Pookie

@gummibear - sorry to hear about that. Every story has 3 sides, yours, mine and the correct one . Wish people would get off their high horses - who cares WHAT the situation was, the cyclist crashed. And THAT is what happened. Do you HAVE to debate about what he was looking at or nonsense like that - does it MATTER? Geezzz, wish him a speedy recovery and hopefully some glasses or extra brain cells for the taxi driver.

Spesialized Riata's are AWESOME shoes! Gotto agree!

Roboluke, just keep up the training, but try to train during the week too. 2 Days max out of 7 does not improve muscle strength and development much. Also, doing nothing until the weekend and then training will only lead to longer recovery time and the want to do more of nothing because of painful muscles. The only way to develop climbing is to actually climb, despite the fact that you dread it. If you're not a natural cyclist (riding from when you were little) it takes alot more work to gain the leg, back and general body strength to climb well. If you aint got the muscles yet, you can pretty much eat what you want, it just won't help!

We received terrible service at the Cape Gate branch of Ocean Basket - won't be going back there soon...the waiter took way too long and the management was fooling around and making jokes amongst all the madness. Food was good though...the waiter said it was his first night (yeah right - I waitered too in my life and that was SUCH a lie!)Anyhoo, just has the impression that he wanted us to tip him more despite the incredibly long wait. Sitting by the kitchen just creates a really crappy atmosphere with all the shouting and organising going on...

The only usefull thing to learn from this experience would be that "advise" is seldom selfless or without hidden agenda. Knowlegde is power, and as long as you haven't researched extensively and gathered loads of opinions (not from bike shops, as they have a financial incentive) you will be forced to believe whateever the salesman tells you and won't be able to make a sound decision. Don't have then take you for a ride ever

The RIDER makes the BIKE and not the other way around !

Absolutely nothing wrong with Silverback - got a Ventura specced with Rockshox, Deore and XT for under R8000 people - after months of research I could not find a single bike specced even near the Silverback for under 10K. They are very very awesome! Geometry is different yes, they start at 15.5" S, 17.5"M and so on, but that wasn't deterring me! Bike shops tend to promote only one or two brands, and the chances of getting an objective opinion is zero. Tell them you have so much cash and they should come up with as many suggestions as they can...gives them a challenge and you value for money! Insist on specs, coz loads of them hide poorly specced brand names like GT with huge pricing

Helliose - I think they were manually taking the time because there were no timing mats and obviously those plastic board were not magnetic - hee hee. Organising was on the poor side though I must agree - have ridden better organised events. Gorgeous scenery though

And you base your opinion on...experience of riding ALL of these bikes...including the Silverback?? Just asking...

Oh I so agree here. Dev riders were shouting from the right side only to weave into the crowd on the left again. Found it overly congested actually. Oh, BUT, worst was as we were going up (some hill??) and I must have swerved a little (as we are all human) some rude man shouted at me "Swerving BOET" - I am NOT your boet mate - I might have little hair but am SO female. And seriously, if a male cannot distinguish between a male and a female from behind on a bike....OI!!! :clap:

This is seriously AWESOME!!! I wonder how they got down Chappies and so on...a large part could be running? I have only seen Uni's in MTB races, never on road - this is SOOOOO cool :clap:

Coxsackie is no joke. Just see that you get to a specialist and especially a sports physician with expert knowledge. Manage your training....but it can be very frustrating I can imagine. Had a friend who had it...takes a looonngggg time to get rid of... :|

Helliose - usually I would imagine that the suede would be treated to be water repellant...especially if its a MTB shoe. Still like my Olympics the most - they are absolutely the best value for money around and last for years and years and then some

Sounds pretty awesome

Thanks guys for the great comments Super awesomeness