Swift01

Something I have noticed is the difference between getting it tested via the various machines. The old manual method is very good, but the machines can differ a lot. i finally bought my own machine so at least I can track it via the one source. Since I have done that I have realised my BP is actually very normal. I would get it tested and be high, then tested the next day and me normal. Most of the time it was high. Since I have tracked it over the last 2 months there has been very few cases where it is high (quite often after a hectic ride - no gels) but it has only happened a couple of times. Best thing to do it write down what you ate that day take your BP morning and evening. If it is high cut back on say coffee or salt. I have found more than 3 cups of coffee during the day effects it quite a bit. Cut it out and it is fine during that period. My sister who is on tablets finds coffee and salt is her worst things.

I am also going SS soon but it will be a 26er due to the fact the training bike is that. I can see the bennefit of a 29er SS especially when on the longer flatter roads where you would be spinning like mad on the SS to get good speed. I would imagine the 29er helps generate a bit more pace on the flats......

@ Ratty Sorry to hear about your dad. They are right though find another stage race to ride it with him. I did Sani2c with my dad last year, was awesome. the year before he rode 3 Towers with my sister. Who knows may be we get him to ride 3 towers with his gandson this year.......... Got to grab every chance you can. Glad to hear you found another partner.

Damn, hope it heals quickly, thats some serious metal you have there..... Yip broek my carbon merida frame while riding with my 8 yrs old niece few years back. I was doing about 15km/hr and chatting away and idn't see the big rock in front of me.... Accidents lurk around the corner when you lest expect them......

2 spinning sessions and a couple of beers

You guys will all be fine trust me. That's one great thing about the sani race, it's tough at times but everything you can ride and there seems to be just the right amount of tough parts and easy parts to recover. One of he best balanced races I have done, and now they have made it easier on day 2 and 3. Only stage race I know that there is so much food at the stops and race villages you can pick up weight

I actually prefer to be left alone. I can walk around look at things and if I don't see what I want then I will go ask. It's is like the manager that ALWAYS arrives as you take the 2nd bite of your food and asks "Is everything ok" so you have to cover your mouth cause it's full and try mumble something...... For sure if you walk around and don't touch anything you generally get left alone. Pick things up and they will be there. I bet being sales people they generally can see if someone is browsing or wants to buy something. They may get it wrong every now and again. With me it's easy, they see a scotsman walking in and know he is browsing only

As far as i know the rules say you can have them mounted on your bike but not on your body or helmet.

No site. I had a friend that was anal about getting things ready so he made a check list and sent it too me. Page 2 even goes on about mixing his juice etc ha ha

Check list for stage races. Should have most stuff on it :-)

thanx. I already run the bike with larger chainrings (48, 36, 26) and a road bike cassette 11-25. The finaly gear ration means I effectively don't have a granny gear (previously I just had a normal 3x9 setup but took the granny gear off). As you can see I have been playing with gears for a while now (1.5yrs). so I guess the next step is a few rides in 1 gear just to get a feel for the ratio's them commit by stripping the bike. The dark side is not far away :-) Still going to keep the normal fork up front at the moment. I will leave the super dark ridgit fork side for later

Hi, No doubt been asked before and I was reading the thread on chains. So what does one need to convert to SS without out spending too much money. 1. I assume one can just carry on using their normal cranks and just put 1 chain ring on. or are their in expensive cranks out there? 2. The rear hub/free wheel. I assume one can just use their normal wheels, or are there any special freewheel bodies ones needs as I would imagine there is a lot of force being put into that back wheel on the hills (if your not already walking) 3. Rear Cassette (or lack of) 4. Chain tensioner? At this stage I don't want to spend much money while testing the SS waters out. Also what is the normal gear ratio's

Yip find some chick with clear nail polish. Use it on chips on my car works great

The Santa cruz Highball if your looking for 29er HT also has a very short top tube compared to most 29er's.

yeah and as you can see from the one pic he did not even know there was a croc there.

What an awesome evet and route. Ok there is some climbing to be done but they did not lie when they said the view is amazing. Definately be back next year. Had just about everything, tons of single track, hills and flats. Being in a game reserve we were expecting a few Kudu, impala, may be even a snake, but this weeks meeting at work I have an excellent safety share topic. Beware of crocs while riding. Most people missed it until we shouted as he was very dusty and blended in so well. Route marking was awesome, some bigger more expensive events could learn a few things from these guys. Not only did they use large arrows all over the place after all the splits they would have signs for the first 500m telling you that you are on the 70km route.

@rouxtjie post us your graphs......... and then explain what it means :-)

you should be able to train hard right up until 2 weeks before then start to taper off, so plenty time left for some long hard rides Seeding is normally done through your SAS seeding. I am still confused how they work it out from there, I think they may take the best seeding as normally I am in A/B batch for the seeding but last year I rode with my dad and he hardly rides SAS races so his seeding was very bad. He had to buy me a few beers because somehow on day 1 we ended up in the A batch. After day 1 you are seeded according to how you finished the day before.

it's just a wee climb out the valley I actually find the water crossings on Day 2 the worst part. They just make you stop start. Just remember it is 5 in total...... So now that they have taken the climb away after the 2nd stop on day we are not going to have chicken burgers churning in our bellies as we try to tackle that climb. It was always an interesting climb that after a stop..... Yeah I think I will leave her in the dark about the lack of hills on day 2 so she keeps the training up... So far well on track

The 2012 route is going to be pretty much the same as last year with some very minor changes. Day 2 will no longer have "lamb legs" or "Push of a climb" and there's no big climb before reaching Jolivet, but there will be a new halfway stop. Day 3 also sports some minor changes near the finish Can't believe they are taking out the hills on Day 2. Still going to be a tough day in anyones books, unless your name is ChuckBurry. The hill at the end I can understand why they took it out although it was more the rocky downhill that was the problem for tired riders. Looks like I may get the beer tent quicker on Day 2 then last year which is a plus :-) All in all it will still be an awesome ride as per usual..... Now do you think I should let the GF know about the lack of climbs or keep her thinking they are still there hee hee

Well if all advice is taken one will need the rag to wipe up the "polyfiller" goo. I just don't know what passing cyclist would think i am up to though with a Sock, condom, Goo and a tube...... Baby powder makes sense, I have opened some tubes and they have poder on them, so i will stick with the sock and powder so as not to scare fellow cyclist Heres to puncture free tubes for the next 10 years of cycling

yeah we run tubeless but in the case of a bad sidewall cut like what happened this last weekened to a mate ment he ended up walking home after the tube was found to have a hole in it. I could have whipped out my patch repair kit but that is so old school and it is finnier to watch your mate run with his bike for 3km

Ha Ha so now we have smelly sock powder coated latex rough rider tubes...... I just wonder what other riders will think when you whip it out during a race and they see you opening your sock and out pops a powder coats rough rider condom with a tube in.... Yeah I was thinking it was all that rubbing going on. We all know rubbing causes sore spots I think i may have an old sunglasses case made of material which could work as well as the sock. May also be best to carry on the back pack.

Don't know if anyone else has this problem, but it seems to be failrly common. Alot of us tape a tube to our seat posts for a spare when mountain biking. On more than a few occasions when I have had to use the tube that was brand new when strapped on found it now has a hole in it. Not sure if it is because it is in the sun a lot (a lot of the holes are on the seem of the tube) or if it rubs a hole in it. Quite annoying. So what does on do to prevent this?

The ERD on the Stans web site for most of their rims are wrong. JB measured mine for my ZTR Alpine rims and it was different to what was printed on the rim and website. Nearly all the rims were wrong. That could be why the DT swiss calculator is different to the wheel builder