Grogs

At the risk of “moralising” - just look at the Rands and cents. If I get a Wesbank loan to pay for a 30k bike over 2 years, I’ll get an interest rate of 24.5%. Initiation fee of R1200. So my principal debt is R31200. Monthly repayments on that are around R1700 (don’t have my HP12C handy, but sounds about right). That’s what they’ll quote you. But they’ll add to that a monthly management fee of about R70, as well as group life insurance of about R110. That pushes the repayment up to around R1900. Sure, you can make extra repayments that will reduce the capital (and therefore interest) and the term of the loan. But just remember that even if you do, the monthly fixed fees (the management fee and group life insurance) will not be reduced. And that’s how they nail you by way of an early penalty. So if I get the bike now with finance, and pay it off within 3 months for example, my finance charges (interest, initiation fees, monthly admin fees and GL insurance) will probably effectively be the same as paying an annualised 60% interest rate on the debt for those three months. I also hate the feeling of being shafted by large financial institutions. Again, I’d rather buy something cheap and nasty and save by upgrading components every couple of months. Before you know it, you’ll probably have upgraded every single component on your bike. You’ll appreciate every upgrade, and really make your bike your own by choosing every bit and piece that goes into it, and save a crap load of money. A lot more fun than having a new flash bike one day and then being a slave to a financial institution for the next two years.

Rather save up. Interest rates and financing charges on financing a bike are crazy stupid. Take whatever you would like to spend on a monthly instalment and put it into your bond for 6 months. Then take the savings on your bond repayments and what you put into the bond and buy a bike. That will probably be a year of instalments on a financed bike. Been there and done that, and I would rather have ridden my Raleigh RC6000 for a year longer than be put through the pain of a 24% interest rate + R1200 initiation fee + monthly account fee + monthly life insurance premiums on the debt. You end up paying double for your bike.

Edit - duplicate post.

Was also surprised. Discovery Insure.

Check out DC Rainmaker on YouTube. He has all sorts of comparisons between the Apple Watch and other watches. All depends on what YOU want from a smart/sports watch.

Dropped my Apple Watch 5 and cracked the screen. Insurance paid me out in Takealot vouchers. So I used them to buy a Fenix 6. So much happier with everything, except for swimming (especially open water). DC Rainmaker actually rates the Apple Watch as the best watch for open water swimming - far more accurate GPS than anything else, and pool swimming with the Apple Watch is also fantastic. Seriously considering getting an Apple Watch on Discovery just for swimming. Moving to Ireland shortly though, so will need to keep my Vitality (life insurance) alive to avoid paying for it.

Their tour from Clarens to CT is on their Facebook page - diary for each day.

GCT (Global Cycling Tours) did this in 2019 (at least they did it from Clarens to CT). There were only 2 or 3 people on the tour. I believe they did it to try to generate interest in something similar to the annual Amashova tours, but for the Cap Town Cycle Tour. There wasn’t much interest in 2020, so it didn’t happen. Maybe give them a call. It looked like an epic trip

Excellent post Mamil. There aren’t that many knuckle draggers on this forum after all.

Re the debate around whether having a lower bone density (which could have contributed to the ease or difficulty involved in breaking Nic’s arm) - it makes absolutely no difference. The “thin skull” rule would apply (legal principle established from SA case law that uses the analogy of an assailant hitting someone over the head who has a thin skull and subsequently dies. The fact that the victim has a thin skull will make no difference in determining the assailant committed murder or not). So if Nic has low bone density - applying the “thin skull” principle - that fact has no bearing on the determination of whether there was an assault GBH.

Anyone in Cape Town can go and lay criminal charges. I’d do it, but I’m in Johannesburg.

Russell Pollitt:

If you ghouls want to moan about someone not getting a permit, go and start a separate thread about people who don’t get permits when they go to parks. I hope you also condemn people who don’t pay their etolls in that thread This thread is about a vicious assault (and possibly an attempted murder) of an unarmed citizen who posed no immediate threat to anybody. Again, Nic’s having or not having a permit is totally and completely irrelevant in condemning the actions of the thugs who assaulted him.

So when a SANRAL official breaks my arm after I refuse to pay my e-tolls or get an e-tag, both of us “behaved terribly”? This false equivalence argument is ridiculous.

Another fee for use that comes to mind is e-tolls. I trust that the entire “if Nic had obeyed the law, this wouldn’t have happened” brigade pays their e-tolls and has an e-tag. Don’t bitch and moan when a SANRAL official breaks your humerus for not having an e-tag while driving on the M1 in Johannesburg. But the moral of the story here is comply, isn’t it?

Yoh. “Women who wear short skirts shouldn’t be surprised when they get raped”. Same logic. It’s called “victim blaming”. That’s an assault GBH, captured on camera. And a particularly vicious assault GBH at that. Conviction is pretty much a certainty. Young prosecutors cut their teeth on matters like this. If you, as a trained SANParks Ranger, honestly think that a lone, unarmed, cheeky 64kg lycra-clad boy-man in cycling shoes could possibly pose any immediate threat that warrants any level of physical force - let alone enough force to break a humerus - you’re probably demented. These thugs could each get five years in jail (the ones standing by are accessories). I think a good prosecutor could probably even have a go at securing a conviction for attempted murder. (As an aside, I’m not sure what the sentence is for not having a permit that probably costs R100 (if that), or what the sentence is for being cheeky or not listening to a SANParks ranger is. But maybe some of the lawyerly “three sides to a story” ghouls on this thread can fill me in on that part). Regarding statements like “Nic should have obeyed the law himself” and “this wouldn’t have happened if he’d had a permit”, the proximate cause of the assault wasn’t the failure to have a permit, nor was it the failure to listen to the Rangers, nor was it being cheeky to the Rangers (nor was it a combination of these). That proximate cause was the unhinged approach of the Rangers and THEIR total lack of respect and regard for the law (you can’t go around breaking arms of people when there is no immediate threat to you) and the rights of the victim. So whether or not Nic had a permit, whether or not he chirped the Rangers and whether or not he didn’t listen to them is not only completely and totally irrelevant in the determination of the criminal (and civil) liability of these Rangers, but should also be completely and totally irrelevant in condemning the actions of these thugs. Back to the victim blaming angle. Ignoring the legalities and just looking at this episode from a simple human perspective, making a statement like “this wouldn’t have happened if he’d had a permit/listened/hadn’t been cheeky” simply normalizes pretty f@$ng abhorrent behaviour. Puts you in a pretty special category of human. But I suppose that’s the way the world is going now. Two-year old kids in cages over Christmas on the US-Mexico border who haven’t seen their parents for weeks is also abhorrent, but is also easily normalized by saying “if their parents had obeyed the law, this wouldn’t have happened”. I despair for humanity.

Anyone done this recently? I’m looking at making last minute plans to leave Knysna for Stellenbosch on 18 December, to arrive on 24/25 December. Would be good to have feedback from anyone who has ridden it more recently.

Went past a guy just before Gillits who had collapsed in the heat. Must have been at about 10h15. Paramedics were doing CPR. Pray that he is OK.

Actually did the calcs, taking into account exchange rates and double VAT (i.e. European VAT plus SA VAT) on a purchase of an Ultegra 8000 groupset from Bike24 and shipping via aramex - still R2500 cheaper than the "discounted price" of CWC. Whoever is making a profit out of this is simply gouging. It's disgraceful.

Phew - I thought the LCHF brigade were the ones that were a bit overly excitable about their diets!

Carnivore diet has many proponents, and I do believe that it could have a place (e.g. to treat disease or other chronic conditions). I'm not about to try it. We're learning all the time about nutrition, and I really think that we still know very little about it. I really don't think we know enough to simply say that the carnivore diet is "a dangerous fad led by halfwits". Sometimes the less you know the more you think you know.

What deanbean said.

Oh - and after battling depression on and off for over 15 years, I'm no longer depressed (and off all anti-depressants since September last year).

Intermittent fasting has done wonders for me in terms of weight loss - I do a 18:6 fast about 4-5 days a week (i.e. don't consume anything besides stevia-sweetened black coffee for an 18 hour period, then eat - usually only 2 meals - in a 6 hour window). If I'm exercising for more than an hour on any day, I don't do the fast on that day and do my normal three meals. This has helped me lose an extra 6 kg in the past 2 months (on top of the 12kg I lost between July last year and March this year from going strict LCHF). Started on 90kg, now at 72kg (1.75m tall). And strongest I've ever been on my bike (at 45 years old) over 100 - 150km. When fasting (always during the week) and when I exercise (no more than 1 hour on a fasting day), I do my session (HIIT - on my smart trainer) at the end of the 18 hour window, and then eat immediately after exercising. When I first tried this, I thought I'd suffer through the one hour, but I found that I was surprisingly strong. I think once you know you're fully fat adapted, its pretty easy to do the intermittent fasting (I'm never hungry during the 18 hour periods), and it does wonders for autophagy (getting rid of all the rubbish in your system). I do find that when I have a fasting day and an exercise session, I need at least 8 hours of sleep that night (my usual need is for 7 hours of sleep). Google Peter Attia - there are plenty of podcasts/Youtube interviews with him on the benefits of intermittent fasting, especially in endurance sports.

Your choices are always going to be more limited if you’re going to buy the frame only. Not only in SA, but also internationally. So if you really want to go that route, it would probably help if you were a little less exacting as to what you want. Canyon doesn’t do the Endurace SL as a frameset only option - but they do the Ultimate SL as a frameset only option. Otherwise you’ll need to look around (maybe Bike24.com - that would probably be my best call). Or you could just find something second hand - there are plenty Swift Ultravox TI frames in the Classifieds - that is an amazing frame, and you could pick one up at a pretty good price.