Jehosefat

I have an 820 and I recently upgraded to a 530. Decided on the 530 rather than the 830 because the touch screen is not great (or doesn't work at all depending on the gloves) when you are wearing long fingered gloves which I do all year round on the MTB and in winter on the road bike. Just something to think about.

I rue the day I got my AL seeding too I can generally stick with them on flat races (that's how I got the AL seeding, wheelsucking like a champ) but Berge en Dale this year I got spat out the back on basically the first hill (like 5km in) and never saw them again and that's a recurring theme on anything that's even vaguely lumpy... I'm much happier starting in BL generally.

It was pretty tough but not as bad as I remember

I swear I am cursed at this race. Got a puncture as we turned onto the highway last year and got a puncture about 8km in this year. Fixing said puncture was a bit of a s**tshow. One of my mates stopped to help me and insisted I use his tube because it was in his pocket rather than in my saddlebag but then the valve stem was too short for the CO2 bomb adapter to fit onto (by like 3mm ) then in our rush to get my spare tube fitted we pinched it so it wouldn't inflate at all. At this point he left me and I began the long walk back to the start. Luckily two guys who were just riding along the route stopped to help me and gave me a spare tube (massive thanks to those two gents) and got me going again. Total time between stopping for the puncture and getting going again: 24 minutes Then I got into a nice little group of about 7-8 riders and we all worked well together all the way to Tom Jenkins. At this point I was in a bit of a rush to get home and hammered as hard as I could for the last 13km and towed a big chunk of our little group all the way to the finish. Total riding time 2:49 which I was pretty happy with but official Racetec time of 3:13 The 94.7 has quite a lot more climbing but as far as I remember the climbs are generally not as steep so I suppose it depends on what type of climbs you prefer.

You're still missing the point. His point was that if you want high-quality, professional mechanics you must be willing to pay "high-quality, professional" level fees. Especially considering the fact that floor sales of components can no longer be used to cross-subsidise the workshop portion of the business given that people are purchasing online rather than in store. Your point about the shop moving to become an online store is a valid but somewhat limited one. Personally I don't think there is sufficient market for every single LBS to have an effective online shop and even if it increases the audience, that still does not necessarily impact the number of people who will use the workshop (which is what this entire discussion is about) mostly because almost no-one will ship there bike to another city just for a service. Closing down the workshop and just focusing on the sales like you suggest doesn't solve the problem at all (the problem here being poor technical skills from the shop mechanics before you miss it again).

Congrats on completely missing the point. His point was that we import things (which cuts away at bike shop margins) and then people refuse to pay the hourly rate for a true specialist to work on their bikes (so you get some unqualified idiot working on your bike) and then people bitch about the quality of the service. For example, an Associate attorney at a large firm (i.e. 3 years of experience up) will charge out at around R1500 per hour. Would you be willing to pay that per hour for a bike service? The saying "If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys" comes to mind.

Would you say roughly 354hrs of practice?

Torque wrench. Little plastic fan has torque markings on it and the needle deflects as you tighten whatever it is you are tightening. Stop when it points to the right number. It's the same style of torque wrench you get with Canyon bikes.

I did my first 70.3 in Durban this year and I only decided to do it towards the end of Feb (I think about 14 weeks out from the event). At the time I was cycling quite a bit but the furthest I had ever run was 10km and my longest swim was about 800m. That 14 weeks was plenty of training for me to take it fairly easy in the race and finish comfortably in just under 6 hours. If you want to go hard you would probably need a bit more training but I doubt you "have" to start this year (although for base building earlier is usually better) If you struggle with the swimming, the best tip I can give you is to go for a few proper lessons as soon as possible to get your technique sorted before you start training properly so you don't ingrain any bad habits you have too deeply. I also found having a coach really helped for my first one. I use https://mytrainingday.com/

Lekker race although the wind made it super tough. BL got absolutely shredded in the crosswind heading past Suikerbossie. One gripe about the batch was that they would not let you back in after you peeled off the front so basically your reward for pulling the group was getting guttered... Thanks okes Managed to find a relatively big group with about 30km to go after getting gapped on the way past Suikerbossie although almost no-one was willing to work so 3/4 of us sat on the front for almost the entire 30km and then the wheel-suckers sprinted past in the last few hundred meters... Bastards!!! Much slower than last year (and I burned way more matches in the MTB race the day before than I had last year) although I still made it home just in time to crack open a beer and catch the start of the rugby. Legs are pretty sore today

I've not tried the m9100s (or 9000s for that matter) but the modulation of the m8100s is much better than the m8000s in my experience so I assume the m9100s will be similar

I'd hardly call that a bonus seeing as Shimano has that option by default with i-spec...

Thankfully it also comes in black

I see Redhub are doing a Super Series next year. Could be interesting. 3x 300m swim, 4000m bike, 1600m run. https://www.redhub-events.com/super-series I'm going to absolutely bleed time if I don't get my transitions a lot quicker... 7 transitions per race.

Especially as the hills get steeper. Then the mechanical advantage you get from a bike gets cancelled out by the extra weight of it.

I think he's dead

I reckon about 100kg or so. Me and my bike in birthday suits about 93kg. Then add all the clothes, shoes, drinks, food, protective gear and toolkit and I reckon it'll be pretty close to a nice round 100kg. Bit less on my XC bike and a bit more on the Enduro bike (usually a lot more protective gear too)

It's tough but someone has got to do it

I find the accuracy depends on how long I set the minimum time period to for the FTP estimate on intervals.icu. At 5 minutes it over-estimates by almost 20w compared to the 20 minute test. If I change the minimum to 8 minutes the estimate comes down to within 5w.

Saw the announcement for Kerbal Space Program 2 so I dusted off my copy of the first one again. What an awesome game Played it until like midnight last night and then had to get up at 5:30 for a Pilates class

Nope, got lucky (again) and only got charged VAT and no duties Saved a good few grand that I immediately dumped into a XT 12-speed upgrade kit for the bike. (Only to find that I need a new crank, chainring and derailleur hanger as well )

Canyon Strive. In the climb setting it has the same head and seat tube angles as a Scott Spark (give or take) with a bit more travel (160mm front and 135mm rear). In the descend setting it lowers the head tube angle by about 1.5° and you have 160mm front and 150mm rear travel. And you can change the settings while riding. Hit the climb button and unweight the rear for climb mode; hit the descend button and pump the suspension for descend model. Win win. (Plus mine is red so its faster)

SNAP!!!! I just bought that exact same bike. Arrived here about 2 weeks ago Haven't had much chance to ride it though unfortunately because I was doing a bike tour through the Klein Karoo on my other MTB for the last week.

acesports.co.za also have a pretty good selection of Leatt gear.

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