Bianchi

Yeah I think that is a very stupid thing to do. I'm all for the quick skip when it's perfectly safe to do so, and when it's quiet, [and when the bunch is small enough to do it safely) but I've seen all too many cars appear out of nowhere and you don't want to be ushering a bunch across a red light then. As you said, it makes for a bad reputation.

Grabbed from Google Maps quickly. -25.772021, 28.416833

We traced a laptop with a datasim the other day, we had someone who knew someone who got someone to get us the tracking.... even with the coords (which we had updated a few times) we couldn't find the thing. The only accurate way of finding a phone is via its gps, as with the iPhone/Android phones, and that's only if the "findmydroid",etc software is functional under whatever circumstances.

The bike park as in the Boschkop MTB trail? (never been there before) Edit: Since you say it's by Rosemary Hill, so it's where the little stretch next to the N4 comes out onto the RMH road?

Mine sucked yesterday morning, at 7am the sun was unbearable

You should let your eyes relax a bit more and scan more than just the area in front of you. I wear contacts, and I have Rudy Project Racing Red Photochromic lenses and my eyes are fine on mtb rides of 3h+ still. Polaroids are a no-no for cycling. You can't see the water/glass with it, as Polaroids take away the glare caused by it. You can try going for the grey lenses, but be careful that you don't go too dark, as you can't see when you hit heavy shade all of a sudden.

Glad he's not hurt. It sucks at the best of times. Scary for me too, I ride out there most days of the week. Long stretches of road where there's me, myself and I and only the odd farm-worker or vehicle.

This. It's your best bet for using with a trailer. Should also be cheaper than having your towbar modified.

The worst part about England's batting performance was that Kieswetter (a South Africa), made almost half of their runs. Without his 35 runs they could very well have broken the T20 record-low of 67 runs. England was 60/9 at one stage, but then the bowler that handed Kieswetter half of those 35 runs, handed the #11 batsman 13-odd runs in one over. Overall, from where we sit, England got a thrashing to remember

Wish I could have taken a photo, but yeah. Saw the most beautiful sunrise on one side of the road and lightning on the other side. Had to turn back unfortunately as the rain threatened to get worse.

Do you have the cadence/speed sensor? Bryton recommends that you use it when you ride on your IDT (put it on the back wheel).

My Kenda small block 8 gets a fright each time it sees a)sand or b)mud. Doesn't stop me though. Pretoria has a lot of dust which with these last two weeks has all turned to mud, so I just grind through it all and use it to my experience (mud -> tyres -> extra weight -> tougher riding -> #whatdoesnotkillmemakesmestronger )

You just convinced me.

Indeed. It's an awesome tool. Bit lacking in the stiffness department on the farm, but it does a very good job otherwise.

Does this count? http://professional-power-tool-guide.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/leatherman-wave-2.jpg

Depreciation is what he's getting at. But it doesn't in any fashion tell you when your bike is kaput. Upgrades on a bike screws that one up. My one bike is 8 years old (well the frame, that is), but the components are brand new and the frame performs just as well as a brand new one.

I'm 177 and ride a medium 29er. But I think I get you on it, I feel I could maybe maybe fit into a small. Best would be to try the bikes out, see if she fits on them. The 29er felt big for me at first, but now it's as easy as riding a bike.... well, yeah. Mostly.

Yes. Funny thing is, this route is (in parts) what the Pretoria guys train on regularly. Maybe we're just used to it

For 15k you can look at the Scott Scale Elite 29er (iirc) that costs 12k. I looked at it a while ago and it's not a bad bike at all. Full XT, Rock Shox Reba. Elixir 3 brakes (admittedly not my favourite) and it weighs 11.5kg.

Pretoria did have a road race - The Union buildings one (the name changed a few times so no name for it). Was fun and all, it just collapsed because of sponsorship issues. Same as this, road closures were an issue.

The power of the braking force is definitely where your rotors meet your brake pads. It's probably true that the area of contact between the rotors and brake pads is relational to the stopping power, but it's also obviously going to be determined by the friction between the pads and the rotor. All your brake levers do is force pressure into the hose which in turn forces the pistons out onto the brake pads between which the rotor is pinched.

Don't remind us about that one... the road closures plus the lack of motorists actually listening to the marshalls was shocking. I don't know how you can actually get all these roads [semi]-closed off properly, but good luck to them, in all honesty. These are busy roads but they are awesome to ride on either way.

I saw a couple of video cameras. Perhaps they captured stills from the footage?

They actually called us to go around. ;-)

I spent a total of over 30min in bottlenecks waiting to go. But I enjoyed the race. Was a fun ride for me, my time is horrible though, seeing as I wasn't seeded and spent half the race in traffic, but I'll be back,