GoLefty!!

2013 is my 13th year on Tubeless. In this time I've had perhaps two punctures that did not seal due the whole being too large; A nail through the side wall and out the tread and a falied carcass at the bead have been the only stop me in my tracks failures. I' started out with Stans ghetto conversion circa 2000. This involved sealing up the rim bed withl layers of fibre tape and using a valve cut from the previously used tube. It worked a treat but tyres reliability was a problem. Hutchinsons natural rubber Python proved the most reliable. then afte about 6 months of emailing and feedback and discusson on MTBR with the few early adopters, Stan introduced the rim strip. this made fitting the tyre easier and simplified the conversion drastically. the fibre tape was still needed as it not only seal the rim bed but also is capable of holding the pressure (insulation tape is not). the Rim strip had a relatively thick crosssection and did not have a thicker section at the outside. the next step in the evolution was the rim strip with the thinner centre section. this allowed for a bit more flexibility of the valvestem and rimstrip vulcanised joint. zthe previosu rim strips were failing after about a year or so due to the ammonia in the sealant embrittling the join between valve stem and rim strip. he next evolution was a more supple natural rubber rim strip and the valve stems. at thi stage Stan made removable valve stems available for rims that did not have as deep a spoke bed and therefore did not require the rim strip to add meat. While all this was going on I bought into USt with the Mavic UST XC M819 rims and Shimano M960 XTR. very relaible system, and I've never had a tyre roll off the UST rims. Up until this point I was using Stans conversion on Mavic X517 rms and Rolf Vector MTB wheels. These worked well because those rims had a decent lips to retain the tyre. Over this period I discovered that with no tubelss tyres, the bead diameter would vary significantly inthat one tyre would slip on easily while a similar tyre would be a dog to fit. this also infleunced the reliability. In 2004 I fitte Stans NoTubes rims rode those in a 8 day MTb stage race. they held up well for a very light weight product. NO probelsm with the UST tyres fitted except I demolised the tread in 8 days. Kenda If I recall but forget the name. I then opted for Mavic Cross amx and finally settled on Shimano's M975 Xtr wheelset which I still have to this day. None of my Stan's rims, Mavic USt and Non Ust rims or Shimano wheels have given me a days problem with tyre sealing when using a tubeless reay or UST tyres. with conventional tyres results vary and I don;t hink giving up relaibility for the sake of a few grams is worth it. IME, Tubeless ready and UST tyres work best UST or tubeless rims retain the tyre more reliably and seal more reliably since theres less opportuity for a leak to occur. With UST wheel the only leak is the tyre itself or the valve stem seal. With non USt and conversions you have to look for leaks everywhere. UST or other reputable tubeless rims also require less sealant to maintain a seal and the tubeless status. Other systems require up to 200ml of sealant which negates the weight saving.

THe sale has been since February this year on mostly Specialized equipment they bought up last year. Sizes 41-43 are teh most popular and sold out in March BEFORE the Argust.

They were awesome, and he landed a trip to the race stewards office for a talking after that. Team landed a Euro 25,000 fine for the priviledge. F1 is a frikken bureaucrats wet dream

it is nice and I'll get one but it doesn't raise the IQ of SA drivers nor cure their "I'm a F1 campion and must turn in front of you" mentality..........sadly

so no one gives a hoot of the bike fits well or not.... no wonder theres money in bling, light, accessories

don't forget that often the light weight bikes that the manufacturers give to tour riders are not the same layup as the bikes they sell from the LBS.... This is the *** thing about carbon fibre, it allows a lot of room for lying

because the weight varies from one bike to the next in the same model, size and equipment outfitting thats why. Tolerance on carbon frames is about 50gr either way.

not as annoying as Andrew McLean, Owen Hannie. Lets not start with the F1 commentator /aficionado Sasha Montinengo.... Anyone ca read their stories off the internet and present it. No creativity.

Pina

there is no guarantee on free shipping of wheels. it all depends on the courier. I don;t think Wiggle have been shipping internationally long enough to attract th same kind of concessions from their courier as CRC does

Peter Prodromou's move to McLaren is a bit of ego on his part. He wants to be technical director. Problem is has he learnedenough about controlling all facets of the cars engineering to be as good as Newey? I'm not sure. He was at McLaren from 1991 to 2006. He worked with Newey in 97 through to 05 but they did not always produce the best cars together. Newey has certainly produced a lot of great cars

after 11 pages of reading the only crime I could see those guys committing is a fashion crime; they wore bright dayglo yellow. <spits> as for their riding, I passed them in Lakeside on my way home. They were riding single phile where it mattered so I'd say they knwo the rules better than most

Maria De Villota has passed in her hotel room in Seville, Spain. She was scheduled to engage in a book signing today to promote her new book. http://mg.co.za/article/2013-10-11-former-f1-test-driver-maria-de-villota-found-dead

These bastards should be hung from the nearest tree and left for the vultures to pick their carcasses clean.

I can't be 100% sure as I didn't take down the reg number at the time but I had a near miss with a similar car a couple of weekends ago in Fish Hoek Main Road. Driver was talking on the cell phone and just turned left while passing me. Clearly not being observant Silver Golf 5 TDi, ND plates, female driver

Non of the wheel sizes will make you faster rider. Chose the bike that handles the best

problem is 5% of cyclists may understand that. Carbon Fibre is so entrenched as a teh ultimate material that its almost impossible to knock it off the pedestal as the most suitable material for a bicycle. People have built frames in bamboo/resin composite and proved them to be incredibly strong but no traction from the market. When steel will regain its lustre is when fibre steel composite becomes a main stream product and not just a metallurgists wet dream. Even today, the carbon fibre frame is nowhere near the potential of the material but we pay as if it is. There much more marketing length to carbon fibre in our bike frames than there is too steel or other materials. Just look at 29'ers; the triumph of marketing over common sense

but we all tune in to boost their ratings, all sign up for funrides and pay the CSA fees, and all lust after riding that race. If you don't like the system then opt out of it. Don't bitch about it while participating.

I think its a better idea to save every month and then splurge when you have the cash in hand. Financing bicyce wil only serve to drive the price even higher. Whats next, residual deals, maintenance plan, lease? Before you know it a Pina Dogma costs R500,000

Steel requires a higher pressure hydroforming, but is better formed through stamping or HERF (high energy rate forming) of sheeet material that is then welded at the seem. This forms a pretty light and very strong and stiff structure. This is the type of structure VW uses in its new MQB platform for the Golf/Jetta/AudiA3/Q3/Skoda Octavia/Seat Leon vehicles. Problem fo rbicycle manufacture is that it requires volume to make it viable which is problematic when steel is pitched as a niche product for the bicycle market. There is nothing stopping any bicycle manufacturer from developing a moncoque bicycle frame made from formed sheet sections welded together down the centre. The appetitite is likely slim since its very difficult to market it as a high performance article when the market is so "educated" to the merits of carbon fibre. Cyclng sold its soul to the marketer when the Yanks got in on the game. We still don't have a better product despite all the marketing, we just have lighter and stiffer. Only one of those properties is really marginally useful to 95% of cyclists and the other is not as critical as we would like to believe.

I'mnot sure how your parrents taught you to groom yourself but there is just no way you can comb with a brush. Maybe you can paint with a brush or even tar with a brush, but combing with a brush is just offtopic. Problem with motorcycle clubs is that when they get together for their weekend runs all their wekly frustration comes out. I've been in situations when a group will just appear from nowhere and they'll be on your rear bumper, on your front bumper and on the right riding into on coming traffic and force motorists to get off the road.Then on Monday they're back to suit and tie and respectable corporate types. Sure we all want to let our hair down and be rebels but its really starting to get out of hand. This incident in the US is just an example of what happens when someone takes it a little too far.

If Specialized builds a steel bike they will patent it because they thought of it first

Thats really nice and I like Cotic bikes. Been a fan of theirs for nearly 10 years

I doubt he will get charged with anything. No jury is going to try to convict a father for protecting his family from a gang of thugs.

More especially, will Fritz and the Flab deny they have the agency........hmmmmmmm