Robrider

yeah, generally I would say wait and save for a much nicer bike. but for that amount I think its definitely worth it

I know, I was just taking the piss. The number of times its been said that person x won on a (insert option here:__________________dual, hardtail, 26er, 29er, etc, etc) therefore it must be the fastest machine ever made. When obviously the person probably would have won on anything.

Well everyone know that what the winner uses is clearly the fastest equipment. So are the roadies going to now argue whether knoblies and 29er mountain bikes are fastest for road races.

To add to that: Get on some technical trails. The longer races, such as marathons often are slightly more technical as they cater for more competent riders. Besides, its the technical stuff thats the most fun anyway, and gives you the greatest satisfaction nailing something that you had to walk last time.

JP Pearton raced the Induna marathon a few years back with a rigid front fork to save weight, and that is one technical race. He came second to Kevin Evans. I think everyones become a bit obsessed with suspension (or soft), now days, you need a dual to ride on the pavements

Hi, It will definitely cost you more, but if you still want to go ahead, I agree, it is fun and you learn a lot about your bike. Also you can customize it to a certain extent. If it were me I would look for a mix of new and second hand. There are great deal on the hub. Then for the new stuff, I would look online, chain reaction cycles (uk), chris wilemse cycles (cpt) and a few others that I'm sure people will mention. Have fun, shop around, get the best prices. I would start with frame, fork and wheels. That is the heart of any bike, and will depend on what type of riding you want to do.

We also went over xmass/new year. The camping facilities are great. Its prob better that its cool, because down there it is pretty hot and humid. Nice pool (swimming and the kind with the stick and balls) facilities, and tubing down the river is fun too. Don't forget to pack a spare set of lungs for the climb, and your mountain bike skills. Its not a "district roads" kind of ride... and thats why its awesome :thumbup: As an aside, if you are there on the first week end of the month, go take the long tour of the sudwala caves, to the crystal chamber. That was awesome too. You have to pre book

I was once considering grip shifts, until I did the barberton marathon (about 20 river crossings in a row) and passed a guy who was pulling leaves off the bushes and using them to try and get a grip on his wet grip shifts... That was enough to put me off them, despite also seeing pretty good reviews.

Looser - when something isn't as tight Loser - What the Bloody Agent is

...And when they used to go from one place to another instead of going around in circles.

Um, J2c wasn't more than 100km every day... there were quite a few shorter days. Awesome race though

Doesn't this 3% of failures worry anybody else?? In 6 months 3 out of every 100 disks of theirs has failed. Also, if I had to guess, I'm sure its the front disk that fails, which means its about 3 out of every 50 front disks. In the next 6 months that figure could double. That means if you buy these rotors you have approximately a 1 in 10 chance of it failing. Thats absurd! And they say that as if its perfectly acceptable safety standards.

I did it! It was my first triathlon. The swim hurt a lot because I didnt train for it at all, but I made up a lot on the bikes and the run was better than I expected. Didn't do too badly for a first tri and very limited training in the other disciplines. The mud was crazy, my poor poor bike.

3 years ago at the pilgrims rest mountain bike race a similar thing happened. The race was extremely muddy, to the point where I only could change the front derailer, the back was clogged up. I also have V-brakes and as the race wore on my levers were getting closer and closer to the bars with no effect. By the end I would walk on the down hills! There was one point just before the end where there was a gradual downhill which I could control my speed, and then it started steepening until I realised I couldn't do anything about it. There was a bend in the road and I thought "if the road gets steeper around that corner I will probably end up pummeling into a house in pilgrims rest". So I saw some grass on the side of the road and took a dive. Good thing too, because the road got alot steeper, I would have been in serious trouble. Glad you came off ok. It is an awful feeling.

My 2c I've had 2 kcnc seatposts (on 2 sepperate bikes) for 2 years and the kcnc bars for a year now, and i have never had a problem with them. They are extremely light (even lighter than alot of the carbon alternatives) and very cheap in comparison (around R600 each). another big weight saver as mentioned is pedals. Look at the crank brothers eggbeater (or candy) range, you could knock off over 200g quite easily on that alone (and bottom of the range egg beaters are lighter than XTRs) Going lighter with tyres in my opinion is a trade off. The rubber stops puncutres, sidewall cuts, etc. If you go lighter there, you could have problems (but some people still swear that they don't). Wheels are probibly the single most effective upgrade in my opinion, but you will pay alot for good wheels. This may sounds stupid, but if you going for grams, look at your grips too... I saved 100g but changing grips and that was to cheap (R30) foam grips. Some people will pay thousands for a weight saving like that on their components. Saddles it is possible to save weight, but your comfort must come first. No point paying alot for a light saddle that is uncomfortable and spoils your riding experience.

Bearing in mind I have never tried one of these, I have a few questions (or maybe comments)... With full suspension (or any suspension for that matter) you have a certain amount of sag. Do you have this with this seat post? I would assume so and the reason I ask is this- on downhills, a lower seat allows you to tackle the technical stuff a bit easier (gives you better range of motion, balance, etc). Now I have my seat set quite high for efficiency, as would most marathon, epic, etc, riders, at the expence of the techinical downhill stuff. If you had to stand up with this seat, does it not rise a little (the amount of the sag)? so now you have even less room to "play". The other common criticism of these is that the height between the saddle and the crank is varing all the time, making it uncomfortable, as your saddle is never the perfect hieght. comments?

Hey, It sounds really cool. I am doing a long ride at hekpoort tomorrow, but if im still feeling good on sunday I'll come along. Cheers.

I think Fox recomends 50 hours. If its a low end fork, I would not bother. But for a better fork, I would try and take better care of it... The problem is that the dirt gets past the seals and then it starts wearing. But it doesnt wear where you can see it. Normally starts where the bushings are, about 40mm down, so when you start to see the wear above the seals, its way too late. I recently had to replace my stancions because of that, and at the price, rather just service it regularly. Its not that finicky once you've done it once or twice. I went on a course with Johan Bornman, and its actually quite easy. Now a days I dont leave anything to the bike shop techs. I havn't had a rock shox, but I assume its similar.

Dude, you in France... skiing snowboarding ice climbing xc skiing snow shoeing...

Mountain biking has those things too... What trails do you ride without hills? If you want to get fast I think mountain and road cycling training is very simmilar. I think road riding you might do a little more anerobic training, for the sprints and fast group accelerations, where mountain biking is more like a time trial. I'm probably not the right person to give you speciffics, but using a structured program of intervals, etc. will benifit you hugely. Also remember that proper rest is an important part of training.

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Dam these photos are cool I would love to get into jumping. How do you even start to learn?

Maybe you could have check boxes... and the seller will tick what category the ad falls under. But make it so that its not exclusive. I.e. You can tick- fork, derailer, wheelset - if those are the things you want to sell, and the ad will come up in all three categories. That could maybe be extended that once one item gets sold, the seller can edit and uncheck that category, so the ad no longer apears in that section...

Yeah... To make money from stupid people

I wonder why they only were picking on the one guy. Was he the one who threw the bottle? or was he saying some stupid things to the cops. Doesn't look like they brutalised anyone else. I'm not saying its right at all, nothing justifies that, but there must be a reason he was singled out. Throwing a bottle from the second story of a building at a policeman is also a pretty stupid thing to do... Not exaclty a role model for society. I would go as far as saying that if that hits someone on the head they could be killed. Not condoning what the cops did. Just saying.