AllTerrain

Unfortunately no pictures on this advert, but manybe worth contacting the seller. hopefully just a technical glitch https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/item/kids-bikes/484481/giant-half-wheeler

The pawn shop owner did mention that the locked devices they tend to sell on to repair shops, so that’s probably what happens to the majority. When they buy them on auction, they buy them as lots, so they don’t know wether all the devices work or not, if they have all the cables and charges etc. So they buy a lot of say 10 iPhone 8, but might only be able to resell 4 as working phones, the rest are salvaged for parts…

I have also often seen this, and have simply passed on these ads. The seller normally has some or other very valid reason why it is locked, but I’m not buying it. however, I chatted to an owner of a pawn shop some time back. He says they often buy electronics like cameras and cellphones/laptops etc from bank and insurance auctions, when the items are normally out of home repos or insured items that have been stolen and then recovered, but the owners have been paid out, so the insurance sells it on, and often these are still iCloud locked. So it is possible that some of these iCloud locked devices are in fact not illegally acquired. But I still don’t know why one would buy one… as it’s essentially useless, and to the best of my knowledge this cannot be bypassed.

That was just what my mate told me. Maybe they wanted a quotation instead to prove cost of replacment and I misunderstood him. Either way, I think it better to hang onto the proof of purchase just in case. when you take the “selfies” for naked, they require you to take a photo clearly showing the serial number, so that probably limits the chances for fraud too. I took a picture of my invoice for the bikes as well when I added them, and those invoices also all had the serial numbers on them. So there should be no issues if I ever need to claim

I have just moved my whole insurance (household, cars and bicycles) to Naked. Their prices are better then anyone else at the moment, and I decided to move over to them after speaking to two friends on separate occasions that are with them, and they only had good things to say about them. One had to claim for a bike last year - fell off a bike carrier, by the time they realised and turned back the bike was nowhere to be found (I know this sounds like a long story, but I was with them the weekend it happened, and on the way home I was driving in front of them. When they called, I was about 2 minutes ahead of them on the road and went back to help look, so I know it’s true). This was on a Sunday afternoon. He was on a brand new bike 3 days later. You can’t ask for better service than that. They will ask for a proof of purchase at claim time, from what he told me, and as there was no “evidence” apart from a broken strap on the bike rack, he also had to go to the police and give a sworn statement. But other then that nothing. claim was submitted online from the side of the road, Monday morning they called to ask for the proof of purchase and sworn statement. He sent it back to them Monday afternoon, and Wednesday morning they told him where he can go collect the replacement bike. Excess was paid directly to the store. I was bikejacked 4 years ago. Discovery took a week to verify that there were no CCTV cameras covering the area, had me go back an forth for quotations on replacements, after I gave them three quotes, I had a case number from the police, an eyewitness statement from the lady that picked me up, sent them the location data from my Strava, because they wanted proof that the ride ended where I said it did (then queried the claim because I didn’t stop my watch, which was luckily not stolen, right away, and only when I realised a few minutes later after hitching a ride… I had photos of my injuries from being knocked off the bike and all that, it still took them another 10 days to finalise the claim, then they couldn’t find an “approved” supplier that had stock, and wanted me to take a different bike, from one of their preferred suppliers. took another 2 days arguing with them that I wanted a like for like replacement, and there was stock at my preferred supplier at a price that was lower than my insured value (shop offering discount on previous year model). I hope my mate didn’t just get lucky, but if I ever need to claim, Naked just needs to be slightly better than discovery, and I will be a happy camper. I’m also paying significantly less now.

What if I choose to use my one and only bottle cage to fit a storage bottle for tools and plugs and stuff instead, but then ride with a 3 litres camelbak mule? Will I still be allowed on the trails? I must apologise, I’m just an ignoramus from Pretoria, and if I ever have the good fortune of riding the hallowed ground of the western capes trails, I don’t want to be guilty of a faux pas and not be allowed to ride these amazing trails. (I can’t find the comic sans)

I want to apologise to anyone I might have upset yesterday, I played a role in driving the “nonsense” being discussed here. It was all meant as light hearted, but I maybe went a bit overboard. I also don’t really care what people ride as long as they having fun. I do still fully believe gravel bikes are something invented in the minds of the marketing departments, but good on them if it’s getting more people riding. as to the idea of one bike for all conditions, I think that isn’t practically achievable, there will always be compromises. I’m not saying you need to follow the N+1 mentality, but if you can have two or three bikes to cover all conditions, that will always be the better option, as each bike will be great for its intended purpose and not just average everywhere. If I personally had to only have one bike, it would be a 29er hardtail with 2.1/2.2 XC tires, and maybe an extra wheel set with more road biased tires. But I am primarily a mountain biker. I have never owned or ridden a road bike, so I am obviously more comfortable with this. I love trail riding, but I am enjoying long slow rides and bike packing more and more as time goes on, but I still think my mountain bikes are better suited to this than a gravel bike, and allows me more freedom with route planning. if you grew up riding road, and want to get out into the country a bit more, then a gravel bike is probably an easier transition and more suitable choice for you. Im just happy we are all here talking about bikes.

Because the only thing more important than having 2 bottle cages, and never wearing a camelbak, is to hate on Spez at every opportunity you get. To be fir though, the early versions of brain weren’t great, and a manual lockout was better. But they sorted the brain out years ago already, it works pretty well now.

(Self edit)I’m rather just going to leave this be. I should know by now this debate will never be won. XC race bikes are great, for what they are built to do. if you have done your due diligence and feel it’s the bike for your style of riding, so be it, as long as we all having fun in the sun… Me personally, I doubt I will ever by a full sus XC bike again, as I they don’t suit the kind of riding I enjoy.

I’m not so sure, see my post on the Anthem thread about South Africans obsession with “sukkeling” and then wearing it as a badge of honour. I think this gravel bike justification thing is very similar to the MAMIL obsession with seriously compromised XC race bikes, when they would be far better off on a marathon or Trail bike. The Saturday before this lockdown, a small group of us did a 120km ride out to harties and back. I had planned the route to include a few little “secret” footpaths, on the broederstroom side, and lots of really bad gravel tracks. I told the guys this ride was more suited to mountain bikes, but a gravel bike would work. One of our mates insists his gonna ride it on his gravel bike, even though he has a very decent MTB also. He did the whole ride. He made it. But he suffered. On the way home the corrugstions very nearly got the best of him. He broke a couple of spokes too. But he says it was lekker, and it was a much easier ride than if he was on his trail bike, because he would never have made the distance…. Ja swaer. Sunday morning the same group went to ride Rosemary hill. He is the only one who didn’t join us, and it wasn’t because he was busy, his missus confirmed, he was broken after the Saturday ride….and he is a lot fitter then what I am.

But this is South Africa. Even tough we have miles and miles I’d terribly maintained gravel roads, immense expanses of mountainous country side, forestry areas and so on, with some great jeep tracks and old wagon trails and and and, and a couple of pretty amazing trail Centres all over the country. Trail bikes don’t sell. Down country (I really hate that term, can we just call them what they are they are still XC bikes, just better suited to joe average) bikes sell a little better but only slightly so. Your only a real cyclist if you ride a super compromised XC race machine, and keep trying to convince yourself you really have no interest in riding the technical lines at the bike park, because you enjoy just being out there riding, and you that it’s normal to be that sore and uncomfortable after a 100km ride, because the suffering is half the fun, or something like that. we like to suffer here. It’s started in the time of the great trek, and it seems to continue into choosing mountain bikes now. I mean why would you willingly cross the drakensberg, barefoot, with oxwagon in the grips of winter? Why didn’t they just make some simple shoes in preparation for the journey. (Before I upset someone, ek is n trotse Afrikaner, maar ons volk, het nogals n ding vir sukkel uit kuese uit, maar die rooinekke is ook so). I mean the same guy that kits his Bakkie out with every off-road upgrade under the sun, longer travel shocks, fat tires etc , which are mostly not needed, because it stays mostly on the road, will willingly by the least “capable” mountain bike, and insist on having the minimal amount of suspension, and the lightest duty tire possible…. Strange world

Thanks for the insight Morne. The problem come in with ladies, there are often females that will be very uncomfortable stretching to fit on a medium, so I think there is a need for at least one small and one XL, and after 60od poll responses, the numbers are seeming to say the same.

I think it will be long time before wireless brakes become mainstream. Patents pending or not. It hasn’t happened in cars where pretty much everything else has been fly by wire for years already, including steering… brakes are just too much of a critical safety item. People won’t easily adopt the tech. Even electric trailer brake controllers used on big caravans and trailers are still mechanically actuated on the trailer, and if the electrics fail, the brakes will still work, just not as well, similar to a vacuum boost failure on your cars breaks. the electric wireless brakes I’m sure would fail to lock up scenario, not a freewheel scenario, like interlink trailers do when they lose air pressure. So there would be some safety net….

I tend to agree with this thinking. I ride my 2012 Scott hardtail 29er 99% of the time. Sometimes I worry my others bikes will up amd leave me???? That will change now, because I have bought a cheap hybrid bike from cycle-lab to use for day to day commuting and similar. Also, I don’t understand what the benefit of drop bars are. But I guess having never been a roadie, I am probably just scared of change. I demoed a norco gravelbike last year at rosemary hill though, which is not exactly technical, but there was no way I could find where the drops were better than flat bars on a trail or on a dirt road, where you need to steer, navigate bumps and use the brakes at the same time. A light hardtail 29er, with a 80-100mil fork, and a 2x crank is superior to a gravel bike in any conditions where you wouldn’t be able to ride your proper road bike. But that’s just my opinion. in my eyes I see it like this: Road bike = Sports car (or supercar, depending on what you ride). Fast and fun and very good looking, but only practical under perfect conditions. XC Hardtail = Bakkie based SUV (fortuner/Everest etc). Sensible and practical on all roads and conditions. Obviously no match for the sports car on the road, but still able to ride it with ease. Perfectly capable on any gravel road and jeep track, and it can take on some proper 4x4 trips with relative ease also. XC/Marathon Dual sus = Proper SUV (Prado/Discovery/Pajero or VX200/RangeRover if you wanna pay a bit more) very comfortable, much more so than the hardtail on every road type, but not as efficient, costs a lot more to own/run, but also much much nicer place to be when the going gets tough. Trail Bike = Defender/Cruiser76/wrangler massively compromised in terms of performance compared with its XC stablemates, can still do everything they can do, but it’s not ideal. But shines when things get really wild. Enduro Bike = overland prepped 4x4. It’s still able to handle everyday use if you really only have one vehicle, but it’s not great at anything except getting out into the back country and taking on the really tough trails. Does everything the trail bike does, but with a bit more ease, but it could also take on most of the downhill bikes routes too, with a skilled pilot. Downhill Bikes = purpose built/ highly modded 4x4. Useless for everything except what it is actually built for. Not a practical day to day bike at all. Gravel Bike = Single Cab fleet Bakkie. It’s does tar and gravel just fine, but it’s not ideal an either. It can cruise on the road all day long, at the average speed with everyone else, but It’s no match for the sports car on the road, or the 4x4 with decent ground clearance and bigger tires off road. So it’s left behind in both these roles. And it definately can’t do anything the other more off road biased vehicles can do. If you fit a canopy/panniers, it’s not actually too terrible to use for a long road trip, but, the SUV/XC bike would be just as good at this role, and more comfortable too, and, if you take a wrong turn, or the road conditions suddunly gets much much worse, your still good to go if you in an SUV… I guess I’m gonna run and hide from all the gravel grinders now???? (please note, this was just a bit of fun, while I wait for my next zoom call….I don’t care what you ride, as long as you ride. But, I do get annoyed when marketing types invent new niches just to drive new sales, when they could have just sold more of an existing product that works)

Is there actually any engineering benefit to internal cable routing? We all know it looks great, I won’t argue, I love the clean look, but I have never quite understood what the reasoning was behind it suddenly becoming the norm. I have lucky not had issues with any of my internal routing bikes yet, and I despise a noisy bike, so hope it stays that way, but it just seems like it’s a whole lot of trouble, with no real benefit. Or am I missing something? External cables and hoses worked perfectly fine, and are a damn side easier to service and replace when the time comes… besides, it’s only a matter of time till the figure out wireless disk brakes too…. Then we can stop worrying about cables completely…. ????