linnega

Campagnola is only difficult to pronounce if you are a little slow and struggle with pronunciation.

From the SRAM FAQ that used to exist: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: What does SRAM mean? R: SRAM is the conglomeration of our founders' names, Scott, Ray and sAM. The initials provided a simple way to come up with a corporate name that could be trademarked and directly translated into languages other than English. It is not pronounced S-RAM, SchRAM, or SkRAM. Just SRAM.

Canc can't go for yellow past the first mountain stage as he can't climb. We saw that already in Switzerland. No doubt he will try hang around for the TT's though, and try to hang onto yellow for the next 4 stages at least.

H - Branford were barred from selling Shimano products about 2 years ago when they put up that moan. They could still sell Shimano products at competitive prices but they need to register with Shimano and register the source of product.

Congrats EB. How much did you guys manage to raise?

Unfortunate that the riders have to be treated like babies, but it seems the only way forward. RH had better sign as Prudhomme would not worry about excluding him.

McEwan then Bennati. Boonen will finish this year, but when he loses weight to get over the hills he is slower in the sprint. Petacchi won't be at the Tour. Freire is too inconsistent day-to-day. O'Grady is not quick enough and he has other team duties, if CSC wanted a sprinter, Haedo would have been chosen for the Tour team. Hushovd is too slow, but bad luck for all others may give him a shot.

Do what??

I always find cycling pseudo-science rather amusing. Very little that is said is backed up by solid scientific evidence and ceramic bearings are a case in point. As for the argument that the pro's ride them - lets give our Hubbers a little credit, even a moron knows the pro's ride what they are paid to ride and FSA are some of the biggest payers in the business these days. Like most of what is out there ceramic bearings offer no significant benefit and certainly no reasonable cost benefit. A Reynolds 501 steel frame with Shimano 105 geartrain, box rims and 32 straight gauge spokes from DT Swiss is difficult to improve on in terms of performance. Your high-end carbon frame with Record components and Zipp wheels may look better but the performance benefits will not be significant and certainly not be justifiable in terms of cost.

Now Crux, you see what happens when people aren't exposed to new technology - they think Cannondale is great. Sorry to tell you but the Earth isn't flat!

Just showing NEW stuff is not the point' date=' for me (shopping for my first carbon) the expo was awesome so I could compare most brands and have a look at all the bikes there before I decided on the best my money could buy.[/quote'] I suppose that is exactly why Probike are pulling out. If you only looked at the Expo, you would have only seen 20-30% of the brands available in SA and all would have been 2007 models (ie the bikes released in August 2006). However, if you had trawled the internet you would have gotten a broader appreciation of what was available (from manufacturer websites - see admin's list here: https://www.bikehub.co.za/links.asp); as well as user opinion (informed and uninformed) and if you look hard enough some independent subjective and objective tests. By the time I get to a bike shop (physical or virtual) I have a pretty good idea of what I want. So while the Expo may have helped you decide because the options were broader than in any single bike shop, the internet would have provided a lot more benefit. Probike have recognised this, just as they recognised the benefit of integrating technlogy into their supply chain process. They are still way behind many other industries, but in the local cycling distribution network they are very advanced. As for whether Expo's are bad. To my mind an Expo is a display of cutting edge products. I have never seen a cutting edge product at any of the cycling expo's I have been to. Not sure what our Expo's do offer other than a temporary location for local distributors and retailers to peddle their wares. A real Expo should have no goods for sale.

The best thing about XTR hubs is they are cheap and decent. You start paying through the nose as soon as you move elsewhere (even to DT hubs). Willehond - do all your checking for price on chainreaction (www.chainreactioncycles.com). Shipping to SA may even be free if your wheels are expensive enough. But that DT wheelset is also pretty awesome and a great price. I got a set of Mavic XC717 rims laced with 32 Revolution spokes and XTR hubs from ChainReaction. No problems with the wheels - run them tubeless with Joe's (also no problems) and Kenda Kharma/Nevegal tyres (again no complaints). Only problem seems to be the rider. Rest works great. linnega2007-06-19 14:48:40

Great news. Nice to see Probike take a stand (scuse the pun). It is about time that the expo's around the country wise up to the fact that mediocre displays of 6 month old products is not an appropriate way to reach the consumer. Probike are introducing their 2008 products now - by March they will be old news.

Try these guys: http://www.bicyclepower.co.za/products_bonesbootrack.php

It's just you.

I always wonder why so much fuss is made of punctures on road bikes. On average I get a punture every 5000km, most of which is commute on city streets full of glass. I use my old race tyres (Vredestein Fortezza Tricomps) until the rubber is practically worn off. Doesn't seem worthwile to make any special effort regarding punctures.

Hilltops is not particularly steep - max at around 8-9%, av around 6% if memory serves me right. With its length, Hilltops would be a cat 4 (or cat 3 if near the end of the stage) at the Tour. Boulders may qualify as a cat 2 climb if towards the back end of a stage. The Madeleines average gradient is close on 7% if I remember right, but you will have a few sections where there are 3-4 kms at close to 10% av. What you have to take into account with the Alpine climbs is the sheer length. A climb of around 2km (Hilltops) will never compare with 20km+ of climbing even if the average gradient was only 3%. For your average joe, the climb time would be clsoe to 2 hours on both the Galibier and Madeleine. I spent nearly 90 minutes of the Etape riding the Col d'Aubisque. That is a helluva long time to be climbing.

Riis does own the team and pays all the bills. CSC simply pay in a lumpsum in cash and bank guarantees every year. Riis cycling is the employer of all the staff and riders involved in Team CSC. As for the Dauphine, it is not run by the ASO. It is one of the few remaining independent big French races. As each big race has come under sponsor pressure, the ASO has stepped to take control of the event. This hasn't happened with the Dauphine simply because of LA's appeal to the American market. With LA there, the Dauphine organisers could command decent TV rights out of the US. Whether they will continue to be succesful really depends on whether the top riders continue to turn up for the event as opposed to the Tour de Suisse. If they keep using Ventoux, the riders might get a bit pissed off, but at least the fans will be happy.

I hope young Sunblock doesn't spend too much time researching his articles particularly if he intends to write as incoherently as he did in this effort. It appears that he started with a cool quote (his end-quote) and tried to build an article to get there. If you had not followed his tirades on the Hub, I don't think you would have been able to make sense of the article. It appears to me that young Sunblock needs to grow up a little, become a little less self-absorbed, get over his conspiracy theories and move beyond his pseudo-intellectual ideas of "enlightenment". Generally he needs to mature and then perhaps he could write meaningful articles that his grammatical ability suggests he is capable of. As for whether there is a need to respond on reporter.co.za, I wouldn't bother. The site istelf is no more authoritative than this one, and Sunblock comes across as a weirdo with a personal vendetta against MWNN and Psycho in particular, and this will do neither of them any harm nor will it harm the Hub.linnega2007-06-05 05:07:20

I would be very wary of paying big money for a few of the Giro success stories. Di Luca and Mazzoleni may still be "officially" included in investigations into sports doping based on a few phone call taps. Riis does not need any more scandal if he is to keep onto his CSC sponsorship.

The real difference is that many of the other teams consistently refused to discuss the issue of doping. Telekom made the stance that they were categorically anti-doping. As for Riis, I am not sure that it is that big an issue for Riis to continue with the team. They have contracted a noted anti-doping expert and, while I know everyone has their price, I don't think CSC could have bought his services without him being convinced that the program would be effective. If the CSC program fails (and I can assure you that many journalists are digging to see if they can find cracks), then Damsgaard's career both as an expert in anti-doping and as a journalist is over. I believe CSC will assess their sponsirship for 2009 and decide whether they continue to invest, but to jump ship now would be probably be overly reactive. I do however, think that Riis needs to do two things. Firstly, publicly return his yellow jersey to the ASO and apologise. Secondly, he needs to make sure that he is not involved in the Tour at all. Another DS needs to run the show and he needs to take a back seat. It will better for his sponsor and for his riders, and will go a long way to appeasing the ASO who are seeing their brand (the TDF) damaged again. The ASO are potentially the biggest losers in this saga as the German TV rights (which are being pulled from 2009) alone are worth more than the pocket change needed to run a Protour team, even one of CSC's stature.

Cox is recovering from surgery or some such. I imagine the team could only include Hunter and Augustyn. Rest of the team should include Efimkin, Guidi, Cardenas, Pedro whatshisname and the rest pretty much whoever is fittest at the moment.

He probably did, but they needed to totally break Di Luca to get that much time back. Simoni probably realises he will loses a minute or so to Di Luca in the TT and that meant he needed to pull 3 min+ back on Zoncolan, a pretty tall order. I would like to see them have a dip on tomorrows stage. Simoni can afford to have a go from 70 odd km out and use Piepoli to help him. Schleck would be better, as he is the best chronoman of the three but I can't see a 21-year old risking his podium position and white jersey for the possibility of pink in Milan.

Absolutely - like the Chunky comment above. The problem only arises when people take personal attacks personally, and start to lash out. On a messageboard that quickly gets out of control as you can hide behind your avatar. Best though is to stamp out the personal attacks and kill the root of the problem.

Seriously though - just behave people. There is no need to get personal and abusive about anything, whether on the Hub or anywhere else. Lots of interesting ideas on how to control it all, but there really aren't many resources. Admin and the mods all have other daytime commitments and some have little children, plus every now and then we like to ride our bikes. That kinda limits the Hub time. So I agree with Fatty and Crux - you misbehave and the post and/or you are toast. Less discussion about it and warnings - just quick culling. We would hate to see the regular members up and join the Supercycling messageboard!!! and personally I wouldn't like to see restrictions on who can join. Even Chunky adds value to the Hub.