Slave

Er ox. Pleasebe so kind as to change my pending status. It is pending the best excuse I can find. Apparetnly Andy has seen fit to waive Visa requirements. Trubie is going to come to my house and bodily drag me there with my bike attached to the back of his bus and Mrs. Slave will never deny me. She has come to a quiet acceptance of my riding habits and will seriously think there are major helth issues if I can a Saturday Am ride. So, failing all the above, I need to find a suitable excuse that will not have BB and othere mmediately out shopping for new wardrobe itmes for me (notably, Pink Blouses.)

Yeah, I agree with 7 am. Still dark at 06h30 and I'm very miserable when it's dark. I love riding a bike anytime it's light, but darkness and my body tells me I should still be sleeping. Added to which it is stll frikken freezing at 7.

The article appears here: http://www.bicycling.co.za/articles/handbook/the_fix/2573 Didn't see a formula for calculating crank length though.

Glad I have my Slave jacket. High visibility and warm. Light on back, no lights up front. Maybe it is light enough for me to see whoever is brave enough to ride in front of me. Thug, dude, you are def hard core. Ride from Sandton just to ride the WWRR and then ride home again. Eish.

ShawnA, Greyowl shares the same opinion as you do. I thought it might be wise to get several opinions on this one before I make any decisions. After my first ride in SBR, I was told I needed to go for a 52/39 chain ring and that experiment just hurt me. Not too keen to experiment and just have more pain. I will wigh up the options but am leaning towards longer cranks given my current gearing setup. I figure it can only help to do more of the reserve seated.

I read this article on crank length and it got me thinking. It has been recommended that I run longer cranks given my height, but it has never bothered me before. (Currently running 170mm cranks, Height 1.9m) Gearing: Up front 52/42, rear, 11/21, nine speed. The atricle states, quite correctly that it will save some energy because of the longer "lever" to turn the pedals. It also states however, that a longer circumference is needed for the leg to comlete one revolution, therefore there is no conclusive evidenceof energy saving. I'd like to hear your opinions on this one.

Ah Trubes, Such wisdom for one so young. Great idea, I'm glad I though of it. I was thinking more along the lines of we race them (Sorry, you, GO and WW race them on their turf. Then we invite them for a SBRNR race on our turf. I think you're right though, they will sulk if you guys kick there butts. But then I heard that Thug is like quite a hard coredude. He rides to SBR from Rosebank, does tow laps of SBR and then rides home again. I think he might kick us in the butt. To even the playing filed a bit, I will "repair" (servcie) his bike just to make things a little more fair.

Thanks Andy, now I have to find someother daft excuse for avaoiding the pain of those speed bumps. I'll use my immagination. Only 6 days to go. I'm sure even I can think of some cr@ppy excuse between now and then.

You planning another of those spectacular blow-outs WW? You nominating me as your official road mechanic for this ride? You bring the notes, I'll bring the pump. So the thing is, Trubie has a big bus that takes lotsa bikes. To try and keep this thing green, I suggest we use as few cars as possible. I'll be going with Trubie (I think he invited me.) Maybe you can join us for some real interesting conversation and tactical discussions for how we plan to take this one on. As for me,my tactics are to survice to the end and finish even if it is somewhere near the back. As for the next get together, be it another WWRR or the next SBR ride. I think we should have a North vs South race. Between you, GOv2.0 and Trubie, we might be able to win dis ting. I'll be the official sideline sitter / time keeper. Or maybe ride in an unofficial capacity. Rules of the race are that only those who have participated in official Souf and WWRR are elligable to enter. Any ideas on this one. (Yeah, I know, I'm way out there. My brainalso got overheated and suffered a lack of oxygen over the weekend.

Ox. those graphics make it look more like a torture chamber. I thought torture was outlawed sometime in the middle ages or at least several ceturies ago!!! Hog, coming from someone as hard-core as you, they are mere bumps. For pink blouse clad ijits like me, they are the Everest of JHB. Even my car battles up Kdorp hill. I think I am developing some kind of injury / illness / technical difficulty / any of the above / all of the above reasons why Saturday is a rest day for me. I'll pin the hopes of the South on Trubie to make those speed bumps flat before I go anywhere near them. "sides, I hear from Andy that my Visa application has been declined.

Looks more like a torture ride than a hill climbing exercise. Oxman, are you trying to help us train or kill us? You realise we can repay the favour? It's all good mate, hills make us stronger. (or so I'm lead to believ from what is considered to be a relianle source. Those graphs look horrible. Decision time. Increase crank length, change close ration gear box to one with bigger cogs (rear), or go for triple chain rings up front. Ah, I know, turn chicken, pull out of rideand go and buy pink blouse. I'm off to Milady's dudes, they have a pink blouse with my name on it. Later.

our modern world of disposabe children so that we can bonk up a storm and have some more that the guvment must look ufter. More guvment grunts, more disposable children begging, more crime and so the cycle goes. Eish. Africa....

Thug, the Oxman was thinking of buying a double cab bike a short while back. Fortunately, good sense prevailed and both parties will survive the other separation.

I guess we all have differing views and opinions about short courses. I feel it gives one a false sense of achievement. Would have been far happier with a 3 hr 96 k race than a 3 hr 93k. My goal was to do the race in 3 hrs. I was elated with 2 hr 49 until I found the race 3 k's short. End result is "mere satisfaction" rather than a real "sense of achievement."

OK, so maybe I'm reading too much into this. The Garmin (just recieved the specifics regards the ride) shows it at 93.01. That's close enough to my 92.93 so I'll accept that my Cateye is accurate enough for me. 91.8 on the polar (Trubie) is also close enough. The course was 4 km short. I'm not bothered that is was short. I just expected it to be closer to 96 than it was and it takes away from the time I did. Target time was three hours. So I thought 2 hr 49 was great. (Not so great any more.)

Yeah, I agree, not all devices measure accurately. I set up mine on the measured rolling circumference of my loaded front wheel. I expect that it would be close. Cateye claim 98% accuracy. Not sure how the Garmin was set up, but that takes readings from Satelites so I expect it will be the closest thing to the real deal. Trubie sent me his polar readout for the ride. His distance shows 91.8km. So, assuming we take an average of all of them, it is still way less that 96 km which the race was rated as. Therefore my time time of 2 hrs 49 is actually pathetic because it was a short course.

Always so sad to hear of a cyclist killed while out riding. Condolences to all.

Happened a lot when I did a lot of road running. You enter a race and they rate the course at 15 km. You run a stonking time and get all gagga because you "aced" it. Then you find out the course is short or not the full distance. This happend during Foutains yesterday. The course route is rated as 96 km. I guesstimate that someone measured it a long time ago. From Line to line, I measured it on my bike speedo as 92.93 km. Ox's Gamin said 94 and a bit. Am I the only one that finds this irritating?

You missed the point. So let me fill you in. This cahp phones the local loony bin and says to the manager, "One of your people has escaped, run up a tab in my bar and you need to come and get him." "So, how do you know he is one of my inmates?" manager asks. "Simple, he wants to pay with bottle tops." "Ah,manager says. I'll be rght over." He pronmptly goes to the local pub and says to the barman, "So how much is the Tab?". "R595" says the barman. "Got change for a hubcap?" asks the manager. The thing about WW putting the tenner inside the wheel had me almost killing myself laughing becuase it reminded me of the above joke. I could not help wondering if we stopped at the circus for coffee, what the waiter would have said if I aksed "Do you have change for a 700c rear wheel?" OK' so it's not funny. Frikking hilarious.

Excelent news, thanks for the update. Glad to see that the human spirit is as indomitable as ever. Tell, me what is a back back?

Dam, things in Congo must have improved. I see that new interface of bush telegraph to Internet connection she is wekking. Welcome back.

Right, anywhere where we can stop and have coffee on the way? We'll just pay with WW back wheel.

WW now has little choice but to ride with me. She needs her mechanic come puncture repair dude.