porky

Like it or not Cajees is the biggest most powerfull retail bike shop in the country - period. How did they get there - simple - they are businessmen who sell bikes and bike parts, not cyclists who are trying to be businessmen.!! Most small bike shops I see are struggling to survive, they have minimal stock, are not financially strong, are generally run by cyclists who prefer to be out cycling instead of attending to business and are severly undercapitalised. If I was a supplier I would far prefer to supply a sound financial business with rock bottom prices like Cajees where I know I will get paid, they have a good pull through and they carry the stock. Small bike shops are a liability and even with the owners best intentions the supplier runs the risk of non payment. Add to that the fact that they generall market towards the mass market, weight weenies who like to stand around all day shooting the bull with the salesman, and never spend a cent are not their customers.

Hmm, interesting chat,it seems to me Montyzuma that contrary to your witch hunt, Bikemonster,Widget and Lbie are all saying the same thing, actually I think their argument and logic make perfect sense. Montyzuma you have yet to make a point, yet you see perfectly fit to see fault in other reasonings without putting your point up for all to see - if you have one that is. Testosterone is quickly used up, the ratios are of little real importance when you have such issues as a finding of synthetic testosterone and such a massive spike betwen tests. As we are all phsyiological humans we all work on the same genetic principles which are carefully tabulated, anyone outside of these norms are either ill (not functioning correctly) or are ingesting drugs to change these norms or are genetic freaks - in which case this can be medically explained away. Obviously Landis is not a genetic freak and I doubt he was ill, so where dos that leave us.? Tests may or may not be 100% accurate - its immaterial - if these tests are good enough for the majority of the medical profession who know a lot more than us - its good enough for me.!!

I have never used the product because I hate a braai - all that smoke,grease and burnt meat just puts me off completely. I far prefer a civilised oven roast and fresh crisp vegetables around a table with a glass of slightly chilled red wine. ........But I digress, actually the product is not new, there are a few differant types around, but none has ever made it into any of the major retail chains. Some of the quick stop type operations at service stations have been selling another brand for a while now. But good luck to him, perhaps its the way of the future.?

Testosterone is obviously produced naturally in the body, so a ZERO level test result is odd - however low male testosterone levels are just as suspect as high ones - I am not clued up on the Landis case and his levels at the time so I cant comment on the levels recorded. Testosterone never really "gets worked out" of the body, it is just used up in the normal metabolic functions and is replenished constantly. However my understanding of the case is that not only was the level high, but "synthetic" testosterone was also present - this is obviously never going to be produced by the body and so the presumption is, it was introduced from an external source - a high level may be explained away in exceptional cases - but synthetic testosterone - never.!

to watch S/cycling every week, so when I could, I used to look forward to been entertained for an hour. However, I am very disappointed with this show as late. In general the show lacks an interest factor for me and to be honest last nights show was a major yawn!. It seems to me they woke up at 4pm and realised they had a show to put together in 3 hours............... ..............Uuuum what can we do? .............Hey, I know we will re-hash the same old TDF footage and re-discuss the same old story which has been covered in every newspaper, every cycling magazine,every internet site and every chat room for the last 3 months.!! Surely they could have thought of some more interesting questions to put to Mr Hunter?? It reminds me of the general low level of Journalism prevalent in this country where a personality interview consists of asking whats their favourite food, where they like to drink coffee and if they have any pet dogs.!!! I mean honestly - do some flippin research, get innovative, try and stimulate the viewers a bit.!! .................and PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE STOP RE-HASHING the same old tired news.!!! porky2006-10-04 05:09:33

I know the feeling Linnega,sometimes I worry that when the shop swipes my c/card a picture of my bank manager will pop up on the screen all sweaty and wide eyed "please no more please no.!!"

Naaaah, the Epics easier, I mean "c mon" Linnega.!!

Sure, I think its a lot like anything, find a good restaurant and you go there all the time, find a good mechanic and of course thats who you want working on your bicycle. ............but I still wonder on the "apprenticeship" thing, maybe someone else knows?

I guess I will do it, but I wont waste time trying to enter today or tomorrow, believe me there will be space, it will be number 7 for me and the wife, but if it were not for the fact that I usually make it a sort of a holiday for at least 7 days, and participate in other things when I am down there, I would definately not bother!!. I would certainly not enter and ride if I had to drive or fly down on the friday and drive or fly back on the sunday, like some people I know - the event dos not warrant that kind of inconveniece for me.

Yes, I have to agree chunky, unfortunately its too easy to "bark up the wrong tree" as it were and postings are not always true reflections of the actual person (just ask any youngster on an open chat site - scary,man scary), their usual reasoning or their understanding of the situation. All we really have to go on is the writen word as we see it, and although I have only sort of been following this debate, you have never said anything, that I can recall, that would make me want to disbelieve you, so I dont understand why people keep looking between the lines. I understand (from the postings) Gift feels strongly about a situation or occurance, but I think we need to be carefull to not label someone, unless we are fairly sure of our facts.

Dont get me wrong Titus, I am not suggesting he is not knowledgable or able to do the job.I mean there are literally thousands of "backyard mechanics" around and some are actually very competant even though they may have no formal or "official apprenticeship" training. I dont think I would take my 2006 BMW there, but.......................sure, there are some probably as good as any formally trained mechanic. So no I am not doubting his (or anyones) ability. What I really wanted to know was"is there any officially recognised training for bicycle mechanics which would be affiliated to say the dept of manpower or a trade organisation"?? If not (and I am assuming "no") do you not think its rather a worrysome situation, whereby a shop could effectively get their domestic, untrained gardener, give him a few shifting spanners and let him loose on your very expensive and very sought after bicycle.?

By "OFFICIAL" training, I assume you mean an apprenticeship of some sort?? I would really hope this is the case, I mean you have to undergo a 5 year apprenticeship to work on someones 1975 VW Beatle worth about R3000.00, but shops seem to think its fine to let an unskilled worker loose on someones R30,000.00 (or more) high end, very fragile carbon bicycle. Makes me a bit nervous!

Hmm, interesting thought. Personally I dont work on my own bike, car,motorbike,roller skates,pogo stick,skate board,tricycle,fish tank or dog kennel but that dos not mean I wouldnt be interested in learning a bit about it. I think a basic mechanical course for cyclists would be a great idea - I wonder if its done up here.?? It gos without saying though I would only attend if the person giving the course had some sort of official??? (is there such a thing) recognition, in my experience of bicycle mechanics most strike me as been self trained at best and rather scary at worst.

At least you had a ride, I just had a crappy morning!! Up at 2am to drive to Sun City to collect a customer at 4am and take him to the airport to catch the 6am "Sinus express" to Cape town, only to find it was delayed, so I had to drive back to the office in peak hour traffic, the journey from the airport to Bedfordview, probably 20 odd kms took nearly 2 frigging hours.!!!!! ......so I have already had my stress levels at 99% for 8 hours and its not even midday.!!

Thats dissapointing - because I will now not ride the event. I was going to enter in the next couple of days, but I simply cannot afford the time from work to go down to Durban to register. Like most folk I know from Gauteng, I collect my number from "wherever?" in Johannesburg before the time, drive down Sat. afternoon and stay in Pietermaritzburg sat. night. No ways am I going to drive down to Durban to register, so I guess I wont be riding, its just too inconvenient for me.

I think we would have been rather naive to think the good doc. would have limited himself to a few top pro riders. Greed is the downfall of many a criminal (apart from bragging too much) and I would imagine he would have taken money from who ever he could, irrespective of nationality, or ability. It would be interesting to learn some more.

Not a good sign that "cycling is going from strength to strength" (to quote some prominant celebs) - is it.??

I dont ride in the rain, due to principle - it ruins my hairstyle.!

Yes, you are correct garykid, in the middle to late 80s this did occur, mainly because of the woman in the sport - they kicked up a stink because they felt that it was unrealistic to have a woman who weighed 235 lbs with 40inch biceps. What happened was a split, and they called themselves the WWB, they promised the world, big salaries and big sponsors, and all the druggies went with it, they had one or two shows where the norm was 300lb monsters with gaps in their teeth from growth hormones you could drive a bus through, and feet like sasquash, prancing around on stage like fairies. The IFBB (the legitimate body) took a differant route and ENFORCED DRUG TESTING 4 TIMES A YEAR MINIMUM for every athlete who had a pro license, over and above that they were tested before and after every competition. The WWB folded in less than a year - nobody went to the shows except for a laugh, serious body builders and their fans stayed away and the result was a complete collapse of the event which nearly destroyed the sport. The IFBB on the other hand stuck to its guns and soon flourished and today, body building is considered a growing sport again with serious competitors and a strict drug policy. The upstart is - few fans want to be decieved by druggies, they want fair and honest competition and will abandon a sport if they percieve it to be otherwise.

Just as an aside, having just returned from China on business, you can buy a commuting bicycle there with a three speed gearing system for around $15.00 US.(ROUGHLY R95.00) and its actually not that bad, thousands of people ride them everyday to work and back and they never seem to fail.