GrumpyOldGuy

I think Sharkeysa crime is on the up everywhere, not just CT or JHB or Durbs or wherever, its a general trend in my opinion. I also stay in a gated community, guards at the gate, security booms, 24 hour patrols by resident security company, access control for everyone, voice and photo recording for visitors, perimeter electric fence, you name it we have invested in it, ...........last night was our AGM and this year alone we have had 17 reported break ins, mostly small stuff and according to records mostly due to the owners poor security precautions like leaving windows open at night when you are out, leaving doors ajar and so on, but we had two break ins where the trellidoor was broken down in one and in another the back door was levered open. So yeah, mostly opportunistic theft I agree, but if someone wants to come in, they gonna come in, thats the end of it.

Hah, yeah, I was wondering at the time if I should go with Cadel or Greipel, eventually I went with Cadel as I though he would get more points over the mountains and the TT's - so needless to say but Cadel and I are no longer friends.!

Personally I am all pro-cycling and especially TDF, tuckered out, I missed the last three stages (although I PVR'd them) I havent watched them and doubt I will, I have had enough now, I can only watch so much, last night I put the DVD "Platoon" on and thoroughly enjoyed it for the umpteenth time. So now I am back to golf and a few other sports on the box, .........there is still life out there.

Yes, it was a pleasure to play, 7th spot for me, my downfall was a totally nonscoring rider in "Cadel Evans" in my team, after a good Giro I thought he would make a top 5, but obviously, not to be. Next year he is completely off my list,...... that will teach him.! ...........but Yeah, nice well run competition, my thanks to all concerned.

Theres no special duty charged, its correct as it stands.

Its correct, I assume you understand the Duty bit its only the Vat bit that concerns you.? Basically you are not adding the 10% that customs requires added to the total value before they calculate Vat, so your Total Customs Value is R19584. plus the 10% customs additional levy, (its not reflected) but its calculated by the system, so your vat calculation will be on R19584. X 10% = R21542. X 0.14 = R2940.00 Vat payable - theres a few rand's in the calculation variance but thats because I am just doing it quickly here. All freight forwarders work like this, its not a shown value, but thats what it is.

Not so sure of that Swiss, he has had a few substantial breaks and rode an incredible pace for about 3- 4kms up Ventoux pretty much alone (I am sure he was going so fast I saw him brake a few times going into those uphill turns ) but never the less, its difficult to not question how one or two riders can be so superior to the rest. There is no way the rest are not doing the exact same when it comes to food, nutrition, assistance etc, I dont believe there are too many secret's in nutrition today, they all employ the best nutritionists, its all out there, and I dont believe the others are not training just as hard or putting in just as much time, they all have incredible pedigrees over many years. Just look at the times, up to stage 15 I think, there was only about three minutes between 2nd and 8th containing the worlds best, but nearly 4.5 minutes from first to second, those are substantial differences in ability at this level, maybe everyone is wrong to question, I dont know, its a thought, and maybe Chris is just so much better, no denying its a possibility, a probability even, but given the history, I still dont think its odd that there are questions.

Wishing you the best Sweiss, when our health is impaired we realize whats really important to us, friends, family, a kind word on a tough day, a quiet chuckle ..... take it easy man and recover well.

With respect AfdElite, thats part of the problem. Its in the realm of Floyd Landis when someone charges up hills all day, (apparently) cracks the next and loses 20 minutes but somehow recovers sufficiently to come 4th in an ITT against the worlds best a day later. Then of course continues charging up hills and chasing down breaks from some of the worlds best. Its just questionable, it may very well be legit and one of course hopes it is, but its still very questionable.

No but she will usually call ahead and say, I will be late, or when she is late will offer an explanation, I was at the Hairdresser, its called honesty or transparency, your analogy is only valid if she creeps in at 2 am on a regular basis and gets defensive when I ask why. Anyway, you are entitled to your opinion, much as others are entitled to theirs, I dont think anyone is voicing or questioning an opinion thats not been voiced and questioned in every media channel all over the world.

I dunno, basically I have called BS on this tour, but thats immaterial, from a purely business point of view I think they (Bikepure) have a point. Everyone wants a clean sport, but when an organisation tries to set up something where there is referable data available, then they get called out. Its kind of Damned if you do Damned if you dont. How will things change if no one wants to prove their stats with Data.? Its not good enough to say "Well no one does it so why should we", how about saying, "Well we are so confident, we will be first"? Also, from what I understand they will accept just "Race Data" not ALL the data as is often suggested, so frankly I dont see an issue with that. The days of people just blindly accepting anything thats put out by the team or their press office has gone, LA put an end to that, today I think people want to see quantifiable proof, and if you have it and are confident its good, why not release it.?

Aaah, Okay, that makes sense, - but agree you really need to do your costing well when flying stuff, the costs mount up almost as fast as Froome goes up mountains.

- Well, I guess its better late than never, they could have held it if they thought it was suspicious, but usually if its opened for examination they reseal it with "Official Customs" imprinted tape. Of course they may not have opened it but just held it for checking and it got sort of lost in the system, but I have found the Post Office is getting much more proactive now and sometimes I even get packages which have been resealed by the post office as they were badly packed to start with and opened on route, they also put a sticker on it saying it was resealed by them and a reference number so if there any queries later theres a paper trail.

Well I hadnt looked for a while but I see I am up to 9th. Still a few days to go, but I dont think I can close that gap.......story of my life on a bike, never could close them gaps.!

Yah, indeed, demurrage or storage is very expensive. I also think maybe Jimmy took his frame for transport a while back because 170 bucks seems very cheap, cargo costs have gone up, I think, twice this year alone already, and at general cargo costs today, I estimate a bike box weighing around 10 kgs to cost closer to 350 bucks flying Airport to Airport only. (JHB - C.T or vice versa).

Yes, you can go this way, but remember you are taking it to the cargo terminal, filling in all the doc's and fetching it again, so although to you it may not be a cost, to a third party, it is a significant time and fuel cost. Also SAA or any cargo carrier will never, guarantee it will be there overnight, unless you pay for that priority service. As a general cargo load you will be put into a consignment and it will go as a low priority load when there is space. So, Yes, you can be lucky and theres not much cargo and it goes in and hour after dropping, but if there is a lot of cargo, especially priority or agent cargo, you may get bumped, and bumped, and bumped until there is available space, so there's still some time risk, but yah, its an option one can consider.

- Still a way to go...........I recon he will do one of his tongue out, head shaking, swearing and gesticulating crosses to the break away,....... keep going and win the stage. Well thats what I am hoping for anyway.

I do, a gentleman in our church had it done, he may have been a good example but it worked fine for him and today he is normal weight for his size and as healthy and happy as can be. He had absolutely no bad side effects. However as with anything, I can only suggest go get some sound medical opinion from your health practitioner as relates to you (if you are considering having it done) theres a reason they have medical degrees, its because unlike some internet experts, they actually do know what they are talking about.

double post.

I hope to heaven thats not permanent.

Well yeah, and Brailsford knows this. Frankly we have heard it all before, LA made a big song and dance about how he was going to make all his info public when he returned to the sport, of course he never did, and most likely others have done likewise, so there is a healthy level of skepticism among many. I think a guy on another forum summed it up well when he said "Until Sunday, he thought bicycles were also subject to the laws of gravity" - so yeah, there is doubt and it wont go away anytime soon.

The reason you were quoted so high is because you asked for OVERNIGHT. That means extra work for the courier as they need to make out priority waybills, separate the box from the consignment, send a truck to take the parcel to an airfreight cargo agent, fly it into Cape Town, send a truck to collect, and deliver a single package before 10 am the following day. Basically you are paying them for the individual service, and airfreight costs are expensive when tied into a time frame like this. Overnight or priority parcels like that are usually only reserved for time particular products like perishables, not bicycle frames, and the priority service costs a lot of money unfortunately. What you need to do is go back to the courier and ask for a quote "Road Freight Economy" - remember it will take about 4 days to deliver, but it will simply go with the entire consignment in a bulk truck, much cheaper, and as couriers are very competitive, prices are usually fairly close. After many, many years of using freight agents and couriers, I found "BIGFOOT" to be the cheapest and most reliable, remember you dont get cheap AND reliable, so be careful of what sounds like a very cheap quote.

Wetsuit adhesive is much like the glue you use to repair your bicycle tubes, in fact you could use that in a pinch, but its different in mix to basic contact adhesive.

I would like to know who this Robert Hesink fella is that the two P's keep mumbling on about.?

Not much been said about Andy in the media, okay the 2 Ps have done a pretty good job but even they have to concede at some point he is pretty much out of it, I haven't even seen any release from the Shack defending his poor form, even old man Kloden held on longer.