thebob

@droo can help you out I believe

According to Barry from Pyga, you can make a Slakline into a Hyrax but not vice versa

I watched a couple of Jeff Kendal Weed videos where he rides Whistler. Even while riding some pretty serious machinery (Knolly Chilcotin, Orbea Rallon and Yeti SB160) he highly recommends a DH bike for the park.

I'd lean towards the South Industries myself. @David Marshall to do the build.

That looks normal to me. One of the drawbacks of the centrelock system is that the discs can rock on the hubs a tiny bit

Can you post a video of this? A little movement of the pads when the brakes are locked is normal, but the hub should be solid as a rock

Had a judder issue with the 105 disc brakes on my bike. Pads were a bit glazed, so I sanded them to clean them up, roughened up the discs and then did a proper bedding in procedure. Been judder free since then

Obvious question, is the sag set correctly on the Spark as it is now? If it isn't that may explain the soggy feeling. 25% sag rear, 15% front and traction mode would be fastAF. Also, when last was the suspension given a proper service? I had that same vintage of Spark and the last thing I'd say about it was that it was inefficient

First let's get something out the way. No matter what bike you have, you will always be looking at other bikes and lusting after them. Based on this, the correct number of bikes is always (N+1) where N is the number of bikes you own. As for you situation, the One Twenty is a very decent bike. We have several people running them in the Gauteng and Mpumalanga enduro series without any issues, so I don't think it will hold you back until things get very steep and chunky. From my experience with a friend's one, it is much more slanted to the XC side of things with a long effective top tube and low stack. Riding it back to back with my Trek 2022 Top Fuel it is really surprising how much further forward it puts my weight. What you have done by adding 10mm more travel is shorten the reach and top tube length, raise the stack height, raise the BB and sacked the head tube and seat tube angles (around 66.8 and 75 degrees after the change). These changes will make it a bit more capable, but it is still heavily slanted to the XC and light trail side of things. The other pain in the rear with the One Twenty is that it can't take a 2.4 rear tyre without rubbing the inside of the chainstay. The sensible thing to do is to run the bike into the ground. I wouldn't worry about wheels until I'd destroyed the current set. Also going to the wider rims could cause issues with the rear tyre clearance as mentioned earlier. As for what I would do. I'd go to my nearest Trek or Merida dealer and get hold of a Fuel EX 7 (gen 6 version on sale for 47k) or a Merida One Forty (500 or 700 for around 50k). Those would be much better bikes to attack the trails if you intend on sticking with the sport and progressing further.

Don't do it! Rather go get your sit bones measured and buy the correct width saddle for your rear end. Going softer without getting the correct size is a recipe for disaster

Do it! You will not regret it

Well done to all involved. Nice to hear a good news story

Nice! Will the Float X be up for grabs?

There is nothing proprietary on the Top Fuel apart from the headset spacers and headset cover. The rest is all generic parts. From experience the Top Fuel is a very versatile bike. I've done everything from a stage race, to jump lines and an enduro on mine.

It's the one on the link below. I selected it cause it takes a 3 pin plug and because it was on a moer of a sale FSP FP600 600VA/360W Line-Interactive UPS-BK | Buy Online in South Africa | takealot.com

I've got my trainer hooked up to a small UPS. It handles training in ERG mode no worries. Longest session was just over an hour and it still had plenty of juice left. Fan was running off a battery inverter trolley.

So is the two year warranty only valid for the USA? If so, that is a load of rubbish. Why aren't customers in other territories taken care of the same way as the Americans?

Robbie's Bicycle Concept supplies the RSP version https://www.rbco.co.za/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_81&product_id=287

Those are damper oils, not what you are looking for. I'm sure @droo will chime in and correct me if I am wrong, but Castrol Magnatec is a good substitute. The 5w40 IIRC

Got moeg with sukkeling with my generic bike stand. Bit the bullet and got this Park Tool one. I can see it will be worth every penny after using it once.

FTP test is a must, but do the spindown in the Wahoo app first. Get the trainer nice and warmed up before doing the spindown, a nice 10 minute spin should suffice. Also make sure that the Kickr is selected as the controllable device for Zwift on the device selection screen. Also make sure that no other bluetooth devices are connected to the Kickr before you load up Zwift.

Dragon Sports are the local distributor, so give your local Giant Dealer a call to see if they can help

Track your rides on something like Hubtiger so you know when components are due for a service. Learn to do the basics yourself so you don't get ripped off by unscrupulous shops out there. YouTube is a great resource for this. Get hold of the tools necessary to do the basics. Take everything "veterans" and "experienced cyclists" say with a pinch of salt and do your own research.

Did you get a new spring and damper? AFAIK the stock damper will only work to 120mm. Besides that, is everything torqued correctly, headset bearings greased and in good shape. The gap between the remote cap and the damper looks ok from what I recall for the Scotts I had. Does the Twinlock work after the upgrade? Going 20mm more on travel, on what I assume is a Spark, is borderline. You might be loading something up more than it wants with the slacker head angle and longer wheelbase

At 57k they can keep it. Mechanical Deore, SLX, XT and GX are plenty good enough. Problem is when new "mid range' bikes come with this the pricing is just going to spiral even more out of control. Case in point, the new Trek Fuel EX. The XT build is 115k list. The GX AXS build is 145k list. Bikes have some basic spec (Fox Suspension on the AXS build vs Rockshox on the XT build), so is the 30k premium worth it for AXS? I don't think so