Ashchest

I had 4 x bad quality Dot's The first 2 that I bought was shipped to me on the 4th Nov 2019. I received 2 x replacements on the 22nd Nov Replaced them with Pathfinders on the 24th Jan All 4 of them was similar and a very poor quality tyre. I sent an email on the 27th Jan to inform Farr about the failures on the replacements and my decision to use other tyres. I received a response here yesterday after posting my experience on this thread.

Maybe the owner doesn't want to be found? Maybe he already has a brand new bike to ride the CTCT with? Thanks to the insurance claim?

Yes lucky you, but for me it was strange to encounter such issues after they were recommended on this forum -and I thought there was something really wrong with the way I applied them since no one else reported issues - on the contrary people raved about them. So when matthieup reported very similar quality issues my sanity was restored. I went out this morning for a 40km ride on my normal routes with lots of small glass pieces and every now and then I would hear that dreaded pssst pssst pssst pssst sound of sealant spraying out, but when I look down I saw no signs of any sealant on my frame - just to learn that it was the sound of early morning garden sprayers or the sound of cicades singing and not the sound of Dot's failing

Forgot to mention. I did contact the guys at Farr after the failures on the replacements they sent me and told them what happened and that I decided to try the Pathfinder's and see how they perform compared to the Dot's - but they never replied to my mail - not sure if you guys never read my mail or just didn't bother to reply?

Yes they are great if you are looking for a gravel tyre but want to do a-lot of road riding with it. Not as wide as the Dot's with much less volume and you will at first feel a bit less grip on the rear than what you are used to with the Dot's, but they will not fail you and they are faaast and tuff and have a very nice ride feel!! So go get them! The Dot's are 'n great idea and would be excellent if the quality and durability were better. But to struggle with small cuts after and during nearly every ride along with the bubbles / bulges became an absolute pain. Here where I live and love to cycle 100km + loops in Centurion & Voortrekker Hoogte area are a-lot of small pieces of glass in the roads and on the sides. The Pathfinder Pro's simply crushes the glass, but the Dot's would swallow them and the glass will sit in the tyre and slowly cut through. At least once per week I had to remove a Dot and patch it from the inside - even the smallest of punctures would become big problems - even after trying tubeless repair plugs it would not seal and seemed as if the holes just got ripped wider. Too soft a rubber? Perhaps. They are not worth R550 - even my much cheaper R250 Chaoyang semi-slick tyres are more robust and gave much less problems than these Dot's I then started talking to some shops and riders about this and the guys at the Specialized store in Centurion said yes, there are lots of glass on the roads, but they have never seen or experienced failure feedback from clients like what I had with the Dot's and advised me to try the Pathfinder's. So happy I did and I guess my money wasted with Farr on their tyres became school fees and taught me to rather stick with reliable brand names.

Start Group: 3K Start Time: 07:35 Race Number: 39492

Oh dear!! Seems I was not the only one then?? I went through 4 x Farr Dots within 2 & 1/2 months and ended up tossing them because they were the most unreliable and lowest quality tyres I ever used ! Yes they ride great and feel solid, but I ended up not feeling safe out on the road with them. Around 1200 km's on 4 x tyres and a total waste of my money. Farr did send me 2 replacements after the first failures, but those replacements also failed Bubbles in the tires, endless punctures that wouldn't seal with sealant and more bubbles. I also had the imperfections. At the end the only way to get rid of the bubbles were to puncture them and they would escape gas and go away and then new bubbles formed somewhere else. I thought that if I puncture the bubbles and they leaked sealant then it must have been failure or from the inside, but no sealant and only gas escaped and gone was the bubble - yes one has to make a plan when you want to ride and have no other tyres, so I punctured the bubbles I ended up buying a set of Specialized Pathfinder Pro's and they are excellent and so durable + from the start the quality that one would expect from a proper bicycle tyre. For only R110 more than the Dot's per tyre. Have done about 750 km's with the Pathfinder's and they are great - not one puncture and they are still as good as new. I run my tyre pressures on the higher side at about 65 - 70 psi because 90% of my riding is on the road. Farr told me that my pressures are very high although they were within the specification printed on the tyres. So I felt that maybe the fault was with me and the way I utilised them, but after seeing your post I now realise that these Dot's are just plain crappy and inferior and that I made a mistake to spend money with Farr. The question now is, was this just a bad batch and were we unlucky to have wasted out money on the bad ones, or is this the general quality of the Farr Dot tyres? And ..... what about the other Farr products, because I really like the look of their Carbon forks, but now not sure if they and the other products might also fail me?

Just received an email! YAY!

Would love to, but I have to first drive through to CPT from Montagu on Sat. morning to go and pick up my race pack. Am camping at the Montagu Guano caves Thursday and Friday night with a group. By the way, was thinking if it will be a good idea to load myself with an acceptable amount of beer on the Friday evening in prep for Sunday???

My bike also sometimes makes a click noise when pedalling and then it is the seat post that needs a cleaning and re grease.

Whatever you (finance) buy, just make sure the colours match

Wil set my reminder alarm for 15:55

Some advice I received was: Go slow to go faster" Every Saturday morning I attempt to have a "go slow" ride. Although not always that easy, I try to stay in zone 1 and little bits of zone 2 for about 40km's and do an average of 20 km/hr. You need to stay focussed because it is so easy to go harder, especially if you encounter and is passed by other cyclists. The ride still consists of flats and climbs but I just sit back and keep it very low. Sunday mornings I will usually go out and do a zone 4 to 5 ride (80 - 90% max) of 80km's or more. Mondays's I rest Tuesdays I will do a comfortable ride and push whichever way I feel comfortable. Wednesdays and / or Thursdays depending on other commitments I will usually try to ride and push the limits for about 1 & 1/2 hr and try to do a good workout. But I feel that the 'go slow" ride on Saturday's plays a key role in me getting stronger ???

Same for me. First timer. Driving in from Somerset West and I am bringing my wife and 2 boys along. I need to get parking in an area to accommodate them as they will probably want to have breakfast and walk around at the waterfront while I suffer Then they must move towards the finish line area to wait for me ... I have no idea how to approach this.

6 Only R10,99 for a quart

Having 2 x 750 ml LION's right now for my early morning ride tomorrow morning.

I guess the pro riders eats the wannabees for breakfast?

For an event like upcoming Cape Cycle Tour I will have to eat something before the time because I am definitely not going to start at 5am and probably only at around 8? - then ride until around 12 - So I think a nice big bowl of Pronutro before and some bits of snack during will do the job. The main reason why I have coffee before my early morning weekend rides is to (jokes aside) get my stomach to go before the ride. Coffee does always perform the magic very well for me and I'd much prefer it to happen before rather than during my ride

That's the way I roll - my weekend 100+ km rides start at 5am with only a strong coffee in the bag and that's all. Why? I recon there is enough fuel in my system from previous day's meals? After the ride I am always hungry and then I'll enjoy a nice breakfast

The more weight you add to your bike the more weight you will loose

I can and try to do everything, but I do not always have the right tools to do so.

I have taken my entire 26" bike apart and it is lying in pieces at the moment. I will clean and service everything from pulleys to headset, suspension to free-hub, BB to Hydraulic brakes, rims and rim tape to new valves and new tyres & new cables. It got a new wider handlebar and new shock bushes. The front derraileur will have to go and I am waiting for my NW chainring from Rapide to turn the crank into a 1 X I decided to use it as a bike park & trail play machine only and will use my Gravel bike for the other longer events and workouts.

Those are Koesisters

Not by riding a bike with it - I did check it out and "played" in shop but it also did not play along with my budget. Below is a review / comparison between the two ... ?

I got a Gravel bike now that I ride more than any of my previous MTB's - does that count as a fully rigid?