TyronLab

Bicycle Line is reputable and well-supported, they'll help you out. https://maps.app.goo.gl/iZggSE5FLCpTzBwL6

Suck a lekker bike dude!

Pretty annoyed at my daughter for being born two days prior and needing to have a birthday party the day of this race. Who care's about 8th birthdays anyway? Can't we make kids birthday parties knit-one-skip-one? It'll make the times they actually happen really special, so win win! Going out south and coming back north is going to make this tough in the last half. Looks like fun, looking forward to the other races in '24 if I can squeeze one in.

That's a pretty solid Friday troll thread idea, I'll bite. So, you're sitting alone on a park bench, ranting at a phone you're holding at arms length, at full volume, and we're the douchebags? This is the oke on the community whatsapp group that, after someone posts a photo of a lost dog / broken street lamp / overgrown sypadjie, has to comment that the country's ****** and the government ruined it all, but won't get up to vote on Wednesday.

I'll always have a soft spot for the Rook Scout. If you have a few cups of coffee or draughts you want to augment, have a read through this thread to understand why: They are flippen sweet bikes and pretty cool guys to deal with.

Best part is you'll receive it with the fork backwards, the brakes with a 2cm gap between the rim and the pad and a loose saddle.

Not gonna lie, I think that thing is rad as ****. You'd need to be a very weird geometry human for that to actually fit you, but I think it's awesome. Super-monster gravel bike!

Anyone done this before? It seems like a pretty sweet deal and lekker close to home.

I'm 177cm and the M/L is perfectomundo for me. For reference I rode a Large Titan Switch with a 70mm stem, a 54cm Specialized Sequoia with the stock 90mm stem, and generally ride Medium XC mountain bikes.

I'd take the Aluminium 2022 model. Wider tyre clearance as mentioned before (I think the older ones could only do 42mm, or 45mm with no mud clearance). Having that option is lekker down the line. The aluminium version is plenty comfy, one of the comfiest bikes I've ridden and I've had carbon, steel, and aluminium gravel bikes. 105 groupset doesn't have a clutch derailleur, which the GRX does. Having a clutch makes a big difference in how quiet the bike is even with relatively mild gravel.

I've project managed capital items worth a few hundred thousand USD, to commodity items made by the container load from China / Spain / Brazil / Russia and from local manufacturers. I think some logic here would help. Bundling manufacturing in China together in one big lump makes zero sense. Are there dodgy, kid-based, zero-safety shitholes making millions of parts for a few cents? Yes, 100%. Are there high quality, cutting edge manufacturing facilities that are world-class in terms of quality and are just smart enough to leverage the Chinese government's powerful pro-manufacturing policies, and an abundant and driven workforce? Yes, 100%. I've been in shitholes and beautiful facilities in every one of the countries I've mentioned above. "China is shitty cheap stuff" is as logically sound as saying "All South Africans are racist", "all Brazilians samba to work" and "All Americans are overweight"... Would I buy a carbon handlebar from Temu for a downhill bike? Nope. Is that decision based on perception and gut feel more than any technical reasoning? Yep.

Out of all of the options out there, there's no one bike that is perfect for every situation, unless you only ride one type of thing and only that thing. To me, you need to understand why you're riding and what you want to get out of it. Unless you're really at the pointy end of the field and you're looking for every advantage you can, ride what feels lekker. At the end of the day, ride the bike that is "you". The one that makes you stop at the end of the ride and stand and stare at it in the garage for a minute before you go in the house. I've had some of my best rides on bikes that were very far from what would be considered "optimal". My riding is very similar to yours. A bunch of road miles in the week, longer distance road and gravel mixed routes on the weekends with trails thrown in the mix (mostly with tar commutes to the trails). That's why I ride rigid MTBs and gravel bikes. They're not the perfect bike for most of the rides, but it puts a smile on my face more than any other bike.

After being "forced" to buy another bike, I took some time to ponder and compare and spreadsheet the hell out of this choice. Wishlist: Not a carbon frame. I'm too nervous that it breaks, and I've had bad experiences with "good" carbon frames. Drop bars. Hydraulic brakes. 1x drivetrain. Nothing proprietary or hard to maintain. 50mm + tyre clearance. 3x bottle cages. Dropper compatible. I landed on this and, so far, it has exceeded my expectations: It's a Giant Revolt 1 with a 40T GRX 600 crankset and a pair of 50mm Maxxis Ramblers as upgrades from the get-go. I was unsure of the colour at first based on the online pictures, but in the flesh (and with the tan wall tyres) I absolutely love it. Still needs a proper trail test, but so far it's been efficient enough on the road and, on the dirt bits I've thrown in, supremely comfortable. The fit is also bang-on in stock form, which I was pretty sure of before purchasing thanks to Bike Insights and having quite a few bikes to use for comparison. Maiden voyage:

Anyone surprised by the average age / weight / demographic in here has evidently not been on your average roadie group ride lately... or maybe that's just the groups I'm fast enough to ride with 😄 At 1.77 I'm exactly on the split between M and L mountain bikes. I've generally been more comfortable on M frames with slightly longer 50-60mm stems but have had issues with my 755mm bb-to-saddle distance causing seatposts to run at ther min insertion. 55cm roadies or M/L gravel bikes are perfecto with ~70mm stems. Size 10 shoes (it sure looks like I'm more on the Kenyan end of the spectrum of torso/leg length here). 35 (or, halfway through a below average innings) 85-89kg depending on how much I travel and whether it's my birthday month.

Managed to cross something off of the challenge/bucket list this morning; Riding Suikerbosrand on a singlespeed. 34x20 worked well on the climbs, but seeing as I spun out at 25kph it meant the flats and mild downs were pretty slow in comparison to normal and meant I couldn't gather some momentum to coast over rollers. The wheels did proverbially come off on the last big climb, where the beautiful morning turned to sweltering heat and a small tailwind which made it feel like riding in an air fryer. Didn't have to dab, even though I was proper grinding by then. Always fun!