Clinton1

Petty? So risking getting killed by a car and giving all cyclists a bad rep is petty?

One of my big bug bears with Critical Mass. The whole "protest" vibe seems to encourage some folk to deliberately antagonise other road users. We should be looking to spread the message that we are here to use the roads in harmony with other road users.

Mine works fine in the side pouch of the camelbak.

I am not racing. I am not specifically training for anything either. So I have no need to actively monitor my heart rate, cadence, power etc. However, it is nice to be able to take a look after a ride and see how much you exerted yourself compared to how you felt. The same way it is nice to see how far you went, how much climbing you did and your average speed. It is also nice to be able to look back and compare rides from when I first started to now and "analysing" my heart rate to see if there are changes on average.

Indeed, that is precisely what I was wondering. It would cost less though. If you already have the phone, and take it when you go cycling, you would be looking at around R500 to add the HRM (based on the dollar prices). Of course if you wanted to mount your phone you'd have to pay for a mount too but I just throw mine in my camelbak and check it afterwards.

Out of interest, what would the cheapest GPS unit or watch be that could display your heart rate, distance, time, speed, calories and log your track?

I bought one from Sportstracker on my Nokia and am now using it with Endomondo on my SGS3. It works perfectly. I see Sportstracker now have their own branded one which I assume is still teh same thing. As long as it is a bluetooth HRM it should work fine (EDIT: I seen they mention Android, Bada and Symbian in the description so it will work if you are using one of those). $79.90 I see the Sportstracker one now has a USB charger. My Polar one requires one of those small batteries. I have only change it once in over two years though. A search for Polar Bluetooth HRM brings up this site. That is the one I have that I reviewed as part of a competition. They give options for suppliers. I'd do the exchange rate conversion, check delivery costs, and see which is cheapest. They do not charge you VAT as you are outside of Europe. With exchange rates it seems a dollar price might be a better bet.

It was the Rudy Project Stirling that ASG auctioned off on here. They have not had helmets on auction for a while unfortunately.

I have only bought things when they are on special. If I needed them before but felt they were too expensive I would wait. Inevitably someone somewhere has a special on the items you need. Bike R4500 Retail R7000 Helmet R900 Retail R1700 Shoes R1000 Retail R1700 Gloves R120 Retail R350 And so the list goes on... not really what you are asking but that's the way I do it. This may go against the "buy the most expensive/latest/greatest" ethic of some on here but it works for me and every day I get to ponder how much I've saved.

.... and as much as many deny it in this thread, which in itself is probably evidence, there is a huge dollop of "look how much better and cooler I am" thrown into the mix. Also a few drops of "I so desperately want to be seen to be different".

I got my new bike in Nov last year. Prior to that I only did some social beachfront riding on an old bike. I started out doing 15km rides with my new bike and recall feeling I had done well. Fast forward to today where I did a 60km ride (again possibly nothing compared to some on here) and still felt there was some left in the tank. Moral : Do you own thing, have fun and the mileage will come

The five "likes" for this post seems to indicate that there are a few out there that are also not convinced by this tubeless thing.

Your friends may be right as, prior to getting my cycling shoes, I was using a pair of Salomons and they showed no sign of wear and tear at all after around 6 months of use a few times a week. I also picked them up on a special somewhere and they were under R1k. They did go through the washing machine on occasion but more often than not just got wiped down.

They never recommended Tourney and Acera components so your car analogy is a little off. Do all of us drive something more standard than a Ferrari and live in something less than a castle though? I think you'll find for most the answer is yes. I'm of the view that many get top of the range everything for cycling due to the keeping up with the Joneses mentality. My opinion. Hate it if you want.

Another reason to spend your money online overseas.

Thanks I don't have Anatomic so unfortunately the comparison doesn't help me, ha ha. I am currently using some Lassen kit.

There are a lot of auctions up from ASG at the moment for bib shorts from FTech. I realise most are not interested as the sizes are obviously the less popular ones but I may be interested. Or you're all waiting until 23h58 Now I have had a peruse through FTechs online brochure and they (obviously) tell us that their gear is clearly the best in the world! Now what I want is some first hand knowledge of their kit. Has anyone here ever bought or used the FTech bib shorts? Are they great quality? I see they are shown to have "carbon air shammies" which are their premium one. The normal price is given as R1500, is this realistic or a little bit of marketing? The reason for starting a new thread about them is that there are numerous auctions and I was just wanting a general response (and most who have seen the auction thread already are likely to not open it again if it is bumped). Thanks.

....but remember you may just have Christmas come early if your parcel sneaks through customs without attracting duties! Not sure how often it happens but I'm one from two at the moment

And he never had to leave his home to get it....

Did you compare to local pricing? Even with 40% duties and VAT and clearance charges my order was still around half the price of what I would have paid locally. I think that is what most of us are expressing annoyance at. We understand that the LBS has to pay duties on products but even when accounting for these the prices seem ludicrous.

Ask your contact to get them to add ZAR to the currency choices... saves me needing to repeatedly whip out the calculator.

I called a number and questioned what I had been charged. They worked through it systematically and concluded that they had indeed done it correctly. The post office chap who delivered it said I better query before paying as it was unlikely they would refund me once I had paid him the amount due. I was given a Durban number to phone.

Just checked and the second parcel was indeed tracked (even though standard delivery at R99 was requested). My parcel was also tracked right through to delivery so I seem to have got lucky on all counts here.

..perhaps I should have added, no heavier either... as it wasn't Both packages were around the same size, value and weight yet one arrived Royal Mail and the other Parcelforce. Who knows who/why/how/what...

Closer inspection of all the paperwork shows that the second package was indeed sent via ParcelForce. It was no bigger nor more valuable than the first one. That was the package with the invoice showing detailed contents stuck to the outside of the box. Perhaps the reason that one was hit with duties and not the first one. Maybe Royal Mail has its advantages after all