i24

Elon Musk talks about an "idiot factor". Which he defines as the price of buying a component divided by the costs of material used to manufacture the component. The higher the idiot factor the greater the scope for business efficiency improvement. Applied to the cycling industry, the "idiot factors" are very high and it seems the idiots are wisening up and looking for improved efficiency with their discretionary spending. 🫢

Fit 40mm or 50mm gravel tyres, convert it back to 2x gearing (if you previously did the 1x thing), and look for one of those semi-drop type bars that accommodate your existing hydraulic leavers, or fit some "aero extension" bars in board of the brake leavers (time trial bike style). Then wait for this thread to reach the conclusion that you are on the optimal mount 😏

The more this tread goes on, the more the fashion gets back to my "pavement special". A rusty, vintage, rigid, steel frame, Hansom MTB. It is currently rolling on 50mm touring tyres and has 3x7 gears (but the frame and cantilever brakes will accommodate full knobbly MTB tyres). The rigid steel forks have that forward bend typical of 70's bikes which give them a little flex. I just have to wait for the straight bars (with 90's style bar end extensions which definitely don't help) to come back into fashion. And it is made out of heavy duty tubing which weighs plenty and the rust on the spokes does not help with aero ☹️ I have ridden it to the wireless mast on Tokai on MTB tyres - once - then I bought a suspension MTB. I have also ridden the Tokai green belts, on touring tyres, which it handled surprisingly well. It's limitation is corrugated gravel district roads - those are a killer and I would definitely chose a suspension bike for them next time.

This! Get sorted on a 2nd hand bike - your refund cash should go a long way.

I did a 2nd Lap of the CTCT over the weekend. But this time I used my Motor Guzzi (de-restricted ICE) "E-bike". My son rode with on his Transalp. We carefully obeyed all rules including stop signs, robots and speed limits. We did not pay entrance fees but we did pay the toll on Chappies and I topped up with energy juice before we started. We modified the route slightly by starting and finishing on the M3 and closed the section between the Stadium and the Grand Parade via the overhead freeway. So distance was about 112km. We started a bit late and there was quite a lot of traffic, particularly in Kalk Bay and Camps Bay. I did not pay too much attention to our time, but we were comfortably faster than 3 hours 😏 View was as expected and it was fun to cycle up Hospital Hill at 80km/h, Suikerbossie at 70, Edinburgh drive and Smit Winkel at 60 ... 😁

Some feedback. Locktite on the BB did not fix the problem, so I took the Hansom to Woodstock Cycleworks.... They ordered and supplied a new Shimano chain ring/crank set and a new BB. But it turns out that the BB was situation worse than expected. The bottom bracket housing was distorted - likely since manufacture as it is made from a seam welded tube - and the thread was stripped enough to let the BB slip. But Nils was totally committed to getting it fixed. First attempt involved inserting a metal shim between the BB and the housing. A bit brutal but Nils reported that it has worked before. Alas it did not quite work on my Hanson, and it came loose after about 20 km. So I rode the argie on my DS MTB. I was ready to give up on the Hanson but Nils said to bring it back. His 2nd attempt was to "panel beat" the BB housing to correct the distortion and to restore some "tapering" where the housing had stretched. After that he re-cut the BB thread. This restored enough thread to secure the BB. Nils refused to charge for his labour for this 2nd attempt. The BB has has since completed a few rides, including some significant climbs and it is still holding. So the Hansom will carry on rolling for a while, hopefully another decade or two 😄 With regards to Woodstock Cycles. They were totally honest and committed. Most LBS would have refused to touch this bike and rather try to sell me something that I do not want. Nils was understanding why a grey beard like myself chooses to ride a bike that could have been scrapped years ago, and went out of his way to keep it rolling. (Indeed he has a similar Hansom MTB hanging up in his shop). Their shop looked full and pretty busy, which is great, because we need them to be around for many years!

They are in Bloemfontein. Maybe the boss subcontracted the artwork to a family member. But if you shop around I am sure you can find more specialized graphics at your Lm-BS.

If you can put up with graphics, and you are looking for a "more capable E-bike", you could try a CBX-500 for R112 399.00 https://www.hondacentral.co.za/product/honda-cb500x/ No range anxiety and very capable of a sub 3 hour argie but you will have to pay extra for the Honda "cap". 🫢

The new Honda Transalp 750 is currently on offer for R169k https://www.hondacentral.co.za/product/honda-xl750-transalp/ Zack Courts of Daily Rider rated this his best bike tested in 2023. What is the equivalent MTB, and what does it cost?

That is sad. It would have been better if those sub 3:50 e-bike times had never been published. Perhaps the obviously too fast e-bike riders should be banned from next year's event. (It would be great to have an Isle of Man style TT event around the peninsular but not on the same date as the CTCT).

Can we get the PPA involved in this one?

My "pavement special" needs some TLC if it is going to get round CTCT again and I need some parts. It is a Hansom rigid steel frame "mountain bike" from about 1990. It still has an original Shimano "Biopace" chainring. But it is worn and needs to be retired. I an happy to replace it with a conventional round chainring (I will keep the old one in case someone wants to restore it to original one day) but for the moment I want to ride it. The original is a combined item with chainring riveted onto the cranks. So I need a 3x (7 speed) chainring, 48, 38, 28 teeth (but wider ratios could be fun) on 170 mm crank arms, all to fit on a square taper bottom bracket. Then I am also battling with the square taper bottom bracket. I have been through two modern cheap "cartridge" type BB's in the past few months, but these have fine threads and the non drive end is a thin walled item. It seems the threads strip or slip and come loose in the frame (the frame threads might not have very tight tolerances). I am looking for an old fashion square taper bottom bracket with cones and loose balls, 128mm long. Or can I use locktight on a threaded bottom bracket? 🤔🙄 Finally I need to get the wheels rebuilt. It has galvanised spokes which are now more rust than steel. The aluminium rims are also tired - the rim brake surfaces are worn and the front rim is a bit distorted where the aluminium hoop was joined. The hubs are decent quality and rather unique so I would like to keep them. So I need 2 off 36 hole aluminium mtb rims, spokes, brass nipples and somebody to put them together. Tubeless compatible rims might be nice, but I currently use tubes + sealant which works well for me, so I am happy for something that is closer to period original. But the wheel project can wait till after the CTCT. Any advice where I should go shopping for the above? Or does anybody have surplus items they want to sell? Nothing needs to be new or modern, nor totally original, on this build. But it will get ridden regularly, so quality and reliability would be appreciated.

Set a maximum weight for the battery (or batteries if spares are used). No recharging en-route.

There is a correlation between the number of cyclists in a group wearing matching kit and the size of their egos. While cyclists hunt in groups wearing matching lycro on their customised R200 000 carbon steeds waiting to out sprint any lost roadie that happens to occupy the tar in front of them... Notwithstanding the above, I have been cycling the shoulders of the roads in the Southern Peninsular for a decade or two. My experience is that the motorists are more accommodating now days than they were in the past and the cycling groups are also trying harder to share the road. But this is Argie season and Sunday mornings is when it all happens! Still that does not change the fundamentals, when car and bicycle try and occupy the same piece of tar at the same time, the cyclist always comes off second best. We each have to look after ourselves.

Google Maps also has location sharing. I have used it before during CTCT. You need cell phone data, reception and battery for it to do useful stuff. Setup is easy and the default settings are not too onerous - the sharing cancels automatically after an hour or day, depending on what you choose.

Hypothetically if you cross the line a second time, you will have to go through the chutes again and the Rotary lady will give you another medal? Maybe choose a different chute.🤔

I regularly ride my vintage rim brake mountain bike. They are old centre pulls, not even v-brakes. Before that I rode a Merida with V-brakes. Both have been up and down Tokai. Provided V-brakes are maintained they work adequately and when you have been through water, you just need to apply them a few meters early so they can dry off the rims. (But the Shimano hydraulics on my DS are in a completely different class. Don't test one of these till you ready to upgrade 🤫).

My son broke the plastic handle in cheap tubeless repair kit fixing a car tyre. I have a slightly more expensive one from Midas (still < R100) with a single metal handle that is shared between boring and plugging tools and have successfully plugged a number of car tyres. You sometimes need a lot of force on that handle, particularly if the tyre is under inflated.

That looks like a nice route to ride 😁 If I may, a couple more questions: Is the rev counter taped up as well as the speedo? (It is the only instrument that works really well on my Guzzi.) Do you need to START the regularity sections on time. Ie arrive early and wait till the stopwatch says it is time to go. I assume if you break down your buddies cant stop to help. So for the back markers it might be more of a reliability event instead of a regularity one 😏

Not recommended for use with dropper seat posts 😳

That looks like fun 😃 What event was it? I notice the "nav stacks" seem to block the instruments (rev counter, speedo etc), is this an issue?

Looking at your photos. The master cylinder on the handle bar is not from a Mk II, maybe it is off a MkIII. Mine front brake has a cable going to a master cylinder under the tank. My front brake is very heavy and not very powerful, but the foot brake is coupled to the 2nd disk on the front as well as the one on the rear and it is dangerously effective. Does yours have electronic ignition? That was only on the Mk II, they went back to a distributor with points etc on the Mk III.

Wow, that is the same as my Guzzi! I hope I can keep riding mine when I am 86+ Is it that the original red paintwork? Mine is blue but it needs a respray. I always liked the red ones and am considering getting a change of colour. But I have seen many shades of red on re-furbished Guzzi's and I would like to find out which was originally used on the V50 Mk II. I think the some of the Le Man's might have been a different shade. If it is let me know. Your fairing and tail piece don't look original for a '79 V50 Mk II, maybe they are off a later bike. If you need help with stuff, give me a shout. I have been tinkering on mine for nearly 40 years and I have learned some things the hard way. There is lots of documentation available on line, including full workshop and spares manuals. There is a local guy, Charlie, near me in Cape Town who has working on Guzzi's for decades. He is a useful contact and has accumulated a garage full of spares. I can pass on his contact details if you like. Finally you probably want to follow http://www.guzziriders.org/. That has mainly UK contributors. There are many V50's in the UK but they never made it to the USA, so it is a more useful resource than some of the other forums. I have been buying spares from https://www.stein-dinse.com/en/. They have a very comprehensive catalogue although some parts are no longer available. You have to persuade them to courier, not post via SA Post Office, or make another plan for delivery. Have fun! PS: This is obviously not the one advertised on Gumtree, anybody know if that was sold? PPS: Don't trust the side stand if it is original. They are spring loaded to retract automatically and not very stable. Basically guaranteed to drop the bike sooner or later! Your Dad will have to master using the centre stand.

Seems the bike was either was stolen or belonged to her ex. Was it sold at a discount? (And if you buying a car, check if it comes with the spare keys)

My understanding is that multi-grade has additives to prevent the viscosity getting too thin as the oil gets hot. In a modern car they can use thin multi-grade oil that does not cause too much drag and scores good brownie points on the emissions test while the engine is cold, but still stays "thick" enough when it warms up, to keep the engine happy till the end of the warrantee period. None of that is applicable to fork oil - especially bicycle forks, cause there is no way you are going to get the oil very hot, even on a downhill run. (Maybe on motorbike forks in competition use, but even then I doubt it). Difficult scenarios for lubricants are things that get hot and things that rotate very quickly. Bicycle lubricants have an easy job.