LexieB

Hey Bike Hubbers, I’m appealing to any kind hearted gautengers with a spare large frame roadie they wouldn’t mind lending me for a little bit. The bf wants to get into road cycling (currently only has mtb) but hasn’t got the cash to buy right now. He’s trying to keep up with me on the road on his mtb but it’s proving to be too difficult. Bike will be looked after better than most children (our bikes and trainers have their own room in our flat and nothing that could potentially scratch them is allowed anywhere near them). My bikes are my babies! Obviously not fussy about bike type/specs as long as it fits him. Will really appreciate any help offered!

Hey Pengolian! If you haven’t come ride yet, I’ve just started riding again after having covid so am building up nice and easy again and live just down the road from Bryanston. Also looking for people to ride with cos I don’t feel safe on my own. Give me a shout if you’re still looking! Cheers

It's definitely less than ideal and I'm not overly comfortable with it myself. But I've been battling to find people to rode with that are at the same level as I am while I build up to a point where I can ride with a club. I take all the precautions I can though and BF always knows where I am, what route I'm riding, when I start and when I should be finished. But I'll be grateful for some riding buddies! Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk

Hi Rouxle, I also only started cycling recently, with a triathlon basis in mind. I'm not quite up to joining the more serious training groups yet either, but often ride from Grass Roof on my own. I'm keen to join you if you like?

Thanks so much for the feedback guys! I'm going to order the Holdfast now

Has anyone had any experience with this tow-mount bike carrier? I just need something simple to transport my bike out to where I train, and on the odd occasion, on a weekend away. I'm specifically looking for a tow ball mounted carrier because I want to avoid the hassles and potential scratches etc of any other strap mounts etc. (going onto a sedan, so I don't want to strap things to the boot) It's come down to the Holdfast or the Thule, which are pretty much the same price. Ordinarily, I would just go for Thule because I know the brand, but I want to use my eBucks to buy it (because I'm poor and don't really have any other option!), and the Holdfast is the only one I can get this way (via Takealot) So my question is this: is it a decent carrier that will hold my bike and do it's job, or is it not going to be as reliable/steady as the Thule? Thanks in advance for any advice!

Want some active advertising in PE? [emoji1] Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk

Thanks! I think maybe it's the angle of the photo - I had a professional setup at my bike store and I am comfortable on it so far! Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk

Lurch, it's just that good Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk

Am I going to have to move province and join a club to get the right clothing now? My mom tells me I am.... [emoji1] Haha well I was going for the white. They had nothing with blue but I figured the white looks cool, and provided I don't bail off the bike, people shouldn't really see the yellow! That's my story and I'm sticking to it [emoji1]

Right! See now why I was so set on this bike? It was made for me! If it is not the exact right shade of blue, there will be problems....

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! I'm not certain how to respond to that without violating terms of service, but I will just say that he knows how grateful I am.... I will neither confirm nor deny this, but be prepared for any variety of unplanned events, just in case I honestly cannot remember ever being as happy as I was in that moment - I full on stood there and cried! (dramatic girl scene, Act 1, scene 2 - a positive drama) He is available for tutoring Monday and Thursday nights to help improve current boyfriends' skills; lesson fees available on application! Hold your horses! I had to go and buy pedals and shoes - but I did ride yesterday! Check it out at the end of this post Thanks! I write as a hobby and did a little writing in my previous job, but haven't made anything more serious of it thus far. I have considered it though! Every day of the week after this!! And the fact that he can actually happily disclose this is even more surprising considering how anti he was when I first started riding - he swore he wouldn't be involved and that he wouldn't buy any bike related things! He has slowly come to the dark side (although I don't think there'll be any tandem bikes in our future ) I went out pedal and shoe shopping on Monday and finally got on the new bike yesterday. All I can say is WOW! I am absolutely in love with this bike! It is a dream to ride, I'm at least ten thousand times quicker on it than on my borrowed bike (me, exaggerate? Never...), and it is just all round amazing (and as an added bonus, I didn't die on my first attempt at cleats!) I know, I know; pictures or it didn't happen..... So here you go Aaannnnd my shiny new pedals and shoes

One fateful day in February, I borrowed a road bike from a friend and got on a bicycle for the first time since I was about twelve years old, and obviously got completely hooked (how could I not??) Since then, I have been searching for the perfect bike to call my own, patiently waiting for The One. After many months of trolling the Hub and various bike shops, I finally found the perfect bike this week, for sale by Hubber G.MAC. This was it; it was a great brand, in mint condition, full carbon, only been ridden three times, and best of all (yes I am this shallow), it was in my riding colours. I had to have this bike. I casually messaged G.MAC (he couldn't know how desperate I was for the bike, I had to leave room to haggle him on price!), and after a few messages back and forth, confirming its availability, weight, etc, I was sure. This was the bike I was going to buy. I had been sharing my excitement with my boyfriend the whole way through our discussions, sending him screenshots of every reply I got from G.MAC, so that he could be sure that I wasn't over exaggerating about how amazing this bike was (I have been known to up-play something because it was turquoise, or a black horse with a white face), and he agreed that yes, this was a cool bike, and I should find out if I could go and see it. So, with another casual message, I asked if I could go and check it out, only to be told by G.MAC that the bike had in fact been sold, sorry. Man alive, the scene that ensued after this was one out of the most dramatic teen film you've ever seen. I'm protesting to anyone who would listen about how the world is against me, I've lost the bike that was made for me, the seller didn't even tell me that anyone else was interested, bla bla bla. I'm angry, defeated, and crying like a little girl, horrified that this could happen. So after a few days of sulking and refusing to even look at my current bike, I decide that it will be ok, I'll find a better bike, I guess... And so I restart the process of trolling, half-heartedly looking at ads and forwarding links to a more knowledgeable riding buddy for his opinion, but not getting overly excited about anything really. And then, yesterday happened. "What??" I hear you ask. "What happened??" You see, yesterday was my birthday (or as I prefer to say, I leveled up). After allowing me a sort of sleep in (sleeping past 6am is a rare occurrence lately), BF wakes me up and drags me out of bed, insisting that it's my "Hep Bethday" and I absolutely have to come and open my present. And so, half asleep, I stumble downstairs, where I am informed that I have to "help carry the present out of the garage; it's very heavy and is sitting on the work-bench." Right, so now I'm totally confused - but heavens help him if it's a washing machine... So into the garage we go, and standing there in the middle of the room...... is my bike I kid you not, the bike that I had so fallen in love with and had cruelly ripped away from me was standing in the middle of our garage! Apparently one of the screen shots I had sent my BF had G.MAC's number in it, and the two of them snuck around, fed me lies, and successfully pulled off the absolute best birthday that I have ever had! So, to G.MAC and my wonderful BF, although I NEVER condone sneaking around, and this doesn't mean it's ok to do it in future, on this occasion, I thank you both whole heartedly for sneaking around!! So I am now the proud owner of a beautiful GT full carbon road bike, and I will stop and tell anyone who will listen just how wonderful it is (this without having actually ridden it yet - I only just bought pedals for it now and the wind is currently howling at 65kmh and I value my life too much to venture out in cleats for the first time in this) I got my first pair of cleated shoes and proper pedals today, and had the bike setup for me, so watch this space to hear about breaking my cleat virginity, because I'm sure that will be an adventure likely coupled with a few nasty roasties!

Hey, hubbers! So I'm currently living the dream and traveling the UK and Europe, and I thought I'd share with you an experience from yesterday - Boris Biking in London. For those that don't know, Boris Bikes are basically just public bikes that you can hire out in London - they have little bike depots all over the city, and you just pop your Pound in and hey presto, you have a bike for the day! But not the kind of bike we're all used to. Quite far from it actually... It's what I like to think of as a Lady's bike - the kind of Lady that would be in a Jane Austen novel. It has a big cushy seat, high handlebars, and a little basket in the front. So, being used to a road bike, this was veeerrrry different! It also only has three gears, all of which are illogical, ranging between 1: spinning without going anywhere; 2: pedaling and noticing a bit of contact, and 3: super-stiff-pedal-for-days-to-get-momentum. This took a lot of getting used to, but once I got the hang of it (basically as you start off you need to be in 1st, logically, but then in a matter of 3 or 4 rotations of the pedals, go up to 3rd and just stay there until you stop), it was great fun. Pedaling merrily away, feeling like Fancy McFancy Pants, I had an awesome day exploring London by bike. London motorists are amazing when you're on a bike. I'm marginally terrified of riding in traffic at home, and as such tend to go out to remote coastline routes to ride far away from any vehicles, so imagine my fear when hopping onto a bike in the middle of one of the busiest roads city in the world. But, with Londoners' politeness and bike sense, this fear slipped away in a matter of minutes. I had my own cycle lane, even on the busy main roads, with cycle lanes between the vehicle lanes so that you're able to change over when you need to turn across an intersection. There are cycle boxes at every traffic light, putting cyclists in front of the cars, so that you can head off first and they can see you. They even go so far as to anticipate what you are going to do! Occasionally, bus lanes and cycle lanes merge, which means inevitably, a bus is going to pull over and stop in your way to collect passengers. So of course you need to pull out into the traffic lanes. Now in SA, this would probably result in you landing yourself in hospital and hosting a memorial service for your dearly departed bike. Not in London. Motorists see a bus stopping with cyclists behind it, and either slow down to an almost complete stop, or move over into the next lane, so that the cyclists can pull out without being knocked down. You can trust in this so much that I noticed most cyclists not even checking over their shoulder before pulling out. These little "Lady Bikes" are such fun to ride, and an absolutely brilliant way to explore the city. It's also a great way to people-watch - you see some strange things from the vantage point of the middle of the road! I've officially caught the Boris Bike Bug, and will be keeping an eye out for them on my travels, as they are in a number of European cities. To anyone heading overseas, I'd definitely recommend you try it out! If I find any more on my travels, I'll update you on my experiences or if you're interested, you can follow my blog and see what I've been up to - http://bit.ly/29ZpDvH

I did, and didn't find anything. Best I can come up with is that my tyre was a bit soft on my last ride, and given that the tube was quite old, going over a stone or something pinched it? There was quite a lot of gravel on the roads when last I rode

I'll bet Lurch is just dying for some more reading material, so here you go Picture the scene: 5am Tuesday morning. The air is crisp and the sun not up yet. Our resident owl is hooting merrily away, and I'm wheeling my bike up the driveway, stoked for my first ride for the week I hop on and pedal my way to a nice smooth momentum, and life is great. And then, a strange feeling in the bike comes up. Something at the back isn't right. And what is that sound? Hop off, check my tyres. And lo and behold, the back one is flatter than the pancakes I made on the weekend! Not to worry though, for I have my pump strapped to my bike And so I begin to pump up the tyre.... And some more... And then some.... But alas, the air is going in and straight back out again! seems I have a puncture.... Now I'm only a couple hundred meters from home, so rather than fiddle around in the dark, I wheel my way back. So I get home and give up, deciding that by the time I get this sorted out, I won't have time to ride and make it to work in time. A very grumpy Lexie then grumbles her way through the day, determined to sort out the problem that night. And of course, things don't go my way, and I am overwhelmingly busy that night, so the tyre remains untouched. *cue the light at the end of the tunnel* After finally finding some time, at 9pm last night, I learnt how to change a tube, and successfully installed a brand spanking new one in the rear tyre, after finding the nasty little puncture in the old tube, which was generally the worse for wear (which, to be fair, was probably a hundred years old in any case, so no harm there) Achievement Unlocked: Replace tyre tube So now I've added another technical ability to my range of bicycle skills, and had a fantastic ride on a flawless bike this morning! #happiness

Oh cool, I'll see if they have anything. I didn't even know that was something that could be done I'll give you beer in any case, dehydration is a serious risk! How would one do this? Like what part of the used beer is being returned? The bit left in the can or the bit that's already been consumed....?

Definitely won't make that mistake. I am so pedantic when it comes to buying gear for anything! (Read: I'm annoying as hell and check everything too many times when I spend money) Ok so what I'm taking from this is: 1) no test rides on anything until I know I can buy the bike 2) avoid Italians at all costs? (this is not the first time this has been suggested to me, although for different reasons...) When I got this current bike set up they put in a longer stem and moved the saddle back - I couldn't believe the difference that made! So I think what I'll do, if I do make it to the bike shop this weekend, is get their advise on which size to look for, check out what they've got, and try not to spend money that I don't have on buying a bike right then and there (as I have been known to do with other things. I'm the one that goes out for groceries and comes home with a dog and a new car)

Hey cool that looks awesome! I need to check what size I need, that may be a liiiiitle bit too small. I'm 174cm?

Haha wow, is it that bad?? I'm basically borrowing it indefinitely; the owner doesn't need it back anytime soon. But ideally (I think from both sides) it should be short-term thing as far as possible. I'll try to buy my own ASAP - I was looking at getting one mid-year-ish - all depends on finances though. I'll start looking more seriously at what second hand bikes are available, and check out the lower priced ones at the bike shop. Like I mentioned earlier on in the thread, there are two there that I quote liked (can't remember the details of them now though). I was hoping to pop in there this weekend anyway to get some stuff, so will chat to the guys then. Any suggestions on what to try get or what to avoid?

Drink enough beer and the ugly chicks become mighty attractive pretty quick! (Double score - kind AND beer! What more could you want??)

Considering I'm borrowing the bike, I'm not overly keen on spending too much money fixing it up/adding new parts when it isn't going to be mine long terms. Are all of these parts that I could take off when I get my own bike and add to that? Otherwise maybe my own bike will have to come sooner than planned.... (at least it's a viable excuse!? ) Thanks for the info and useful diagram! As for payment, it will have to be beer and an awesome view from our bar!! Possibly a good thing Lurch isn't PE based?

Not sure if these are of any use?

Thanks Eugene, I've messaged you

Thanks for the advice