Jigghead

We used to do this after every thunderstorm at boarding school. What a jol, you could slide for ages if you got a good run up. This dude's an amateur though, you gotta have your arms pointing forwards ala Superman.

Never had anything but schlep from Polar, so I, after four units decided to move to Garmin. Units are not very old so i can't decide of preference just yet, but at least the distributors are 10 mins down the road from me and from what I've read, they're always willing to help. I still keep the RCX5 though 'cos it makes a good watch.

Ah, that'll do it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

That's a lot of little bikes. You catholic?

Stop as soon as you feel sick. Hit it with vitamins etc. The body takes huge strain when even a little sick and training at this time will edge you close to a heart attack.

I vote we stop bickering on this thread and save our comments for wishing Koos a speedy recovery. I do not know him and I know very little about him, but I think sending out positive messages for his recovery is a better option than fighting among ourselves about what should be done with the lady who hit him. For those of you that do know him, let us know if when he recovers you recon he'd prefer to read the cr~p that's coming out here or the well wishes that this thread started out with. I know which I'd prefer.

I'd choose to ride before choosing to watch riding any day.

Left her number? Clearly she was very concerned about the poor individual she'd just run down. Would this not be considered leaving the scene of an accident? This is disgusting, I wonder if she's even bothered to report the accident.

Agreed, I think they should close the competition to any further numbers. These guys are getting injured frequently and often one finds the last few matches in the competition being more about who's dealing with the least amount of injuries and less about which team is actually the best.

Wondered when this was going to happen after the engagement thread. Notice it wasn't MeridaMan got married... :D Congrats to both.

Your comments are all valid. I think you misunderstood my comment on R500 not being that much. What I meant was that I did not think it was that much for this event or an event of this nature when compared to a 94.7 entry for example. The website does offer "team matching" whereby if you cannot fill an entire team, you can "gather" team members via their site/service. But bear in mind, Coronation's target market can easily afford this type of entry fee, so maybe they are specifically targeting a particular income group with scant regard for the development riders and varsity students etc. I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one though. Have a good weekend. J

R500 is not that much. My 94.7 entry cost me R320 this year, for a sub 100km ride. This cost could also be seen to be promoting divides in cycling but they have thousands of entries annually. One very rarely hears complaints about that and many more marginal or irregular cyclists do that race as well. Bottom line is that if you don't see value in the entry fee, don't ride the race. I've passed on one or two where I have not wanted to pay what they're asking, these events do however continue to be staged every year so someone is entering. These guys are not in it for the charity, even if they have a lot of cash, they still aim to make a profit. There are more than enough events out there where the entry fee is "reasonable", it's not as if the entire race industry is pricing themselves for wealthy players only. Unfortunately, not everyone is trying to get cycling on the map, some are actually in it for the money and I'm not in a position to comment for sure on either their motives or their running costs. I would however gladly pay their asking price to participate in this event.

This'll work even better on my bike as the bar is flat on it. Thanks for the info.

I think the cost of bicycles and other gear have a far greater effect on making cycling an elitist sport than the cost of event entries. There are plenty of events where the cost is quite low, so this should not deter the "general public" from participating in an event or two. You often find the price rising quite substantially when the entry numbers are limited. I've seen more than one post where people have complained that certain events are over subscribed. So, do we accept that they'll over subscribe the events in order to charge less, or do we prepare ourselves for the possibility of riding an event where the numbers are limited and therefore, in theory, are better organised? An entry level bike + helmet + pedals + gloves + shoes + clothing + computer etc. etc. will more often than not come in at well in excess of R10K for the bundle. Unfortunately, not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to afford entry to the sport, never mind the events. I've seen so many events costing R100-R200 for entry, so I don't think Joe Public is being excluded from the sport, just certain events. Could be that the organisers only want serious riders who are prepared to pay the asking price, possibly in an attempt to keep the level up? As far as Coro being in it for the money? Maybe not, but they also don't want to loose money. Just thinking here, I could be way off and many would think I am.

I became one when I got mine.

Not sure which will hurt more, the ass or the ego when arriving back at the start/finish.

Sponsorship pays for a lot of these things, so possibly they manage the events better than these guys? I'm just playing devil's advocate here, so I could be way wrong. The bottom line here, imho, is that something is only worth what someone's prepared to pay for it and they have enough people who appear to think that this event is worth R6K per team.

Two schools of thought here. 1. Most of our purchases are increasing at a rate in excess of "official inflation" and therefore why should this not too given that their input cost may have as well? 2. I'm assuming that, as with most events, there is a limited number of entries available. It therefore boils down to pure economics when taking supply and demand into account?

If you don't like the price, don't participate. I've said it before, these races are not cheap to stage. Medical assistance etc. is not free but is taken for granted by the participants, medals, road closure if there is is also charged for and not all staff are volunteers. Let's not forget that these guys also need to make a profit, I doubt all of them do it for the love of the game. Something is only worth what someone's prepared to pay for it. It must be worth it to some because the event continues to take place! Good luck to the organisers, I'd love to can my job and make a living arranging races and other events.

Where do we get these things? They're like hen's teeth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NRhoHN8x_00

Around R600 or so. DHL brought a frame up to JHB for me from Cape Town for that price. It was packaged by the sender for me.

With all the doping, they start looking like men anyway. Coat, hat, door... Jokes aside though, why not hold them at the same time, we need more ladies in competitive cycling.

Try this. It's called a Pinook Micro Massager, it sends small electric pulses to the area via some adhesive patches which are applied to the skin on the affected area. Loosens up the muscles etc. I sleep in a strange position apparently and often wake up with a severe muscle pain in the neck and shoulders. 10-15 minutes of this thing sorts it out every time. Previously it was voltaren and spasmed or the chiro which was not a good idea. The machine is around R2K (picked mine up at the 94.7 MTB expo last year for R1,600) and is the size of a small iPod. It's rechargeable and the intensity can be adjusted to quite a wide variance.

I read an article yesterday on this, found via google. The general consensus is that it will not improve your performance but will aid in keeping your muscles warm and enhance blood flow to the covered area. It seems that the science on these things is not particularly exact, but it has been mentioned that it could in many cases reduce blood lactate concentration during running and the support the gear gives also assists with the muscle oscillation/movement during the run thus reducing the damage caused by movement/impact during this discipline. The study that I read about also mentioned the fact that athletes using compression socks had a higher running speed when running at their respective anaerobic threshold. The increased oxygen levels measured whilst wearing compression gear also saw athletes taking longer to reach their anaerobic thresholds. There was a bit about the recovery benefits of wearing these items, but it was noted that one must either wear them during the event or afterwards given that using them at both junctures was effectively useless. Here's the link, I don't remember the whole thing, but the article seemed pretty much on the fence as to whether or not to use compression gear. http://www.runnerswo...ful?page=single