dexterdent

This website should help you figure out relatively objectively what the best option should be: https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/road-bike-reviews?orderby=pr That list is sorted by puncture protection score. Seems to point to this one: https://mellowvelo.co.za/products/pirelli-cinturato-velo-tlr-700-x-26c-1 but the conti options also work well (just hate the grip of the gatorskin). I would also seriously consider tubeless (there is a good thread on here somewhere) - once I got my GP5000's sorted (TL and S-TR mix due to reasons) my punctures went right down. There is a bit of admin as you need to regularly top up sealant (I find every two months seems to work) but that also gets easy with practice. Also, one person's opinion means almost nothing, which I why the website above is a good guide. EDIT: OK, maybe @The Ouzo's opinion means more than nothing becuase he beat the website to the same answer

Look, while out on my MTB I tend to always greet, and when passing on the road as well. I'll even greet the person on the other side of the road with a taxi and a red bus between us for what it's worth. So at the risk of sounding like a boks to some of you, I think having an expectation that other people greet back is probably not fair. Who decides what is common decency / good manners? Perhaps someone is deep in thought processing the week's work drama (I sure do that sometimes). Perhaps someone is outside, tired of people, and wants a break from social expectations? Maybe the person has had a screaming / demanding baby in their ear for the last 7 hours and just wants some peace and quiet for a while in nature? Could it maybe not be "bad manners" to interrupt that? So my opinion is go ahead, be your friendly self, but as soon as you start getting annoyed by people who might not feel the same as you about things (and whose lack of response certainly has no negative effect), then that's on you, not them.

Check @Furbz post history - the site was done for maintenance and you can PM them for orders - although this was in June.

All of the climbs are available all the time during July (or during the TDF, not sure). Just use the challenge banner to select. I've done 5 out of the 8 and planning to do all - did the Tourmalet twice today as it was too wet outside and I'm tired of punctures. I don't care about the lack of scenery as I watch youtube on one half of the screen anyway

It was for significantly less time though, so not sure it's comparable. Looking at the spreads on the graphs in the lanternrouge article I would rather say that both were closer to exceptional but not top 30 all time (like Jonas was on stage 5). On another note, the JV domestiques are just incredible so far. They are destroying the peleton at will at the moment, and UAE have no answer other than relying on Pogacar being magical.

Interesting reading: https://lanternerouge.com/2023/07/05/jonas-vingegaard-skyrockets-on-marie-blanque-tour-de-france-2023-stage-5/ That was an all-time great climb from Vingegaard (estimated at 6.92W/kg for ~21m). Pogacar beat his previous bests on that climb significantly, which to me indicates more that Vingegaard is on a completely different climbing level right now to everyone else, rather than Pogacar being off his best. Disclaimer: Very hard to compare GC climbs between different days/years, as there are so many variables, but interesting to look at nonetheless

Hopefully Pogacar riding away from them

To be honest any of those would be cool, but I went for the Karoo 2 for my own very specific (and probably not even 100% correct) reasons: 1. Predictive climb, whereas on Garmin you need to be following a route 2. Free global maps versus Garmin only with one area 3. I like supporting smaller brands and find value in having something different than the rest 4. Garmin ecosystem is a bit like Apple - once you get in, it tends to be amazing as long as you stick inside the ecosystem 5. At this special price, the Karoo is cheaper than all the Garmin offerings, while being comparable in many ways to the top spec Garmin units (except for battery life, where Garmin wins hands down) 6. Supposedly the screen is amazing, but not a real differentiator for me

Hammerhead Karoo 2 on special for 259 USD (+30USD for delivery to SA, +~R950 duties fee). Getting mine early next week after ordering Tuesday. EDIT: just received it- modern logistics is legit magical. https://www.hammerhead.io/ Looks like you can use the referral program to get a free HRM included (https://www.hammerhead.io/pages/refer-a-friend) which I unfortunately did not see before ordering.

This thread has made me very glad that I have a 4iiii power meter - at last some proper customer service. I really liked the troubleshooting tips, simple steps yet detailed enough to cover any easy fixes. Well done 4iii.

Loved how yesterday was basically De Plus Vs Kuss vs Vine, with the leaders hanging on mostly. Is Roglic still slightly off his best or have G and Almeida just stepped up? Hoping that the looming TT does not damper the action today, there are no comfortable gaps in the top 3.

Just about 516 sub-3's - much better than last year I think (~350), but not quite the ~1100 odd from 2020 if I recall correctly

I started at the back of 1C (not doing that again) and had a "fun" time trying to get back up to the leaders. We started gathering slower 1B and even 1A riders and by Fish Hoek it was one of the bigger groups I have ever seen. Lots of hard braking and shouting, but no serious crashes I could see. So nervous I only touched my bottle for the first time at 45 mins. Very true that you start to recognize the dangerous riders and avoid them after a while. On Smits the group was so big it was pretty hard to pass going up, but it luckily broke up a bit and felt way safer from there on. Nice little bits of bridging to groups that I can clearly see in my power data On Suikerbossie I was alone going down, and then caught the tail end of a strong small group, who then went on and gobbled up stragglers to the end at speed. Came in at a PB ~3h10 (Racetec have my start group wrong). Pretty much a great day out, thanks to all the people pulling groups along!

I remember downloading the racetec data after the 2019 race just to try and prove how hard it was relative to 2018 - if I recall correctly the average and median times increased by about 20 minutes, and we went from just over 4% sub-3 to something like 0.5% (~110 people). I think proper analysis between many years will show the weather probably has a greater effect on your sub-3 chances than your seeding group, even though both strongly correlate. I find it interesting in the 2021 results that the lower whisker (indicating the top performers in some way) of each group from ~1F to 3C is quite similar, perhaps indicating the "pretty well trained but not seeded well" ceiling for normal people?

I replaced my GP5000 TL with a GP5000 S TR. It's not cheap. I just could not get a sidewall hole (that I got on the first ride) to plug and remain closed for a reasonable length of time. Tried plugs, inside patches, even superglue but no luck. The new tyre was pretty tough to get on the rim, but once on, it seated without even needing sealant. I've gone with the muc-off sealant this time on recommendation from my LBS, so lets see if that works better than orangeseal (which is still in my front tyre and working great). The tubeless conversion in terms of comfort and speed feels significant, so let's hope this one stays good for a while.

Yeah if I lived closer (and they sorted out number collections) I probably would do them too. Maybe it's good to take a break and focus on something else for a while - my last couple of MTB outings made me miss dirt a lot again

I did quite a few of the Durbanville / Paarl races the last couple of years and mostly got bored of the routes. The races all seemed very well organized and attended, but for me the car / other cyclist risk along with the admin of having to pickup a number and drive to Durbanville for the race itself outweighs the joy I got from the race. So I tried to figure out where the joy from the race came from, and I think for me I've gone from finishing 100km being an accomplishment, to having to do it fast to feel good about them. That's probably why the one-tonner last year was so much fun, because I could be happy with just finishing again.

It's the second time this has happened (last time was a cheaper one so was willing to take the risk).

It was standard, but I did have to pay extra for a bulky item (it was like 50 GBP, but a trainer is pretty substantial so seems fair). It was with DHL and I got full tracking so maybe because it was "Bulky" I automatically got priority tracked? There were genuinely some really good deals on there, so was able to get a few things I need by waiting for this. My purchase (including a couple of other parts, and the delivery fee) was R8662.62 and my fee to DHL was R1411,25 (includes a R200 flat fee for admin). I tried to be careful and not include things that have duties (like clothing).

Oh, and just got delivered in 5 days (including the weekend). Blows my mind that this is possible.

I got an Elite Direto from chainreactioncycles, that will have a landed cost here of ~R8.5k. Typically costs more than double that, and even on special I could only see it at R13.5k.

Has there been a recorded case of a Cape Town cyclist being bitten by a venomous snake? I've done quite a bit of mtb-ing and hiking around Cape Town and only ever saw one snake (bunny hopped over the tail of a definitely cobra probably mole snake at Bloemendal). I suppose if enough people with cameras cycle through an area that has snakes enough times, you are likely to get a good amount of pictures which makes it seem like it's a common occurrence? Or maybe I am blind. Or lucky.

Thanks @bleedToWin for making me show up - this was a really fun day

Easiest money I ever spent

There's a good chance this is the post that makes me actually show up