andrewc

My cycling partner's road bike was nearly stolen off his bike rack on the trip down to the Argus this year - while waiting at a red traffic light in Umtata. Luckily the driver behind him started hooting like crazy and then climbed out of his car to stop them... Lock your bike to the rack and be paraat. PS: Perhaps the lawyer tabs got the better of them while attempting to remove the wheel - hence the missing skewer. Cheers, Andrew

*Attempting* to resurrect this thread as I cannot read my PMs now. This is the second third attempt at posting, so perhaps that says something... When clicking on the message link, I get the following message: Primary browser: Chrome. Tested on IE6 to silence the naysayers - same result (just slower ). The Hub has also been pretty unresponsive this morning - lots of refreshes required to view posts. Any thoughts? Thanks, Andrew {Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, hits "Post Reply"...} andrewc2009-06-19 02:30:30

Terrible news. My condolences to Wandile's family, friends and colleagues. Andrew

Thanks Edman, No problem about the size - I'll buy a tube and keep it for other building projects. I'm hoping that there is actually stock of it in the local hardware stores... Cheers, Andrew

Hi Hamster, I live a bit further down the hill, so I don't know when the Westville club trains (I'm an ECCC member). However, I checked the MrPrice Cycle Club website for you quickly and found the following: From http://www.westcycle.co.za/rides.asp: Hope this helps. Cheers, Andrewandrewc2009-06-04 02:08:11

My cycling partner has one - and seems to keep up with the group just fine on it. The only issue has been spoke tension on his wheels, which he just can't seem to get to settle. It is a basic bike, but it works fine. It isn't full Sora, just the FD, RD and STI's (and crank, IIRC ??). The rest is Tektro and no-name brand. But it shifts fine and he hasn't complained about the braking. We saw a new one in a LBS two weeks ago for R6k. It is certainly not worth that, but just goes to show what's happened with the prices of bikes.... For under 1k, grab it. Don't pass go. Cheers, Andrew

Garmin Edge 305 Since I started using SportTracks to download and track my training, it's been a love thing all the way... Cheers, Andrew

Garmin Edge 705 Bundle (HR + CAD) R 4,895.00 Garmin Edge 305 Bundle (HR + CAD) R 2,995.00 http://www.autostyle.co.za/prodlist.php?pid=garmin&cid=fitness Cheers, Andrew

Holy moley! That's an awful misquote! Cheers, Andrew

This is tragic news, made even sadder as it is the loss of a mother. My heartfelt condolences and prayers for her family. Andrew

Completely dropped off the map two days ago for a while, then again about 20 minutes ago. As if The Hub never existed. Very weird. Cheers, Andrew

Hi Grant, While you're waiting for Cyclesphere, you get hold of Gavin of STM (the Durban distributor) on 082 867 6671. He has stock of Whasp products and will know which shops in the area stock Whasp. Their office is not far from Cyclesphere (just off the bottom of Windermere Road near Burman Bush). Cheers, Andrewandrewc2009-05-14 04:27:19

From what I've seen, the pro's ride with one earphone in - and the other end is attached to a team radio. If the pros have the skill to handle riding at the speeds they do and listen to music at the same time, more power to them. As far as events that I pay to enter are concerned, I'd rather not have to deal with cyclists that want to zone out and become a hazard that I have to avoid. Cheers, Andrew

Nothing to do with Commie or Gestapo - everything to do with safety. No-one is asking you to stop their use - the organisers of the rides should stipulate it as a condition of participating in the event. Cheers, Andrew

Ban their use at races and fun-rides. The organisers need to enforce the policy in the same way they enforce the wearing of helmets. The difference between the use of MP3 players and the wearing of helmets is that failing to wear a helmet only endangers the rider himself, whereas the rider listening to an MP3 player endangers not only himself, but also the riders around him. So, in my opinion, it's actually worse than not wearing a helmet. I prefer the riders around me to be fully aware of their surroundings - not lost in some mindless state caused by listening to *doof* *doof* *doof*... An announcement should be made at the start of each ride re-iterating the ban - and riders using them should expect to be taken to task by fellow riders. As a training aid when riding an IDT, rollers or spinning bike, they're brilliant to keep boredom at bay. Please leave them at home on race day (and on group training rides too, for that matter). Cheers, Andrew

Johan, Thank you. This is very useful as a "buyers guide" for me. In short, I think I'll have to forego the "cheaper" upgrades for now and wait until I can afford wheels that offer better dynamics and will be able to last the pounding my body will give them (the body could also do with some trimming in the interim - with the heavier wheels). Seriously, thanks! Cheers, Andrewandrewc2009-05-12 04:41:51

Johan, Firstly, thanks for the enlightening discussion. It really helps (laymen like me) to have the voodoo taken out of these technical discussions! I have been mulling over the possibility of replacing the wheels on my road bicycle, but I have found the discussions around the various brands and models to be in largely two camps - either "I love these wheels and would buy them again" or "They're rubbish - the spokes keep breaking/the hubs seize/[insert issue here]". And this for the exact same product. Excluding the obvious issue of mechanical damage to the spokes or riding through potholes, these widely differing opinions are worrying - especially when there is no access to a "try before you purchase" facility - and the costs of these wheels run into many thousands of Rands! A case in point would be the Shimano WHR560 wheels which seem to be sold quite often here on the Hub - or the Mavic Aksium wheels. The opinions on these wheels are so diametrically opposed "in the wild" (at least in my reading). Which qualities/features should a person look for when buying wheels? + Stainless steel spokes (double butted?) + Rim eyelets + Colour anodising (black/gold/red vs plain silver) (detrimental to overall rim strength?) + ? From your discussion I gather that, given the correct manufacturing process, flat spokes should be as strong as straight spokes. So this should not be an issue when selecting the wheel (and its components). Being a larger person (105kgs, give or take a hamburger), the issue of spoke breakage is close to my heart, as I'd hate to upgrade to a lighter/stiffer wheel and sacrifice reliability and safety in the process. Thanks for (any and all) input on this topic. Cheers, Andrew andrewc2009-05-12 04:08:24

Sounds like the Hokey Pokey above According to the 205/305 manual: Press Mode to access main menu; Select Settings -> Bike Profile; Select the bike profile you wish to use; Make changes to the profile if necessary; Press Mode to exit. No other shortcut key combo is given. Cheers, Andrew

Funny, my Championchip came with a velcro strap. Would have thought that would be for ankle-mounting it...? Only paid the extra R50(?) for the fork mount as I thought it was a good idea because I'm flaky on race morning. Didn't realise that they had such an issue about the mounting method. Sure, don't velcro it to your wrist, but come on! Either their mats registered your chip or they didn't. If they didn't and you can prove that you were on the same tandem as your partner, what's the issue? Unfortunately, it seems that having two "competitors" in this particular pond does not seem to be having much of an effect on customer service levels. I found the whole "lawsuit" issue between CC and WT very unsavoury as a paying customer - literally forcing me to purchase another timing chip when the one I already had could be read by both systems. And I look forward with relish to having to replace my perfectly functional WT chip with the new "improved" version... as I am sure will be required (but perhaps I am being too cynical - blame the rain). Sorry for your trouble - it sounds frustrating. Cheers, Andrew

EigerSA, I have to agree with you. I found the interface anything but intuitive and had to enter into an email discussion with CSA to find out whether I was actually registered. I must admit that I bristle when I read the CSA email newsletters that claim the MyRace system is a great success. In my opinion it is one of the weaker links in the registration process. It is certainly not the level of software that I (as the end user) expect to see in a production environment. Please note that this is not a personal attack on any CSA employee - I have no personal vendetta. I was disappointed with the system. The help I got from Justin Dowdle (once my query hit his inbox) was great. Cheers, Andrewandrewc2009-04-19 11:59:03

Refer to this image: I think the other shots are taken of the bottom of the ear. The black anodised portion is visible in the photo I referred to above. Cheers, Andrew I R Engineerandrewc2009-04-17 09:11:28

I'm no expert, but I did some research when I was still thinking of upgrading my old-school road bike to STI's. I can only offer the opinion of Sheldon Brown: The hub will be compatible with a 9 speed cassette: "Shimano 8- and 9-speed hubs and cassettes (except Capreo ) are fully interchangeable with one another, so any 8-speed hub can be a 9-speed, or vice-versa." From http://www.sheldonbrown.com/k7.html I'd think a change of chain would also be necessary, as the 9-speed chain is narrower (compared my 9 speed Tiagra with a mate's 8 speed Sora chain - we just added Power Links, so recently noted this). From my reading, I recall that the derailleur pull ratios are the same for almost all the Shimano group sets (except some Dura Ace sets, IIRC). Hope this helps a bit. Cheers, Andrew andrewc2009-04-17 03:25:55

Hi Jaco, Here's my recording of the route in .gpx format. I bought the Garmin 305 very recently, so I am really finding out about all the GPS features and formats as I go along. 20090416_151354_Cape_Argus_Cycl.zip Let me know if this does not work and perhaps I can find another format. I did test it on Google Earth and it seems to work. Hopefully it doesn't contain any of my pitiful performance data... Cheers, Andrew

See the other Schtork/Storck/Schtorck thread for a pic: https://www.bikehub.co.za/forum_posts.asp?TID=48408andrewc2009-04-16 07:53:55