Christopher Brunsdon

I was thinking exactly the same, mine is also sub 20kg and that includes a 2kg U-Lock . I do serious climbing on my morning commute with gradients over 10' on some parts. Yeah, commuting with weight makes a difference.

agree 100%

Tis known as the Big Blue Book, do not have it (yet) but it always pops up as a must have.

Schweet, now who is the lucky lady thats gets to sit up front

OK, so I took another look at the derailleur and there is a lot of play on it that I do not recall it having, time for an upgrade. Not complaining considering how long I've had it.

So what can case a rear derailleur to run skew besides a bent derailleur hanger? Reason why I ask is that I replaced my hanger this morning after noticing the derailleur was running skew but it looks like this has made no change. (Unlike my previously replaced hanger the existing one did not look skew at all even when lined up with a ruler). I use my bike mostly for commuting and everything was fine until a few days ago. Not so sure if it could have gotten bent while putting it in the back of the car. Its just an elcheapo OEM shimano thats now done 5000km.

Once again the old debate of buying local with CWC vs going with old faithfull CRC: Need a new (cheap) rear dearilleur and I see the "Shimano Aliivio Rear Derailleur M430" for R287 ex on CRC and since there seems to be another local CRC group going out soon I thought cool, let me see if I can get in on it. Then by chance I looked at CWC just to see how much I'm going to save ... what ... chris has it for R280 plus R40 for delivery to my door!!! Way to go chris, come pay day and I'm going local. Just great to see that CWC continues to offer us good value for money. I've often said it on this forum to first compare with CWC & others before hitting that "buy" button on CRC.

Well I'm voting for the Braai Party tomorrow!!!

Green sunlight soap and VIM - its also an awesome exfoliation, but remember to use hand cream afterwords because it dries your skin.

I went from Shimano to Crank Brothers earlier this year and they are much easier to unclip. Considering that I sprained my ankle during the week I upgraded I can tell you that CBs are much easier on the foot. No need to blow a fortune as I got these for about R250 landed from CRC: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=54823

What chain brand/model? I use (cheap) KMC chains as it comes with its own reusable link and eliminates the problem of bad connection pins

A flu shot gives no you no symptoms, should you have any then you've already got the flu. I've gotten mine each year for the last five and it makes a difference for me.

This is on my wish list and I will go BBB with CWC

I've never bother to look at other rims but you can ask Johan B for advice on this.

Thanks Schwinn Lover, I could not remember which loctite to get, have been warned before about the different types.

Was my left side.

Thanks JB - the crank did come loose though as I tightened it with an allen key. I have other bolts that can take a socket and will rather use those instead. Need to get the proper tools still. (PS: Yes, I see now my mistake of calling it a crank arm, was tired last night and broke my golden rule of not posting when tired)

Could not believe how awesome it was to commute to work on a bicycle that could shift properly again. I do some hectic uphills and even testing some shifting up and down on the most hardcore parts (gradient of > 10%) - no problems. Yup, I'm now adding inspect gears to my monthly check list.

Had a stunning day, besides snapping my shifting cable I discovered my one crank arm bolt was loose (again). Its a square taper. Now could one use Locktite and if so, which one? Dont feel like doing a ride and then getting stuck with a loose crank arm.

So I had some shifting problems recently after I just fitted my new chain. Originally thought it was a bit tight and needed some "exercise" to loosen up, 100km later and shifting was getting worse. I then thought my front dérailleur had eventually decided to die on me, oh what, it served me well. Then today it got worse and worse and then ... snap, my front shifting cable broke. Luckily it was just as I passed my wifes parked car (now thats luck). Anyway, so I inspect the cable and it was frayed and full of gunk, no wonder my shifting was shot. I had the same issue on my motor bikes accelerator years ago. So put in a new cable tonight, but actually swapped the rear cable with the front and fitted the new cable for the rear as the rear had some kinks in it. Both cables where clean and shifting was magic. It was so nice I must say that installing and setting my gears was a breeze now that my shifting was perfect again. So next time you suffer from poor shifting, check your cables. Its only R25 an inner (R15 if you shop around) but it makes a massive difference.

I got an elchepo chain scrubber device and the secret is hot water with your degreaser but as mentioned before, brush mud off first. I find the device is great for cleaning a chain that see mostly tar or one that youve taken off, scrubbed it hard and put back on again. I find its most effective in cleaning on the inside plates as bristle brushes don't work that well here. Personally I would only recommend the chain cleaner device if your running wet lube like me as I'm not convinced you need it for a dry lube chain. I also found that too much degreasing caused problems and resulted in a noisy chain - when I now do a paraffin bath I patiently relube each link and only ride the next day.

Hi I'm still on 8spd with Vs and can tell you that changing my cassette and chainset was all I needed to do to improve my bike, I still went for 8spd though. I went from a 28:38:48 to a 22:32:42 and can say that it was a bit extreme, granny gear is now super cool but keeps me unfit Keep your 24:34:44 as its a nice ratio for when you need speed. My cassette was original a 30 but its now a 32 and a better quality one than what I had on before, what a difference. Also you can read my long post about the Avid Rollamjig to improve your shifting, cheap little device but makes a massive improvement. Personally I've seen no reason in moving onto 9spd, sure 8spd parts are not easy to source anymore but they are still around. Also my 8spd chain is much cheaper and more durable than the 9spd so my cost of ownership is lower. On the Vees, get some good pads like Shimanos, I got just put some Shimanos on again (got 4 sets from Chainreaction Cycles for dirt cheap) and its so nice to have good brakes again. I'm only running cheap Alex rims and now that I'm back on Shimano, I see no value in me getting a so called better set. EDIT: I want to do touring and would love to change my 42 chainring to a 44. Having a 32 cassette is OK for those hills. I also have a hectic morning commute to work each day and get to use my full range of gears in 6,5km and its just my large chainring that currently dissapoints me.

I've got OKO and after nearly 2yrs in the tubes, only one puncture and that was actually a 1cm slice in the tube. Actually managed to cycle 7km home and only had a flat the next day. OKO is the best. Was 20km from home two weeks back and went through a whole lot of thorns. Pulled them all out on the spot and continued cycling. Still have not inflated my tube.

Will say your insurance is only as good as their claim process. Last week we had to claim from First 4 Women, new windscreen that got cracked. They would only process the claim if we had the original inspection certificate - thank goodness we still did. Ironic that we had them for Feb-April and we claimed more than we paid them: New windscreen for Atos2 is R3500; excess R660; premiums paid for 3 months R 1140

I will also add that we just took out a multicover (think thats what you call it) with Hollard that covers the business, car, house and my bicycle for less than what we where paying for the business (INDWE) and car (First 4 Women). We took the approach of what the final cover would be and not the individual costs of each insured item.