AllTerrain

I feel like your still misunderstanding what I am expecting from the bike. I am already very serious????. This bike is not going to do anything serious. It’s going to allow me to save my serious bikes for the serious stuff, seriously. so, I am going to by it, and then immediately replace the perfectly fit for purpose cable discs, and put on some avid elixirs, which I am 100% certain will be an improvement. Will continue as time goes by to replace with hand me down parts from my other bikes, where possible, and if it’s absolutely rubbish I will come back and report here. If you don’t hear from me, assume it’s running well and I’m too busy enjoying my commute to worry about reporting back

Not me… I ride with a back pack all day every day….twice a day.

I’m going to contradict myself here. Generally I’m the guy saying just get out there and ride whatever you have or can get your hands on, but….. if you are actually serious about getting into riding, and MTB specifically, I would suggest you save up for another month or three. If you can push your current max budget up from R2500 to even R4000, it will open up a huge selection of much better bikes that you aren’t going to outgrow in a few months. If you can save up to the R5k mark even better. At R2500.00 your going to get a bike that might be okay for commenting, but nothing much more. in the mean time, see if you can borrow a bike to ride just to get out there and riding. If you don’t have access to that, and your in Pretoria and your around 178, your welcome to join me on rides for now, with one of my spare bikes. feel free to PM me. *on rides with me, I will bring the bike and take it home again after. Also, will give you a pretty entry level hardtail to ride, so as not to spoil you for when you get your own entry level bike

If a back pack is too undignified, I’m pretty sure a hip pack would be even worse ????

Cool, different strokes I guess. I never go on trails without a camelback. Feels wrong. I hate stuffing pockets on the back of cycling shirts, and pretty much only ride in t-shirts or enduro style shirts these days, so I need the bag for first aid kit, cellphone etc anyway. I have never understood the camel back hate….I have ridden across the Andes with only one bottlecage, but a pretty well loaded camelback. Not just gauteng flat trails

Thanks guys, makes sense to go ahead on YouTube, but I like the idea of a structured course with some “homework” type projects or assisnmgmets to practice on also. But will start with YouTube.

wasn’t it pat morewood a while back that asked, “do you want two water bottles, or do you want suspension that actually works” What is with the obsession with dual bottle cages? On a 30-40km ride, generally one is more than enough, even in the height of summer, and you can normally fill up at spots along the way. At a race, there are water points every 20 odd km anyway, which I always thought was total overkill, and if you are venturing off on an unsupported marathon ride, your gonna take a backpack anyway, so then use a hydration bladder. You can also fit dual bottle cages to the seat post, or there are options for top tube or handlebar bottle cages also, if you really can’t go without. On a MTB, even one meant for ultra marathon work, I would rather have proper suspension

Hi guys. I want to start playing around with video editing, trying to make videos people might actually enjoy watching. Because let’s be honest, no one actually enjoys watching raw, unedited go pro footage. Want to shoot go pro and iPhone footage, ans then put it together into pleasing to watch edited “episodes” from our rides and trips and stuff. womderijg if anyone can recommend some good either free or reasonably cheap courses on Udemy or similar?

Don’t come be clever here now. Every wankerbanker with the latest model s-works knows that the price of your lube is everything, in the bedroom and the racetrack…. I mean, when you are middle aged, 20kgs overweight, and only ride at best for 3 hours a week, to the coffee shop and back, you need all the marginal gains you can get.

I can’t wrap my head around the mentality here…. so, to the best of the OPs knowledge, a lawnmower shop came into possession of some specialised stock seemingly donated to development rider programs, and was selling at a song, amd they rushed off to snap it up. Then question the ethics of someone else buying it before they could, and making a profit selling it on… at no point do they question the ethics of the shop selling this stock, or how they got hold of it… yes, later posts would seem to indicate it was just old stock or so, but when the OP got butthurt about it he was fully under the impression that he was off to buy something intended for a development program… anyone supporting this type of mentality better never complain about corruption in government, or the stienhof scandal ever again. The ethics are the same, regardless of the value of the transaction. It’s crazy how many people here are willing to turn a blind eye to the origin of the goods they buy as long as they feel they are getting a good deal. It’s not okay. When one structures a supplier contract for large corporates, many levels of risk analysis and supplier vetting takes to as far as possible make there is nothing questionable in the supply chain, why should the same not apply to smaller transactions? Yes, things slip through and mistakes are made, but one can’t just turn a blind eye… Had this same argument at a braai the other day, but about recreational drugs. It’s all good and well for someone to argue that there’s nothing really wrong with smoking a joint or doing a bit of blow as long as you can control yourself, and don’t go off the rails etc. The common argument is it’s no more harmful than booze, and both are equally habit forming. Problem is just because you cause no one any harm when you smoke a zol, or do a line in the privacy of your own home, doesn’t magically make all the pain and suffering in the supply chain of your little harmless fun go away. I feel the same applies to buying anything you know comes through a less than kosher supply chain. Out of sight shouldn’t be out of mind

Cow house trails are also great for recovery rides. Flat, very very easy riding. Great to ride with the kids also

The whereabouts series of films has had me questioning the need for the existence of gravel bikes in the first place…… These dudes ride road bikes across continents, on all types of roads, weather etc, But don’t even consider expecting most Gauteng roadies to ride thier bike across the gravel parking lot to join the cycle lane on a Saturday morning when they take on the cradle. I’m not joking, I have seen guys actually carry their bikes across the parking lot. It’s mad… https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5135168/

Okay, I thought as much, but that’s not exactly what I would consider converting, in my mind converting a frame includes making some kind of modifications to the actual frame to make it suitable for a gravel bike. This is just fitting different components to make it fit for purpose. When I put a faster rolling tire on my Mountainbike, for a couple of days riding across the Karoos back roads, I don’t call it a conversion. I’m not asking about the conversion to sound cocky though, I’m considering the same type of build myself, and the biggest issue I’m facing is how to getting decent tires to fit. Which means either sourcing a disc ready frame, giving you some Freedom in terms of rim size and tires, or figuring out how to make cantis fit over 40 or 42 profile tires….

Bikes, as soon as you move beyond the absolute basic of the bike as a simple mode of transport have nothing to do with real value, and everything to do with image. It’s the same with cars, boats, private jets (I exclude mainstream air travel, as realistically aviation as a form of transport is probably the least pretentious of the lot, with notable exceptions). But I think with bikes the snobbery is actually a lot worse than with cars and boats and planes. No matter how the industry tries to dress it up, bikes are very far from being “cutting edge” except in the minds of cyclists themselves. carbon fibre is long since no longer some dark art, metallurgy is also very well understood and studied, to me and you the material science is mind boggling, but to the people that work with it daily, it’s pretty mundane stuff. Most of the rest of the components are pretty easily mass produced, and the basic idea of a chain driven crank turning a sprocket is also not high tech. yes, to be able to be super light, but still super stiff and able to handle some pretty extreme forces, while lasting for a couple thousand kms means high quality materials need to be used, and manufactured to pretty tight tolerances, but it still all just vanity as soon as you start to move even just into the lower mid level of the market, and the extent of the vanity tax grows exponentially as you move up the range. don’t get me wrong, I like a decent bike as much as the next guy, in fact, probably more than most, but I refuse to accept that there is any realistic value in a bike much beyond the R50k price point, even taking into consideration exchange rates etc etc.

I think you misunderstood my post. This is definitely not a starter bike. I have multiple bikes. This bike will fit a very particular role in my collection. The idea was to build up a bike to fill this role from parts lying around as far as possible, but at the price these are going for, I can buy the whole bike for less than the cost of a handful of parts I still need to finish the build, and it wouldn’t be compromised in terms of wheel size selection, I can run proper nice 700C gravel or skinny XC tires from the outset. your comment about upgrading not being worth it is one I fail to understand. Why Chuck away a perfectly good frame when the parts are tired, if I will be stopping down parts from my other bikes when I upgrade them, or if a used part bargain comes along. If the integrity of the frame is still good, then why not put in better components with time? The frame is just a couple of butted allu extrusions welded together, and is essentially not a “wear and tear” part, whilst all the other parts, the moving bits, are, and in essence are worth upgrading, and will make the bike better, regardless of whether there is an S-Works sticker or a No-Name sticker on the down tube. I love bikes, but I love riding them, I couldn’t give a rats what the sticker on the frame says. So your comment about it not being “worth” upgrading really makes no sense to me. Granted the frame remains structurally sound…. oh, and they definately have stock in the Lynwood branch, regardless of what the website says. This was also mentioned in my original post. so far, the only person that has commented with first had experience, seems to confirm that the frame will be able to sustain commuter bike duties, so I will be getting myself one in the week.

Not sure about that. Anthem had a much lower profile seatstay on the rear triangle previously if that makes any sense. might just be the angle of that picture, but the rear triangle angles is very different to the outgoing model.

Chain Reaction service is generally amazing. In the past few years the wheels fell off a bit when they changed delivery partners to skynet, who remained great in most other countries, but in SA, skynet might actually have been worse than the post office. I really don’t know how the local subsidiary of skynet survives. They are atrocious. CRC has moved back to DHL for some markets, including ours, and the service is once again stellar. you can order without any issues. Make sure you understand what duties you will be liable for though. Textile items (not just “clothing” are a real bitch, at 45% import duty plus vat. This includes gloves, socks, shoes I think, many bags and accessories etc). Parts/components etc are duty free, so you just pay vat on landing. So clothes are pretty much never worth it. But, shoes, even with the duties are very often worth it, compared with what is locally available. I like proper merino wool cycling gear (I order Rapha stuff often, but not from CRC, direct from Rapha), I then have it shipped to my cousin in the UK, paying UK vat, amd he then unboxes and ships it to me direct via DHL as a personal package/gift, and that way avoid paying local import duty. So far never been intercepted bY customs, but one day I’m sure I will get unlucky and will then pay the 45%……I got smoked by customs on fishing tackle sent to me as a legitimate gift a few years ago, and the local duties, based on the valuation SARS chose, my taxes were pretty much the same as the person sending the gift had paid. That one burned. Guess you win some you lose some.

That’s a little simplistic don’t you think. Fox probably wins in the forks department generally, but purely because they don’t really offer a budget fork. Even the cheapest model is middle market. But that doesn’t mean it’s inherently better than an equivalent rock shocks product. Rockshox just happens to also make more entry level options… but on a cutting edge prototype bike, it’s fair to assume it’s all top of the line stuff, so the differences between the two brands are nuanced…. since where being simplistic though I’m gonna say: everything else < Ohlins

Those that have been riding here over the past weekend, with the current lockdown, are the food stalls operating at all at the trailhead? Can one at least get a takeaway coffee and a schwarma after your ride, or is it all closed down. keen to give it a go this coming Saturday, but if I can’t get coffee and a bite after, I will rather stay to local Pretoria trails for now.

At the risk of sounding silly, what exactly was converted here? Or did they just fit gravel tires? Where the brake mounts moved higher to give more clearance? What frame is this, or is it a custom made. I need something like that, but in a large/55-56cm frame

Thanks for the input, that gives me some confidence in the frame, for my use case. at the price I don’t expect it not to be very entry level. But I don’t need it to be a high performance bike. Just want to save miles on my dual sus bikes when cruising around the neighbourhood… components will slowly get upgraded over time, so as long as the frame isn’t gonna break in half the first time I bunnyhop off the pavement, I think I’m gonna give it a shot

Nice looking bike. Can’t help thinking the frame/geo looks a lot like the outgoing Scott spark, but without the kinked top tube

That bike has a pretty standard tapered head tube, so you can take your pick of available forks. At this point it becomes all about your budget. something like a Suntour Raidon is probably the best value for money you are going to get. It’s as good as any semi decent rockshox fork, but priced better than the Judy or RS30. That would be my go to for a good budget air fork. But good luck finding any stock at the moment of anything…. If you buy used, just make sure the steerer is still long enough, Hasmt been cut too short

Not sure about all the brands, but I had a Scott spark carbon frame crack at the BB. Frame was replaced under warranty, and the agents took the cracked frame back, apparently to send to the factory for R&D purposes. whether true or not is not for me to judge, it seems plausible. But I would imagine even if not the case, they would still want the cracked frames back to make sure they don’t end up back in circulation on the black market, after some dodgy repair, which could be very bad PR for the brand….

Hi guys. New to this forum. I tried to find a “introduce yourself” thread, but didn’t notice anything, so if I missed the protocol here, I apologise. now back to my question, has anyone got any info or experience with Marvel bikes. I was in cycle lab yesterday for the first time in years, and saw their commuter/hybrid bikes for sale for less than 6k. I was immediately intrigued, because I am busy getting parts together to convert an old HT MTB frame into a flat bar commuter/gravel type bike for going to work and back and the odd road biased coffee shop rides. the big issue being my old frame (it’s a diamondback from the early 2000s) is a v-brake or disk frame, but it’s a 26inch. The old suntour fork it came with I gave away years ago, and the plan was always to go full rigid for this bike anyway, but I would need to still source a straight steerer road bike/rigid forks with disk mounts, if I wanted to run 650b gravel tires. If I stay with v-brakes, I would be limited to 26inch rims, which is not ideal for this type of bike. 700c on the 26inch frame would probably limit me to pretty narrow tires, if it even fits at all…. so, know if I were to buy the Marvel, that would make life a whole lot easier. It runs 700c wide tires, it has disk breaks all round (mechanical, but an easy upgrade with old avid juicy set I have lying around), and I wouldn’t need to source any other bits. To do the current build, I only have the frame and the set of disk breaks and a old handlebar so far, so I would need a drivetrain and wheels and a fork, which even using cheap used 8 or 9 speed stuff could still set me back a couple grand. So for just under R6k with the Marvel, I can have a commuter bike, with new everything, that’s already disk ready and running on 29inch rims. Seems like a lot less effort, but that price seems way too cheap. Are these frames any good? I’m only going to do sedate riding, hopping the odd pavement here and there, but nothing more. But on my best days I’m still 98kgs, and usually closer to 104kgs….so will the frame hold out? The rest of the components are all entry level stuff, but for a city bike, the tourney drive train is more than adequate, and parts can be upgraded with hand me downs from my other bikes as I upgrade…. But can I trust the frame. I can’t really find any info on Marvel bikes online, and the salesman at cycle lab didn’t seem to know much either. But I’m sure he would have been a lot more eager to talk to me if I was asking about a brand new Bianchi Methanol…… here is the link on cyclelab site: https://www.cyclelab.com/product/marvel-cadent-hybrid-bike (says sold out, but there’s a bunch of them at the lynwood cyclelab, in blue, and for R5600.00 My other option is to look at the Scott Metrix 30. Which by all accounts seems to have the same frame as the allu scott road bikes, but with flat bars and a disk set up. That’s R15k, and for that I could by a lot of cheap second hand stuff to build up a commute bike, but this does look like a pretty decent offering…. Not sure the missus will entertain this idea though. I could sell her on the Marvel, seeing as it’s going to cost less than building up a commuter….. not sure how to convince her why I should buy the Scott though. https://www.cyclelab.com/product/2020-scott-metrix-30-alumnium-road-bike