Slave

May all your winds be tailwinds and your punctures be few. May your training be safe and all your races, the best. I wish all of you a safe, successful and above all stunning 2009. HAPPY, HAPPY all of ya.

Coupla years ago I was out and about on the bike. Got a couple of punctures and my pump broke so fixing them was a problem. After my third, quite some distance from anywhere where I could pump my wheel, some fellow cyclists stopped, gave me a tube and helped me by pumping the thing with one of those CO2 inflators. Small stuff for them but a BEEEEEG thing for me. I know not who they are but thanks dudes, you save me a moooooooerse long walk pushing my bike. So now, I always ask cyclists if they need help when they are on the side of the road. A few times I have helped people and once had the opportunity to meet a lone lady cyclist who had a puncture. She was so grateful it was scary. What was really scary was that she was in a pretty bad place all by herself. I even taught her how to repair punctures and what she needed. Met up with her the other day at LBS and she told everyone what a hero I was in her books. Pretty much over the top praise for a little thing and a bit embarassing for me with all the bike shop patrons staring at me. (Heck, I even tried to hid behing the Easton wheel display.) Anyhoo, my thoughts on this are that despite what we think, we are all part of a clan and need to show some form of comraderie. What does it cost us to be polite and friendly? Niks, nada, Nothing. If all of us do this, we can start getting some friendly vibes going and maybe we can change the agro BS and teach others that being polite and friendly is not a bad thing. Maybe it will rub off on all thise agro motorists and help reduce the risks we face as cyclists trying to get just a little space on the roads. I'm all for this and I commit fully to the plan.

So, how was the ride Thug? Please tell us. I woke up at 5:30 to the sound of the pitter patter of raindrops on my roof and nore ominously, the sound of thunder. So I reset the alarm, rolled over and went back to sleep. When I woke at 6 it was still p!issing down and continued until atound 6:40. Being the poefter roadie / fair weather rider that I am, I chickened out. (Yeah, the distance terrified me as well.) Two days before, I took a ride in a strong wind and extreme heat to SBR and since I had my SO along in the car, with bike caddy, We gave up half-way up that loooooong climb. Far too hot for sane dudes to be riding on a day like that and that wind, Bliksem. Anyhoo, the legs were protesting from all the abuse I threw at them during December so I kinda needed the rest and I did threaten to rest for the entire week. (I'm a real softie aren't I?)

Don't know. I'm a poefter roadie.

I concur with all of the above. Well done the Blomme boys. Thump them again in the new years third and final test. You really surpised me this time.

You have a PM. Call me and we can make a plan to ride.

Er JD, you sure that you only have one wife? You'll get no takers if the bikes "fell off a truck" cause then they be scratched at best and other damage at worst.

BTW, Mods, please split this hijack stuff into another thread.

Ah, so that was where we passed you without seeing you. We had a smoke break (YES I KNOW, Don't you start on me as well. I feel like a nose I get pickedon so much) at the circus and then went on to Klipriver. Had a box-a chips there that were halfway decent. and then decided I needed to get home before I fell down. That headwind sucked big-time but I still enjoyed the ride. Next time I'll give you a better run up the steps.

Yeah we were. That was the plan anyway, but we had a really wild ride the night before and got rained on. Me, I'm a big softie. Hate the rain, hate the wind (well, leastwise I do when I wanna cycle.) It was raining when I woke up, hey aks Denise to send you the PM I sent her this morning. Explains it all. LOL Garry was strong dude, I was battling to survive and was ready to call 911 to bring me a crash cart to resucitate me, especailly after the fright I got. Dude, I was so out of it by then I just wanted the pain and suffering to go away. Nearly did though, very nearly did.

Yeah, great one Mampara. I hear that all PC's that have windows installed on them are actually going to have an"Any" key installed to avaoid the confusion that arises when the screen says "System crash. Strike any key to continue." Thanks for that TNT. I'll have you know its only 799 years old.

FTF, in my calculation about the weight, I assumed an average rider of 70 kg, bike at 9 kg and the tyre liners weighing 100 g each. If I were to use an actual example, I weigh 96 kg, my bike is 12 kg. If the tyre liners are 72 g each, then the actual percentage weight of the tyre liners is 0,1303 %. That is some "heavy stuff." On Monday I was bored after fitting teeny's new bike 'puter. (just a little cateye "dis-ting") and I got curious about all these issues of weight. My old metal tyre levers weight 1,75 ounces. (Yeah I have an old bike and an even older scale.) The new nylon ones weigh 1 ounce. That's a saving of 0,75 ounces. No wonder I can fly uphill lately. Oh, and I got rid of my tire liners, so I must be going really fast now. I must have saved about 0.2% in weight in the last month or so.

Thread Hijack alert. So, by now everyone should know that I ride an old Peugeot Rapport. Come winter, I wanna re-spray the thing and will have to take off all the old paint and other junk. (Damn, wonder how much weight it will add to the bike?) So, the thing is, I know someone at the flea market who will make stickers (decals for me) and I wanns have the decals changed. What is the legal position for me changing the name of my bike. I wanna get decals made that say 'Pee-jou" and "Papnat" for the name and model. I knowI can do it. I just don't want to end up getting into some legal wrangle over it.

Yeah. I'm a nutty, racist bigot f*ckwit. What can I say? I plead insanity dude. Whne someone finds out where the stolen bikes really go, please let me know. The suspense is killing me now.

If you happen to get out alive. And BTW, there'll probably be a new bike in Alex tomorrow AM. Wanna post a pic so we can see what it looks lke now? Chances are we'll never get to see it again.

I note that word "native" in the dictionary refers to people who live in a place. In other words Frenchmen are natives of France. Then another word was coined and the word relates to unbeliever. (can't say this word 'cause man, there would be seeeerriaaaas trouble.) So by process of deductive logic the word "Heathen" which is also an unbeliever is therefore racist and the use of it should be banned. Perhaps our government should petition the oxford dictionary and have that word removed as well. So, the theory is that you can live among the natives in France, USA or any other country except Africa. In any other country you have believers and heathens, but in Africa, you cannot have unbelievers. By another process of deductive logic, all africans are going to heaven because they all believe and none of the resident local population are racist, only the imported commonwelath scumbags. Yeah, I'm also foncused, but with me it'sa natural and perpetual state.

Thing is Big H, is that when one is a black bigot and F*ckwit, that's ok. You can say anything you want, because when the umlungu (who is in any event a racist bigot and f*ckwit just because he is a whitey) says anything, he is the only one who is racist. Blacks are never racist and can make any racial slurs and comments they so please because they have all the race cards. Only the "larney" bigot f*ckwits hold the jokers didn't you know? So, who you calling a bigot f*ckwit? A racist pig and f*ckwith maybe, but bigot, NEVER dude.

You cannot keep a thread serous in this place for long. My initial answer may have been TIC, but think about it. The dudes who buy them have no real idea of the real value and they just want cheap transport to ge to work and back. So the R200 he pays for it is what he can afford. Simple as that. I started a thread on a similar topic, just slightly different in approach,seeing it from another angle. That of seeing the working class riding bikes I would calssify as clearly out of their affordability range. Some dumb scmuck accused me of being a racist. So, before i get accuse of being accused of being a racist, I'll get my coat. I'm outa here.

Short version, they end up in dumps and rust away of steel frames like mine, or just rotting away if alu. Long version, they go into townships and get ridden into the ground because the theif who sold it to the comuter for R200 has gone on to steal more bikes, and the poos sod who bought it cannot afford to fix it when stuff breaks, so they ultimately get ridden without tyres until they are completely stuffed and then end up rotting away somewhere like a dump, bush in the veld.

Fasterthanfast These okes carry on about weight like it is THE cardinal sin. Let's put that weight into perspective. You probably weigh say 70 kg. The bike is around 9kg. Total weight you have to drag around 79kg, plus you have a bottle or two of water / energy drink, plus a spare tube, some tyre levers (Plastic to save weight), some solution and a few spare patches. So we're talking another 1.7 kg all told. Will the extra 200g that you carry for tyre liners really make such a difference on 81.7kg? We are talking about tyre liners being an extra 0.02454% So, the real issue is not weight. I have used tyre liners on my roadie for a number of years. At first, they worked well (inserted them myself) and then I changed bikes,so I gave my old ones to the teeny (teenage son) and bought myself new ones. They also worked well for some time. Lately, though, I have noticed that, particularly with cheaper tubes, they do tend to abrade holes onto the tubes and they now cause more punctures than they prevent. I have subsequently ripped them out and flung into some far corner of my garage. I found that I used to get a puncture about every 45 to 60 km with them and the punctures were cuased by the liners themselves. I even went so far as to cut a piece of an old tube and used this to cover the overlapping edges of the tyre liner to prevent chaffing. Still doesn't work. Answer, they work for a bit, but in the long run, they were more frustration than they were worth. Conclusion, don't bother. Since I have chucked them,I have had zero punctures in just on 900 km. Better quality tubes will in any event be heavier than the cheapies so what difference? Tyre liners do not prevent snake-bite (or bump-through punctures.) They are a pain to ensure that they are not all twisted up inside the tyre when you do have a puncture and frustrate for more than one reason. They also tend to effect handling and balance problems on the wheels. Hope this is a more scientific and realiable reason not to use them. The weight issue is a complete misnomer.

I think it is on receipt of goods. Recipient has to pay the VAT, and customs cost, generally at GPO on collection. The seller will have little interest in the local laws and customs costs. The only issue on initial purchase is conversion of local currency to foreign currency, which may affet the number of ZAR you have to fork out for the items. My boet bought a CD a while back from Amazon and he had to sort out all this stuff at the post office before they let him have his CD. Turned out to cost him the same of not a llittle more to import directly.

Cool, thanks Massod.

Thanks Mampara. As always, one piece of information raises a question or series of questions. (My mind is like a sponge. I love to absorb information, but have difficulty retaining it.) How reliable is it to buy online? I would also like to get some idea as to why it is cheaper to buy online. Is it because online stores do not have the same rental costs as LBSor are the LBS just rip-off artists? (Yeah, I know, not all, just some.)