Spafsack

ET Phone Home....George Dam Trails

Dont think many of us understand how much a bike shop can make just on repairs, services, scary scary, more than what you make selling new bikes.

Few days ago, George Dam, me and a mate just having a joll.

I had a few forerunners in my day, did not like the dull screen, incorrect heart rate, switched to hauwei gt, me and mommy, never looked back, LOVE THEM, 2 weeks battery life, works everytime, just my 5 cents.

Hi Eddie, this polysport one looks nice, how do you recon it mounts?

Hey MB, thanx for this detailed explanation ???? I see the c6 ones are only R150, rockshocks on takealot are R250, i think for R150 you cant go wrong. Will cost me more time and effort to make one up myself, so will order and try get delivery this week, then i can test.

Hi Chris, if only my fork had the screws, mine doesn't, so can't use that Syncros ????

Hi everyone. I suspect i know the answer to my question but perhaps there is a small percentage of peeps who use these small mini front mud guards, fenders, which are happy....I dont expect it to stop everything like hectic mud, but who has fitted these and what are your thoughts. What are the pro's and con's, then again, at R150 i guess i cant expect full protection. I am looking at one of these C6 ones for my sid ultimate fork. Which i had the newer forks which have the screws in so you can properly mount the syncros mini fender, but such is life, please advise.

I think that is the Flux Capacitor Spindle Adjuster if i am not mistaken.

These actually look dam nice. I see lower pegs centre versus higher ones edges, front back i mean. So is that how they getting some sort of 'concave' i assume? The new flat shoes also look nice, hope sole is stiff ish. Wonder what pricing will come in at...

Does not make sense to me actually, seems those fins will hold mud, weird....

I also checked those out, what the hek, like fins, i swear i saw other bikes with those as well.

I think Yolanda was and still is a better rider in heavy tech stuff, did you see how smooth, fast, fearless she was, that is what made that race. All the other xco races were about pure fitness, strength, but this one was different.

That is frikken funny Bru????????

I looked at the replays again when he wiped out. At first i thought he took a different line, to the left, but looking at the slow mo's you can actually see he front wheel is down, hardly enough weight on the back, as if he thought there was a ramp. Still makes no sense, he saw the riders infront of him going over at speed, leaning back, front wheel up. Its still bad form form him to say what he said.

Maybe its time to ask OP what budget is per bike ????

I have watched all the xco races this year, i honestly thought lecomte would pull away second lap and you never see her again. So happy for Neff, she almost wiped out bad on that drop off, no idea how she held that, full fork compression.

Actually a very good question

Did you see the gent in the yellow evil knievel helmet lol

I have first hand experience to how different a trail bike compares to a xc bike. I also think we need to know the OP's age, height, predicted distance per week, might help. My wife [45] then, rode a Silverback Stratos al3. This was her first move / change, coming from a Giant hardtail 27.5. Yes, the slacker silverback was more comfy, but the riding we do did not justify the slackness and weight. We do the types of roads the OP is talking about. Most MTB Races are just fine for xc. I sold her bike as she was really complaining on long uphills, and we all no that there are tons of climbing on our local mtb races. She takes it easy downhills, we dont want to wipe out now at this age. The bike weight bothered her, even though she is 1.6m, 53kg and fit. So getting back, sold her bike, bought a second hand Scott contessa rc 900 wc. It is in a completely different league, its a medium but the size looks smaller, it weighs around 10.5kg. She is so much happier on this, does not have paid, does not need more slakness, is fine in any condition, road type. The suspension is way better even though its a 2 year old bike. Uphills she rides away from me now, compared to her close to 14kg silverback. Looking at the Geo, the scott is not that much more 'straight up' versus the stratos, but i guess you cant compare a bike which when new was almost 100k with a new stratos for 35k. She does not have a dropper as she takes it really easy on downhills, tech stuff. For us its the climbing, thats the work out. Different strokes for different okes i guess. These are my thoughts and for what we do, what type of riding she does, it works 100%.

As OP initially said: 'We are looking to ride on weekends around our local trails, which in the Free State means flat and dusty, but we would also like to be able to take our bikes with us on holidays and ride trails there, whether it be in the Western Cape or KZN. Also looking at doing some stage races just for the experience, and obviously to test ourselves, like Sani2C, Wines2Whales and the like.' Bloem is my old home town, born and raised there, its flat, its XC. The worst feeling when starting out is spending a bunch of money on a bike which weighs 14kg and you struggle on long uphills due to the weight, slack angles, cant really put your power down. Stage races as he mentions are also XC. Knowone is saying get a XC Weapon, but i think you will do just fine with them, new or secondhand. RE, Dropper posts, you will see how handy this comes in, how much safer you feel, more in control, just on long decents, technical stuff, not hectic, makes a huge difference.

This is interesting, the way it looked to me watching live was that it seemed he did not carry enough speed at all. I saw on Cadence last week that Candice was training over and over, every day, on a similar massive drop, so it must be this one. As i said, this is really hectic for the ladies, hope none of them wipe out. Still makes no sense as you said that mvdp did not know this drop was coming. But as i said, he looked wat to slow at the top, like completely unexpected....

Tough Corse for the ladies field I recon...big drops and heavy technical

Does vdp have a dropper, for this course it's needed...

Hectic drop that