sirmoun10goat

I’ve read in several sources ebook sales have flat lined, whereas physical book sales are growing. Apparently book fundis love the feel and smell of a book. I prefer reading about cycling in a magazine. I can take a magazine to a stage race, or or read it easily on the bus/train. I knotted back do the same with an iPad, but then I need a charger, usually an internet connection, etc I will miss a magazine, not because of the nostalgia, but i just find it so practical

The managers of the other brands? Too late for that, Specialized got the market share, now the rest are playing catch up. Specialized made it easy to go to a single store, buy your bike, helmet, shoes, gloves, socks, water bottles, t-shirt for post rides, a hoodie for the colder days, etc. all within the same brand, so you never felt like you were having an identity crisis when wearing a Cannondale shirt while riding a Specialized bike. Other stores would have carried a variety of brand options, but none could offer such a comprehensive range of cycling goods/products/apparel within the same brand as the concept and elite stores could.

People must really have a serious issue with Specialized to drag their socks into this debate. WOW. People should give credit where it's due - Specialized got a big chink of the market because they got good distribution channels in the country before the cycling explosion. It's not their fault Trek, Giant, Scott, Cannondale etc did not build proper distribution channels. These brands had the bikes, clothing and accessories. Their bikes were easy to get hold of, the rest, not so easy.

Use the Garmin dog ears as suggested, and then you can move over on to Garmin mounts which are available in abundance

Because more is always better! More gears, more range, smaller hops between gear will give a better riding experience. Also, what is making you consider a 10sp electronic shifter over an 11sp mechanical - the name (Dura Ace) or the nice electronic idea? The 7970 is two generations older than the Ultegra R8000. Which means any new technology that had existed in that series of Dura Ace has already filtered down to the Ultegra (bar the electronic bits), as well as technology from the Dura Ace generation in between the 7970 and the latest iteration. So the R8000 is a better groupset than the Dura Ace 7900 series, apart from it not being electronic

At 30kmh I doubt you are spinning out, probably just struggling to turn the crank faster i.e. legs not strong enough for the load. So bigger ring upfront will potentially increase your speed, but your cadence will decrease,and the net speed increase will be minimal. Also, your ability to maintain the increased speed will also be reduced due to harder gearing. Keep riding at 30kmh - nothing wrong with that. But focus on how long you can hold that 30kmh for. Doesnt help getting a higher top end which is not sustainable. This approach will strengthen your legs, and as that happens you will soon be able to hold 32kmh for a period, and then 34kmh, etc

I would guess around 6000 should do the trick. I think the extreme lights batteries are 6400, and depending on the level of brightness of your light, can last between 1-6 hours I guess. The problem here probably relates to the auto off function on powerbanks. This works off current flow, and since the LED bike lights have a very low current, the powerbank probably perceives that the device 'connected' is charged, and shuts off. This is more likely to happen on the bigger powerbanks, as a single charge in a 20/30 000 powerbank can do a number of cell phone charges, and thus needs to shut down as the 'connected' device will be charged before the powerbank is depleted.

Just get a normal powerbank, take a water bottle and make a hole in the lid, add powerbank to bottle...all you need

Still not the brand that is suing - it is the management team. So because they make poor decisions, that does not make Specialized bikes inferior, or people who ride their bikes should not be judged on the bikes they ride. The engineers who are employed to design bikes for Specialized do their best to design a bike that gives an edge over competitors, the marketing team uses the brand awareness to create interest in the product, a sales team a will set a target price, etc. These people do their best to ensure a quality and product and experience. Painting everyone in the organization with the same brush is unfair on these people. The poor experience people have with the concept stores speaks more to the quality of the people who own the franchises than it does of the brand.

All my bikes are Specialized, but that’s not out of loyalty, more a matter of finding good deals. I was out a work meet an greet and we started talking cycling. The usual question ‘what bike do you ride’ came up. So I tried to pass on that I ride a Specialized, without drawing too much attention to it, as so often mentioning that name results in some snide comment. Too my surprise, the response was very different, I heard ‘fantastic bikes, good service and support’. And the more I look around Canada, the more Specialized bikes I see. Maybe it’s just South Africans that love to hate Specialized. There is a lot less hate for the brand when you leave the confines of SA

It wasn’t trademarked in SA at the time. Mercedes had no right to it at the time as Mercedes did not operate in SA at the point in time. So I don’t think it’s entirely different. And what about Orange (the cellphone provider) coming in and pushing companies to not use orange in their logos? Or Woolworths and the Frankie Softdrinks and Ubuntu Baba sagas. Point is, many big corporations bully small entities. And as I also mentioned, it’s not the organization’s doing the bullying, it’s the one or two boxes managing the organization that instigates this. These boxes then move on, and the brand must continue to be held accountable? Did Steinhoff steal people’s money, or was it Jooste? Steinhoff was just the vehicle through which Jooste was able to steal people’s money

Mercedes has done the same. Many years ago when Mercedes was under the Cargo Holdings distribution, my father used to have his car serviced at a mechanic (everyone called him Josie), with his business registered as Daimler Benz (he was located in the JHB CBD, near Marshall/Main Street). He was a specialist in Merc gearboxes. When Mercedes took over the distribution, he was forced to change his name. Think in the end he changed his name to Terarro Motors. And I hear rumors of Orange launching (relaunching in SA - they had a presence of sorts before). They threatened many companies who had orange logos, forcing them to change. These things have and will happen again. Specialized is not the only bully. It's not the brand who sues, it's some box sitting in a position of power. These people come and go - holding the brand accountable for these actions is a bit short sighted.

Many people are not even aware of the lawsuits. And I have never heard anyone say "I hate Specialized because they sued..."

Let be honest, we all have stuff that is beyond our league...many people have shoes capable of running the comrades, yet the wearers only do a park run. If you can afford the fancy running shoes, why not...just because the costs multiples of the shoes, doesn’t change the principle

Maybe they come last because they work their a**** off for a big salary and dont have time to train 25 hours a week. Just because a bike is expensive a 'built for racing' should not exclude non-race winners from owning them.

I think some manufacturers make their small frames 650b specific - I know Cannondale does that. The big wheels impede on frame design. Specialized also had a womens specific Camber at a stage that was 650b. Not sure what happened with this thought process once the Camber got canned. Dead - no. Less popular/mainstream than a 29er - yes.

For those who carry on about price, I think they should break the bike down into components, and measure the cost of the frame as the difference between the bike bought direct from the dealer, and sum of the components. Bike manufacturers take a lot of slack with regard to prices, but the component manufacturers play their part to. Whats the price of the SID fork, a full AXS group set (and wireless dropper), add in a power meter? People very often upgrade their bikes slowly, so they dont feel/see the full impact of these upgrades. Here, the top of the range bike probably has everything you could want/need on a bike, so no further outlays.

I have heard many negative stories about the OEM specced Schwalbes - I assume the manufacturers fit them to keep prices down, and tyres are very much a personal preference, so regardless of what the bike comes with, many people will change tyres as soon as possible. I ran Schwalbe Racing Ralphs with snake skin for several years - I never had issued and spent a lot of time cycling in the Magalies, which extremely rocky and tough on your tyres. I stopped running these as their cost got out of line with their competition unfortunately. Looking at comments in this thread, many people did like the Schwalbes, but pricing became an issue. I since moved onto these in 2.35s: https://www.trekbikes.com/ca/en_CA/equipment/cycling-components/bike-tires/mountain-bike-tires/bontrager-xr2-team-issue-tlr-mtb-tire/p/11866/?colorCode=black

You are being contradictory here - your initial post was 'The only time I have ever had schwalbes was when they came as oem on a new bike' Now you say you have tried heavier casings with little success. So which one is it - have you fitted their 'after market' tyres and given them a chance, or have you only had the OEM specced versions?

That’s cos the OEM specced models are basic entry level tyres. Go buy some of the proper tyres

This: https://www.extremelights.co.za/products/backup-rear-bicycle-light With something like this (get a generic, not the original): https://www.takealot.com/gopro-pro-seat-rail-mount/PLID42140184

Nobody said the bike cost R80k, but rather they include a bike package valued at R80k. This will invariably include their financing and residual should you buy the bike under Volvo CMH's normal Ts & Cs. Just sweet marketing talk

Given the rate of expansion in teeth in cassettes, I need to use the calculator in reverse - 2 is my cassette teeth and 3 my chain ring teeth

All trainers broadcast power and cadence in a single channel now. Wahoo was the last to do this. So the two channels available on the Apple TV is sufficient-1 for the HR and the other for the power and cadence

Assuming you are female (Cath?), it may also be a case of the bike shop assuming you wont understand things like pivot, bb, headset, etc, so jut made a broad statement of 'frame service' to make it understandable...if this is the case, get a new lbs who takes the time to explain what needs to be done.