Andymann

You forgot not hitting any of the fun riders from behind when you are on the last 15km ;-)

He does like that Cyclocross bike hey - won't lie about that. I tried asking nicely for just one set from the pile of Enve carbon wheels in his garage that it wears, but no luck.....

I know Greg well - we had a long chat about 26 vs 29 during the Roof a few years back. Let's just say he's not a great fan of the bigger wheels......

Agree, likelyhood of crashing is high in this race, but it's the first 45km where the risk is, and after all the hero's have blown from racing at 180BPM from the start, the bunches thin out a bit! Nice thing is, there's a wide dirt shoulder on the left, so I hang left ready to take to the dirt if need be

I'll be there - and hugging the yellow line. Been doing this race for about 10 years now, and was there when there was the fatal accident when an oncoming car hit the bunch. Have never ridden on the RHS of a bunch since....

Cool Runnings anyone???? I for one don't give a **** what colour they are - if we can get an SA team to the TDF, there will be no passengers on that team so everyone who is there will deserve their place...

Going to order one first thing tomorrow. Thanks for the feedback!

Damn right on that one! R700 cheaper than the Lab price.......

Thinking seriously of buying one of them seems like they are on special at Cyclelab. - Anyone care to comment - good/bad/indifferent?

Unfortunately not in Cape Town, but I suspected that there might be more to this story. I'm lucky that I was once in the Technical department at Yamaha SA, so was able to have a chat this morning to Hylton Hayward, he of Hayward Suspension - the bloke who designed suspension for KTM Austria a while back. While he's also not a bicycle fork expert, he mirrored exactly what you have just said - sounds like too light an oil, or a sticking shim in the rebound system...

I had an interesting (read heated!) discussion with my LBS recently about the rebound performance of my Fox 32 Float RL100. What I had noticed when it came back from a fork service, is that the rebound settings (there are about 14 clicks depending if you count from 0 or 1) only work from fully screwed in (where the rebound is super slow) and then the following two clicks directly after that. After then, progressively clicking the rebound adjuster out offers no rebound speed change whatsover. They then proceeded to tell me that I can't be expected to feel the rebound difference through the whole range, and also that my fork pressure (set to give a sag of 22mm - for my weight) was way to low - thats why I couldn't feel any rebound change(!). They then pumped the fork to max pressure (a sag of around 5mm!) and sent me on my way. Now I am no bicycle fork expert, but I have done my fair share of MX and I know on a MX fork the rebound clicker is very responsive thoughout the whole range of clicks, so why should it be any different on a high-end bicycle fork? I also suspect that the air chamber is completely separate to the oil chamber, so surely the pressure settings used to set sag should have no influence whatsoever on rebound speed? Am I completely off the mark here, and is the LBS correct in saying I shouldn't be able to feel a difference, or is there something else wrong, like an incorrect oil grade used during the service, incorrect oil amount, or a sticky shim of damaged needle on the rebound adjuster?

top-tube dammit...

Always been a fan of a good sloping tube-top....

Thanks - yup good ones are about R1200 so I guess R500 for the BBB one is a real bargain!

I'm busy investigating buying a Torque Wrench which I can use on my Road and MTB. I'm lucky that I work in Engineering, so I can buy direct from the suppliers, saving me a few $$$'s. I one I am looking at has a range of 5N.m up to 30N.m. Question is, is this range sufficient, or are there torque values (such as rear suspension link values) which are more than 30N.m? (I do have a standard Torque Wrench which I use when I work on the Motorbikes, but that starts at 100N.m, so I will be missing the range from 30-100)...

I use Motul MX off-road chain lube - seems to work fine for me. Haven't had any issues to date. Must use the off-road stuff though, the on-road stuff seems to form a real stiff mix which messes up the changes...

I'm still on a full suss Merida 96 26er. No doubt on some routes, 29er is faster. Mates of mine who were previously on 26er's but are now on 29ers gained about 5mins on me on flat routes, whereas I still get them on the more technical stuff. I would love a 29er, but my reasoning is that at my current level of riding skill and fitness, R15-20K for an extra 5mins is harsh; besides there is no way I am riding my 26er anywhere near it's limits, which i'm certain if I was capable of, would probably make up the lost 5mins, and probably another 10mins on that...

Interesting parallel between Roger Clemens (the LA of Baseball) and LA (the LA of Cycling!) I've extracted some info from the NBA website. For those that don't know, Roger Clemens was accused of perjury when he claimed he had never taken Steroids or Growth hormones in front of Congress, when his former coach and teammates testified that he had... "...Nothing that happens in the American justice system surprises me, so I barely batted an eye when I heard the not guilty verdict at around 5 p.m. EST today. The charges against Clemens, of course, stemmed from his televised testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in February 2008 that he never took steroids or HGH. Over the past 10 weeks, all Clemens' highly paid defence team had to do to win his case was create "reasonable doubt" in the minds of the 12- member jury, who deliberated for roughly 11 hours to arrive at a verdict. And when his lawyers started hammering away at Clemens' meek former trainer Brian McNamee, who had testified that he had injected the superstar pitcher with steroids and HGH between 1998 and 2001, you got the feeling there was little chance for conviction. "If his lips are moving about this stuff, he's lying," Clemens' defence attorney Michael Attanasio said about McNamee while he cross-examined him. Also during the trial, Attansio proclaimed that McNamee "defines reasonable doubt." Another turning point was when Clemens' former teammate Andy Pettitte, who had previously testified that Clemens had told him he was using HGH about a dozen years earlier, admitted upon being cross-examined that there was a 50-50 chance that he had misheard Clemens during that conversation. The verdict brings to an end a four-and-a-half year ordeal for Clemens that began with his televised testimony before Congress in 2008 in which he denied using steroids or HGH, despite allegations by McNamee in the Mitchell Report. Clemens' initial perjury trial was declared a mistrial when the prosecution introduced evidence that had been previously deemed inadmissable. Arguably one of the top five pitchers in big league history, Clemens posted 354 wins and won seven Cy Young awards during a 24-year career spent primarily with the Red Sox and Yankees. Two of his Cy Young Awards, however, came with the Blue Jays in 1997 and 1998. The Rocket also owns 4,672 career strikeouts, which ranks him third all-time..." Hope the USADA has their house in order or they are going to me made to look pretty stupid.....

I've done 3 of the 4 so far - 1 road and 2 off-road. The MTB leg at Lourensford was really easy - especially if you have a 29er. The KZN MTB was proper technical stuff, and the run was more Xterra and less off-road. Last years Waterfall was really fun, and as long as the organisers don't play with the route too much it should be the same - last year incorporated a few km of the 94.7MTB of 2010, so if you did that you should be fine. Just save some legs for the second run!!!

Anyone do the event down in KZN this weekend? How was that route - proper MTB stuff this time!

Well then I'm feeling better already. I also do all the lube and service myself, so I suppose that really does count!

great - maybe just a bad batch of swingarms. Did you have yours regularly serviced?

I'm concerned - just this weekend I spoke to a guy with a Merida 96 - he also had a cracked lower rear suspension link - just like the guy in in the previous posting. Both cracked in the same place.... Both my fiance and I ride 96ers - mine less than a year old. Seems like there is a design issue there? Anyone else had a problem?

Just ordered some. Was bitten by a Rottweiler last week on a night run - not nice. Wasn't keen to run with spray because I am a dog lover, but I see this stuff is approved by OP as safe to use on animals.

There's a guy we use when we need stuff welded for the classic race bikes we restore - he's an ex-SAA welder and an expert in welding up irreplaceable cam boxes, fins on cast iron barrels and basically anything which you can't get anymore. He would definitely be able to do it *but* and its a big *but* it's not going to be an easy task - as mentioned, lining up the lugs would be very difficult - you would probably have to machine up a dummy hub with disk to get the alignment spot on. You would also probably have to use the older type axial caliper (bolts running horizontal) as opposed to the newer radial calipers where the bolts are at right-angles to the tube. It can be done, so if you have lots of patience, time, an insistance to go this route (and a fairly deep pocket) go for it. My suggestion though, buy the adaptor off ebay....