Matt

It's currently not possible, but if you pop us a message via help@bikehub.co.za or the contact us link in the footer we'll assist.

Personally I think it's unlikely that PON would ever want to consolidate ALL their brands at a local distributor level. Just looking at the likes of Santa Cruz, Cannondale and Focus there's a fair amount of competitive overlap in the offering from each (high-end road/MTB) and each brand would require a particular approach with a well suited "custodian". To my mind you'd want a separate stable representing each high-end brand in a particular market to do each one justice rather than risking dilution having them all under one roof.

Omnico shared this update with their dealer network earlier today (They've okayed us sharing it here). In short, no changes expected at a local market level.

That M3 section was fun! I was stopping for a quick hello with family just after that so leave the party early. Overall the experience on the roads was great. Good vibes and breathing room. Although not great for the economics of the event, fewer riders on the road was very pleasant. Seems like there were some varied start chute experiences. In the A chute it was all quite seamless aside from some queueing outside very early who clearly didn't read the memo. Compared to the usual scenario of waiting around in your pen for up to an hour this was easy and efficient!

Hi _Pat_, Please report anything like this to us. In order to view a phone number on your ad they will require a Bike Hub account, unless you've shared your phone number in plain text (which we strongly advise against). If you still have a record of the phone number they contacted you from please share this with us, along with the date and time. We should be able to connect the dots and ban any offending account(s). If the source is Bike Hub we obviously want to clamp down on bad actors. What we find happens more frequently is that users have their ads on multiple platforms and scam enquiries are coming via other platforms.

Was this in response to an advert on Bike Hub? Please DM me or send a mail to help@bikehub.co.za with any details. If the account is active on Bike Hub we'd like to block them immediately.

@RaeTrewBrowne did it earlier this year solo. You can check out his trip and tips here and I'm sure he can answer questions if he hasn't already covered them:

I’ve just emailed the owner, Naas, to ensure he’s aware of the issue.

And a side note for those using Chrome on IOS. Under the hood it's basically still Safari when installed on IOS so it inherits all their wonderful quirks, but with a Chrome exterior.

It should be working now, tested on IOS15, iPhone 11.

It's likely a quirk in the new Safari version (Apple loves to drop in random incompatibilities that work fine on all other browsers). To rule out any cache issues I'd suggested clearing your history and website data (you can do this for bikehub.co.za only via the Safari > Advanced settings section). I'll load up IOS15 today so see what might be causing this. What iPhone are you using?

Based on my reply above these glasses aren't counterfeits so are allowable, however we'd ask that you refrain from using the "Oakley" or "Sutro" name in the ad title and description. You're obviously not suggesting that they are the real thing, but any use of those trademarks next to an imitation could create problems.

Generally speaking, yes. If it looks similar to the authentic item, but doesn't carry the brand name it's likely okay in terms of our rules on counterfeits. These aren't typically illegal, but could be challenged in court if too similar to the real deal. The lines can be very fine when it comes to an imitation or knock off, but with a counterfeit it's pretty clear cut. If it looks similar/the same AND carries the brand name, but isn't original then it's definitely not allowed.

It is a rule! Please post a link to the ad and we'll take a look. 5.6. Counterfeit or illegal products. You may not list any counterfeit or illegal products for sale. If we find that you posted any counterfeit or illegal goods, we will suspend or terminate your account. http://help.bikehub.co.za/en/articles/4656778-terms-of-service

Forgive me, I treated those as one since they were directly related. I do hear you on not liking the way the site is run. Unfortunately most decisions we make risk upsetting users on the site. It's the nature of trying to wrangle such a diverse and large platform (within our small South African cycling eco-system). Contrary to what you might think we consider all feedback and requests deeply. But that doesn't mean we'll act on every request or at least in the way every member wants us to. What we at HQ love (and sometimes hate) about Bike Hub is that we know we'll be held to account by our members. Be it a sub-par content piece, ill considered feature or something we simply overlooked we know we'll get an earful about it and quite often rightly so. A lot of attention is placed on the few decisions we've made that a vocal minority dislike. Yet daily we're quietly making decisions and taking action of all magnitudes in the interests of this community. Ensuring the systems run smoothly, improving and adding features, fending off scammers and spammers, and dealing with the occasional dispute or moderation issue.

Thread derailment (unrelated banter) is actually a common reason for the locking of threads in the history of Bike Hub, particularly ones of a more serious nature. We tend to let less serious threads run away in this sense without the level of harsh moderation you might expect from the likes of North Korea. Perhaps this has created the impression that derailment is okay in any context. The transaction not taking place on Bike Hub is relevant in context of the reviews that were placed on Bike Hub more so than the thread, but worth noting nonetheless. This is a violation of our T&Cs as we cannot assess the validity of claims regarding to transactions that occurred on an entirely different platform. If you've got questions fire away or pop me a DM. We do typically close threads related to threads that were closed, particularly in a situation like this where neither party is available to participate and conversation around such issues tends to spiral into a speculative rabbit hole that isn't constructive.

If you take a step back I'd say this is a touch on the melodramatic side. In the last 2-3 weeks I think two threads have been closed. One was a "sale thread", the other a suspected scam which was removed entirely. Most discussion that takes place is not related to sales or the marketplace, but are cycling related. And we still have a non-cycling section. I'll stand by what I said when we announced the changes to the scope of off-topic discussions. If Bike Hub loses its appeal because we no longer want to play host to controversial or sensationalist topics that are unrelated to our reason for being (cycling), then perhaps you've been hanging around for the wrong reasons. That may come across harsh and will be a bitter pill to swallow for some long time members who's cycling interest/input has waned over the years.

If we were anything like North Korea you'd be banned (or worse) for this outburst. ???? Reasons for closure: The transaction in question did not originate on Bike Hub The buyer was a member previously banned from Bike Hub for the use of multiple accounts The seller was subsequently banned from Bike Hub for the use of multiple accounts The last 3-4 pages of unrelated banter With the above in mind and both parties not present to take part there is little reason for the thread to continue. There were some lessons in it though. #1 being, don't mess around with duplicate accounts on Bike Hub. If you do, don't be surprised when you find yourself banned. And #2... use Bike Hub Pay.

Just to clarify here, we recently introduced a cap on the fee at R950: https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/bike-hub-pay So on a R50k deal it works out to 1.9% On a R125k deal it would be 0.76%

Mod note: A number of unrelated posts have been removed. Obviously Covid-19 will be a key part of any event related discussion at present and with that the topic of vaccinations / tests in the context of participation is likely to come into play. Let's keep this related the impact on cycling events and possible solutions going forward. This is not the place to tout and debate your personal views towards vaccination, vaccine efficacy and the like.

There was a spam bot posting here. The account and posts were removed, and any quoted posts along with it.

What seems ridiculous to you is also a very simple solution to something. It's unlikely that anyone meant offence with "s p a z", but it could be offensive to some. Bottom line, we knew it's a pretty ingrained habit so a simple auto-correct seems like a win-win. On the issues that prompted this deviation from the topic after the Mod note: there was some conversation about queueing up to watch two female riders "kiss and make up". In other comments, the looks of female athletes were likened to other male athletes. All of these athletes are simply other humans, who also have access to the internet. We've seen before that what feels like a bit of "banter" on a forum can cause actual hurt to the target of the joke. It's just not necessary. Let's get this back to Olympics discussion. Feel free to PM me or discuss in a separate thread.

Moderator note We’ve issued a handful of warnings in the last few days and some more this morning for inappropriate sexist comments made about female Olympic athletes. On the spectrum from lewd/creepy to just plain nasty. We’ve been down this road before, threads were shut down and users suspended. If it continues those making such comments will find themselves suspended.

We'll ask Erik to confirm the details, but from our understanding Canyon are shutting down direct to consumer orders to SA however Canyon bikes will still be available to our market via Erik / Canyon Cafe. Even with consumer direct orders open to SA until now, Erik has been facilitating many of the orders for SA customers to streamline the customs process and will continue to do so going forward.

My mention of offers and competing bids was in reference to the negotiation phase, before any agreement is reached. Reneging on a firm agreement is a poor show and I can understand your frustration around these deals. Acceptance of an offer, i.e. agreement on a deal is viewed as being binding. Would we implement the same instant ban policy for behaviour this like other sites you use? For most instances, probably not. Should we consider harsher sanctions for repeat offenders? Yes, absolutely. There's a lot we can do around how ratings are used, for example what the implications are if aggregate ratings fall to a certain level. And there's a lot we can learn from the many platforms abroad who face similar challenges.