NGM

Although in the case of mole snakes (even Juveniles) I assume they'd never be at the bottom of the food chain. Not while there are still moles that breath.

Lol. I've actually never been there before but you include a link to your strava account in your profile, so it wasn't hard from there.

Looks like Paarl Mountain, Jan Phillips Bergpad.

OK I can't keep this in any longer. The hyphen in KwaZulu-Natal is there to join two separate words. It's like Stratford-upon-Avon, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, X-ray or Sir Mix-a-Lot. So please put the hyphen between the Zulu and the English word, not in the middle of the Zulu word ("Kwa-Zulu") because that does not make sense. There, now you'll remember. I hope.

I've seen a similar photo but two guys and a tandem are blocking the view...

I'm thinking of starting a thread on "bikehub lore for newcomers" that explains much of the culture and inside jokes. Given that I have a lowly 600 odd posts at time of writing, it probably shouldn't be me though. eg: Fridays are for arguing and taking the piss. People will say they are going to get the popcorn and you will see a gif with a guy casually flicking open a camping chair. These are both metaphors for settling in to enjoy the ensuing argument. If your first post ever is rave review, there's a strong chance it will be dismissed straight off the bat. In an attempt to avoid online deals going sour, a while back a guy named Rouxtjie suggested that deals should only be done if both parties have more than 1000 posts. It was considered by many to be setting the bar a bit high and people still joke about it. If you've come to complain about bad service, remember "There are 3 sides to every story...." Use comic sans font if you are joking or being sarcastic. If you take a photo of cyclists riding 2 abreast, just remember that somebody will ask why to took a photo whilst driving... Don't ask how to do a sub-3 argus. Don't ask which wheelsize is best. Don't ask what the import duties are from Chain Reaction Cycles without making a decent attempt to calculate it yourself first. If the buyer (or seller) says that he works on an oil rig or works offshore... he doesn't and you shouldn't do business with him. etc

Just adding my experience so far: I have the 36mm DH wheelset and I enjoy them. They're my first carbon wheelset so can't compare to others. All I can say is that they are much lighter, feel better and look cooler than my old mavic aksiums. Done just over 500km (I weigh 79kg) and so far no reliability issues. Will give feedback here if there ever is.

Honestly, the only thing I can think that was vaguely offensive was that you advertised your mate's work on a thread dedicated to bogus (who is seen as a deity on bikehub, for good reason). That and, in the context of some controversial discussions that happened recently regarding a job he did, you may have been having a bit of a dig at him. ie: your mate would never release sub-standard work. Wrap all that up in a first post and you're almost guaranteed an overreaction here on bikehub. You see there's a long history of people coming here either to praise or rant about something and unleashing all of that in a first post, often never to be seen again. Many times it comes across as some kind of guerrilla marketing eg: "OMG This bike shop is so great guys, you should all shop here.." - a first poster that does this is immediately assumed to be somebody that works there and is trying to promote the brand. People who have been on the hub for years have seen this many times and much of the same sarcastic rhetoric comes out each time. Unless I've missed something, all you really did "wrong" was rave about your mate's work in the wrong place. Not really serious. Normally the banter is pretty good here. Stick around.

I should have done the same. C-E went off fairly fast on the way to Malmesbury and the bunch split. I was lucky enough to be in the front half (so I thought), but on the descent into malmesbury I let a slight gap open to the guy in front of me and then just couldn't close it. That's a nice way of saying I got dropped. No Problem, I'll just slow down and get swallowed up by the second half of C-E. So there I was, admiring the Swartland and counting the Steppe Buzzards on the telephone poles, when the second half of C-E came flying past. Too fast for me to respond from my stupor, as it turns out. After that it was a long and lonely day in the wind. I eventually joined F-H and coasted home. I think this is the first ride I've ever done where I might have made my seeding worse. Learned some good lessons though.

When this happens before I've even put my lycra on...

Lol, welcome to the pre-road race routine. You'll learn to hate your alarm, safety pins and portaloos. I keep coming back for more though.

Doing Sportive #7 this weekend. Out of interest, if my current PPA seeding is D, is it pretty much a sure thing that I'll be in D group (which may be joined with some higher and lower groups) this sunday?

Exactly. All your posts have been very sensible IMO. You didn't ever slag him off, you just said that it hadn't hit the incredible standards other people have made it out to be. It's a pity that some knee-jerk reactions that followed muddied the waters a bit and gave the impression you were seriously unhappy and wanted it redone. This platform (bikehub) has helped elevate Bogus' work to God-like status. But does that mean we are only allowed to show the flawless work? Or can we show all of it? I'd prefer the second option, it's more honest. There was no need to contact him, you were simply saying "here's the job he did for me, its only OK". And I mean no disrespect to Bogus. I don't ever expect people to be perfect. The thing I've learned from this thread is that his work is almost always amazing, and if the client is not happy he'd redo it. Great stuff. It's because of this forum (good and bad) that I would turn to him first if I wanted a respray.

Enjoyed the Badger too. Haven't tried the others but I'm (clearly) a Lemond fan so will definitely give one of them a try.

I was going to start my own thread for good cycling books, but seems somebody already had 7 years ago. Times have changed (Lance got caught!) but hopefully this thread can still be a source of good cycling books for myself and others. My all time favorites: 1. Slaying the Badger (Brilliant book about about one of the best tours ever, 86 TdF with LeMond and Hinault) 2. The secret race by Tyler Hammilton 4. Fallen Angel - the passion of Fausto Coppi by William Fotheringham. 3. Wheelmen by Reed Albergotti (much like #2, still couldn't put it down though) Other notable mentions: 1. Half Man Half Bike (About Eddie Merckx) 2. Racing the Stasi. (More about a love affair between an east german rider and west german woman, and his attempt to escape the secret police during the height of communism. He rode the TdF and the Eastern European equivalent though - The Peace Race. Very interesting book). 4. 3 weeks, 8 seconds. More Greg Lemond (see #1) but this time racing another Frenchman in the 89 TdF. 4. It's not about the bike. Just kidding.

Are you sure you didn't ride all the way to the Karoo this morning? Stellenbosch maxed out at 30deg today.

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to Ruan and Dayle at Lyne components. I had an issue with my dropper. After a couple of emails back and forth they got a courier out to my work (about an hour from them) that same day, which was late afternoon Thursday. They called me first thing Friday to say they'd need the day to sort it out and to apologize that I wouldn't have it back that same day. Then got a call today (monday) to say it was all sorted and was on its way to me. It is now in my hand. From beginning to end it took less than 2 working days to resolve, with minimal effort from me and a totally unnecessary apology from them. Superb. edit: typos

Looking at some real-time weather stations, Lourensford has had about 75mm in half a day so far. When the Lourensford river flooded in 15 Nov 2013, they recorded 90mm at Strand in 24 hours. Admittedly there was even more rainfall further up the catchment, but we are starting to move toward that order of magnitude. It really just depends on whether it carries on raining at a similar intensity. So you say it's just another challenge, but they are getting some serious rain now. I suspect there will be some huge logistical issues. If it were me, I dunno, maybe the carnage would be fun, but I suspect I'd pick the couch.

Yip - enjoyed it.

We can't mention the hour record, weird bikes and Boardman without mentioning Gaeme Obree and "old faithful". It's not THAT weird a bike, more the way he rode it. But hey, he broke a 9 year old 1 hour record, then lost it, regained it and then lost it again to Boardman (I think). Then they banned his bike. Maybe not all in that order.

Amen. Playing the system like the legend that he is.

The thing that's really impressive about that is the plural.

I don't own one, but if I did I would probably just sit around looking at it and taking selfies with it. So no.

Well you're both wrong. Everybody knows Marzocchi's #espresso coating will always be the best. Too lazy to resize the image but when it's so beautiful who cares....

Vintage Mamil quote.