Aicorner

Friend of mine wants to sell a Canondale mtb, about 20 years old, fully rigid (before Rockshox !), old 6 speed XTR, weighs under 12kgs and has a pump built into the seat post. Hardly ridden (I know my mate !) Its a real babe of a bike & I'd like to a fair offer, but how does one value a bike like that - anyone got any ideas about what a fair price would be ? He also has an old R100 for sale if anyone is interested.

Lots of riders would support this, but organising an event (or series !) properly requires much more effort than it seems - you need official sanction, officials (for rule & results), paramedic, road or landowner's permission just to start. Contact Steve Marnewick or Rhona Blackler, details on the http://www.cyclingkzn.co.za/ website

http://www.gibagorge.co.za

Aren't authorised distributors who inflate prices & deliver poor service really the ones causing the damage, by creating a situation where grey importers can operate and by giving all distributors a bad name ? Isn't support for grey importers actually less damaging for distributors who are trying to do things properly because that limits the ability of distributors to inflate prices or deliver bad service ?

Bruce I respect you and your views but isn't it just as damaging in the long term (and also the short term) to not go grey, because that allows authorised importers to get away with inflating prices and delivering poor service ?

Bruce You suggest changing brands when (as you seem to agree happens)authorised dealers don't provide the service/parts/backup they should. What's the difference between doing that and going grey ?

Unauthorized dealers either knowingly deceive the consumer ... What about authorised dealers who make out that serial numbers provide protection against theft or that the manufacturers warranty will be speedily honoured ... or that there will be a stock of spares, or they have sepcially trained staff, or that what they sell is really better than what the grey market sells ? I would support the authorised dealers, and even be prepared to pay a reasonable amount more, if they produced the goods but my experience is if its backup or efficiency you are after, you may as well go grey.

Bruce Have the Mavic importers really : - specifically trained staff ? (if so where are they) ? - significantly invesed in stock and spare parts to ensure the availability of the product ? - provided meaningful support for warranty replacements ? If they haven't, your arguments about why they should charge high prices are simply wrong.

http://drunkcyclist.com/wordpress/ : If you bought $1000 of stock a year ago, you would now have: $91.28 if you bought Washington Mutual $37.50 if you bought Neomagic $21.29 if you bought Freddie Mac $20.79 if you bought Fannie Mae But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the recycling REFUND? You would have $? 214.00 in cash. So the best investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

Blue Lagoon Engen (as you cross the Umngeni on NMR) 4,30am weekdays; Suncoast Casino Parking 5,00am Saturdays; CycleLab in Durban North (closer to Umhlanga) also meets but 'phone for times.

Howick new track (and Goblins, and Fire Tower, and, and, and) before the fire. Cucumber & Gravity Dice at Giba at the moment. But actually its all good !

Mountain Bike Action is a reasonable read, supports Greg Minaar plenty & costs less than R15 per issue posted to your door if you take out a 3 year subscription http://www.mbaction.com/ME2/Default.asp

MTB wheels do taco every now & then. (Often enough for the trick of standing on them to fix to have been developed) That's why I think they are subject to lateral forces. Maybe they don't need to be stiffer, but it would be nice if they could be made stronger.

Yes, too expensive.

For interest, does "stiff enough" equal "strong enough" - mtb wheels get hit from the bottom & sides more than road wheels & I think they are subject to considerable lateral & other forces. If "stiffer" means "stronger" then there's a big difference. HAving said that, my advice is go XT, its cheaper & easier to repair and strong enough so that the hits which damage it willprobably damage the more expensive wheels as well.

I'm sorry if I misled - trails at Giba will be closed on Saturday afternoon, but anyone can ride the race which has caused the traisl to be closed, 25kms including new singletrack - Trail closure: Please note that all park trails will be closed between the hours of 12:00 hrs and 15:00 hrs on Saturday the 28th June. This is due to the 7km Fun race (formerly 10km) and the 25km Giba Challenge. This race is open to everyone of every level, so please feel free to get involved in the action and join us in one of these two races.

The land in the Hillcrest area is almost all privately owned. Please make sure you ride only where you are allowed to. Ask at one of the local shops if you are unsure (eg Maverick in Hillcrest). Giba is great, and they always have some track open even if another event is on (there isn't a calendar race on at Giba this weekend and as far as I know all tracks wil be open) The canefields are mostly owned by Tongaat Hulett Sugar (THS), who allow riders licenced through Ethekweni Mtb Assoc http://www.emba.org.za/ to ride on demarcated tracks (not as nice as Giba). But they are very strict and don't allow any deviation from the licence requirement, or the demaracted tracks or their riding times. They have jusr agreed to allow limited temporary licences, contact Margie Gallagher (see details on website) if you want one. Its taken ages to get THS to allow mtb and its only been possible because we have been able to convince them that mtb-ers are a law-abiding responsible lot. If the THS model is successful it may be applied to other corparate owned property & open up a lot more areas to legal riding so please (everyone) don't take a chance and just ride.

And if the motorist does show the finger, should we not point out, in a polite manner but without backing down, that cyclists do have a place on the roads ?

Lets accept that the louts were inconsiderate. Is the correct response for the motorist to "show the finger" at them ?

Lowracer, you are correct but we need to concientise cyclists and motorists to realise that cyclists have a place on the road. So while its correct to point out that cyclists must obey the law & be courteous its more relevant in this particular discussion to note that motorists generally don't (60km/h speed limit - really ?) and especially that this discussion was started by a motorist whose main complain seems to be that was upset ("thanks a lot") because she was inconvenienced. (The example to kids bit was tacked on at the end) The cyclists in question rode abreast, which is wrong, but really only caused a little inconvenience and shouldn't have evoked the ire and irony it did. As cyclists we do need to look at ourselves, but not so much that we blame ourselves for every problem.

Rookie 101 - while you are correct that the cyclists didn't set a good example, you are wrong wrong wrong in your attitude. Don't simply assume the cyclists should be in the yellow line. Cars don't have the right to uninterupted use of the road. Unless the road is a motorway there's no minimum speed limit cyclists are legally allowed to ride in the middle of the road, as slow as they like, provided they don't ride abreast. Cyclists are usually considerate (and should be - I agree that bunch set a bad example) and allow traffic past but they're actually doing nothing illegal if they don't. Surprisingly, it is possible to share the road. I have just returned from a trip to Italy, where I assure you the drivers aren't afraid to travel fast BUT they also wait to overtake and generally acknowledge that there are other road users. You will find that even in road rage SA you will be a safer, more relaxed and happier driver if you relax, are less judgmental and ignore the minor inconvenience of having to wait.

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I'm forum challenged. I will upload the spreadsheet as soon as I work out how !

I've just done a spreadsheet comparing some of the locally available lights & the SA made Brighter Light outperforms them all. PM me if you want the s/sheet.