deonkretch

I'm doing my first stage race in October, the Cape Pioneer Trek and I'm looking at 29ers, some advice from people in the know would be greatly appreciated. Firstly some background, my current ride is a Merida 96 Carbon, 2x10 setup which works great. I ride a medium size frame (18). I'm not the most gifted cyclist nor do I have the best technical ability. I like the point and shoot attitude of the bike on climbs but I'm quite jittery on technical downhills, been OTB once or twice with it! I usually finish in the middle to top half of the field in races such as Barberton. That should give you some background.. I have done some research and other than the hype around 29ers there seems to be some sure advantages behind them, especially for longer stage races due to comfort etc. My choices are currently; Santa Cruz Tallboy - or - Ellsworth Evolve. I'm planning to move my XTR from my Merida over to the 29er and build a decent 'lightish' set of wheels (Hope, Stans ZTR Race) so weight should be in the region of 11,5kg's to 12 kg's which I'm happy with. Fork would be a Fox F32 29er RLT. I'm in two minds about which bike is more suited to my needs. I like the point and shoot attitude of the Merida but would like something a bit tamer on the rough stuff without feeling like I'm on a Lazy boy, and something that would work well for a couple of days in the saddle. Any advice would be appreciated! Thx, Deon

Thanks for all the input guys. At this stage it looks like I'll get the Max Flite Gel and the Flite XC gel, test both and sell the one I don't need. At the rates CRC are selling them for I can get them both for less than one of the saddles locally

Hi, I know saddles are a very personal choice based on your type of riding, size and shape of your behind etc. I would however like to get some feedback and suggestions for the best suited saddle for longer riding, think Cape Epic & Cape Pioneer Trek. I currently ride a Merida 96 with a ProLogo Scratch saddle. It does the job but after about three days of riding (4hrs per day or more) it really starts getting uncomfortable. I've tried a Spez Phenom saddle and it did not work for me. I've looked around and these are the current choices, any feedback, reviews or suggestions will be appreciated. My thinking is to go for something with a split/gap/thingy in the middle which supposedly relieves some pressure in the sensitive areas Selle Italia Flite XC Gel Flow Saddle 2011 (Looks like the NON-leather version of the FLITE) Selle Italia Flite Gel Flow Saddle 2011 (Leather version of the FLITE) Selle Italia Maxflite Gel Flow 2011 (Perhaps the Lazy-boy of the Flite?) I can't seem to find any demo saddles locally (Pretoria) so it seems it will be CRC as they are more than 50% cheaper than locally. Any advice or just some info on your experience would be appreciated!

Yip, those are the pads.

Hi all. Eventually found some Swisstop XTR 2011 pads at Chris Willemse. I really need to applaud them on their wonderful service. I placed the order on Friday afternoon at around 15:00'ish... Delivered to my office in Pretoria before lunchtime on Monday - well done guys. Keep up the good work! Deon

Hijack ok Dual crank. Currently riding front crank with 40-28 and rear with 11-36 if I remember correctly. Took a ride or two to get used to, but seem to have enough gears. Did Barberton with it and on those climbs had enough gears. Not sure if it will be sufficient for the Cape Pioneer Trek in October What bike are you going to put this on?

Hi, Can't find any brake pads on their site, am I being stupid or is it there somewhere? Thx, Deon

Agreed on the XX is overpriced. Look at www.chainreactioncycles.com for decent rates - this compares favourably to what the XTR costs locally. You won't go wrong with this, and yes, it's sexy... especially on a black and red Merida 96 Enjoy!

Hi Yumeya. I had actually ordered a full XO groupset at my LBS with the salesman from SRAM (their local distributors) standing next to me taking the order down. They made such as mess up of the order in terms of colours, wrong crankset etc. etc. that I decided to hell with at and forked out the extra R1000 or so for the XTR. I can't tell you how happy I am with the choice so far. The shifting is precise, smooth and very fast (two down and three up - all at once if you need to). The shifters fit directly to the brakes which make for a very neat cockpit. As for the brakes... wow! I am a bit skittish on downhills and used to have a set of Magura brakes - you need two fingers on the lever at least. After setting up the XTR the guys at the shop told my one finger on the brakes is more than enough... I did not believe them at first but it's really true. Single finger stopping power. To be fair I have not personally used XX so can't comment, but the closest that I have come was XO and the XTR definitely has more stopping power. I also need to mention that I'm not even using the Ice-tech rotors as they are only available with Shimano's fitting and not the 6 Bolt. I settled for Formula rotors and they seem to be doing the job quite well. As mentioned the RESIN pads don't last long, especially in mud (which we had at the Samsung MTB challenge on Sunday). Other than that and that no one seems to have stock on the pads I can say that I'm really pleased with the choice. I'm also not 100% sold on carbon cranks - so the all metal XTR seem to be the obvious choice! Ok, after that whole essay can someone please let me know where I can find pads Still no luck - everyone saying that all their stock is at the Epic. Cheers, Deon

Hi there, Does anyone know where I can get stock of the 2011 XTR brake pads (M985). Went to my LBS and they only have the M975 model which is completely different. All the Shimano stock has been booked out to the EPIC which means they won't be able to get until next week. I checked all the usual suspects online (CRC, WIGGLE, EVANS etc - no one has stock)... So much for getting the latest and greatest but not being able to ride your bike because the pads are completely finished. For interest sake, I had the RESIN pads installed (without the fins - on the RACE model of the brakes) did not last 1000km - they do however have more stopping power than any other brake that I've used. So ideally looking for the SINTERED pads, but will settle for anything as I want to ride this weekend but can't until I have new pads. Any advice on someone who has stock will be appreciated! Thx, Deon

Hi, I use Parallels Desktop on my Macbook to run Windows XP - mainly for situations like these (Polar, Quickbooks and some other Windows Only apps). I'll have a look at the app which HSW's post refers to - maybe this now works natively on the Mac which means I won't have to open the nasty Windows app every time I need to synch my rides. Let me know if you need any assistance - will try to help where possible! Cheers, Deon