NGM

Dibs

I always thought it was an old-school italian hand gesture to ward off evil. I'm not italian but I do like music trivia. The way I understood it, the singer Ronnie James Dio (who is of italian heritage) used to do it at concerts because he saw his Sicilian grandmother do it to protect him from evil. Because he sung in metal bands (and was in black sabbath at the time) the bible belt conservatives did what they always do and said it was satanic and the sign of the devil, despite the fact that it means the opposite.

This reminds me of when I was living in the UK and myself and few friends had a friendly bet over who would be the first to do a sub 20-minute 5km parkrun. At about the same time, an English athlete ran our local parkrun in 13:48. No amount of training, coaching and diet would have ever gotten me to that level. Eventually you hit your genetic ceiling, so pick your parents carefully.

Yes! I was thinking the same thing. @TNT1 you can't drop that and then leave us hanging. I "rode" with Ganna the other day. I was on my rollers watching the giro TT. I averaged 33kph and he average north of 56kph for the same period of time. Luckily for him I wasn't going all out, saving myself for some of the mountain stages.

Do you mean QR? If that's the case then yes. Good to know about the FD clamps.

Hi All, I've got an oldish shimano 3x9 road groupset, which I think is from a 2001 Giant OCR one. https://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?item=35607 I'm trying to work out if there's any reason it wont work in a more modern frame. With the exception of disk brakes, my understanding is that axle standards have not changed on road bikes (130mm) so that part is fine. But then moving on to bottom brackets, I'm a little less clued-up and there are loads of different standards. I'm pretty sure the original bike had a 68mm BB shell. Is there any reason I wont be able to get this old groupset to work in a more modern frame? Thanks in advance. Edit: neglected to mention that I have the old wheels too, hence may concerns about axle standards.

Classic example is the hematocrit thing. Setting the limit at 50% means that people who naturally hover around 42, say, had a lot to gain from EPO. Whereas people naturally at or near 50% gained very little. It's like giving basketball players a pill that will make you 7ft tall, it won't help all of them. And riders had a different appetite for risk with regard to cheating. In a test unrelated to bike racing, pantani once tested with a hematocrit value of 60%. It was after he'd been in an accident and was tested in hospital. So would his incredible mountain escapades have been possible if he was just cheating the same amount as everyone else? It made for great viewing at the time but when I go down nostalgic youtube rabbit holes I don't look much at the 90s and 2000s as it may as well be a work of fiction. I prefer the 70s and 80s when they just used good old amphetamines.

Yip agreed. I think everyone that is close to him is his doormat, it might be the only way to survive in his orbit. I think he's a fearless and vindictive narcissist and anybody that challenges him in any way gets crushed or pushed out of his circle. Interesting dude for sure and a born winner, but not somebody I think I'd like all that much.

Ironically my main take away from reading that was what a piece of work Armstrong was. Trying to sabotage his own team leader's time trial? I suppose it's in keeping with the rest of his behavior. That dude just couldn't stand not being the alpha-male.

It is fair to say that a test for EPO didn't exist. They were testing hematocrit and using 50% as an arbitrary limit. It's still not a test for EPO.

The biography of Ted Kaczynski looks fantastic if you ignore the last few chapters.

Hi All, I've come into an old road bike (late 90s I think) that I'd like to restore back to working order, however the first thing that needs replacing are the original brake hoods which are now pretty badly perished. They are shimano 105s, but in that era they were 3x9s. I have no idea if shimano hoods are a one-size-fits-all, I'd guess not. Does anybody know what suitable replacement hoods would be? Separate to that, does anybody have any go-to supplier of brake and gear cables? One of these also needs replacing! Thanks

It doesn't make a difference if you break it or not.

Looks like the rainbow jersey will have a nice rainbow bike too... https://www.bikeradar.com/features/pro-bike/custom-specialized-tarmac-sl7-world-champions/

I have a bike that I built for touring, but in terms or geometry and components it could just as well be a gravel bike. I ride it daily and absolutely love it. For a typical sunday Franschoek ride, it's a tossup between that bike and my road bike. I know I'll be faster on the roadie, but far more comfortable on the gravel/touring bike. I built it for long days in the saddle, I commute on it every day and I've done some overnighters too. I use it for things that I literally can't do on an MTB or road bike. But those things mostly involve tar roads. Riding on gravel exclusively (which I think are the OP's intentions, and I'd guess the purpose of a gravel bike)? No I'd much rather have an MTB. Perhaps I'm too old or too soft in the middle, but I like my corrugated roads with a bouncy fork and big air-filled tyres. My advice - borrow a gravel bike and ride the roads you intend to ride, then do the same on an mtb. I just find a rigid fork a bit too jarring.

Ha, I live right there. I still don't know what the actual road name is because from day one the lady and I called it "Italian Road" - it looks like tuscany or somewhere similar. "Where do you want to ride today, Jonkershoek? Italian Road?"

This frame looks great! I see your previous post shows a belt drive. Is the chainstay splittable? On that note, thanks for nice long chainstays. I'm not a fan of my heel kicking my paniers. Heck thanks in general for a good looking local bike!

FYI: https://everydaycyclesupplyco.com/products/reaction-universal-cable-kit-shim-sram They also sell these: https://everydaycyclesupplyco.com/collections/drivetrain-shifters-brakes/products/motoko-flat-mount-disc-brake Same idea as Jewbacca's brakes. Hydraulic reservoir, cable actuated. Expensive but nice. Also a very nice local company/person to deal with.

Woah no need to call them "less ugly".... They are straight up sexy. Hadn't heard of that brand.

Out of interest, most touring bikes come with cable disc these days as the standard because they are more fixable in remote locations. TRP spyre have a large share of that market. Touring bikes are sort of cousins to gravel bikes, but the point is they are good enough for stopping people going through the alps with big touring loads. I've got cable disc (the fancy yokozona ones that danger dassie recommended) and have come down franschheok a few times now with about 20kg of camping gear and my 80kg person. They were totally fine, I wasn't even thinking about it. Hydraulic brakes do have a nicer feel though.

I rode past this bike on the way to Franschhoek this morning. And now that I see this pic, I suspect it was you on it. Nice to have no/minimal headwind into die hoek for a change. In fact a perfect day out there this morning.

lol, you called it.

Classics experts, explain to me.... Wout van Aert spent a heck of a lot of time on the front of that breakaway group. He's cooled it off a bit now, but in the beginning he seemed to be there a LOT doing most of the work. So much so that I was shouting "save your legs!" a few times. Was he just doing that to be sure that the breakaway stuck? He's got to be a favourite here, and with Bennet in that group, he probably doesn't want to leave it to a pure bunch sprint. So he needs something in the tank for an attack close to the end, so I was just wondering why he was doing so much work.

For me the only good thing about bikes like this is that they help to drive the tech forward and hopefully that spills over into the commuter market which will get more people riding to work/shops/etc instead of going in their cars. Other than that it's a toy for the rich who will use the grid to charge up a battery for recreational purposes to do something they their legs can do anyway, and then complain when the power goes off twice a day. Maybe I should do some yoga and drink less coffee but that's just how I feel. But credit where it's due - Specialized do make some good looking ebikes.

From left to right: How I see myself, How I am, How my mates see me. Also... I see de Bod just rode a great TT.