stringbean

Everyone been predicting the bubble to burst for years and think it’s finally here.You can only take the p!ss with prices for so long.Continental road tire costs around 2k😳 Even those that can afford top end are thinking twice. When you buy that 200k top end bike and 1 month later Spez are throwing it out less 40% you get pretty pissed.What will happen is cyclists will just hold on to what they got,no new or upgraded bikes while the industry falls on its face. Lets just forget about all the BS marketing,just use what you have and go out and enjoy the ride😍

300k bike and the suspension seals can’t last a week of racing🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈

Just my 2C If your main aim in joining Discovery especially the medical aid is for freebies etc Then please don’t complain when you have to go to Dr or dentist and end up paying huge co payments out of your own pocket.As mentioned there is no free lunch.Where you think you scoring on one side believe me Discovery and nailing you somewhere else.

The last 3 days in this years TDF include 2 mountain stages and 1 TT.

I would look at this year 2024 if you can.With the Olympics been in Paris the finish has moved to Nice on final day.While this might sound boring a TT from Monaco to Nice on the final day is going to make for one hell of a finish.Thinking of going for last few days with wife and can move between Monaco and Nice. As mentioned before the atmosphere is absolutely amazing and when you see the speeds they ride you realise everyone here in SA are just coffee shop riders.

There is no longer such a thing as a Mtb rider/road rider,gravel rider. There are just riders.Everyone is doing everything. The strongest riders come from the road,finish and klaar. As more WT riders decide to give gravel a go it’s going to get harder and harder. The American gravel riders seriously underestimate how tough the WT riders are. As good a result Swenson got he still got pipped on the line by a 43 year old retired vet

After 30 years going thru most brands I must say extreme lights range have been the best for me and worth every cent

You know where SA road champs 2024 are been held?

Wahaha Staying in Blouberg my wife and I will often do a gravel ride Bains/slang hoek way. ‘It’s beautiful and FREE No need to spend 2k. I expect I’ll start getting emails from organisers next week that early bird entries are open😂😂😂😂

Was keen to do event this year.Tried phoning the organisers a few times(cell number on website) but no answer. Eventually sent WhatsApp because I was looking for information on the car shuttle.Eventually got a reply “everything is on website “.Still couldn’t find info so just laughed it off.Entry fee for me and wife including car shuttle would have been 2k.We ended doing our own gravel ride on Sunday (Wellington way)for free. ‘Went out for a Lekker lunch and saved a lot of money.Decided not to do race not only because of price but because of disinterest shown by organisers.

Happened to a colleague of mine 2 weeks ago. Exact same spot. He’s been cycling to work for the past 5 years. Ended up with a fractured hip. I haven’t cycled Town way for over a year.Head over west coast side.

Yip you are correct. ‘the section where you replace the battery is gone.Problem is it is not a part that is removable or replaceable so must of broken off. Pretty much useless as a power meter crank. Can still be used as a normal crank tho. Doubt that the power meter part can be repaired.

Side note,your specialized lbs probably didn’t want to go thru the check because you didn’t buy frame from them but they would definitely have done the history check if you asked them.

IMO the seller and your local specialized dealer are both at fault. Specialized SA are anal and in a super anal way about all their frames and bikes that they sell. So much to the point all it would of taken from your specialised lbs to send a email with the frame barcode to head office in stellenbosch and they would of immediately got a full history report on the frame before you bought it. Everything from what shop sold the bike,who was first owner,was the bike in a wrightoff or repairs.They keep that information on every bike/frame they ever sold.I was in the same situation buying a frame on the hub and went thru the process. Specialized came back to me and could say bike was bought at X shop,was repaired by CBR on X date etc. When I questioned seller about the bike been repaired he just told me that’s the first he’s ever heard about it….. Second thing there are a number sellers on the hub selling “repaired “bikes and frames.I’m pretty sure they got a contract with insurance to buy back ,repair and re sell on hub.What really gets me is that they NEVER indicate in any of their adverts it is a repaired that is for sale. My advice is get the mail off to specialized with frame barcode,get frame history,if you can prove seller knew it was repaired and didn’t tell you,take it further.

Sorry to get a bit off topic. The sad part is that SA has unfortunately got a very very very bad reputation as regards to positive doping violations. If you look back over last 10 years,for such a small country the amount of + tests in cycling ( road and Mtb) is astounding)

Was really really keen on this event until one of my colleagues came back from holiday from that part of the world. Said after the floods in tankwa the roads are in serious bad shape to the point even on a Mtb it’s going to be unpleasant. decided to then give it a skip. ‘Good luck and sterkte with everyone going 👍🏻

I think it’s basically same story everywhere.WP champs we had 8 elite ladies and that included a coupler vets that chose to race elites.Attakwas had only 12 elite ladies in class. I don’t think organisers realise how guys are struggling out there. If you add entry fee,petrol etc just to get to start line guys are going to be very picky what races they enter.Wonder how many people will make it down to oudtshoorn for SA’S.

Anyone doing this event? Those with experience,Mtb or gravel bike? If gravel bike what gearing? TIA

To be honest I don’t think it will ever open to public again

Thanks for the advice guys. Will pass it on. Another pet peeve of mine is when insurance companies pay out, buy back frame, have it repaired and sprayed and it end up in Hub classified. Now I don’t mind the whole process but really believe the advertisers should let suspecting buyers know about the history but that is a Friday can of worms to open

So it seems carbon repair guys are also part of the loop now.

Haven’t been following thread but just something that happened to my buddy in the last month regards insurance. Bike insured couple of years,never claimed. He crashes at W2W and end up with a cracked seatstay torn off rear derailleur and cracked carbon rim.Bike was insured for 90k. Now the insurance comes back to him and offers him a second hand rear chain stay for bike or for a repair by CBR Durbanville.replacement of carbon rim with rebuild and new rear derailer. Now the fighting starts.So it seems that there are a few insurance companies that are starting to push this “repair” scenario so KNOW THE FINE PRINT of your policy. Who and when is a bike determined as a write off since I’ve seen carbon bikes broken in 3 places that have been repaired and sprayed that not even the agents would notice. What pisses me off is that brokers are quick to get you to insure for replacement value but then come pushing this “repair “clause to clients. “

I think you hit the nail on the head Robbie and bike manufacturers are waking up to this.Most peoples purchase are not really going to be determined by influencers with tick-tock following etc but will be a personal choice.I think manufacturers also realise a young influencer is not really going to influence a group of people with huge amounts of buying power so would rather back the older crowd or bike shop owners on any deals.

Was chatting to one of the big 3 importers a month back and we touched on this as well as sponsorship. Most of the big players in SA are in the same boat that ,all their stock that they can get and bring in at the moment is pretty much sold before it even hits our shores.Having influencers etc ain’t gonna do anything to sales.They simply can’t keep up.When the guy told me how much they pumping into the Mtb team(you can imagine a couple of top end bikes etc)as well as the demand of local cyclists I was shocked at the cost.I’m sad to say what’s happening to the influencers will trickle down to the smaller teams as well.Sorry if I burst some bubbles but seriously,if they got WT riders and teams under their belts do they really need you. Post Covid in corporate world there were obviously lots of retrenchment and introspective looking at everything in the company.I know from corporate buddies they are looking at things like,how can I tell my employees no bonus this year,or X amount were retrenched when at the same time we spending X on marketing that isn’t increasing sales or influencers.

Nothing new here. Sorry but ALL business are there to make money.Of course the influencers are going to go on about how they add value,blah blah blah but Covid has made business take a good hard look at value of ALL employees. Those around here long enough will remember when Cannondale agency went from CCS to Omnico it was relayed with a 2 line mail.That after 20 odd years. Thats brutal.