Mountain Bru

1 down, many more predictions to be confirmed

First time bike fits are expensive. Injuries and physio and time off the bike is more expensive. Pick your poison.

Don't make me call for back up.....

If we had comments on the ads, you would be able to see if anyone has called dibs, and therefore know if the item is still available and what number in line you are if you want to call 2nd dibs, 3rd dibs, dibs if he doesn't take it, etc.

Guys I think the OP has left the chat

Is it like SMART workouts on Xert? (On Xert, there are "smart workouts" where if you're doing a workout with a certain power target, the interval timer moves slower if you're not maintaining sufficient watts, and in the most cruel punishment imaginable, the timer moves faster if you slack off too much in the recovery intervals)

As an official hub police member, I would like to point out that bikehub has turned into a classifieds site with forums complaining about the classifieds.

But do any of these other platforms have races? With everything that looks like a race being cancelled, zwift racing is all we've got to rely on.

What vehicle is this by the way? Do you have to take wheels off? MTB or road bikes?

There's some value in that for sure. But most people probably like money in their pockets more than a friendly store owner. Here's the rub - when it comes to big purchases of an off the shelf item, 90% of people only care about what it costs. If I'm buying a new bike/groupset/fancy wheels/etc etc, I'm either gonna shop around, and buy where what I want is cheapest, or I don't care what stuff costs and will just walk into cyclelab and swipe my card. If you start a new shop, you're not going to be able to compete with the existing online shops on price. let alone overseas retailers, and you're not gonna be the "default store" that uninformed people buy stuff at. So that portion of the market is basically out. When it comes to "medium value" items, like ballpark R2500 items (new derailleur, helmet, saddle, etc), you might get some business, but I'd say at least 75% of the market is still going to be loyal to their pockets and buy things wherever they're cheapest. And then of the remaining 25%, you're gonna struggle to compete with bigger shops with more variety and more stock, . When it comes to small items, I doubt you're gonna keep a bike shop afloat and cover your overheads only on small "sub R1000" items, especially when you're probably more expensive than online shops. Even if you win 50% of your local market, I doubt it'll be enough if all you're selling is tubes and chains and socks. Desperate and loyal people might be willing to pay higher prices because they like you, or they punctured on a ride and need a tube desperately, but those sales aren't gonna make your business viable. And with a lot of shops at bike parks selling "the essentials" too, that portion of the market isn't very reliable because it's the kind of thing people will buy wherever they are, rather than going somewhere specific just to buy a tube/bottle/socks/etc. And after all of this, even if you manage to somehow lower your prices to beat your competitors, CycleLab will match your prices, basically eliminating your advantage. And then there's the workshop/service issue.... Gotta remove maybe 30% of the market that ride spez bikes and service them at spez shops regardless of the price. Nothing's gonna change that. At least in the mtb world, spez bikes are probably the most popular in SA, so that's a huge chunk of the market that's not ever gonna consider you. And then there's the big part of the market that's gonna service their bikes where ever it's cheapest, and then the guys that already like the interactive experience they have with the owner of another shop, and then the guys that get a discount because they're part of the store's club, and then suddenly you realize that the portion of the market that you can realistically win is very small. Hence my initial questions: 1. Who is the target market? 2. Why would they buy from you? (ie - what's gonna win you sales? I'm not sure being a "nice guy" is gonna win you enough sales to make your business financially viable)

This is some good advice. Some other important points: Even though a "4 bike rack" in theory can take 4 bikes, it's often a mission, especially with mountain bikes due to their wide handlebars. Get used to playing tetris every time you want to load bikes. Even just getting 2 bikes on a 2 bike rack can be tricky. Get some pool noodles and some straps/bungy cords to keep your bikes from being destroyed Depending on the car and your bar width, you might not be able to get a mountain bike on the first slot on the rack. My handlebars touch the rear window of my SUV if I put it on the first spot on my thule platform rack. A hanging rack might solve this by allowing you to turn your handlebars. Regarding a 4 bike rack, check the maximum weight capacity of your towbar. Mine is 80kg (which I think is the norm). 4 Mountain bikes could easily be 65kg, and the rack linked in the OP (original post) is 15kg, so you're on the limit. Also check the racks weight rating - 60kg in the case of the OP. Depending on your bikes, that might be a problem. Pay attention to where your exhaust is. Wouldn't want hot exhaust fumes on your carbon wheels on a long trip. Security - I wouldn't trust 90% of the "built in" locks in bike racks, especially not the thule "lock knobs". I'd also try make sure I get a rack that locks to the towbar somehow. (I see this as a major downside to "boot mounted" racks - you can steal the entire thing and all the bikes by just cutting the straps with a pair of scissors) Be careful when clamping carbon frames. Carbon is very weak when you clamp a tube of it, so this should never be done. Make sure that whatever rack you get works for the bikes you want to carry. (The platform/rooftop racks are nice for this because the bike is held in place by clamping the wheels, and the clamp on the frame is mostly just for stability)

Quite the opposite... Not adjusting your grind and extraction time would be a big faux pas. Technically you should be doing this for every different bean you use, not just the brew method. To put some science to the snobbery, here's a graph..... 3 things are extracted from the beans when you make coffee - caffeine, oils, acids. Oils give the coffee flavour, acids make it bitter. Normally when people complain about bitter coffee, it's because it's over extracted and therefore there's too much acid. It's usually not the beans fault, provided that it's been freshly ground. If it's not freshly ground, it's probably already oxidized and thats gonna make the favour bad no matter what you do. So "the goal" of brewing coffee is to stop the extraction at the peak of the orange curve to maximize the flavour from the oils with as little acid as possible. The time scale is all relative though. The speed of extraction will be influenced by stuff like: water temp, fine/coarse grind, agitation (like stirring), purity of water etc. Each method should in theory be able to give a very similar result. So if you're using a coarser filter on your aeropress, and therefore need coarser ground coffee, then the extraction speed is gonna be slower, so you'll need to increase the brew times (like a french press).

I've never tried to start a bike shop, but I'm gonna guess it's a terrible idea these days. Opening a restaurant in the middle of a hard lock down might be a better business opportunity. Don't want to be unnecessarily negative though, but ask yourself 2 questions... 1. Who is my realistic target market / customer? 2. Why would that person buy from me instead of CWC, CycleLab, Buycycle, Evobikes, etc, and also why would they not just import the stuff themselves given how easy it is these days? Honestly, there's a million other considerations and questions, but if you don't have rock solid answers for those 2 questions, I don't think anything else matters.

But then how would Movistar know when to attack? Valverde literally started pulling as soon as Carapaz was off the back (although it might have been a coincidence)

Kuss dropped, Carapaz dropped, Rogla a bit isolated, can't see Bernal anywhere..... What an interesting final climb

I've thought about trying a stainless steel filter, but I figured that while I have loads of paper filters I'd use those til they're finished and that look at other option. I think you get different filter size stainless steel filters though, which will also influence things. In principle though, you should be able to get the same extraction with either filter without any change in turbidity (had to look that word up ????) by influencing how fine the grind is, and then adjusting the brew method to match (so with a coarser filter, probably a coarser grind and then a longer extraction time for example)

I'm a big fan of the Areopress, but it is a little more admin than a Bialetti. With a Bialetti you can just throw water in, coffee in, put it on the stove, and in a few minutes you have coffee. Aeropress requires a tiny bit more effort with boiling water, stirring, plunging. My Aeropress method: 1. I use the "inverted method" with the Aeropress upside down. (I really recommend this) 2. Put about 2 tablespoons of freshly ground coffee in (quite finely ground) 3. Add a bit of water (enough to cover the coffee), give it a little stir to bloom the coffee 4. Put a filter in the cap and wet it (wetting the filter makes plunging easier) 5. Add water up to around 90% or 95% full 6. Stir the brew for 60 seconds (Timing is super important, use a clock, watch, phone, or whatever) 7. Put the cap with the wet filter in it onto the Aeropress 8. Flip the Aeropress and plunge immediately into a cup For camping/hiking/bikepacking, I find a Bialetti is sometimes a bit less effort in "non-kitchen" conditions. It also helps that with a Bialetti, you don't need to boil water in a pot/kettle, and then use the Aeropress, and can just just boil water in the bialetti, leaving your pot free for cooking (if you're hiking for example).

Is Polanc your leader for the Vuelta? I would have thought you'd be riding for Majka?

I'm really surprised to see Bernal loose 27s on a 7km TT on stage 1. I expected Roglic to win today, but definitely didn't expect Bernal to loose time to Mas, Bardet, Kuss, Lopez, etc. Am I missing something? Looks like a pretty disappointing day for Ineos, but obviously 20s or 27s is nothing considering how much racing is still to come. Gonna be interesting to see their tactics in the mountains. (La Flamme Rouge made a correction that Mas is on 18s, not 8s after posting this)

Just watched the highlights and checked the results.... Great day out for Rogla, and looking super fly in gold...

There's obviously a big appeal to doing races and challenging yourself, and feeling the red mist come over you while you smash past people for 9283rd place on the climbs, and having pointless rivalry with the guy that started a batch ahead of you and then had a puncture, and sprinting for the line for no reason other than because it's there.... I 100% get that. I mean are you even a bike rider if you don't chase down every rider you see in the distance on your recovery rides? There's a reason why strava is so popular.... we love competing. But.... We're obviously not living in "normal" times, and the reality is that normal races aren't happening. You can roll the dice and enter, and maybe it happens, but more likely it's cancelled or postponed. So under the current circumstances, what race/event would you actually enter? Saying "I want to do the same races in the same way as always" is like answering the question "how do I make my business work in covid times" with "just pretend covid doesn't exist".

Probably Thule or Ortlieb ones. They're significantly cheaper overseas, but if you add 25% import duty on them, I'm not sure it's still work the effort (or still cheaper). For example, these are R2900 at Thule here, But around R1600 without tax and duties from European online shops (https://www.bikeinn.com/bike/thule-shield-25l-pair-saddlebags/137441780/p , https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/thule-shield-pannier-25l-bike-bags-953568?currency=1&delivery_country=161) But if you take the BikeInn price of R1600, add 25% import duties (R400), and then 16% VAT (R320), you're at R2320 without shipping (which they quote at R1270), but with Global Shopper would be like R300, but will mean paying double VAT, so the price will be R1800 + R450 duties + R360 VAT, +R300 shipping, so R2900 all together. But if the import duties were 0%, and spreading the shipping across multiple items if you buy a few things, it would be much cheaper than buying locally though. (R1600 +16% VAT would be R1850ish)

Does anyone know what the import duty is on things like pannier bags and racks? Are they considered "bike components" and have 0% duty, or is there some other exorbitant import duty?

I suppose you need it to stop raining for more than 20 minutes and the sun to shine for there to be gravel.