steve

And the east? Another place that's gone is the Greenhills Driving Range in Edenvale/Germiston border. Half the land is now industrial development and the rest is badly maintained. Sizwe Hospital is unsafe, what happened to the mounted police we used to have? Greenstone Hill is now too developed, I know there was talk of something being done in Modderfontein, but that's gone quiet.

It was a better route, quite nice in fact - well the first half was. Second half was full of soft horrible sand. At the end me an another oke ended up on the wrong side of the fence but it seems we weren't the only ones judging by the tyre tracks ......... I probably saved 500 meters and I'm grateful coz I suffered horribly with cramp from 75 km . Next year I'll do the 50km!!

some motorbikes are like that

I think Johann is quite sensible .......... others not so 2 weeks ago I went tubeless with Stans and Maxxis Crossmark. Then, thinking about the puncture issue I carefully filled a tube with slime and put it away in my tubby bag .................... today I was boasting about this at my LBS (luverly bike shop - Finish Line) until someone asked if the tube had a narrow valve like the Stans kit ......

................... huh!!

Anyone else think there hasn't been as much hype about the Crater Cruise as there was last year?

............. but it really, really does sound like Urban Legend stuff. Wasn't there was also a bank robber who raided safety deposit boxes in the vault at a major bank and later discovered his mother's priceless jewellry had been in one of the boxes

........... didn't she later work at Teazers until her father and a group of his friends arrived .......

Good on Steve ............... Why shouldn't everyone take out a licence. Every runner has to for Comrades and you need a competition licence for any form of motorsport

The start at the Spring Classic had each category starting separately .... worked well! Also shortly after the start there was a nice long uphill farm road which sorted out the field. I've got a friend (not really a friend but I've known him for about 15 yrs) who does lots of races without even bothering to enter. I keep telling him its wrong and he says he was out for a morning ride all these riders came rushing past so he joined in.

I started riding because I gave up smoking and thought I'd better do something interesting so I don't start smoking again. Last year I was in a beeeg car accident and banged my brain stukkend and the neurosurgeon said I shouldn't drink any alcohol for 6 months. Now, 10 months later I still haven't had a beer and I reckon that also makes a huge difference to ones performance!! Oh yes ......... I spend more on bike things than I ever did on cigarettes!!

Better still, can't someone do an interactice map of sorts where known high risk areas or incidents can be shown?

With these new number boards with the embedded timing chip, surely it would be possible to by a number for the year and be registered to that number. By doing that we could do away with this number collection stuff which is not only expensive, but time consuming. Try get from the airport to Cyclelab anytime of day never mind a Friday. You write off half a day!! Most of us have Champion Chip or Winning Time already and then the onus would be on the competitor to make sure he has the correct timing device for a particular event. Surely this would simplify things and organisers would not have to supply number boards for each race which could help reduce costs. I know there's a bit of advertising on these boards but there's ways around this. Thing is ......... do they wan't to make events cheaper?

If I organise a good, enjoyable event and it attracts a large entry why can't I put a whack of crispy notes in my pocket? Surely the bigger the event, the more the costs of toilet hire, medical services, policing and workers required to run the event. My views of license. Surely everyone should have one in order to enter a race.......... so why was I nailed R30 for a temp licence a few months ago and now I don't need one for 94.7 ............ HUH, c'mon tell me???

It's timing services in general we have to worry about - not just Winning Time! I enter a race in order to get a result and measure my performance against others. However, as I said, the two events I've done I haven't got a result (listed as DNF at one and the other was wrong) so am I therefore able to claim a refund as I know a large portion of the entry fee is for timing services. I've get Champion Chip and Winning Time devices but haven't used either this year!!!

It depends on whether or not a rider is safety conscious or not. If I was going to do extreme trials type stuff, I'd wear a full face hemet, but for the type of racing/riding 99% of us do a normal helmet suffices. ............ do we all wear seat belts whenever we get into an automobile - I doubt it?

I've done 2 mtb races recently (Urban Assault and Northern Farm) but neither of them got my result. At Urban I was given the wrong number board (with chip embedded) and at Northern Farm I simply wasn't timed and nobody took the chip out of my number afterwards ......... I handed it in later when someone mentioned they'd lost theirs on the route and the guy at the finish seemed annoyed. Surely part of our entry goes towards timing ............... why did I bother buying WT and Champ Chip devices!!!!

................. seems to be suffering from Carbonitus. I've heard it can be cured but the therapy is long, very drawn out and somewhat painfull. Basically they remove your brain and attach a steering wheel to your hands and then make you queue up behind cars for a few hours twice a day!!!

it was locked with a combination cable lock but the cable also went. Fork was a Rockshox Pilot (3 months old), new saddle & seat post (2 weeks old) and was serviced last week with new cables and new BB. Crank Bros eggbeater pedals and ......... my Polar CS200.

Do not leave a bike hanging on the back of a car at Kyalami. I had to be at Kyalami today (motorsport stuff) so took my mtb so I could do a bit of riding in the afternoon, but when I went to my car at about 2pm bike was gone. It was hanging on a carrier and locked in the car park above the pits. Security at Kyalami saw no one ride out on a bike. if anyone sees it ................... ride the bastard over, don't worry about damaging the bike!!

........... huh! and no thanks to me for posting the link so you can plan ahead.

here's a link to Kyalami and its cycling dates: http://www.troisport.co.za/grandprix.htm

Like Casinos, Insurance companies are out to make a profit ......... best thing is to make sure you're on the right side of their rules and if you have a problem sort it out rather than try get alternative excercise by flying off the handle. All insurance companie work to the same guidelines laid down by the SA Insurance Association. Bottom line is to make sure you understand the policy you're about to sign!!!

Spoke to someone else today and he was also listed as DNF so I wonder about those results. Why should I pay R3.12 per km to do a fun ride coz that's all it is if there's no results and to make matters worse I forgot to stop my Polar at the finish coz I spoke to a friend ..... well, he spoke to me coz I couldn't talk after my spectacular sprint finish. I even had the decency to take that timing board thingy back to them afterwards ........... and the shirt is too smallsteve2007-09-05 12:40:30

Here's how it works:- I am drunk and crash into your car My insurance declines my claim You claim from your insurance and gret paid Your insurance sends me a demand for the amount they've paid you My car is written off so I owe Wesbank R200 000 & your nice BMW 7 series was written off so I owe R800 000 there. My assets are R100 000 but by now medical aid hasn't paid my claim which was R48 000, my lawyers want their money R52 000 and my house is worth R1m but I owe R680 000 on it and my wife decides to leave me and take half the house which is a major problem because I work for myself from home. I am in the pooh because I drink and drive ....... don't do it!!