swoosh1973

I miss my hometown(SW). Did this sort of route every month, rode to Hanse Kop, then trails afterewards...absaluteluy fabulouse...who knows maybe in 6 months or so Ill be back home again. Always about 60km,,,,grueling but never any regrets. Coming down wagon wheels was always erm..entertaining for a spectator if they ever had to be any.

So wheres your pics boet?

You must be a fruit cake too!

If this is true then I am one seriously disgruntled Bulls fan! WTF were they thinking? Who the hell chooses pink for ANY male dominated sports team. Iv seen this on some tour deFrance teams...but thats the sponsors colour so they are forgiven! There is NO F&* excuse for this! I will be forced to become a Sharks or Stormers supporter if they dont get rid of all the fruit cakes running the show.

No Phedra cut or any other tablet popping for this weight loss program! Mine is from a lifestyle change and make no mistake...i will be able to sustain what I am doing once I reach my target weight(not sure what that is). I will know when I have no more blubber to pinch around my gut.

Tel you what CyclingJan that would be interesting to see how ity goes on a flat route for the same distane with same equipment.This Wednesday I will post an update on the above chart(not a flat route). My time is still dropping and so is my weight! Right now I am 86.8kg and still have to do the long ride for the weekend. I will find a flat route one wednesday morning and lets see what the results would be on the same bike! Just not sure where to find a flat 12.61km route in KZN. Could do loops of a flat course somewhere. Power meters or no powermeters, the point is at my max perceived effort I am making masive improvements. This week my time improved to 38 minutes 28 seconds...well over a minute again! The resting heart rate is only 1 beat slower, so in my mind its not because my fitness has improved substantialy..the results have almost everything to do with weight of my body and stating that weight makes a mere 6 seconds per kg difference for the same power output as measured by a power meter is in my opinion irrelevant. My results show HUGE differences in performance improvement. All thanks to weight lost off my body for the same perceived effort.

Hey there Pronutro..good observation! I ride a very old dual suspension Specialized XC Pro Mountaine bike that I sprayed and built up myself. So this partly explains the slow pace going up. Its a heavy mountaine bike in about the 12.5 kilogram range. I love this bike! I live in Drummond and there are allot of short but very very steep hills. i have chosen the steepest hills and repeated some of them as part of my rout. There are at least 2 where I gain 120 meters in a distance of only 380 meters of riding. On these I can average only about 5-6 km/h So its horrible interval training. 70% is tar which helps make up the top speed going down! Now I suppose these hills are not even worth talking about for people like Kevin Evans...but they are realy hard for me on TT

Power meter I dont have..for me its unfortunately perceived effort as the only thing I have on my time trial. Its like this. Ride as hard as I can till I taste blood, puke or foam at the mouth and I realy mean that. Certainly a power meter will tell you exactly what your true power out put is......but at the end of the day its what your are physicaly capable of doing at the time and how one feels. A power meter sure would be a more accurate method. I think I shal do some further research, to see if there has been some more results of this nature comparing different poeples experiences. My cycling average speads on long rides have also significantly improved for the same perceived level of effort. Its huge difference and revelation for me to see how weight off my body has made such a masive difference to my riding. Thanks for the comment....

Ever wondered what the true impact of weight has on your cycling performance? Ever wondered about the performance difference that weight reduction off your body versus the same weight reduction off your bike? Below are some results some of you may find interesting. I am a seasoned cyclist and triathlete. I have trained for many years and do at least 3 rides a week. I go to Gym at least once and do a Sunday "long ride" of 3-4 hours. However my body fat is always a problem and the reason is quite simple....I trained so that I could get away with eating those juicy Steers burgers and any other Junk food. You see I am as good at eating as training and must be the fittest fat person I have ever seen. Few athletes would if they had the same body mass index as me would be able to drill me on hills. However some life changing experience caused me to rethink things and I decided to actually apply all that knowledge I kept on preaching to others on my own body and eating habits. So I made only one change to my training schedule. Every Wednesday Morning I do a 12.61km time trial, I follow the same route, on the same bike at the same time in the morning. If I am traveling away from home I still do my time trial but simply don’t record it. Below are the results...I had lost at the time of my last time trial 5.7kg....so as a matter of interest I added this to a ruck sack and decided to ride the rout meaning that the weight I had shed off my body was now a physical weight added to and including the weight of the ruck sack. The last entry shows how this extra weight impacted on my time trial result! As you can see my time improvement is still massive versus the same weight on my body! Also you can see from my resting heart rate that my metabolic fitness is not significantly different. My Resting heart rate came down probably because of the weight reduction and not so much due to a "fitness improvement".

Geecee, thanks for the help. I have just gone on to the toti website. Did not know a cycling club existed in toti. Did a search on google and there you have it! Its actualy for a freind of mine and her husband. I have loaned her my old MTB and it seams she likes it. I advised them to joing a club. I got an e-mail address for one of the comitee memebers called "Bruce". Mailed him so will see if he can find a group that can accomodate beginners. Thanks for the tip!

Are there any MTB groups or regular group training rides that take place in the Amanzimtoti area?

Ok I must cadmit, I have ridden a lefty quite a few times and yes it sure does work very well and yes it is better than the "wreck" shocks Reba. Boet..I am only stirring the pot a little. I must say I was expecting to get flamed realy bad on my other comments by some hubbers.....the serious dudes must be all out riding. Which is what I am about to do(before the rain starts again).

You are all nuts to pay that for a bike! Or you got lots of bucks to burn. I have built up and resprayed an old Specialized XC Pro dualie bike frame. Bought new wheels and brand new X9 groupset for under R11 0000. Lets put things in perspective you can get a VERY DECENT 2008 model Honda with 2000km on the clock. Go to www.bikeshopboksburg.co.za and do a search on price in ascending order. Dont be shocked now when you see just how many bikes there are for under R30 000. The bike pictured bellow was R29 900. So please someone explain to me why a trap fiets should cost more than motorbike? Are you being fooled by marketing? Do you realy think that you are going to ride like Kevin Evans or Burry Stander without the blood sweat and tears? You can get a brand new scooter for less than R6000!Theres much much more technology that has gone in to it than any bike components(except I will hand it to the complicated lefty suspension of canondale). Canondale realy outdone themselves with this complicated mechanism. Its Canaondales own fault for designing something that comnplicated that still does not work any better than a simple Rock Shox Reba! Dont believe all that crap on advertising and branding marketing Bul&%& coming from the bike mags and bike shops. Moenie n skaap wees nie(THINK). Look at the components and durability. Go on a bike maintenance course. If you like me have been riding MTB for more than 12 years 3-5 times a week then you and I are both on the longhaul.Its worth knowing how to fix and build your own bike. Its much more fun too. Once you know how the time saved is enormous. You soon find out how easy and simple it is and more importantly you learn that quality should be based on reliability of components rather than how much they weigh and who endorses it. Its not about the bike, its all about your fitness level and technical skills ability that makes you enjoy the sport. Dont take yourself too seriously man. The day you die no one will care what bike you rode. The only people that will be impressed with your expensive bike is the bike shop that sold it to you and the other bloke that got fooled in to buying the same thing.

AWESOME! How long did it take you from start to finish? Did you enjoy building and selecting your components? Who showed you how to put things together?

What on Earth made Cycle Lab even think that using a picture of her would boost sales?

i have used many different systems. Everyone is different PVM products have over the years been most reliable for me. I have completed 2 Ironmans, Karro to Coast, 2 oceans and countles marathons using PVM products. I do not like the new idea thye have of adding the peptides on my behalf. Dont get me wrong I believe in Peptides but I have a tried and tested formula which is yet to be beaten by 32GI or anything else that USN can throw at me. Heres my personal recipees, you will not ever look back! Using Octane in long races are problematic. It must be mixed with Reignite! If you are using PVM products try the recipees bellow. You will never use anything else after this! NEVER SHORT RACES LESS THAN 45 MINUTES AND SPRINTING: 1) USE ONLY WATER(IF YOU NEED TO) SHORT RACES LASTING LESS THAN 2 HOURS AND RIDING HARD 1) 5 SCOOPS OF OCTANE 2) USE 1 SCOOPS OF REIGNITE 3) USE 0.5 SCOOP PEPTOPRO 4) 600ml WATER MEDIUM ENDURANCE RACES LASTING LESS THAN 4 HOURS MEDIUM TO HARD RIDING 1) USE 3 SCOOPS OF OCTANE 2) USE 3 SCOOPS OF REIGNITE 3) USE 1 SCOOP PEPTOPRO 4) USE 600ml WATER LONG ENDURANCE RACES LASTING LONGER THAN 5 HOURS OR LONGER 1) 5 SCOOPS OF REIGNITE 2) 1 SCOOP OCTANE 3) USE 1.5 SCOOPS PEPTOPRO 4) 600ml WATER For anything like an Iron man I will take the last mix and use one 600ml bottle of this every 4-5 hours. I premix my powders together in the long events so that I dont have to carry the extra weight of water. Just mix it at the appropriate water table.

YAWN.....Bikes are expensive. And yes its because of marketing and not all that crap reported in some of the local bike magazines about technology etc. If you like me have been riding for more than 10 years you will know that bikes kitted with medium level components have more than trippled in price! When I paid R7800 for a brand new XT kitted bike 6 years ago and even had a helmet chucked in. You will now pay R18000-R25000 for the same bike! If you work on inflation of say 6% a year you will realise a bike should now be about R10 000. So clearly its marketing.....its not ripping you off because YOU are prepared to pay for this. Already you are complaining that the pros get "top end" bikes for free. WHAT MAKES THAT BRAND TOP END? HOW DO YOU KNOW ITS TOP END? Is it top end because Bury stander, Kevin Evans or Lance armstrong rides it? Like Lance once wrote its not about the bike. Marketers make it their business to fool gullible people in to believeing that they should ride a Specialized. They play on your desire and ambition to be be like Bury Stander. The fact is Bury Stander will still post the same results in a race riding a Silverback XT kitted bike versus a top end SRAM XX kitted Specialized! In the last 10 years or so cycling has boomed! Unfortunately people with more bucks than brains have been prepared to believe that crap because they dont know any better so they pay for it. There are many lesser known brands that ride JUST AS WELL IF NOT BETTER THAN THE BIG BRAND! Fact of the matter its priced exactly as edge and ymeya have said. Marketing! MARKETING! I am the worst kind of consumer possible. Marketing means nothing to me. I know that its quality of components based on durability and reliability that count, not branding! So I will buy a no name bike brand with reliabil compnents. SLX is reliable and so is X7. Why do you have to have an XX or an XTR? Will you ride faster or better? If you are experienced you will know that the race results you post wont change significantly.

Ok that looks like a decent option except that the FD cable comes from the bottom....but that is better than grinding. Maybe I can re-root the wire? Will look it over.

I have refurbished this old XC Pro(FSR Stumpjumper) bike of mine, installed new bearings, resprayed got new groupset & other components etc etc. To my horror the FD X9 wont fit! See picture bellow of where the pen is pointing. Thew FD has to be mounted here but the cast allu is now in the way! The seat tube is too short. Do I grind the frame, grind the FD or what?! I cant believe it! Now I know why Specialized discontinued this model...the asses realised you cant fit SRAM on the front. Any suggestions please..no funny jokes about XT etc...please thats for another thread!

Rock Shox Reba Dual air actualy has recomended presures printed on the fork. According to them for the front fork it should be: 81-90kg rider for both the + and - setting should be 130-145 PSI >99kg should be 160PSI for + and - air settings. Or alternatively following Bryan Lopez's advice, it all depends on the type of riding that you are wanting to do. Your "sag" being a measure of how much your suspension compresses in relation to the whole trave range of the suspension. He says that you should put a cable tie on your fork, get on and measure the percentage that the bike sags in relation to the full travel available. For cross country this is ususaly about 25% of the total travel available. Longer travel and freeride bikes are apparently 33% and some are as much as 40%. The settings however also depends on your personal riding style. Soft suspension keeps your wheels on the ground and gives better control, but is energy sapping on the climbs or when you suddenly need to accellerate they are slow. Harder suspension is more responsive and gives a "quicker" sensation but also allows you to take bigger hits without bottoming out. So at the end of the day its not a hard rule as long as you dont bottom out.

Good thread! It should get pegged

Ceramic Bearings on a bike? What a joke!They are not any rounder than the steel versions despite what bike builders tell you and are fractionaly lighter.

Now you go from point A to point A.... this is progress!

Cycling use to be a means for getting from point A to point B

Well I have 3 MTB bikes. 2 have full XT...... and one with SRAM X7 which has given me less fidling and more consistent shifting in the worst mud & gunk. Non stop rerliable shifting gives SRAM the thumbs up. Johan you have a point on the bleeding. I curse the Elixrs and especialy the old Juicy 3 (SRAM family). What a k*k design. Even pad changing the brake pads with that stupid clips and fidling..keep away. Rather use XT or mguira, much simpler to maintain and bleed. Changing pads on the maguira..what a pleasure. But for deraileurs when it comes to maintenance free non stop reliable shifting in ugly demanding conditions SRAM every time. My unbiased opinion. If you want to do road riding..Shimano is my choice. 105 are soft quiete shifting, Ultegra is crsip, fast and precise. No experience with SRAM road components. Admitedly the new XT...looks great but can it continue shifting properly in the worst mud and gunk? Well time will tel if it can beat SRAM.For now I will stick to SRAM for offroad shifting til XT proves itself in tough mud and offroad gunk(not just dry dirt road riding)