I FLY

It's awesome living in a small town. I had to take my wife to the local hospital at 6am for a small operation. I still had time to drive home, have breakfast, walk and feed the dogs and still ride my bike to work by 7h30.

A few years ago I took my bike from Champagne Castle Hotel to the top of the Gatberg Mountain. Was much more portage than I had anticipated. Took me about 10 hours

I remember passing you late in the race. You were a more than a little tired.

I have being commuting by bike to work a few days a week since Dec 2010. While most of my colleagues/cycling friends express wonderment/envy/etc not one of them has being convinced to try do the same. And I have not been promoted either - just transferred to another town

I have not done this race for a few years now and have no intention of going to do it again. So I don't get excited about the route reveal and would certainly not attend the launch function. I will look at the route profiles and destination towns closer to the race for interest sake in the same way that I look at other big stage races in RSA. Is there still the hype and buzz for other riders?

My daughter's cat was an only pet for 14 years. Hated all other animals and defended her turf with aggression. Recently moved in with my daughter again after 5 years away at university ( daughter , not cat) and had to share with the lab. Now they are mates. I still can't believe it.

With my background I would be better off throwing the gun rather than trying to shoot with it.

True. But as mentioned in other threads you need to be well trained to aware of your situation, be able to react quickly enough to draw your weapon before you are disarmed and be prepared to shoot your attacker. As always there are pros and cons. About 10 years ago two members of our mtb club were ambushed by 6 armed men. Our members were trained combat shotists and were also armed. They managed to ward of the attack and kill one of the attackers. Within a short time two other cyclists were shot in separate incidents without any warnings in the nearby area. The attackers were taking no chances.

One of my collegues belongs to a few gun associations and has more guns than I have bikes. When I was asking him about self defence with a gun, he says he would not engage in a gun fight without 3 full ammo clips. Being a dummy around guns I would guess this means about 36 rounds.

We will be there on our Santa Cruz tall boys . Only one of us is bald( me)

I used this on my seatpost and a 4 x red LED Blackburn flea on the back of my helmet. Motorcyclists used to ask me where I bought the Magicshine light so I assume it was effective

In my early days of cycling my wife and I stopped next to a stunning blonde woman on a Colnago at a robot. I was staring so intently that I missed the robot turning green. My wife then observed - " The sad part is that you were staring at the bike and not the woman." She was right.

http://www.buycycle.co.za/en/apparel/ladies/bibs-and-shorts-en/craft-en-2-3-4-5.html My wife prefers to wear these 3/4 length shorts. On special now for about R500.

Scott Trail

After nearly four years my commuting/everyday cycling shoes have been replaced because one sole tore. Hopefully the new ones will give me good service.

I still like the Sheriff's suggestion that the Spruit gets flagged as a dangerous ride on Strava and then there will be no strava leaderboards for the Stravassholes to chase.

Unfortunately I was so relieved not to land under her car's wheels that I missed that opportunity.

I had the dubious pleasure of landing on a stunning blonde's Merc SLK boot lid when she drifted in front of me while she was texting.

Most office furniture places have those metal lockers that are used in workshop/gym changerooms. http://www.toolroom.co.za/lockers.htm I had a spare wardrobe at home which I bought to work. It stands in my office and contains my PPE clothing and equipment which I need when I visit our mining sites and my office clothes and shower stuff for when I commute by bike.

My car used to be at work 4 days a week. Some days it was very tempting to call in sick. But once we got going it was never as bad as we had anticipated.

I fitted flats bars to my road bike last year as an experiment as I never rode in the drops. Unfortunately the roads where I live are narrow and home to 30ton coal carriers and white mine bakkies so the bike never gets to show its stuff.

And big thorns

We have had to withdraw at the last minute. Really down about missing this event.

I have 730mm on my 29er and 100mm stem. I can vouch for the fact that some of the gates at Joberg2C were 731mm wide. I had a few moments when it felt that both ends of my bars touched the gate uprights.

Bankenveld Estate - Witbank Dam Spotted on my commute to work on Tuesday - 100m from my house