LeTurbo

Ai, doubt you ever will find anyone with any answers. I have a strong desire to let down a bus's tyres right now.

I blame apartheid. And the government. What were we discussing again?

The best place to start is at the back. Then you overtake people and think you're a brilliant cyclist.

Today, I came across a restaurant selling burgers with calamerised onions.

Bwahaha! That's a sitting on the fence statement if ever I heard one. I'm still in two minds myself though.

Queue. Sorry, I just had to.

On a race, my water bottle spilled its 32Gi or whatever, which ran down to that little guide under the BB and gummed it up. Upshifts became virtually impossible. Check whether that's clean, especially if both derailleurs are giving problems. Edit! Ah, whoops, I see your cable comes down the seatstay, not along the chainstay

Weirdly, I find something quite interesting in having to dig in boxes for parts. It's like a big old treasure trove. My friend has a bike shop - it started off all designer and neat, 'till some **** put muddy shoes on the chair, and then more bikes started coming in than the shop had space for and people didn't collect them in time, and then a whole stack of spares came in from another defunct bike shop, etc etc. In truth though, I think it's maybe just 'cos the owner prefers riding to mucking about with dusty stuff in his spare time.

Just that signature gets me all hot and bothered. Oooooph! Classic typography.

Wasn't that like .... 33km? They needed GU for that?

Well done on doing a small something to clean up. Ja, that's really disgusting. I wonder if half of the litterers say, "Oh well, it's up to the organisers". This sh*t doesn't go anywhere, it doesn't degrade. It'll end up in some poor animal's gut or something. Ah man, this is just really peeing me off.

Paint your butt to match?

Yesterday I walked past a second hand store in Woodstock and saw a wooden elephant that was stolen from my garden 3 or so years ago too... But back to bikes. Though I had pictures of my bike, the police didn't want to accept that as ownership. They wanted a receipt. "I've had this bike for years and years," I said, "I bought it privately and certainly wouldn't be able to trace the past owner. Nor do i usually go around photographing random bikes in order to claim ownership." Eventually, I got another officer who was more reasonable. The bike ended up at Cash Convertors in Strand Street but, as I'd already offered a reward, I paid that. I have to also say that they contacted me to say they had the bike after I'd emailed the various stores with pictures. I think the Cash Crusaders website has a "Report stolen goods" link on their site, which (apparently) passes the info to all their stores in the area.

My bikes.

2013 sticker = noob.

Very sick. But then you get a*ses who throw beer bottles from cars too. I just don't understand that mentality.

I agree about the PPA ... in theory. Sure, if they can lend support. But really, it's you guys who ride in the area and are directly affected who need to spearhead this, in my opinion. You have more passion about it, but use every resource you can. A tikhead tried to grab my bike one morning (maybe it was his idea of "fun"), just as I passed under the bridge at the Castle. A whole bunch of about 10 cyclists were gathered at Woodstock Cycleworks, and we all rode back there to give them stern warnings. Did it work? Who knows, but they were alarmed by the strength of numbers, and we felt better about doing something. On a general philosophical level, I'm wondering about how society now tends to pass problems upwards, or allocate "blame". "The government should do more". Let us all do what we can.

If you use pepper spray, you need to test it occasionally. Also to see whether it has a mist or a straight spray.

I worked there back in the 70s - Addi Rossouw (?) was the owner, but I think we were a few doors to the right where the pharmacy is. Good thing I left - I had to service the bikes one Saturday when the usual mechanic was ill, and I think every bike I did came back on Monday morning, bwahaha! Nice to see the old place is still going and doing good things.

Big ups to your wife for helping out! It's more than many people do.

I'm going to be the fly in the ointment ... you have to watch things like a hawk. I heard a tragic story of a 1950's custom-built track bike that was taken to Francois for a small repair to the rear dropout. When the owner went back a few months later - not having heard anything in the interim - Francois had thrown the frame away. It f******* breaks my heart.

This all sent grillz down my spine - but now, with so many of you having been jacked, maybe you need to form a kind of pressure group/negotiating group and really start talking to the cops; seeing whether you can tie information together. They get bits of the story and we know other bits and somewhere it all comes together. But really, one or two guys reporting here and there won't get attention, but a station commander will sit up a bit when five or six cyclists all make an appointment and arrive as a group.

Just in case you haven't seen this ... exhibition of South African frame builders down here in Cape Town. http://www.thehubsa....ers-exhibition/

Holy Moses! At least it seems you're ok ... I hope so. But seriously, should that fork have broken like that? Does carbon do that? Was there a crack there already?

Pity. I'd have paid good money. Oh well.I guess that's how these things become rare and valuable and irreplaceable.