covie

Yeah im stopping the sponsoring of stuff, only did it on this ride since i knew a lot of them are noobs and still have a lot to learn, gave everyone a stern lecture about being prepared in a race as i handed them my spares.

Treks are far from perfect actually cant remember when last i had a good review on a trek, everything you read these days say they are twitchy as hell.

YUP rocky mountain element 70 RSL if too expensive MSL, also makes a damn fine 650B conversion if you need too one day.

http://www.bikes.com/main+en+01_102+ELEMENT_70_RSL.html?BIKE=975&CATID=1&SCATID=1&Y=2012

could be i know you can use a 10spd chain on a 9spd drivetrain, so might be more in relation to the width than the length.

One is for 9 speed drivetrains and the other for 10 speed Just kidding, theres a diff in the lengths of 9 vs 10spd chains i.e. the blades will have teeth with varying diamters and spaces inbetween.

YUP but i suspect they want to completly demoslish the fact that SB started in SA for some reason. Hence all the german mumbo jumbo. Hey if you dont like it just slap a bootsock or a sticker over it

Your not looking hard enough, Cannondale will say when its handmade in the USA, Some morewoods have made in SA stickers, Rocky mountain is slapped full of canadian flags etc.

Born in cape town bred in germany, since they are now 100% german owned I assume they have a right to make that statement.

Thats why I ensure i always keep a decent distance between me and my riding buddies, anything can happen at any time, and sitting on someone's ass like that you will come of second best and probably hurt your mate in the process. Hope you heal up soon. And you never fall on the techical bits its always on the road or in the parking lot

They would supply on whomever decides to help "sponsor" the event, so if there were bike shops or lube companies associated with the race they would make lube available. You "refering to all mtbers" as a mountainbiker should come prepared for any race. Have your extra bottle of lube, since it doesnt have to be messy and wet to need lube, all it takes is one river crossing to wash off your lube. Make sure you have quicklinks/powerlinks/sparetubes/multitools/co2bombs etc its standard kit if you want to finish a race. This weekend again i had to hand out 4 powerlinks, thats R160 out of my pocket becuase a couple of numbnuts bikers werent prepared. I should have left them to walk.

You guys should have done the houwhoek challenge now there was one well organized event, tech stations at every waterpoint, drinkable yoghurt bannanas, sarmie's, water coke, etc excellent route markers and the sweetest singletrack, they know how to host an event, and the free beers at the end of each day didnt hurt either. BTW its not the organisers responsiblity to have lube on hand so you can avoid chainsuck, go out and buy a miniture bottle of squirt its like 30 bucks, and does wonders if you go through puddles and rivers to revitalize the chain.

did a ride with lance and some his mates from epic, the one dude rode a niner ht he was about 5"4 and I have never seen a guy wheelie like that in real life before.

Hey i use to be able to wheelie my old bomber when i was a laaitjie and that bike weighed double and i was nowhere close as strong as i am now, that said i had a lot more balls back then to try stuff like that. Logic tells me i only have to be able to lift my front wheel a couple of inches to clear obastacles so i havent gotten into doing a proper wheelie/manual as said before broken butt is ouchie.

'Yup just need a rogz leash for my 5 year old she is outgrowing the ones i use on my ridgebacks

Depends on the friend if its a good friend ill rip out the 21 year old scotch if your an aquantance be damned sure you get the cheap stuff

Lets All i am saying is chance it if you think its worth it. Personal opinion ill still rather pay over inflated prices, even if only for decent backup service and support.

sorry voodoo ive seen this happen first hand, And they are not allowed to sell any overrun's as it will be an infringement to the brand name contract, they have to alter the frame before they can produce the cheapies. Companies like spez spend millions on design, you really think they will allow a Asian co to just mind the pun "carbon copy" their work and redistrubute it. In any event thats irrelevant like i said i have seen this happen and whats even worse is when they sell their old manufacturing lines to other companies and you should see the crap that gets knocked off the assembly line then.

Boss what yo say is true to an extent, but its the point behind the fact thats relevant here, The east will make products according to rigid standards and tests for brand named companies using extensive R&D and top quality materials as prescribed by the brand name firm. They then have the nack to use the same technology they have to punch out low cost items that looks similar in almost every way, using the cheapest materials they can find without the stringent testing to make more money and get a bigger return on their initial capital outlay for the manufacturing equipement. i.e one bike will have the name specialized on it and will be made from the best materials go through a barrage of tests and quality control. The same manufacturer will slightly change the geometry knock out a no name brand using the cheapest carbon they can get their hands on and produce millions of the frames without the same Quality control and checks. You decide what you want to buy its as simple as that.

I actually agree, could give the pro's a BMX and they would still kick the rest of the fields @sses.

LOL maybe i support what i ride, since its the best bike i have ever been on, its not the most expensive bike in the pool, its not the lightest bike in the pool, but its definitly the bike that supports my riding style, and seems to be perfectly designed for my body frame Only tested about 15 bikes before i got to my latest love.

Yeah 99% of frames are made in the East voodoo I think most know this, I know a sales manager of a chinese carbon bike manufacturing co: And even she said that even though their standards are way above most of the other companies it doesnt get made close to the quality and standards of the bikes contracted out to the big brand players.

BTW as many will know im not a momsen fan, They are a bit new in the field and have a long way to go, but for a startup they sure arent doing bad. But for now ill be biased and support my newest favourite bike brand above all other.

you know this from optaining information from their design,manufacturing and RD department? Or are we guessing?

Thanks V