joevan

Upgraded from Raleigh to Felt last November. Excellent bikes, you can't go wrong!!

If you've never MTB'd at all, try and borrow a bike first and ride with some mates. It is very different from Road biking!! If the bug bites, which it probably will, go to a good LBS for further advise on bikes. THese days, you can get a good entry level MTB with decent specs for under R8000.00. Don't know where you stay, so can't give advise on which LBS to go to.

Schwinn came out with a seat clamp that a bottle cage could be screwed on, but it's not the best for muddy rides unless you have a rear mudflap as well. Mud comes up off the rear wheel straight onto the bottle. so you get a "organic mix" when you take a sip!!

To be fair, different people experience different service levels at LBS's. At the shop originally named, I have experienced both excellent and poor service. Often it depends on who you are dealing with, some staff take thier job's seriously, and others don't. Now before the comments fly, yes, I agree, management should not allow this to happen. Also the customers approach can often be the trigger to the kind of service received. We as customers need to be more assertive, if you experience bad service, take the issue up there and then. If the management shows no sign of interest in your comments, then tell them clearly that they have lost a customer. Sooner or later, they will either get it right, or they will go out of business!!

Try Meurant at Dirtopia. He will be able to help or advise. Dirtopia Contact Details Trail Centre: ?Tel: 021 884 4752 ?Fax: 021 884 4752 Meurant Botha: ?Tel:083 450 5313 ?email: meurant@dirtopia.co.za Arina Botha: ?Tel:083 284 5932 ?email: arina@dirtopia.co.za

Also had a traffic circle "experience" this weekend. Not too serious, but cost some money on bike repair. Hope Wouter gets well soon. Think we will have to accept that some motorists only recognise vehicles that have a big metal body and four wheels. Can't say how many times I have looked a motorist straight in the eyes, and then when you yell at them, they suddenly are shocked to discover that there is something other than a car in thier way. It's really a sad comment on driver training, and the ease of obtaining a licence!!

Hi Slowpoke, The idiot eventually stopped halfway down the next road. I caught up to him and gave him a good peice of my mind and threatened to drag him down to the nearest Police station. His only comment, "Is it because I'm Black?" Funny, I hadn't made any mention of color!! Almost belted him one then, but decided that it wasn't worth it, he is the type who will rush off and lay an assault charge. Not much faith in the local police anyway from previous experience. Took the wheel to Cycle factory, but it was stuffed, so had to get a new set of wheels. (A present to myself!!) These things happen, and as you say, as long as no-one is badly hurt, that's what counts.

I was there this morning. Told them they may have a new customer soon. Had to get new wheels after my close encounter with a idiot motorist yesterday. Mavic rims, Shimano Dura Ace hubs R3300.00, all set up and ready in less than an hour!! Five stars for service

akshun Great bunch of guys, full service, sales, fitting, workshop etc. Speak to Ian or Kyle Check out thier website http://cyclefactory.co.za/content/view/13/47/ If you are a beginner or a novice, we take special care in not making you feel intimidated when buying a bicycle. Bicycles and all options are explained in friendly, down to earth terms and you are not sold anything that is beyond what you really need. We have beginner?s aluminium mountain bikes for as little as R1400 and top brand road bikes that start at just R3,100, so it is now more affordable than ever to get into cycling. Interestingly enough I also upgraded from a Raleigh RC2000. I went for the Felt Z80 selling at R6200.00. R1000 off the list price, but if you have 8K to spend you can do better. The FELT F85 is about in your price range. This is a compact crankset with 10 speed rear and acceptable components, but they have other models as well.such as the F5, goes for about R10k. This is a carbon frame if you are into that. Also stock other brands so theres a good choice rangejoevan2008-03-21 16:40:49

Try Cycle Factory in Montague Gardens 021 5528285 You should be able to put your 8K to good use there

Almost got taken out this afternoon about 2pm at Bothasig/Plattekloof circle by an idiot in a beige Cressida coming from the Tableview side and ignoring the fact that I was already in the circle heading for Tiekiedraai. Had to brake so hard, dropped the bike!! He didn't bother to stop, probably didn't even realise tht there was a cyclist around, and that he almost killed one. Bent rear derailier, and buckled rear wheel. Why is it that these idoits don't see cyclists at all??????????????? Maybe we must fit revolving blue lights on top of our helmets!!

What year is the model you are buying? If it's a 2007, you will get a better price as they always discount near the year end to clear old stock. I bought a Z80 last year end November, and got R1000.00 off list price. Wish I could have afforded one of the F series though, but still very happy with the bike.

butafly, I agree 100% with your thoughts of amalgamation with one group concentrating on funrides and the other on competitive cycling. Then you would have the choice of being a member of whichever of the two suited your own needs, and each organisation could concentrate thier management and resources on meeting the needs of thier members, rather than squabbling with each other and thier individual members.

Windbreaker, Yes it is a great pity that the younger cyclists who get so much more out of the sport than the older cyclists, don't bother to attend these events and exercise thier voting rights, but I saw the same behavior when I was part of Western Province Waveski Association. It seems to be a pretty common problem in sporting bodies. Although the voting was primarily done by the "elders", I believe the closeness of the vote was caused by the old members who didn't want any thing to change, (we are funriders and must never be anything else)as opposed to the members who still hoped that giving it another go might result in some benefit for all riders, both funriders and pro's. I was one of the latter. I had to take into account, what happens to PPA as an organisation if they decide to stand alone? I can't see them surviving in the long term. Historically all Kingdoms ultimately fall. What was obvious from the "presentations" was that neither PPA nor CSA could claim that they were blameless. The argument over the licencing issue decision taken at the congress was a case in point. CSA claimed that PPA knew about it and failed to make thier case, Steve Hayward claimed that PPA did not receive the notification. Then Lawrence Whiitaker tries to make the point how thier closeness to PPA reduced the cost to R20.00 instead of R100.00 for non-competive members licencing. All smoke and mirrors as far as I can see. Fortunately the decision had to be made last night, and could not be put off for another three years. Now they have to do something to make it work, we hope!!!!!!!!

Willehond, General impresion I got from the big brass, thay wanted to stay in, but were wary of commiting in case the members disagreed.

So did I Peter, but rational thought and heads won the day. I hope you guys on the committee got the message. Use your influence to drive CSA in a direction to suit both the funriders and the racers joevan2008-03-12 15:54:36

Quote "lots of smoke and mirrors by some Lance dude" What do you expect from a lawyer?????????

butafly, I agree with your comments, age and wiseness gave the day to the heads. My heart would have said split, but that would have been mostly anger at the poor performance of both the PPA and CSA in this whole affair, and I must admit that up until I listened to all the arguments, some of which were pathetic, my head said stay and lets hope that the parties can get thier act together. The turnout was an exercise in apathy and the poor turnout of the younger generation, who have so much more to gain in the long run than us oldies was not too surprising. Have seen this same trend in other sports. Good thing that there was no opportunity to delay the "sunset" clause, I believe that a lot of the problems have been caused by not being forced to make a decision earlier. As PPA members, we need now to put pressure on our "elected officials" to drive the unification process in a direction that will suit the needs of both the funriders, and the racers. We need more transparency and improved reporting to the members in the future, this will go along way to eliminating the misconceptions that result in the ill feelings. Was hoping to finally meet some of the hbbers, but saw no wrist bands and did not feel like walking around asking people "are you a hubber?" THat would have been too much like the fugitive game on KFM radio BTW I was on the lookout for Hubbers, hoping to meet some of you at last, but saw no wristbands.

Wow!!!!!!!! Nothing so interesting or boring as "experts" all trying to prove "scientifically" that thier theory is correct. All Wolverine originally asked for was some simple advice! All several people tried to do was to point out to Wolverine some areas to check based on PERSONAL EXPERIENCE not textbooks. I have no need to debate this subject any further. Been there, done that in the end experience will win the day!!!!!!! Subject closed!! Hope you and Control C enjoy your debate - you'll need to have a few beers when it's over.

Oh and by the way, couldn't find any mechanics who were prepared to test the rider theory since it came on suddenly at 180km, and then remained there until until the speed had dropped to about 100km/hr. Can't say I blame them. The tank slapper I had was so bad, that I was literally bouncing off the armco barriers on either side of a three lane freeway!!!!!!!!!!1joevan2008-02-21 15:21:21

Sorry Johann, maybe I didn't make it clear enough. I concurred with your disagreement on the explanation from The Break regarding friction, frame shortening because of the speed etc. Certainally at higher speeds, I would expect the "friction" on the front tyre to decrease, not increase, unless of course the rider is stiffenig up and putting all his weight on his arms and thus the front wheel. This supports your contention of rider involvement. In my motorcycling case, we firstly found that the idiots who assembeled the bike had not tightened up the steering head, and that was pretty loose. That partly sorted out the problem. Next we fitted a brace between the two sides of the fork, matters improved further, but the "hint" of a potential wobble was still there all be it mild. It was one of the SA motorcycle circuit racers who raised the tyre issue. He went into a long and detailed explanation of tread patterns, direction of rotation, irregularities in the tread pattern etc. We fitted a new tyre, and no more wobble!!!!! Yes I also agree items carried on the bike which can affect the balnce of the rider, and centre of gravity can also play a role.

I agree with you to some extent Johann, the explanation offered was a bit overboard. Luckily I've never experienced this on a pedal cycle, but many years ago when I was a serious motorcyclist, experienced what in m otorcycling terms is commonly known as a tank slapper. This happened at 180km/hr, so I experienced a rapid aging process as well. After many visits to the "experts" and a lot of experimentation, traced the problem to two areas: 1. Fork walk - the front forks were flexing at high speeds. 2. Irregularity in the front tyre. After changing the tyre and bracing the front fork, never had this happen again. The rolling mechanics of a two wheeled vehicle whether powered by an engine or by two feet must be pretty similar. I'd start by looking at the same areas on a bicycle, -- forks, cracked or flexing, loose steering head, (In fact in the long gone days, many motorcycles were fitted with an adjustable head bolt that could be tightened up by hand if you wanted to go fast), and change the front tyre to see if this makes any difference.joevan2008-02-21 14:32:45

I agree Big Momma, this will be the way of the future joevan2008-02-20 14:50:00

ControlC Find another group to ride with!!!!!!!! If we as cyclists persist in this sort of riding, we can hardly expect the motorists to have any respect for us. As I said earlier in this thread, because of the attitude of our club to traffic rules, we are actually gaining the respect of local motorists. Unfortunately, there are always those few who spoil it for all the rest of us.

Homer, satisfy my curiosity. Picture No 1 taken at Jonkershoek?? I have a pic taken on Womans day last August. which looks like the same spot. While the woman were enjoying thier day, a mate and I went there and spent 4hrs riding, climbed WAY up in the mountains, had some fun on switchbacks, splashed through lots of mud, and had some scary downhills through the forest. Cost? R20.00 for the permit!!!!!!!!!!1