The Saint

North South East or West?

For someone who can't see your typing and spelling is pretty good. You just need to work on starting your sentences with a Capital letter and for that matter I is always I and never i.

Wow very nice thanks for sharing

Thing is to have a successful event with people coming back year in and out you need good roads. Your responsibility or not you still need good roads. Kind of like the Macsteel challenge where part of their marketing and selling of the event is that they fill all the potholes - its not their responsibility but they do it. They create a safe environment for the participants and that's why people go back. They do it it because they want to hold and event, they do it cause if they don't people wont ride the event and they do it because they know that the council won't do it and if they left it to the council they wouldn't have an event. I am sure you see where I am going with this. I'm afraid that simply adopting the attitude that its not our problem is not going to get Panorama anywhere. The physical maintenance of the road is not their responsibility and we all know it but indirectly it is because with bad roads entries dwindle and people get hurt and then they have problems of a different kind. Once again I re-iterate I feel for the organizers that they are having to deal with a council which is not fulfilling their end of the bargain but at some stage if the roads continue to get worse the organizers are going to have to make the call to either can the event or maintain the roads themselves to create a safe environment for their participants should they wish to continue with this great race.

No matter what you ride you still have to pedal the thing. I'm with Ge4orce better wheels will make more of an impact than components and frame.

Great thanks so much guys appreciate the advice and for the price I can get it at it really is a no brainer

This here is what i would like to buy http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o318/Muxster/raleigh.jpg

LOL you guys are not helping. Would this suffice for a normal average joe just going out on a ride through the bushveld from time to time>

Sorry I can just get a really really good deal on a Dual Sus Raleigh Namib which is listed as a trail bike and I want to know if that will suffice for normal Mountain Bike Racing or races such as the Crater Cruise.

K so in short they are one and the same thing

Can someone please tell me what the differences are between a trail bike and a mountain bike?

I don't think this is a problem unique to only Alex Rims, I bought a new bike a few months ago and had the same problem on the rear wheel with a Shimano Rim - just take it back to the shop and they either need to fix or replace.

Asked a friend of mine about what he thought of his new 29er - Reply was as follows - it's 3 inches further to fall

Just to let you all know there is a School outing taking place at Suikerbos on Saturday 2nd April as well as a The Bruce Fordyce 50Km run on Sunday 3rd April. I can't confirm with the park but you will probably be allowed access on Saturday and I doubt that cyclist will be allowed entry on Sunday. Rather be safe and go on Saturday...I will continue to attempt to get hold of the parks officials to get confirmation for you all.

True never realized that it does not have a seam, must say I have one and they are great i just really thought it was a bit on the expensive side

Trappers Trading also sell them - personally I think they are just a normal piece of material and pretty much something you could make yourself for around 10 bucks.

Dude, I don't bargain at my local spar because the difference in petrol money to get from spar to Pick n Pay far outweighs the price difference of a bottle of tomato sauce. Get realistic here for a minute please and stop being so pedantic. Tell me if you are going to drop 40K on a bike or 1k on a bike part are you not going to shop around for the best deal (3 quotes)? That's kind of the point being made here, it's really got nothing to do with the R20 box of constipation tablets you buy from your local pharmacy. Fact of the matter is that if you are too lazy to do some homework and determine what the correct price to pay for goods is then you deserve to be parted from your cash - you will remember that saying a fool and his money are soon parted. It is certainly NOT the responsibility of the retailer to inform you as to what market value is, after all market value is what a consumer is willing to pay for a product. They just have a different business model which requires that the consumer be educated about the product which they are purchasing. Asking anyone for that matter for a discount is not demeaning it is good economics. People don't get discount at their local stores because they don't ask for it - period!! Even pensioners need to go ask their local Spar for the pensioners discount you don't see the manager hopping around with the pensioners discount key every time an old person walks into their shop. In fact have you ever seen a pensioners discount sign displayed at a SPAR - NO!! Well they can get one and are entitled to one but I guess the fact that it is not openly displayed puts Spar into the same category as Cajees then?

Probably not as some of SA's top road cyclists are MTBers

Always got good service and very competitive pricing from the Boksburg store. Like any LBS build a relationship with the guys in the shop and you will receive good value for your money. As for begging for a discount you don't have to beg and if you are not willing to negotiate a better price then you are probably not a very good business man. You need to start thinking of yourself as an enterprise and much like any well run business you always haggle for the best price be it in a Cajees store or a Cycle Lab store. Most businesses get three quotes why don't you as an individual apply the same policy, I'll tell you why cause you are lazy and want everything handed to you on a silver platter, welcome to the real world. It is a free market system and at the very least its a breath of fresh air to know that these guys were not involved in the price fixing scheme - I really wonder who is trying to rip off who here?

Whilst I am at it let me re-iterate that I am a big supporter of The Panorama Tour as it really is a wonderful experience. I think it would be appreciated if the race organizers could comment here as to exactly the condition of the roads and what they intend to do about it

I hope there is good news forthcoming. In all honesty for the last three years we have been hearing from race organizers in a nice light hearted manner that the roads have been getting worse. Whilst I am aware that the road condition is not the responsibility of the race organizers in a manner of speaking it is. Road conditions will start to affect entry levels of this wonderful race and should the roads not be up to standard this year I certainly will not be paying my hard earned cash across next year. Especially since race organizers have known about this problem for the last 3 years and should have consulted with the Nelspruit Roads agency some 1095 Days ago. I saw some very nasty accidents last year on day 2 due to potholes and this should have been a priority of the organizers a long long time ago, not 1 month before the event - not ayoba at all.

Ahhhh **** must I rather take my MTB?

MTB or Road bike? If you are drinking 2 Liters of water on a 50k road ride that is way to much - 50k MTB ride different story. Mostly what this sounds like is you may have a bit of a salt deficiency as well as not taking in an electrolyte replacement drink on your rides. Most of what has already been said. How much do you weigh? Are you a body builder or built lean? 30 - 50km a weekend would that be the length of a ride on a particular weekend day or the total amount of km's done over the entire weekend?

Our bunch rides on a Saturday have club members and non club members - I never leave ladies out there on their own, members or not!!! Non club members who fall off the bunch because they are not fit enough are told at the end of the ride to rather join slower bunches before returning. Club members I will push back into the bunch or we will form a auto bus and stay with them until completion of the ride. No lady ever gets left behind when I am on duty. No lady should ever get left behind - nuff said.

Not sure why this happens, I always ride at the back of the bunch and stick around when the ladies that fall off, gives me time to get some good training in whilst pushing them along as well as the opportunity to look at some nice ass for a 100km's