SeaBee

Have them and love them. My ratchet strap on one shoe is a bit... difficult after a muddy ride, but suspect cleaning it out will help. FWIW - my road shoes are also Specialized - you'll struggle to get me into anything else!

The pedals may be angry because you call the peddles?! Shimano's all the way for me. They simply work. Maybe not the most fashionable, but what the heck. Occasional issue clipping in - but that's always been because of mud in the shoe, quick bang of the shoe against something and problem sorted.

Wwwwwowww.... Cool lookin' Enjoy - and ride like you stole it!

...and it climbs from about 120m to just short of 600m. (And the last bit is huge fun, because you always fly there...) This is from Wellington side.

I'm the wrong guy to ask.... Will give you a very biased answer without having been on either of those specific bikes.

Yep...

I have the SE Xperia Active. Got it esp to have something in future as well which I can ride with.

Android is not just Android. It depends on the phone as well. My phone is ANT+ compatible, so can just use my Garmin HR belt if I want to use the phone (more for online tracking than recording in my case).

Agreed! The only reason Ferrari got it wrong, is they went too early on their first stop - the super-softs lasted for longer than everybody thought. The nature of the beast - if you can get super-softs to last that long, then it's not on... Hmmm, but ja, the circuit is also lending it to low tyre wear with no long high-speed corners and lots of slow corners - and shorter high-speeds corners. So maybe very well thought out by the teams to actually try it on this circuit. It won't work everywhere. Just look at Alonso to see what happens if you get it ever so slightly wrong.

Just remember Jens lost a whole session's track time on the weekend - makes a big difference, esp with them using quite different setups due to their differing driving styles. (Which makes sharing info in the team semi-useless.) But the Hamster had this weekend by the scruff of the neck, period. It would have been wrong for anybody else to win. (And no, I'm not a Hamilton fan...)

Slow down before the turn, rear (feathered) during the turn. Front always either pulls you out of a turn or pitch you over. And look where you want to go, not where the roots lay in front of you! Best thing I did recently was to go to a skills course - you get plenty repetition of exactly this! Will advise it to anybody. Did not know above beforehand and my switchbacks (well, most turns!) were disasters - because I kept slowing down in the with the front brake.

Just let the rhythm of the new working environment settle. You'll soon find the times to get out again. But yeah, now it's a bit of a beach - have the same prob in that it's dark when I get home, so midweek rides a no-go. Even thinking of trying to take up jogging again, just to do something...

Mine is 2 1/2 years old (though I ride road as well) and *touch wood* no problems of that nature.

Pity about the second rain interruption - Djok had Rafa's head in a knot...

Richard, two things from me - whatever weight that may carry. I'm a bit shorter than you and my ergofit effective top tube length on my mtb comes to 59 - so I don't think you need to worry too much about a new frame! (since you've got 595mm now) Relax and go for the fit! Secondly - it may be a habitual thing. No matter how perfectly set up I am or what saddle I ride, I very often find myself on the tip of the saddle as soon as I'm "working hard". I am at the moment concentrating on working on that, but this may also be the case for you that it's not a fit thing, just a habit. Go get the (proper!) fitting. It'll easy the mind and you'll be amazed at the difference it makes. And, like many people said, a good fitter can make a frame that is not perfectly sized work (obviously withing limits). Good luck and hopefully you can go out there and just enjoy the ride soon without worries!

...not to mention that there shoudn't be any relative sag between the pedal and seat... and that the advised crank lengths are different which brings you to... aaah, the same distance bar half a mm - which is most likely differences in shoes/cleats or (more like) negligible) (oops, ben beat me to one point whilst I was typing...)

Was using Kit Carbonio as well. Was great - until I changed my MTB saddle to Spez Phenom... Got back on the road bike and the salf-same saddle I did many a painless (well, from that region) ride on, incl DC, now chowed me like there was no tomorrow. Could hardly walk after short rides. Went for a Spez Romin.... aaaahhhh... With similar saddles on both bikes now, hoping this will be my last saddle purchases for a while.

Cool, thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I did for a very short moment wonder about the wisdom of the ratchets when I bought them... At least they are black (under the gunk)!

Okay - roadie alert... But how the heck do you clean MTB shoes? Mine was two heaps of mud after the 50-miler, ended up just trying to clear the mud out the bottom by banging them together after they've dried. But the shoe itself? My one ratchet doesn't even engage properly. No "chunks" left any more, but obviously some mud inside the ratchet and the shoes look like... well they have a bit too much character! Can I spray them off or what is the usual/recommended way of having them resemble themselves again?

Specialized Phenom for me...

Chris, some of the preview/gallery pics I've seen are brilliant! Will head over to these tonight. Great work! Thanks for your effort and thanks to AMARider.

Dumb question - but Lizzy, why do you go through this schlep every month?! Surely everybody can simply check their standings on the website...(?) Or maybe there's some historical reason I am unaware of.

I really enjoyed my one ride there and was glad to see a marshall (twice)... so I was hoping this was a regular thing and that it would deter the sight-challenged ones out there. For what I rode there, I'd gladly pay - and with a huge grin of anticipation! In the words of the sports minister... "Moér hulle!"

Now I'm there... seems to be the "official provisional" results. Hey Mads, you went well over that last section. Training is paying off! My legs were stuffed from the earlier "chase" after the initial mishaps. Just tried surviving - and did a lousy job of that, too...

Provisionally... I'm not there!