Yang

C'mon Pantani- the question was asked- how much did this set you back? Can you afford to get to races now?

Thanks all.

Hadn't thought of that- thanks. I don't want to hijack this thread onto a technical one, so will start a new one on thisissue. My Kona top tube has a dent from falling against a fence post. Its about 20 cm's along the post from the stem. I want to pull out the dent. I am aware of the risks. It doesn't affect the bike's performance. Its more of an aesthetic issue, and if I am going to move my Campag groupset from the Giant to the Kona I would like to do a bit of pimping up. Am I completely wasting my time, or is there bike surgeon out there who can pull out the dent?

The haole is a great frame, made out of easton ultralite alu. It was specced in the 105 brakette to make if affordable. You can lighten it up a lot by dumping the kona thumb-up seatpot for a carbon fibre one, change the front fork to a EC90, nice light stem and handle bars, and maybe upgrade to ultegra/ centaur. This should bring it into the 7-8 kg range, which is very respectable. Maybe you need move the groupo from the giant and use the giant for training and the Kona for racing? Hadn't thought of that- thanks. I don't want to hijack this thread onto a technical one, so will start a new one on thisissue.

Many posts have past since your question but just got online now. I'm 130 km's north of Maputo, just off the EN1. Any hubber driving past on their way north, on holiday, etc, let me know.

One down, plenty to go.

What about being in groups where individual rider/s ride through the red robot- do you ignore that? Is it not an issue if that gives ALL of us a bad name? Granted, motorists don't give a damn about us not wearing helmets, but this is about us taking responsibility for ourselves as a cycling community, and using peer pressure to get people to do the right thing. As said by someone, you don't want to see one of us being scraped off the road. I reckon that if I had to see a fellow cyclist being lifted into a body bag because his bean wasn't protected, I'd start crying- and I can't remember the last time I cried. So I will tell the helmetless to wake up and wear.

Since we're on the topic of things not to raise I have learnt a few things, like you do not raise the debate about Shimano vs Campagnolo. (PS- this is a real pity. I wasn't on the hub during those turbulent debates. I guess that I will have to go into the hub's archives. Because its something I am interested in since I have 5 bikes, only one with Campag, and guess which is my favourite.... But please understand, it is not my intention to hijack the thread, and to open this debate. Please ignore this post.)

OK Holy Roller- gimme time- this will be my 28th post- will get to know the hub over the next few months. Its the first time I have seen a religious topic since I found the hub. In the meantime there are other new people on the hub who will get to know the situation from my post and your response, so its cool.

If you want a real debate about religion and God go out to Exclusive Books and get a book by Richard Dawkins called "The God Delusion". There's another one also by Peter Spong called the "Sins of Scripture". Dawkins is a zoologist/scientist who is a serial atheist and makes a compelling argument for atheism, and Spong is a religious minister who criticises the Bible for all the ills it has foisted on the world, but then balances his argument by identifying the positive that has come out of religion.

Care to elaborate on this rather dull comment? What's your definition of "idiot" and "life"? He probably means that babies and things like that get in the way of his cycling.

When I was a kid I used to pray to God for a bike. After a long time I realised he didn't work that way. So I stole one and prayed to Him for forgiveness.

Cervelo did the right thing. He may have got the finger, but I bet the idiot got home still thinking about it, and probably the next training session he wore his helmet, because Cervelo made him think about it.

BigH- this is proff that you do not lie- a pothole in one of the main streets in Angola.

I met a Dutch MTB'er named Marcel visiting Zimbabwe about 4 years ago, training for his MTB nationals. He did the Leopard Rock ride in the Vumba area, one of my favourite rides, with some of the steepest and longest climbing in Zim. He rode on his MTB, and beat some of the best riders in Zim - very hot cyclist.

I have had some Dutch youngsters staying over at my place in Mozambique over the years, and most say that life in "Africa" made them feel more alive. In Holland they say that life is so boring- their major problems are about which club to go to that night and intrigues about boy and girlfriends. The roads in Mmoz are disgusting. I live 100 km's south of Xai Xai and I know exactly what the hubbers with knowledge of Moz are talking about. At least the Gorongosa road is fixed, until the heavy log truckers rip it all up again, together with the weather.

Where were you in Rundu or area I was at Buffalo, in '83. Koos Krokodil se tyd. was in 86 '87 '88 '89 daar deur gewees terwyl ons diesel en ammo van 6 Onderhoud af aan gery het Julle ooit gaan swem in die rivier. En poppa valle is die mooiste stuk aarde in die wereld'. Johan Jooste was die bev op Mpacha gewees KoosK was there in the 70's as well. We used to spoon for tiger off the Charlie Spiller, and spent a lot of time at popa falls, sometimes with koevoet. We used to jump into the Kavango but get back in the boat quicker because of the flat dogs. Did not know JJooste. My OC was M JansevRensburg. My time was when it was just the infantry in place, before Mech got in. If you're in Afghan you obviously stayed in military or in security. If so, look after yourself Boet. Are you riding there?

Trust a guy called sammajoor to have been based in Rundu! I was based a couple of 100k's further along in the Caprivi- where you got bossies enough to do what we did' date=' and had more laughs that I've ever had since!! Only problem was there were no bikes. [/quote'] *hijack*??????????????????????? Where were you in Rundu or area I was at Buffalo, in '83.

Trust a guy called sammajoor to have been based in Rundu! I was based a couple of 100k's further along in the Caprivi- where you got bossies enough to do what we did, and had more laughs that I've ever had since!! Only problem was there were no bikes.

Oke in the army had one nut (not LA) who used to take bets. The roofies (new intake to you youngsters out there) would come into the pub on their first night at the unit and he'd bet them a round of drinks that between their group of say 10 guys sitting at the pub there were only 19 nuts. And the roofie would of course say bullshxt and then the guys would haul out their nuts and do a count. We used to get quite a few free drinks that way.