Danger Dassie

Fully agree with Vines. It's also not a new concept either, perhaps this time round the discussion draws more traffic due to how many more people have now discovered cycling, walking, running etc .... Peter Flax did a long form interview with a well known cycling/town planning activist, John Forrester. Much food for thought and raises many parallels that shed light on the driver superiority mentality. Worth the read - https://www.bicycling.com/culture/a32257789/vehicular-cycling-advocate-john-forester-dies-at-90/

Would say that's a crack, slightly unusual fault line though. Given that it's both sides of the frame I'd rule out paint work. Don't do anything to the frame other than removing the seat post to inspect inside the tubing, as has been suggested.

The OP did clarify the brand. The CB piece on Chinarellos was about about counterfeit products, not grey imports. I'm not sure his user name has anything to do with the Carte Blanche piece, unless you're inferring the OP was part of the shop involved? Pidcock rides a BMC with blacked out branding due to sponsor obligations on the road.

Yes, Graeme Stickells. All round good oke and background, worked as an assistant director at SAQA and a retired SANDF Major.

Interesting take on that motoring view contained within this long form interview just over a year ago. https://www.bicycling.com/culture/a32257789/vehicular-cycling-advocate-john-forester-dies-at-90/

Lately on top of the riding I've been doing other activities more. Running road/trail and some climbing and hiking etc .... I've found that outside of the specialised gear (climbing harness/shoes) you can get away with cross purpose use of a lot of kit. Especially some cycling tops with the pockets. I used to be really focussed on supplements for racing, but for general riding/training the stuff mentioned here is more than adequate and most trailheads have a supply of stuff if you need to stop off during a ride. FYI - there is no such thing as WADA approved supplements or foodstuffs, in fact no anti doping organisation endorses any brand as being 'safe'. The closest you can come is independent batch tests by a company such as Informed Sport whose logo is then displayed by whichever supplement brand.

Lazer helmets and Pearl Izumi fall under their stable as well .... Stans is through Two Wheels Trading, along with Lezyne, Momsen etc

Yip, and that's an MU on a good day. Some folk, even pre-apocalypse, were/are undercutting by selling at cost plus 10-15% Don't know of any retailers selling on a median at 70% MU, unless sourced from elsewhere or old/clearance stock.

Love it, bikepacking vaibes are a relatively new riding experience for me. Did an overnighter over a month ago as test run for gear, packing etc.... loved it. Loads more on the list for future excursions. Shameless Insta plug on the weekend here - https://www.instagram.com/p/CPS1QjwHoyn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Nailed it, and thanks for a quite a few extra insights. Just to add, I think Erik needed a lot more support on the staffing side. He pretty much handled the workload on everything from managing supply chain, customer service, marketing, sales etc .... So this change ultimately makes sense, at least for now. People can access the brand and Canyon can do right by Erik in the current role, plus he does have an international following so there is plenty on brand/marketing material they can plug onto their global campaigns. I've interacted and worked with marketing/brand managers, owners and media from all over, they've all been surprised at the level of brand saturation in SA, as well as impressed with the amount of local brands and innovation locally. And generally blown away at the events, both in numbers and organisation. We're a strong market all things considered, but brands need to understand the market and adapt accordingly, conversely us locals need to work towards being less insular.

Nice insightful bit of post race interview from Hatherly here; https://fb.watch/6_oRQn9oGP/

One of sport administration's worst failures and a complete betrayal of care to the athlete. I'm certain this played a large role in Rissved's break from the sport.

Merry national you day Dale

Ma se .... !!!!

If there is an outstanding criminal investigation of fraud, surely threatening legal action for defamation is kinda counter intuitive ... ?

Not really an opinion shared by most. They aren’t “all the kids” it’s family, and riders spend very little time with them during the season and none during the event for at least four weeks. If you as a sponsor have the attitude of I pay your salary so dance monkey and zero respect or understand/value of family. Then I’d say shove your salary, as a sports fan seeing your brand, then I’d say squeeze your product somewhere as clearly the values and ethics don’t align.

A good piece in 06 July by Jose Been - https://cyclingtips.com/2021/07/tdf-rumor-mill-peter-sagan-will-join-team-totalenergies/?fbclid=IwAR1AxHuJm1kFAGqwnvdJsSW9ffIbuBouf5_ZoeHzuRK5UgMq4j_XIo4O0pM

As you know, they are an optional accessory. Long as he remembers the majesty of your pipes!

Want me to send it to you .....

@Hairy on a Davidson are you triggered? ARE YOU! .... it's only a bmw fat bob

That's why they come with tassles on the bars, motion indicators.

There are a lot of emerging economies have the ability and resources. It's about building on those and it's slowly happening. SA as an emerging economy is well ahead of a number of 1st world nations in UCI standings. Bravo. Hence "very few"

That looked blady painful ????

Very few riders if any actually feature at their first tour. This is a fact. Nic's journey to le Tour is pretty remarkable considering his background comparing it to other regions isn't really a fair or accurate representation. Africa as a continent has some complex history and regional dynamics to overcome, I don't see them being held to a lower standard nor being treated as second tier athletes. By the same token it's a pretty lazy generalisation by saying "western media" especially since many of the outlets are actually coming round to the reportage on riders like Nic. He also captured the support of many a fan on that stage, there's some amazing visuals from the Grubers with spectators running alongside Nic and encouraging him on. Nobody is celebrating mediocrity but rather encouraging progress towards a broader cycling scene. Does the messaging often come over as contrived, sure it does but for the most part it is moving forward. It's a long game. And if we're going to infer idealogical attitudes we can bring up a number of teams with questionable sponsorships.

MODS - Probably best to merge this with the existing thread ? ...