I FLY

I have ridden a Giant compact road bike for a number of years. The wheelbase is 98cm. Recently I bought a litespeed from a fellow hubber. I noticed that when my pedals are at the 9 and 3 o clock position and I turned ,that the front wheel overlapped(touched) my shoe. This never happened on my Giant. I measured the wheelbase and it is 96cm. My question(s) is:- Is the overlapping dangerous and is the only solution to get a fork with a bigger rake?

Cape Storm windjammer Cane Creek barends Time pedals (mtb) Cyctomax SDG saddle

I bought some transparent self adhesive 3M film from a motorbike shop in Stubens Valley. We cut this into strips and stuck it on the underside of bikes down tubes. Now when I hear stones hitting the undercarriage I don't worry about damage.

Thanks for the comments. My previous shoes were Specialised with mesh inserts on the outside of the shoe whereas my current LGs don't have these inserts. Both pairs are the same size. My feet were okay in the Specialised although the mesh inserts did tear after a couple of years. The LGs make my feet burn. And to complicate matters my right foot is a size smaller than the left foot.

Thanks for the advice. While I am there I will check if they have a cricket box in my size.

I battle to find MTB shoes that fit as I seem to have wider feet than the manufacturers cater for. Does anyone else have a similiar problem and what brand/model shoes solves it?

I spent a good portion of day 1 with a bunch of KZN riders wearing "Wild Hogs" kit. Their technical riding ability was excellent. On the one section going down to a river crossing, we stopped and the guy in front of me lay his bike down against the bank until we started moving again. Then he shifted his weight and started riding without unclipping. On the other end of the scale I saw a beginner with brand new shoes and spd pedals and he did not know how to clip the two together.

Nadine Visagie is an M.Sc student at UJ and she is particularly interested in the challenges faced by recreational cyclists. With her course work completed, she will be starting work on her thesis next year, and she will be needing keen test subjects for that purpose. <?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> In the mean time she has some spare capacity to help address specific aspects of the general panic surrounding preparation for the new, improved 2009 edition of the Absa Cape Epic. Using the facilities at the University of Johannesburg, she will help devise a training programmes based on your individual results in Body composition, Flexibility/ range of motion, Explosive leg power Isokinetic and Power output at lactate threshold as well as VO2max tests. Although she is not able to offer this service for free, the research base to this work makes it possible to perform these tests at reasonable rates. If you are interested, please contact Nadine on nadine.visagie@gmail.com

It is the red and white one 5 different LBS , cluster , chainrings and 4 sets of new cables at the last count.

Hands. A certain ,careful middle age lady rider is desperately looking for a bike mechanic who can exorcise the ghost shifting from her bike's gears. Almost weekly visits to practicioners of the dark art of wrenching have not had the desired effect. The last three visits have resulted in the cranks coming loose during races and a tyre that would not hold air. The ghost shifting has not been solved. Any useful suggestions would be appreciated I FLY2008-07-29 12:44:57

Yes. And I even remember the lesson from you at Walkerville last year.

We had a hard race. It started off as a mission to beat the other Ride team and ended up chasing a team of youngsters. We eventually beat them by 2 minutes. It was quite funny that we raced to the limit to beat another team out of overall 4th place in a small town race for prize money of R150. As a category winner we also earned about R2000 but that was not nearly as satisfying as our R150 4th place. The timing system was really informative with overall stats -eg total laps completed = 2796. It updated each rider's stats and their team's placing as soon as they crossed the timing point. The results log was projected onto a blank wall so anyone could see the status of the race through the 24 hours.

Southern Skies 24-hour Ride Arena, Parys Final Results 19th & 20th April 2008 Category Pos No Cat Name Laps Time Remarks All Solo Riders 1 915 IM Julius Cobbett 20 05.51.02 6-hours 2 913 IM George Oertel 20 05.59.13 3 914 IM Stanley-Carl Du-Pont 17 05.55.12 4 906 IM Gregg Hopfeldt 17 05.55.19 5 907 IM Paul Cooper 16 05.45.46 6 905 IM Richard Howard 15 05.52.14 7 908 IM Eddie 14 05.36.53 8 910 IM Carl Lotter 13 03.29.05 9 903 IM Gus Jordaan 13 05.35.21 10 912 IM Coen Greyvensteyn 13 05.45.13 11 902 IM Robbie Robbeson 12 05.33.27 12 909 IW Mariette Gouws 11 05.32.28 13 901 IM Henry 9 05.33.10 14 904 IM Andre Roets 7 04.39.02 15 916 IM James O'Ehley 1 21.31.51 Teams of 2 - 12 hrs 1 T73 TT Zambia 38 11.49.29 2 T75 TT Smyters 32 11.25.13 3 T78 TT Quattro 29 11.50.54 4 T77 TT Sweet Daddy 26 11.46.56 5 T76 TT U I Madhatters 24 11.15.21 6 T71 TT Pegasorius 15 09.46.54 7 T74 TT Die Hard 14 08.49.06 8 T70 TT Grumpys 6.5 - - - - - Team-mate out Open Teams 24-hr 1 T10 OT Specialized GT Tuisnywerheid 96 23.59.11 2 T2 OT Team Forever Young 91 23.57.03 3 T27 OT Specialized UI 88 23.50.40 4 T4 OT Power Force Alarms 79 23.23.57 5 T29 OT B.O.H.I.C.A 79 23.45.33 6 T23 OT Hatch 77 23.43.46 7 T7 OT Bulletjie 76 23.50.45 8 T17 OT Klipvreters 75 23.43.31 9 T11 OT Jinx 75 23.49.37 10 T34 OT Dukes of Hazzard 73 23.48.30 11 T25 OT Triple G 73 23.52.27 12 T1 OT X2 71 23.45.22 13 T32 OT Nancy & Nutcases 71 23.49.00 14 T33 OT Beer & Pernod 71 23.51.48 15 T26 OT Best Name Ever 61 23.35.01 16 T31 OT Lunar Loonies 58 23.50.10 17 T12 OT The Circus 57 18.38.31 18 T14 OT Yoda & The Jedi's 54 23.54.41 19 T8 OT Surgeon Active 53 23.43.43 20 T5 OT Nagadders 49 23.31.36 21 T9 OT KNOGonauts 48 18.40.06 22 T16 OT Blick SA 44 22.23.53 23 T35 OT Ride Cheese & Wine 44 23.31.29 24 T39 OT Blixem 38 23.56.31 25 T30 OT The Clan 37 23.54.17 26 T37 OT Cranky Riders 35 23.29.33 27 T13 OT Dusties 33 23.47.35 28 T38 OT Rotten Riders 32 23.16.33 29 T20 OT Team Compact 31 22.16.33 30 T22 OT Jonker Civils 30 19.59.26 Mixed Teams 24-hr 1 T24 XT Forest Flyers 85 23.55.55 2 T15 XT Easy Rider 72 23.52.29 3 T21 XT Fox Riders 72 23.58.20 4 T18 XT Northern Lights A 71 23.54.08 5 T19 XT Northern Lights B 58 23.40.07 6 T3 XT C Class 21 21.04.57 Biltong Teams 24-hr 1 T36 BT Ride Biltong 85 23.53.48 2 T28 BT Ride Magazine 82 23.52.12 3 T6 BT Ou Toppie 44 23.02.13 Allcomers 24-hrs 1 T10 OT Specialized GT Tuisnywerheid 96 23.59.11 2 T2 OT Team Forever Young 91 23.57.03 3 T27 OT Specialized UI 88 23.50.40 4 T36 BT Ride Biltong 85 23.53.48 5 T24 XT Forest Flyers 85 23.55.55 6 T28 BT Ride Magazine 82 23.52.12 7 T4 OT Power Force Alarms 79 23.23.57 8 T29 OT B.O.H.I.C.A 79 23.45.33 9 T23 OT Hatch 77 23.43.46 10 T7 OT Bulletjie 76 23.50.45 11 T17 OT Klipvreters 75 23.43.31 12 T11 OT Jinx 75 23.49.37 13 T34 OT Dukes of Hazzard 73 23.48.30 14 T25 OT Triple G 73 23.52.27 15 T15 XT Easy Rider 72 23.52.29 16 T21 XT Fox Riders 72 23.58.20 17 T1 OT X2 71 23.45.22 18 T32 OT Nancy & Nutcases 71 23.49.00 19 T33 OT Beer & Pernod 71 23.51.48 20 T18 XT Northern Lights A 71 23.54.08 21 T26 OT Best Name Ever 61 23.35.01 22 T19 XT Northern Lights B 58 23.40.07 23 T31 OT Lunar Loonies 58 23.50.10 24 T12 OT The Circus 57 18.38.31 25 T14 OT Yoda & The Jedi's 54 23.54.41 26 T8 OT Surgeon Active 53 23.43.43 27 T5 OT Nagadders 49 23.31.36 28 T9 OT KNOGonauts 48 18.40.06 29 T16 OT Blick SA 44 22.23.53 30 T6 BT Ou Toppie 44 23.02.13 31 T35 OT Ride Cheese & Wine 44 23.31.29 32 T39 OT Blixem 38 23.56.31 33 T30 OT The Clan 37 23.54.17 34 T37 OT Cranky Riders 35 23.29.33 35 T13 OT Dusties 33 23.47.35 36 T38 OT Rotten Riders 32 23.16.33 37 T20 OT Team Compact 31 22.16.33 38 T22 OT Jonker Civils 30 19.59.26 39 T3 XT C Class 21 21.04.57

This has to be the only bike in the world that worries about its own weight.

We have also tried many options and have always been dissatisfied with the result. In November 07 we read about some green led lights that a member of the Dark and Dirty MTB club ( Pretoria) had designed. We bought two sets and tried them out at the Mugg and Bean 24 hr at Northern Farm. Dirk is an IT software programmer and they have done some clever things with the processor. The green lights worked really well.The cost was about R600. Look in the March edition of Ride magazine under the letters to editor section for some more details. I FLY2008-02-03 13:23:13

for the pilot and stoker? Yesterday was the first time my stoker and I have recorded a tandem race on our polars. The results are what I expected as I had previously read that the pilot does more work - braking, holding the line, changing gears, initial closing of gaps, etc. The readings on the polars showed that I had an average HR of 10bpm higher than my stoker and in some parts of the race my HR was 25bpm higher. Last week we did a 200km audax on singles and our stats were almost identical. Any opinions from the experienced tandem riders? I FLY2008-01-27 23:05:36

Looks like he is a graduate of the Robbie McEwen school of sprinting etiquette.

About half is on tar. Breedsnek was very busy and the surface was rocky and rutted after the rain. For someone who started cycling 18 months ago , mrmed can climb hills like a goat. I think I lost 10 minutes on both Breedsnek and Hekpoort. As for the speed on the flats - I wish to thank my DT Swiss hubs and my killer bee tyres. Now can someone do something about my voice?

I am okay for Sunday

I would be interested. Prefer Sunday.

I did not think that it would be possible to find people with IQs smaller than their shoe size. It appears that I was wrong. Get real, people. No sporting event can justify losing your life for.I FLY2007-12-04 20:37:56

My bike was wearing its new red skewers for the occasion