The_Break

See, we have threads about cyclists are rude, runners are rude, motorcyclists are rude, but now I have heard it all, 4-wheelers!!!!! Must admit, the chick in the stripped kit has strong looking legs.

If you are not pulling your weight and riding like you need to then you should not be at the front of that bunch else you ARE interfering with their work. If they don't perform they loose their job end of season and unlike you, many of them don't have a comfy job to go back to on Monday and rest the tired legs from the weekends joy ride out. It is not about being rude, it is about having to put up with "plonkers" every weekend because the races are not seperated into correct categories or other riders jump on the back from shorter events or or bunches they have been dropped from. At least this is how they view it. It is hard enough out there without all the extra stuff that goes on when they know that there are only a few of them out there that are going to the line for the money whilst the rest just sit wheel for as ong as they can and get in the way. Unfortunately we have all been there and so there is no real solution so best we can all do is try and understand al points of view.

That is most definitely a warranty. EU roads are worse than ours and they will for sure cater for them. Cobble-stones!!!!!

?5-?10%, sound like I will need to take a trip there next week. Thanks for the tip!!! Any Maties or others keen to join? Will be driving through. To Wellington and starting from there.

Ok, so I take it there are none beside the lonely one in Franshoek and the one on Ou Kaaps.

Become a duathlete and problem solved!!!! You get to meet the good looking girls on both teams and you will be less bothered by the runners. Besides, pedestrains always take preference on the road, cyclists 2nd and then other vehicles.

No one?

I agree, except when it comes from a company like Cervelo where they use the correct computational tools during the R&D. A cheap frame anywhere close to that weight from China or Taiwan which has no design traceability I would not touch with a ten foot barge pole. You pay for what you get. What is more important is the testing of there products and they are pretty open about their test results. As for pushing lower than the 6.8kg mark, that is in prep for future legal limits. If fuel companies never improved fuel to the point where we had rocket fuel we would not have space exporatin today and we would also probably therefore nt have affordable carbon fibre bikes.

Here are two magiv tricks even though you not looking. On getting to the base of the climb, start near the front. This could save you 30m or more as you will slowly move through the bunch and may still be on the back by the end of the climb. Sometimes even going to the front a setting the pace helps if no one is keen to ride hard as you set the tempo you are comfortable with. Only works sometime though. Then a nice magic trick, when you climb, climb in the drops when you are out the saddle. Your arms will be straighter and you will have more push and pull on the bars. It is like a small set of legs extra. This is one of the reasons I mentioned having stiff stem and bars as the power transfers nicely into motion. Try it during training and you will quickly notice the diffrence between climbing on the hoods with bent arms and in the drops with straighter arms.

Compact or even the change to triple ring. South Africans are a bit too proud for triple and will always advise get stronger and ride a double, but in Europe triple is common for the non-elite groups. May be a few hundred grams heavier but it will work wonders.

Gators are more a training tyre so you will save some time on a racing tyre. Best racing tyre I ever used was a Vittoria Pro Diamante Light. Lasted me longer than any tyre I have ever ridden and are really good rollers. Corsa Evo CX open clincher is fast but doesn't last that long. Nice thing about Vittoria is that you can pump to 10bar if your rims can take that. I have also used Conti GP4000s to good effect. Hutchinson I find a bit soft. Sound like your wheels alone are about 2.6-2.8kg. So with a pretty standard set of deep section you should take off about 1kg. That in itself on wheels will help you. There are so many good wheelsets out there. I suggest doing some research. I have only ridden a few of them so would be bias. Stiffness, there is a simple way to test. Stand with bike next to you and press down and inward in the pedal to see if there is a sideways flex in the frame. Try a few different bike of diferent materials and costs if you can manage to convince the owner. You will notice the flex to vary. Sometimes quiet a bit. Get a feel for a good and a bad flex. Now this is what happens when you trap out the saddle with a leaned-to-the-side bike. Just like a spring, it takes energy to flex the frame. Now when you are cycling your push on the pedal is over a very short time and with a stiffer bike the energy goes into moving the bike forward instead of flexing the frame. It has to do with reaction time. Imagine bike wheel with a rubber arm and a metal arm sticking out. If you try and rotate the wheel with the metal arm it will move as fast as you push. However with a rubber arm, if you push really quickly and release the drum will not really move as the rubber took up all of the push. If you however push slowly on the rubber arm it has time to allow the wheel to turn. This is similar to what happens in a bike. Reaction time allowing the flex. Stiffer the frame the better the reaction on short time intervals.

That makes alot of sense. So if I am sitting on the piece between my bum and wee willy winky does this mean that I need to move the seat forward or backward? Well you obviously 1st need to make sure that your saddle is correct height and that your knee is in the correct position over the pedal at the correct point. If this is correct then you will probably need to move the seat forward until you are on your sitting bones toward the rear of the saddle. Like in the oval selle san marco points in the figure below. Make sure there is a gap where that vein through to your penis. This particular saddle points slightly up as it is spoon shaped to relieve pressure in the mid region. If you do move your seat or replace it be sure to recheck your fore/aft and seat to BB length. Also, make sure you keep in mind to sit in the position on the saddle that you set it up to as you will naturally want to move forward to the old position. Keep thinking, move back, move back, move back whilst you ride or else you will end up having numb nuts and sore knees.

This is true. When you really go into saddle design and setup you will see that saddles are not always meant to look like they are level. Some saddles are specifically designed to have the spoon shape like above. Reason for this is different riding positions over different terrain and times in a race. Back for climbing, normal for normal ridng and when you are in a break and want a more aero position you are then able to move toward the front of your saddle. Reason it points upward is that you are then able to move forward whilst keeping your effective inseam at the correct length. I.e. reason why if you move forward in a TT setup you also need to raise your seat. So yes, a lot more to a saddle than just keeping it level. But it takes someone who is able to set you up properly before you start playing around in detail.

Saddles for me are pretty simple. When you set them up you need to make sure that your fore/aft and level are correct or sometimes you end up shifting forward which is a big cause of numb nuts. You basically end up sitting on the piece between your anus and your penis (for the correct medical term) thereby blocking the blood flow. So making sure you are in the correct position is the start of the solution. Then, once you are in the correct position and it still happens then you need to look at your saddle. My preference on a saddle is to go as hard as possible. Reason for this is simple. If you sink into a nice big soft saddle you end up squashing your shammy and everything below it. Whilst you may have an even pressure distribution, it will most often be enough to block blood flow. I ride a hard saddle with a minimal shammy and no cream. What happens is you should end up sitting purely on 2x 50C piece size sitting bones at the rear of your saddle and after a few training rides the nerves in these very small areas deaden, sort of like your elbow skin (try pinch your elbow skin and make it hurt). Once this happens you will not feel any pain on your saddle anymore. As you are not compressing everything with all that padding you will also open up the blood flow. And, as you are not using cream your butt should toughen up a bit like it is designed to. Human body is amazing. If you still have problem then your seat is most probably in need of a replacement as if you cannot sit on your sitting bones then the seat has failed in its design. Good luck! Takes a while to get tough, but once you are you will be bimb proof.

I agree, 11-25 is a good choice, I ride with them. Most of the time you will be riding in a pack so cadence won't be an issue there, in breakaways the 11T definitely helps you keep that high speed on decents adn the 25 tooth helps reduce long term fatigue from heavy climbs and helps with keeping with bunch on the really steep stuff.

Hi All Capetownians and Bolandians Any suggestions on where I can find some nice tar hairpins with a variety of slope, road grade, diameter, etc in the area? Regards, The_Break P.S. Fabian C challenged me to a downhill.

What would be a fair price on the Rudy Project Rydon Clear Photochromic?? Well RRP is fair, it is just that other sources are willing to take less of a profit. I know CWC sells then for about R1699, but I have seen them on the web for just over R1000 and then there are also deals where you get free lenses and kitbags and helmets and all those things for about R1500 excl shipping. I just need to find a way to get it from those sources as they will not ship ouutside their territory.

I posted the same question a few weeks ago. The Oakley side was quiet whilst the Rudy side was loud and clear that you will not be disappointed. I am currently trying to find myself a pair at a good price. Unfortunately I cannot support local as they are much more expensive than US and EU.