Andymann

I have a Vortex - you cant go wrong. I've had it for about a month now and it's damn nice

Thanks! Thought it shouldn't be a problem.....

I tried that, but the road wheel spacing is 135mm I think, and my MTB frame is 143mm - I was a bit wary of bending the chainstays too much.

The difference with Dinamic is that they do lactate testing on each individual, and from those results, a program is drawn up. Blood doesn't lie, so your program is truly individual - not a copy and paste exercise. Yes, my wife is the coach, so I do have an affiliation, but I was a 6:30m/km runner at best 2 years ago, and this year I won the 40-49 category IFLEX duathlon series, on a Dinamic program.

Thought about that, but on the odd occasion that I might want to do a road ride on the mtb ( ) then I don't want to have to take of the tire again. I suppose I cant have my cake and eat it.

Seeing as they are shooting people riding MTB now in Pta East, I'm going to have to put my MTB on the indoor trainer until the crap dies down (hopefully). I have a spare set of wheels, so is it possible to fit a 700 x25C Road tire on an Alex/Syncros Mtb rim?

Dinamic Coaching www.dinamic-coaching.com/ Riana is one of their associate coaches based in Pta-East

I was thinking a whole bunch of pamphlets handed out at the security entrance to Plastic View and at the taverns. Or if we do go the night ride/critical mass route, we hand them out with a coke maybe?

Now that I think is a very smart move - I live in the area, and have had dealings with some of the residents of the settlements - by and large, they all want crime out of the area as much as we do. The only way we will win this fight, is to get them to turn on the criminal elements in the community. How would we do this? A R2000 reward would go a long way. Possibly even a show of support by cyclists - if we routed this months Critical mass through the area and handed out toys similar to the Toy Run. If we can convince the communities that cyclists can benefit them somehow, my guess is there will be a few more guys wandering around sans hands....

I commute to work by motorbike on occasion, and sometimes a specific situation arises in traffic not unlike what the road layout is in this case: Car going North is courteous and allows a gap for Car (Taxi?) travelling South waiting to turn into side street on left. Motorcyclist (me) going North doesn't realise this and comes up the inside of car, almost getting flattened by car turning in right in front of me. Cue much braking and hand signals. Strictly speaking though, I *was* in the wrong. I hope this wasn't the case in this situation.......

We have an informal settlement just up the road from us in Pretoria - heard yesterday at our Community Forum that the residents of the settlement caught a guy stealing and cut off both his hands. I know it's wrong, but I cant help but feel good......

Got the better of me too I'm afraid - also just did the one lap. Really needed a long ride before W2W, but the heat was just too much. 6:30 start next time?

I wonder if Heyneke Meyer would agree?

Do you have an indoor trainer? If so, I can send you a really mean IDT set which will really sort out your hill weakness.....

www.dinamic-coaching.com I went from being a mid-pack Duathlete in 2011 to winning the 40+ Age group at the I-Flex series in 2013. You can only get so far on a generic program - if you want to get that last 20% which will move you from mid-pack to podium you have to investigate an individual program which caters for your strengths and your weaknesses.

Just a quick one - bought myself a new Tacx Vortex, so far so good. I'd like to know though from any other owners, do you leave the magnetic brake plugged in and power on the whole time, or do you turn it off after training. There's no mention of this anywhere in the manual that I can see.....

We used to turn our road-bike bars around in school to help us wheelie and I still have all my teeth, so I guess you could.

We very seriously looking at bringing in one of these - what's it ride like?

I recently replaced the Syncros (ALEX) wheels on my 940 - with some Ritchey WCS. I'm usually loath to comment on whether you can actually feel an upgrade but in this case you really can. The Ritchey's are way stiffer, at least 500g lighter and just roll so much better. And I'm a lot more confident with the hubs - both the hubs on the Syncros wheels were those unbranded Shimano Malaysia jobs......

Did the IFlex duathlon yesterday at Avianto - quite enjoyed the trails, and from a spectator point of view the route was really good. Made a nice change from our regular PTA rides at Rosemary Hill and Groenkloof. A few questions - the clubhouse where we can buy the bands to ride in the week, is that in the same area where the duathlon started, or at the entrance to the Wedding Venue? Is there someone there during working hours so we can pop in quickly and buy? What is the History behind Avianto? - curious because during the Duathlon route we rode over the remains of a tennis court, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, as well as a set of pretty narrow-gauge railway tracks. It seemed almost surreal to have the remains of something like a tennis court in the middle of a forest!

I think you'll be lucky if you find some - there weren't that many Grid 5's around to start with, and I remember the pads were hot property back then - I used to leave mine off just because I knew if I didn't, someone would have stolen them! I do think I still have my Le Turbo Grid 5 team badge somewhere. If I can find it, I'll gladly send it down to you - It wasn't part of the bike, but might be nice just to have it though....

Shall I complicate matters even further and introduce parallel imports.... Grey imports are (in the motorcycle industry) a model not specific to SA - I doubt it there are any Bicycles which don't specifically some to SA, but I know at Yamaha we used to help the Grey imports, because we didn't really loose on the sale, and also stood to make profit on the servicing and parts. Parallel on the other hand were models from other countries which were also offered in SA, and we initially had a more hard-line approach. However, we soon realised that even though we had lost the initial sale, if we were hard-arsed and turned them away, we lost out on the servicing and parts (which inevitably came in through the same channels as the bikes did) - rather some profit than none at all! When it came to warranties they were on there own though......

Hmmm. Jan Ullrich rode a Walser TT bike painted as a Bianchi, as well as one painted to as a Giant. I guess that explains it!

My wife rides a Scott Scale 910, I ride a Scale 940. I specifically wanted aluminium, and I did a lot of research before I bought my bike. The problem I found, is that very few Manufactures make a top-spec (Full XT/X9/X0) aluminium bike anymore. So it almost pays to spend the extra cash upfront, and go for a Carbon frame. Having said that, I've ridden her bike quite a bit and so have been able to do quite a good comparison. Her bike was initially much lighter - about 1.2kg, so yes it did feel a bit more nippy. It has a better fork, and much better wheels. However, it also cost R30K, where mine cost R13K. I have recently upgraded my wheels, my seatpost and stem (to get a better fit), a set of flat Carbon bars (because Booth Carbon bars are the same price as Alu bars!) - all basic things you would probably do anyway to get whichever bike you buy to fit you well. This cost me around 10K, and now I am within a kg of her bike. The ride quality is almost identical, and I really struggle to feel the difference - apart from the better fork - hers is way more plush. My suggestion - If you have the means - may as well go carbon, otherwise, go Alu, and over time you will be able to build up a good spec bike which will be pretty close to a Carbon bike anyway. And as a bonus, you will end up with something which is pretty unique.