kennyg

Well, I have sympathy for you. I hit a pedestrian doing a little over 110km/h, in a double cab with a bull bar, it was a young girl playing kissing catches with a few boys on the side of the national road. she didnt stand a chance, I was driving alone and the kids were unsupervised, I still had over R30 k damage, but you gotta dust yourself off. I called the cops, they arrived 3 hours later the ambulance 2hrs after them. I left every detail of mine with the boys cops and the houses I could see, and still have never heard anything from the incident.

If you willing to drive, I got a place at the Vaal dam, did a recce on it over the weekend. It was unpleasant to put it lightly. 12 deg water temp, some nice foot high chop by lunch time. I pulled on the wetsuit, put my feet in the water, took my feet out the water and fetched the canoe, and canoed with the wetsuit as air temp was about 4 degs.

my mate had both his done, was back on the bike in 3 weeks, back running a slow 5km in 4 weeks. He did a little swimming in the 2 weeks after surgery. The procedure was done in April this year. He battled for 6 months with every therapy, I could think of and he is now prepping for some racing.

I work on a 45 second 50m in a 50m pool, for training, a 40 second 50m for trainig in a 25m. Thats a consistent lap, open water, in perfect conditions I look for something in that range. This leads to a 21min to 22min open water in perfect conditions( 1500m), but normally a 23 to 24 is perfect for me.

I swam for 12 years, 6 hrs a day in Chlorine pools. Some advice: Ask when they do the chemical treatments on the pools, then stay away from the pool for a couple hours after the treatments. This has then single biggest effect. Otherwise, your body take some time to build up thicker mucous barriers, and some of the off-the-shelf nasal sprays help moisten up afterwards.

I have run an EVO RR on both my bikes front, tubeless, with no issues with either bike for 2 years. Done 3 Magalies Monsters, 2 Sani's, 2 years of good racing and never needed to even use a BOM in training or racing on them. Its also run at 1.4 bar to 1.6 bar, its whole life with no issues. Rear has run 1.6 to 1.8, no issues. The rear, has had a few, but due to the soft compound, not to poor carcass. I have run GEAX Saguaro but they so heavy, when you swop them out your bike floats. The GEAX run very had compound rubber, to hardpack grip is poor, but they last forever.

If you buying a bike just for the Epic look at the 29er DS. If you want to ride in some shorter races and stuff on a nice bike, which 80 % of your riding is likely to be the look at a great spec 29er HT. 8 days of comfort for many months of paying... Mates did Freedom trail on old 26 inch HT alu, 25 days rides, 20 kg bikes and gear.

Have you tried running?

It really depends on what sort of bike you looking for... PM me, if you want more details on how the angles work, and relate to real feel.

get a lefty with the conversion package

I keep mine in my back pocket, in a waterproof case. The apps work well, and are quite cool for a little running too. I have noticed a reduced battery life but your battery life is more dependant on the use of your screen and GPS function. Than the other connections. I still wont put it on my bars.

Check out the challenger brand of trailers... They are locally made and you can have them modified to an extent to suit your requirements and your pocket... It also depends on you towing with.

Sorry guys but I think the use of a wetsuit should be minimalised. I am an extremely strong swimmer and to be honest a k@k runner.Its not for lack of trying either.Its just the way I am built. If we look at the time spent in each of the elements of tri, cycle is approx 50 % of the race with run 35 % and swim 15%. These are only rough guidelines. So for a strong swimmer to get an advantage in % terms the following is true. If you swim at 80 % of the speed of the top swimmer he only gets a 3 % benefit on you in total race time,however an 80 % run gives the top runner a 7% benefit in total time. If you are such a terrible swimmer that you think you going to drown,Why are you there? If only your confidence needs a boost pay people to compliment you or see a doctor, the physical benefits to a wetsuit are limited, it is still not a survival device, even in extreme cold. Treading water is not difficult, if you have prepared to do a 2-3hr event and panicking 10mins into the swim, puts you about 800m from land if you swim straight out, most courses are not orientated that way and truthfully you are only probably 300m from shore at any point, this gives you 110mins to get back to shore... within your training boundaries. Yes, its for fun, but then dont join the races. If they allow wetsuits at every event, they should let weaker cyclists have push button electric motors and weak runners can wear roller blades...the challenge lies in completing the event within the rules.

Tell the guys to ride studded tyres in the wet...i.e. snow type tyres. or Not knowing the course and the ground condition that well, you can make a gravel cement matrix in the corners, this will need to be compacted in, 2-4 inches, and is not going to last forever but will provide some stability, but keep the challenge. Its just a suggestion.

If you prepared to wait the cannondale scalpel 29er is also coming...

HI Andy You need the following: A tough plastic bag, something thick. A strong vacuum cleaner a 2000w plus, with a pipe connection. A piece of nylon ski rope. Thick elastic Method: RTFM for times and temp etc. Once you have baked the shoe, place it on your foot, its normally warm so be careful, wrap the ski rope around your shoe loosely, then leave a portion trailing up your calve. Put your foot, warm shoe, into the plastic bag try create a seal around your ankle with the elastic. Pull the rope trail into the vacuum and turn it on. The vacuum should suck all the air out of the bag via the rope. A real good snug fit can be felt. Make sure you stand in a natural position. Thats the back yard technique... I used it for my custom fits and works great, I since did it with a proper kit a vacuum pump, no difference in feel.

Kosnmonooit is exactly, right. The 29er has gone with a more traditional linkage, but with a large diameter axle to improve stiffness, the "bend"technology will come through in later models, but may result in a longer wheelbase, which would change the handling of the bike. The system is similar to the Jekyll(pivots), which they released this year. The bike still runs some SAVE technology in the seat stays, assist is the parallelogram effect. To keep the approx 100mm of travel, front and rear.

I-spied-a-fly Don't forget

8mm or 10mm easy out is another option.

It was my first roadbike too... treated me well, until she got hit by a car, with me. My wife also has a 903... Great bikes

I know on the section I mentioned, my old man had 92, his partner 87, my partner 84. That particular section is super steep, the chopper flies below you for sometime. The corner at the bottom is not too tough, road surface is generally smooth, with no rocks or loose screed. Has anyone cracked 120 on a tandem?

my record on dirt is 89 Km/h, it was last year at Sani2c, day 2, coming down the valley, on that "wet route" section. My XX brakes were literally steaming, after braking for that big sweep corner near the bottom.

I got a good one... I was the 10th person over the koppie, or first little climb in the 40 km race, only 3 guys passed me and I passed 3 guys, that means I should finished around 10th... but this aint the case. But who cares, it was still a fun ride, thats why we do it. The race was over subscribed, and I reckon, smaller batches and capping at 1200 riders would have been the answer. As far as wrong turns and route marking, too many riders doing their own thing caused a few issues. There were often riders coming at me on single track... some retirements, but most confused.

The c dale system uses the XX spider, the only option you have is to go Rotor rings, they will cost about the same. I am already on my second set of XX rings. They do wear fast.

you can ride the spruit... a 50 km ride from N/cliff to Rivonia N/cliff.. Flatish and fun... A drive to Teak or Van Gaalens is about 50 mins and northern farm is about 30 mins, bike park 15 mins drive or 10 mins ride from the spruit end in Rivonia. There is a lot of other stuff to ride too.