The_Break

What were your results before you got a power meter and coach? Meaning' date=' how far behind the pro's were you? What percentage do you think the power meter and coach made you improve? Thanx.[/quote'] For me going fulltime into cycling was always an economic question. Am I willing to give up work for a shot at my dream. So having the right person coaching me and a realstic idea of whether I had the talent or not physiologically was my biggest concern. The powertap for me was an analytical tool to prove yes or no as well as help me be coached on the level I needed. This being said, you can have the best test stats in the world and still be a bad cyclist or have "poor" stats and be a really good cyclist, cause cycling is not just about churning out massive watts, its about your body, your mind, how you use your tactics, taking the right opportunities and risks, your equipment, etc. Where am I going with this? Whether you buy a power meter or not and whether you have good stats or not, being a good or great cyclist is more than just one component. It is about putting it all together and creating a broad platform from which to launch into winning. Ok, I bought my powertap after only 1 month after having started with my coach. I was tested a few weeks later and my lactic threshold was 315W. It took me a year and I had upped that to 362W. I raced in Germany last year shortly after posting that figure in what one would call KT or continental team division. I was able to finish in the bunch in the road races, but crits and the cobbles I got roasted. I guess time would have helped if I had stayed for longer. I think your question should be to have someone look at your current training the past season and then evaluate if having a coach and power meter would lead to a big improvement. Could just be that your current system has got you right up where you need to be or maybe coaching whether with power or not couuld be just the thing to give you a massive improvement. You are welcome to PM if you are interested in me taking a look at that and possible coaching.

These are the kind of sessions power meters are worth buying for. 3sets of 5x1min with 1min easy and 3min between sets. Thats after 2 days of longer intervals and heart rate will be showing higher than normal tempting HR users to back off a bit. Here, you are still able to maintain power so it is good. It is also a nice tracking indication if you feeling weak and HR is being affected by other things as you will directly be able to see if you can maintain power or not. Nice thing is it regulates your training rides to. But like I said, it all needs to be carefully worked out or else you gonna want to crank big figures all the time. Coach is my advise if you need one, but then you need to do all the other good stuff that comes with that. Lekker set of deep sections and your HR monitor will probably get you just as far my man.

Will be interesting (and I am not trying to be facicious) to see what the car guard will do with it and how it will change his life.

Powertap - if you need coaching for sure. I am a qualified club level coach now in any case. hopefully soon to have my UCI level 1 rating.The_Break2010-01-14 10:29:32

Thysie, I think I said this a year ago, if you want to improve there are 2 ways, ride more or get a coach. As for me, not a gadget man, those were business investments. One of the lucky ones who now cycles for a living. or at least I can say I cycle for a job, I am still living, now I must get start getting paid for all of it, but yeah, without my power meter and my coach I would still be working the 9-5.

Thys Meades. Unless you have a coach who is able to sort out a program on power and you are willing to do interval sessions and the like, then a powertap is just goiing to waste your money. The main benefit over using a power meter vs a heart rate monitor is that power is instantaneous, whilst HR takes time to change and can vary slightly with varyiing conditions. This means if you are doing shorter interval work then you can see immediately what your power is, whilst HR you don't know till it stabilizes and then normally it is too late as you have been either over or under. If you want to use the meter for a serious training program with intervals, timme trials, controlled easy rides and the rest then yes, the power meter is the way to go. If you just want it because it matches your Ralf Vigors and bakkie, then no. Rather buy some better deep section wheels. P.S. Powertrain still rocks!

Ergo 2s are fantastic shoes, just be careful with the cleat bolt length that comes with some of the pedals. In my inexperience at the time I fitted normal look cleats and after 3 month I had major problems with my feet. Bolts stuck through rather thin inner and aggrevated my tendons and balls (of my feet ). Funny thing is you can't feel bolt tips by hand, only when you apply whole body weight does it press enough to hit foot. But yeah, great shoe. I also used DTM tri shoes at one stage and they were also really fantastic. One hint on both sets, use the correct torque rating for the cleat bolts as both my sets did eventually strip. Sidis have spares but the inner is never quite the same after cuttting. DTM cannot be fixed.

Hey I am not being funny when I ask this but it is very hard to believe that a drink can provide as many calories as is needed for those events. People will most certainly bonk on fluids alone. Can you look at the label and tell me what the max calorie mix is for a high concetrate formula? Take a look here: http://www.infinitnutrition.co.za/. This has been used by many top ironman athletes and is used by Joe Friel and Mark Allen. Spoken to Paul Wolff (Race Director from IMSA) who uses it and he swears by it. Also works out cheaper than buying gels and bars. The calcs show a max calorie rating of 366Cal per serving. That means you will need at least 2 servings per hour for an average person and 3 per hour if you are racing at Paul's level. SO that means at Paul's pace he will need 3 bottles per lap which means a stop every lap. It also means he will be running on a very full stomach of water for the last 3 hours of the marathon. That is just not feasible. I strongly doubt he uses only this fluid. There is no way you can race an Ironman on this stuff alone. May be a great product and I am sure he does endorse it, I just think it needs more of a calorie backup.

Only advice I can give you is make sure your real name is not on your profile. You gonna get a nickname now that the whole of SA knows you have Hems

you can pretty much eat anything you want so long as your body can convert it into energy and that there is enough of it. Most of us ride at about 500-1000kJ/hour(easy ride to racing) and if you convert that roughly to kJ you need to eat with all the losses in digesting and harnessing the energy it works out to 2000-4000kJ/hour. Obvioulsy you have your Glycogen stores and still fat reserves to work off of, but if you were to ride for say more 2 hours at huge intensity then it wouldn't be a bad thing eating at least half this much if you can get it down. Thats 3 jungle oat bars every hour. Needless to say, I get away with 1 Powerbar per/hour on training rides of medium intensity for up to 5 hours. But then I am hungry. Races of over 3 hours I chow big. When you get hungry it is already way to late and first signs of bonking will come in a weakish feeling in your legs if you are trained that is.

I am sure we can all learn a thing or 2 about forgiveness, but what do you call it when we slam guys who we don't know and have absolutely no bloody connection 2 or no idea what the heck is going on behind the scenes. I agree, we should drop all this skinner and have all these forums shut down.

Hi All Can anyone put me in contact with the bosses of the Bellville Velodrome? I am wanting to find out how I can access the facility? Regards, The_Break

yes, but why?

Give those buggers a short blast of pepper spray next time. Should stop them.

If you work it out, if you loose your bike once in about 6-7 years then Cyclesure will be an even deal. I have already paid for 2 of those with my first claim.

As far as I know Cyclesure are the only company who covers whilst racing. I crashed in a race in Germany last year and 3 days later I had the cash in my bank to to the value of the local German bikeshop. Claim was over 10K so they are very serious about business and deliver when needed. If your insurer claims to cover you in races and internationally then I suggest you get it from them in writing. Not your broker, the actual insurer, cause my previous insurers had fine print on that stuff which you do not see in the normal policy schedule of benefits.

Hi All Christmas Special! Look Keo Carbon Pedals CrMo @ R1449 Conti Sprinter Gatorskin @ R499 Ships in 2-3 days. While stock lasts.

I can get you one of those carbon crank to prove different.

Did you know however that they did produce Shimano's 1st carbon crank with the 7800? Now that is a cool crank. Those cables are only good for 1 thing. TT position when in a break. Otherwise I agree.

My 2C (only cause I ride tubbies and can only afford 2C worth): 1) Repaired tubbies sometimes have a small bump, bump effect, so if you can live with that then cool. 2) I doubt any shop will repair it for you. They wanna sell you another one. 3) If you wanna train and race on tubbies and don't mind changing between then get yourself 2 Continental Giro training tubbies. Dirt cheap and touugh as nails. Otherwise fix and train on your fix ones. 4) Is there any real benefit in riding the tubbies if you fill it with sealant. You can rather buy yourself some Vittoria Pro Diamante Lights or Corsa Evo CX and race clinchers cause they pump to 10bar and you can fix the flat. Either way, if you are on the level where tubbies are doing it for you then getting a flat with them is bad anyhow unless you riding with a backup vehicle and can get back on bunch quickly. Personally, I ride tubbies, been lucky to have only 1 puncture in 2 years, but by them on the net and they are nearly 1/2 - 2/3 of the price. I guess the cost of a racing clincher.

Okay. That is quite enough. Lets keep in mind its the distributors knocking the prices up so much and the lbs only ups the margin a bit but it stays a rip off. Unfortunately bike shops cant pay guys too much and they tend to leave quite often loosing not only skills but business knowledge. Your local lbs is fully aware of the situations they face. And lets face it we will never be 100% satisfied with the service we receive. . . I disagree somewhat. Importers do up the price, but bike shop margins are not low either. However, even though they are not low, I do agree that bike shops deserve to make profit and enjoy the benefits of self employment. No one is ripping anyone off, they just doing business like everyone else does. I have seen on this site again and again that people want everything for nothing. Buddy of mine posted a bike that he rode for about 2000km here worth R29000 and he got such crap offers that the closest was R17000 off the retail price. My point is, shops and importers have the right to charge what they, cyclists have the right to buy where they want (LBS or internet), but the only thing we should be able to complain about is the lack of good service that we generally find in the industry. My only question is: If shops make good money, like USA and EU shops do, why "can't" they employ more people who are properly trained. And I mean professionally trained.

3 best things I ever did for my services: 1) Realized I was the only person who really cares about myself as a customer (and I mean REALLY cares like I want my bike to be cared for) 2) Bought myself all the tools necessary to service my bike in full, except for the really big tools like hanger bracket alignment guage, etc. 3) Took the time to learn how to service and maintain my equipment myself according to the manufacturers specifications. In the past 3 years I have only ever had the following problems: Rear shifter cable snapped in STI twice on 2 different bikes. During this time I had completely built, rebuilt all 3 of my bikes at least 3 times, serviced them more than that each and this includes full service of the hubs (campy bora ultra and shamal ultra) I took my bike to the local bike shop 3 times: Once to get a front derailliear alignment "washer" for a frame I had just bought. I let up and let the shop fit it. Got dropped in 1st race because it was not fitted correctly. Once to have a new chain fitted because my chain breaker was still on its way back from germany in the post. The LBS put the link in on the wrong side and scuff, scuff, scuff everytime it came past the front deraillear. Once to have a bent hanger bracket straightened with a tool I never had. I watched like a hawk. 2 out of 3 got stuffed up! Total cost of labour in all those years = R0 I am not boasting, but just goes to show that you guys can do it yourself, save a stack of cash and when you gunning down a hill at 100km/h you will know what has happened to your bike and if you have done your job correctly, you gonna be safe and happy.The_Break2009-02-27 13:16:35

Never heard of the guy. Is he the guy with the pink undies underneath his cycling shorts?