The Ouzo

so your device is going to send me a whatsapp everytime I ride my bike ? Problem is I'm not answering whatsapps when I'm riding. Or will it be whatsapping me the moment I move the bike out of the garage ?

All I'm seeing is the same sort of to and fro between new and used that the car market sees. Used prices start to climb when new vehicles stock or pricing is an issue. the price difference between new and used gets less. It then becomes more attractive to buy new. Used prices start to fall in order to attract more buyers back to used. More people start buying used and stock becomes less. New prices are discounted to attract buyers back, but buyers are slow to react, used prices start to increase because supply and demand. The gap gets smaller between used and new and people start looking at new again. And so the cycle repeats.

Not just toys. We've seen it in the car industry, between the interest rate hikes and having to go solar, people are making do with what they have for much longer than they used to.

doubt that its only VW with the issue though. But the fix the towbar place has done tells me its defenitely the cars LED system not playing nice with the incandescent bulbs on the rack. Its probably picking up a increase in power draw and shutting the system down as it thinks there is a fault.

good to hear. I hope they put a fuse on that cable

Thanks for sharing. Always love reading these Munga stories. The one thing that always comes across, more than physical fitness and preparation, Mental fitness to push through is always the biggest factor. Well done, and on a SS nogal.

I'm yet to venture out in this weather this year, but I will be dressed accordingly.

cant you make it 2km longer so that its the full 200 ? After last weeks ride I'm bookmarking this. Very interested.

I feel we've glossed over this. All the best man, hope all goes well

I'm not sure of the reasons, never been down that road to find out. But I suspect something to do with measuring the load of the circuit or how it diagnoses issues. I know on my wifes not so modern car (2010 vintage) that does not yet use LEDs, it can tell me when a globe is out on my trailer.

I've not had problems with Kenda at all, actually I think I may be running one in the rear at the moment and I only top that up maybe once a month. Do you not perhaps have some small leaks ? because even the cheapest tubes tend to hold air for longer than 24 hours when not punctured.

actually no. I've found over the years that the cheaper brands tend to puncture much easier than the more established brands.

LED and incandescent bulbs dont play nice together on the same circuit, my guess is that you'll need to upgrade the racks lights to LED.

I was ordered to go and ride yesterday. Apparently I’ve been grumpy.

I built my own rack about 20 years back. Over engineered, did many 1000km with the bikes on it, anywhere between 2 and 4 bikes at a time. It’s still sitting in my shed, I will repurpose the steel at some stage, but damn thing weighs about 15-20kg without bikes on it.

you would think so right. But thats not actually the case. Salesman needs to sell x amount of units or he sits without a job. The bosses dont care if the salesman doesnt earn money because the dealership needs to sells y amount of units or they are in trouble with the importer. The importer doesnt care if the dealership makes money because they need to sell z amount of units or they are in trouble with the manufacturer. In an ideal world the salesman stops giving discount when the negotiations get to low, but pressure to move product, and the fact that every Jacques, Brawler and Smitty will spend 2 hours with the salesman taking them through every detail they want with the car and then go and buy the same car down the road because they got it R500 cheaper means they only stop negotiations when the deals moves into a loss. Your next argument will be , " then go and work somewhere else" . Well you see as a middle aged white male in south africa, despite being intelligent and well educated, thats easier said than done. Getting into this line of work was out of desperation to put food on the table, but the reality is there have been many months that due customers wanting to save the cost of a take away meal a month on their installments, only medical aid is covered at the end of the month. So excuse me if I get very upset when people make statements about playing dealerships up against each other.

Please don’t do this. Your are taking away a salesman’s income. Every cent they give you is money out of their pockets. If you can’t afford the car, buy a cheaper one.

lol, done that a few times. Fortunately picked up the error on the bike stand before the bike was ridden.

IMHO there is most likely some sort of brand image saving going on there. If they allow 3rd parties to repair out of warranty devices and they do a crap job then people start talking and bad mouthing garmin devices, meanwhile it was the 3rd party repairer that made a mess, but that fact does not get communicated when bad mouthing is happening. Thats the only reason I can think of.

The module is probably the bulk of the cost of the towbar. Remember, in most modern cars there are so many electronics monitoring all sorts of things both for your safety and the safety of the cars electronics. The car needs to know if there is something connected to the t/bar, it needs to adjust its electronics accordingly. You can get away with it sometimes, but its going to end in big money when something goes wrong. There is a reason OEM towbars are expensive (apart from profiteering). See if the towbar place can sort it out, but to get it done 100% you might need to bend over and cough up for the VW module. If you only ever using the t/bar for a bike rack I'm sure the t/bar place can make it work.

take rack and car to VW, the problem lies with the car. It could be a compatibility issue with the car most likely having LED lights and the rack not, therefore the car not knowing what to do with the rack.

My 130 is pushing 5 years now. Battery life is not what it was but still acceptable. For longer rides like I did on Sunday I tape a small power bank to my stem and run a cable to the Garmin. 11 and half hours of running time on sunday. The HR strap has seen better days and failed completely during sundays ride though. But that part I see as a consumable. Batteries and buttons should be easily replaceable items and should not require the unit to be disposed of. I wonder who the accountant is at Garmin SA that did the calcs and said its cheaper to discount replacement units than to pay to have techies fixing our product ?

I thknk you're missing the point. Nobody complaining that the thing has failed, the complaints are about the customer service received when they fail.

is this stuff not slippery though ? all good and well if its just the sidewalls, but the moment you get it on any part of the tread that you use its going to affect grip

from the stories I'm hearing, it seems to me that yet another great brand with great products is being severely hindered by the local SA operation.