - 6 years back, the friday before the Argus, I was digging for something in my trailer when the lid, with the bike on top came down and hit my head. it sent my back into spasm. Stretching did not help, I got some physio the next day at the expo which atleast eased the pain for walking. I then bought nurofen for Period Pain from a stand at the expo. This is the one with 400mg iburfen in it. I rode the Argus with this stuff in my body. 3) as has been said here. train train train. if you are doing a long race, you need to train to atleast 80% of the distance of that race. this is something I dont do (I'm lazy like that) and I find that on every race, when I get to +/- 20% of my longest training ride I start to cramp. When I change the distance of the training ride, the cramps in the race change with it.

yeah, its good to know that even though my legs were not working, my brain still was.

I passed this guys twice (he passed me whilst I was fixing a flat). There was something written on the back but I cant remember what it was. I was gonna pass a snide comment about the kid letting the dad do all the work but then realised that there was probably a good reason the kid was sitting in a comfy chair whilst dad was pedalling. It would be interesting to hear what this was all about.

as above, complete 10 then receive yellow number. and as I was told with the Argus, on the 11th ride, when you collect your number and it is not yellow, go speak to the information peeps.

there are alot of good guys in the sport. about 8 years back I did the ride for sight, but decided to enter the shorter distance so they seeded me right upfront. At one stage I stopped to help one of the under 16 riders with a flat. After we got the flat sorted he pulled me along to catch the group we were in. I never saw him again, but good on him.

I think this should be #10. I skipped 2 due to illness. so this is either 10 or 11, I will have to go back and check.

I havnt had a saddle snap, but I have had one come completely loose. sitting on it, if I wiggled just right I could get it into position, but the moment I would stand or change position the angle would be all wrong.I sat down once or twice with the tip pointing up so that as I sat it hit my ass. luckily this was during the fast one so not many hills that require you to stand.

what has been the worst broken part of your bike in a race, and did you finish the race ? many years ago, as I climbed onto the M1 during the 94.7 I felt a clucking in my pedals. this developed into a squeeking. Then, as I put the pressure down to start climbing at St Andrews the crank siezed. I pulled off to the side, realised the problem and contemplated throwing in the towel. but the cranks turned by hand, so I decided I'd ride it to the first bike mechanic I saw and get it looked at. that never happened, the sound went away, the cranks turned relatively freely and I just kept going till the end of the race. took the bike apart the next weekend and the BB bearings came out in little pieces. How I did not damage anything else was a miracle.

this is what we land up doing.