Slave

Tha's a long ride. An' then he still does the long loop and goes home again on the bike. Bliksem.

Hey WW. Looooong time. Where you been hiding out? When You going to join us for a nice whacky ride? We planning a big ride to Heidelberg Sunday. How 'bout you join us?

Does Mcaffee pick this threat up?

Kid, jy's seker laf man. (You're nuts dude.) Short loop for me Sat because I got to save my legs for Sunday. Doing my secret loop tomorrow, rest Friday, Short fast loop Sat. Big ride Sunday. Eish. No wonder I get tired. I'm tired just thinking about it. BTW, we have now sucessfuly hijacked the other dudes thread.

Yeah Porky. That's the one (Liodo Hotel, Allewynspoort road, Steps). For the past few weeks I have been busy with other loops (Boscos, Heidelberg and one or two others) so it's been a while. Early in the morning the traffic is less than at other times of the day when I been out that way by myself. A lot of people think I'm crazy to do Butchers, Columbine and Lido hill in the afternoons with all that rush hour traffic, but I seldom have issues with motorists. I signal my intentions and I find them quite tolerant and even polite. Only the busses scare me.

I'll be out there again next Saturday doing the short loop with the faster group. Look out for the loon on the Peejou. I also wear Panda Kit and being tall, it's kinda difficult to miss me. Who knows, maybe we organise our own route for next Saturday as well if the Kid managed to survive the Heidelberg Loop.

Check out the link. There are a number of other guys (and ladies) that ride every Saturday morning. The group leave at 7 am from Xumbugs. The faster group leave first and then the slower group leave a minute or so behind. Our group do these loops from time to time but often we organise our own routes. Saturdays usually, but sometimes on Sundays as well.

Question already answered in my first reply. In case you don't know where Xumbugs is, it is at the intersection of Swartkoppies and Klipriver Roads. This Sunday we are doing the Heidelberg loop which is about 110 k's. We are meeting at Dischem (corner Hennie Alberts and Delphinium) and leave at 6:30. The rest of the usual group will leave from Xumbugs at 7 as per usual.

Hey Shiny calves and welcome to the hub. Check out this thread. https://www.bikehub.co.za/forum_posts.asp?TID=37434&PN=79 There are regular bunch rides that leave Xumbugs on Saturdays and Sundays (around 7 am), bit every now and then, we get together and form our own group and have a group "hub ride" I ride through your area about twice a week as part of my hills training. On the weekends, come down and join us.

'nother update. El cheapo still working fine. Now going on close to 800 k's. Has lasted longer than any other I have had. Must have been the way I installed previous headset bearing. Moretrials. One of my gripes / rants in life is the price we pay for (bike) stuff. One bike tyre costs more than one car tyre. My car 175X65X14. My bike 700X23C Car tyre 80,000 k's, Bike tyre, 5000. So what I save on petrol on the bike, I spend on tyres. A rear wheel bearing set was R150 a couple years ago. (tapered roller bearings and this was the expensive set). El Cheapo headset bearing, made in that land that banned the Dali Llama, R40.00. Go figure. Some years ago, I paid R20 for a Chin Sheng tyre. Lasted 1500 km and it was fininshed. Moral of the story, Don't buy cheap chinese stuff if you can help it. Oh, and do the job right first time, that helps too.

Got to be a load of fun running 5 k's in your cleats.

BIG DIFFERENCE between Zuma and the Ninja Turtles. The Ninja turtles fight AGAINST criminals.

This is really good news. Now we hope that the justice system works and they get their just deserts. We should save the legal system some work and just use the baskets for ballistic testing. Better still, send them to me. I have some interesting theories on human pain tollerance.

It's just a symptom of the lack of respect that most people have for one another. This is the reason why some people drive like hooglians as well. They just don't care and have no respect for themselves and their fellow road user. I get imense satisfaction out of starting towards the back and working my way forward during the race. That's how I measure myself against others. Knowing I started last and got there before so many. And if you confront said pigheaded fcukwit, you are in big danger of being smacked for your trouble. Come on race marshalls, time to get pics, of the ijit brigade and disqualify them. It will only happen once or twice before they learn.

Eish. Nance, I really struggle with all that spinning and going nowhere fast. You really think you can teach an old dog new tricks?

Riaan. Thanks for the E-mail. You want to arrange group MTB rides n JHB south and Alberton. A lot of MTB riders use the Rietvlei zoo far and other areas in and around Alberton. Use this thread to get your idea off the ground. I know BigBen is into MTB riding and others like him may be keen. Good luck and enjoy the rides. (Kid,Os and others: No such luck. I am and probably always will be a roadie.)

Do your homework as everyone says Rory. I'm not going to advocate new or second hand, but 35k is a big price tag for a bike. Make sure the one you buy goves you the best bang for your buck. If you keep your existing bike, you can change the group sets and all sorts of things every year and keep up with tech advancements that way. If there is nothing wrong wth your current bike frame, why bother going to all the expense of buying a new one? Just change what you need and it will last a while. Then you will still have plenty left over for when they bring put 12 speed. You buy a new 10 speed now, it's going to be just as dated in six months as your current bike with upgrades and the upgrade will cost a damn side less. Just my opinon.

HR. There usually is a default code. Try download the manual from the net. If that doesn't work, go to the agents.

Thing is about local stuff, The local labour cost is high. Tooling to make the bearings is probably not owrth the effort and cost. But I agree. The quality of this cheap chinese stuff is appalling.

Jules, depends on the set you put in. I have an old bike and it takes a "universal bearing set". Cost was ZAR 40 at LBS. So far no problems like before.

Thought I'd provide an update. Baught el cheapo new head set bearing, races etc. Fitted them to the bike taking great care to make sure that I only hand tightened the head set until there was no more play on the head when holding the front brake and rocking the bike. Then locked the lock rings. I have so far done around 500 k's and no sign of any problems yet. Will keep updating on odd occasion. Obviously, my previous effort, I tightened the whole thing too much.

WndblownPE, I'm not sure you stated you case correctly. You telling us you wear your seatbelt after accident scenes? And the rest of the time? I wear mine all the time.

I posted this on the TB forum. Wanted to share it here as well. "I saw an accident scene on Friday night that left me bummed out for the entire weekend. I'm probably only getting to grips with it now. On Friday 27 Feb 2009 at about 19h00 there was a head on collision between two "cages" on JG Strydom Road Alberton. An old Jetta slammed head-on into (either a new Jetta or what looked to me to be a Passat. New model.) At the schene there was a lot of speculation as to how the accident happened and I won't get into that as I do not have the facts. Suffice to say that both drivers were killed instantly and that there was a huge traffic jam for many hours afterwards. What left me bummed out though, was the fact thet the old Jetta was so flattened in front as to be unrecognisable. The length ofthe vehcile was reduced by over a meter, so bad was the impact. The young driver was crushed in his seat and judging by the length of the car, his engine was probably somewhere where his gear lever used to be. It is obvious that there was very high speed in the equation. The new car was pretty much intact as far as damage goes (battling to get my head around that one) in that it appeared to be far less damaged than the old car. An elderly chap was the driver of this one and he was the second fatality. So why am I telling this story? Simple, it is not speed that kills, but the sudden stop. Your chances of being involved in an accident at high speed are infintely higher and the injury or death factor is increased exponentially, the higher the speed. Had the guilty party in the accident, applied a little thought to his actions before he went speeding around the hood, there would be two less grieving familes today. Think Bike is an excellent forum. I listen to the way some chaps fly down the R59 on Sunday mornings and wonder how many grieving families there will be by lunch time. Speed is a rush, there is no doubt about it. However, the risks are just too high and the price the same. If, you knew somehow, that when you open up that throttle on Sunday (or any other day) that it would certainly result in your death, would you still do it? What I'm trying to advocate is this. THINK. You ride a bike, think. Think Bike. Think car too. Think about how much room you leave yourself to react to an emergency and how much time you have left to prevent a serious or fatal accident. If, you are an adrenaline junkie and need the speed, take it to the track because you just may be the reason why someone else has to grieve the loss of their loved one. Your actions may take you out AND someone else. It matter not so much what you drive as to how you drive. You want to risk your own life, fine. Leave me out of it. But for the sake of five minutes, my wife would have been in that spot at that time. I'm very thankful that she wasn't." In shortour safetyis up to us and how we think and react. Be safe out there.