MichH

Oh Mampara, it's stories of other people's pain that makes me feel so much better! Just kidding, hope the knee gets better fast so you can come play with me and the new bike!

I will tell dad to take some pics...

Mmmm.... boerewors rolls....

I'm really sorry to hear this. Never nice to hear of a fellow rider being attacked. Just glad you kept it together and made it away safely.

So, Saturday afternoon I head off to dad's house - time to finish building the Scott. For those who don't know, I bought a Scott Genius MC50 with Mavic rims from the Hub a couple of months ago. I've now gathered a RockShox Tora for the front, as well as XT drivetrain and hydraulic brakes. I also got sent the new bling XTR shifters 'coz the XT shifters were out of stock! Anyway, so back to the story... When I got there, dad was finishing with the brakes, heck I've even got brand new quick releases, man this bike is going to look nice! We start fitting the cables and housings, when we realise that we don't have 4 little plastic thingies for where the housings go into the shifters!! After phoning around, we drive out and get some from a friend, back to the task at hand. We start running the housing for the rear derailleur, working out how long it needs to be, when we realise that it is a good 30cm too short! On a Saturday afternoon at 5:30 with no hope of getting more. NOOOOOO!!!!!! The worst part is that I'm busy on conference all next weekend, so my first chance to ride it will be the 12th November. Sob! So I sucked it up, thanked my dad for putting so much time into the building up, and went home. At least I went for a 30km ride at NF on my trusty hardtail on Sunday!

Talking about doping... :-)

Hey, I don't know if those kinda drugs are approved for use before racing, but I think they'd take away any motivation! When I spoke to SP on Thursday, I was worried that if we didn't tie a string around her ankle, she'd float away (that's some SERIOUS meds!)

CONGRATULATIONS! That is excellent news, about the bike and the forthcoming sprog!

Aw Swissvan, you gotta stop doing that!!! How am I supposed to diet with all these chocolate pictures?! Spoke to SP last night, the op went well, she can move the arm a little already now that there is a plate in. Missed her on the morning ride this morning, especially when our other riding partner phoned to say that he'd overslept and I ended up on my own SP, the sunrise was beautiful at 5:30! Slowpoke is pretty high on drugs right now, whe I spoke to her last night, she'd already had 4 Lentagesic

Ja DR, and your speed off the edge will be remarkable!!

As said on TV, "Not gonna happen Bob!"

I'm with Droster, sometimes it's out of your control, i.e. 3rd flat of the day, or someone amateur stopped for whose pump had broken. I try and assess whether they need help, and sometimes ask if they're OK, but (gulp) I usually ride on despite the answer! Maybe I'm going about this wrong... Stopped to help one of the Colorpress development riders on Crater Cruise, no spare, no pump, no clue! I was a bit peeved at the club for not educating on such basics, possibly even supplying the said spares. But it gave me a good feeling to see Siphiwe finish because of my help!

mmm.... you're tempting me! Is this the Highgate race?

thanks Buddah, the weather was fine on our morning ride, now it's all dark and dingy!

My dad got me into cycling (and still bankrolls my new projects!) Mom rides a tiny bit. Hubbie has no interest, despite my constant efforts. But it's not all bad. Someone's gotta cook the breakfast on those public holiday extravaganzas!

Well, my pump (pomp for Drivetrain!) doesn't work any more. Once you've 'pomped' it (DT, don't get too excited now, it's still a workday), it leaks air pressure so I can't get an accurate reading (it's 4 bar, no wait, 3.5... wait no it's 2 bar...)

Well, mine has developed a permanent unreliability, I think my pump is kaput! But it is broken so a bit off topic...

I'll also email it to you, a bit bigger...

Hey, Subaru's rock, and they seem to be a very low hijack risk. You can get a nice Outback, space for bikes, holidays, etc.

.jpg or .jpeg or .gif or .png to a max of 50KB

Well, this was a great training ride for Crater. I will see you at the water table Droster! BigBen, hey I owned up to my crash first didn't I?! I love riding with a group of people where you fall, get up, laugh about it and carry on!

Some more pics of our group... ewep left, BigBen right, Slowpoke hiding behind ewep, dad in the middle. Byron where are you?! ewep's sacrifice to the MTB gods! we meant it, this was the most technical part!

After a tricky stream crossing, we headed out towards the Blockhuis. BigBen and Byron split after a few kms, they had a race at Rietvlei to get to. Thanks for joining us guys! So, our intrepid group continued... and my luck continued to go down. A flat rear tyre! Wow, what a helpful bunch! Slowpoke pulled out a new tube with slime already in it (better than my non-slime version) and between dad and ewep, the tube was changed in no time! I limped to the Engen One Stop, where we pumped up the tyre to 4 bar. But unbeknownst to us, the guage was faulty! So we blew the tube to smithereens!! Time to stop for some coffee and smoothies before trying again. This time we worked out what the problem was and pumped up the next spare tube to a decent pressure without overdoing it. Then we headed back towards home. Next came a loooong uphill and a quick coffee stop at my uncles, before our ride sadly came to an end. Thanks all for a great day out!MichH2006-10-09 02:55:32

The day dawned bright and sunny. We jumped in the car and headed out to the DEEP SOUTH. Dad and I arrived at Ewep's house and started putting the bikes together for our morning jaunt. My dad's generosity with bike parts knows no bounds and soon I was sporting a new set of bar ends. We set off and just to get it out the way, I fell within a few km of home in some thick sand. Not to be outdone, BigBen joined me when he oversimplified a corner. Come on people, I know this is a non-technical ride, but let's switch our brains on shall we?!MichH2006-10-09 02:42:36

Noooooo.....!!! Mampara you NEED to buy a MTB! we want to take you riding again! Seriously, the GT looks like a nice bike.