Slave

Legally, one cyclist may only ride next to another while overtaking. Imagine of motorists decided to ride two abreast on a two way roadway and you were coming in the opposite direction. Would it be safe to say you'd be ? Hell I get angry with every dumb@ss schmuck who overtakes in his /her car when clearly they can see me on my bike coming from the opposite direction. The rules of the road are there for the protection and safety of all. They are there because without them, people are just to dumb to exercise a little bit of intelligence and self restraint. Anarchy is what happens when law fails and I think this is a prime example of a situation close to anarchy. One group does something (tack son the road) and another wants revenge (find them and beat them). Or the other side of the coin, One group abuses the road by taking over the place and the other extractes revenge by putting tacks on the road.... Like I said yesterday, it would never be a "hubber" because we are all squeaky clean and would never break the law. We all ride single file on all of our rides and never exceed the speed limit. It can only be the weekend warriors training for 94.7 in which case, by next week it's all over, and everyone will be happy because all these bikes will be parked until next year when they get dusted off for the next one.

So where do you draw the line? It is illegal to ride two abreast. Period. Just because lunatics speed in their cars or on their motor cycles doesn't make it right for cyclists to ride two three and sometimes even four abreast. You say that motorists must be patient, but why should they be if cyclists are breaking the law? You talk of compromise. The only compromise is for everyone to obey the rules. Unfortunately, nothing will be done until our rather useless police force actually do something about corruption and put an end to bribery, and they start doing their jobs properly. Oh and Krutch, lycraloon says "welcome to his world, now go back to your car forum."

You can have the best laws in the world but they will be worthless unless they are enforced. And we all know how effectively law and order are enforced in Africa.

A bit too much Spanish steak?

A lot of the comments made here are arrogant. Go back a bit and see some of the earlier posts made ad other topics about this whol cradle issue. The you will see arrogance on both sides. This wont solve the problem. I ride plenty, with groups and I ride solo plenty too. As long as there is a spirit of arrogance and a mentality of "rights" nothing will be solved. Seriously, I lost it a long time ago (the mind that is) but it doesn't prevent me from seeing this thing from both sides. But being right doesnt make one tiny bit of difference when it comes to car vs cyclist. The cyclist will loose 101 times out of 100 collisions with a car. I do not agree with the thumb tacks on the road, but given my experience of how groups ride, I can't say I blame the residents of the cradle. That doesn't make them right though. This battle isn't new. It's been going on for a long time. It will take compromise on both sides to solve it. ("An eye for an eye, makes the whole world blind." Mhatma Ghandi.)

Kinda difficult to blame them when clearly there are still a lot of cyclists out there riding like complete chops. (Sounds like it is a majority as well.) Neither owns the road and each has an equal right to use (not abuse) the roads. Perhaps if the cyclists respect the rules of the roads and other road users, the drawing pins would mysteriously disappear. Of course it could be a bunch of young pranksters having a good laugh at our expense, but so far all I see on this is an arrogant bunch of cyclists crying foul. Let's face it, if we clean up our act, then we can expect better treatment. Until such time, don't expect much. Compromise chaps, compromise. (I am sure I am preaching to the converted though. It would never be a hubber riding like a moron.)

Goeff (Jeff) not sure of spelling. A pleasant young man who stopped this morning when I had a porblem I was trying to solve. (Got a blowout and was figuring a way to get the wheel to stay inflated long enough to get me to work.) Anyway Geoff, was a polite friendly young man who restored my faith in the younger generation today. He wasn't on his bike but stopped on Main Reef Road Heriotday this morning to help out a fella with a problem. Thanks, Geoff, I managed to solve the problem to get me fairly close to my goal. It is refreshing to see that there are still some yougsters who are well mannered and intentioned as you are.

Thanks for the reminder. I had the window of my car smashed out at 3 am. Nothing visible fot them to steal so perhpas they were after the faceless radio / cd player. The alarm was activated and I immediately switched on the outside lights. Thugs ran away with nothing.

This is only assuming: 1. The police investigate the case. 2. They do a proper investigation. 3. It gets to court without the documents disappearing. 4. The case is solid and the fooglians are found guilty. 5. The crminal justice system works.

Had a friend shot to death about 3 years ago in a hijacking. Car radio stolen (door locks trashed and other damage to the car) Had all 4 wheels stolen one night. Other damage to the car as a result. Trailer with all my camping gear stolen 3 weeks ago. Tools taken at the same time. Armed bank robbery at the branch I was working at just over a year ago. These are the recent events. going back a bit, one house burglary while I was on a 2 month National Service Camp. Car broken into a week or two later. Various petty thefts of cell phones and other small items. A while back 702 radio host said "Almost all South Africans (residents) know someone directly who has been hijacked." I was not one of those stats until my friend was killed. At about that time there was a spate of vehicle hijackings going n in the 'hood and several people were killed during that time. Many more were shot and wounded. These are just the facts.

Then we must both be wrong. I share your sentiment.

Personally, I think the only way to sort out the hijackings is to catch one or two of these sorry excuses for life forms and beat the cr@p out of them. Let them go with a very stern warning that the next one caught, will resultin the ultimate penalty being paid. Toss the jacker over a bridge into the path of a fast moving cargo truck and let that work it's magic. No balistics or any other trace evedence. But I only want to do that after hanging him up in my garage for a couple of weeks. I plan to make sure it lives long enough to appreciate the flight down from the bridge.

Cruzer dude. There are a few of us from down south. Trubie, The Blue Kid, yours truly and a few others. I think you can count on quite a decent turnout. Just nail the Lexus and other valuables to the floor for safety reasons. EDIT: Oh and on the thing about the hills. I agree. The folk from the north are like the yanks. Everything is bigger and better on the States north. They just haven't seen some of the hills we ride. When I lived in Naturena, I ran Comrades (back in 88) and I trained around Naturena, Mondeor and Winchester hills. Not many races I ran anywhere had hills like we have. Comrades is an obvious exception. One day I want to ride the Comrades route and go up Inchanga on my bike.

I'm good to go. Count me in.

So where is Gleneagles? EDIT: OK,dumb@sswent back and read the title of the post. This would be at Lexus the Glen. Give us a date and time and you can count me in. I live around the area and it would be my pleasure to introduce andy to some of the speed bumps around there. Including Peter Ackroyd and Camaro. Not to mention Sneeuberg and some other gentle slopes around Glenvista.

I don't know much about the route for this years 94.7, but I was doing a 2h35 to 2 hr 50 loop of SBR and I managed a 3hr 14 94.7 last year. So your sub 3:45 should be a shoe in.

It's good for any training. I know of a few hubbers who trained there for the Jock. It is an awesome place to ride. Quiet with little traffic some awesome scenery and views. The best place to ride a bike. Just be very careful about loons going the wrong way and if you happen to crash, it's a long way to find help nd get to hospital. I ask only that you treat the reserve with respect by not littering (especially those foil wrappers) try not to get in the way of the few motorists you may come across and who know, we may be able to continue to ride there for a long time to come. Was a time recently when we came close to being banned from there altogether and that would be a crying SHAME.

lycraloon@gmail.com Can one select the colour or does one kind of have to put up with what is available. What about wheels and junk?

And it matches the blue of that IDT rather nicely too. Frikking 'spensive piece of equipment to attach to an IDT. You could just have done up a Ralleigh to get that look. Ha-ha. Do they make one in Alu. What was / is the black nd red frame in the first picture. I personally prefer standard geometry bikes but then again, it mught be 'cause I'm an old fart. what is the website address?

On the law of averages, accidents are unfortunately bound to happen. Fortunately, when I got knocked over earlier in the year, the lady did show both concern and compassion. She wanted to take me to hospital (JHB Gen of all places) but having had a stint at the Union in January, I am all done with hospitals for the next 30 years if I can help it. I was just too happy to be able to get back on the bike and ride the other 28 km home. A bath, bit of mercurochrome, and some good strong coffee and I was sorted. Long story short, she was happy to pay for the damage to the bike and was very appologetic too. Then again, that is rare these days and I often wonder why I don't kick more car doors in, until I remember that it takes too long to unclip for that to happen. Be happy that you are OK with minimal damage to the bike.

While this is all very sad, and I certainly applaud your efforts to help the family out, I have a small problem with this. Life insurance is there for that specific purpose. I have lost count of the number of people who tell me they have enough and then when tragedy strikes, the family find out after the fact that this is not so and they suffer not only the emotional trauma of losing a loved one, but they suffer financially as well. I feel for the family, I really do. But people have to make sure they have the corect amount of cover. BTW. I am a risk planner.

I will definitely not be consulting with him. Just now there is truth to his claims and I end up getting back together with my ex.

Came across a lady last year sometime with this problem. She was out cycling alone FFS and had a puncture. So she phones hubby to come pick her up, then takes the bike to LBS and forks out R75 for them to "fix" it. Anyway, I stopped told her to phone hubby, cancel the call and showed her how to fix it. Last time I saw her, she was at LBS buying kit to fix punctures. There are just way too many peeps out there either too lazy, or too doff to repair punctures. Many years ago,when I still rode one of those Pick n pay Fireball road bikes with the 27 1/4 wheels, I used to ride without a pump or tubby bag. If I got a flat, it was a long wlak home. But then again, I was never in a hurry to get home.

Yeah, get a road bike and come up to xumbugs and join us!

See, this is zachery the kind of attitude that makes it all go pear shaped. MTB peeps who take it personally when we roadies don't greet back. Dude, this is my rationale and I'm sticking to it. As a roadie, I am too busy. Watching the road to see that no-one in a cage (car) is launching a sneak attack on my back wheel or trying to slip me while I'm doing 40 and he's doing like 140. I just can't fathom yet why this doesn't work. (Maybe one day) Then, we get to dodge pedestrians, greet other roadies, try to escape the 'hood dogs who scheme that my leg makes a good snack. (at least those are the smart dogs. Some of these dumb mutts think the wheels make good snacks. (Go figure.) And then there's you, the MTB rider. On the pavement where we don't expect to see peeps. With all this going on, I still need to keep two hands on the bars 99.9% of the time so I usuaully only manage to greet one fellow roadie per ride. Where do I find the time to still find and greet you? 'specially when I'm doing like 40 something and you going a lot slower. The eyesight is not so good anymore.