Icycling

We the wholesalers and the trade were very fortunate for 13 years to have a guy like WE raise the bar. We collectively have all benefited from that. That statement not only applies not only to WE but all the staff that have work their over the years!

As a wholesalers who biggest client is - yes is - WE. I can assure you WE will do his best to try and sort out the industry as best as possible! He still want to be in the trade - so no point in having bad vibes! I don't want to doing my washing in public and I don't believe any wholesaler would - but I am sure each and every wholesaler who had WE cycles as a client will come up with an idea for WE - I know I have. We the wholesalers and the trade were very fortunate for 13 years to have a guy like WE raise the bar. We collectively have all benefited from that.

If it an excuse for you to go - definitely not! If you using miles and it more or less free even better - If you using MasterCard - Paris shopping!!!! hahaha - and for for ever thing else theirs an over draft!

Big H yup you qualify!

Capricorn - I hope my prices don't require a discount to be asked - but I have offered 1 if a frame should be purchased.

These are my offers for this month and while stocks last. All items are new 2009 and in Cape Town. The groupsets are the traditional 8 pcs groupsets - no hubs / headsets / seat pillars and pedals. I have only 172.5mm or 175mm crank and some variance in cassette from 11-23 to 12 -25 depending on the groupsets. The MTB groupsets are with gear shift levers and brake levers. I also have some road frames - not 2009 - which if purchased discounts will be offered on the road groupset prices per frame. Please do NOT go to my Icycling website as it is way out of date and in active. Shimano: Ultegra SL R6995.00 Dura Ace 7900 R16 995.00 XT R6795.00 XTR R12 995.00 Campy: Super Record 11 sp R19 995.00 SRAM: Red R14995.00 Spinergy Wheel sets, go to www.spinergy.com for more info: Road Xaero white or black spokes R4495.00 Stealth white or black spokes R7595.00 MTB Xcyclone R4495.00 Xcyclone disc R5295.00 These prices are for Southern Africa only. PM me should you be interested. You guys know - are they comparable to CRC cycles? Dealers may apply for dealer discount.

I will be posting some specials tomorrow / maybe latter today - then you guys can tell me then if CRC is cheap! But.... Guys is it fair to compare prices in UK to RSA prices? We have far higher interest rates and for retails - In the Uk if a shop stands empty the landlord pays additional taxes so getting rent free premises is possible their. In RSA one of the biggest overheads for a shop is rent - landlord in RSA do not have the same motivation as in the UK to keep premises occupied. This is just one area where they can have saving not to mention market size where the turn over is much higher thus they can by cheaper in the cycle industry!

Guys - I am not sure what industries you are in, but I am in the cycle industry! Last month I know of 3 bike shops in the Western Cape who closed! Probably about 20 SA people with no income. Their no doubt is a ripple effect as the cycle wholesalers fight for the money that is owed to them by shops closing - and start to retrench people. Now please consider this - assuming you have a job or are the owner of a company: The more people who go out of business in SA the sooner it will start affecting you directly - that not just the cycle industry. For Argument sake in the good time on a personnel level I: 1. Used to eat out quite often - anyone who know me know I was a lot fatter then I am now! So any of you guys in the restaurant and grosser industry - well you loosing out. 2. For the guys in the financial industry well this year I have closed 3 account with bank - the one I have had since I was 12 years old - so my banking fees have drop. This year is the last time I will be using an accountant for income tax. 3. For you guys in the freight industry up until last year I used clearing agents - this year I have been clearing goods myself. 4. For those landlords out their well you guys who are still fully let and getting full rent well done, but I am sure most of you aren't depending on the size of your portfolio - luckily for you interest rates are quite low now - if you have bonds on the properties, but consider this a vacant property is more risky than a tenanted property so maybe cut some slack on the tenants if they long term tenants. 5. For you guys in the motor industry I used to take my car to be serviced and cleaned - now I do it myself. What I am trying to say is by NOT supporting local in all industries, what ever industry you in, you may just not be required in the future - so you too may be out of a job - so for this topic and not to high jack the tread completely - possibly paying just that little extra for your cycle product by supporting local - may be the reason why and very indirectly - but use your imagination - their is still food on your table. Please also remember the cycle industry is also one of those industries in South Africa where the marked price is normally not the price you pay! So please ask what your LBS can offer you in terms of a discount before you put food on the table for an overseas website (once again for any industry - not just the cycling industry) - it may end up taking the food off your table!

Wishing Francois a full and speedy recovery.

ORCA - but this is http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?go=1&lang=eng&vs=1&sc=91&wj=kmh&tj=c&odh=4&doh=22&fhours=180

shebeen - I just added the rest of what you were saying! roadies = wimps but clever ones mtb = hardcore but stupid all the same

I really enjoyed watching the stage yesterday! 1. Lance get dropped. 2. He even opens his mouth to breath. 3. He sweats. 4. He is not THE STIG he is human with or without the rocket fuel. 5. Their are far more pro out their in the current peleton who would prefer Lance not to win any races than to win them - it is an insult to them if he believe he is that much better them, and at his age, that he can come back to the sport and win races! 6. Conclusion - LA should have stayed retired!

Marius - and what has the power meter said?

Ryan and Olie, come on guys I know you were sprinting for the lower placing, but if not on your drops you are not getting max power in a sprint. So either you were putting on a show or you need to learn to sprint properly!

Porky - Most cyclist (sport cyclist - non commutors) fall into middle to upper class. In this sector of the ecc. one of this biggest mouthly expenses (not meant to be more than 25% of income) is bond repayment. In this cycle where interest rates have already come down by 3.5% it means on 1 million rand (in the western cape not much available still at less but price seem to start at 1.5 to 2 million for an avg home in the Southern Sub) at prime the bond holder is saving about R2500.00 per month, at bonds below prime its even more. On top of that with the price of car fuel having drop quite a lot in the the past 6 month quite a lot of money has already been put back in the pockets of the public. For example a person who is paying on a bond of say 2million who should have got about 2% below prime on that bond his saving per month are already over R6000.00 per month! But my point was more to do with price fixing and the fact that all business which borrows money is subjected to it as the gov. / reserve bank fixes the price of money to the banks which interm leads money to business / the public. Thus we all are subjected to price fixing as soon as we are involved at all with borrowing of money! I dont think this model will change so price fixing will always be here in some form!

Price fixing - yes the reserve bank drop the REPO rate today by 1%. Most business need money and thus most business suffer from price fixing. This intern should mean the rand will becomes stonger as overseas markets see RSA too is part of the globle ecc, and thus are more willing to invest in RSA. So its a double benefit easier for you guys to spend money and easier for the importers to buy stock at cheaper prices. Gov. should stop fixing the price of petrol etc before they look at the cycle industry - where even if they take 10% of the profits they may have to paying in certain cases!

Jan - as mentioned to you when I was in PE earlier this year I foresee 50% of Cycle shops country wide closing their door. As part of the bigger picture of world ecconomics. Some more thing have added to this prediction: 1. The weather at the Cape Argus cycle tour - normally after the Argus the shops are still doing good trade untill about now - but not this year - most people were just pissed off about thier time! Not to mention because of the slower times it ended up been thankfully a lot safer - so not to much crash business!! 2. Recession - SA is now in it! 3. Deflation - people will now ask themselves why buy now when in a months time it may be cheaper - so this winter could be very quite for the bike shops esp. now that it has become clear in the bike industry their is deflation. 4. Normally the rand does not improve as quickly as it has after a drop like it did last year (It does normally drop very quickly however). The last time round ?2002 it took about 18 months this time 3 to 4! But this impact on the depression side as thing come down in price - where as in the past their were improvement in the product i.e. 9 to 10 speed which meant items more or less stayed the same price instead of goig up! The other side of this is it seem possible to say with some degree of certainty that the trading range for the rand is between 6 and 12 rand to the dollar. A large range! So below 8 you buying on the cheap side and above 9 reduce the orders for the smallest stock holding possible. 5. Price fixing cases - which may amount to nothing! 6. The only plus side is what is happening to the interest rates and 1 more % today! So the bottom line is if your LBS is not their next summer don't be too suprized as if my prediction is correct their is only a 50% chance that it will be! Yes this impacts the importer and price again as their are less people to sell bike and thus less bike are sold and this in turn means less bike been ordered from china etc which means the Local importers may be put into a different price buying bracket and so the cycles starts all over! Probike is just part of the mix! Nothing wrong with that is their? We all trying do stay open till the next sunny days which will arrive eventually.

Rand/$ at 8.45 today if I add 30% to that I get R10.985 and the rand was trading at over 11.00 at the end of last year. So if your next shipment is coming at at 30% cheaper, droping your prices by 25% probably take into account the dollar base pricing and passes that onto the consumer! Probike still are probably making the same margins - and they need too! Do any of you guys work for free? Why should they! Who I do feel for is the LBS who have stock at the old prices - will Pro bike credit them for this or are they going to have to sell this at a loss? Remembering they would have at it on the floor for about 3 months - and that in itself cost! Or will this just mean more shops close?

IF CNBC is to believed it sound like SA may have electronic voting, as used currently in India for the next elections. This means that once voting stations are closed results should be out within 3 hours!

Well its seems most people have accepted they will have to Q! But why not as 2nd process in each booth have a template electronic pad which you put your unfolded voting paper on and make your mark which is recorded in ink and electronically? Thus allowing for the electronic unofficial vote to be announced almost immediately after all polling stations have close. While the official result would still be counted in the normal manor - with a bit of luck they would almost (95%) match! Two down side: 1. You would have to fold you own paper after casting your vote. 2. Their would need to be separate booths for the 2 different votes.

At no point have I said do away with the Qing / current system of voting - but I have suggested that the IEC should also develop an online vote system - I would expect that between 5 and 10 million people will would choose to cast their vote in this manner in 5 years time. If you don't have running water or if you may feel intimidated by an on line vote you will still be able to vote in the current manor.

And today elections went off 100% Ok. Fraud in one area, someone loosing all their polling stations stuff Qing after 9 and no doubt the list will go on!

Porky - thus the reason for registering online within the preceding months! Hopefully you have the brains to choose numbers you son and daughters do not know and can remember what you chose just a few months prior to the election. If not maybe your sons and daughters should be doing the voting in the family!

Um President - not likely! But I have asked winning time to look at system where in the Western Cape for funride you hopefully will be able to pitch and ride in your seeded categories without going to registration table for a helmet sticker. The Marshal will thus be making sure you have your Timing chip! Entry system to be decided - maybe a bulk online entry - replacing easy entries, online entries, or even sms entry, and maybe finally your credit card linked to your timing chip and as you go over the start mats you enter! So hopefully no more Qing at funrides if you a PPA member with a PPA number. Well we will see what comes of this in the future!

After Qing for about an hour today - why is it not possible to vote on line. Most thing these days are done online in a secure online environment - why not voting? Surely on voter registration days you should also be given the opportunity to choose to vote online? To write a secure program of this nature is certainly not impossible one would think, involving your name, ID no, then your user name and password like most banks have - that 4 items most banks have 3! Naturally providing a cell no and email address would be necessary thus enabling sms voting! Your ID no would need to be the key and would only allow 1 vote - sort of like a once of payment on internet banking When registering - this should be done online too - like with the CSA licensing a site map should come up and thus put you in your correct area! But if you live overseas you only would get to vote for the National vote. If this were to be implemented well the down side - would their need to be a holiday for voting day? The up side - I think far more people would vote and surely for all the people who travel life would be a lot easier no to mention the guys who are now allowed to vote who live overseas!