Stretched@Birth

I know Sprocket & Jack have a Shockwiz (https://www.sram.com/en/quarq/series/shockwiz) that they use to do tuning. I think this may be the closest you'll get to using Telemetry to do your set-up in SA.

As has been noted on your other thread, this bike is a Large, if you are 1.55m tall, this bike will not work for you, so discard the idea. If I were you, I'd give some consideration to this: https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/item/dual-suspension-bikes/713853/merida-one-twenty-7600-slx-rockshox A bit more expensive than you intended, but the size is right, decent components and it does not look like it has been hammered. Tubeless conversion done, recently serviced. Decent components (yes, only 10 speed, but the SLX drivetrain will serve you well). It has a clutch derailleur, the first "upgrade" I would make would be to get rid of the front derailleur, put on a 32 tooth Narrow Wide chainring from Rapide, and then save for a dropper from Lyne. Ride it until your skill level dictates that you need more bike, by that time your circumstances may have changed and you'll probably have a better idea of what kind of riding you prefer.

I'd love to know too, maybe if Matt allowed comments on the classifieds, we could ask the seller... At the OP (@mspalk), I understand that you are trying to find the best deal for your first bike, but multiple threads asking for advice is not going to make the decision any easier. this may be a decent buy, but another has noted, a Large frame will not work for you if you require a Small bike. Establish the size that you need, work out what you can afford to buy, and then take it from there. And remember, leave some money in your budget for a helmet and other bits and pieces that will make the journey that much better.

This made its way into my garage at home after my 16 year old suddenly expressed an interest in bikes. It has been stripped, we were doing the top end and discovered some weird issues, like a very lean (for altitude) pilot jet, which has lead to some cylinder damage. So off to the engineering shop we went and the cylinder is being sorted. Once all of the work is done, it should make a lekker "starter bike" for a 16 year old. What has been nice about the project so far is the bonding with my son, as we spend time in the garage, stripping and cleaning and rebuilding. Can't wait to get the bits back to get it together again and smell the 2 stroke in the air!

Interesting story on FB https://www.facebook.com/share/wYd8XLrYSCZ2XFru/?mibextid=WC7FNe

Same argument... Dopers are not going away so the lets just incorporate them . The solution is simply give them their own class behind the " clean " riders and in that class they have two batches, Stock UCI regulated PEDS and "OPEN" class where you can inject what you like into your body. For the record, I've always thought there should be 2 racing classes, natural and "enhanced"! 🤪😉🤣 Edit: Silly face emoticons to show tone...

Surprised that Italjet still has a front mudguard, ours didn't last very long. I think I was about 4 years old, couldn't ride a bicycle without training wheels when my uncle pitched up on a Saturday afternoon and hauled a brand new red Italjet out of the boot of his car. That little bike took a lot of abuse and caused our mom a lot of grey hair. There are a couple of them in the bike museum in Knysna (2 little 50's and a JC50, which is the slightly bigger, more powerful version).

Took the retailer a while to acknowledge that it was a fake, as you say though, they are merely facilitating transactions on behalf of 3rd parties. Their trading policy is very clear when it comes to counterfeit's, fakes, etc. Below pics are off Reddit, but the one we received was the same. See the settings menu...

Just be careful of the imitations. A while ago I was looking for an Ultra for our MD, but there was no stock available anywhere in SA except on takealot.com. Ordered the watch (at full retail price) with an aftermarket strap and a few days later the order arrived. MD wasn't at work that day so he asked me to send it home with the driver. Next morning he brings it to me to set up as he can't get it to link to his phone (apparently an easy task, open the Watch app on the phone and take a pic of the watch). I try, also, no luck. Go into settings on the phone which is where things start looking suspicious. The menu items and fonts are not of the normal Apple standard. Google "fake Apple Watch Ultra" and find that what takealot had supplied was a fake. Returned it to takealot, explaining the issue, they sent it back to me saying they could not accept the return unless I remove it from the Apple ID. They could not understand that it was not linked to the Apple ID as I could not pair it as it was not an Apple product. Escalated the issue at takealot and after much fighting, referring them to their policy about counterfeits and alerting Core (the SA agent), they eventually took it back and processed a refund.

Sunset - Knysna Lagoon

To be honest, I don't know. It had a 140mm fork on it, that raked it out quite far, was nice and long and stable, but also meant that you needed to put in effort to lift the front up to get over obstacles. I write in past tense, as the bike was stolen, just put the photo up to try and get the thread back on track.... 🤪

Interested to know, do you keep your SA Citizenship? I’ve seen all sorts of posts on the book of faces about people wanting to renew ZA passports as they need to visit ZA and apparently need to enter on the green book.

https://www.rapide.co.za/product/rapide-tr29-25-sl-29er-rim-32h/ 25mm internal, 30mm external width, 32 hole. https://www.rapide.co.za/product/rapide-tr29-30-sl-29er-rim-32h/ 30mm internal, 34.6mm external, 32 hole. Stock available of both.

No personal experience with it, but this looks like a good option to avoid the tensioner: https://www.rapide.co.za/product/rapide-eccentrick-bb/ As far as the gearing goes, if it is a screw on cluster on your vintage hub, then the spacer kits and gears are not going to work. You may find that a BMX screw on gear will work, I'm not sure about spacing though, the critical thing with SS conversions is getting the chain line and tension right.

I thought cycling was an expensive hobby, until my son decided to tap into the genes from my wife's family (my father in law plays an array of instruments, cannot read music and performed in the state theatre many moons ago). Matt is now playing drums (was awarded a few golds and a diploma in the last Eisteddfod), he's learning guitar and last week told me he wants to learn Piano. The music shops love me, last month it was a new set of cymbals (his old ones were pretty much entry level pot lids), Saturday I spent a pile of cash on cables, headphone mixer, etc. as he like playing with in ear monitors but the sound equipment at school (he plays in the band) was lacking. Double bass pedal is on his wish list and a digital guitar amp. He prefers the heavier stuff (e.g. System of a Down), and plays really hard, luckily our neighbors don't mind, but ja, soundproofing may be next up on the DIY list.

I'm not sure how hard the seedheads are, but I'd imagine that they are fairly soft. With that bench sander, you're likely to also loose fingerprints and cause much frustration as the it runs fairly fast and the workpieces look fairly delicate. I'd go the manual route, stick some sheets in varying grits to a flat piece of board and manually sand.

Do e-bikes count....? 😉

Nice tool to have in the workshop:

One of the true gentlemen of our sport, RIP Tony!

https://m.facebook.com/groups/256457641599941/permalink/1433819573863736/?sfnsn=scwspwa&ref=share&mibextid=VhDh1V

I was thinking about this on Saturday, Concerta is Prohibeted in Competition. My son is on Concerta to help with focus on school work. On Saturday we watched Jeppe Boys vs KES rugby, and I wondered how many of the boys would fail a drug test for Concerta, never mind anything else they may be taking (I don't remember any of my mates on the 1st rugby team being as big as those boys on the field on Saturday).

I wonder if he just assumes that everyone is insured and everyone is going to claim.... My boss was the victim of a home invasion a while ago, while tied up, his captor told him if he co-operates, everything will be fine, he is insured so he will loose nothing. It's almost as if they see it like they are stealing from the insurance companies, not from you as an individual.

Apparently it’s stuck, on a sandbank… 🤷🏻‍♂️ Edit: Apparently not, according to press releases, she was lying at anchor, charging batteries.