covie

Let me know when your hooked up ill take you for a guided tour of some of the best singletrack CPT has to offer

Yes you can stick to the standard stuff and it will work, but soon as youre skills progress you will want a better fork for better ride comfort, If i remember the rockhopper only has 80mm of travel, (speaking under correction here) but regardless youll want a plusher ride in time. 2 getting a new wheelset is not just about getting something that rolls better you also shave of a lot of weight by putting on new wheels so its double score. That said you could ride that bike as is just fine,,,,,, but as you will soon find out upgrading your kit becomes an obsession, I bought a really expensive bike last month, this month its a new shock, next month new wheelset, month after that probably new crank or brakeset, you eventually build the machine the way you want it costly .... but fun

Its more like a decent frame with a whole bunch of crap attached to it, but thats fine, as you start off and break stuff, you dont want high grade components and you can invest and upgrade over time. Like caerus said, upgrade 1 the fork upgrade 2 the wheelset. The rest you ride till it breaks. and then replace with higher level components.

ITs not the best speced bike, but every single review has it 4 stars plus, I also read a review where a very famous rider tested it for 3 months, his only complaint was that when you get to sections in the DCM where you have to carry the bike, it hurts your shoulder, besides that he said it was rock solid, and a total unexpected joy to ride.

speak to deon at cyclefunatic hell help you out.

Ill have to take that up under advisement from Dr Johnny Walker

How much does that weigh?

Are you taking the p!ss out of people again?

Make me

you go commando.

Top i have 4 sets of baggies you can have them , first time i did a ride longer than 2 hours i was chaffed raw. Baggies might look like mtb attire but they sure as hell are not designed for long periods on the bike.

Yeah Bib's are much more comfortable, and they dont move around, so less chance of chaffing, Invest in a good one.

Lol asking about a 29'er on this forum is basically like getting caught by your wife having sex with your daughters best friend.............. But yes 29'ers do make excellent stage race bikes, you wont get a decent dual suspension for that price range, so yes if you cant afford a 26" or 29" dually then get a 29 hardtail bike.

Look for a decent second hand machine for around 6k, 1k for bibs, R500 for helmet like bell solar R350 for gloves, giro all the way R500 for a camelback. 2L R750 for shoes with cleats. The other k for a decent multitool and a cheapish cycle comp. And you should be good to go.

Its the CWC contego track and yeah you can ride to your hearts content, but be warned the one drop off caught me by suprise quite a nasty one, ended up in 2 broken and 3 cracked ribs. Besides that its an awesome little playground.

Just moved from 3x9 to 2x10, basically because it came stock with the new bike. So far I love the 2 x 10 setup the ratio's to me just feels better, admittedly, on the serious climbs I really miss my granny and i find myself wanting to shift to a lower gear that simply is not there Monster hills i use to be able to climb quite easily by shifting to granny and spinning to rest the old legs, I now struggle with since there is no option but to grind away till you get to the top. That said, my leg strength has improved tremendously, and in another month or so I dont think those hills will be so intimidating anymore. It just takes getting used to, and getting forced to develop the leg strength needed to power up the hills. On the medium gradient hills though you fly like a demon. And they seem much easier to do than before. I also find that you can accelerate a lot quicker in short bursts as is needed on ST, much better for some reason, dont as me why but its like the gearing just makes more "sense" And lastly you tend to shift a lot less which is never a bad thing. But in general, i stay in my small blade while i warm up, once the legs are warm I drop it onto the big blade and i can ignore my once shifter in general. Which means even less shifting.

I trie the Race sport versions of both and both of those let me down after a couple of months, I now only stick to UST. The extra weight is worth the peace of mind.

The scott is ok but remember you will want to rip out that dtswiss at the back and slap in a Rp23 or RS, so add another 4k to the mix.

One of the best yeah,

Actually i get better grip with slightly higher pressures (obviously rider wheight dependent) have to rember XC tyres does not have the strong sidewalls of DH tyres, so everyone wants to run their pressures as low as possible, the problem is it completly bends the carcass and deforms the tyre actually ending up in less grip, washouts and tyres running of the rails. Ive tried so many tires all at different types of pressures, i get the best results for my 87kg's running most tyres between 1.8 and 2.2. Anything less its no grip total washouts and really staggering rolling resitance.

Saying skill i dont agree with, dont come more skilled that Evans and George, but i agree the faster and more aggresive you ride, the more the chances of getting punctures or tears, and these guys are aggresive. And sometime they have to take those chances.

AMC's en route they havent arrived yet, needed the 20mm maxle conversion kit, and that took some time to get hold off.

That time will tell, but almost everyone i know that has been through both group sets have told me SRAM is much better in mud than Shimano, though this winter will be the proof in the pudding. Biiggest advantage to me still is that i can tune it 100% on the trail with a multitool as if done by a prof bike mechanic, could never do that with shimano, got it to work ok but never perfectly. And i can do it in less than 5 mins.

I need .... errr want to upgrade my wheelset anyway so the new ones will have racing ralph/rocket ron combo on AM classics, the stock wheels with ASPEN/IKON will be the training set.

Congrats on the bike cant go wrong with either already my 26" anthem, but..... had XT XTR on all my bikes got a new Rocky mountain with X7, thought that would be the first to go.... wrong, @#$@ XT, even the SRAM X7 wipes the floor with shimano. Not to mention tuning the SRAM stuff is a breeze, where with shimano you need mystical powers to get it right. Im now spening my money on new wheelsets and better forks as upgrade options the X7 can stay till it brakes. But thats just my humble opinion. XT is obviously not bad, but i have been converted to SRAM junkie i beleive.