Tankman

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Now only? I permanently have a 1000 lumen headlight on my handlebar and two rechargeable usb rear lights (around 80 lumen each) on my commuting bike. So many times it is just a tad darker than we seem to realise or the mist catches you out or you ride just that 15 longer in the evening and this is when making yourself visible ... can be life saving. That being said ... some blind drivers still dont notice a 1000 lumens flashing straight in their faces when approaching intersections. Either they cant see or the dont care! I have seen my own light fitted on another bike and it is a blinding experience! Dont fool yourself by putting one of those R50 pieces of crap lights on your bike that no one can see even if you are standing right behind the bike. Invest in you safety. There are way too many cyclist out on the roads early in the mornings or evenings without proper lighting. My lights might not "look" all that cool but they are not there to make me look cool. They are there to make me visible.

Mtb's serviced and ready to rocknroll after a lekker rest week last week. Final prep and packing this week, cant wait no more!! Although I am kinda freeked out since I have no idea how I am going to fit my road bike into that small little riders bag! Where are you guys packing your roadie bikes?

The way I understood it, if you are caught cheating in the Epic, then a lifetime ban for the Epic would apply. If you are serving a 2 year ban or whatever the case might be, then you obviously wont be able to ride the Epic during that time. So if the ex dopers like David Millar, Alexander Vinokourov, Hoffman, Ullrich etc ... that served their bans, they would not be allowed to do the Epic because they doped somewhere in their career??? A life time ban for any doper? That does not sound right Excluding Lance obviously, he has been banned from cycling altogether.

Not from what I heard, he doesnt get paid anymore. He withdrew himself from the team and is no longer a licenced rider. (Disclaimer: I have no facts to back this up, 100% hearsay) If you dont ride for a team, dont get paid and dont have a licence, you are like the rest of us, for all intended purposes, a funrider.

The chances of these two being middle of the pack fun riders are pretty slim. How often does funriders get tested? Never!! Ok except if you look as pumped up as Mtbbaiskelist. My guess would be that this has to be someone good enough to be in contention for some category local ... Elite, Sub Vet, Vet or Master.

The aritcle said the one guy tested positive in May 2013 ... when did they receive this ban from the Epic, a week before the start? Bloody outrageous! Ag well, that just bumbped us up two places!

Dont know why everyone is making a big fuss about this. This is not a new rule. You are allowed to use your Garmin/gps device. You can upload it to wherever you like as long as you dont make it public. That being said. every stage of last year is marked as a segment on Strava and more pro's than wannabees uploaded their files to Strava shortly after every stage. Just mark it as private. Your GPS wont get checked - I dont use a speed/cadence sensor on the mtb, if I disable gps, I am riding around with a brick on my handlebar.

https://tapiriik.com/ How do you add Endocrappo to this list of places it uploads to?

I dont really see this as an issue. It is just doing its job, dont like it, switch it off.

A lot of speculation on what bike to get 26, 27.5 or 29er but no one knows how tall your wife is? Look at either getting her a 650b - Merida has a good range, look at the Merida Big 7 - 300 - going for around R10 ... or the Merida Big 9 - 300 (29er) if she is fit that category. I would stay away from dual sus in that price range, will be old and heavy unless you want to get her a Dunlop special from Macro, then it will be new and heavy

Your wife has an issue, she is too tall for a 26er. Nope. 1.78 is not exactly short. 1.6 is but there are extra small frames available for shorter people. I dont understand the question! You will get same advantages as all the other 29ers.

Funny how things come to a halt after the Funride World Champs but I dont understand why ... there are still at least 10 weeks worth of good warm weather? Why not have some more roadie races, the Champs are mos all fit right now?

If we did every stage as a one day race, weekends apart, it probably wouldn’t be that tough. But then it would not be the Epic or an endurance event. It becomes difficulty after the 3rd/4th day of continuously punishing your body. Being in the saddle that long every day and giving 100% concentration, wears you out. When fatigue set in, I found my body’s natural balance and responses were much slower. Personally, I had the toughest day on a bike in my life ever on stage 6. The Stage was not that technical, except all the climbing … but I was farked. I also heard guy say you get stronger as the race goes on. That did not happen to me. Probably cause we went out hard from the get go and paid the price later on. My partner told me after the stage “Gaan dokter toe!” I said “Hoekom, sodat hy vir my kan se ek is gef**, ek weet is is gef**?!” Then next day I was feeling strong as a horse again. So ja, some days are more difficult than others!

One of our Mechanics has done exactly that on his mtb, we have been chatting about this yesterday. He has 10speed shifters and 9speed XT deraileur ... he says ... it works!

I have done so with Road stuff yup and it works. Getting a 9 speed xt deraileur to go onto my 10speed setup later today to test. Only documentation I could find from Sihmano is where they said Mega is not compatible with Dyna-Sys, other than the "Not really" answer.

That makes sense Cpt!

Yes there is a difference between 9 and 10 speed pull ratios. There has to be, there is one more gear to conted with within the same space. But I can not find any documentation that Shimano has changed it to anything other than their so called "2:1" Lets be honest, it has never been 2:1 to start with. It is just easier to say 2:1 than 1.7886 to 1. In an article on Pinbike a while back, they asked the dude from Shimano if 9 speed rear deraileurs can be used with 10speed shifters and his answer was "No not really". Not a very definitive NO then. They then asked him what the difference was between the 9 and 10speed rear deraileur. "We made the cage slightly longer to accommodate the gear ratio". So not much then. This got me thinking: The total width of the 9 and 10 speed cassettes are exactly the same, the width between the cogs are different by means of the spacers between the cogs. If the cassettes were different widths, we would need longer or shorter freebody's. So the Rear Deraileur operates in the exact same space for 9 or 10 speed. Shift increments and pull ratio is controlled by the shifters. There is no magic happening inside a rear deraileur. It attaches to the cable and stays exactly where you attach it, the cable moves when the shifter pulls it. The deraileur moves by means of the spring but its position on the the cable never moves. So why will a 9 speed rear deraileur not work with 10speed everything else if the pull ratio is controlled by the shifters and the deraileur still operates withing the same space? We all know Sram 9spd deraileur doesnt work with Sram 10speed shifters, I asked, but no one really knows why not. Sram did something righ by forcing you to buy new stuff. Shimano is pulling a fast one. I had a 9 speed Dura Ace groupset on my bike years back. Upgraded to 10 speed. Upgraded everything except the rear deraileur and everyone told me it wont work. When I asked buy WHY NOT? "Because it is 9 speed, you cant use 9 speed with 10". It worked, perfectly! So my question then, why will it not work?

You have never needed a licence to ride in the PPP league. All you need is the correct seeding, like A-C for Elites and so on. Hell, I have even done provincials without the thing, no one asked for it once. With the way they have been chopping and changing the race dates of WP Champs over the last couple years, they are just happy when someone actually shows up!

Nope, Shimano is still 2:1 They just called it 2:1 but it is actually 1.7 to 1. Dura Ace is 1.9 to 1 Pull ratio is controlled by the shifter, not the deraileur. I will explain some more of why and what works later ... got too much work now!

I think that you think I am somewhere else! Haha! Shimano stuff is much more interchangeable between 9 and 10 than Sram. Lets take the chain and chainrings for example. Difference between the chains a width and difference between the chainrings are also width. If you pur a narrower chain (10) on wider (9) chainrings, it will still work. If you put wider chain (9) on narrower chainrings (10) that wont work so lekka. I have tried, tested and played with the stuff. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. But all mechanics have learned by now to give the safe answer. "You can only use 10spd with 10spd"

And your problems "might" only start when you use 10spd chainrings with a 9spd chain. Not the other way round as the OP wants to do it.

This is what confuses people: There are no such thing as a recreational license. You need to be a member of CSA and buy the yearly membership for R75 per year. If you dont be a member for the year, you can take out a day license (the idiots should have called it a daily membership, but anyway) per race as and when you need it. R35 per race. If you want to compete in SA's, provincials or UCI sanctioned races, then you need a License (call it domestic or racing or whatever you like) R350 for the year. Membership, people, membership ...

There fixed. The Shimano 9spd RD and Chainrings will work with 10spd setup no problem. Sram 9spd Rear Derailers doesnt work so lekka with a 10spd setup

Yours lasted long! I replaced my rear Racing Ralph after stage 4, forked, which I put on brand new the day before the prologue!