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Super fun event guys - well done!

Just fitted a 2.35 Nevegal to my back wheel - 900g and has lovely stiff side knobs. Had to tweak my rimstrip and add three layers of tape to get them to mount tubeless. Width is fine for the back wheel ie noticeably narrower than my HD 2.35 on the front. I had to ditch my 2.35 Bronson because of excessive tread wear. Its a great tyre but the compound is way too soft which is a pity because it mounts tubeless easily is fat for a 2.3 and has tough side walls...

50mm might make the change more extreme but nothing you can't overcome with stem and headset spacer changes and some extra air in the rear shock - I could make it work I bet. You can't just change one thing and leave the rest alone or expect the bike to feel the same as it did. See my earlier comment on the proper way to ride - ie not like a sack of potatoes, but mobile over the bike.

Guys, don't get ahead of yourselves. You'd have to really do something bizarre like mount a DH fork on an XC bike to get the kind of problems you mention. Adding 20-30 mm to a fork on a bike designed for a 120 or 100mm fork will not have a negative effect, unless you expect the bike to still ride exactly like the shorter forked version - in fact it will be better if you like descending...

But the Fuel is not slack in today's terms - about 68 or 69. what fork you running?

Ya, nothing wrong with riding up a hill - its just that if you want to enjoy the downs and have sufficient energy and time left to ride them properly or more than once, doing hill repeats does not work so well. And most of us pedal on the downs, unlike most SA mtb riders

And of course wider bars make steering on the technical uphills perfectly easy on a slacker AM bike, as does a shorter stem eg 50mm.

Whaaaat? Were you trying a 63deg DH bike or something? Most AM bikes these days come with a HA of between 66 and 68 degrees. However, may things affect the stated HA such as the fork travel - a taller fork slackens the HA . A softer rear shock may also cause the rear to ride lower and have the same effect. My bike is about 67 deg but with the fork dropped 30mm to 120mm travel is probably more like 68.5. I use this for the climbs. The slacker angle helps hugely with stability on steep descents but you also need to be mobile on the bike and change your riding style a bit. Moving weight side to side and forwards to cover the front wheel a bit is standard stuff if you want to go fast downhill.

My word, so much wheel size opinion derived from bike shop sales pitches and bike advertising nonsense on this thread. Enjoy the new bike!

Hey, just a little fantasy guys. Agreed we aren't as high but then again how high are the mountains in Queenstown which was the example I gave - we lack a snow season so no turnover in winter from skiing - but - mtb still works here in winter so maybe there would be a market all year round? I was thinking of a small scale chairlift - not a mega cable car like TM. Jonkers has a lot of vert - probably around 1000m. As you say though, its all about the Epic and funrides here and the gravity crowd in SA is tiny. . One positive about the Epic of course - the steeper singletrack is emptier than ever because the XC guys don't want to injure themselves before the big race...

http://www.vitalmtb.com/videos/member/Summer-is-the-New-Winter-Queenstown-NZ-with-Kelly-McGarry,24846/iceman2058,94 Imagine if we had a chairlift up Tokai and JH - the cannuks and euro's would be all over the place...

http://www.vitalmtb.com/videos/member/Summer-is-the-New-Winter-Queenstown-NZ-with-Kelly-McGarry,24846/iceman2058,94 Imagine if we had a chairlift up Tokai and JH - the cannuks and euro's would be all over the place...

Agreed OM. I was not aware that they had appointed anyone specifically to deal with MTB at TMNP - whats your source? The fact that they have such people is perhaps because they are taking it seriously not because it is a hassle. Your comments are couched in negativity in the main. Maybe some happy pills would give you a more positive disposition?

I disagree on the hassle factor - this is a park - they have thousands of users - dog walkers, hikers, tour buses etc.Its their business to deal with the public and user groups on a daily basis... I think all that needed to be said was said a week or two before the meeting hence the quiet meeting last night. All good I think. Why the need for constant drama Golefty?

Aha - we are talking about the same thing then - your shim is reducing the aircan volume in the same way the Fox plastic reducers do on the shocks with one piece cans I think?

Throw out some bait and the fish come

Same old negativity from you eh? Boring. I think Mayhem, what you are saying is when riders use the illegal trails they should leave Strava off - would that be accurate ?

Not sure about "boost chamber" there patches - its a boost valve - look it up. The air volume reducers that Fox sells reduce the aircan volume for a more progressive spring rate. Many bikes benefit from this. In 2012, the Reign 1 came with RS shock and fork not fox anyway, so a 2011 Reign is different as is the 2013 with Fox CTD shocks. I think the geo changes you are talking about are probably an improvement - they are certainly the trend these days, but, there are plenty of shorter TT bikes still being made. There is no perfect geo - my short TT Reign is a bit cramped with a 50 mm stem but can manage long climb filled rides (I did 50 a km/ 2000 m this weekend) and handle really well on the descents and in the air.... 6 of one 1/2 of 12

Noli you are a bit promiscuous. Several jilted Giants out there . I'd like someone(Noli maybe) to point out where Giant have allegedly tweaked the Meastro on the new Trance? I doubt there is any meaningful difference in the actual mechanics and I haven't managed to find anything on altered leverage ratio's etc. How precisely is the Trance better than the 2011 Reign?

Methinks Bibi has a vested interest in KHS hence the Trance knocking comment. As for your Trance out dropping my Reign - how on earth do you test that? With a properly set up rear shock, the Reign is just fine and has 10mm more suspension to play with. Perhaps its not just journos who sprout their opinions.....

Lol - and I though Cape Town had productivity issues.

The SG version of the HD is almost a DH tyre (weighs 950g). Some people have reported their std HD's lose their knobs and to be honest I have seen a friends SG version with teh same problem. Mine has also been virtually problem free however, despite millions of thorns and other abuse. The problem I have with some brands - the WTB and an old Bontrager I had years ago - was knob wear - they wear off into rounds instead of retaining the sharp edged profile as they get shorter. Maxxis are far better in that respect.

You should be able to have everything on an MTB tyre - reasonable weight grip and durability - I am sure the technology is there but instead many tyres, like the Bronson I'm reviewing, last about as long as a spit ball in a braai fire and after a certain point become next to useless.. The Bronson AM TCS is about 800g and has an aggressive tread pattern with especially long side knobs. The center knobs are less pronounced and quite widely spaced. The tyre mounted up tubeless without any issues and on that score I cannot fault it. It even re-inflated from nearly flat (bead away from rim edge) while out on the trail with my tiny pressure drive Lezyne pump. So, its a decent tubeless ready tyre with the obligatory butyl bead decently stiff casing and aggressive tread. All good then. Well yes, for a while. The tyre proved grippy and refused to burp or bleed air via the sidewalls as some other so-called tubeless ready. This solved two problems I had had with my previous rear tyre. Hard cornering and rock gardens were a breeze and the security the tyre gave was confidence inspiring. there is nothing worse than a weak burp prone tyre when descending at speed. I admit that i did abuse the tyre behaving like a kid and skidding, but this was not an everyday occurrence at all. The center knobs wore away more quickly than I have ever seen on any other tyre. One day they were there, the next - gone. This was after about 4-5 months of 2x rides per week averaging about 40 km total - say 800km. Still not a major problem I thought but my last two rides on the tyre have not gone well at all. I flatted on both rides. The first one looked like a rock or sharp stick hole next to the side knobs. I had to use a car type tubeless tyre plug. They work well. The next ride almost exactly the same thing happened except that this time the fresh sealant blocked the hole easily. Based on this I have concluded that the tyre has reached the end of its useful life. The soft fast wearing compound it seems to be made of may be grippy but its not durable enough to do duty as a rear tyre. Front probably better, but I doubt it'll last as long as my present Hans Dampf Super Gravity which seems to be a whole lot tougher than the standard version from what I have read... I have just fitted a Maxxis 2.35 Ignitor UST tyre I had lying around and am interested to see how it fares...

The shifting spanner works a treat -if done carefully you can dispense with the metal tyre lever they talk about. Did my back rim yesterday evening.

Sounds superb - well done guys. Just cancelled that 29er Ht order I had going and put a deposit down on a new Glory ( kidding - I wish )