davem

I find the T6c really easy to use. Used a Polar 725 a few times and found the menus not particularly intuitive. That was a while ago, so may have been upgraded. The T6c main display line is massive. Even with my lousy eyesight, I can check the details at a very quick glance. The soft heart rate strap is also very comfortable.

No comment from the sponsor or any team mates on this socially unacceptable behaviour? I cannot believe that this persons team, colleagues or backers is not aware of the outrage at his conduct.

Interesting scenario: Our Tri group (approx 20 riders) is out cycling yesterday, fairly slowly but strong cyclists so speed up and down is consistent. Road is single lane each direction, solid white line. Smallish shoulder with yellow line. Our group is riding two abreast tight to the left, one in the yellow line, one in the lane. Irony is that the rider in the yellow line is the one breaking the law. Club ride comes past on a flat section, their lead marshal once along side the front of our group, chirps us to ride single file while they overtake. Their group passes two abreast, making the full group now four wide taking the full lane. Not ideal. The comment is polite but seemingly a little irritated. By the time they pass, the tail of their group is now bunched up three to four abreast. As soon as the gradient turns upwards, their group slows dramatically, causing our group to slow. We overtake single file. One of our guys chirps the marshal which was probably uncalled for. My questions: Is the onus not on the overtaking group to do so when safe and reasonable? Should this be single file?Should the marshal of the overtaking group not understand the strength of his group, that they would likely be rolled over on the next hill, and thus hold back. This was likely the C or D group. Just because you are faster for a short period does not mean it is the wisest thing to overtake.If the group wishes to overtake, how can they expect the group ahead to know this and switch to single file?Through the period of this, we were all exposed to road traffic and did present an illegal and car unfriendly obstacle. Let me know your thoughts so we can all learn form the incident. ***** No Cradle Residents were harmed in the writing of this post *****

Step 1: Invite them to tell me about there product and off they go. Step 2: Take the phone and put in the drawer. They soon get the message after wasting their time. Occasionally you will here a desperate "Hello? Hello?" coming from the drawer.

Hi (un)Happymartin At Ironman, the race instructions are very clear, if you abuse a marshal you will be banned for life! Make an issue. Get the guy disciplined by the race organisers and CSA. Without marshals, races will not happen. There is never, ever a reason to abuse a marshal. As for the motorists, whenever I go through an intersection where traffic is stopped, I try to raise a hand to the stopped cars to say Thank You. They are also making a small sacrifice to let us race. By showing gratitude, maybe they will be a little slower to jump on the hooter. Cheers Dave davem2010-02-08 02:33:46

I heard the cycle accident was fatal. Surprised I haven't seen anything in the press or here. On the plane crash, we can be a little more frivolous as there were no injuries. From a triathlete's perspective, it gives new meaning to being in the "aero" position.

The story we heard was that the cyclist was knocked over early and helicoptered to hospital. It was unconfirmed that the cyclist later died? Anyone know the facts? As a result, the metro police doing road closure were called off the road closures to deal with the issue. The triathlon was delayed by about 40 minutes until the police came back. While we were in the swim, the plane crashed, requiring the police to leave the road closure again. We went straight to the run with no cycle. Stories are that the plane went across the cycle course, at road level. It would possibly have taken out a number of triathletes had we started on time. A tragic and strange chain of events. Well done to the guys who organised the triathlon for keeping it all going in challenging circumstances.

Although slightly slower from the gravitational pull, a smaller person is not necessarily at a disadvantage. Suck the wheel, swing aroung and tuck really small and you will probably overtake the bigger guy quite easily. Aero has a far greater affect than gravity.

You bstrd! I was going to come with some whitty reply about prefering sesame seed to poopy seed on mine, now you've gone and ruined it!!! You must eat at MacDonalds!

Eish! That's gotta hurt the bottom line

Please do not drop your gel wrappers and other litter on the streets of our beautiful city. Please carry the used wrappers and drop at the next water point or the finish. Tuck it in the leg of your shorts or pocket until the time is right. Even better, when you go to the Expo buy a small gel bottle. It will save you lots of time on the bike. There is at least one stand selling them. davem2009-11-13 03:46:02

I was under the impression that most races banned the use of iPods for safety reasons. They are banned in most running races and triathlons as well. The 94.7 2009 Race Brochure, on it's back page features as advert for the 94.7 Music Shop: "Why not ride the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge with some of your favourite songs playing in your ear?" Ignorant or irresponsible marketing. The back of the fleet is pretty chaotic, now take riders attention off their surroundings.... A bit more work for NetCare 911 I guess. Your thoughts?

I was quite impressed at the organisation of the Expo. Standing in line to do my reseed, a guy walked down the line and checked that every single person was in the right line and had the right forms etc. He was back a few minutes later as soon as the queue had some new members. Got my reseed too. They were very helpful and friendly despite having done some very hard work.

I do believe South Africans can obey rules. The critical bit is enforcement. A few years ago, I attended a function in Maputo with about 300 South Africans and ten locals. Mozambique had no smoking laws. Amazingly, despite the fact that the locals smoked in the function hall, every single South African smoker went outside to smoke. I believe it shows that we do have the capability to learn how to obey the law once we understand that it will be enforced. If also reinforces my earlier point that safety must be learned as a habit.

I see no reason why a club cannot use a Suspension as sanction. Hypothetical situation: A rider on a Club ride behaves unacceptably and does not respond to the marshall's instructions. He quietly gets asked his name at the end of the ride and then receives a phonecall later that day asking him not to ride the following week as he has been suspended due to unacceptable behaviour. He is welcome to return when the suspension is completed. The rider has the option: - to shout and scream which will make his name mud even more - politely accept the suspension, make an excuse to his buddies that he has to wash his hair the following Saturday, and return a wiser, safer cyclist. Second suspension within a 6 month period goes in the club newsletter. Peer pressure is an amazingly powerful tool.

Hi Chucky The conduct of cyclists is the issue in question. The residents are reacting, sometimes in an inappropriate manner, but they are not the cause of the problem. In the absence of effective law enforcement by JMPD and SAPS, self regulation by cyclists is probably the only effective solution. May I suggest that the Thinktank you have setup, including the major clubs, develop and adopt a code of conduct that is published through all relevant media and club channels. Cyclists should be encouraged to sign this code of conduct (possibly a condition of club membership). When I look at the photos published elsewhere, the offenders seem to fall into three categories: 1. Competent cyclists who make an occasional transgression. Like all road users, mistakes happen. Sometimes the transgression is a conscious decision to avoid another risk, for example glass in the cycle lane. These are the least of your problem, but heightened awareness will keep the focus on good road safety. 2. Competent cyclists who think they are above the law. These are evidenced by aggressive retaliatory behaviour when shown to be out of line. These are people who in spite of a knowledge of the law and safe cycling principles, just don't give a damn. It is quite easy to spot these on the Hub and on the road. This is the area that Clubs need to apply sanction because they endanger the lives of others on the ride and tarnish the name of the Club and the Sponsors. 3. Unskilled cyclists. These guys and girls are new to the sport and are desperate to complete the course in safety. Their skills and safety knowledge is lacking. In my own experience, these are the cyclists who most often weave unpredictably into the road. The answer is education. They want to learn these skills. Is this not a massive opportunity for the clubs to recruit new members with the safety of a group ride, support vehicle and the entry level training? I believe that a critical part of any Code of Conduct is that groups select a Ride Captain before a ride who plays a monitoring role. Very similar to the group ride marshals used by the major clubs. This person should understand the Code of Conduct and be comfortable pointing out where someone does ride in an unsafe or inappropriate manner. This will contribute to the education of cyclists who don't perhaps understand certain safety practices. Those who don't give a damn will soon be ejected from the group by social pressure. Managing a group of people who have very little common affiliation can be difficult. I believe that it needs to be fashionable to be safe. Let's make being safe the hot topic of conversation. (This is a very different conversation to the current: Who's right and who's wrong, that is currently happening). Safety is a habit whether you are cycling or operating a mine. The sooner we implement practices that encourage habitually safe riding, the sooner accidents will fall and the aggression will subside. The sooner will come the day when the Cradle residents welcome us for our spending power in their economy. Hope this contributes to the debate and, more importantly, the solution. Cheers Dave

A request to race organisers: Hire more toilets especially the urinal style open ones for the guys. It will make life much more pleasant for everyone. Who wants to spend 20-30 minutes standing in line to pee before a race. This seems like basic common sense.

Violence begets violence. Unfortunately you escalated his behaviour with your own. Despite the motorbiker's inappropriate verbal behaviour, I find it difficult to find any sympathy with your response and the potential disaster you almost created. Imagine if you had managed to pull the said biker off his machine. You would be facing serious charges, likely have injured a number of people including yourself and the beginners were trying to teach. You have set an extremely poor example to the group you were trying to help. Think before you act. If you had just raised your hand to acknowledge the biker's complaint, you would have diffused the situation. Your story unfortunately tells more about you than about the biker. Now flame away.

The RC3000 is the Toyota Corolla of cycling. When you get Golf GTi legs, get a fancier bike.

I watch this video at least once a month. Team Hoyt has done over 1000 endurance events, including 6 Ironmans and a bike and run across America. They have been inducted into the Ironman Hall of Fame. Rick (the son) in spite of his challenges, holds a degree from Boston University. Think your day is tough, think again. www.teamhoyt.com

Sounds like your new stove is 3 phase. Normally the 4 pin plug is for industrial equipment. You need a pro to sort this out.

My personal experience is that those who are aggressive and disrespectful of other road users and laws while on the bike, behave exactly the same behind the wheel of a car. I believe it is about personality of individuals not of cyclists as a whole. As cycling has become more popular, the need has arisen for us to now be more conscious of our own behaviour. As road users we claim the same rights as other road users, it is time we also take on the same responsibilities. I see no reason why the traffic police should not enforce the road rules on cyclists as well.

Done some reading on the topic myself. Have a fascinating article comparing 16 clinchers and tubbies tyres measuring grip, rolling resistance and puncture protection. Results are surprising. Not sure where I downloaded it from. Email me and I will send it too you (too big to upload here). My own thoughts are that if you contending for a win go for the fastest available, but then your bike should be optimised as well. You probably do lots of races and can live will a bad race due to equipment failure. For the rest of us, the few seconds saved by having a slightly faster tyre is totally negated by the risk of puncture. If you are doing your one Ironman for the year, then don't risk mucking it up by taking too higher risk. The highest puncture resistance will dictate my choice of tyre for 70.3 next year (my first). My performance will be about my legs. dave@digitalinspiration.co.za