covie

Agreed best scenario is getting ikons for training and the schwalbe's for races. if your inclined to spend the money, Though im fairly impressed with the IKON and i hated every single other maxxis tyre with excpetion to the Ardent.

Got the ikon on my 29'er and not a bad tyre so far, that said its normal foldables and not UST, or the exo versions but so far they have been holding up. Im between getting the ikon UST versions or the Schalwbe racing ralph snake skins, Happy with the performance of the IKON Know that the evo schwalbe is useless, the snakeskin is better, they grip like crap on a woolen jersy but wear quickly. tough choice to make.

Ironically ive seen many a fat bastid ride like a BOSS!

Using non-ust rubber WILL fail at some stage, bike shops even sign disclaimers if you wish to use normal foldable tyres as tubeless, cheap yes, till it comes of the rim and you need to have teeth replaced. converting Stans vs Ghetto, just go stans tried tested and proven.

What makes you think I cant afford a spesh or any of the other posters on this thread?

Agreed you will never get a acurate result, not only is it what they currently ride, hubbers will vote for what they perceive to be the best suspension which will reside on their dream bike that they would one day like to buy.

Santa, Rocky Mountain, Pyga, ellsworth they all need a honorable mention and cash to be forked out for.

camber got rated 10 out of 10, one of the lightest AM bikes out there def my choice if i had to buy a new rig, much more versatile than any of the other.

After my first wipe on the new rig ill let you have a go at her

Forget the best suspension well for XC anyway Smoothlink suspension

And so you get to the menaltity of most first world European countries, they buy cheap ass cars and spend their money on worthwhile things. Its only in SA that you get some guy eating stale bread while living with his mother but he drives a merc/bmw/audi, cause we SAFFA's are cool like dat. Here cars much like our bikes are status symbols more than functional tools. We want shiny cause my bike has to be prettier and more expensive than yours. Its a SA mentality. I have many friends in europe half of them own cars worth no more than 4000 euro which are their day to day vehicles, yet they all have porches, lamborgini's superbikes, which they use ..... for racing on race tracks. They dont drive to work in it just to show everyone they own one. Yet again if you have the money and want to waste it go buy a 80k bike thats your right, buy your M3 and drive like a (that word that gets you a 2 day ban) because you can.. bottom line is, if you are on your 100k bike and then 9 year old passes you on a raleigh in a race, yes you are looking like a prick with a pretty but expensive bike. As in everything in life form needs to meet function.

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.