nuge

oh yeah? well this one time i dropped david george on a monster climb (the bridge over the railway tracks on black river parkway) during an international event (on the way into town on the morning of the argus) while he was in peak form (presumably he was taking it easy after winning the Giro del Capo the day before). he didn't exactly beg for mercy or anything and was very gracious in defeat! nice fellow.

as a side note, the local funrides have conditioned my body to expect coke after every ride - racing, training, commuting, if i don't have some the hairs on the back of my neck rise and i start to howl... it scares the cat.

um, ok, think about this: considering your weight (or relative lack thereof, you lucky sod!) going to a lighter wheelset will make a much bigger difference to you than it would to a 80kg rouleur (er, like me). Lighter guys generally go for a stiff, light, responsive wheelset which will make the most of their ability to accelerate on climbs and make the most of their higher power to weight ratio. oh, and you'll probably be blown off the road on a set of deep sections so scratch my comment above. good luck

wheels: carbon, and nothing less than 60mm deep, please. if you can't be fast, just be cool...

classic, genre-defining cheese! loved it, especially: the synthesized dramatic music, the one-liner-a-second dialogue, that part where the bad dude says: "all right, let's put the hurt on!" you just can't make movies like this anymore... awesome.

had this problem when i upgraded my shimano 600 hubbed wheels from 8-speed to 10-speed - there's just not enough clearance on the 32-spoke hubs, which is weird because the cassette spacing (small cog to large cog) for 8 speed and 10 speed is the same. had to suck it in and stick to my second lowest gear for the hills, luckily were my training set for a while - now on the s/s. anyway, interested to hear a professional opinion on this one.

well, put it this way, there was a heart rate lecture given a couple years back and the fellow who was giving the lecture claimed that as yet they simply hadn't found any evidence to support the idea that killing yourself in training (i.e. going above 95% or so of MHR) had any real benefit. He was of the opinion that doing short to medium length intervals (3-5min) at or just above lactate threshold appear to provide the right kind of training response to get you in shape for a race. This is, of course, along with planned rest, recovery and base training periods in between. do a search, but er, don't necessarily believe anything on this site or me for that matter...

no pain no gain, big ups you hardcore mofo you! (i'm too lazy to break a sweat) btw i've heard training at max may not be such a great idea, maybe back off a little (my totally unqualified opinion here)

i think my garden needs reseeding, it's not that big so it's more of a walk.

After reading through all the good (and bad) info out there on RHR, MHR and the different formula's used to calculate whatever, it sounds like it's not a precise science and, when cornered, the experts will use the "it's probably just genetics" get-out-of-lecture-without-looking-like-a-timewasting-twat card. Don't read too much into it and just enjoy your bike. It sounds like you've made some great improvements already, so as long as you're still having fun you're doing it right.

ride what you're used to... after riding clipless exclusively for well over ten years (roadie), i turned an old road frame into a s/s commuter and put flats on for convenience. every now and then i'd slip on the pedals while accellerating, but never thought too much of it - until one day i came around salt river circle and, having made it through the gauntlet, indicated with my left hand/arm that i was moving back across to the side of the road to the motorist behind. i simultaneously slipped on the left pedal and, with only one hand on the bars, lost control of the bike at speed. i landed heavily on my shoulder and basically spent whatever cash i'd saved over the last several months riding to work on: 1) one trip to the emergency room (cha-ching) 2) x-rays (cha-ching) 3) ultrasound (cha-ching) 4) consultations with various specialists attending to my shoulder (cha-ching). lesson learned - i've since put my old set of clipless pedals back on as that's what i know.

welcome to the hub. experiment, find out what works for you. one thing may work for someone while another may not even be able to stomach it. at this point, though, getting different sachets of various products is probably going to be better than committing to a tub of stuff that costs an arm and leg and turns you green. enjoy

Thanks Andre, I've heard only good things about the Schwalbe's, but then I suppose that's par for the course - they aren't cheap!

thanks guys, much appreciated. sounds like the conti's are the way to go on our roads!

Hi Guys, I've been looking for a fast, light set of tyres for racing on when summer eventually rolls around. I see the folks at Crown cycles (CT) currently have these on for the same price (R399 each). Now which one would you guys go for considering the dead heat on price? Cheers

bizarre... and no pics? gotta see how they fit a someone horizontally into an MRI scanner and then get them to pedal while holding their heads still

also, HR as a % of max is relatively meaningless due to the discrepancies between different riders' MHR (max heart rate) and RHR (resting heart rate) - karvonen is a better formula for finding your training zones - do a search it's bound to be on here somewhere, or google. ... or do what thumper said, seriously. i've been riding ss to commute to work for almost a year now and it really has made a difference to my riding.

cool vid, thanks

aaah, tuesdays that feel like mondays, thank goodness for the hub! keep it up guys...

... ha, thought this one was about easter eggs - anyone for carbs?!

ok, so the big question is: is it still uncool for a roadie to wear a camelbak? i can see the door, i think i'll make it...

slowbee, you've got a point. taking it one step further - i was always told that in aerodynamics it's more important to smooth the air on the trailing edge rather than the leading edge as this is where turbulence has more of an effect - so surely having a camleback on his back (or, in tt mode, perhaps behind his arse!) would make more sense?! has the "camelstomach" effect been tested in a wind tunnel? i mean, how do they know it's 2s over 1km anyway? sounds like a lot of rubbish - hey, when last did he pee in a cup?

wouldn't know, in true ss style i have no onboard computer-aided riding devices! from the sound of the wind as it rushes past my ears i'm pretty sure i'm doing about 40kph when my knees feel like they're about to fly apart - i have a 39x15 on my roadie ss (an old cannondale 2.8 - i have a really comfy saddle btw!)

kind of off the topic: we were suckered into a family gym contract for a year when i was about 14 and at the time was getting serious about dinghy racing (you could race optimists until you turn 15, don't know if that's still the case). i went down to said gym to try and strengthen my legs for hiking out when the wind got up and the instructors looked at me and basically said no way. they said strength and weight training simply should not be done by anyone under the age of 15 as everything's still growing and stretching and might change the way your body develops permanently. eventually i got to do the circuit but only under supervision - i quickly got bored and got into girls and punk rock instead, so it wasn't all bad!

welcome to the hub - pics will help. specs? (i.e. groupset, wheels, brakes, suspension?)