covie

Not to sound sexist, but give a girl a bike and they just ride it, I find it awesome get on and go. Give a guy a bike and immedialty, tyre pressures need to get changed, shock pressures and rebound needs adjusting every 5 minutes. And then we have to upgrade everything we can. Cuase we is men and like spanners.

I think the buy according to your skill is aimed at the bottom end of the scale, i.e. people buying 100k bikes but cant ride 10km and doesnt have a clue what ST is. Now we can fight and debate it all we want to. But thats an acurate comment regardless of your personal feelings. Yes once we get into the sport we do oodles of research we like to upgrade and bling up our beasts and before you know it your eating ponutro for the rest of the month cause you conviced yourself you need that 2k stem. Most of us have been there once or twice. Hell im currently contimplating if i want this to be a pronutro month or not. by putting new stuff on a 1month old bike, Do i need it .. no i dont do i want it .... yes i do. Does my skill level dictate what i am buying .. yes it does. Im a medium level mountainbiker, upping the functionaility of my bike with components that suit my riding style. But alas i do like the bling, i love the research and buying new kit is always a good motivator to go ride and test it.

That i have to give to SRAM, to setup my XT gears was a mystery and marvel only to be accomplished by possesed bike shop mechanics, Got my SRAM, watched a clip on pinkbike on what to do and setup my gearing perfect first time took a whole 5 mins.

I see buycycle has fox bibs at a decent price http://www.buycycle.co.za/brands/fox-racing/fox-evolution-bib-shorts-black-clone.html

No but after 5hours on a bike you thank the gods that they have given you that short, oh and the bankmanager for giving the loan.

oh its so worth it, i cringe now everytime i have to put on my cape storm nitro's they just well ..... suck compared to assos.

all relative my 3k pair of assos bibs also fell apart after a year. i did get my money's worth during the year and will gladly buy another pair.

I had a similar issue, but with Shimano XT, ended up being some bushing, on the derailure that developed about 1mm of play due to a hard knock it got in one of my splended wipes. ended up chagning, front cogs, rear cassette chain and kept on doing the same thing, then i changed the derailure that didnt look like there was anything wrong with the naked eye and bobs your auntie all sorted. I suggest you get a test derailure somewhere slap that on and then go try again.

I now ride the heaviest bike ive ever had, and im smashing my laptimes on the trails, and the bike is built around being super stiff instead of light so its an XC machine that eats up any form of ST. Granted a lighter bike lets you climb a bit easier, but thats about the only andvantage. We justify it to say we have XO/XTR bling on our bikes, we want carbon handlebars even though they snap like twigs, its SA mentality, i want a biger meaner faster car than my neighbour becuase it shows people i have money. Meanwhile i silently laughed my butt off when i started back in the day on a silverback reno with a normal tshirt and baggy pants., and in races i passed people on carbon specialized sworks bikes kitted out with garmins and full assos. Buy according to your skill/fitness level i say. Even if you can afford a 80k bike you really shouldnt buy it if you have no clue how to use it.

www.everytrail.co.za

Never a truer word been spoken, I did loads of research before i bought my new machine, and the obvious candidates are Momesen, Giant Anthem Scott Momsen is first generation and even though not a bad ride does need some work on the geometry still Giant Anthem, great reivews and a great ride, Scott, the DTswis 210 shock is about as useless as putting an elastic in its place no good reviews on that bike, even the epic guys had to put on custom valved rp23.

Trance X4 is like under 11k these days and they are awesome frame also light enough to turn it into a xc/am machine.

The anthem got a new home last night im personally not a merida fan, not that they make bad bikes, i just for some reason associate merida's with girls

stop ripping the chap and give some advice. There will be many bikes in this priceclass, especially second hand, Im assuming you are wanting to do XC, so a merida is not a bad bet. Just make sure you go to your local bike shop and have them size you so you know what size bike to look for. Then for 13k you can get a decent new bike or a damn good second hand bike, depending if you want to take the risk of a second hand bike.And if you can afford 13k get a 13k bike, if you are sure this is a sport you would like to commit too. If not then go for something cheap till you know you want to do the sport.

you need hills for this

suspect if you bring in forks, rubber and a good backup service you might get some calls. Though most shops dont even stock enough 29er rubber and thats frustrating enough as is.

Its not CRC its the post office, they no there is no tracking on royl mail orders and it mysteriously "dissapears" the minute it hits the post office.

lol when are people going to learn pay the couple of cents to have it courier'd royl mail and parcel force are both fine but once it gets to SAPO your crap begings.

Im just loving the fact that Dual suspension are kicking the HT's asses on this race, hope everyone that says the weight penalty is a negative thing eats their shorts right about now.

For the record, 29'ers cant corner ... total myth, those that are poorly designed and "dead footed" as i call them yeah they suck, bikes like RM, SANTA, Pyaga, Kona, ellsworth, etc are superb in the tight stuff. The reason why the UK havent moved over to 29'ers are becuase 90% of their riding is done in AM/Trail bike conditions, most people in the UK look at a 100mm travel bike as their version of a commuter bike. There was a big gap in the market for long travel 29'ers manufacturers were keeping them at 100mm for XC purposes, and as they now get the geometry right, they are starting to bring out longer travel 29'ers and those are doing well in the UK. 120mm and up. The next bike on my shopping list is defintily http://www.bikes.com/main+en+01_102+ALTITUDE_970_29_.html?BIKE=988&CATID=1&SCATID=22&Y=2012

Its all a matter of perception, i initially bought my 29'er purly becuase i wanted to use it for stage races and marathons. Thought i would keep the 26 for the tight technical stuff. The 29'er is so much nicer especially in the tight technical stuff, my 26" is standing gathering dust, ive never once thought since ive bought the new steed hrmm im doing a technical trail i better rack up the 26". But like i said, its about your comfort and perception, and yes a large number of 29'ers are useless, ive test ridden a crapload before i eventually bought. And its not just about the wheelsize somehow i just feel more balanced and more stable with the ENTIRE geometry of the bike. And that translates into more confidence. Well for me at least. I will never say 29 is better than 26" but it sure as hell is working for me ... and i use to be a hater.

I couldnt care if they bring out a 28.323 wheelsize, if it works it works. some tracks will still suit a 26" some will suit 27.5 and some will suit 29, but thats all minors as there is no track/race that you wont be able to do on any of the wheelsizes. Its going to be down to personal prefrence, not one of those dimensions will make you a better rider. However what makes sense is that balance point wise taller people feel more comofrtable on 29'ers and short people feel comfortable on 26" rigs. So it would make sense to have Small frames 26" Medium frames at 27.5" Large and XL 29"

I see your ipad and i raise you a commodore 64,,,,

Well over the last three years prices have actually come down on complete builds, parts are still expensive if you upgrade. In 2010 you could buy a giant anthem alu frame for R10500 now you can buy the carbon 2011 frame for 8k. that same carbon frame if you wanted it in 2010 would have costed you 17k. Basically we buy cause we want the latest and gratest, the market knows this and sells everything at over inflated prices for current models, and next year when the new stuff comes out they sell the previous years model, at proper market values, that way they make a crap load on the new kit, while getting rid of the old kit and still showing a hefty profit sheet.

Theres a thread somewhere on the hub "32GI that stuff rocks" or something similar from last year where it was discussed indepth, I cant remember all the technical details, but a lot of people complained they bonked suddenly on the stuff, or that it did absolutly nothing for some people. While others swore by the product. The short and sweet was that the people who bonked took coke at waterpoints and just hit the wall, while the others had sugar intake before the rides and using 32gi. The importer/producer of 32gi gave a huge breakdown of how the low GI stuff works and to get optimal results only low GI foods should be taken during a race as well as prior.