Andyr249

Awesome bike Stringbean. Great choice! I really love mine. Sorry to hijack but this is for God1: Hijack off.

Looks fantastic!

I used to have Shimano Ultegra. Middle of last year I switched over the SRAM Red and I absolutely love! Good choice to go for Rival.

Thanks MadScientist, I ammended it. Gasping, that was funny!

You serious Shifter?

If you happen to fall with you foot still clipped in, chances are it will clip out during the fall anyway.

Same with me. I have never had any tyre problems.

Great post Slave! I think we should all try and apply this solution no matter what we are on the road. It is certainly the cheapest and easiest option.

Hmmmmm. Interesting! But just as I thought. Only once I make comments like I did do I get a response. Non-friendly ones as well judging by your last sentence. May I kindly and in a friendly manner suggest to you, Cradleresident, that you go and read the thread. You would then see that I have posted here and there throughout the thread which means I have obviously read it. And, from reading the thread, it appears to me that the solution that you talk of is running cyclists over. Indeed, you have been trying this "STARTING AS LONG AGO AS 3 YEARS". It also appears as if your "solutions" are one sided and contain some degree of violence and aggression. I have a question for you based on the following scenario: You are driving in your car, say to the shops. You drive out your driveway and turn onto the public road in the cradle area. You drive along and a few kilometres further on you get stuck behind a slow moving truck (situation 1). After dealing with the truck you get to an intersection and want to turn left. But there is a car coming along and you can't safely turn. Without indicating the car turns left into the road you are in (situation 2). So then you are now on this road which is a busy road. As you approach another road a car turns left infront of you causing you to brake hard (situation 3). You are near the shops and the road is very busy around the shopping centre with a slight traffic jam. It is a double lane road. A taxi just stops without warning infront of you and as there are cars in the other lane you can't just go into that lane (situation 4). I could include numerous other scenarios but in the interest of time I won't. Now my question to you is this: How do/would you react or what do/would you do in each of those situations (situation 1, situation 2, situation 3, situation4)? It would be greatly appreciated if both you and Mr Ples could tell me what you would do in those situations (situations 1 to 4).Andyr2492010-01-19 05:19:53

Mr Ples, with all due respect, I am still waiting for replies to my two posts on page 32 amongst others. I have not engaged in calling you any names. I have tried to be civilised with you and engage in a civilised discussion. Yet you have chosen to ignore my civilised attempt to engage with you. You only seem to reply to name calling posts. Based on this it is clear that you and rest of the cradle residents are not serious about any solution to the issue. So while cyclists are trying to resolve the issue you clearly don't want to. How can there be a solution if you cradle residents don't want to try and find one?

Lots seem to be said about bringing the law into this. This is South Africa. Metro/SAPS etc have way better things to do than worry about cyclists riding in single file or two or three abreast. Should they rather direct their efforts, given that manpower is a huge problem, to finding the criminals who could very well murder cradleresident or mr ples in their beds tonight? Someone said something about contacting the local councillor and pushing for bike lanes. You can do that as much as you want but there is no money nor manpower to construct and maintain the cycle lanes. Look at road conditions in the town areas, they are not being maintained. So roads out in the rural areas such as the cradle will be even lower on the priority list! The best solution to to just be more patient and tolerant to other road users. I am sure that motorists will experience more "incidents" such as people cutting infront of you etc than will be caused by a few cyclists.

Sounds like the spruit is becoming as dangerous as the cradle!

Mr. Ples, you talk of a reaction. If I was riding as far left as I and not more than two abreast would I be "buzzed" or subjected to any aggressive, reckless or non-friendly action by any of the cradle residents? Without going into what really happened, lets take it that Mark and his 2 fellow riders were riding two abreast. Mr. X "buzzed" them for no apparent reason. Would every cyclist be subjected to this same treatment?

Firefox, I suspect that the actions of your "car group" were probably more of an inconvenice act and they thought that you were one of the cradle residents. They probably would not have done that if they knew otherwise. It is just one of the reactions and counter-reactions of this whole issue.

Everyone can go into whichever regulations and laws they want but what is written in the law can't take into account practical aspects that arise "on the ground". Example: Law says keep left. There is a big pothole or glass in the keep left area. The cyclist has to move towards the middle of the road to avoid that. The law can't take into account things like that or you will end up with 1 Act of 5000 pages! As such the most effective, cheapest and lasting solution will be a change of attitude to one of tolerance as well as a "gentlemen's agreement" to tolerate others. It is natural for people dislike certain things or how things are done etc but the fact is that we are all different and have to tolerate others differences. If we can do that then the whole issue will resolve itself. The Cradle Residents must just remember that most cyclists in the Cradle area are probably recreational cyclists (the Argus and 94.7 riders whose bikes gather dust for the rest of the year) who are not on the Hub and who probably not as "clued up" as the cyclists on the Hub.

Glad your ride was good and that you are enjoying your bike. It looks great!! Btw-nice couch!!

My condolences to the family. Trevor, thanks for informing us of the tragic event.

Looks like a crack. And the bike shops say it is a scratch?

I once had a girlfriend from Bloem. Not quite sure I agree with you though. Area looks great for MTB'ing!! Need to plan a trip!

So you are basically saying, just like cradleresident and mr ples, that you won't wait a few seconds until it is safe to pass a group of cyclists but you have no problem if it was a slow moving vehicle?

MarkU, there is actually very other place to ride where there are long, uninterupted strectches of road with not robot or stop street every few hundred metres. Cradleresident, CSA will probably be a waste of time. There is so much politics and issues going on with CSA at the moment. Why not try and involve other parties such as the clubs (Cyclelab and Club 100 come to mind) who use the area as well as places who offer cyclists a place to park? Maybe they could give out flyers or put up boards with mutually agreed upon appeals or "code of conduct" type of things. While there are some cyclists who are at fault, there are also some cradle residents who are at fault. The roads in the cradle are not as busy as some roads in more built up areas and I doubt that there would be bumper to bumper traffic. So waiting behind a few cyclists in order to pass safely would only take a few extra seconds. Do the cradle residents get as upset about getting stuck behind a truck going at a slow speed as they do about going slowly behind cyclists at slow speed? Cyclists pose less of a threat to cradle residents than the very real criminal elements that our country faces. As far as I understand it, from the posts by your "Mr. Ples", you have a whole civil protection thing set up. Are you not focussing on the wrong people? It is like the USA watching the UK while Old Osama goes in he back door and causes havoc. Surely more attention should be focused on that rather than cyclists? Shouldn't we all be more tolerant about our differences and accept them?