L'Bie

Friday 13th May is my B-day. Be kind please?

nothing. Nada, bokkerol. It steals too much time and the quality of the stuff going around is rubbish anyway. I will rather read a book or even better play some board games with my family.

Archimedes said he could move the earth had he a long enough lever. Different wheel sizes apply different lever ratios. The pivot is the axle with the one lever making the distance between the pivot and the effective brakepad average. The other lever is the distance between the tire surface where it is in contact with mother earth. Should you use the same rotor sizes on the 26er and the 29er, you will notice the 26er has a ratio closer to 1:1 than the 29er. If you want the same power, you have to get a bigger rotor. That's is assuming all other factors like dirt, air, alignemt etc. is sorted.

My Garmin Edge 500 lasted the entire Trans Baviaans and it had 11% remaining by the time I downloaded the trip. Race Time almost 17 hours. My lights were an Extreme 1200 and I used it on low only. In the total darkness of the TB low beam offered more than enough light to travel as fast as I wanted to and trust me that speeds from the last CP to the finish were FAST. By the end of it all my main light indicator still showed more than 80% reserve (if the color coding of the lights is to be believed). If the other Hubbers believe the Power monkey is the answer, use it for the GPS only. Running your light on low should get you through the night, provided the batteries are in good order.

To the clever Hubbers out there. During the Trans Baviaans, both my thumbs and my big toes started to grow numb and it got worse as we progressed. Its now a little more than a week and I still have the tingling sensation and very sensitive wrists. I am used to three hour plus rides and sensations like these are new to me. Does anyone have a clue to what the possible reason for this sudden symptoms? Thanks

My thumbs, my big toes are still feeling like it was treated by the dentist. The thumbs are getting a little better now but the other attachments..... Very little feeling

On rollers in the lapa But it is the exception. I prefer to actually cycle outdoors.

I have bought my 1st DS and I now realise I have been stubborn at my own disadvantage. What a sweet ride. Still standard, but by next weekend, she will receive a set of X0 brakes, drivetrain and my old Sella saddle

It is after all just a Korean Garmin

Many of us has flown before. Some landings are tougher than others. What makes these landings difficult, is the position of the pilot in relation to his landing gear. He needs to judge his height visually and he needs to keep one eye trained to the elevation so he can make an educated estimate on when it is time to feather the approach, making your live as a passenger as comfortable as possible. Pilots take pride in their jobs and good landings are amongst the items important for them (at least the ones I know). If the pilot has to rely on a barometric pressure sensor calibrated for zero in Durban, how is he going to get usable information on his approach to OR Tambo at a elevated 1685m.

Nasa uses GPS but the US Air-Force manages and controls it. Ask them about the accuracy of their missiles. Barometer comes from planes and pilots reset before take-off and they will adjust as necessary with information from airports in the vicinity. We don't see much of pilot operating anymore, because 9/11 changed all that, but pilots still fly the same way as before and the flight instruments allow for it. it is an acknowledgement if the factors I suggested.

I am ranting quite a bit here, but it is one of my pet topics. Sorry! I still believe his GPS device is not set correctly for the purpose of cycling. I use a simple Edge500 and mine tracks all those very same tracks he rode exactly. The Edge is a cycling specific GPS and I don't need to tell it at what point or at what frequency it needs to plot a waypoint (a route is just a bunch of waypoints strung together) and it may be his ultimate problem. Mine has recorded tracks in the bundus where it was almost impossible to see the footpath on Google earth. The only place where I found my Edge to stray from the truth was underneath overhead high voltage lines.

Of course it can. Triangulation it not only applicable to a flat surface. There are approximately 32 satellites revolving around earth forming part of the GPS network. If your device can see more than three of those satellites, you will have signals coming in from different elevations. See this as round spheres interlocking each other. When you are not in the centre of these interlocking spheres you have triangulation in the X, Y and Z axis. Its all maths and the accuracy of the GPS on the street is also maths. They can do it. They just won't allow it. Ask yourself if it was not possible, how do cruise missiles hit a target several hundred miles beyond direct control. That target does not have to be on sea level. It could be anywhere. The missile needs to know that. With regard to barometer resetting. Its totally immaterial if you go for a ride in clear weather at a certain atmospheric pressure. During your ride, the weather changes for and a storm develops. That is normally associated with a lower barometric pressure. You saw the storm and made it home at a time when the barometric measurement will be lower from what it was at your departure. Using barometric measurement will place you at an altitude higher than when you left. Recal is not going to cater for that.

When I bought my Edge500 a couple of years ago, it advertised its ability to measure elevation using better than aircraft barometric sensors. I often go out for long rides often resulting in barometric changes in the area from where I departed. Elevation at start and at end of exercise at the exact point never agreed. I did some research and wrote a letter to Garmin asking why triangulation is rejected as a means to calculate the elevation. The typical error shouldn't be more than the 10 meters that the devise promise and since the errors I encountered were often much larger than the 10 meters, it seems like the more accurate method. Remember GPS needs only 3 satellites to determine a position, but if you check your device you will find 11 or 12 at any time within range. The more satellites it sees, the more accurate the positioning should be. 12 is plenty. Garmin came back with an answer about the atmosphere, clouds etc. can stuff the triangulation up!? Really! In the most horrible weather my position recorded even shows what side of the road I was using! And if the error is less than the 10 meters accuracy, It would at least still put me above sea level when I am cycling in the mountains of Madagascar. In short, Remember that GPS we know is run by the American Air-force. They allow us to use GPS, but with a forced error so that the evil baddies can not use their own technology against them. And before you start flaming the Americans, the Russians also has a system and they follow exactly the same protocols. In the East there are developments, but they do not have enough satellites up and running yet.

I worked three years in Madagascar and modern cycling spares are scarce. I used the ghetto method throughout because the one thing available aplenty was tubes. Never had punctures and the locals used to stare at me ploughing through scrub and bushes without getting flats. Having said that, there is one thing to consider. Gorilla tape (insulation, vulcanizing, Stans) is much easier to work with. When done right you can re-seat the tire with a hand pump. No need for compressors or other large air pressure goodies. Although the Ghetto method remains the cheapest it is a real bastard to work with. Both methods is better than the old conventional tubes, but tubeless tires do contribute to a worry free ride.