V18

Lekker race with lekker people all round. Beautiful day. I'm cooked.

Number pickup was smooth. Just disappointed that my two primary school boys and I had to walk through a "blou gerookte" bar packed with ethanol invested patrons (16h30) to get to the race number collection point. Juxtaposition was not lost on us.

Some of the newer cars I've passed on my commute have little mirror sensor alarms that alert drivers something is approaching. Pretty cool feature. My strategy for passing parked roadside cars: I wear a spieëltjie on my glasses (take a look clip on) and I ride enough in the road to block cars behind me. Works OK as the stretch I'm passing is slightly downhill and I move at about 45-50km/h there. Only about 1km. Despite all this, I have about 1 oh sh*t moment every semester.

When I got mugged 3 years ago, a motorist in an old 3 series hooted at the perp (which I think cut the robbery short), stopped and even gave me a lift to help look for the skurk. What a legend. Definitely detraumatised the whole experience for me. I'd like to think I'll do the same for someone else.

I'm lucky my saddle shape happens to be the Rapide 147. Tough, affordable and very comfortable. On all my bikes. Saddle height and position is super NB. Even when using different shoes I have to adjust the height to avoid losing some power if too low or getting the dreaded dooie totie if too high.

About the ugly woodwork. Multiple crossing lines create stability without overcompressing the line of union. Think about trying to put a shattered apple back together with toothpicks. Sometimes they intentionally "underfixate" to encourage a little movement around the fracture lines and healing. Open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) is crazy complex and I'm always blown away behind the method in the (super uggs) madness when we meet up in during the multidisciplinary meetings. Gotta love a good orthobro. No I'm not getting paid to say this. (They are however stronger than I am. So I'll stay in my lane respectfully).

Just a CT 3D reconstruction. You just toggle between 2D slices in 3 planes vs 3D. (software guy voodoo) Obviously 2D gives better internal detail as you can see every volume pixel taken. By selecting different "levels" and "windows" you can add and subtract different tissues for some eerie 3D views. Usefull for identifying undisclosed stabs/gunshots/lacerations.

Ok. This is quite the yield for a few hours of thread activity. *invests in the local trauma-ortho practice*

Over the last few years I have seen countless X-rays/CT's/MRI's of cycling related injuries. Quite a number of them from our own cycling WhatsApp group. A picture is worth a thousand words. X-rays/CT's/MRI's are probably worth that and then some! Please share yours here. Cropped and anonymized. If you can, a brief description of the circumstances and outcome. I'm sure we'll have quite the archive in no time.

I'm partial to see a "sting" operation of sorts in these Hotspot. Maybe a few tactical professionals with concealed means and follow car cover. Even the mayor himself on a bike to frequent the area.

Why think about getting physically aggressive with the chap? All he did was run his mouth. His problem.

Not sure. But many pings in my areas. Go figure.

Just the galaxy tags. Think theyre 499 each on takealot.

Giving chase is way too dangerous and not worth your life. Following these guys with a drone untill private security retrieval rocks up... Very demure. Very mindful. I've also tagged all my bikes with well hidden airtag-android equivalents. Pretty accurate in Samsung dense areas. Have contacts in private security who are very effective and enthusiastic about retrieving stollen goods. Hope I never have to use this option. For their sakes.

Wait wait. Did some guy cycle with a pistol in his one hand?!