Seeker911

Flights and plans changed. I arrive Capetown 12 Oct. Gonna sit this one out. I foresee beer, pizza and wine farms in my future.

I been vaccinated J&J but only 10 days ago. Also had covid 1 Aug. Now the extra cost of screening. I'm also told that you can test positive for covid up to twelve weeks afterwards. Me thinks I'm just gonna delay my flight plans by a week and weather allowing go sit on the beach for a week instead. Drink beers and eat pizza.

My clutch cable broke on my Triumph Speed Triple 1050 on Thursday. True to form local dealerships have zero stock. Ordered a cable from Wemoto in the UK on Friday morning via DHL , 30 pounds was the fee, cable was in SA Saturday morning delivered to my house 10am Monday. Now thats frikken service !!!! Ordered a rear cassette from Ribble and couriered through Aramex been waiting 2 weeks now. Cost was very similar if not more.

So I decided that CRC and Skynet suck. My next order is via Ribble and the resultant courier is ParcelForce. So my order is for a crank tool that costs 17 pound. The delivery fee is 30 pounds for an item that is tiny and weighs like 50g. Anyway I pay the exhorbitent delivery because hey I need the tool and want it ASAP. Cool everything is really great until it hits SA. Guess what ParcelForce offload onto the SA post office and guess what I am going to end up waiting weeks and months to extract my delivery out of the international mail centre. So I ask you now what exactly is it am i paying 30 pounds for ?

A while back I was on my MTB heading to work. I was using the grassy area next to the sidewalk which is well used by cyclists commuting and very safe. On this particular morning a taxi decided it was a good idea to use the grassy bit in an attempt to avoid the deadlocked traffic. The idiot ramped up over the sidewalk and on to the grassy area. The result was a collision between the 2 of us leaving me and my kit sprawled all over the show. all I got was a "eish so sorry it was an accident". Like hell was an accident I will not repeat my french lessons nor describe my attempt at not sparing his life. What i was amazed at was no one stopped to assist me in anyway or ask if I was injured ok or or ... and of course not a cop in sight.

I live 12km's from work. I commute via bicycle, motorcycle, run and last but not least by car. My least favorite is by car because of traffic and this happens once a year when there's a tsunami tearing Joburg a 2nd one. My favorite is by motorcycle. I have been doing this for about 20 years so I get to see all the s#$t that goes down in traffic real close up like. In fact I have even considered creating a website dedicated to safe commuting by sharing my experience with interested newbies and not so newbies. Commuting by bicycle unfortunately is my least favorite commute mode as I find that I am more vulnerable and at risk as opposed to other means. Over the years I have noticed that motorists have become very uncaring, lawless and outright reckless. Not everyone is like this but enough to be very afraid and acutely aware that today may be my last. So take care folks.

I'm plus one there. Probably best to try give the local LBS a try even if you end up paying extra. The local LBS dont have the widest of ranges so if you want something slightly better or in a different color you have no choice but to use overseas cycle shop for example I'm particular about the make of gloves (quality wise) I wear and you can only get those gloves from Europe. I do a lot of motorcycling and buy all my parts from the UK at the beginning of the year for the year. The cost is about 50 to 75% cheaper than buying it locally so I save a fortune even if you add shipping and customs in. Strangely enough I have never had any issues with importing motorcycle parts. In fact they all arrive within days of placing the order. Good choice of courier

My interaction with Skynet left me wondering about a few things. My initial communication was via email and the names on the cc list where clearly SA names. However when I escalated things (when they got nasty) to both CRC and Skynet I actually got a call from what was clearly an englishman(as in London). In the background I could hear everyone talking with english ascents. The call I received was a local number and the gent introduced himself as being from Skynet. So it seems the local crowd are not getting their **** together so Skynet UK calls me to sort it out but via a local nbr. Not sure how that works out or I've got it all wrong.

After 14 days of waiting for a customs invoice and a day of slander on social media and heated phone calls I finally got an invoice out of Skynet. I actually ended up loosing it completely on the phone, why ?! I'm a bit cheesed about the R200 admin fee. Never been charged this before. Seems you got to pay for poor service. So I'm an extra R500 out of pocket for VAT, customs and admin fees. Now we wait for actual delivery. Lets hope that actually happens sometime this year. I must say before buying anything from CRC again I will have to be pretty desperate.

Some people are like ostrich's and just dont see jack until someone yanks their head out the ground so they can smell the s__t

Order shipped 28 Dec arrived here in SA a week later. Still waiting for Skynet .... to send me an invoice frikken useless twats. Why is it that everything in SA is going for a ball of s__t

I still have not received my invoice for whatever. I have asked Skynet to actually send me the invoice and this seems to be an impossible task for them to accomplish. Could I go back to CRC at some point in time and ask them to cancel the order and refund me my monies ?? Its really not my problem that Skynet have not delivered the goods is it?

I've been struggling with these SkyNet people as well. Just cant seem to get an invoice out of them. How hard can it be to generate an invoice and get me to part with my money ?! Logged a complaint with CRC this morning. Dont expect that will help considering what I have read on this forum. A friend of mine has mentioned that using Amarex is a better option. You buy your goods and ship to a local Amarex address. You save on shipping costs immediately. Then you pay R200 to Amarex and they take care of the rest.Has anyone on this forum had any experience with Amarex ?

Well I suppose when you live at the bottom end of Africa what else are we to expect. The fact that **** really worked well prior to 94 means nothing to the current regime. All the government departments are falling apart. Bribery corruption.... This SkyNet change smacks of something similar. We the people who make the country run simply get held over a barrel and rodgered by the regime and its cronies at every opportunity.

Stick your money under the matress safest there also no tax. Jokes aside if you have time most of the banks offer trading services where you can buy and sell stocks. You need the time !! Otherwise find a broker to do it for you but as usual there are no guarantees. Persoanally I like ETF's check them out carefully. There are really good ones but pay careful attention to the returns over various periods of time 3 months to last 5 years this will give you an idea how things go up and down. The magic question most of the time is when to get out. Also you get tax free saving for up to R30000 a year. This includes investment in ETF's.

hhmmmm cant remember the last time i wore cycling socks ?

Totally agree. If we all started packing then the criminals would not be free to carry out their trade and then what would they do ? get a 9 to 5 job like mine ? really !

BL 7h13 must be honest I am a little nervous had my first real training session in months last week. I did a 56k ride followed by a 10k run and I was more than a little tired

I entered this morning 1 Sep. Entries still open....

Well there can be no debating as to why I have a headache this morning and did not go riding. Too many jack blacks . Theres always tomorrow I suppose.

Everyone at work is sick coughing spluttering spreading their germs YUK !! Folks unless you are dying dont do antibiotics. They are not going to do you any good. By the time they kick in your flu and whatever else you managed to contract and spread is already on its way out. I at most might get a slight sore throat or a bad head cold. Flu is something I just dont get "anymore". Why ? cause I dont do antibiotics and my body has generated the necessary antibodies etc to cope. Of course a good supply supply of whiskey and beer is a good thing and of course staying in bed and keeping that body temperature up does the trick nicely. Oh yes do blow your nose ... dont whatever else.

Whether it goes to parliament or not it will never happen. The cANCer created an environment of chaos and lawlessness in the build up to to 1994 in order to achieve its goals. It will take another 200 years to reverse the thinking of the people. In the meantime many cyclists, runners and pedestrians are going to die tragic deaths and you and I may very well be amongst them. The only way to turn this around quickly will be to have be some serious law ENFORCEMENT and I mean radical law enforcement. What we need is a police state much akin to what happens in many US states. Dont F__K with the law or you will end up in jail. The problem with this is this will also not happen because the biggest perpetrators and law breakers are the cANCer MP's, the blue brigade inter alia and they dont wont radical law enforcement because this will halt the current state of affairs where self enrichment, thievery etc etc are at the top of the agenda. Sorry to sound so morbid so early in the morning but I very much believe the above the be correct.

Jees first time I ever heard of this happening. Yikes !! best I start using that torque wrench of mine.

I hate "dibs"

I get the idea the local EMS is an extension of the post office. If you order anything and the supplier sends it via example royal mail or china air all being state owned enterprises then when it arrives here it goes via ems - cheapest option. My experience with ems is also not very good. Royal mail itself is not bad but once once ems get hold of it this side it can take 3-4 weeks to route itself to where it needs to go and they only attempt delivery once. Otherwise it goes to your local post office.