wildog_a

Ah well, that's my job done for the day. Big Al broke a long silence! Thanks for the help everybody.

I am desperate to make contact with the New Horizons Cycling Club. My emails are going unanswered. Perhaps they just don' want to talk to me... Does anyone perhaps have a telephone number I could try?

We've had a mail from someone wanting to complete the Ventoux 3 side challenge officially. I know some people who have just done it on their own, and lots of touring companies come up when you google the subject, but I am a bit hesitant to make a recommendation. Anyone?

>>> highly doubt Anatomic will not supply our riders with new kit... It's their brand being promoted to an international audience. They would want to showcase how good their products are right?>>> Right. Just for the record, Anatomic did not make the kit

OOOh no, Kori that is horrible! What are the chances? I felt it was really important to publish that letter to confirm that Moz is a destination for stolen bikes; to make people aware of how efficient this redistribution channel is and possibly to make it a little bit harder for them. Now it feels as if we have caused you a second round of trauma, and educated the thieves? Nah, they don't read Ride.

Dirtbreath - abbreviated rules of the trail with your choice of content would be welcomed, thanks for trying. I won't have budet to print more posters for a while, but then we'll be ready with something you approve of when I do... send pictures of tool belt please;-) Ok so about the barriers. I reported this to the voluntary spruit working committee. Those barriers are in the part of the Spruit that the Rockhoppers are sort-of responsible for, so Richard Durrant went down and had a look. The purpose appears to be to keep cars out as the taxis have been going down there and partying rather loudly. He put up some hazard tape and will probably nail in some truck reflectors over the weekend. he wrote: OK - my son who rides the spruit quite often says it is easy to ride around the closure by going closer to the river and riding through the gap in the fence next to the road bridge. Vehicles can't get through here but bikes can!Perhaps just marking it well, until riders get to know the closure is all that is required? Another closure further down below <?: prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Victory Park can be easily ridden around as well?<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Thanks Thug, you took the words out of my mouth! A new public hazard complaint might be looming on the Spruit - remember the teeter-totter where the chap with no helmet came a-cropper? Yesterday I received the following mail: Braamfontein Spruit accident Dear editor, I?m not sure who to contact so I thought you might help as you do have some signage up on the Braamfontein spruit. On Saturday morning I witnessed a horrific accident where a cyclist unknowingly crashed into one of the new wooden barriers across the trail. I?m not sure how he missed seeing it, but they are green and placed fairly low, possibly the low morning light? Anyway he sustained quite a severe laceration to the face, almost removing his chin. Would it not be possible to put up a small sign board on each pole? This happened just off <?: prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />1st Ave. Just a thought.<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> I hesitate to ask which club accepted responsibility for that section, because it is surely not the point...

Anatomic has about 13 kinds of padding and it is all terribly confusing even to me. I have worn their shorts for yonks and some of the pads are great, while the others are too this and too that, depending on your preferences. Make sure that the rep really understands what you want. I personally detest their ladies' padding and prefer the thinner pads, so now that is what I get them to do for me. Much of the corporate market is a bit thin on saddle time, so the rep might push the thicker stuff and some of them are just too big! I have not personally ridden the Viking padding but apparently that is the business. Lots of glowing testimonials from the Epic on those.

I noticed this button for The Bike Migration on the website for the Pick n Pay Weekend Argus Rotary Knysna Cycle Tour. According to their website, they are specialist bike couriers, and they appear to have offered some kind of service aroun the Argus.

On Saturday some of my roadie mates invited me along for a ride - first time on the road bike post-injury and since my incident with the truck ... I guess they needed someone to ride at the back as hijacker bait! A sinister-looking black bakkie with tinted windows pulled up next to us at the intersection just before Ontdekkers crosses the concrete highway. "Do you know this is a hijack hotspot?" asked the guy inside. Suddenly feeling a bit foolish for clinging to our traditional route despite the known dangers, we admitted we did... He seemed to be advance guard on a group ride which followed the same route later. We also saw some other chaps with two-way radios like the one he was carrying next to the road. Does anyone know who organised all this? I feel I need to at least make a contribution to your club coffers or something.

Mmm not often you get to hear the skinner about yourself, it is actually quite refreshing when people aren't trying to present themselves well. Speaking as the editor of Ride, I have to say that I have NEVER had to print a bogus letter. The Q&As are an entirely different matter. We get hundreds of "which bike should I buy?", or problems that require a bit of negotiation out of the public eye, but not much else. Not even pretty attractive prizes seem to help! Now we use syndicated Q&As (see the licensing info on the masthead) because they cover a range of topics, can be customised for local applications, and please our readers who don't like the long articles. In this case I believe the source is less important than the quality, but clearly there are other points of view?

FYI Gautengers... Emmarentia is really under threat! Hi Everybody<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> As agreed I attended the <?: prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Emmarentia Park development meeting at Marks Park last evening, 26 November 2008. The meeting was called by:- GRA ? Greenside Residents Association ERA ? Emmarentia Residents Association EDGE ? Environmental & Dog Group of Emmarentia Joburg City Parks (JCP) were invited and the Curator of the Joburg Botanical Gardens (Emmarentia Park) attended with his legal representative. Meeting was extremely well attended with 200+ concerned persons attending the meeting including a DA MP (whose great grandmother was Emmarentia Geldenhuys, whose family gave the park to the people of Johannesburg and after who the park is named) and the DA City Councilor for the area Ms Pat Richards. Both have committed their support to fighting the planned developments. GRA / ERA / EDGE (Users) were represented by two attorneys, and a support team, who are all residents of the area and park users. Meeting lasted two hours and became very heated and emotional to say the least! JCP are hell bent on developing the park into a fully fledged Botanical Garden and this the fourth attempted in the since 1991 to do this! The purpose of the proposed fence is to enable them to have more control over access to the larger controlled area and to charge entry into this area. This was denied by JCP but the meeting was told that yesterday the pay booths that have already been built were in operation! The fence will reduce the ?public park? area by approximately 75% and will restrict public usage to a relatively small area just below Beyers Naude Drive. Public participation by JCP has been abysmal and the high handed attitude of the JCP officials? right up to senior level is cause for concern, according to the Users legal team. Objection forms were handed out for completion and I objected on behalf of mountain bikers by using my official capacity of being a member of Central Gauteng Mountainbike Commission and Rockhoppers Mountainbike Club. There will be a long hard battle ahead to prevent this development and the Users have committed themselves to this fight. I will keep you posted as to developments and I am sure there will be articles and reports in Caxton and other press. Regards Richard Durrant PLEASE CONSIDER THE ENVIRONMENT BEFORE PRINTING THIS E-MAIL

although they are anti-fence, EDGE also seem to recognise the need for more controlled dog walking. According to their web site they are "an Association which aims to liaise with the relevant authorities to establish an area in the Jan van Riebeck Park in which dogs can run free..." and "EDGE also recognises the importance of caring for the environment and aims to contribute to improving and maintaining our valuable open spaces." There is already a no cycling sign outside the Emma gate near the dam wall, but they can't enforce it without the fence because we can say we came in the other end. If we are not vigilant, cyclists will be confined to the least interesting outer quadrant of the park with the dog poo!

cyclists are not mentioned specifically in the new plans for the gardens, but it will affect us. See the master plan diagramme and more about the City Parks rationale on: http://www.jhbcityparks.com/latest/new-plan-for-botanical-gardens.html then it seems we have an ally in EDGE, which is the dog walkers' pressure group! (sorry, it's a bit long and quite adversararial, but we may want to sign their petition. VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Dear EDGE members and concerned Emmarentia Park Users You will all have been aware of the court action and the interim interdict that was obtained by EDGE and ERA/Eliott on 15 December 2007 to prevent Johannesburg City Parks ("JCP") putting up a fence through Emmarentia. The fence which was in the process of being constructed before the interdict was obtained would have divided Emmarentia park in two and confined many park users to a small area to the South of the proposed fence. About 6 weeks ago JCP conceded both EDGE and ERA/Eliott's High Court applications by withdrawing its decision to erect the fence. They tendered to pay the costs of the court applications. The victory was short lived. No sooner had the decision between "withdrawn", JCP then published a new notice saying that it intends to implement certain "proposed changes" including the erection of the fence. I attach a copy of this notice in PDF format. You will note from the map that they intend to erect the fence in precisely the same place as last year. They have taken these steps because they realized that their decision was flawed at least on the following bases; procedurally because they did not consult with affected parties and substantively because they discovered after we had launched our court applications that there was an existing Johannesburg City Council resolution that had resolved that a fence should not be put up through Emmarentia. JCP has since had this resolution rescinded by the Johannesburg City Council, thus paving the way for it to achieve its ultimate objective which is to put up the "palisade fence" precisely as decided and in the same place designated last year. They are also attempting to pre-empt any criticism that they have not consulted with the community or followed due process. JCP has demonstrated a very disturbing lack of bona fides in the manner in which it acted last year. I strongly believe that JCP will pay lip service to proper and full consultation and that whatever the views of the community are, they will find justification for erecting the fence. While they say they are going to seek the views of the community and interest parties, the fence is a foregone conclusion and they will do whatever is necessary to give effect to their plans. EDGE will be calling upon its members to provide support for a potential further court challenge to stop JCP in its ongoing efforts to desecrate our treasured park. This support could involve amongst other things: assisting to update a petition against the erection of the fence (there are already about 3000 signatures) putting up notices liaison/communications (there are a number of affected organizations such as the boating club, the cycling club, running clubs) financial assistance gathering statements to be used in the court application lobbying political representatives obtaining of information and providing resources which will assist in the pursuance of further legal proceedings If you are in position to assist in any of the above, please would you contact me telephonically or by e-mail. A public meeting has been proposed for 26 November 2008 at 19h00 to be held at <?: prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Marks Park in the Pavillion room to discuss our opposition. We will send you further details in due course. The attached notice from JCP calls for "written comments" to be forwarded to Johannesburg City Parks care of Sim & Botsi Attorneys (being the attorneys who represented them in the High Court application). EDGE intends to make a detailed submission and we invite you to consider the issues fully and send us your comments, which we may want to incorporate into EDGE's submission. A copy of the previous court application (which is not yet resolved) can be downloaded by clicking here http://www.dogwalkers.co.za/docs/EDGEvJCP.pdf (the file is 3.24 megabytes) Many of the arguments against putting up the fence are articulated in the founding papers of the court application and we urge members and persons who are opposed to the fence to download the documents and read them. They highlight the issues and may assist in clarifying the arguments in relation to our opposition to the erection of a fence. Please also visit EDGE's website at www.dogwalkers.co.za Regards Steven Kuny Chairperson of EDGE wildog_a2008-11-13 05:31:05

Thank you for helping out with the details of the Act. I had a call at the office from a cyclist who had been involved in a serious accident. There was just dead silence at the other end of the line when I suggested the words to type into Google... Now he needs to obtain a hard copy, and of-course he needs the exact reference to do that. Good luck man! wildog_a2008-11-04 04:24:20