dexterdent

Yeah I tried watching a bit but it felt like this: "There goes Specialized Rider XX into the John Deere corner. They used Paris Roubaix and Flanders as a nice warmup for this Bass Pro pothole section. That pedal stroke was sponsored by Haagen Dazz and should be good for the upcoming sprint point, presented by Dairy Queen." I'm surprised they didn't make the riders stop for a few minutes to fit in some more ads and a halftime show. I count 45 sponsors on their website!

Slightly off topic, but is there any other shoe you would recommend? I'm looking for something light, 2-bolt, hopefully breezy, for road and gravel. Googling basically gets me to the Recon and Shimano RX-801, but if there are other options I should be looking at I'd be very happy to save some bucks.

Yeah had some 1A plonker shouting that in the Bakoven area as well - easy to ignore when you are likely the third 1B group catching and passing him when he runs out of wheels to suck again.

I can't wait and like every year it will be awesome/horrible depending on weather/mechanicals and I'll still love it and be back the year after. I'm still in the "do it as fast as you and your wallet can allow" phase, but have done enough playing around with the stats to know that your time on the day is mostly a function of the weather and your seeding, so I don't let mildly arbitrary time targets take away from my enjoyment (or sense of progression). For me, I get more value from trying to finish as well as possible in my group.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. #bikemaths

Yeah it's an Evolve Cima with their inhouse Kreuza handlbars. I have Ultegra DI2 on it, Lun Routte SE wheels, will be running either Favero power pedals or a 4iiii crank arm. GP5000 S TR tubeless tyres. I'm not the most experienced at high-end frames like this, but I have seen a few of them in shops and this frame compares very favourably in terms of the quality of workmanship. Will only be able to take it out on the weekend. I got it from Evolve directly (i.e. from China). The experience was great - support was fast and knowledgeable, and even added a free aero bottle and cage (which I might not end up using). I ordered and paid on 26 Jan, was kept up to date until it got shipped through FedEx (~25 USD extra) on 6 Jan, and it got here on the 16th. Tax was less than expected and prepaid through the FedEx portal. My one worry as choosing the right handlebar specs - I spent a bit of time on geometry geeks. In hindsight I should probably have gone with a bikefit at a location that has an SL8 (they are very similar) and then used that to choose the handlebar, but it looks like my math worked out. ECC did the build very quickly and at a very reasonable price: And here it is back at home: I keep staring it it (I work from home and it sits behind me in my office...).

I'm getting a new bike! Got a good price on an Ultegra DI2 groupset, so found the perfect frame for me - packaging seriously good and looks amazing.

Looks like many local suppliers, and some of them are not really that much more expensive than aliexpress (and avoids SAPO, which has up to last year been great for me but seems to suck now).

Maybe not available on Temu, but certainly on Aliexpress (and even some local shops). The Xoss X2 heart rate monitor solved all of my HRM-related issues which include: 2 Wahoo Tickr's broken within a year, didn't even bother with warranty the 2nd time Sigma HRM broken within 2 years Garmin strap made about 6 months, new Temu straps outlasted the unit itself I think that most HRM's can't survive battery replacements for whatever reason, and as such the internal battery of the Xoss solves it - mines been going strong for 1.5 years.

They seem slightly cheaper on the direct Favero site, but I'd compare courier costs. You should only have to pay VAT on 110% of the value (i.e. 16.5% VAT), no duties as far as I know.

I bought something from Forkmods in Australia, and unfortunately they used SAPO. Suffice to say it has now been stuck at JIMC for a month and customer service just says "they are experiencing some delays, no ETA". Pity, because previously SAPO has not really given me problems. TEMU has been much better. I think the lack of itemised invoice is due to the way they bring packages into the country - so far it feels like I tend to pay less duties/VAT on every package than expected.

I'm pretty far down the rabbit whole of getting myself a new road bike: https://www.evolvebicycles.com/product-category/frame/ The frame size is pretty easy to choose, but I need to make sure I choose the correct stem/seatpost. My current roadbike does not have nice published geometry data (I have measured it, but lower confidence), but my gravel bike, on which I have also done a bikefit and am very happy with, does. So if I compare the two I get this: https://bikeinsights.com/compare?geometries=67ce8e5aaa8c97001b264019,5fa21a950cb1bf00179dcf19, The similar reach implies to me that I should get the same stem (i.e. 80mm)- it's a one piece so I have to get this right first time. I suppose there could be slight differences in the handlebar shape too which might impact this. The harder part for me is the seatpost choice: Any advice on how to choose this? My Rondo seatpost has about 170mm of exposed post from the clamp to the rails, and the seat is clamped mostly to the front part of the rails (i.e. the seat is relatively further back from the handlebars). It's a Easton EC90 20mm offset post. I'm not asking for anyone to do the work for me - mostly interested in how to figure this out.

This is a very useful context setting. It seems to me that we don't have a cycling versus motorist issue, we have an everyone versus bad/drunk drivers issue. In the many years I have lived and driven my car in Cape Town I have never been pulled over for a breathalyzer*. If this means they only pull over people who drive carelessly and then test them, it sends the message you can drive drunk as long as you drive safely (which of course is not possible). I suspect spending R180m on more roadblocks and random testing might save more lives than an N2 wall. *FYI, I don't really drink alcohol, and certainly not when driving.

Interesting - my Lun Routte road wheels also need bearing replacement a little more frequently than I would expect (it's pretty cheap though). Wonder if there is a more long term solution? The bike shop (who I trust completely) said they were pretty small bearings so that might be the reason.

This accidentally got added to my basket when I needed to buy a new freehub body for my road bike: Got delivered in 8 days from order from China.