wapad

The feedback I have got is that the AM classic is a soft rim and dings quite easily Stay away from revolution spokes if your are not a racing snake or go anywhere near a light trail JB was telling me with revo spokes on a light rim for a heavy person like me the setup takes a beating because of the tension put into the rim the other thing I have seen and been fedback is the crest rim with hope hubs and comp spokes comes out closer to 1700g with Rim tape and valves Ngala has/had a set with the evo hubs for sale for 4 grand at around 1700g + I think I'm gonna go with ZTR hubs or nova tech lite (I tend to think the hope is for more heavy duty trail) and crest rims and see where that leads me does anyone know if there is a 355 rim in 29er I thought that was for a 26 wheel

I have an Anthem but if you're a weekend warrior I must be honest and say that a 26 would suit you I tend to think that you need to be a touch fitter ( not to say that you arent ) to get the most out of the big wheels it can take a bit out of you on the climbs If you want to get into racing then I would say 29er having said that if you are going 29er the giant is far superior I had the Trek for a good few long rides Giant spec is way better by a long way much better brakes than the trek which is NB on a 29er aftersales service about 300% better Its lighter the trek has some funny fork angle( on the steerer so can be a ballache to upgrade the trek has a more relaxed geometry the rear triangle on the giant is simple no issues with wheels can convert to tubeless with a roll of tape and a valve I am 1.86 and have the 19.5 (large) it is a racier feel than the Trek but the maestro is great a bit biased ... but mostly based on fact/ my exp.

out of interest what are the weights but if you have the Fox rlc 29 with fit catridge thats the one for big guys like us also generally easier to setup but have heard amazing things about the lefty. A mate is having one put on his air niner carbon he is shaving about 400-500grams but its costing arm and a leg about 12 grand with Tune hub conversion luckily he aint paying

I think there is one in the may/june bicycling mag I had the pleasure of using one whilst in Namibia I have an Anthem 29er I found the bike very capable and as in the mag I found it a good climber well specced The brakes were OK but the ride was good the only drawback for me was that for a large the seatpost was to short to get to my correct height I weigh 100kg and ran the tyres at about 1.8 bar and that was fine( it already had a tubeless conversion) the spec was good for the price Being on a full suss the ride was hard at first but adjusted quite quickly and really enjoyed the bike enough to persuade me to get a hardtail as a future project I think I had the bike at about 13 kg which is heavy but at the price point thats what you get the other thing that surprised me was no tapered head and std QR upfront although to be fair never felt it I had a total jol on the bike and the tracks in Nam(WDH) were great

are you doing any mtb I can ride during the week aswell live in Noordhoek but ride Tokai plenty

Johan is busy but I'm free are you keen for a short one

Also love my avids never have to re-align I think sometimes people tighten their QR's to tight in the excitement and that can cause the alignment problem usually you find that when you replace your wheel without tightening the QR then there is no contact its when you tension up that the problem occurrs but this problem is not unique to Avid I changed from XT with similar problems

Carbo loading and altitude training sounds impressive... :clap:

Went for a lekker ride here in Windhoek did their version of tokai, 1 of the sisters and a few others did some tight climbing switchbacks was huffing and puffing didnt realise that they are at 1650m above sea level so hard work when you havent been on a bike and come from the coast very different riding long grass so you dont see the trail, mostly hard but with lots of loose stone a couple of kudu around really amazing riding, good to experience something different And as someone said worth giving a nut away to ride here And the Merida 29er hardtail was up to the task thanks to the guys at Wholesale Cycles

try the first Ascent pro elite bibs they are great they also now have a compression set of bibs shorts I tried them for the Argus top quality chamois it has some sort of gel a bit pricier but high quality stitching and look

I met the owner of the Spar here and put me in touch with Wholesale Cycles who will be letting me use a demo 29er cooool its very organised up here they have a website www.rockanrut.org they are running a XC series up here hopefully gonna be riding this weekend with some of the locals

there is a bike shop here - CYCLETEC that rents out bikes not cheap but a gem of a shop not what one would expect in these parts but they say cycling is growing here anyway will hit a trail or two whilst I,m here

thanks will do

its a long shot but if any hubbers in Windhoek have a spare bike size large would love to get a few rides in I am on local no. 085 6211344 been doing a bit of spinning but need to hit the out doors Its a long shot but dont ask dont get

you could also try cleaning it like this...

You'll hear many differing opinions on bike cleaning, for the chain get a powerlink put on and then you can remove the chain say every 5 rides put it in a plastic bottle and shake it in some diesel/or other oil based like turps stay away from petrol and thinners this will save loads of time then dont forget to lube that topic can be as hot asthe 26 vs 29 topic baby steps..

Ag sweet ....you can get some lekker tyres to kick up some more mud, I remember the hours spent after each ride cleaning my bike spotless and shiny when the bug bites it bites much harder than golf and costs a lot more, :thumbup: enjoy ..

if it still seals with the tubeless then thats step one step two would be how out of balance it feels if it's a no with wheel balancing then its time to rebuild I saw a price of about R900 for a rim and then there is rebuild labour R300 + maybe spokes but they are great wheels I would go with a rebuild these wheels definitely need to run at higher pressures though

ja would love to know how you got it that low

I have a large that weighs 12.1 kg with tubeless spez fast traks a carbon bar and scandium seatpost, can get it down to 11.5 with new wheels, lighter saddle and pedals after that it becomes pricey bang for buck it beats the niner and santa cruz in the weight cat by far there claim seems to be geometry and riding position but as most anthem owners will tell you they are great bikes

Nobody seems to be raving about the crest or any of the stan's rims for that matter I have had quite a few PM's pointing me in all sorts of directions Anyway thanks for the inputs

blah blah blah I take it you still run windows 95 because you refuse to fall into the marketing trap.. I think every time someone knocks a genuine 29er question we should give him the blah blah answer

that is a good price and that wheelset is great because it has the DT Swiss competition spoke which are stronger than the revo's I see it has a weight limit which is odd because the wheelset with the Hope hubs which use revo spokes doesnt I think at the end of the day it comes down to how you use them wrt price to have set of those built will cost in the region of 6 grand -+ R500 with hope hubs and DT Swiss spokes

Hey Dodger so which do you rate better Ja can go AM Classics but was looking at a custom build I had AM Classics and no complaints at all but have been led to believe hand built is better 380 grams is actually quite a bit I would use them as pure race wheels that would bring my bike well under 12kgs Anyway keep well

I weighed my anthem wheels and have them at just over 2000g In answer to @nobodys question I would run them with just the yellow tape. Somebody PMed me and spoke about loadedusa wheelsets I see they have the eyelets does anybody know if they are locally available and the cost of the rims Its seems the general consensus is to stay away from the crest has anybody had any problems with them.