Doggone

Some of you guys need this LOOONG weekend very badly!! Chill Boys. We still have our bikes to ride. The world is really quite a lekker place.!!

I have tried the bib thing but just dont get the comfort thing everyone speaks of. Also if you need to take a leak wearing one of them you need to be pretty well endowed to slip it down your bib leg otherwise you will be performing yoga to extract yourself from the confines before you experience any relief. I saw a lady who forgot to get fully into the top part of her bib before the race on saturday. She had to run to the powder room to makecthe necessary adjustments. Too complicated for my liking and OBVIOUSLY not well endowed enough to be able to claim that a bib is viable.

I rode the USN race this weekend. Understand the frustration. I feel that the event was oversubscribed ito line entries. At the first singletrack the queues reminded me of being back in basic training in the army.on the one hand it is great to see the growth in the sport but then again congestion causes frustration. I think this is going to become more of a problem over time. Maybe the answer lies in seeded batches but I dont know what would be involved to set up the logistics. Reality is that congestion is compounded on races with a lot of singletrack. Maybe you need to get to the front Mr Crackberry as you will not have those problems amongst the elite athletes. . . .otherwise you will just have to suck it up and ride with us plebs who are on our bikes for the fun.

I did the lite version 2 years ago and have been planning to get fit enough to ride the full experience this year. Disappointing if it is being watered down. Probably just being forced to give what the market demands. I know they ask all competitors for their preferences.

Neg. I run the same 29er giant rims and have done the tubeless conversion with both good and bad results. Below 1.8 bar I had bad front wheel burps and eventually had to redo the tubeless conversion. Removed the tape and replaced with bontrager conversion and subsequently have had excellent results. Tyre seats more easily and am now running pressures as low as 1.6 bar although I find this creates too much drag. Ideal pressure for me is 1.8 bar front and back. I have run conti race king, mountain king and hutchison python at these pressures succesfully. I weigh in at 83 kg. Tubeless is definitely the wsy to go if I look at the time I have saved myself with all the pinctures thst have sealed themselves.

Congrats. I will always be about the joy of the ride. Enjoy!

Everyone seems to put a lot of focus on the wheelsize but I have had a different experience. 2 years ago a bought a ht 26 bike and got into riding. Rode a couple of day races and after riding SabieXperience over 4 days decided to upgrade my bike. I went all the wsy to the other end of the spectrum and got an Anthem 29er. I love the softer ride but had initial difgiculty with the relative sluggishness of the new bike. In Nevember last year I set some new goals and increased my training regime to about 10-12 hours per week. As my fitness improved and I got stronger I started arriving at obstacles with more speed and momentum. I also learnt to lean into corners more aggresively and trust the bike when attacking rocky outcrops.Suddenly I have become very comfortable on the bike to the extent thst when I ride the 26" ht it feels twitchy. I will not change back unkess I lose all fitness and have to start building base fitness all over again. My take on the wheelsize debate is that the larger wheelsize works better as you gain skills and get stronger. If you dont ride all that frequently and are not that fit you probably won't benefit much from the increased wheelsize and the only winner will be your LBS. Just for context I will shortly be 50 so I am no racing snake and a ht mtb is too tough on my body.

It sounds like some of these improvements will take some of the soul out of mountainbiking. What will we moan about on a Monady morning if we have no chain, tyre or other maintenance issues. Might be a bit boring on the Hub.................... I kind of enjoy the maintenance and contact that I have with my machine............. strange but true!

I converted my Anthem 29er wheels myself after having endless hassles with the tape type conversions once I had experienced flats. I changed to the Bontrager black "hoops" and found that my tyres seated very easily. Also as they use loose valves you wont have to remove them if you need to make use of a tube,as long as the tube has a reasonable valve length. I am running a Hutchinson Python upfront and a Mountain King at the back. 1500 km's and no problems with burps like when I used rimtape. Can now run much lower pressures and still experimenting .

I ride the spruit from the power distribution centre on Republic just before Nicol hiway up to Emmarentia 2-3 times a week. No problems although it is quite dark at the time we ride and we would be easy targets. We feel quite safe as we have only encountered friendly people on this route.

I ride the 2011 model. I ride about 8-10 hours per week and definitely still need my granny gear so I agree that either way that 3 rings upfront is a necessity at my level. Either way Sram or Shimano is a personal choice and you can always change later. The bike itself is great and you will not be disappointed. Ito a tubeless conversion costing R1400 I think that is very expensive. I did my own using bontrager tubeless system which cost me R80 per wheel and another R80 per valve. Throw in some sealant of your choice for between R100 and R200 and you have a grand total of aprox R500. By the way I found seating the tyres very easy using the Bontrager system. I had a tape based conversion previously but had hassles both front and back seating tyres until I changed to Bontrager system. I dont know how much this weighs relative to a tape system but it works and has also been bullet proof on my son's 26" hardtail. Either bike is cool . I would go for the shimano. Hope this helps and enjoy the bike!

I run a magiclight on the bars and a cheap energiser on my helmet. Works quite well as the magiclight gives bright and good general coverage eith the headlamp giving me some light fir looking outside of the normal beam pattern. First orize imho would be a second magiclight on the helmet. Then I could run both at 50% power and have light of good quality for longer.

Mountainbike wipeout = Pain Downhill wipeout = Potential Death . RIP At my age the risk reward ratio does not make it worthwhile but I envy the youngsters and their all-or-nothing attitude. Love watching it.

Found this breakdown on another website. Anthem X 29er Weight weenie stuff So I took delivery of my new Anthem X 29er 3. I had been curious about exact weights of some of the parts and hadn't had much luck finding them. So I disassembled the bike all the way down to nothingness and weighed each part down to the shifter cable housing and rotor screws. My gf was less than impressed with the lack of attention to her But since I went completely nuts and did all of this stuff I figured I'd pass it on. Oh well I needed to tear it down for the SRAM XX stuff to go on. This is a size Large Existing Frameset 2765.0 Fork 1768.0 Front Tube 187.0 Front Tire 707.0 Front Wheel 957.0 Rear Tube 185.0 Rear Tire 702.0 Rear Wheel 1200.0 Front Axle 72.0 Rear Skewer 66.0 Front Brake 318.0 Front Rotor 153.0 Front Rotor Screws 13.0 Rear Brake 310.0 Rear Rotor 109.0 Rear Rotor Screws 14.0 Crankset w/o BB 872.0 Bottom Bracket 0.0 Chain 272.0 Cassette w/ plastic spoke guard 388.0 Front Derailleur 155.0 Rear Derailleur 273.0 Front Shifter 143.0 Rear Shifter 150.0 Saddle 222.0 Seatpost 313.0 Bars 270.0 Stem 173.0 Grips 103.0 Housing 53.0 Front Reflector 31.0 Total 12944.0gr or 28.51lbs All weights are in grams unless otherwise noted, the only oddity you may notice is the bottom bracket is listed as 0gr, that's because it is included in the frame weight because I haven't gotten my special tool to press it out yet

What an error of judgement to enter this as my first marathon. My friend and I started off together but he fell in the singletrack just before the first water point and hit a tree after the guy in front of him went down. He decided to soldier on but withdrew at the next waterpoint at King of the mountains. This took us a total of 4 hours! Iwas now seriously at the back of the field and thought the worst was over so I gave it all I had. Beeeg mistake! The climbs never ended and the muddy , unrideable bits after stream crossings added extra pain and suffering. A group of about 7-8 of us formed and we played leapfrog up and down the climbs over the next 50 km. I had a chain break and had to repair it in the one forest area. Difficult to see what you are doing through prescription dark glasses! With the added fatigue and muddy hands it took me almost 30min. An eventful day with over 8h40 on the course and 7h09 of riding time! The end was the most welcome sight imaginable. I learnt a lot about riding that I didnt know existed in the sport. I loved it and will be back next year in better condition. Camping at Merry Pebbles was lovely. An event to be recommended but with disclaimers!

Missed the race but know the park well. Great potential on so many levels. I would like to suggest a membership system which will generate ongoing cashflow and give members access to the park and trails. Also ,importantly, support of conservation, particularly something like Rhino conervation. Combining cycling and conservation, 2 of my top passions. Cant wait to come ride your trails!

Gary Cohen - Morningside clinic 011 883 3577

There is an elite Triathlete/cyclist called Nico Pfitzenmaier that I met on a 5 day ride through thE Karoo last year. He did a talk on fundamentals of riding on a vegetarian diet. I know he is based in Cape Town and has won the mixed category of the Epic. if you can find him He could help you .

Gonna be cool to follow our South African competitor .Sean Conway. Dont know him but all the best!

Currently using a Thule so the bikes are locked but any thief worth his salt will have no problem stealing the bikes. I also realized that my towbar pin needs a lock. Looked at Builders warehouse but only saw 6 mm cables and they are only 1,8m long. No way long enough to go through 3 bikes wheels and frames. Decided to make my own cables. Found 8 mm cable. Cant imagine actually using 12mm as it will be almost impossible to bend between wheel spokes and frame without damaging them. Bought some fishpond air hose with 12 mm inside diameter to use as cover. Cable clamps and silicon tape complete the picture. Threaded cable through hose. Looped cable and clamped ends. Ground excess thread off clamps and welded nuts to thread. Taped up ends and viola cable complete. I insert the loops I made into the same lock I use to lock my towbar to the car. I bought 4m of cable and it ended up at 3,5m after the loops were made. Not as pretty as a bought unit but making it was fun!

Love my Anthem 29er!! Dual sus is the way to go. Nearly 50 so the body needs all the help it can get!!

Giant Anthem or XTC. Best specced bikes and good resale values Shop around .Some great 2011 models available at a discount

Nice Bike!!

I really love mine although I must admit that I use very few features and this device is packed with them. Best use was when I did a 5 day group ride last year. GPS really helped. I also enjoy playing with all the various bits of info that gets downloaded into Garmin Training Centre. Really cool.