Mountain Bru

I have the 6 sapphire. I didn't pay for it though, which changes things a lot. (Got it on the ebucks shop on a sale at 40% off. Think it was R7000 in ebucks 2 years ago). From the graphic above, you can see the extra features per model. I guess it all depends on what you do with the watch, and also what edge unit you have if you have 1. My 2c on the features: It's pretty sweet to sync a spotify playlist to your watch, and then not take your phone with you when you run, if you like listening to music/podcasts when running. I use the maps on the watch now and then. It's pretty awesome when hiking to have a full topographical map on your wrist. At the minimum, you want to be able to load a route, follow a breadcrumb trail, and see stuff like distance remaining, elevation plots etc. WiFi: Not a big deal in my opinion. I'm never in a situation where I have a saved wifi network, but somehow not my phone. It's not a big deal for me if my watch syncs marginally faster. Sapphire Glass: Probably not worth the money, but it really does work. Zero scratches on my screen 2 years later. Other thoughts: I got an Edge 530 the other day. Now my watch feels super redundant, so I'm considering changing to a lower end forerunner just for tracking runs. Rumour has it that the Fenix 7 will be launched soon. If you can make do for a month or 2, the Fenix 6's will probably be on sale everywhere very soon before the 7 is launched. So you can either wait and save, or wait and get the latest and greatest F7 for probably similar money to what the F6 is now.

Should I be offended by this? I'm not, but should I be?

I can't tell.... Did you say "t h e p e r s o n", or did you say something else and it was automatically changed to "The person"?

Fits me pretty well. I guess that means it's sexist for fitting men better than woman. For true equality to exist, it should fit all persons equally badly.

I 1000% agree, and like I said earlier, since reading that post referenced by Shebeen, I've have made sure not to say Spez anymore. The guy who brought it up explained his situation, which I understood and respected, and immediately changed my words. I have no way of knowing if the other guys did the same as their words would just have been changed if they said the wrong thing. On the issue of "should you intentionally say things to offend people", I think it's clear the world is a better place if we don't do that. (Who gets to decide what's offensive is a whole other can of worms) A completely separate issue is automatically changing someone's words without telling them. I think that's egregious. Warning points, requests to not say offensive or derogatory things, banning people, even deleting intentionally offensive posts, etc, that all makes some sense. Actually changing what is said is something completely different. This might not even by the only thing thats auto-changed, and we just haven't noticed yet.

I suggested that people should hug MVDP first seen as his drama was first Comment was deleted. ????‍♂️

Personally, I think auto changing messages is flippen ridiculous. My word ????‍♂️. It's not that I'm in favour of saying derogatory things. In fact, after reading that post about not saying Spez, I've intentionally only said spez. (yes that makes no sense. Thank the admins). What's next? It's bad enough that we, as a group of adults, are getting told what we're allowed to and not allowed to speak about, but now our words are even being changed by the overlords. To discord!

Did you try say Spez or spez?

@FootballingCyclist, In think in that case, it was actually calling Spez "Spez". My understanding after that discussion was that Spez is fine, but Spez can be seen as being insensitive. Could be wrong though.

To quote this guy: "There are some circumstances where you definitely want to bring a lock.... so I genuinely feel humans are good people, they don't wanna steal bikes". <-- Clearly never been to SA, and for his own sake, probably never should Discovered this youtube channel called "LockPickingLawyer" a while ago... Interesting/Horrifying to see his bike lock reviews

Sorry I didn't mean "injury" in a negative way or in a demeaning way. Just not quite sure what the correct term is for whatever issue she had.

Is this referring to the "injury" Simone Biles had?

Added to shopping list..... What do you guys do with your bike at night? Do you lock it up? With what kind of lock? Obviously it's not going in the tent, so do you do anything to keep it from getting wet? I've seen chains rust in 1 night when left outside at the coast. Can this be prevented? Any solutions for if there's no suitable tree/pole to chain it to?

Definitely. Although you can get by with a lower rating and putting an emergency blanket under it if you want a lighter setup for when it's not that cold. Also.... As was said before.. A liner is a must in any conditions. I never want to clean my down sleeping bag.

It's the same at most shops though when it comes to buying "exercise" stuff. The lady selling shoes at sportsmans warehouse/ total sports has never run a km in her life The dude selling hiking bags at cape union/outdoor warehouse/trappers has never carried a bag up a mountain They're just paid sales staff that can assist you with stock or whatever, and maybe know some of the specs of what they have on the floor, but they're not experts, so don't expect them to be. If you're asking the "clearly not a runner" lady at sportsman's warehouse if you should buy asics or solomon trail runners, I think you're the clown, not her. Same at cycle lab. Some of the staff aren't cyclists, so don't ask them for "expert advice". In my experience though, if you ask for assistance from the guys that are actually cyclists, you can get some pretty great service. I was looking at lights the other day when a dude asked if he can assist me. I asked him for advice on lumens or something, and the dude just said he's not sure, but he'll call someone that knows all about these things, and he got a dude that just finished the munga to come share his experience on what to look for in a light. A+ service in my opinion.

Haven't got into bike packing yet, but I've done loads of hiking trips, and that has a lot of the same constraints in terms of size and weight. Got quite into the lightweight side of things (Managed to do a 9 day hike in the Drakensburg with a 21kg bag including all food and 2l of water and half a tent) So I have one of these: https://klymit.com/products/static-v2-sleeping-pad Literally the best mattress I've ever used. They used to sell them at Cape Union, but I don't see them on the site anymore. If you ever see one though, it's a no-brainer to buy it in my opinion. In terms of sleeping bags, I was overseas a few years ago and got a Sea to Summit bag. Very very nice. If I had to buy locally, I'd probably get a First Ascent Ice Nino/breaker for cold stuff, and an Amplify Down one for the not so cold stuff. As these things go though, there's 3 factors - Cheap, Small, Light. Pick 2. If it's small and light, it won't be cheap etc etc.

I would phrase it "Jolanda is justified in being annoyed because PFP did something 90% of the field wouldn't have expected her to do and that almost made her crash"? Like imagine on the main straight on an F1 track, there's 1 guy riding right behind another guy in his draft, both at full throttle. Suddenly the dude in front decides to slam on brakes because he's entitled to do whatever speed he wants on the straight. The dude behind would 100% crash into the back of him, and I reckon would be justified in being pissed at the dude that decided to brake even though there's no rules saying you can't brake on the straight or need to do a certain speed. It's technically the guy behind's responsibility to make sure he doesn't rear end the car in front of him, but I reckon he has some grounds for being annoyed.

Sigh...... ????‍♂️ You can join the Lynnwood Cyclelab rides. Or Velo Cycles also have some nice rides. I think they start at the Engen garage down on Atterbury road

Some good advice in the previous comments. I'd recommend when you next wander into a bike shop, or order stuff online, buy yourself a chain checker. It'll be like R100, and will save you thousands. (Something like this: https://www.cwcycles.co.za/product/marvel-chain-checker). It'll show you when your chain is .5% worn, and when it's 0.75% worn. (Have a look at this for more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXd-3UnqoaM&ab_channel=ParkTool) Basically, chains stretch over time due to loads of different reasons. It's not only km dependent, but also how clean the chain is, how much you ride with it "skew" (as in flexed laterally), if it's lubed correctly, how muddy the conditions are etc etc. So some guys might get 400km from a chain, and some 1500km or more. But wear is measured in stretch, not km. It might seem like a tiny difference in length per link, but it really matters. And once it's stretched, you now you sit with a chain doesn't mesh lekker with the gears anymore because it's stretched and the pin to pin distance is too big. And when you ride it, that "not lekker mesh" eats away at the gears and causes them to have a different profile. The old chain will still work though because as it's stretched, it's gradually eaten the gears to match it's new pin to pin distance. But when you then replace the chain with a new shiny one that should mesh nicely, it doesn't because the old chain deformed the teeth, and then your new chain will jump, and your shifting will suck. Sometimes it'll only be in certain gears on your cassette.... surprise surprise the ones you ride in most often and therefore screwed up the most with the worn chain. Hence the reason for buying a chain checker, and replacing the "cheap" chain before it screws up your expensive chain rings and cassette. Based on the fact that you broke your previous chain, it's possible that it was worn out, and might have chowed your cassette and chain ring. So based on what you said though, my advice would be: 1. Buy a chain checker and routinely check your chain. 2. Clean your drive train really nicely, and put some new lube on the chain 3. Make sure your gears are correctly indexed. Also make sure the derailleur tension is correct. I know nothing about Eagle, but on Shimano 12sp, there's a line on the derailleur cage that helps you get it right. Might be a similar thing for eagle. 4. If it still jumps, post pictures here of your cassette and chainring. I'm amazed by how well some guys can identify worn components just from pics. 5. If the cassette is new, and everything else is in order, you'll probably need to replace your chain ring

I 100% agree with the principle that the person in front gets to determine the entry speeds to obstacles. Firstly just because they're in front, but also from a practical perspective, they have the best view of whatever is coming. But at the same time, there is a lot of assuming happening when riding on someone's tail in any kind of competitive racing. It's not a safe following distance, it's inherently an unsafe following distance that only works because you assume you can correctly predict what the person in front of you is gonna do. That's how racing works. Like even if F1, cruising at full throttle centimeters behind someone down the straight is only "safe" because you've assumed the guy in front of you won't do something unpredictable like brake. Leaving a few bike lengths just to account for unpredictable behavior from the person in front of you basically guarantee's you'll just slide back through the field and never win anything (and also get less benefit from the draft). But as soon as your assumptions are wrong about what the person in front of you is gonna do, there's gonna be problems, and probably either big saves, or big crashes. That's kind of why I think Jolanda has some "justification" to be annoyed with PFP. Like in principle, PFP did nothing wrong, and was well within her rights to brake as much as she wanted to. I mean flip if she wanted to, she's in her rights to get off the bike and push it down the ramp. She's entitled to carry her bike over every obstacle if she wants to. That's a legal option. (I would have carried my bike many many times on that course) But if you're Jolanda, and this is the top level of the sport, and the person in front of you is one of the best riders in the world, and you're coming up to a drop where you need to carry speed if you want to clear it, and you're in the front of the race building an advantage over the field, and it's lap 1, I think the natural assumption is that PFP isn't gonna brake hard and roll down the ramp. Like she 100% can, but that's not what I'd consider the most likely option. So when she did, Jolanda's assumptions were wrong and she almost OTB'd and possibly crashed out of the race, So I think she's entitled to be a bit annoyed, even though PFP did nothing wrong. Both can be true. Different story though if Jolanda was behind a random girl that was a wildcard entry in the race. Or if this was the local weekend warrior mountain bike race and you're seeded deep in the noobs and you have no clue who the guy is in front of you and if he's gonna get off and push as soon as there's a few pebbles on the track.

Flip that Cervelo is pretty ????

Are the chains the same length? How worn was the old chain before you replaced it? What do the teeth look like on your chainring? What do the teeth look like on your cassette? Is everything nice and clean with fresh lube? If all you've changed is the chain, the chain line shouldn't be a problem.

If your percentages are correct, you should push your prices up ???? It's not unethical for a business to charge as much as possible when selling something. Different story if you're selling to your mates, or your "mates" on bikehub, but as a business, your goal is to make money. We have this delusion that selling price needs to be related to cost price by some kind of "fair percentage", when in reality the selling price is determined by what people are willing to pay for something and the demand for it. What is costs to manufacture is largely irrelevant, provided that you're selling the thing for more than it costs to manufacture and you're happy with your margin. (Someone told me once that the one of these "cheap" clothing stores like Factorie or Cotton On (can't remember which one) got their T-Shirts for a cost price of something like R10 a few years ago. And then sells them for R100. And we all think it's a "cheap T-Shirt" because in our minds, R100 for a T-Shirt is cheap. It never occurs to us that there's a 900% markup on the thing (The guys could have got his numbers wrong though))

My road frame cracked a 2 years ago, and with the insurance money I bought a Wilier Cento 10 Air frame from Merlin Cycles. It came with an integrated cock pit, and was around R22k in my hands.... Although the cockpit isn't quite as "integrated" with the brake cables being slightly exposed. For the same money, looks like I could have just got a fancy handlebar from Pro.

Neff is maybe justified in being annoyed if PFP braked super hard before the drop. It's probably the worst place for someone to brake in front of you if you're trying to carry speed and not just roll down the ramp. And at the front of the race on lap 1, I don't think you'd expect the person in front of you to be slowing down for the drop. The men all just cruised over it at speed on lap 1 until MVDP came along. And I think PFP has a wrong perception of what happened when she was overtaken though. Neff was miles from her on a completely different line and left a gap for her on the little uphill kick. Looks more like PFP made a mistake and went a bit off the course, or pulled her front brake and lost the front a bit. Either way, her comments look more like sour grapes to me than anything else. Things happen fast though, so maybe she hasn't seen the replay and just knows how she felt when it happened.