Paul Ruinaard

Nope totally agree. Whatever gets you on the bike. I keep thinking of the continuum that leads to this. You start all gung ho as a noob, then do every race known to man ten get tired of that , then you start MTBing and get even more extreme. then eventually after all that when you have been far and have PB's etc and everything is achieved - you pine for a fun ride with your mates. So the final stage is when you are riding with mates socially. Thats the arc of a cyclist. Be it in races or not. When the views from your house are next level and the rides are so good you are spoilt for choice then you are really somewhat spoiled and need to guard against becoming jaded.

lekker thanks for the reply.

I was thinking the same. I think i have done 13 x official 94.7s and some more i dont think I got credited with or didn't finish but it was like I am no longer really excited by events like this and just enjoy riding and being outdoors and better still with mates. Having moved down to Paarl the routes are next level but its the same - was thinking about all the lead in rides to CTCT i need to do and wondering how i am going to enjoy it. Rather just ride for fun. Jhb and Highveld at this time of year is next level when the weather is mentioned.

Can you put some of the tingly peppermint stuff in to a batch and sell it as Xmas ass Magic with peppermint zing. Not only do we smell better but it numbs all the bits.

i just hope your protocol for applying ass magic/chamois cream was to put it on the chamois and put the shorts on to you and not the other way around my mates use which is to grease the undercarriage directly and make sure its in the right spots. #justaying it may not have been the ass magic that worked the wonder on your lips if it was the latter.

you will be able to tell its him coming to visit because he will be walking like a man who has been on a horse for a couple of days 🙂

Blue Steel is good. Assos also do a cream. Anything with Lanolin as well will help - you can go to the co-op and get a tub of udder cream but you wont smell so lekker although your tender tush will be less inflamed....

yep all of this stuff etc - get it professionally done. even though this was all sorted it wasnt the correct fit for me . I cant stress how much difference that fit made as the pelvis was over rotated so i was completely wrong even though the heights etc were correct and fore aft. Q factors etc - all hugely impactful and very individual. It was the difference between being in pain after 3 hours which i assumed was standard for old fat guys and being fresh and comfortable after 3 hours which is what i got for about R 2k. You dont try and set your cars wheel alignment with a plumb line after buying new tyres do you - although it can be done. Get it professionally done.

I just read the Magene spec and one feature i cant see if it gives an audible warning with the car approaching - which is a feature of the Garmin. As the post above says you start to listen for that warning when you are out on the road and look to see whats coming and if necessary to move closer to the shoulder or off the shoulder. FWIW and i am not sure everyone knows this but its a couple of CTN boytjies who developed it and sold it to Garmin and i believe they still work on the code and features for it. https://businesstech.co.za/news/trending/77267/garmin-acquires-sa-startup-ikubu/ So you are buying local. But if i was Garmin i would start using this thread on my website - hell i know i am a fan boy but this is next level.

FWIW the Garmin is the best upgrade i have done to my bike in terms of safety. I cannot overstate how much i use it and rely on it for information about approaching cars as well as looking at it to tell me if there are cars behind me when I am moving around lanes and turning. It will become integral to the way you ride. I was out on the MTB on the road and don't have the Varia tail light fitted to that MTB, but i still kept glancing down to the Garmin head unit to see what traffic was behind me when i heard road noise from behind as its become second nature to check it and to listen to the audible warnings. I cant comment on the Magene but will happily say that the Varia is indispensable if you ride on the road with traffic from the back.

go back to the fit dude or get one like Richard that does the pressure assessment using the gel seat cover - honestly made the world of difference to me. I thought i knew a lot about fit after 20 years but tech makes a huge difference and it showed the pressure points on my pelvis which was completely wrong even though height and distance to stem were all right. I published a long string about this. Its money well spent as the chance os you getting it like they can are slim, as you dont have the insights they do. FWIW my FTP increased something like 10% immediately.

Okay so I had some fun here and a lot is tongue in cheek and I do go to the concept stores to look at the drool worthy bikes but when i look at the prices i have a bad WTF reaction. FWIW I was watching the insert on Cadence last night on DSTV where they profiled Woodstock cycles. Now that's a bike shop. People like Mellow Velo who were always good and always had stock of everything or would get what i wanted and the like. Willing to charge like wounded buffaloes for the pleasure but he commanded a premium in my book cause he knew his sh&t and added value. The other guy who was my go to shop was Josh at Complete Cyclists who i am told sadly has burned down. Josh built more bikes for me than i knew and i think he was always entertained by whatever crazy project i dreamed up and wanted built. We geeked out on things jointly as he brought my visions to life. There is something innately creative that fulfils a piece of my being and needs to bring life to a project and imagining the finished product, then procuring the bits and discussing the build and specs with the bike shops. Bikes are inherently simple and easy to fix but also complex with small things that make a difference - spoke tensions and nipples and rim widths etc. As you can see i climbed pretty far down the rabbit hole of cycling and cycling lore over the 25 years or so since i got my first onramp drugs. So far that when i moved hoods to Paarl i went and interviewed bike shops to see who would be my go to guys for my projects and the like and i see to have found a like minded bunch in the All Mountain dudes in Simondium who are now building a little hardtail runaround for me. i arrived there with a box of leftovers from various projects in my garage and they are effectively bringing a box of spares to life with some added bits, which will become a real living bike. I love doing this and i love their passion for the project and getting freehubs to work with hub bodies, building wheels out of rims and hubs and machining adapters for me. Thats craft. The lifestyle/concept stores have their place and TBH i spend time with my nose pressed up against their exciting store windows but take my money elsewhere. Mixed feelings but they always seem so superior - and therefore I am not a major fan as they also have to support a rental and staff etc that is a minimum stake and pay the franchisors etc so its a different model. Having said that i have a garage full of Specialized's but i was buying the brand starting in 2000 and i do think they have some wicked ideas. Also have had Treks and Cannondales along the way and some Santa Cruz and the like thrown in for good measure oh and some real craft things like Lynskey single speeds and Merlin Cielo (which i sold after a divorce and still regret). My 2 cents worth - but its Friday so dont take any of these ramblings seriously 🙂

Mellow was my go to shop before I moved down to Paarl. Very good store

This is exactly what i suspected. Go to a fancy concept store and pay huge wedges of wonga for the "lifestyle" toy. Concepts store appeal to the market where the people measure worth by putting R 12k 12 speed Rainbow GX clusters on their bikes and drinking soy lattes in Assos bibs whilst wearing everything carbon and Garmin and Tarmac SL 7. Even the branding is all designer - EXe 9.8 mish mash wakanda forever Turbo SL type stuff with the matrix thrown in on the supplements. But little do they know the guys behind the counter are all window dressing and more social media influencers than bike mechanics. The saps buy the brand and the lifestyle implied hook line and sinker. But eventually they find out that for their top dollar they don't get a pre delivery inspection and real service. For that you need to actually have some knowledge of how the bikes work and spent a bit of time with grease on your hands in the back rooms.

yep

desktop - Chrome on Mac. Also just had a refresh as well so maybe. I havent Ctrl F5 yet

will try a refresh i just bailed straight to Whatsapp.

I get it. App evolution is like glueing pieces together with sticky tape and bubblegum but as long as the users dont get exposed to the plumbings issues then its all good :-).

its around replying to messages on an ad Matt.

Then when you buy a water bottle or similar widget when you are there they seem to think its time to recover all the margin they lost in Covvid. Specialized and Trek concept stores are IMO to be avoided like the plague, mostly for the smarmy superior counter staff who want to explain why their brand of carbon is better than someone else's and the Trek Madone/Domane is better than the Tarmac SL7 or whatever it is. And because you are older and a bit round in the middle they also look down their young ultra fit pointy lean noses at you when you are looking for bigger sizes of their gear. FWIW I was on bikes when they were still in nappies. Honestly my experience is that concept stores they have screwed up the bikes i have taken them more than fixed them and i have to go back to corner bike shops to get it fixed. And don't ask them to do or work on anything else other than their brand. It may corrupt their workshops and bring viruses in.

also had issues and have resorted to whatsapp. I couldnt reply on a direct message as it wouldn't scroll down. Seems like web issues. Why make this all so complex - if you do that we will leave your walled garden to whatsapp and other platforms.

BTW for the guys geeking out on this thread there was a post up top there about a very nice app i downloaded now from the African Snake Institute which has a lot of good information in it.

yep if i have been bitten by snakes i am not F00king around at that point ... But yeah you need to know what cause you need to get the right anti venom. Lots of times they dont even use ant venom.

Not sure if you saw these items: https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/woman-recovering-in-hospital-after-puff-adder-bite-at-drakensberg-hotel-77539bb8-9cf7-4e8c-bb61-134c572678ce https://www.iol.co.za/mercury/news/woman-captures-puff-adder-striking-after-it-had-bitten-her-ankle-landing-her-in-eastern-cape-hospital-for-2-days-881f6027-2223-49b0-850d-f5d60a1de057#:~:text=by Mark Marshall.-,A woman was bitten by a puff adder on the,hospital%3A Supplied by Mark Marshall Both of these are puff adders and both are likely driven by people almost stepping on them. As they say if you go running in sandals and the like in snake infested territories... Both people are recovering.

We had an incident with a spitting cobra and kids in a bungalow in Brits where a Moz cobra was in the bungalow hunting frogs and the kids came between it and the prey so it spat at him. Very logical for the snake as well. You are threatening him. Moz cobras are another one that doesn't run away - he will spit at you. They are pin accurate as well from a distance of some metres. Very well adapted animal and strategy. They will hit your eyes from metres away. They are also pretty common and quite dangerous. FWIW the kid spent the night in some pain in the hospital and was fine. What set my senses off was when the kids complained that the "frogs" spat at them and it burned, then i realised it had to be something else as there are no spitting frogs. Again beautiful from a distance, respect them and leave them alone. They can and will spit at you from metres away. Aggressive, well camouflaged and great strategy. So be careful when they are around or could be around. You have to be either very unlucky or stupid to get bitten properly and actually get within range. . Dont screw with wild animals at all be they lions or giraffes or snakes. If you do get bitten/stomped on etc and survive then you can always find what you did wrong. A lot of the time there is a warning etc that is ignored when the animal threatens or indicates its next move will be an attack. If you ignored this and still moved in to their space then you are effectively threatening their existence. Same as them, when that happens to you, you react.