porky

Yes, my wife will maybe (it depends how she feels on the day) ride two events a year (and I may add NEVER / EVER trains inbetween)the 94.7 and the Argus, as a result she usually starts in the last batch and I usually worry like crazy because to me the riders here cycle in a dangerous manner, but when I ask "was it dangerous?, were you nervous?" she always says "NO why it was fine, great actually?" and looks at me as if I am crazy. So I think its "perception" more than anything else, as far as these cyclists are concerned its quite normal and they just carry on and enjoy the event, but to you and me maybe its just plain chaos. As far as apologising gos, "get real" never gonna happen in a road event, too much testosterone,adrenalin and ego involved, but from my experience in MTB folkwill stop and say "hey sorry man, let me help you up."

Commenting further on the LBS / ONLINE issue is just a waste of time, everybody has their own opinion and will defend it to the death, for every person that says I buy at the LBS, someone will just say I buy ON-LINE - who cares, its your money you can spend it where you want. ........but on the point of advertising / sponsorships / costs etc (as this is my field of employ) I have a bit of a backround here. Generally sponsorships are considered "BRANDING" excercises, it is designed to bring brand awareness to the public, promote an impression, and drive sales for the brand holder. It has NO ADVANTAGES to the consumer and generally is not considered as fair to pass this cost on to the consumer. Advertising on the other hand CAN benefit the consumer, although in cases it is also a form of branding it can be informative, educational, amusing and have an entertaining value - as this cost can benefit the consumer its considered fair to pass it on. Okay, just a bit of ad info.! porky2008-01-06 05:42:15

Wow, when I first looked I was shocked, I was actually about to ask if you had checked for "family" in the house somewhere when I read the follow up post. Its very realistic. What material is it actually SB?

Possible, but he says that quite often, after his first marathon he was also quoted as saying, "hardest thing I have ever done" Most seasoned runners chuckled and said "yah mate, it would have been quite a lot harder without three (well paid) pacers who could have easily run a 2.30 but gave up their aims to pull him through in 2.59. ............on the plus side, in one year he has improved his time dramatically over the marathon distance, ( by about 13 minutes I think) - very impressive, take nothing away from the man.!

Surely, the morals of deciding / allowing who kisses who, is the parents job and not the governments? Sheesh, you would think there are a few more pressing matters in the country than this. ..................besides, my now 7 year old daughter wont be allowed out of the house until she is 35 at least.So no problem there.

I am very disappointed with Mr Els. Comments like that are defamatory,vindictive and contravene the supplier / customer code of ethics. .......Certainly changed my opinion of Pro -Bike as a company. On another point, I think we must be very carefull to differentuate between "GREY" and "PARALELL IMPORTS" - the former been imported through dubious channels, not paying duty or vat thereby giving the importer an unfair advantage in the market, it can occassionally also refer to counterfeight products, the latter is the same product from the same manufacturer just sourced through a differant channel and all duties ,vat etc is paid as per regulations - (ie) Original in every way, with no unfair advantage to the importer. Another point raised here was "b level" goods - I assume this to mean the same as "counterfeit" - simply because no manufacturer of original branded product will allow rejects or seconds into the market in any form or type. In my opinion there are very few "Counterfeit" products in existance in todays bicycle market, (in some markets like Sunglasses, watches, belts etc its still seen, but the market is changing quickly and high end cycles are a small market with a high risk for counterfeit product) anyway, most Asian manufacturers are so tied in with major manufacturing brands that they would never dare to chance manufacturing a "grey line" - it could mean the end to their business as there are also heavy financial,criminal penalties in the Asian market if caught doing this. porky2008-01-03 02:20:39

I have never had issues with international suppliers / purchases, last year I bought a digital video in the USA, anyway the screen started getting little streaks in it - e-mailed Sony locally and they said I had left it in the sun and said they couldnt repair or replace under warranty (although they did say it held an INTERNATIONAL WARRANTY) - anyway e-mailed the shop in NY and asked what I could do.? They said nothing, its a factory fault and they will send me a new one immediately, which they did. So Yeah, try and get that service here - AINT GONNA HAPPEN MAN!

Yes, very true steve. Everyone is very quick to point the finger,.......we all want "THEM" to change,the motorists,the taxis, the truckers, the muncipalities, the government,hey even the laws must change - but WE dont want to change!!. We still want to go about in blissfull lawless abandon, jumping lights, riding helmetless, ignoring stop streets,riding on freeways, riding three abreast, been disrespectfull, etc. Why should anyone else change - we arnt.! We, the cyclists, must decide what kind of a traffic / motoring society we want to live in, is it a lawless, disrespectfull one where everyone just dos as they like, or a safe law abiding society where the motorists and cyclists respect each other and live in harmony. If we want the latter, (and I am sure we do)WE have to start working towards that goal, only we can make the change, we must stop pointing fingers start to "CHANGE", it ALL starts with "US",........ not "THEM".! porky2007-12-21 12:16:13

I am surprised, I often see Gary and Mark riding around and I have never seen them without a helmet. Are you sure it was Gary and co?

So Pantani, did you drop in at "The Runner", did you "run" out with a nice pair of shoes, or did you chicken out? Spill the beans now.!

OH BOY I battled through those 8 pages, and sad to say I got lost.! The reason I read through it all was because I had a sort of similar problem and I was trying to understand what was the cause. My problem was a sort of "pinging" from the rear wheel when sitting on the saddle (I guess loading the wheel?) as soon as you stood up the pinging went away. The bike went to three shops to sort it out, one told me the free wheel hub was faulty (replacing it made no differance) the other told me it was my bottom bracket (it wasnt) the third shop said it was caused by the spokes not been tensioned correctly (they gave me some kind of value of the spoke tension needing to be "30" but was only "5") and the pinging was the spoke "releasing the tension" at the top of the wheel rotation. Their "words not mine", before everyone jumps on me for using wrong terminology. To be honest, I didnt understand a word of it. Anyway, at a cost of R900.00 they rebuilt the wheel using some other type of spoke and nipple, (although they look the same) re-tensioned ?? the spokes etc, and to be honest, the noise (ping) is gone, and the bike seems stiffer somehow. I had noticed before that cornering was becoming a bit of a hit and miss affair and the bike sort of "wondered around" but now its rock steady. Now I am not at all technical, but I read everything here about tension etc and at the risk of sounding dumb I STILL dont understand how the spoke "pinged" ? I wondered if Johan has seen or heard of this happening before (or could say if its even possible). Was I duped Johan.?

There is no secret to loosing weight Captain Dura, its exactly as someone else said - you need to put in less than what you expend calorie (energy) wise. It really dont matter what foods you eat as long as you reduce overall calories. The main reasons for excess weight are - 1)We eat too much 2)We eat the wrong food (junk) 3)We excercise too little. That said, your objective should NEVER be to just loose pounds - it must be to loose FAT - there is a huge differance, make sure you need to loose fat before dieting otherwise you stand to loose that hard earned muscle as well. Most folk when they start to excercise loose weight quickly, but thats just because you are burning more calories than in your previous sedentary state, once your body has reached its "happy" level (ie) its thermodynamic state - where you are taking in as many calories as you are expending, you will stop loosing weight and you will need to up the anti again. Just remember it gets harder and harder every time, as you get leaner and leaner your weight loss will become harder and slower. The body never gives up anything without a fight.! The problem is when you are close to a thermodynamic state (as you are) loosing weight takes more and more will power, and just giving up white bread will do little to help, you really will have to look closely at all the nice things like Jam, nuts,sugar,colas,cakes, chocolates, beer, alcohol etc, you know whats good and bad, theres no secrets, you will also need to restrict high calorie foods like meat, fat and dairy, which leaves you with a bland diet of fruit, veg, salads (no dressing) potatoes and whole grains.This takes serious will power to stick to. Giving up weight means giving up energy, it takes a hard man to go cycle 100 kms on a reduced caloric diet - but believe me, thats exactly what it takes. Good luck.

AH- HAH, - says I as I scratch my chin - as an old runner myself I have learnt a few things over the years regarding shoes. Firstly I would suggest you stay well clear of the sportsmans warehouse group for advice on shoes, their market is very mass orientated and their advice will reflect this.They will sell you something that reflects a commission to the salesman and not something suitable for you. As a new runner, you really need specialist advice, as you obviously want to prevent early injuries, drop in at a specialist shop like the "Bedford runner" or similar, they will watch you trot down the pavement and see if you are neutral or over or under pronate ( by the way very few folk are neutral) and will suggest a shoe specifically for your style. Very often they will ask to see an old pair of shoes to see wear trends, so take a pair of used shoes with you. As for brands and models, Asics is by far the most popular running shoe, simply because they have a wide range of models for all styles and are highly regarded as specialist running shoes. They would be my first choice. Reebok also has an excellant range to suit most styles. To be honest Nike is not considered a specialist running shoe, they have other more commercial markets.

Yes, interesting, but I was more interested in their marketing survey, where it states only 0.3% (0.3%, THATS VERY,VERY,SMALL) of people buying bicyles in the USA did so for racing reasons and approx 95% for JUST recreation and fitness - very unlike the SA market where I would guess the people buying bicycles to race (talking just road here) with is closer to 60 or even 70%. porky2007-12-17 13:02:17

Actually so do I, two pairs in fact, NEVER HAD ANY ISSUES. It reminds me of a case in the USA some time back where a scuba manufacturer was forced to issue a re-call on a regulator joint, because some idiot said his joint broke under water leaving him with a possible catastrophic loss of air. The manufacturer took the case seriously and decided to issue a re-call in conjunction with the government advisory, only 179 people across the world (as the product is sold internationally) bothered to return their joint for a replacement and tests on the units showed them to be perfectly fit for use and quite safe. It later transpired the person who laid the complaint at the government has disassembled the unit himself to replace the o-rings and on re-assembly had neglected to lock tite the screw into place (which was clearly stated in the manufacturers instructions) and the unit had worked loose.

Thats ridiculous, what next a re-call on shoe polish cos it stains your hands.? Benzidine is commonly used in clothing dyes and is very common in the clothing and textile industry, sure it may be fairly dangerous (a carcinogenic) if breathed in and absorbed into the lungs or injested into the stomach from drinking the dye, but (although yes) it can be absorbed through the skin, it would take days or weeks of constant contact with your skin to absorb enough to even give you a mild skin allergy, and if you stopped using the product for more than a few days the benzidine would be broken down and pass out of your body quickly and easily without any side effects. BBQ smoke is probably just as dangerous.! - and I have never heard of anyone suffering from an overdose of braai smoke.

Its really quite interesting that some people are so gullible,perhaps its a nice state to live in (think the best of everybody) ??? ......... but I guess I wouldnt know, been a tad sceptical,................. and I most definately subscribe to the idiom of "if it sounds too good to be true...........it is.!" That said, I see the fraudsters are now trying "reverse psycology" as I got an e-mail recently, thanking me profusely for trying to assist a certain gentleman rescue $200,000000.00 dollars from the clutches of some obscure government, (the e-mail address was a free box from Yahoo, which shows me this gentleman is very prudent with his cash - a good sign I thought - and he is not keen to squander $100.00 of his 200 mill annually on a payable box) - and even though it didnt work out between us, could I please forward all my details and " as a token of appreciation for just trying to help" he is willing to pay me $950,000.00 dollars,(about R7 mill give or take a coupla 100 thousand) bucks, so naturally I couldnt refuse, I mean opportunity only knocks once.......................................... although after my wife and I discussed what we will be doing with our new found wealth, I am not quite sure it will be enough.! porky2007-12-11 13:37:22

Use UTI. I never pay more than R200. For a complete bike. Yes, couriers like UTI and Time freight are probably your best option, but if you are a private individual and not a business with an account in their books (ie) you are really a once off customer to them) they will quote differantly (read higher) to a regular business client. DHL is a very expensive courier as their strength is speed of delivery, usually overnight, normal forwarders send via a consolodation system and it could take 2-3 days, expect to pay roughly R300.00 with a courier like UTI / TIME FREIGHT / SHENKER and the like.