Smiles

you can use sealant in the tube, just not as good as proper tubeless - but its still way better than not having sealant

i say try it - so many people have opinions on why not to try this or that but have never used it themselves. it'll be a good experiment and you can give us your views

just finished reading Riaan Manser's book - around africa on my bicycle (or something like that) and it really changed how i looked at the whole bribe thing. he was asked and threatend by A-holes wanting bribes the whole way around but he never paid one - read the book and you'll see how he dealt with the situations but we need far more people following his example

wa ha ha. just read thru all the posts - fastbike is a real tosser - can't imagine he has any friends. (i can't wait for his smart ass comment for me)

nah, i like browsing

i can comfortably ride at 1.5bar but i'm only just over 60kg

sounds like you broke the seal around the tires - sometimes a footpump will work otherwise you'll need to use a CO2 bomb, or get a little schrauder-prester converter (cheap - just a piece of metal) and pump up at the petrol station - should seal

cool, so i just got some metal punches, and am now starting a business of altering bike serial numbers. contact for prices

haven't had any myself, but my uncle has had a garmin and now a tom tom, and he absolutly raves about the tom tom

i used to ride no-name spd's then moved over to xtr - probablt lighter, but the real difference is that they are so so much smoother (clipping in and out) (and nothing to do with tension). lots of people rave about egg beaters - but i would maybe advise the ones with platforms as the others you have to clip in exactly right or your foot goes shooting past and you'll be left with some nice marks on your shins.

that's the pipe-track. goes for maybe 5km then enters a residentual area. you can also ride by the dunes over above sandy bay for a few km and then there is a slog up towards the old radar station - starts up above the fishing village. (probably only try go half-way as the top half is totally eroded and over-grown)

planet x basically a fizik gobi at 1/10th the price. did 53 hrs riding in 6 days with a 10kg pack and my rear end survived the tale in one piece. (including one day of 13.5hrs)

best stuff is fissim paste (baby bum cream). it's nice and thick and your bum will be grateful for it (as long as you aren't too hairy back there) just be careful if putting it on at night in the dark - it's very easy to confuse the tube with a tube of toothpaste. (no more comment)

ahem, that is DOMESTIQUE now!!!! (sounds so much better than ultimate hubbber)

ok, that was really silly. never seen that before - was making reading posts a real pain in the ass

what's wrong with the hub. i'm not sure if its only me, but when i view a post, page 1 is starting with the latest post - so i'm reading everything in the wrong order

i don't enjoy the low end shimano spd pedal, but the xtr ones are o so beautiful. i suppose you got to try both. a mate of mine just changed from shimano so crank brothers and after 4 months he's changing back to shimano. (xtr though) also depends what riding you doing. remember quite a few broken egg beaters everyday on the epic

not so uncommon having a tyre explode. could have just been that tyres time up and it was de-laminating. also had an experience with a new crossmark - must have been thorn breeding time - but i got about 30 of them in the sidewall of the tyre, all in a neat row. so even though they were all small and sealed by the stans, it weakend that part of the tyre, which went bang all over the living room, about an hour after the ride.

put a spare bottle on your partners bike

planet x seat. its awsome. feels just like a fizik gobi/ is one with different material covering?, but its only R300. google "planet x sa" and you'll find the website

give us your name and we can rate your past performaces. maybe this will give you a bit of cred on here and you'll get more offers of a bike

and if you want to head up into silvermine and tokai, just ride over chappies, turn left just after the farm village and you'll end up at the bottom of the wagon trail, which will take you up into silvermine

try pm pigeon for all the specs. he just got the 2010 merida 96 3000 and its def got the fox fork.

wow, maybe it would have been easier to buy a new bike - probably cheaper