sluiper

Dave just picked up the bike. Really nice young guy, gave me a nice bottle of red and some Lindt chocolates. Probably a bit much for the bike I gave him but glad he could finish his first CTCT and have a story to tell. He managed a time of just over 5 hours. Says he'll be back next year.

Nope, no race number. He took it off and put it on the bike I gave him. It's a very unfair trade. I gave him my son's Zwift bike, a Raleigh 3000 that I can't even remember buying with an ancient 9spd Campy groupset on. One of the shifters on the bike he left here is worth more than the bike I gave him.

Bit of a long shot, but don't really know how else to get hold of Dave. I was spectating this morning at the bottom of Edinburgh Drive when I saw a cyclist next to the side of the road. His rear derailleur had snapped in two and it didn't look like he was going to be able to continue. I live quite close by and have a bunch of bikes, so offered to lend him one to finish the race. I told him to remember where my house was so that he could come and pick up his bike after the race. He told me he drove past almost every day so wouldn't have a problem remembering. It was pretty stupid of me not to give him my phone number, literally all I got was his name. He was in one of the last groups (this must have been around 9:30) and he told me he'd decided to do the race on a whim the day before, so I assumed it would be a while before he made his way back. It's now more than 9 hours later, so I'm just a bit worried about him. I'm hoping someone here knows who he is and could let him know to contact me here. He was quite young and was on a bike he said he'd borrowed from a friend (who I'm guessing might be on here). It's a lesser known Italian brand, 11 spd Super Record and he was using MTB cleats, so pretty obvious it wasn't his. Anyways, if anyone knows who this is, please drop me a message so I can reunite him and his friend's bike.

Stolen: Mongoose Meteore 2010 When: 6 June 2020 Where: Cape Town, Western Cape My son's bike, stolen from Upper Liesbeek River Garden. He left it unattended for a minute, opportunistic person grabbed it and rode away in full view of multiple people in the park. Get further details about the incident in the Stolen Bikes section

Not sure if anyone else has this irritation but I thought I'd post it in case someone finds it helpful. I like trawling Gumtree for cycling ads, in the hope I might spot a bargain and add to my collection of (too many) bikes and/or components. Unfortunately some people are using Gumtree as their primary means of advertising, often re-posting hundreds of ads on a daily basis and cluttering up ads posted by people just selling one bike or a few components. That means that on every page of ads there might only be 3 or 4 "real" ads posted by people who aren't dealers. Just to be clear: I have nothing against these "dealers": good for them if they manage to make a living off of Gumtree, I'm just not interested in what they're selling. Gumtree doesn't have the functionality to exclude ads by specific advertisers, so I thought I'd fix this myself to improve my personal browsing experience. Another issue I have is that I often see an ad only to realise it's in George. George is technically in the Western Cape but it's so far away it's practically impossible to see whatever you want in person. Again, Gumtree doesn't allow you to filter out specific areas only so when I'm browsing Western Cape ads I always see ads in the George area. The solution I came up with to solve for the above problems is as follows: 1. Install AdBlock (https://www.getadblock.com/). Added bonus: no ads. Just remember to exclude https://bikehub.co.za/ 2. Open AdBlock settings, go to Customize and add the following filter manually to exclude a specific seller: www.gumtree.co.za##div[data-seller-name=NameOfSeller] 3. Add the following filter to exclude a specific area: www.gumtree.co.za#?#div.related-item:-abp-has(div.related-ad-content:-abp-has(div.location-date:-abp-has(span:-abp-contains(NameOfRegion)))) 4. Repeat 2 and 3 for as many sellers/regions as you need. Obviously, replace NameOfSeller/NameOfRegion with whatever the name of the seller/region is that you want to exclude. The name of the seller is visible on the page of the ad itself or, if you're a ninja, inspect the content of the page, select the data-seller-name element's value and copy from there. Unfortunately the above method doesn't work if the person posting hasn't updated their profile with a name. In those cases I just exclude the whole suburb the person is posting from. Sucks to not see the 1 or 2 real ads from that suburb but makes the browsing experience infinitely better.

I really don't care about e-bikes being allowed: it's a fun ride for most people and I can really see the utility of allowing people who, due to some physical disability or age, would not be able to complete the ride on a normal bike. I can even see myself doing the same in 20 or 30 years' time from now when I'm too old but still want to be part of the festivities. What does grind me, however, is people who use e-bikes to "race" (not even sure what or who they're racing). If it costs more to police e-bikes, the cost of e-bike entries should be increased to cover that cost. Again, if I was old/infirm enough to need an e-bike and wanted to participate, I wouldn't have a problem paying more to ensure the majority of people aren't inconvenienced by a very small minority of inconsiderate people. Somehow it also takes something away from the accomplishment of completing the ride when you know for R40K more you could train less and just buy yourself a time. I've seen the sense of accomplishment many recreational riders get from riding 109km and it's a bit sad that this is now diminished. E-bikes are here to stay, whether we like it or not, and people who ride them actually contribute to the sport of cycling. Hopefully we come up with better solutions in the future to ensure everyone can enjoy the most beautiful ride in the world.

LOL, looks like a guy from 6C managed to do a 2:39. E-bikes for the win!

Yip, agree that taxis are predictably erratic (if that makes sense). I'm not really upset about the conditions I have to commute in as I've been doing it for years and know how to handle myself. What does irritate me is that the conditions mean that I can't in good conscience recommend to others that they should commute by bicycle. Without decent public transport and/or cycling being a decent alternative, people will continue to clog up roads and pollute the city. Another interesting (anecdotal) observation is that when people see a camera on your head, they actually drive better. The amount of close calls I have when I don't have a camera on my head has convinced me to _always_ cycle with a camera for additional protection.

Thanks, glad you like it and can relate. I love commuting by bike but I'm kind of torn between the danger each day and the benefits. The video is made up from the rides on my last 4 commutes (which kind of highlights how crazy it is that it doesn't take long to capture the amount of incidents in the video).

Made a video of what it's like to commute in Cape Town, let me know what you guys think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVOEO5VMdlM

I guess that makes it ok then.

It's been proven time and again that the gains you make while taking PEDs stay with you even after you stop using. He may be using, he may not. Fact is that he did and in my mind that will always make him a cheat.

Glad that Nolan Hoffman has been able to hide his drug taking a bit better this time. Seriously pisses me off when a convicted cheat like him can come back and pretend to be all clean.

I would suggest just getting a secondhand road bike. Way too much hassle and money taking a tri-bike and trying to turn it into a road bike. The ideal is to have 2 bikes, but for some guys the cost associated with maintaining/buying/riding 2 bikes is too much, which is why they opt for tri-bars on the road bike. NTTAWWT, I've just found that bars on a road bike aren't half as efficient as actually riding a tri-bike. Group rides with friends, road races and draft-legal tris can all be done with a road bike, whereas the tri-bike can technically only be used in non-drafting races,

Seems like I'm in the minority here, but I don't think Bridge is that bad. I wouldn't go there to buy a new bike, but I've bought a bunch of parts and clothing from them at decent prices. The consignment store across the road that they run often has awesome deals on a variety of components, specifically Specialized stuff. I've also bought some stuff there which I realised afterwards was incorrect (my mistake) and when I brought the stuff back a few weeks later they gave me a cash refund, no questions asked. The shop assistants (Dimitri and the guy who works at the store across the road) are friendly, happy to have a chat and give an opinion/advice. The main store is cramped and stuff is badly organised, but I've found that if you ask for something they'll make a real effort to find it for you. Anyways, just my personal experience. YMMV.