Polka Dot

Have to say that I've had the complete opposite experience with them. I've often been suprised by a discounted price once it's been rung up on the till. I once had a problem with a Suunto watch that I won at a race (not sponsored by any particular shop). Cape Union weren't interested and wanted to charge me the postage and 400 bucks handling fee to send it to the suppliers. I tried Due South and they simply sent it away and phoned me 2 weeks later to pick it up, fully replaired and no charge. One more good story; I had a pair of Salomon XA 3D shoes, that I used for adventure racing, trail running, triathlons etc. After about a year of heavy use, I noticed the lace on the one shoe was wearing thin. The speed lacing system doesn't allow one to just simply put on new laces, so I took them back to Due South and asked if there was anything they could do, ie. send them in for proper re-lacing by Salomon, which I expected to pay for. Their answer: Salomon shoes don't break, here is a brand new pair. Enjoy. And no, I don't work for Due South! Just had only good service there.

I don't see what the problem is...

Ja, I remember that. Kinda annoying because we were leading them for most of the race and knew we were going to beat them. Then with 20kms to go, they pass during a pit stop and end up beating us by 15mins!

Ah, I see. Point taken...

I haven't really ridden much in Lesotho, but the ride up from Himeville is a fantastic training ride with an awesome/scary descent back to the hotel. There was quite a bit of snow on the south facing peaks in Lesotho, so pack your snow tires!

Um, I suppose I don't really own the road... Ok, I'll change it to "My favourite ride"

Eish, didn't know there was a video section, so I just stuck in the next best thing...

40 views and nobody even agrees or disagrees....

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I know of a shop in KZN selling full carbon bikes, and I mean FULL carbon, everything down to the stem, handlebars, seatpost AND saddle, with full DuraAce gruppo, for around 20k. PM me if you want some more details.

I pick Phil and Paul or the SA guys over that Aussie commentator (Mathew Keenan?) any day!

Nope, had a bit of flu for a day or 2 over a month ago, been fine since.

Regarding calculating HR Max; I've never trusted any of those generic calculators. I've just taken the highest HR I ever reached in a race as my HR Max. I've done a few ramp tests on the spin trainer and the results seemed to correlate with racing.

haha! Already ruled out the cables and I don't think one gel an hour and a half earlier constitutes "too much caffeine". I'm still recovering from a broken leg and since I've started training again (+-5 months), I've focused more on spinning a high cadence than pushing a heavy gear. It's really wierd, but the last couple of races I've averaged over 90% Max HR for over 2 hours. Previously I would have associated that sort of average HR with a sprint Triathlon taking just over an hour.

No cables around, it's a pretty lonely climb...

I was out doing a couple of hills yesterday and on one particular hill that peaks at about 15% gradient, I was suprised when I looked down and noticed that I was sitting on 100% heart rate. Not that haven't reached this before, but usually when it peaks at 100%, it's at the end of an uphill sprint interval and I'm about to throw up The strange thing was that I actually felt pretty comfortable, well, not quite comfortable, but let's just say I could've picked it up even more, only I ran out of uphill. My HR monitor is working fine, so it wasn't an issue of a bad connection between the belt and my skin. My question is, can your maximum heart rate be elevated through training? I've always been under the impression that your max HR is fixed, just your ability to do prolonged efforts at a higher heartrate can be improved through training.

Also had the same problem. At first it seemed that the whole box had leaked, but after rinsing them off I found that it was only one that had to be discarded. If I get any now, I pull the plastic sealing off the box and check inside, before parting with any cash. I must say though that I've been using the new flask system for the last few races and I think it's awesome! Agreed, they are not the best at following up.

This has to be one of the hottest TT bikes ever

Pity the best stuff is missing from the poll. Maybe it's cos it's the best kept secret? BMax all the way!

I just got an email response from Supersport saying that they "will not be showing the Giro d Italia this year." Strange that they even mention "this year" because I've never seen any live coverage of the Giro on SS before. I guess it means that they've even withdrawn the 30min daily highlights show usually screened at 10pm. Very dissapointing...