Minion

The formula doesn't directly tell you the largest sprocket you can run. It gives the size of your gear range. You need to compare this to your derailleur capacity to get the maximum sprocket you can use.

and how good your partner is. I didn't train very much for my first tour, but I had a partner who was slower than me, so I had a pretty chilled ride and it didn't feel too hard (though riding the last 90km of the first day with an under-inflated tyre was a bit draining). I was the fittest I have ever been for my second tour, but I did it with Epoh (the hubber, in case anyone gets dodgy drug ideas) who was even faster than me. I have never hurt that much on a bike before or since. Both times were extremely enjoyable, but were completely different.

ZIpp make 21mm clincher tyres.

Fulcrum is made by Campag. The Racing Zeros are essentially the same wheels as the Shamals, so in that case, you'de chose the one that looks better. I see they're now R10k or so. You could definitely get a set of second hand 2009+ Zipp 404s and extras for that price, but you might have to wait a while for them to come on the market. The Zipps would be about 200g heavier, but you would need to regularly ride 8%+ gradients for the weight advantage of the Shamals to outweigh the aero advantage of the Zipps. Given the choice, I'd go for the Zipps. If you're really lucky, you'd find a second hand set of Firecrest carbon clinchers.

No. Only two chainrings It comes in via SRAM. If it's available, anyone who has SRAM should be able to get one. SRM, Powertap.

No, no temp on the 705.

I wish I could say the same for my email monologues to them.

It's because of the limited small talk repertoire. "Hi, pleased to meet you, I'm Edward." "Hi, Edward, I'm Sam. What do you do for a living?" "I'm a mechanical engineer, and you?" "I'm a (something not an engineer)." "Oh, that's interesting." <conversation drifts off as Edward has now run out of things to say>

There's also one in the Irene Village Mall.

Maybe contact Bicyclepower.co.za. If it was bought locally, they might be able to track it through the serial number.

Pretty much what Spidey said. I don't use NP for short intervals - because of the 30s averaging, it only starts displaying useful values 30s into the interval. NP is more valuable for tracking long intervals such as 20min trials over variable terrain. It's more of a summary figure than an instant tracking tool. On all Edges with power, there is a PWR_3s and PWR_30s data field. This gives a simple 3s or 30s moving average power. I find the 3s one to be a good balance between smoothing and responsiveness for tracking current power.

Not yet. It's scheduled for a firmware update later this year. At the moment, all you get is simple averaging. The Edge 800 does support NP, TSS etc. A Powertap Elite+ will cost around R8,500, once built up with a basic box rim such as a Mavic Open Pro. A 2012 Pro will be about R10,200 with the same rim. The cost will be higher if building with bladed spokes etc. A SRAM S975 Quarq will cost around R16,500. If you're only going to want power from one wheel, then the Powertap is the cheapest option. As soon as you start wanting to use more than one wheel (e.g. box section for training, deep section for racing), the Quarq will be cheaper.

There was a bus from DBN to PMB last year, around 12:30.

I do most of my shopping (for pretty much everything except food and clothes) online or through non-retail channels. Prices are better, they have exactly what I want and I can easily find it, I don't have to deal with rude, indifferent and/or useless sales people, I don't have to stand in queues, I don't have to deal with broken credit card machines, I don't have to drive anywhere, I don't have to find parking, I don't have to deal with car guards etc.

You drop them off at the stadium the day before and they box them and truck them to PMB. The buses left from the Elangeni hotel last year at a rather early hour. It took about 90min to get to PMB.

This is good to hear.

http://home.training...ress-score.aspx It's a smoothing algorithm for power to account for the variability of power readings through a ride. It emphasises higher power efforts, as opposed to average power that gives equal weighting to high and low power. Most implementations of NP require you to be using one second recording. The algorithm goes something like: 1.) Take a 30s moving average of power throughout the ride (P_30) 2.) Raise the values obtained in 1.) to the fourth power (P_30^4) 3.) Take an average of all the values calculated in 2.) 4.) Take the fourth root of the value from 3.) to get normalised power. For a ride, such as a time trial, where the effort is constant, normalised power = average power. For rides with a highly variable power output e.g. sprint intervals, NP will be much greater than AP.

Couple of links on FTP testing http://richard-westwood.blogspot.com/2011/12/first-milestone-test-2.html http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2009/07/sins-of-sins-testing-ftp-2.html http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2008/05/seven-deadly-sins.html

If you're training with a Powertap, you don't need LT. Rather work out your functional threshold power (FTP). This occurs at roughly the same place as LT, but doesn't need blood tests to determine. You usually work it out with a structured 20min time trial. This site has lots of info on power training. http://home.trainingpeaks.com/power411.aspx I would also strongly recommend that you read 'Training and Racing with a Power Meter' by Coggan and Allen to use you PM to it's full potential. 'The Cyclist's Training Bible' by Joe Friel is also a good resource. Two final notes: the power you produce on a trainer is usually lower than what you can produce on the road. Be aware of this when doing your FTP testing. Second, make sure you've got a large fan to cool you when you're on the IDT.

Joe Friel reckons around 3 weeks before an A-priority (i.e. one of the 2-3 most important in the year) race: http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/08/peaking.html

It will work out to 15.4% of the invoice amount (selling price + shipping), due to the way SARS calculates the value for VAT. The handling fee will be around R250 since CC send via UPS/DHL.

Man, I really hate that green algae stuff.

No duty, unless you bring in enough other parts at the same time for them to consider it a complete bike. Competitive Cyclists are very good - I got my frame from them.

Thanks. I must have looked right at it and missed it.

On the topic of rules and so on, where are the rules actually posted? I thought they were in a sticky thread or something, but I can't find it.