GuyP

Holy crap, nobody's going to miss you now!

If it's about bling, anything goes I guess. However, as the owner of both a road and mtb tandem that I ride with my wife or daughter, that being besides the garage full of single seaters, the practicality of mtb pedals and shoes is hard to beat when cruising the coffee shops and restaurants, and for touring. You said fun riders? I would stick with the mtb pedals in that case.

What are you hoping to achieve stewie911?

For me, 51 orders later and only one stuff up, but that was SA customs rather than CRC to be fair... ! I hope lady luck's not about to turn on me anytime soon!

We're starting to do longer rides - building up to about 200Km per day (410Km on a weekend or two) by early Nov - in prep for the traditional end of year Habit 320Km, but probably at about 28km/h though. I'm not sure who of my mates are going to join me yet on this year's 320Km, but I'm hoping I can kick them out of their winter slumber starting this weekend. I'm out Clearwater Mall way if you're interested.

Yes, did it for the first time last year. Tough, especially outside PMB, but enjoyable. The weather played along perfectly, but I can believe it's not always so! Cool. Send me your email and I'll include you in ride notifications. We leave from my house, up the road from you, but we could also meet you along the way. There were four of us riding last year, and I'm not yet sure who will join in this year, although two have indicated they're up for it. We also included a weekend trip to Lichtenburg (410Km return), sleeping at a B&B on the Saturday night. I was thinking of starting this weekend - not doing the Sun City ride(s) :-|

I've built up all sorts of frames over the years from Ritchey to Bianchi to Kinesis to Vitus and more, and have been aware of the proper alignment of BB and headtube, but have never needed to do anything on any frame so far (can't speak to carbon though - that's not my game). What frame have you got?

What did you do with the original parts? Put them back and use it as a commuter, for doing the grocery run, a general do-it-all bike that you don't mind getting stolen or stuffed up because the parts probably have no value either

Jeepers, I didn't know this! I cycle there often and have only had one incident involving an agressive stare-down, but nothing else. Has the issue been resolved?

Yeah BeOne, read that too in one of the local cycle mags. All that heritage and mystique apparently didn't do much for seal design though ... reminds me a bit of the MTB groupset they launched in the early 90's somewhere. Not one of their finest moments

Haha, having just come from the retro thread, nothing's changed since toeclips! Problem is, wives and girlfriends can be notoriously insensitive about these matters. Besides laughing their heads off at ground zero, they have no qualms relaying these tales of woe to their friends. Aah, the delights of real cycling!

Look awesome, feel awesome, and were absolutely brilliant for most of the first ride out - light, stiff, responsive, and apparently tough enough not to go out of true on some quite gnarly downhills. However, at about 100Km of dusty trails, the freehub started getting sticky. By now I was seriously annoyed though, given the price of the freaking wheels. So I dismantled the entire thing back home, pawls and all, cleaned everything up, appropriately regreased everything, and put everything back together. This fixed the problem, and I'm happy again, even a good few hundred dusty offroad kilometers later. The observation (and concern) during the whole episode though was how seriously thin the hub seals were. Indeed, I'm quite surprised they can keep anything out from the bearings and pawls, and I suspect you would need to service the hub at least once a season, more if you're a frequent rider or ride through water often. For you folks that like those high pressure washes after a race ... and who have a premium set of wheels ... watch out. There is no way those seals can keep out even a fraction of the water pressure from those washers! If those wheels have anything like the seals on my Fulcrums, best have your hubs serviced regularly! Would I buy them again? No, not with my money, irrespective of how beautifully light and pimped they are. For my needs, I need better seals, so would probably stick to XT or similar.

Yep, sounds about right!

It's an easy job on the shifters (assuming you're handy enough with the rest of the job) - the cables are extracted via the screws next to the top lever (outside side of each shifter). Don't undo anything else!

Would have been great, but I'm sadly already at work by 6am. What do you do on weekends? If you're interested in ultra, we're starting to get ourselves going again for an end of year 320Km. If you're keen, we can let you know when we're about to start again, probably starting at around the 100Km mark and building up to ultra distance over the next few months on weekends

Absolutely beautiful!

I have a good idea how you feel gtr1 - my 1988 Bianchi was donated, somewhat against my will, at gunpoint in Feb last year. I miss that bike terribly although I have many others - built it up on student money and did 60k Km on it until that dreadful day. The closest I have now is a Bridgestone RB1 I bought in 1990. She still does a good job though, but nothing quite like my old celeste dream bike

My prized Bianchi was bikejacked c/o Hendrik Potgieter and Bruno (near Ontdekkers) on 21 Feb 2009 at 05.30. It's probably more than long gone by now, but this notice is worth a shot. It is a 1988 Columbus steel model, full Celeste incl. tape and saddle, serial number 1018, Dura Ace click shift 8spd, Mavic Open4CD rims with blue Continental GP4000's. It was in immaculate condition. It had been with me for over 20 years and 60,000Km and it's been really sad to lose it! thanks cheers Guy

Looking for regular riding partners from Little Falls area most weekends. Road between 100Km and 200Km, occasionally more, e.g. we've sometimes had 400Km weekends away - 200Km Sat and 200Km Sun, but it's not been easy with those mates training for ironman etc., and solo rides are not always feasible these days. My solo avg speed > 25Km/h over 200km Mountain - whatever's available? cheers Guy