Andyr249

The whole loop of 57km odd is great training for 94.7! You getting in about the same ascent as 94.7 so it is good. Love that place!

I meant the official one.

You lot are obviously not riding the World Fun Ride Champs on the Sunday.

Looks and sounds great! One day!

The Garmin is highly customizable as well. 3 screens with 8 data fields but many many choices of data to display. A mad amount! From really useful data to very nice to know to just plain fun data. You would need many many more pages than three to display it all. The Garmin you can set up for use on three bikes each their own speed/cadence sensor (which is one sensor and wireless so very clean on the bike). It is ANT+ so you can even use a power meter - Powertap, SRM, Quarq etc. I would really recommend the 500. 705 is bigger and with maps or so which would be a waste for me. The 500 is small and light and most importantly functionaly perfect for me. I have never thought that it would be nice if it could do this or that.

P1: MTN P2: MTN P3: MTN I is better to have him sprinting for you than against you. MTN's chances of the win have just gone up.

I agree. RIP Bevan and the others.

Even though some may look similar to say Raleighs the construction and materials make the Bottecchia's much better. These are awesome frames! The finishing is top class!

Kieran invited me to see these frames after work today. They are honestly, nothing short of amazing! Definitely my next bike will be a Bottecchia. Once you see how amazing these frames in reality rather than just pictures you will understand. The workmanship is outstanding and the finishing is just perfect. At the prices they are the value for money is excellent! And mtb'ers, I saw the brochure of the mtb frames and you guys are in for a real treat!!!!

Each timed race should qualify for seeding with some grading applied. How does the system work then if in the most recent result one has a mechanical or crash? Would that rider's seeding drop down a few groups? You also don't want the situation where seeding varies too greatly.

I had a Polar S725 and compared to my Garmin it was much more "work". Since April I have been using the Garmin Edge 500. Put strap on, switch Garmin on and off I go. No pick up problems and only ever had one spike.

iRob has a motorised bike! The UCI are looking in the wrong place!

I agree. All races should be used, not just only races which have been timed by one company. Personally I think that the current categories is not too bad. All we really need in order to get up to international standards is to refine the U23/Elite races. The categories are fine, but the U23/Elites need to race longer than 150km. Bring that more inline with international races and it will be much more beneficial. Also make that category open for all comers. If you think you can race 150km plus as an individual whatever your age then you should be allowed to. That is going to get more South Africans into international racing, not changing some Vets categories. Of course the system needs some tweaking, like using all races for seeding all other races instead of just from Racetec, but to change the entire system is like the government changing the road names. Very nice but ultimately a waste of precious money that could be spent else where.

Fascinating! And this has what to do with a group ride? You want to organise a group there so that Lion's can attack cyclists?

I was once riding an easy trail I had ridden tens of times before without any problems. This particular time I got it a bit wrong in the one corner and went down. Luckily I was wearing my helmet. What happens if you riding along on the trail well within your technical ability and you just slightly offline because of a bit of debris and you hit the deck? Helmets are sometimes a pain, especially in summer with the heat, but much less of a pain than you would have without one!

For a race to be CSA sanctioned and possibly be used as part of one national seeding index a race (the organisers) will have to offer the Elite race distance of say 150km plus. The main thing is developing Pro racing to International level. There is not much need to develop "funrider" cycling apart from educating new funriders on safety and providing safe racing enviroments.

I agree. They should do most of the development in the Elite category. Make the Elites (and that is anyone who thinks they can keep up or wants to race with them and not those new regulations with teams rubbish) race 150km plus distance. Start them later like in European/International races. But keep the rest mostly how it currently is. Leave the vets categories as they are for the riders who want a slightly more serious racing structure as well as the open categories. Why not even make an open category at SA champs? The more categories you have the more competitions for various riders and each rider can find where they like and are able to race. Changing the various categories is not going to develop cycling to International levels, bringing racing more in line with International races in terms of difficulty and distance is going to develop SA pro ranks.

Sorry to hear! That is terrible! My uncle has been hijacked. They were posing as cops and pulled him over. Put him in the boot and drove around for two hours.

What about sending an email to SRAM?

There are a few races on the calendar that manage to give the pro's about a 150km race while the rest of us race a 100km. More races organisers need to do this. That is how you are going to develop riders to higher standards who want to be ride at pro level. As for congestion etc. why not keep it as it currently is for the serious-fun riders and the fun-fun riders and then start the pro's late morning instead of when it is still dark. Most Euro races start late morning anyway. Keep the present system but change it slightly and make the pro racing more in line with international pro racing. For the rest the present system is fine.

Any courier. Speed services (SAPO), DHL, RAM, Berco. Your local postnet could arrange it but ther normally use Speed services (SAPO) and add a bit of commission. You could ride it down!

Well they are administraters. To qualify as an administrater you have to do something that doesn't make sense and listen to nobody. The bigger the chaos you cause the better. Look at all levels of administraters from municipalities to provincial governments to national government to sporting bodies (rugby, cricket, soccer, athletics etc). I still don't think this is the way to develop the sport. Longer races for the Elites and opening it to anyone who can/wants to ride in Elite is a better way to go. If there is some talented riders the pro teams can notice them and sign them. They will get more opportunity and exposure that way which will lead to more riders moving to pro teams and from there to the international stage.

Why not just get the Elites to do longer distanced races like there are in some of the races. Then you keep the vets categories for those who want to race in teams and for individuals who are able to ride at that level. Then you have the current open groups which are ability based and not age based. In effect the current system seems to at least provide a nice spread of riders, from elite to vets to open. The vets categories seem to have a fair number and won't be reduced as it seems like it will under a new system. Open categories are full as well and their numbers won't swell like if the new system is used. From what I read riders with the ability to ride in Elite will be dropped a few groups and this will created an even bigger imbalance between riders in a group. While there may be some flaws in the current system, every system will have some or other flaw. If you try regulate it too much then you will slow down development. I just don't think that the wheel is broken enough to need fixing yet.

Donkey cart?? Get them to pack it in a box from a bike shop and courier it down to you.

Sounds bizarre! They should just keep it like it is currently but make it so if you want to ride in Elites and Vets you need a licence. Open categories should not need licences. In all the years of riding in open and having a cyclosport licence I have only been asked for it once at registration.