Slave

Good to know lesotho is in Johannesburg. I always wondered where it was. Think I need to go and get a refund on that atlas of mine that has erroniously put Lesotho just south of the free state. For that matter, we could have put in Long Tom Pass, or The climb up From Belville to Worceter, but they are not in JHB either.

Maybe it stems from my days as a motor cyclist, but I switch on me driving lights when it is overcast, raining or before the sun actually sets. I figure if I have my lights on, I must be easier to see. Park lights are useless unless for parking and fog lights have more irritation value than any other value. They do not help you see more of the road. They do irritate and blind everyone else on the road. That makes them more dangerous than safe. IJITS. Switch on your lights and you may never have to wonder if the other car would have seen you when you are at the funeral of your child who was probably not wearing the seatbelt at the moment of impact. It costs nothing to use your lights. Being seen is the key issue.

I had the cheap pick n pay bike, and no cycling shorts. Used to cycle in tackies shorts and a T shirt. No quick release, no tubby bag and no pump to take along. Punctures meant a long walk homeand at some stage, I used to quite enjoy punctures because then I got to spend the whole afternoon away from home. Timed my walk to get home as it got dark.

Most votes takes it. I have (for some time) been planning to get a hub ride / day get together at Karee Kloof. Please vote for the most suitable option for you and your family / fan club / BF / GF.

Elvin, going back to your original question, Slow is relative. Your average speed will be lower of a hilly course than over a flat one. Your level of fitness will also make a big difference. The bike is not your major thing here unlessit is a very heavy bike. My roadie weighs in at around 12kg which is almost double the weight of most carbon bikes these days. But there are some chaps that ride around our area on Carbon and I can kick their butts on any day. Also true to say that most of the guys are faster than me and drop me more often than I care to mention. Get fit, see how much you enjoy and then do as IanJ says. His advice is the best you have had so far. Oh and it's a really cool feeling when you can go faster than some other dude on his fancy bike.

Hey BB, move over an make someroom in that trench for me. I think the bullets are not too far away. They should be coming my way anytime soon.Slave2009-07-02 07:28:45

Who's joking about crapagnolo? I agreewith Ben. You ducking those bullets now my mate.

Love the humour Yeah, good one. Killer whales also eat seals and those nasty toothy fish that a certain rugby team is named after.

IanJ, it got stuck to the driveway gate first. So instead of increasing my avergare speed, it had the opposite effect. I spent ten minutes removing it from all the junk I got stuck to along the road. (Ten minutes per traffic light, street lights (only the steel ones.), it pulled me along rather nicely behind that taxi that my bike was irresitably attracted to.)

BB, in that case, Crasher is correct. This is going to get interesting.

So like just how much is an aero helmet going to help? This is the same as saving grams on water bottle cages. Negligable difference.

So is this best to worst or the other way around? If the other way around, BB is gonna get

TNT, for what it's worth acid is corrosive. Brasso is abarasive. You only need to put enough on to soften the glue and then wipe it off. I have used brasso for many such applications with no side effects. It is great for getting those big sticky paper price stickers off CD covers. Yeah, it can cause problems if you rub too much. Don't.

Brasso works very well and so does thinners. I would use / go the brasso route though. Thinners may do more harm than good. Spread it over the area to be treated, leave it for a few minutes and rub off with tissue paper.

I was speaking to one of my colleagues who does spray painting. The dealis I want to revive my 900 year old Peejou. Colleague suggested I have it powder coated. Apparently it is better than using spray paint. Stronger and more chips and scratch resistant. To give it a shine they can powder coat a clear coat over the colour.

I have it on fairly decent authority that throwing your water bottle at passing taxis also makes you faster.

It's low but entirely probable. I think a lot of bike / car problems on the road occur because motorist underestimate the speeds we do. They expect us to be slower than we really can be. Check the settings thing with the bike computer to get more accurate results.

I can see logic in most things and understand that there's little cornering thus flat spots developing on the tyres. However, I also fail to understand that it should be excessive on an IDT unless there is some setup problem. TNT, yeah, I did wonder about the comments I would get ITO the "normal" comment and who would reve me the most about it. I have simple philosophies on life and one of them is: WHy normal be?" Another is: "It's never too late to have a happy childhood." Thanks all, I'll chat to my bud. Convince him there is something seriously wrong with his IDT and he needs to hand it over to me for forensic investigations which will take the rest of winter to sort.

A mate of mine e-mailed me a couple days ago. He was looking for a back wheel. When I enquired why, he said he had got an IDT and the tyre wear was big. So he got other tyres but it's a ballache changing tyres. Is tyre wear on an IDT higher than on the road? What is normal?

Trubie, at my age, it is grossly unfair to ask whay I meant when I posted somethng more that an hour ago. I will plead insanity whenever asked what I meant on anything more than 30 minutes ago. At the time of going to press, the facts are clear in my mind. After the passage of time though, the facts become hazy and indsitinct. The memory of what I meant fades into obscurity. Now let's see, the frist 20 k's of the virtual ride was more fun because it wasn't cold at the time of going to print. The real ride though, was freezing cold for the first 20 km. So I have to conclude that the first part of the virutual ride (on the computer keyboard), was more fun. Once it warmed up a tad, I did enjoy the bike ride more. Challenging and hard, but great fun once the pain of the cold was done.

I would stay away from Loctite. It is pretty good stuff and I use it often for other applications. In this case though I would not use loctite. I think you will be creating more problems than you solve. If you thread th new cups in correctly, the thread should hold without having to resort to artificial means.

Due to the extreme cold, the vitual ride was far more fun than the real deal. Well at least the first 20 k's of the virtual ride anyway. Then again, maybe my fingers got more exercise than my legs.

Nice view from some of those little speedbumps Ox. The view from KDorp hill and then overlooking the dam from Robert Broom. That fisherman had the right idea though. Hide away from the cold in his caravan with some gas heaters going to thaw off all the ice. Probably had a few anit freeze beverages the night before as well. Next time we ride and it's so cold (Sorry, wont be one for me), organise some OBS. I'll drive recovery and FOFLMAFAO at all off ya. You forgot to mention that a 42 drives that 21.

Ahhh, yes, it was a reasonable ride. (Ok, ok, don't get al bent out of shape Ox, it was good 'k?) Took two anti-inflamatories when I got home on Friday (with grub of course) and hoped that the shoulder would keep me off the bike. No such luck. When we got to Riverstone, it was cold with a capital "F". Trubie took great delight in showing me it was minus 4. It made little or no difference that the hardcore gang comprisiing, IanJ, backward OX and the now DD WW. With all those clothes on though, I never noticed. Maybe my eyeballs were too frozen. From the start, my fingers and toes hurt from the cold. It felt like my hands were on fire from the burning biting cold. Eina. I can honestly say, I have never, ever been so cold on a bike. The hills, well, KDorp hill is kinda like the Lido hill from the Lido up to Mondeor. It just goes on and on with one small exception. No ugly little kick at the top with a steep gradient increase. The view from there is awesome though. Wheelsuck (who has been advised to change his login to PuncturesSuck) punctured for the first time somewhere close to Hedrik Potgieter on the way to Kdorp hill. It gave us some time to thaw out a little and the temp was a little ore civilised after that. My toes were still solid icebergs though. Robert Broom was the only serious challenge though. Steep but relatively short. You guys want to ride hills, we have some really nasty ones out here in da souf. We just keep them for ourselves and treat our northern friends to the gentle flat routes. Sometime soon, we will arrange the hilly southern ride (Ne osman?) Get in some really good legwork before the Amashova. Having said that though, I was one of the back-markers. Not too sure why I struggled up those hills as much as I did. Maybe I left the riding legs at home in bed. Whatever, they stil hurt and it was a challenging route. I learned one or two things about life on that ride. One of those things is simply this, Bears are smart, humans are doff. Bears hibernate while we invent objects of torture and operate them in extreme conditions, like when we should be home sleeping in a warm bed. Another thing I learned is that I am defiinitely a poefter roadie. minus 4 is too cold for comfort. The cold hurt so much, I invented some family junk (commitments) for Sunday morning and for the fist time in many months, did not take a Sunday morning ride. One degree was not enough of an increase in temp for me to brave the roads. Bikes are expensive dust accumulation devices but decorate my garage nicely. I will ride another tour de north if organised, but ONLY if the weather is much improved. It was great to meet some new hubbers. Nanosec can climb a bit. Between him and junior IanJ they spent many hours waiting on the side of the roads at TOC for the slowcoach Slave. Respect dudes, great ride despite it being brass monkeys.