openmind

Suffering itself is the reward.

Don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it. And have you seen how few road races there are anymore? Us drop-bar istas need all the fixes we can get.

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Stick with Shimano for the shifting muscle-memory and especially the mineral oil brakes (you'll only need one bleed kit and oil stock).

Do you plan to keep using the 3x crankset? If so, why do you want a larger big sprocket on your cassette - a 22x36 gear ratio will get you up anything except a cliff face. If your cassette is worn, you can still get 11/36 10x cassettes. I just bought a Shimano XT one for an old bike from CWC. With a 3x setup your current derailleur will already be a long cage, there is no longer cage than that. You could try using the 11/40, Shimano are typically conservative in their range specs. This will probably work out ok if you limit your use to two chainrings, i.e. switch to a 2x crank, say 24/38 and adjust your chain length to suit. (Edit: just saw Droo's post - he says it best, as usual )

Carte Blanche (the news documentary show on MNet at 7pm on Sundays) has a doccie this coming Sunday on cycling safety.

Find a riding partner who is more keen than you are. Make commitments to ride with them and just pitch up. Even if the first hour is cold/uncomfortable/sore the bike will heal you. Also, there is nothing like a coffee and/or shower after a ride. But you have to ride first to get that feeling!

Besides the fact that you should be whipped with a wet toe strap for even thinking such heretical thoughts 😉, you might want to consider whether the frame can withstand the forces from the disk brake that it was not designed to take, especially on the fork. Unless you plan to just cruise on flat roads on a Sunday I would suggest it's a bad idea just from that point of view. Have you ever used rim brakes? They work really well except on first gen carbon rims and they are virtually maintenance free. Ideal for a vintage bike that you want to ride only occasionally and otherwise just hang up and look at. But maybe I'm just a grumpy old guy!! It's your bike, have at it.

With what the taxis do to GA busses, they need some love 🥰.

Berg river dam view this morning: Coke stop.

For road you need to get the plugs with the pointy tip. The round tip (even the small one) is often hard to get into a small hole.

https://jjcycling.co.za/product-category/bikes/gravel/

Well done! Memories for a lifetime.

Go ‘Dale! 💪 I broke my femur almost 2 years ago. I drew great satisfaction from the rapid progress I made once in rehab and coming off such a low base. Seeing your physical progress makes the mental processing that much easier. Good luck with the rehab, you may not be the same but you can still be strong! (I’m now breaking PRs I set before my crash).

Gravel bikes are hard on wheels if you ride them on SA gravel roads. Often MTB-like conditions but with a narrow tyre. Not much protection for the rim. I trashed two sets of Al wheels before I got my carbon rims (South Industries) and have not looked back. But if you plan on more gentle riding then maybe a nice carbon frame with a set of nice Al wheels may be a better option.

My family in the area ride almost every day. Loving it. Loads of tame wildlife too: https://stream.mux.com/01AYC14N5ByftK4TKEd009kIhz9wgEiHecCNoKSbR18GI.m3u8 (from Strava)

+1 for Rouvy. I tried Zwift and hated the game-like experience. Rouvy has really nice routes, many in 4k video and you feel like you are there. They even have Clarence Drive (Gordons Bay to Rooi Els). I like the New Zealand gravel roads or the Norwegian fjords. Previously 1 hour was my absolute max on a trainer but now I can easily do a 1.5 - 2h trainer ride.

https://eroica.cc/en/south-africa/registration-eroica-south-africa

1E is definitely racy enough Typically you lose time in the Argus because you drop on the climbs or you drift too far back in the bunch and then get caught behind a spilt. Work on those two aspects and you should do a lot better. The climbs are relatively short and punchy, so you need to do lots of interval training to survive those. And then work hard on staying as close to the front of your bunch as possible - around 10-20th position is ideal. That way you stay out of trouble and don't miss the splits.

Interval training and learn how to ride in a bunch. Ride as many other road races as you can to get a seeding that will put you into an actual racing bunch instead of having to do an ITT slalom-ing through the masses. Yesterday I rode a 3:49 with my son starting from group 7E. In 2021 I did a 2:48 starting in the vets racing group. I worked much harder yesterday.

You are right, but the OP said he's been riding for decades, so I assume his fit has changed over that time and he has made the appropriate adjustments. That's what I have done. If not, of course, you should get a fit sooner rather than later.

From experience (I'm your age) try the following in order before you see a Dr.: 1. Tilt the nose of your saddle down a little. If your hands/shoulders start to hurt, do some upper body training. 2. Core exercises - Pilates, Yoga, gym core, doesn't matter, just do something core at least twice a week. I like this guy: https://www.timsenesiyoga.com/ Be patient and disciplined, it takes months before core work pays off. And don't stop once the back pain goes away or it will just come back again. 3. If you're on a hardtail, ditch it and get a full squish bike. Hard tails are for young backs only. 4. Ride more 5. Check your bike fit, but don't over think it - if you've "been riding for decades" it probably close to where it should be.

New Favero SPD power pedals: https://escapecollective.com/favero-assioma-pro-mx-2-spd-power-meter-pedal-review/

Don’t do it! That’s a great bike and you can still get lots of pleasure from it. Surely you can easily earn yourself R1.5k some other way and keep the bike? A couple of nights of waitering will do it.

Wow, quite a rant! Opinions aside, a few issues: - Campag disk brakes are widely regarded as at least as good as the best if not better, especially with regard to modulation. They're made in collaboration with Magura. - Ekar is a hit, it makes up more than half of Campag's turnover. The only 1x gravel groupset that makes sense. (mainly due to the 13s and the close ratios of the block). - Have you looked at their wheels lately? Cutting edge. They are definitely not irrelevant. WT teams dropping them is a fiasco, but that's a marketing issue, not a product quality or relevance issue.