Slave

I happened to be on the route when on of the Vets group past us. I saw one of them chuck an energy bar wrapper from close to the back of the bunch. The fooligan was too far away for me to get his number. I agree though. Some people need to develop some form of pride. Bio degradable stuff I can still understand, but the foil wrapping and the bottles. Come on. When you took the bottle with you it was full. How much can an empty bottle slow you down? It does nothing just sitting there in your bottle carrier. Perhaps the support teams need to make more effort to clean up after their riders. Get off soap box, hat, coat.....

Yeah TNT. I, of all people should know that the "assumption" is the fother of all muck-ups. Seems that I have not lived and learned. An then you just really took me right along by starting that thread. (I hate to tell you this but it is not April 1st today.) Edited to fis typo. Slave2Love2009-02-13 05:48:21

That might explain how I ended up with both my feet in my mouth at the same time. Friday 13th never got me before. I ain'tabout to let it happen today. I'm not superstitious.

K, seen that one and obviously an ill informed ill read loon that needs to know when the next one is. Our internet marshall filters out some sites and the criticall mass sight is one of them. Like what gives? What is the purpose behind this? There must be some goal. What is it?

Nope. Give me the link and I'll look it up.

TNT. If it would make a diffs. I prob'ly would go into becoming a candidate for the elections, I really would. Titus. You let me know when you have a protest rideand I will make all possible efforts to be there. Just because this wasn't a motorist cyclist contact, doesn't mean that the problem doesn't exist. I'm in for the next one. I have a contact at E-TV and would happily try and use that to influence the media attention.

'k so nowI feel likemoreof a jerk than I usually am. I assumedthat a motorist was the cause of the incident, only to find out it was something competely different. I still maintain though, that the ofiicials are what I said as are the police. (In the most general terms of course.) I also maintain that too mnay cyclists are taken down by motorists and this is due to speeding and lawlessness. Having removed both feet from my mouth, hat and coat time. I'm outa here.

Captain, people are human and one trait we have is to push the envelope. We all do it. Disobeying the law is in fact a criminal act. The fact that the chances of being caught are minute and the chances of a sucessful prosecution are even smaller, people will continue to take chances. This is not right or moral, but still it gets done. Until there are far reaching changes to the criminal justice system and we have a police force that are not corrupt (yeah I know, there are some fine police officers. JUst not enough.) things will stay the same. You think there is any chance the ANC won't get a third term in office? I don't. They wil be voted in again and then we are going to have JZ at the helm. Imagine that. A corrupt president. What the hellkinda message is that going to send out? Crime and lawlessness will escalte and more cyclists are going to get killed by motorist who don't obey the rules. Then what, we just rack up a few more dead bodies? We all ignore the problem and keep lamenting that more cyclist are geeting runover every day. You think the guys that go and shoot up the local Pick n Pay are children. NO. Did they act responsibly? NO. Are the cops going to catch them (in the case of the Jeppestown masacre they did, but how many adults criminals are running around killing, raping and running our cycling fraternity off their bikes?) You have too much faith in Humanity Captain. I applaud that but I think you need a reality check. It would be a wonderful world if we all did what we are suppsoed to. Not enough do though. So we need to have cops, and laws and all that crap. Because people don't do what they should. Ghandi was right, "Be the change you want to seein the world". How many live that? Not nearly enough. Droo. Yeah, we need to make big noise and get the news temas there to hear our complaints. Only then will (some) people take note. and perhaps something will be done. We can all sit around bitching about our buds / fellow cyclist being taken out one by one. Or we can say enough and do something because clearly, the elected officials don't give a rats and the cops are going to keep doing very little. I mean like who cares anyway. It was just a cyclist? Who happened to be someones son, perhaps husband and Father. Why should anyone care that he was a fellow human. Arive alive have campaign every year to stop the carnage on our roads. Because the death rate os so high. Because people speed, drive unroadwrothy vehicles, use cell phones and drink while driving. When last was there any form of campaign about cyclist being hurt? So I suggest we either do something or shut TFU and stop posting the sad stroies of cyclist hurt by motorists and criminals.

TNT. I'm really happy you have an elected official that actually does stuff and I'm not talking about taking bribes as doing stuff. Our local rep is the complete opposite. He has 50 excuses for why stuff is not done. You think the area I live in are going to vote hom out. No-way Jose. We have some hectic hijacking and crime around us and he does f***k all about it except make excuses. The council have no money to put towards sectioning off the hood but they have 2.3 odd millions to spend in defence of Robert Mc(bloodyBride in his drunken driving charge. Let me rather get off my soap box, but suffice to say, that if I felt the way to go was as you suggest, I would do that. The fact that I believe that nothing will come of it if we go the democratic route and behave like a civilised gentleman. The only way these nitwits pay attention is when we spit our dummies out. Please believe me when I say that I want to protest, that I do not want to burn tyres, run around like a mad thing and break stuff. I want a peacful and orderly protest, but the media coverage is the only thing that will help. I agree that fighting frie with fire just resultsin both protagonists just getting burned, but eish. Something needs to be done. There is no service delivery, the cops are undertrained and useless in a lot of instances and crime is a huge problem. Not just violent crime, but the petty stuff like driving with your phone attached to your ear, speeding, hell, you name it. How many more cyclists have to be assualted, knocked down or killed before someone takes notice. Yeah Captain, some of them cyclists are hooglians and ridelike fools, but how many are innocent and still get knocked down? Have you told the loon driving next to you that he's an ijit because he is useng his hand-held phone while "driving"? And you lived to tell the tale. I once told an oke he was illegally stopped (Next to another illegally stopped vehicle) and he pulled a gun on me. Sorry, That one doesn't work for me. The cops do nothing, so now it is up to those who believe in it to do something drastic. I'm too old to emigrate and I think we have a beautiful country here in SA. Why should I leave? But, why should we live in fear or should that be terror?

Sheeesh thanks TNT. I had no idea that my rather simple statement would eveolve into a thread like this. To be honest, I though people like Samma, Colonel and a few others would roast me alive. Since we have your attention, have you ever tried getting your local elected rep to do anything at all? Have you heard some of the bullsh!t they spew about why sh!t can't be done? These prats are as useful as ashtrays on a Colnago / Cannondale (take you oick. Any bike fits here even a KTM) In the 80's the only thing that got attention were protest marches and affirmative action. Anything less got laughed off and NOTHING has changed. Just the name of the ruling party, but they just as useful as the previous bunch of hooglians that held power. Nope,I'm also C for serious. Noneone is going to pay attention to us unless we do something drastic like hold the whole of JHB CBD to ransom by blockading it for several hours. Get the news teams there and we have our say. Get our plight heard and then all go home, have a ride tomorrow and some other poor dude gonna get knocked off his bike. The cops are as useful as the councilors so we need to make noise. BIG, BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEG noise cause right now, aint no-one listenting to us. The Argus (I think someone mentioned it on this forum) started out as a 's protest ride. If that's true, what impact has it had, nothing. If it's true, I don't know that it is a protest ride that happens every year. uys, we have to do something very big and while I hate that many innocent people will get causght up in it, we need to bring some very serious attention to our plight, or just count the cost in hospital bills and dead cycling buds. You all have very valid points to contrinute, Captain and others, but like when is the carnage going to stop unless something gets done. Go BIG, or go HOME.

Agreed, but employers take advantage of this situation and it is morally wrong. Are they going to reimburse you for the costs you have had to lay out for the Argus. Accomodation, travel, ride entry fees and all that other stuff? Yes, we are lucky to be employed in this tough world, but hey, taking adavantage and twistiing stuff around is just faulty. Edit.I just jumped up on my soapbox before I completed the post. Goodsolution but still technically wrong. When you on holiday / leave / away from office legally, they suppsoed to leave you alone. Like rest is rest and work is work. The still taking advantage IMO.Slave2Love2009-02-13 02:02:25

Bad, bad news. Hope it's not too bad inury-wise and that he makes a full recovery. It occurs to me that there are more cyclists around this time of year (lotsa training going on for the Argus) so there are bound to be more accidents. At least that's like my opinion. I don't always follow all the rules when cycling, but my transgressions are calculated risks aftyer first making sure that it is safe to take the risk. It seems that motorist do not have a care in the world for cyclists, or they are just too blind and stupid to see us / pay attention. While out riding on wed afternoon, a motorist overtook another on a barrier line just before the Lido Hotel. He did this with me coming in the opposite direction and he knew I was there, yet still overtook the other vehicle. I had to take evasive manouvres to get out of the way. It seems his ten seconds was more important to him than my miserable life. And this is not the first time I have had to do this. How can we change motorists attitudes towards road safety and cyclists in general. I really think a protest ride is the thing. Stand up and be counted. Damn, I don't even know the chap knocked down this morning, but it's depressing to read of incidents like this almost every day.

SM. Dude, you have a way of making an horrendous accident sound like it was the most hillarious thing to happend, ever. I felt bad ROFLMFAO but the way you put it, it was hysterical. (Now all my office mates are looking at me like I jst landed from Jupiter.) I'm really glad you're ok and it really is great to see that there are still afew decent people out there. Hope you get better soon. Edit; Lucky you were not on a tandem with a buddy. You may have ended up landing in Cuba.Slave2Love2009-02-11 06:15:36

Frosty, I was thinking more of the the "other" Lido hil". The one going up from The Lido to Eagles nest. According to google earth, the climb is about 184 m. The calculation though (dividing gain and distance) assumes though that the hill has a constant rate of climb. The Lido hill from Swartkoppies / Main road to eagle nest is just on 4 k's but starts off gentle and then gets steeper towrds the top. So, it's all conjecture really. I have this training program I want to start following and I need a long hill but finding one with a constant gradient is never going to happen. Maybe I should just go to Sabie and then ride up Long Tom to Lydenberg. Anyone ever done that? Love to hear your experience of it.

You might try this one as well http://www.bicycling.co.za/articles/spin/3015

HAhahahahaaaar. Tarmac, dude.... Remember doing that as a kid. Used to peg a card onto the seat stays and the bike sounded way cool then with the card rattling on the spokes. You never see kidsdoing that today tho'. Come to think of it, i see very few kids riding bike the way we used to. I'll do that and look for one. Post something in the wanteds.

That Delphi 6 looks really nice. Big problem tho'. I get one of these things and it be worth more than my bike.

Can anyone recommend a reasonably good HRM and cadence metering system that won't break the bank? I want to try out a new training program and ned HRM and cadence meters. (They also recommend power meters, but eish.... at my age I can just kinda turn the pedals.)

'k So the Lido hill is 4 km long and the virtical climb is 184 meters. According tou your calculation the hill would have a 4.6% gradient. Also that would be an average because we all know that Lido starts off gentle and gets vicious towards the top near eagles nest. Bliksem, 8 % must be like going up a cliff.

Too true SD. An the pedestrians are a lot softer to crash into than the cars.

I read an article in a backcopy of Bicycling magazine that gave some tipson hill training. In the same issue, they also give a detailed program for doin a 100 k race in particular time bands. So what I want to know is they mention hills with 4 to 6% gradients and 4 to 8% gradients. How does one grade a hill without using a GPS. There must be some way to calculate it. Please help.

I agree, but that hump is dangerous. I know it's there, but for thise who don't, it's a moerse thing and someone was bound to get hurt one day. Another thing that irks me with town council is the state of the roads, but I guess that's a whole nother ball-of-wax. I saw a dog disappear down a pothole in the hood the other day. Next day there was one of those missing posters at the local shops. Dued wouldn't give me the reward cause he said he never found his dog.

Ouch, you cut me deep Mampara. You cut me deep.

I think it can be removed without too much effort. Not sure how the tar willlook afterwards, but I suspect that we could remove it without too much damage.

Dude, that thing has been there for more than 10 years.