Jigghead

Sheesh, I hate hearing this. The affirmative shopping is something that could be "borne", although not gladly, on its own. But the fact that these guys become aggressive even when being cooperated with is nonsense. Where do these bikes disappear to? Is there no method of tracing these things? Here's wishing for a speedy recovery.

Surely as a professional sportsman you should take all the required steps to ensure that your "supplements" are contaminant free? These days there is enough control over the growing of food & the disclosure of what goes into our food during production that this should not be allowable as a valid defense. As soon as the availability of mitigating factor in defense of testing positive exists, someone will find a way to "work the system". We've seen this countless times. I think zero tolerance needs to be enforced under all circumstances.

Ya, it's k~k, given my tight work schedule, I'm only able to ride at ungodly hours of the morning. Luckily, my riding partner is in the same boat, but it's only two of us. Just a question here, did the last guy fight back, I'm not saying he should ever have been stabbed even once, but we've agreed that if push comes to shove, then the bike must go in favor of not needing an ambulance to come and fetch us. We're both insured and the idea is if we find ourselves in that situation, then it must be easy for the perps to high-tale it our of there. Maybe it's because my bike is not particularly high-end, but they can have it if they're willing to come at me with a knife or worse. Should we not make consideration for insurance on our bikes? Surely we'd feel less inclined to fight for them if faced with this situation? Having said all of the above, I sincerely hope that the above rider recovers quickly. I do think that something needs to be done is out of hand and I'm getting tired of hearing about it. J

I think that a lifetime ban should be imposed. If the riders refused to dope, then the teams would have little clout when it comes to forcing them to dope. If a rider refuses and has his contract cut, then he needs to spill the beans. Unfortunately, I'm not sure we could ban the UCI The problem is, riders say their teams forced them to do so, but no one ever comes out and says I'm leaving because my team wants me to dope. They just go along with it. Ultimately, the responsibility should rest with those who are bing jabbed with the drugs?

Done, from PC & iPad, now I can vote twice daily BTW, if you have IE & Chrome or any other browsers, you can vote twice from a PC as well. You can see I've done this before

Yup, a little skinny for my liking.

Love this, never seen one that's belt driven before. Great idea.

We were in KNP last month and were tormented by a group of 4 young bulls. They were there on both sides of us and every time we tried to drive through, they would amble back into the road. Bottom line was that we were held up by these guys for 45 mins. not pleasant, I had the missus and two small kids in the car and kids were terrified. Having them behind and in front meant we were sitting ducks. They did a bit of ear flapping and dished out a bit of the beady eye, but I have no doubt that either one of them could have done the same to our car (we were in a Fortuner but felt very small up close). Hate to think what these guys were feeling.

eish, they'll be all melted by then, @StevieL would most probably see to that...

I know this guy, his name is Kevin Richardson. They're alive and relatively tame, as you can see.

You have to have sleeves, you'll get booted from the trail without them... I'm in either way, I like the "life behind bars" idea I'll take two minimum. Will you only have grey?

I'll take one or two. Any chance of getting some made in a fabric other than cotton (similar to the First Ascent stuff)? I know it'll increase the cost but if there's some critical mass (pun intended) it could be viable.

It's probably best that you took the lead in case the bugger decided to chase you, he'd have caught up with the Mrs. first

I can get one (Edge 800 bundle) from Momentum for R 3,411.85, not sure what "level" I'm on tho.

For your enlightement eager one: 650[Letter] In the French sizing system, tires are designated by a three-digit number, which may be followed by a letter. The number is the nominal outside diameter of the tire the rim was originally designed for. The absence of a letter indicated a narrow tire; "A", "B" and "C" indicated increasingly wider tires."A" was originally a tire about 30 mm wide, so the 650A rim is pretty large, 590 mm. If you add the top and bottom 30 mm tire thickness to 590, you wind up with the 650 mm tire diameter. The 650C size was originally intended for a quite wide tire, about 40 mm wide. Top and bottom 40 mm tire plus the 571 mm rim size again bring you to a 650 mm outside diameter, even though the rim was smaller. With time, however evolutionary processes have led to different widths of tires being applied to the rim, so the nominal 650 mm designation is now more theoretical than practical. •597 mm, 650, is the same as the British 26 x 1 1/4" size used on club bicycles, and was also adopted by Schwinn for use on 3-speeds with a 1 3/8" wide tire. This size is seen less and less, as the bicycles which use it become rare. •590 mm, 650A, also called 26 x 1 3/8", is the size used on the classic English 3-speed. There's nothing theoretically wrong with this size (other than confusion with the Schwinn size!), but the selection of tires and rims available for it is pretty scanty these days. •571 mm, 650C, was originally a wide, balloon tire size, used on many older Schwinn cruisers. These days, however, it is mainly seen on triathlon bikes and time-trial machines. Available tires and rims are mostly very narrow, intended for competition use. •584 mm, 650B, is the focus of this article. This size, also known as 26 x 1 1/2", is most popular in France, where it was the traditional size for loaded touring bikes and tandems, as well as general utility bikes. The 650B size was never common in the U.S., and it went into decline even in France with the advent of the mountain bike. However, there is a dedicated group of fans of this wheel size, who have been diligently working to restore it to its former glory. The situation as far as tire and rim availability has lately taken a turn for the better, and the future looks rosy for 650B. OK, so what you're trying to say here is that we can blame all this sh~t on The French?

OK, so here's my ignorance shining through, what is the 650 for? And what is the 'B' for?

Sadly it seems that this and the road ride are designed to cater for the riders and those few (hopefully it seems) supporters that are prepared to rough it a bit. Last year was much better organised with far better public seating and entertainment etc. The race itself seemed pretty well done, they just seem for some reason to be battling with the pre and post race requirements for both spectators and riders. Having said that, I suppose I'll be back next year. I guess you'll be carrying junior on a tandem next year

Just stirring the pot, the kids these days seem to have a lot more energy than I did at that age (although I was a smoker and a lazy little git). 2:39 is not that outlandish. I figure traffic may have been the biggest issue coming from the back groups

Is that an official 2:39 or a diverted one

Loved the fact that one of the old guys wearing Castrol gear was wearing "BP" branded gloves. When I asked him what his "kit sponsors" thought of that, he laughed and said he was planning on getting his gloves dirty enough for it not to be noticed. One of the old guys used to be a pro from what I can gather.

I agree that the rules need to be enforced, however stupid they are. However, the guy I passed with the earphones in his ear passed a number of marshalls (I was there when he rode past them). I also say more than one guy with a GoPro on his helmet (it was announced at the start that they were only allowed on handlebars). So, the question here is, why were they selectively enforcing the rules? On the cut off shirt sleeves issue, I see in the official 94.7 event magazine that Momentum's official event wear (produced by First Ascent) includes some sleeveless versions. Now the first time I became aware of this rule was on this topic, today. The same magazine also has a picture (of last year's race) where the primary subject matter of said pic, a very pretty lady, is also going sleeveless. Now ignorance is no defense, but surely the organizers should not appear to advocate breaking of the rules? Probably a petty point, but then so are some of the rules.

Still not sure how this works, I did the 55km and the road ride last year and got nothing special. No extra medal, no green number Not even a pat on the back... sniff sniff

There was a youngish guy on a Merida (rust color) with earphones in his ear, I gave the "passing on the right" heads up a few times as we swapped positions during the race and he didn't hear me. I suggested he at least turned the volume down and he just said something along the lines of "whatever". In hind sight, I probably should have stopped and pulled his shirt sleeves off. He may have incurred more wrath from the organizers than he did due to the music.

I heard the same last year and still have not seen my "special medal". We'll see.

I started in A3 & did 3:21, same time as I did last year (Starting in A2). The only difference between the two being that this year I wasn't as tired at the finish. That's progress isn't it?