Old and Slow

Maybe not as good as your examples, but this is my work.

We can't all be so lucky!

It was a whole lot of fun. The climbs weren't too difficult and the single track coming down felt endless. Would really love to give the DH track a try next time, it looks like a nice challenge. It was quite loose, but no worse than the trails out in Paarl/Wellington.

First time riding Tokai

I rode past them a few times this morning. I did not enjoy it.

Best answer. Having worked in frame manufacturing for 5 years, the most common point of failure was at the head tube/down tube junction, underneath the down tube. Top tube onto seat tube was next. With other brands, it was always at a weld, often due to poor design and insufficient material for the joint in question. With aluminium, tube consistency is always the issue, often tubes would have too much material removed in the sanding process rendering them way to thin in places. Bends suffering the worst. Carbon reduces many of these problems due to the molding process and with any reputable brand you can be fairly certain that good R&D process has been followed as well as adequate stress testing before release to the public

There was a thread started about this about a month or more back. If you search the forums you should find it. Great initiative, great price

I bought a Gedore 12 sided socket (didn't have 6 sided) and sanded it by hand (manually turning it) with a belt sander. Works like a charm. Edit: think I paid about R70 a few weeks back

Tough loop at Plaisir with an extra 14kg on the top tube. So worth it.

My only criticism of this compared to the Macride is the height of the seat. Higher centre of gravity, less accessible for short riders (this is only compatible with medium frames and larger). It's also difficult to see how adjustable it is from the pictures. Both the Macride and shotgun pro have great adjustability.

That is such a sick paint scheme!

Is it Friday already?

Last ride until after Christmas, tried to make the most of it.

It was a good morning.

Better make sure to use the plan they sent!

After reading through 4 pages of people arguing about coaches and offering OP advice, I'm curious how many people actually looked at the form they linked to? Perhaps I'm an idiot, but it seems like OP is doing research on cyclist's use of coaches and was offering a training plan in exchange for said information given in the Typeform survey.

Starting on the easy stuff I see! Did you manual any of the jumps?

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, I appreciate the insights. I guess I should have mentioned that his wife has previously bought him a bike that he loves and, from our discussions, he's quite relaxed about the next bike be gets. His is a 26"... He's almost certainly going to keep it even when he gets a new bike, so I'm just suggesting that it gets upgraded until stock becomes available and prices stabilise.

That's definitely a concern. Thankfully there's no rush, so it's more a case of "if I can find a bike, should I get it?". From what I've seen though, there's no stock of new bikes that are suitable so I'll most likely be looking for something used

Boschendal to Banhoek and back.

My brother in law is riding an old Zula which is getting a bit long in the tooth. We've chatted about him finally getting something newer, but he loves that thing and has been upgrading parts as they wear out or break. The problem is, it currently needs a chunk of cash to sort out (full services of fork and rear shock, new wheels, headset, tires) My sister in law got hold of me this morning and asked for my help to find him a new bike for Christmas. He would ask for my advice anyway as he's not that clued up on current tech, but if it was me, I would absolutely want to have a say in any new bike purchase. So, would you be happy with someone else buying you a new bike for Christmas?

Just confused why anyone would buy a bike with X amount of travel, if they don't intend on using it? Do you also drive a fortuner that never sees a dirt road?

More progression makes it harder to bottom out for lighter riders though. I worked closely with frame designers for a number of years, as well as with a world cup dh team and the consensus from frame manufacturers and suspension companies alike was that your suspension should be set up to bottom out on the worst hit you'll encounter in any particular ride.

I tried with a shifting spanner. Wasn't prepared to put any more force into it as it wasn't budging 😕

Cheers. I'll probably go that route. Quite happy to grind it myself. I don't know that a plastic socket will cut it. It recently got serviced at Omnico and I reckon it was tightened to within an inch of its life.