Goosebay

Yes - you have two options 1 - get the Tora motion control damper (400 to 500 bucks for a piece of plastic that does not do too much), but at least you will have control over your compression setting. The problem now is that if you set your compression damping to high you will shift the damper piston down the damper shaft. (or the little plastic goodie that holds the spring). We have got around this buy cutting a very shallow groove around the shaft just above the port and placing a circlip that prevents the piston from pushing down. 2 - otherwise buy the argyle motion control damper (looks almost the same but you can set the floodgate) so in essence you have a very primitive LSC and HSC circuit if you set the compression to high and the floodgate to low, ie it opens earlier. Here you will have to upgrade the shaft as well (about 500 rands I think) but now you can click control on the rebound as well. If your fork bottoms out once or twice on your ride that should be OK, but if it continually bottoms out you will need a stiffer spring (esp if you are more than 70kg). I am quite a bit heavier but find that we can get the fork to work with the motion control. If you are happy to play around with the fork you can end up with a reasonably good budget suspension system.

1 Change the spring to a stiffer rating. 2 Get an argyle damper - will give you more options in terms of floodgate and the valve is also more sensitive than the blue piece of ....... in there at the moment! 3 You will probably have to modify or upgrade the damper shaft because the piston and or plastic ring that holds the spring to close the piston tends to shift down on big hits which. You then have no rebound control. 4 buy another fork!

Would be interested to know how many folk missed this race because of the cost of entry. Eikenhof is one of our favourite rides and this route seems to be used by more than one race (or variations of it). But a R230 late entry is quite steep if there are 5 in the family that ride, even if all do not do the longer races. This route must be one of the best in the country, but I can't see where the premium entry goes to. Most of the single track gets cleaned up for the TruCape, does Oude Molen contribute to this? I am just wondering if this is a trend where mountain biking is now moving into the elite arena where organisers can charge what they like and get away with it because of demand from well heeled bikers.

The hidden near the school in Tokai (turn off opp the little stone church) has smallish jumps. Bel Air (S/W) has big jumps, but also a learner (no gap to clear) at the top end and a pump track As the other guys say - take a spade with!

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The Manitou Axel is a brilliant entry level fork compared to the suntour. It is slightly stiffer and the rebound works better. It is unlikely you will ever need a 185 rotor, unless you continuously drag your front brake and you are struggling with heat fade.

Probike does the service (Pieter de Villiers) About a three to four day turnaround if your lbs is efficient (make sure it is booked in!) Inject a little 15W fork oil into the positive chamber, sometimes that helps the seal just a little and you might find that it stops the air leak. They do like a regular service though (at least once a year!)

Happened Thursday evening - in traction till tomorrow when if all goes well replacing one vertebrae and repairing the other. No paralysis - feeling all round. Neoro said that they can repair anything if nerve intact which it is!

There are some blogs on the ride - check here http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/jcl/links.html Map and profile here http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/jcl/L2L%20Updates.html Ride reasonably flat, but can get sandy if you diddle to long on the first day (beach section closer to Agulhas)