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Stumpyrider

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Everything posted by Stumpyrider

  1. Just to add on Johan's course - excellent presentation with enough detail to make you understand the underlying mechanics and rationale for what you are about to take apart, grease and put back together. It runs over two days and is hard work - you stand next to your own bike for most of the time. But this is the beauty of the course - you basically go away there with a fully serviced bike - and the knowledge to repeat the process. I took both my MTB and Road Bike and serviced them both from headset to wheel bearings (excluding shocks - that is a different course). You can also buy the tools from him at decent prices - and he will not sell you something you dont need for your specific bike. The confidence and peace of mind I had in my ability to make running repairs during the Epic last week was well worth the price of the course and the time invested.
  2. Thanx Guys - was considering the R199 cycling computer tip, but what is the point then of having the Garmin? And I can track the climbing with the Garmin, so can see how many hills still to come...
  3. Thanx - so I just plead ignorant? Is it worth it to take the chance? Its my first Epic, so don not want to take the chance of being banned for life and kicked off the Race? Or am I just being paranoid?
  4. Please help with this question - the Epic Organisers will disqualify you if you are found to ride with your Route Tracker activated on the Garmin. I phoned Avnic (the Garmin distributors) - they adivised to switch off the GPS (almost like for "Indoor Use"). Last time I checked, the Epic will mainly be taking place outdoors - is there a way that I can still see distance, speed, ascent, etc, but not track the route?
  5. Thanx Edam - but does this then disable the entire GPS - not allowing me to check distance, speed, etc?
  6. I understand that you have to be able to show that you have done this as part of the Race Rules for the Epic. I have no problem with this and understand the rationale - but how is this done? I have played around in the menu, but this particular funtion escapes me. Can anybody help?
  7. I have the Cane Creek ones and they are great as they also seem to have a certain degree of stickiness to them - which is great for maintaining control without having to frantically clutch to them in rough terrain. The downside, however, is that they tend to also stick to things next to the track whilst riding. Fences, trees, wheelchairs, small children next to the road....you need to exercise extreme caution on singletrack, but I do believe they are worth the extra concentration required.
  8. Ordered about R4500 worth of stuff (including a pair of Assos F1 Mille bibs for GBP148) two weeks ago. Was under the impression that the VAT and R25/parcel was the only extra cash outlay - only to find that Customs decided to slap another R500 onto the Bill! On what basis is this calculated? As a percentage of the value over a certain threshhold? What I am getting at, is that it should theoretically be possible to order enough to get free shipping, but little enough to escape the Customs Duty?
  9. Another question along these lines please - what would be a relatively uncomplicated way of keeping the fork and rear stay safe from pressure/bumps from the side? I thought of taking a thick dowel and cutting it so that is fits with some pressure, but I do not think this will hold. To drill a hole through the dowel big enough for the skewer would be the obvious solution, but then you need a fancy drill. PVC piping maybe?
  10. I had the privilege to spend 18 hours in Johan Bornman's (Yellow Saddle) garage in Northcliff this past weekend. I can really recommend this course - although it seems expensive at first, the amount of in-depth hands-on exposure to every single aspect of your road and/or mountain bike, makes every cent a cent well spent. I took 3 bikes and managed to overhaul all the wheels, the headsets and check the bottom brackets. I can just imagine what this would have cost at the LBS - and to top it all off, I am now confident that the job has been done and that a handful of grease has not just been shoved into open spaces on a randomn basis (not that I would suggest that this is the norm, but I certainly found a lot of grease in all my headsets - with sealed cartridge bearings (I now know) you don't need any!) This is not an advertisement - it is a recollection of two days of hard work with a lot of confidence to work on everything on my bikes as return on the investment. Oh, and the food is excellent and the coffee and muffins fresh! Johan, if you read this, well done, we all enjoyed the weekend. Now to get the grease from under my fingernails...
  11. I have used them a couple of times in the past three months. The most recent pleasant experience was two weeks ago when I received a notification of a refund from a guy called Christof - I ordered two Maxxis Crossmax's and they were going to go on a special the next day - Christof reckoned he owed me the R50 as I could not be penalised for ordering a couple of hours before the launch of the special!
  12. Thanx Guys - some very useful stuff here. I fully deflated the tire and found that the sealing tape has got a 1cm tear/nick in it approximately 1mm from the top of the rim. I did manage to get the dent out with a pair of pliers - it's not perfect, but once the tape is fixed, it should be ok? Do I need to replace the tape or is there a way to fix it?
  13. Thanx - will give it a try, but the leak is telling me that the sealing tape on the inside has been damaged - will take the tire off and get a closer look.
  14. I smoked for 18 years and stopped immediately after attending one of Allen Carr's Easyway clinics at the Balalaika in Sandton. This was 5 years ago. Whenever I got the urge after that, I recalled the coughing and wheezing after even doing mild exercise - let alone trying to do a decent ride! Those urges do come back very occassionally - especially when having a couple of beers - but then I just have to look at the smokers having to go and stand outside in wind and rain, and I am thankful that I made the choice. The other motivator that used to work for me was to ask the question: "What can a cigarette possibly do for me right now?" The answer is, of course, "Absolutely Nothing!"
  15. I managed to severely dent my American Classic rear wheel on a rocky descent during the MTN Cullinan Marathon yesterday. It happened late in the race, so I took the decision to just stop ocassionally and top up the slow puncture as and when needed - hoping that the Stans would eventually find its way in there. This decision was regretted as the race wore on - the leak became worse and the stops annoyingly frequent - to the point where putting in a tube within 5km of the finish became an option! Where do i get this fixed? Can my LBS sort me out, or is this is a specialised problem? Will they just send it away somewhere and charge a comm - and if so, where do they send it?
  16. I am a Camelbak rider - alternating between my M.U.L.E. and Rogue as the lenght of ride and temperature dictates.Main reason for this being the ability to carry a phone, tools, pump, tube and some basic first aid stuff for the unlucky fellow rider - or even yours truly. I did the Cullinan Marathon yesterday morning, and whilst all was still ok on the golf course track and singletrack at the foot of the mountain, the terrain progressively became littered with half-full bottles as we hit the rocky sections. I recall seeing a tip in one of the cycling magazines concerning the retention of your bottle in its cage with pieces of tube, but I can only think that it must then become a mission to then get it out of there whilst on the move. A riding buddy of mine swears by just slipping a bottle into the back of his cycling jersey - replacing the bottle from the cage on the frame as soon as it's empty.
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