Eugene Brown

My Brooks Flyer Special, complete with under-seat springs , arrived via DHL. Can't wait to fit it on my FatBike :)

I had a similiar saga a few months back, and after many hours on the phone, I eventually went to their offices, sat in the queue, cursed, went back, a few more phone calls, cursed them, a few more phone calls and finally resolved my issue. In summary, be patient, and get a reference number to escalate, and be patient..... Disappointing that you have to struglle so much as a customer

I've got the Saints on my FatBike, which I'm using as my recovery bike to build up leg strength after a broken hip. I've never ridden on flats before, and since fitting the Saints, all I can say is that they are freakin' amazing!! Worth every cent

I've been with Discovery forever it seems, and have never really worked the system of "integration", with all the benefits, until this year. A couple of points short of gold, good paybacks coming every month, 30000 fitness points, all the assessments, etc. everything great! In all my slack years, though, I never got injured badly. Now I've put in the effort, I bliksem off and break my hip! I hope that isn't a precursor to the rest of me living the Disco/Vitality life On a serious note, yes, I've had a few gripes with them, but on balance, they do a fairly good job on the medical aid/insurance front. My complete hospital bill of +R75K for my hip was paid in full, except for crutches and compression stockings. That was not Disco's fault, the physio practice only submitted their account 2 weeks after I'd left the hospital. I'm sure it will be sorted with time.... Their support isn't where it should be, their call centres frustrate the sh%t out of me, their walk-in centres are only slightly better, their products are complex to fully understand, etc. etc. but who else in their industry/ies offers you the convenience of a "one-stop-shop"? Love them or hate them, they're doing something right

I bought the Bosch VeroBar Aroma Pro 300 close to 4 years ago, and apart from 2 services at Bosch in Midrand, together with machine-indicated cleaning/descaling programmes, the machine has worked flawlessly. Fairly adjustable across grinder and temp/volume/strength, easy to use, and just keeps going on! Only recently, the coffee dispensed into 2 cups side-by-side has different volume, so one of the delivery pipes is getting clogged. I'll have to have a look one of these days, and follow the pipes back to the brewer unit and see what's blocking it. Would get my vote for value-for-money bean to cup machine, without a doubt! Maybe not the wow-factor of a Jura, but a solid machine

I changed over our company's coffee to an all-in-one from Aquaspresso. We've had 3 machines problems in close to a year, with next morning service, and their selection of coffee is quite good. All in all, a satisfying, and economical experience

Fook me, that looks beyond eina!!!!! Any an interesting possibility for healing lotion application

Hahahaha 300-million ahead, roughly

Thought it was just me!

I agree, that is the million dollar question. What could be a really helpful thread for interested and affected members to discuss and enquire about the suite of "products" from Discovery and Vitality is being stretched out by pages of rants about a singular, fairly simple topic on one of the offerings. Actually becoming quite irritating......

I don't have an Apple watch, don't use the App, and don't think I ever will. I'm not an Apple fan, and don't think I will become one easily HOWEVER I do exercise fairly regularly, and actually enjoy it! I've maxed out my fitness points for Vitality for the year, and my missus is halfway already, so there's no real incentive to carry on exercising if we were chasing points towards a watch payment subsidy, for example.. I think the key difference for us is that the time with my wife on the weekends on the bike, and my buddies in the week, are really special to me, and I actually go into a sort of withdrawal if sickness/travel/whatever prevent my sessions. Surely that should be Discovery's long-term goal, instead of getting their customer base irate! The more you enjoy something with more and more like-minded people, the more you will do it, and your circle of like-minded mates will also grow. Or at least that's the way it's worked for me.

For the technically correct procedure, machine a hole with a diameter fractionally bigger than the bolt head into a 20mm piece of flat plate. This will clear the head, but still "bite" the bearing outer race's edge. Either press the bolt out, or clamp in a vice to press if out. The shock from hammering may just cause the corrosion/whatever has caused the seize to just bite more, and not budge. Good luck!

Looking at the end of the bolt opposite where the bearing is, it looks as though there are 2 ridges worn into the bolt. Can't make a call from that photo, but maybe it needs replacing anyhow

If all else fails, use a Dremel tool to cut off the outer race, then the inner race. I'm assuming the bearing is cheaper than that bolt set!

Thanks man, I figured it out from Vitality's page, basically log in to PolarFlow from Vitality, Polar sends you an e-mail ïnvitation", you then log in to the actual PolarFlow site and accept the invitation. Sorted!

I bought my missus a Polar 450 bike computer, and was wondering if anybody has a "Vitality link for dummies" guide on how to link the Polar to Vitality's website. Had a look last night, but could not see anything jumping out at me from the PolarFlow website. Thanks in advance!

Yip, it's not difficult at all, just need everyone's buy-in!

I'm 4000 points short of gold, with myself, missus and 19yo daughter. 30000 fitness points for me, all online assessments/smokers declaration for fam-damily, fitness/dietician/vitality health check for me and missus. Easy visit to optometrist for me and missus for glaucoma screening and we're there. Let's see how it goes next year when the fitness points allocations change (or not)

Bliksem, you got your money's worth out of those tyres

I had the flu vaccine on Thursday. I was seeing the doctor for a throat that felt like it had been sanded with 220 grit sandpaper and a fever that left me sweating like hell Doctor said it was "acute sinusitis" and will clear soon. So far so good for the flu vaccine, I haven't felt any flu symptoms coming on yet, so I'm hoping this will be the year where I don't get flu The 1000 Vitality points are a (slight) bonus too!

You need the personal interface, Cape Town is too far away! But yes, unfortunately you have to constantly evaluate what your broker does for you, and weigh it up against what you have to do for the broker.........

Thanks for clearing that up!

Just to check a possible typo on Vitality's points, do adults each score 2000 points once a year for a dental check-up, or is it only for kids under 18? Vitality guide says both, my broker says kids only.

I'm up to the 30000 points cap for being active. 1) Am I right in saying that no more races on the schedule, etc will contribute to my personal fitness points? 2) What is the easiest way for me to "transfer" my Garmin Edge 500 to my wife, so she can now use HRM -based points to help our overall family Vitality points? (With my recent experiences, it was really painful just to get mine to work, here's hoping it's easier to transfer the machine)

After spending a moer of a lot of time on the phone with Discovery's Vitality "help agents" and visiting the lovely individuals on 3 occasions, my GC is now talking to the Vitality page, and my activities (with their points) from January until now have been manually uploaded . This was after I had seriously considered stopping all attempts at "living the Vitality system" despite the really serious (and quite large) financial implications for my pay-backs against my life insurance! I'm now sitting at 23700 points for activities on the bike for the year from only 19 rides, including 1 x Modders Night Race, USN #2 and Serengeti, as well as 1 very social ride with a mate and our wives on most Sundays (babbelas permitting). Am I right in saying that the fitness activity points are capped at 30000 per year? If so, then the goals are definitely very achievable, as I haven't killed myself riding, but I have definitely made a committed effort to spend more quality, HR-based, training time on the bike. I would've expected myself to achieve, and the "awards" programme to make the rules so that the points allocation is achievable (with reasonable commitment, etc). by September/October, and not in March. If I was running Vitality, I would've liked to have seen it structured that way, that's for sure. Much as I hate to say it, I think Discovery, with their Vitality program, are left with absolutely no choice but to change the points allocation, as it has definitely been very easy for me to almost max my points out already, and I'm sure for most of the other people who put some effort in too......