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11 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:That’s no Rama’s fault though. When the global economy turns downward, emerging markets take the hit because there is less appetite for the risk associated with those emerging markets.
there are other factors as well but that’s the overarching causal for the exchange rate decline. We saw it post 2007 as well
exactly. for comparison
On 4/13/2024 at 11:10 PM, CaptainKipper said:I just picked up a Surly Long Haul Trucker for exactly this purpose.
Super basic bikes purpose built for touring and built to withstand the apocalypse.
Long chain stays, comfortable geometry, steel, good tyre clearances that give you tyre options, simple components, mounting points for fenders bottles and racks and and and.
Won't win a beauty contest but gets the job done.
And all for R4k.
What's not to like?
@CaptainKipper yes. this bike doesn't exist without photos.
@cvdup maybe not what you're looking for, but decathlon classify this as a "touring bike". i don't see why, no visible mounting attachments for one and a suspension fork.
Van Rysel RCR is winning UCI races and sold out immediately
Dubau is not going to badly with the rockrider XC bike either
https://bikerumor.com/pro-bike-check-joshua-dubau-rockrider-xc-bike/
They've got some decent bikes available, and i guess if they sell enough they might send out more in the range. Anyone biting?
https://www.decathlon.co.za/3414-bicycle?order=product.price.desc&q=0
33 minutes ago, Skubarra said:Even if there is a proper yellow lane I find it more than a little disconcerting trying to enjoy my ride when huge hunks of metal constantly blast past me at 120km/h+ on a busy road. Same reason I generally avoid some of the other roads around Malmesbury, Wellington at busy times or if I'm on my own.
+1 on the alternative route around Malmesbury and Darling, but yes there are people who do the downwind dash on the R27 on occasions.
depending on where you're starting from, Marremsboerie is going to add on some extra distance.
atlantis=>darling=>hopefield is your alternative but it's not a great ride either. the tar section has f0k0l shoulder and is windy in places. the dirt from darling is full of sinkplaat during summer too.
16 hours ago, betaboy said:If there is no budget, and you can splash, checkout UK London builder called Howler! Frames are around 2000quid, but these are super bespoke builds that use good tubing. With todays technology on steel and high grade frame building, there is no bad steel, most use a basic 4130 cro moly steel (Reynolds 520) as an example. Steel can be recycled, carbon is a landfill killer and the process to actually make carbon is way off any environmental scale.
If you are actually selecting a bike on its carbon footprint, I really hope you have picked all the other low hanging fruit in your life first. A kilogram of carbon fibre is not going to shift the needle on the planet dying or living, but have fun recycling your steel frame when you do it.
If you're going bespoke money no object UK frame build, support a Saffa (assuming you can wait long enough)
13 minutes ago, mecheng89 said:They are expensive, so this might not always be easy.
get one of these for every 6 enclosed loos. will really free up the queue.
assuming it's a mtb race, make sure the route is marked with both lime arrows on the ground and direction boards.
only release the gpx of route once you have confirmed it. If you don't have 99% confidence of the route then get that sorted first if possible. Nothing worse than someone loading version 1.2 of the route on wednesday to their garmin when you have version 1.4 on race day. people will think their electronics will never lie.
1 hour ago, tubed said:
Agree with this, what a mess and a fail by the cleaning team who cleaned the road but nothing on the side of it, the cycle track is a litter bin of runner specific items. Piss poor.😡
Did you or @milky4130 take any pictures? They claim a plastic free race and had a lot of cleaners busy during the event. I think they might send another crew if prompted, weather is good for it now too.
I'm considering a light jog this afternoon, pilates yesterday was not that bad
16 hours ago, Mamil said:Porta potty's aplenty and make sure they got bogroll in them. There is nothing worse than standing in a line needing the morning ablute with 10 mins to start, disrobing in the Tupperware, dropping the bib shorts and then there's no paper. Take away my medal, misdirect me on the route, don't have enough baby spuds at waterpoint three but the ablutions is a dealbreaker.
Echo the stuff around a nice trinket, magnet or something instead of medal
GPX route before time is nice
Had exactly this at Two Oceans on Saturday at 4:30am before the start. Luckily a lady leant me two of her wet wipes (don't think she wanted them back).
Not a hard thing to get right, it was at least there by the time I was done(and the queue was already down the street).
2 hours ago, milky4130 said:Just got back from a ride over Constantia Nek, went searching for my legs. The amount of empty gel packet litter is unbelievable. if I say +100 it is no exaggeration.
The way everyone drops them I assumed it will be picked up. I used the bins, there are plenty of them.
On the subject of litter, having a plastic free race is a pain. I know the reasons for it are great, but paper cups are crap compared to a simple sachet of water that you can take on the run
22 hours ago, milky4130 said:Thanks Guys.
I feel like I was more a 4:30 on the day runner, but I like a challenge so I jumped on the Sub 4 Bus. It was hard and I was probably breathing the loudest out of everyone in the bus. A surprisingly small group no bigger than 15-20 runners at any given time. We would regularly pick up & drop off guys along the way. All the splits we were ahead by a few seconds to a couple of minutes. I was surprised at how well I could hang with the group going up Chappies, I ran it for the first time 2 weeks before in training so knew it well, although I've cycled it a million times running hits differently. While ascending & descending I already noticed guys in dribs and drabs were pulling away from us at will but I stuck to the bus as I was in unknown territory in terms of distance, elevation & the pace up until that point. As we hit the stretch between bottom of Chappies & 1st Hout Bay Circle I checked the time & noticed we were not going to make the 42.2km split of 2:56, that's is when I also decided to get off the bus and went solo for the next 14-16kms. In hindsight my Garmin was ahead on distance so I panicked a bit too early but still happy with the choice I made as the Pace Setter himself missed the Sub 4 & came in at 4:01. If I had stuck with the bus I surely would've also missed the goal as I would've been running at a more comfortable pace for the last +-6kms.
Longest Distance, 1st Ultra Marathon, Sub 4 & Silver Medal in the process.
That's a great result, thanks for sharing. The guy driving the 5:30 bus was going to require some impressive driving at the end to make his stop in time. Apparently came in with not many passengers (I got off gracefully coming down chappies)
12 hours ago, Blahblah said:dunno whether we're not talking of the same company.....BUT, here's a challenge: list all the names over the last 15 years, link them with their coach at the time, then we see the common stuff.
Not sure it's the smartest thing to throw these accusations on the internet.
You might be hiding behind an anonymous pseudonym but lawyers are clearly involved and you could get this thread and bike hub implicated (again). Suggest you edit your post.
1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:I'm shaking my money pouch to see if I can somehow make this part of my BMX 2024 experience...
I had forgotten how many thousands of zar it costs to enter, travel and stay for these things!
The whole route/vibe at Cedar looks properly rad
there is supposed to be a renegade Cedar 6 months before/after the official one. but i'm not on the right whatsapp group because that would mean it was last weekend!
7 minutes ago, BuffsVintageBikes said:Yes, very sad indeed. Good luck getting your bike back, I believe the shop might have been locked up by the sheriff of the court. There's a few suppliers nervous as well.
spitballing, but surely a bike in for service does not belong to the lbs. You'd just need to prove it with a service booking to the sheriff which might not be so quick.
21 minutes ago, Toasted marshmallows said:The drugs these okes use can be accessed online...
AnaboAnabolics-sa.co.za
link doesn't work for me (Asking for my brother, who works on an oil rig in west africa and is looking to get into cycling).
13 hours ago, JohanDiv said:Can we jolt this down for the undersell of the year so far?
Jeezlike man, well done with your Sub 4!!
Lekker warmed up for IM now haha
bliksem, that is rapid....aim for sub5 and get sub4?
3 hours ago, ScottCM said:Where are all the race reports?
I came I ran I finished!
Was hoping for 5:45, but happy to finish without niggles ahead of comrades.
Tried to be very conservative going out, but was under the splits for 5:45 pacing.
at halfway I thought it was going to be a struggle to finish, but held on up constantia nek without walking and then just got home from there on willpower*.
5:42 in the end, still a bit stiff today but happy that I did it.
Will probably write a better longer form report, it's an incredible event.
* gel/nutritution feedback. Surprised at how meagre the stations are at running races, you have to take your own food (or run on coke/powerade!), there was one with bananas and another with potatoes. Which means the clubs all set up their own stand somewhere along the way for their members. After being sick, I was actually nervous of having coke (which i normally love in races) so happy that i went with Gu/32gi, felt full after constantia nek. Will definitely try maurten on a long hard run sometime to see how it goes. They had a "2oceans race hamper" @ R900 that i probably should have gone for.
"crash" course?
I assume this is for your own bikes? I did one years back at a bikeshop, but reckon YT has everything you need to know now. plus put your queries up here on the Tech Q&A section
50 minutes ago, Max Headroom said:Going to road cycle to St Helena Bay. Looks like the R27 is the only sensible direct route.
Did a ride out to Yzerfontein some years ago, and seamed to be ok.
Any advice on safety or any other thoughts ?
Thanks.
We have a house at yzers, so have done some riding to/from there before. assuming you are leaving from milnerton/blouberg area.
R27 is not bad with a nice shoulder, it's a bit bumpy as a road surface.
It has become quite busy, but average speed trap camera seems to have helped the crazy speeding mostly. You will get a lot of yellow lane driving so I would have very bright clothing and bright red flashers.
incidentally it can be great angle in a south easter. some madman set an unofficial world hour record in a busting gale not that long ago on it.
1 hour ago, Danger Dassie said:Often in life it’s the most simple and obvious answer that is just as probable. There’s an appeal against the hearing decision, in which case the sanction shouldn’t have been published in the first place.
Still saved in my browser history, so can read it. I won't upload it back here but people might still be able to find it there. From what is publicly available knowledge, I do find the sequence of events quite insane.
jan-mar 2023 - Epic training
mar 2023 - Epic, insane race, including the ducttape incident and holding and losing the orange leaders jersey. 2nd place on GC.
apr 15 2023 - athlete comes 2nd at SA XCO champs, urine test taken
may 2023 - goes to europe to do 2 XCM world cup with a belgian stage race in between
may 20 2023 - bike stolen from race village in belgium!
may 25 2023 - new bike from sponsors
may 26 2023 - athlete informed of positive test from XCO champs, with provisional suspension
june 6 2023 - athlete comes 8th at xcm world cup in italy
june 21 2023 - athlete announces a break from cycling.....
I'm not adding any of my own comment on the above events.
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On 4/10/2024 at 3:30 PM, Jewbacca said:So I see Amy Wakefield has received a 4 year ban for taking the illegal and off market phentermine....
Sjoe.
That is not a story I expected to see. Through a totally non cycling related conversation someone told me that she had been convinced by a therapist that pro cycling is pretty crazy. On the balance of things it is insane. The decision had been made to step back and move on with the rest of her life. Seemed reasonable in my mind.
This was all hearsay, so I didn't comment on any of the speculation on why she hadn't been racing/returning to Epic.
So I am surprised to see what actually happened, and all of this going on behind the scenes. I guess there are reasons for it, but almost a year for the decision to be made is surely too long. I'm not sure if the stolen bike in europe incident happened with all of this going around at the same time.
look guys. the 2nd hand car market was very inefficient, and ripe for disruption. if WBC didn;t do it, then someone else with a less dumb name would.
but can we get back on topic with the name and shame please? friday is TOMORROW and we need to build up some steam.
ping @timbrink as the 'bent expert
will decathlon bring their top end bikes to our shores?
in New Gear
Posted
so they got sold out. That's a case to order more and a wider range.