Andymann

Def Fork - I did the upgrade on my first bike - Mongoose TYAX. Went from the OEM Suntour Fork to a Reba Team. Huge difference - the whole bikes handling characteristics changed....and when i eventually upgraded the frame to a Giant XTC, the fork was good for a few more km......

Depends on how worn that chain is - 40km should be ok, but you need a new chain anyway for your bike, so why don't you buy one and use it with your wifes wheel - chains are cheap compared to clusters.....

My mom has just had her shoulder rebuilt - at 73. It was done by Dr. Barrow in Morningside - we did the research - he's one of the best. She was 6 weeks in a sling so you are in for a bit of a long haul - you'll even have to sleep in the thing, and apparrently it's one of the more painful operations you can have. She's just coming right now, but importantly, the Dr. did an awesome job - so I would recommend you try and get an opinion from him.

Golden Gate is really good - the ride from Fouriesburg to Kiara lodge has a few nice shortish but challenging climbs. Do the sections inside golden gate nature reserve for a real challenge - think the junior tour did a hill-climb on those sections once. And, it's at altitude, so you get that bit of training done while you're at it! Nice challenge is Bethlehem - Fouriesburg - Clarens - Bethlehem. The last 10km into Bethlehem *bites*

Excellent thanks - I need to do the off-road I-flex in early June, then I'll whip it off and bring it in. Are they good forks - don't seem to see too many on bikes?

Can't find an address on the website though - anyone know where they are?

Great thanks!

Hi all - need to have my fork serviced - it's just on a year and about 30hrs. Anyone know where in PTA/JHB I can take it to - my LBS will send it away anyway, so I may as well drop it off myself! Thanks!

Great thanks - do you have contact details?

Nah, but I polished the frame really well and fitted gladwrap to the wheels. That got us about 15 seconds.

Haha - that's half the problem with the sponsor - they are talking 27.5er, but only next year....

Yup - leading lady - 29er KTM....on the road they can bike together, off-road, 29er just has that bit extra. That's not a totally unrealistic suggestion using a cyclocross bike - we actually discussed it on the plane back from CT. I'm actually quite keen to get one, but I'm the plonker at the back of the group so I can affored to take a risk ;-)

Fully agree, and if I was suggesting a demo for the Sani or Epic they would be perfectly understandable that they tell her to get knotted! The I-Flex races though are 30km each, not much more than some of the laps at Groenkloof. One of the most promising replies was from Momsen, but it was more for price assisance - which was a great guesture and we might still consider it....

I thought about that - and I suppose there is always an element of risk that someone does a runner with a bike, but properly controlled it should be minimal - we certainly never had anyone going of with one of our YZ's.... She rides a small Merida 96 currently. We are based in Pretoria - East side...

My Fiancé is one of the top Triathletes/duathletes in SA at the moment. She’s either placed in the top 3, or won most of the big Tri/Du series held in SA, as well as completed 70.3 twice and an IM. She is also one of the very lucky few who has a great sponsor who really looks after her exceptionally well. Thing is, in the I-Flex series there are 3 off-road events, and to try and attract entrants to the off-road/trail run option, the routes are pretty non-technical. Read “extremely suited to 29ers”. Like it or not, the 29er is going to give an elite athlete at least a couple of minutes in this type of terrain. In an event where you put elastics on your shoes to save 20s in transition, 1min is a huge gap to make up in a 2.5km run – almost impossible. So – currently second in the series, 2 off-road events to go, 26er not really suited – what do we do? She could ask her sponsor for a 29er – but while she does a bit of MTB from time to time mostly for cross-training, it’s not her key discipline, so would really not be fair to ask. We could just buy a 29er – but with a wedding early next year and a planned honeymoon – we need the cash. Or, she could approach one of the local distributors and ask to use a demo for the last two events, offer to insure, maintain and pay for any damage and in return guarantee at least 30s of TV time as well as a mention of the brand etc etc – all the things which distributors love. Many calls and emails later, seems there are no distributors in SA with demo fleets? Now I used to work at one of the big Japanese motorcycle distributors, and we had a demo fleet for exactly this purpose – the DeWildt Ride before you buy netted us great publicity and a few good sales to boot, so it does work. And, at the end of the financial year, when the demos had depreciated we were still able make some margin by selling them off at reduced prices. I suppose you cant really compare MTB and Motorcycles (or can you?), but one would think that in a very competitive market, allowing someone to test or use a demo bike would be a great way of growing brand loyalty?

Yamalube makes an awesome range - If you go to Pretoria Yamaha (in PTA North) you will be able to order some there - they also stock the full weight range, including a 7.5WT which is not that common. Here are the part numbers: ACC-FORKF-00-05 Performance FORK OIL 5WT ACC-FORKF-00-10 Performance FORK OIL10WT ACC-FORKF-00-15 Performance FORK OIL15WT ACC-FORKF-00-75 Performance FORK OIL7.5WT

Thing is though, I really feel this event has huge potential - I didn't have 10x more fun at Sani (R450 vs. R4500), I kakked off more on Saturday than I did on Sani day 2, we got meals, a decent goodie bag (just had the mini cheddars for tea!) and I got to do some maintenance on my bike in my garage on Sat evening. Sani will always be around, and KZN will have its own unique type of riding, but this could just become the Gauteng version. Hope the Organizers have acces to the hub!

Agreed - the team thing goes both ways, but one thing Sani does have is an awsome vibe during the ride, and my partner and I reasoned it's probably because there are always 2 mates riding together - we passed lot's of single riders struggling along looking quite lonely! So - as you say, allow the option of entering as a team. "Also 100% on the "fines" suggestion - that didn't really bug me, but they could have started the banter while we were all eating - say at 11:00 and then got the official prizegiving kicked off on time.

Oh and agree fully about the comment earlier about 29ers. Nothing against them, but they really do make up huge distances on flat dirt roads!! Why wouldn't you want one....

Hell I thought for R450 great 2 days riding. Tough day 1, and day 2 a bit of a battle with my team-mate breaking her RD cable, but all in all really good. It's not a Sani event yet, but with where the price of Sani is going, could very easily become an alternative. Just add a quick prologue on the Friday to sort the seeding out, try and get a bit more community spirit going at the Watertables, and possibly consider making it a 2-man event. We'll definitly be back next year, and will take it more seriously, just please keep the prizegiving shorter - we eventually left after 1.5hrs of fines and they still hadn't got to the actual placings yet....

Yea thanks! I was on the website as we speak. Looks damn nice. I'm in CT this weekend for the Momentum Du so I might just have a look. Still burns my ass having to pay R13K for a frameset though....

How does it compare geometry-wise? Compact?

I need to replace my trusty Giant TCR ONCE team edition frame - my components are all still top-notch replaced about 2 years back (Full Campag Chorus with Eurus wheels), but after 10 years, i'm a bit worried about the frame cracking. I love the compact geometry, so the logical replacment well be another Giant. But, TCR Carbon frame alone is R14K......So, do I bite the bullet and fork out for Carbon, or do I buy a whole TCR2 Aluminium Giant for R10K, build all my bits over to the new frame and sell the leftovers on the Hub :-) My bike now is just under 8kg (not bad for old school), so I don't necessarily want to go backwards in weight. I've never ridden carbon, so I don't know about ride quality. I do mostly MTB and Duathlon, so It's not like I'm doing 8 hours per weekend on the roadbike - we race mostly 40km TT's. Any comments?

1. Pack each days riding kit before you leave in a ziplock bag and kneel on it to get all the air out before you seal it - takes up much less space. Also, if all your days riding kit is in one bag, much easer to just grab that bag and change then to search for gloves here, socks there etc, etc - especially in the dark and rain! 2. You'll need less clothes than you think! 3. Leave all the clothes you won't need in the car - for when you finish. 4. We used one box for bike bits and spares, and the other for clothes only - you should easily get both your and your partners clothes in one box. 5. Get compression socks - they work!

Just a word of warning though - you'll appreciate it. I started running a year ago, after cycling for 15 years. All was great until about 6 months back when I developed a case of Sciatica like you won't believe - for 6 months I bounced from Chiro to Physio to Specialist, all with varying opinions ranging from slipped discs to unequal length legs... Turns out, Cycling had shortend my hip flexors to such a state that when I ran, while my cardio was up to the running, my body wasn't, and the hip flexors pulled all the muscles in my pelvis skew, almost ruining my season. 3 weeks of intensive stretching and core later I still have issues, but slowly getting better. So make sure you stretch, believe me!