Christie

" Cafe Roubaix Bicycles" from what I read does not even sell Specialized. Disgusting bullying by Spicialized imo. I hope a law firm takes his case for the marketing they would get from it.

Hmmmm, Im afraid you have not been reading the cycling mags, iterwebs, watching the pros on TV and listening to the reps - a 26er is now worthless junk. It should not be possible to even ride one, let alone try match strava segments with 29ers. Your gps must be out, then! (said with sarcasm - Ive never had a 29er, and roll on a dual 26. I agree with your conclusions.)

I think the ride feel of steel has a lot to do with a lack of stiffness - to make a frame a reasonable weight, it will flex a lot. Steel is more elastic than aluminium, so the material can handle more elastic deformation. Steel also has very little structural damping, which means the frame will flex back without much loss of energy, giving it a "springy" ride feel. Alu alloys is less ductile, so would give a more direct feel. I would guess the frames tend to be a bit stiffer relative to steel to keep stress in allowable levels, and gives a more direct and "hard" ride feel. I suspect Ti sit in between those two, a bit less springy than steel, a bit less harsh than alu.

I think it is great that courses are starting to lean towards dual susser bikes. There is something wrong when people ride mtb events on almost road bikes (rigid fork)

Wides bowled by SA - it cost us. Smith and Kallis (and JP, for that matter) bat too slowly to have them all in the team at the same time. If it was not for AB's inning, we would not have been in a position to win. Yes, he played one big shot too many, but the point of having wickets in hand is to be able to go for those shots. The rest should have finished it. Miller must bat ahead of JP imo. Miller needs more time to settle, while JP is a more conventional player, not a finisher. Over no 44 by Ajmal won the game for Pak, gave away only 2 runs, putting pressure on Amla to go for a big shot.

Bowling did not work, with only Steyn and perhaps Tahir bowling well. That means that now the batting is under pressure. We need to score at a strike rate of 97 to win. Of our batsmen, only Amla, AB and Miller has strike rates above 90, and they are out of form. If these guys dont fire today, Pakistan can win their first odi series in SA. Smith strikes at 80 and Kallis at 72, they bat too slowly to get this score in 45 overs.

Some strange selections for the 2nd odi vs Pakistan. The batting let us down in the last game, yet only bowlers changed: Philander and Morkel dropped for Tsotsobe and McLaren. Imo we had the combinations right during the odi series in UAE, the selectors made a mess when they put QdK at 3 so Smith can open. Squad should have stayed the same, with Kallis coming in at 3 for Faf. Smith can be 12th man.

It could not have been easy to lose that one after we had them at 130/7. It looked to me as if SAs focus was not quite in the game. Fielding poor at times, but the batting lost this match for us. Interesting weekend of upsets - Aus, WI, and Pakistan won. Who would have bet on that?

Aero mtb wheels! You will need a skinsuit and TT helmet to go with those.

India vs WI test looks a bit one sided. I wonder if India will bat for 3 days to keep the stadium full?

This works for me: C59 in art decor for 2014.

Levi has not got the technique to open. He has talent, but he tries to play everything to the leg side, and he is very poor against spin. Worthwile to develop though, could develop into a good batsmen. Davids is another potential player to consider as opener, I like how he plays.

We were fortunate in the past with excellent slips, but they cant pick a player because he is a specialist slip fielder. There are too few overs bowled with a slip in place in limited overs. Perhaps we will see more slip fielding with the new rule change reducing fielders outside the circle. I would rather take Kallis than Smith, if I have to choose one. Kallis gives a bowling option, and does not have technical flaws in his batting technique, alhough he scores on the slow side. I wonder how interested Killis is in odi cricket, perhaps that hunger for runs is not so strong in odi for him. Smith struggles against left armers bowling into his pads when the ball is new, and also goes out a lot if he plays outside off away from his body. In test cricket he can leave a lot of balls and play defensively till the ball is older. In limited over cricket, slow scoring puts the team under pressure (Smit and Kallis batting together = lots of run rate pressure, often causing disaster later, like in previous WC2011), plus there are 2 new balls used now. Because there are 2 new balls, and the next WC is in Australia, I prefer Philander to open with Steyn. The question would then be to choose between Morkel and Tsotsobe.

About Scott vs Merida: Look at what happened to Lampre 's performance when they started riding Merida. First Saffa to wear yellow in the TDF rode a Scott.... ;-)

It was a nice series, and a good win for SA. Some observations: I agree with G, AB is a better captain when he is in the field. QdK should be give a good run (he dropped a sitter yesterday, though) The odi team is getting a sorted feel - most players and positions have got a first choise player. They now need to play like this till the wc. Chopping and changing a lot to fit in old guys like Kallis and Smith is not the way to go. Smith is not a good limited overs batsmen imo, limitations in his technique can be exploited if he has to go after the new ball in the first powerplay. Kallis is a hero and everything, but if amla Amla, AB, JPD is on form, there is enough batting. If QdK and Faf finds consistent form, no extra batting is needed. The bowling is more difficult to draw conclusions from. Pakistan batting was weak, so our second string bowlers could also look good. It is hard to say how they will perform against a side like India, though, based on this. Imo Tahir should always play ahead of Peterson. I prefer Philander to Tsotsobe to open with Steyn.

Money spent on frame and gruppo does not buy a lot of speed. The Foil is more aero, so between those 2, the Foil should give you a bit extra. There will be no speed difference between 105 and Ultegra. Wheels make a bigger difference than gruppo, perhaps look / plan for some racing wheels? How about spending money on a coach and then a power meter first, if going faster is your goal.

Road races here are relatively flat and fininshes are mostly sprints. No reason a heavy rider cant do well. It will make a big difference if you get a coach, power meter, up your training load to around 16 hours, with some proper 20 min threshold intervals once or twice per week.

Good win, given poor underfoot conditions and confusing ref. First line defensive structure was bad, no better than the last game against NZ. JF was supposed to improve that, but he was below par imo. How about giving Jan Serfontein a start? JPP and Lambie was nothing special. Steyn looked better at 10, although he misses tackles. Forewards were great, they look like the best in the business. HM has some time to get the back line defense sorted, the we will have a challenge for the world cup.

QdK should be given a good run. Smith is not an effective limited overs player. With the power play, he cant afford to scratch around. Batsmen got some runs, I hope they get some confidence and build from here. Amla and AB will find form soon.

Im also thinking this may be insurance fraud.

Thats not the same as a mtb stage race. I used to have road bike, I got hit by cars twice. I stay off the tar now. I have done the Road race a few times, one Two Peaks race (Agatha climb then Magoebas), the mtb race once, as well as one road stage race (Tropical tour). All great events, I love the forest there.

Ping ASG? I think it would be super. Can have lots of varied scenery, Wolkberg mountains stage, forest and waterfalls stage, and a bushveld stage.

I wonder how many confessions will we hear in the next few years? Looks like it is becoming the norm. Rasmusen is an interesting case, he nevertested positive, but got kicked out of the tdf, which sort of ended his career.

Does not look as if the batting consultant is working. Drop Ingram and open with Gary! They can also drop Faf for Dale, I think he will get double the runs at least.

Not full, has X01 cassette.