Minion

http://www.conceptcyclery.co.za/index.htm

..and a messy fountain of sealant spraying everywhere.

R1000 (IIRC) for the initial comprehensive three hour setup, followed about six weeks later by a free follow-up setup. I subsequently went for a second follow-up setup that was also free, but I'm not sure if that's the norm.

The quarterly English version of Tour magazine has an interesting comparison of chain wear and performance: http://www.tour-qtr.com/epaper_4_2011 The problem with most conventional chain checking tools is immediately apparent: according to one of these, every single tested chain has reached it's wear limit. In fact, the majority of them have functional life left and a few have not even reached half of the actual wear limit. The chart is also useful for comparing the value of various chains e.g. most of the generic chains have close to twice the wear of the OEM equivalents (except SRAM). They would need to be almost 50% cheaper before offering better long-term value.

Tour Magazine currently have the 4/2011 edition of the quarterly English version available for free on their website: http://tour-qtr.com/http://www.tour-qtr.com/epaper_4_2011 Amongst other things, it's got some pretty comprehensive chain, light and wheel tests.

After trying almost every shop/fitter in Joburg (including Cyclefit and Activeworx) to sort out a knee problem, I've finally had some success with The BG Fit at Concept Cyclery in Melrose Arch.

That sucks. Did they get approval to do this?

Although, with free shipping on orders over 25GBP and delivery within 2-3 working days (my past experience) Amazon.co.uk comes damn close.

Probably applies more to commuter cycling. The kind of cycling most South African's do is far from environmentally friendly (just look at the number of single-occupant cars in the parking lot at a large race).

In light of the transport department's new stance on charging drivers involved in fatal accidents with murder, I wonder if it would be possible to lay a charge of attempted murder.

The free version is pretty cool. I haven't looked into what the premium version offers.

The gravel section was a bit too squirrelly for my road bike, but I got a seriously good climbing ride by going from the Old Pont and turning left onto the Port Edward-Izingolweni road. I turned right onto the Munster road and went all the way to the gravel before turning around and coming back up again. http://www.strava.com/rides/port-edward-kwazulu-natal-south-africa-2839357

You can get a good estimate of your CdA and Crr for a particular set of equipment if you've got a computer that can record and download a speed track to your PC, using the Virtual Elevation method and some coast-down tests. You could get an even better estimate if you borrowed a power meter. Knowing those values and if you've got a course profile, you could make a good estimate of your power requirements for a windless day. It would be difficult to estimate it while you're riding (the maths is complex), but if you got weather data and a course profile from when you did the ride, you could create a reasonable power estimate after the fact (the Sporttracks GPS2PowerTrack and Weather plugins do this). I did a quick experiment using the default values in these plugins and I get estimated power values within about 20% of my power meter. Presumably the estimate could be improved by tweaking the input values.

Frontal Area 0.60 m2 Coefficient Wind Drag 0.50 dimensionless Air Density 1.056 kg/m3 Weight 90.0 kg Coefficient of Rolling Resistance 0.006 dimensionless Grade 0.000 decimal Using the above inputs into a drag model, I get a roughly 2:1 split between aero drag and rolling resistance, so roughly 90W to overcome air resistance and 45W to overcome rolling resistance.

Are you sure of that friction coefficient? Your value of 0.1m/s2 (or 0.01 if working in Newtons) is twice as high as the values (including experimental) I've normally seen quoted for tyre rolling resistance (i.e. 0.04m/s2 for asphalt going up to 0.08m/s2 for really rough paved road). From all I've read, the coefficient is pretty much independent of wheel loading (i.e. position) since, provided the tyres and pressures are the same, an increase in front friction is matched by a corresponding decrease in rear friction. It has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the bike, but is heavily affected by tyre pressure, tyre type, tube type and to some extent rim shape. It is also affected by road surface, as indicated by the values above.

I'm also a little bit weary of that value. The maths behind the analytic cycling calculator is, however, sound and their input values also appear to reasonable. I think the problem is with finding a perfectly flat piece of road e.g. upping it to 1% gradient puts the power up to 200W. On climbs and false flats, their calculator gives roughly similar values to my power meter.

Roughly 130W

Have a look at the 'Power, given speed' calculator here: http://www.analyticcycling.com/ http://www.analyticcycling.com/ForcesPower_Page.html

The problem's been resolved. There were some crossed wires between Lemond and BBT (who were given the impression that it would work). BBT have agreed to do the refund for me and will be taking things further with Lemond. to BBT, to Lemond.

I found a pretty comprehensive thread on Slowtwitch about the program issue. Same response from Lemond. The people who bought the Power Pilot seem to be adopting a pretty blasé attitude about it, though. I haven't found any complaints about the lack of streaming, nor have I found anyone actually using it. It's irritating because I believe it would be fixable by someone writing the correct software to make the programs and implement the streaming on a PC. No-one on the internet's done it yet, though and Lemond hasn't done it so I'm left without features that I really wanted to use.

I did that last week but didn't receive a reply. I'll try again.

I did. So far BBT have not been willing to do the refund which is partly why I was wondering if I was being unreasonable.

Normally I do this, but when I bought it earlier this year it had just been released and there were not many reviews or forum posts around. Those that were there hadn't tried to stream and use the programs, so no comments on those features. The only other info was the packaging and the website. Serves me right for being an early adopter.

A while back, I bought a Lemond Power Pilot to go with my Revolution trainer. Two of the major reasons that I bought it were so I could make my own programs and upload them and so I could stream the live data from the Power Pilot to my computer - basically giving it similar functionality to my older trainer where I could use my Edge 705 for programs and stream the live data from my Powertap to my PC. I thought it could do these things because, on the packaging, it says (my highlighting): 1.) "IMPORT YOUR TRAINING PROGRAMS. No more dealing with paper-based workouts. Just import your programs into the Lemond Power Pilot and follow the screen prompts." 2.) "ANT+ ENABLED FOR EASY DATA DOWNLOAD. The Lemond Power Pilot allows you to link other ANT+ devices, enabling you to stream your workout data directly to your watch or PC." After some communications with Ballistic Bike Trading and Lemond, it turns out that I can't do either of these things. 1.) It is apparently possible to upload programs, but there is no currently available way for me to actually create them. 2.) You can stream ANT+ data to some Garmins, but there is no known way to send it live to a PC. It can be wirelessly downloaded from the Garmin post-workout. I interpreted the statements on the packaging and the response as meaning: 1.) It says I can create and upload my own programs. I can't do this since I can't create them. 2.) I interpreted 'streaming to PC' as meaning I can send live data wirelessly from the Power Pilot to my computer. I can't do this since Lemond doesn't know of any method to do it live. My questions to you are: 1.) Am I interpreting the claims on the packaging and their responses correctly? 2.) Am I right to claim that their packaging is misleading? 3.) Am I being unreasonable in asking to return the Power Pilot since I was giving the false impression that it Could do something that it can't (it's within the six month of my original purchase)?

Traffic on the West Rand starts to get a bit nasty later in the morning.