Lance Notstrong

Don't want to sell myself as a huge specialist or collector of note but I do own a number of older bikes and I know a thing or two about them. In fact at times I'm shocked to see how little some guys know who may come across as the big connoisseurs. Anyway that’s beside the point. To try and give some assistance re the initial request: From what I can see there is nothing to indicate that you have anything resembling a “classic” whatsoever. That should not stop you from enjoying it for what it is namely: In the eye of the beholder, a nice old converted single/fixed speed bicycle.

I just went to a Harley shop and asked them if they can provide me with the number of the guy that does their custom spray work. The nice lady was somewhat reluctant to provide me with a number since they wouldn’t want any one to cut out the “middle man” now. But after I explained to her that I don’t want to have flames sprayed on my Harley tank…I merely want to have an old bicycle frame sprayed her defensiveness turned into sympathy and she gave me “their guy’s” number. He said to me yawellnofine he has done bicycles before and for one colour only, no frills we’re looking at around R400. Now I haven’t used the guy yet so I wouldn’t want to recommend him yet, and moreover, he is in Gauteng, but I can’t see why a similar person can not be found in CT.

I also have a frame or two that I need to have resprayed and after some enquiries I came to the following conclusion. My 5c worth would be NOT to take it to 'bicycle related' spraypainters but rather to a panel beater or custom motorcycle shop or something along those lines. Im saying this purely because for some reason bona fide bicycle spraypainters believe they could/should charge rediculous prices to respray a bicycle frame...heaven knows why. It is already evident here above. Compare the price charged by Ab and that which BMC apparently charges.

Brought a bike and equipment from Europe many moons ago. Was worth it over and over. At that time I paid between a half and a third of what it cost locally. The secret may have been that I took a bicycleout of the country and brought one back in...dunno if that is always possible though...

I started in the last group for the FastOne ('Notstrong'). So when we arrived at a fairly empty 'secure parking area' I could see that there were certain elements that had no interest in cycling whatsoever. We meant to write down registration numbers but due to the rush to get everything done we never got to it. Needless to say when we arrived back there after the race, we were not surprised to see that vechicles were in fact stolen and damaged... I completely agree with Gillie that security should have been one of the first priorities of the organisers. This really left a bad smell to an otherwise well organised race. GFishy, with respect, where have you been the last 15 years? To expect the Police to take care of matters is really naive...