Desertbob

I'm staying in Parkview, but I dont mind travelling (a little) to get to a decent trail... as long as I dont have to deal with traffic. How do you people handle the traffic in this place?! Enough to drive me nuts

Hi All, I've just moved to back to SA and was wondering if anybody can give me some advice on good group rides around the Joburg area. I'm looking for a reasonably challenging mountain bike group (challenging in terms of route and pace... not the people's personalities please!!) Weekends or weekdays in the early morning or evening. What do the rest of you who live here do to ride?

Where did you guys find results?

So I'm taking the newly acquired girlfriend to Sabie for a dirty weekend away (get your mind out of the gutter, I'm talking mountain biking here!) Any recomendations on nice places to stay, not too far from the mountain biking? Also, how do I find the mountain biking? I've done a race there, but doubt I'd find the trails. You may now return your minds to the gutter, thank you

I use a whey protien supplement when I'm training hard. But then I'm not a competitive cyclist and do alot of general gyming and swimming aswell. I just wanted something to increase my protien intake esp when I cant be bothered to cook and eat well. I've found it really helps improve recovery and reduce muscle fatigue, as well as gaining lean muscle. I'm pretty suspicious of the general high protein/muscle gain products because they have all sorts of other things in them, but a pure whey product is natural and high quality protein.

Maybe I'm dumb, but why do you need a chain tensioner on a single-speed bike (apart from looking cool)? The chain doesnt need any slack to change to a bigger cog.

I've heard that some XTR brakes have a problem where one piston gets stuck in the caliper. This means that when you squeeze the brakes, only the other (unstuck) piston is free to move, so it moves too far and when the brakes are released, does not go back to its origional position, resulting in constant contact between one side piston and the disk. You can check for this by looking down through the gap between the disk and the pads, squeese the brakes and check if both side pistons move, or if its only one. You can (apparently) fix the problem temporarily by taking out the pads, pulling the pistons out and cleaning and greasing the sides of the piston. Then putting everything back together. I had this problem on my Hayes 9's (sticky piston) but it was so damaged by the time I realised what the problem was that I could not fix it.

Use KY jelley, its good for getting heart-rates up, apparently

um... that not usually a problem I have, but thanks Rabubi

So, I have a Suunto Heart rate monitor with a regular chest strap which I like very much (mostly because it looks pretty) But my problem is when I put the strap on I can't get a HR reading until I'm all properly sweaty... which can be a while into the ride on cold days. Wetting the strap/chest with water helps sometimes but last time I did this I forgot I was wearing bibs and the water all ran down into my crotch. Cool and pleasant at first but soon the chaffing made things very unpleasant for me and everyone who had to watch me squirm and try to re-adjust So anyway, my question is this: Can I buy some some of conductive gel to put on the chest strap to make it pick up my HR without waiting to get sweaty or risking chaffing the family jewels? If so, where can I get it?

He probably will pay in the long term, but I reckon the benefits will be worth it. Think about it: - girlfriend getting fit, hot, and dirty with you on your favourite trail, what could be better? (apart from fit, hot girlfriend getting dirty with you after riding your favourite trail

I'm not very knowledgable about AM bikes, but isnt the rear shock on that beast the same as on say a Giant Anthem (fox RP2 or thereabouts) which weighs 12kgs If so, the travel's the same, so what's the advantage?

That thing looks like a tank, how much does it weigh? Or maybe its just the "desert-storm" colour scheme that gives me that impression

That looks great. Best of luck with the bike and the girlfriend. You've just solved all your birthday/christmas/valentines day present buying problems forever; component upgrades and cooler cycling kit from now on out!

Just be prepared to lose the poor friend who bought the budget bike. He'll hate for kicking his ass and eventually making him shell out more money to keep up

You'll need to build a housing for the light and associated electronics first. It needs to be from metal as plastic will just melt from the heat given off by the lights (thats why you have that huge heatsink at the back of the lights) Best would be to cut off a piece of square aluminium piping and fit the light inside. A bit of thermal epoxy will hold the heat sink in place (thats what you used to connect the LED backs to the heatsink, right?) Then you can just atttatch the piping to a reflector mount as BigBen mentioned.

Hooray, so bored girls' finally getting a grip!

What size you looking for monkeyman?

U-oh Boredgirl, hope you got some tyres with a bit of tread on them, its gonna be muddy!

The Rock after a few beers....

I use these: Vredestein Killer Bees. So far pretty impressed. Not much good in the mud though!

.... Oh, you mean he wont hurt your knees while spinning... I had another picture in my head, sorry