Nico van Loggerenberg

Still loving 27.5", and still loving this Pyga 120.

There are occasionally Giants for sale at below that price point, and you can do much worse than start out on an Anthem or Trance.

Found it! Can recommend posting on the "Jozi spruit mtb" group for anybody else in a similar situation.

Lost my saddle bag in the spruit this morning. If anybody has seen or can repost on their groups, that'd be appreciated. It has a collection of tools in I'd rather not replace right now 🥲

Thanks, that's pretty interesting. A friend on a farm outside Pretoria said they'd gotten the entire year's average rainfall this last month and a half.

Does anybody know of a good site to check the amount of rain that's fallen in the last while? Would love to see some numbers on this last month.

Happy customer. Mission success!

Done. Think I'll get a new stem and the chain length isn't right yet, but rides well. Surprisingly light with this wheelset on as well - around 12kg. 140mm travel front and back. Snappy!

And it fits! Fortunately the existing bearings could take a 15mm inner sleeve so it all went pretty smoothly.

After trying in vain to find a conversion kit for American Classic hubs to 15mm thru axle on here or at bike shops, I decided to have one made. With help from a friend the design was prepped and turned.

This is something I have spent an embarrassing amount of mental energy on myself. So many great trails, even brand new ones, are poorly marked, with poor maps, poor wayfinding, and very little information on what you're actually getting yourself into. MTO forests are in my opinion the biggest offenders, but even flashy new private trails get it so very wrong sometimes - I was very surprised to see one in the Cape with South pointing to the top of the page. I heard the ghosts of my university lecturers cry out in unison. In my mind there are 2 main kinds of trails: Ones where you follow a set loop, with potentially some extra loops coming off those that return to the main loop (most trail parks) Trails where you can string together many different sections into whatever format you like, using a base jeep track or starting point (think Jonkershoek and all other MTO trails I've ridden) The first type is easy. You should have a clear indication of what kind of trail you are one (length, elevation, technicality) and then crucially, very clear wayfinding at each split as others have alluded to. Where there are extra loops that are tougher or more technical, that should be made very clear. Great example: Cairnbroghie farm. Very happy taking first time riders there, because I can see exactly what we are going to deal with. Also makes it great for a mixed group, because you can choose how technical you want to ride and meet back up very quickly. Thaba trails also has this feature. The second type of trail poses a bigger challenge for mapmakers and users, but should allow for certain preset routes. Trailforks does this very well, but personally I don't want to constantly stop to check my phone at every intersection - the whole goal is to get away from technology. So again, wayfinding at each intersection, with a clear colour or name would really help. It's great if you're a local and stringing together your favourite course from memory, but Jonkershoek, Sabie, and Concordia were all absolute mazes to me the first time, and only constant GPS checking got me onto the best singletrack where I wanted to be. At the end of the day, the goal is to be welcoming to younger or less experienced riders, so there must be a very clear understanding of the trails on offer, and very clear wayfinding once you're there, otherwise things quickly become frustrating (especially once thirst and tiredness sets in). On that note, marking water points also helps!

Unfortunately where I found myself in the bunch means that I spent almost all of the singletrack in a head to tail traffic jam, with people regularly falling. Oh well, guess that's MTB racing.

Nice ride, except for the waiting at the water crossings. I guess the lesson is to try and get to the very start of every bunch.

Personally, I approach every intersection in South Africa more or less like a 4-way stop. It's not cool and nobody on group rides understands it, but I have my reasons.

The short answer is yes, the tyres are making you slower.

I'm sure a medical professional is the right person to ask, but from my personal and completely unqualified experience I would give it at the very least a week. Your heart health is not something to play around with.

It's a great option. Lots of customisation possible and far superior GPS built in to the previous fitbit piece of trash I had.

I can only think of the Illovo A group that does faster speeds like that, but I'm sure someone else will chip in with suggestions.

What kind of speed ideally?

Beautiful overcast weather that quickly turned rainy, lovely ride nonetheless

Or one for a santa cruz tallboy 2 perhaps? 😇

Slow progress with a lot of frustrating setbacks. Amazing how many mistakes you can make when everything is a first time. The nice blue anodized Chris King headset the frame came with had a non-matching crown race. Apparently sometimes you can get away with this, but this time is not one of those. Lucky fluke then to find out a friend of a friend had the part in their garage. Pics showing before, after and comparison. In the meantime I've had some aluminium machined for a custom thru axle solution, will find out if that worked next week.

Absolutely not. They might get me a Trek 🤢

Garden Route Trail Park has a few large jumps and berms and some lovely flow line riding, but I also wouldn't call it technical in the rocky / rooty sense.

Thank you, done!