Punt

Keys found! Someone handed them in at Something Country, who by the way, make awesome lunch!! To the person who handed them in, I hope you have some good luck this week, you deserve it! Now, someone find my cute UJ girl...

Hey Hubbers I did a ride at the Cradle this morning. I lost a set of house keys on the roadside outside of Something Country where we parked (next to a very cute blonde girl in a UJ cycle top...) :-) If anyone rode out there and found keys, or heard anything, please let me know! Thanks!

I absolutely cannot see how warning people about a 5 minute rolling road closure would have made any difference. They weren't delayed for half an hour, they didn't have to take an alternate route, they just had to sit in their cars at the intersection for 3 changes of the robot instead of 1. There's no excuse.

+1, just one more reason.

I think the attitudes of motorists is SICKENING! These weren't all day road closures, in that specific area the motorists would've been delayed by 5 minutes, that's IT! Who the f*** do they think they are driving through road closures and throwing their toys? This is typical JHB motorist behaviour. Every day we see it, people cutting others off because they think they're the only ones who need to get where they're going, jumping red lights because they think it's ok, driving over 2 lanes because they feel they own the road. Until the JMPD get off their fat arses and start enforcing the law, instead of hiding in the bushes, this type of rubbish is going to go on and on, and more pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and drivers are going to die on our roads. This is a much wider problem than just a CSA stuff up, or the JMPD not showing up.

+1, and learn to use the bottle. The only thing I can think is that those novices don't do long enough training rides to use a water bottle. Because if they did, they'd know that drinking from the bottle is a skill to learn, just like cornering, braking, whatever. People just need to apply some common sense when they're in a bunch. I remember at 94.7 we had this idiot in the Q group who sat up and put his hands on his head, in the middle of a tight bunch heading down the M1. You don't have to be a pro, just use your brain a bit.

Where do people get hold of saddles to test? I've been struggling with my Arione for a while, thinking something with a cut-out like the SI Kit Carbonio Flow might work better. But I'm hesitant to go spend that much on something that might not work. Do bike shops have "loan" saddles that you can test out for a couple of days?

A big contributor to shin splints, and indeed overpronation, is heel striking. Think about when you're running, and you get tired (say after 7 or 8 km). Your foot starts to slap down on the tar with every stride (so you land on your heel, then the rest comes down and makes a helluva noise). The whole time, your shin musculature is trying to keep your foot from slapping down so hard, but there's so much force on it that it basically tears the muscle away from the shin. I moved to a mid/forefoot strike and haven't had shin splints since, and I used to suffer big time with them. Two more interesting points: 1. There are actually 2 kinds of pronation. One occurs in the forefoot, and the other occurs at the heel. They type of "overpronation" that you hear about when you talk to guys trying to sell you running shoes is actually the overpronation at the heel, which is not so good, but is caused in part by the footwear you're using, in part by weak muscles and in part by poor running technique. The other kind of pronation, at the forefoot, is totally normal and is a necessary part of the running motion. 2. There's actually no hard scientific evidence to support the theory that overpronation leads to injury, at least not from the research I've done. That's why the whole concept of stability/neutral/motion control shoes is slowly beginning to crumble. See this interesting article: My link

+1 Opinions like this are all over the place, and they come short when you start considering facts. I for one won't go near a podiatrist again. Only saw one once, paid a fortune, and it led me straight to ITB.

Ricky Bobby I've switched over to these recently. While I haven't run in them yet, I do all my normal walking around in them. The best advice I can give is to first ditch the shoes completely, then slowly start learning to run barefoot. There's a big difference between running in Vibrams, and running in normal shoes. But there's also a difference between running barefoot and running in Vibrams. My plan is to build up mileage barefoot, and then start using the Vibrams for racing and really long distances. There's plenty of research out there on the topic of running barefoot, and the more reading you do, the more facts you'll uncover and the more sense it'll make to you. There are plenty of podiatrists and biomechanists and physios out there who'll tell you that it's a fad (like the article posted above). But what they all fail to mention is this: you wouldn't replace someone's heart with a mechanical one at birth, because nature got it right. So why would you then say nature got it wrong with feet? They've adapted in the same way! If anything, the running shoes seen in the last 30-40 years are the fad, a fad that's cause more injuries than people can count, and been around far too long. Just take your time, do your research (sites like www.runblogger.com, www.sciencerunning.com, etc. are great) and sit down and think about things for yourself. That's what I did, and I'm realising new cool stuff every day Everyone's got an opinion; "try this", "stay away from that", "wear this but don't wear that". In the end, yours is the only opinion that counts for you. However, for the love of Pete, don't go buy these and then try to run 5km in them the first month... you'll get hurt and it'll be your own fault

Just for the record... I have no idea what you guys are talking about

Similarly, anyone found a Thule rack that works on a Citroen C4 Coupe? They recommended one from the States, but I haven't tried it... It might work for the Focus too.

Just remember that it's not as simple as saying R3k for a 5 minute faster swim. The energy you save in the water, both as a result of staying warmer and the increased buoyancy, will save you time on your cycle and your run. It's just like a time trial bike. It might only save you 5 minutes on the cycle, but it'll save you 10 minutes on the run because of the save in energy in your running muscles. So there's a lot more to think about, it's more complicated than such a basic approach. Nobody said it was easy

She was at the finish waiting for me Good thing too, coz I wouldn't have made the cycle home!

The highest race number I saw on the way to the start was in the 27500's.

I thought the race was quite safe, except for the taxi heading up Jan Smuts in the oncoming lane in Saxonwold! The biggest safety hazards I saw were rider-caused. The dude doing 5kph on his mountain bike in the middle of the right-hand lane coming up Jan Smuts in Rosebank, the guy changing his flat tyre in the middle of the road on Summit Road, one idiot riding with his hands on his head in the middle of the bunch going down the M1... It's all common-sense things that people just don't think about when riding. But from an organisation point of view, I thought the safety was spot-on.

Personally, as your average consumer, I would take "Lifetime" to refer to the lifetime of the original purchaser. Especially with manufacturers stating rubbish like "The warranty only applies to the original purchaser". Can't wait for that Consumer Protection Act! I'd be very interested to see what comments come from people connected to the manufacturing industries (cycling or otherwise).

I've started a list for Q group, no responses yet though. Q Group Should someone start a list for everyone (i.e. all riders, all groups)? How would we build the list?

I'd report him. Too many people take stuff like this lying down, because there was no real harm done. But you were lucky, other people won't be as lucky and this same @sshole will knock someone else off their bike and kill them. It's always left to you, but that's what I'd do... Glad you're mostly alright though! Count those lucky stars tonight!

I've been meaning to start a similar topic. I'm struggling with my Arione. I find that, no matter how I change my posture, I still have pressure on my soft tissue. I heard a while back that a lot of people have had this problem with the Arione. So that's my 2cents worth. Apart from the pressure, I love the saddle. I'll be sad if I end up having to change it. But I'd appreciate any feedback anyone else can give on the problem.

This is always my first worry when ordering from overseas. Hope you come right!

I agree 100%. Call it a sales commission.

I have no problem seeing one or two bike shop ads in the For Sale section. But if they start flooding the Forums, then they should be blocked from posting.

To those with Roller experience, would you suggest using training tires (like you would on an IDT) on rollers? I just got a set of Tacx Antares rollers, and hopped onto them for 5 minutes when I got home from picking them up. My tires felt quite warm after the quick ride, so I'm just worried about damage to them.

See this makes me worry about doctors and physios. When I had ITB, my physio told me to avoid surgery AT ALL COSTS, because it can have serious complications like losing stability in your lower leg making running and cycling impossible. Guess it goes to show there's no real right or wrong way. Just have to do what you think will work for you and hope for the best. Hope yours comes right quickly!