linnega

3 ways to convert: Cheapest - http://www.geocities.com/etrexkb/no_flat.htm Not cheap - http://www.no-flats.com More expensive - http://www.notubes.com/ Or you can buy tubeless rims and tyres and fill them with Stan's.

The only problem fixing stuff directly to the frame is the movement against the frame may damage the paintwork. Especially with suspension anywhere on the bike the hoses get pulled a frequently and the constant rubbing mixed with a bit of mud wears down paint pretty quickly.

Why don't you just get a new BB? If the width is the same and the cranks take a square taper BB, any pre-2006 Campy BB should do the trick. Obviously on how we are talking but the Campy BB has been around in more or less the same form for far too long.

Unibet have to be favourites. They are determined to be clean and have a number of good riders. The other two have good riders but ....

I'd say stick with the Fizik saddle. If you don't hate it you love it and I don't know of anyone that has changed their minds about Fizik saddles, especially the Arione.

I hope Trek aren't pushing Boron as a new technology. Tennis racquet manufacturers have been using it for 20-odd years. Nice bike Bruce (pity about the brand though)

Token, you really need to stop doing that. It is an irrelevant question. Because people have broken traffic rules in the past or will in the future has no bearing on the fact that rules were broken during the race. You cannot justify breaking the law by pointing out others are breaking the law especially when the only other justification you have is that it was racing and "racing is racing". It seems riders were warned to obey the rules - they broke them therefore they are being punished. It is much like the idiots that speed in their cars, get caught and then whine that the police should be out catching rapists and murderers. One has nothing to do with the other. Suck it up - you did wrong, pay the price.

Wow - sometimes you have to have respect for DaveB. It takes balls to take a stance like that, but it is positive in my opinion.

The BB is standard ISIS drive from the looks of things. Better off with your RaceFace cranks Popeye. You can get a KCNC knock off of the RaceFace crank system but I imagine it costs more than R1650.

While again you can't condone inappropriate manners on the road nor violence in general, you need to be a bit more circumspect with your attitude Ewep. I am not criticising you for giving him a piece of your mind and for trying to correct his poor behaviour. But you start and end your commentary effectively saying that this type of behaviour means cyclists deserve to be hit on the road. If we as a cycling community can't accept that as bullsh*t then how can we expect the non-cycling community to think like civilised human beings. No one ever deserves to be hit by a car no matter how poor the behaviour, even your new Colnago friend.

Uber Cool dude Hubber - TitusTi Uber Cool chickie Hubber - SARA Crap Talk Hubber - Colonel Grumpiest Hubber - Grapkas Most Improved Hubber - Best Content Hubber - Bikemax Techno Junkie Hubber - Bruce Best Race Report Hubber - SARA Funniest Hubber - Mampara Hubber Deathmatch Award (Best fight on TheHub) - BigH v Anti-LA v Campagnolo Best Avatar Award - Mintsauce Sexiest Virtual Hubber - Cherry Hubber with Coolest Bike(s) - Cruxpearl Most Promising Talent Hubber - Taylor Chick Worst Hubber Crash - willpower Wooden Spoon Award - Big H Best Male performance by a Hubber - TitusTi Best Female performance by a Hubber - Chrissie

Lets keep it clean.

There is only one Alpine stage after the Etape and that is the day after, so you would have to leave straight after the Etape or early the next morning. To get to see the race from the top of the Galibier you will need to be at the base of the Telegraphe by about 9am to be able to ride to the top before the Gendarme close the roads to cyclists. No chance you will get a car up there anytime on race day. The other option is to take it easy for a day or two around Montpellier (the beaches and the women are quite easy on the eye), watch the sprint finish in Montpellier on the Thursday, move up to Carcassone (they have an old town that the wife might find appealing) on the Friday, watch the TT in Albi on the Saturday, then catch the first two Pyrenean mountain stages. A good base would be Foix or even Luchon if you can get place there. Watch the summit finish on Plateau de Beille, then watch your Etape stage from Peyresourde the next day. Well, thats what I would do.

You could always lay a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Insist that a case be opened and hound the police until they follow up.

Glad you got in to one of the reasonable options. Which town are you staying in? The route looks bloody hard for a non-pro. Even without Port de Bales the rest of the climbs are tough, but to have a 20km climb between km 140 and 160 is tough especially following that up with Peyresourde which is really tough. I have ridden Portet Aspet, Col de Mente and the Peyresourde and all are tough going. If I remember right you guys stay in Luchon after the Etape. Perhaps worth staying a day to ride through the other climbs out of Luchon especially Portillon.

Looks like a good list. Are we going to have nominations or simply able to vote for anyone on the members list for each category?

Spidey - you really need to learn your terminology. The SystemSix is a SEMI-compact, the Giants et al are compact. People do get hung up on where frames are built. The only significant impact seems to be on price. Some Euro frames may be prettier, but in general the quality of carbon frames coming out of the East and Taiwan in particular is outstanding.

Have you tried one of these: http://www.dedaelementi.com/dettaglio.asp?articolo=153 The Dog Fang should be able to save the most sloppy front derailleur setup. Ask you LBS if they can get one for you.

Sadly most motorists don't get it. If you are at/ near / above the speed limit, move to the middle of the lane. If you are approaching offramps to the left move out into the lane and indicate that you are doing so by holding your right hand out. If near a particularly common left turners spot, move into the middle of the lane no matter what speed you are doing, clearly indicating that you are going to do so. It is considered dangerous to overtake another vehicle while turning, so whether you are going straight or turning, motorists approaching from behind should be waiting for you. While some don't like my response to rude, antagonistic, provocative and violent hooting from behind by the motorist, on occasion I do respond with a slightly less rude, antagonist and provocative indication of my displeasure.

Never had a problem shifting in the drops up or down, but I have pretty long fingers. Centaur does look like good value this year. Comment on the other thread that this year Centaur internals are like Veloce as opposed to Chorus doesn't really make sense as all 10sp - Veloce through to Record have the same internals in their shifters but different materials are used. Shifting should feel pretty similar throughout the range.

It is a pre-2000 frame. The welding tells you squat as Orbea welded all their frames like that pre-2000. If I remember right it is is a double-butted Lobular. I had a similar compact frame - same paintjob. The frame should be plenty stiff, but the Zeus fork is a little flexy, particularly in larger sizes with the alloy steerer tube. That Orbea was the last alu road bike I owned and probably will ever own, but I liked it. Maybe even preferred the ride to the Look KG381 I replaced it with.

I have found the two most important aspects of training that I learned particularly last year, is that there are aspects to training that cannot be substituted. The first is that long slow miles do very little for your condition as Bikemax says. I built an excellent traditional base over December 2004 and into January 2005. I then rode three 100k+ races on consecutive weekends towards the end of Jan starting with KZN Champs, then the Hyper2Hyper and the Belgotex in Maritzburg. All races were far too fast for me and I suffered unbelievably. As I was fairly strong from the previous season and had built a good base I should have been able to adapt. So my first lesson there was never to focus purely on endurance in the traditional sense, and to introduce a quality high and moderate intensity work sessions in early in the season. The second lesson was that these quality sessions are not enough in their own right. Time in the saddle is still required. I spent the second half of last year only doing quality sessions as my time was limited. My weekly average dropped from 15 hours to around 6-7 hours almost all moderate or high intensity with short warmups and cooldowns. The result was that I was able to hold onto a little of the speed until around October when I felt a definite slowing down and I was able to keep the endurance engine ticking over until about mid-December. By early January I was weaker than I had been in three years and by the Argus even Marius was beating me. The morale of that long winded and boring story is that you can't perform without good quality training but don't use the quality of your training as an excuse to do too little in terms of quantity. Quality training is not a substitute for TITS, but TITS alone won't get you fast.

Gumpole and Bikemax, I get what you are saying and can share your views to an extent. And I don't go around trying to piss anyone off. My default approach is indeed the same as Cois' as I have mentioned. Rational discussion in most cases wins over and to be honest some "groot krokodil" finger waving is more common than the middle finger salute. Sometimes I can't let it go and have to stand up for myself - usually an emotional response to a life threatening situation. The middle finger salute seldom in a direct confrontation in my case as it is always a last resort, and most a$$holes simply speed away. But I do realise that the risk is there that someone may turn around and chase me down. I still doubt that it has any negative impact on cycling as a whole.

Sadly I'm not doing the Epic in 2007. My partner bailed on me and other commitments have come up. I will try to get organised again for 2008 but for now focusing on doing some of the shorter events (if Sani2C will have me, I'll be there).