IanJ

Why do our guys not have the team name, they just have the country?

Thanks Delgado but the only exchanges were unprintable. I left the guy standing at the side of the road clutching his chest and muttering "Eish.... Eish...."

Early this morning I had an altercation with a pedestrian who stepped off the pavement without looking in Joe Slovo Drive (Harrow Road). I was going quite fast down the hill at the time. I hit him in the ribs with my shoulder and then fell to the right nearly hitting a car standing at the robot. My shoulder is sore and I have roasties on elbow and leg but nothing too serious. Stupid pedestrian came off worse, I reckon he might have cracked ribs or something. I called Cyclesure at about 9am this morning and they immediately sent through a claim form. I took my bike to Westdene and got a quote for the damaged parts (STI lever, bar tape, rear derailleur and drop out). I faxed the form and quote to Cyclesure at 15:30 this afternoon and within 1 hour I got a mail from them saying that my claim was approved and I should take my bike in to have the parts fitted. Now that is good service . IanJ2008-01-17 10:30:24

He was heading back to the PIE shop. Edit: Delgado beat me to it . IanJ2008-01-15 05:32:28

Hey ewep, was good to see you this morning. That Sylvia's pass seems to get longer every week. Glad you had a good ride, so was that Delgado with you? I didn't recognise him.

Yesterday they were feeling quite heavy, did an easy 106km ride on the Cradle route. Today feeling good. More importantly how are you? Are you still battling with the shoulder and how's the roasties?

The actual problem is that Jason needs to stop every now and again to get his breath back, he just hasn't got the guts to tell Michelle so he made up this 10 minute story.

Hey I was behind you all the way through Pretoria wasn't I? Does the ICE ID specify gender orientation?

Ja Jason, time to come out the closet now.

Isn't Breedtsnek a sand road?

Hey Christie, have a great day and all the best for the coming year.

No don't get me wrong, I agree that the TBW bianchi is fugly, doesn't mean to say all Bianchi's are.

Hey, Hey, Hey, less Bianchi bashing please.

You can keep it but you actually don't need it, I have been riding a compact crankset since I went to France last year. You don't really need anything bigger than 12-25, I only use 11-23 on mine. You will save some weight over the 12-27 cassette. The price of the Shimano compact crankset is about R 1500, there is a very nice new Ultegra SL Crankset available for between R1800 - R2500 depending on where you buy.

The common factor seems to be that your stopped time is triple the actual time?

if it helps at all the time I recorded for the Magaliesburg stop was 10min 15s. Yours seems to be over 30min, the actual time into the ride is correct as I have from my house so it seems that your device is incorrectly calculating stopped time. IanJ2008-01-01 13:55:04

Damm, it's that time warp at my place again . But that doesn't explain the one at Magaliesburg .

AndreT - that is very cruel of you. Cherise, well done and all the best for the future.

I'm learning here (to understand why the wheels that my LBS true/build don?t last), so I got to ask this:<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Why would/should my LBS shop fit spokes that have play in the first place? The washers might be only a fix for something that was done wrong in first place. Shouldn?t there be standard dimensions/tolerances that should be adhered to? Should I accept the practice as "standard" or can I go back to my LBS and tell them to fix when I spot that they used washers on my wheel. (Currently my LBS don?t use washers but their wheels still don?t last) [/quote'] Quick Hijack: Hi Straatvark, how are you and the missus? Planning any trips overseas next year (the Etape looks like a piece of cake). Hijack off.

No I have mainly used other Conti tyres e.g GP4000 so can't really compare to other brands.

Some Conti tyres have a reputation for coming apart (for want of a better term) whereby you get threads coming off the bead of the tyre. It does seem to happen occasionally on mine but I just cut them off. I once thought one of mine was cracking but it was shown to be a cut such as caused by a pothole. As with anything else in cycling it actually boils down to personal preference, other guys swear by other brands. All I know is that when I was doing the Etape du Tour in July on the long descents with tight hairpins in the Pyrenees I was able to corner significantly faster than most others and not one person overtook me on a downhill.

Been using them for about a year now. Excellent tyre, best grip of anything I have used before in wet and dry and good puncture resistance. Had about 5000km out of my current set. They are expensive so maybe best to keep them for racing if you can and train on something cheaper.

What is going on this week? I have never heard of so many passing away in such a short space of time. The worst time of the year too. My condolensces to all those who have lost someone recently.