D-Mike

The heavier you are the more additional pressure you add to the pressure inside the wheel. The overall pressure is dictated by the maximum allowable pressure of the tyre. If you exceed that pressure you could be looking for trouble. This argument holds true for road bike tyres as the tyre deforms relatively little at the pressures we pump the tyres 8-10 bar. However for a MTB it is different, where you ride with low pressure and your weight makes a considerable change in the shape of the tyre. On a MTB you do not want the tyre to deform too much as you could damage the rim, snakebites, etc. Therefore you need to increase the pressure for the heavier guy. Keeping in mind that on a MTB lower pressure increases traction.

Sheez boet. I am glad you are ok. We wouldn't want you taken out of the commuter's challenge that way.

This past weekend I made peace with the fact that its ok to wheelsuck a tandem. There's just no point really in trying to take the lead with a tandem, with the exception on the hills.

My first time I did Ou Kaapse Weg was 2 years ago and I thought I was going to die. Admittedly I walked a short bit. This year is the first time I did OKW since then, and I've done it twice and much better. Yesterday I went over better than expected but mentally I was well prepared for it. You'll get better and stronger as you continue riding. Yesterday's ride really surprised me. When we started my legs were just dead. I tried to stay with the front runners but my legs just weren't there. I stayed with the bunch from there on. We had a tandem with us and we were flying down the back of Smitswinkel. Tandem you beauty! Anyway come OKP and I did reasonably well and I kept pushing once I reached the bottom of OKP. I caught up with 3 K riders on the last stretch. Looking at the results I came in 6th in K group with a time of 2h46. I was really surprised as I thought I had been much further back in the group. Quite chuffed especially considering that I wasn't feeling great.

good luck. Hope the lost bet will be worthwhile.

1. Mini pump? N 2. Co2 inflator? Y 3. Chain tool? N 4. Allen key set? Y 5. Small loose bolts/chain links etc? N 6. Tyre levers? Y 7. Patch kit? Y 8. Money? Y Do you carry tools in the: 9. Camelbak? n 10. Saddlebag? y 11. Cycling top back pocket(s)? n 12. Are you concerned about the weight of the tools you need to carry on a normal day ride? n 15. Would you like fewer objects to carry in terms of tools? n 16. Would you prefer to carry the tools attached to the bike rather than on your body? y 17. And a final open question: What do you find most problematic about your current setup of tools while biking? (If you have time, please write a small description of problem(s)) Setup works quite well at present. Oh you might have added spare tube as well. Don't know if you consider that a tool or not?

Yeah, you can't really fault them on the upgrade. It does look much better. However, if I preferred the other option, its not like the minister would have given the option to retain the original. The minister might say

That shouldn't be a problem. They'll organise a couple of motorbikes and give her a nice slip stream

I was about to share my experience from the ride, but perhaps I should just keep quiet... Silently he turns around and walk out the door edit: typo

Nice to get a little payback after our World cup experience. Lets hope the boys can keep it up

No answer would have been better than a stupid answer. If you don't make an effort to answer the query properly then what is the point in answering the first place?

I understand why guys can play "dumb" when they ride league as position becomes more important than time and there is a completely different riding strategy. However, for the rest it doesn't make sense. I suspect that guys just don't want to go to the front in fear of being left stranded there, which leads to as you say, the group not buying in. Now the million dollar question. How do you get buy in from the group?

I tried to organise a couple of guys to get a paceline going on Sunday but its like people just don't get it. I am by no means an experienced rider, but pacelining just makes sense and it's really not that difficult. Everyone benefits, you get to go faster and conserve energy. It should be a no brainer.

My entry was R250 but I am also a PPA member which means I did not have to pay the CSA day licence fee. Therefore for many of the riders R300 is cost price. I see no problem with the guys wanting the get their money back. I do think that the R300 substitution fee set by the organisers is an absolute rip off. Unfortunately that is out of our hands.

Tarmac's Revenge: I use the weeride which has an additional bar that is mounted between the head of the frame and the seat tube, therefore no abrasion on the top tube. The clamps around the frame and the seat tube have rubber protection, so no abrasion there. Grumpy Old Guy: The unit is surprisingly stable. The child can't move around to much and the child's centre of gravity is much the same as the adult's riding it. I am not fond of the units mounted over the rear wheel for this reason. You'll be able to ride some jeep track (if the wife allows you ) but in general I view it as quality time with my daughter, so I prefer to stick to the gentler roads.

You may be quite correct in your assessment that people will not change if you confront them, that does not mean that we should keep quiet about it. If enough cyclists voice their dissatisfaction at littering in a bunch I believe the offenders will get the message. How much is enough? I don't know, but peer pressure is a powerful thing. After all why do cyclists shave their legs?

Last weekend I took my 18 month daughter for the first time on the Weeride. We loved it and I am looking forward to the next ride.

An error in your reasoning. The general public do not distinguish between MTBikers, Roadies, Commuters, Downhiller, etc. They see them all as cyclists. The general public would then say "Cyclists are pigs", which would include you.

@Wannabe: It looks like they fixed the time of several riders for Sunday's race. Yours is now at 2h51.

I will see you guys there on Sunday!

Racetec got my time wrong as well. I started in L group and they have got me positioned in O. So right now I did a super solo out of the O group. I have emailed racetec. We'll see what happens Babse: My licence disc is about to expire, so ironically I can actually use mine.

What a fantastic attitude to life!

I had quite a good race, but a bit of drama before the start. I upgraded to K, but there was a massive queue at the PPA tent. Anyway, I got to the start just as my group left. J,K,L riders were all bunched together. I lost the front runners over Helshoogte but was ahead of the rest of the bunch. Down the back of Helshoogte I sprinted to join a group infront of me. Caught up with them and recovered for a while. A tandem came flying passed and we chased them down and stayed with them. On the R45 we chased down 3 bunches behind the tandem. I think we were over a 100 riders at one point. The bunch was scary big. We even chased down a couple of trucks which complicated things with that huge group. Once we turned off the R45 things settled down and the groups pretty much stayed put. I broke off the front at one point to catch another group and stayed with them for the rest of the race. That was by far the toughest bit of the race. Got dropped 3km from the finish but ended quite well. I think I finished in 2h57, give or take a little. A really nice ride.

Well what can we city? The Mother City looks after her people. Respect on the 130km commute. You gonna struggle to keep that up for 5 days of the week.

My second commute was in the rain. It started out being a light drizzle and ended bucketing down. Surprisingly the ride was not that bad at all, and I did not have a rain jacket. The 20km commute is just short enough that you are not miserable and cold by the end of the ride. It will take some adjusting to the cold, especially the first 5km of the ride. This year I have the rain jacket, which makes a huge difference.