sometime

Thanks - that's the kind of first hand feedback I was looking for. Did you get your cogs locally? If so where? I've emailed singlespeed.co.za with no success

The prosecution rests your Honour

Exectley Read my post again and see if you can find the sentence where I say I know the gear ratio is the same and that my question was why the one chainring and cog combo might be preferable to the other. Juvenile sarcasm is something we all eventually outgrow hence my concern over the evolutionary progress of Homo Sapiens.

Thanks - I'd like to think I'm going with my own rules: Rigid CroMo On-One fork V brakes Elf orange respray Tubed tyres It's not pretty but it's been a great bike for the past 13 odd years. You make a good point about the contact area. I guess my main concern was to what extent the tensioner can operate effectively. Lets take my front chainring to an extreme to try illustrate my point. I could run a 54 front chainring with a 27 and have the same gearing but would the tensioner arm be long enough to effectively tension the chain? i.e. the pulley wheel on the tensioner may be so close to where the chain leaves the rear cog that it doesn't have sufficient leverage on the chain to tension it sufficiently. I just wasn't sure if that would be an issue on a 38 - but probably not. Thanks

The more time I spend on forums like this, the more I question my belief in Darwinian evolution.

Hi all, I'm in the process of converting my 1998 Trek 7000 26" HT into a SS. I've been using this bike primarily as a training bike running 1x9 gearing. Front chainring is a 38t. Going with the rule of thumb of a 2:1 gear ratio I was thinking of fitting a 19t cog at the back. It seems that a 38t chainring is uncommon on SS with a 32t or 34t being more popular. Now I know my gear ratio is the same running a 38/19 or a 32/16 but I was wondering if there is any reason why the one may be preferable to the other - i.e issues with the chain tensioner etc? I'd obviously prefer to keep the 38 but will change if there're compelling reasons to do so. Thanks

I have done multiple laps on Northcliff as part of my hill training but I cannot imagine doing that 30 times and for 11 hours - respect indeed!

Same as guys standing on the side of the trail with a broken chain staring at their shiny top of the range never used chainbreaker and link and hoping that they'll have some mechanical epiphany. Get an old chain from your LBS, buy a couple of links and practise breaking and re-linking a chain. At some point on a MTB you're going to break a chain or some part of your drive train that will entail breaking the chain to make a get-you-home repair.

Thanks - 29er it is then. Every other race I recall seeing them riding their XTC bikes. Epic (and probably the Cape Pioneer) really are quite different to any other races in this country and different rules seem to apply even for the best pro teams.

I've no idea why this is of any relevance but either way how you would classify me: This year I've raced in 9 or 10 races (all 60+km) including two 3 day stage races with a top 75 finish in Sani2c race. Does that make me a rider or a racer? Back on topic I recall an interview with Esther Suss after one particularly tough stage where she said she now understood why the majority of riders where on 29er dual suspension bikes. Having said all this I would suggest waiting to see where the route is going next year. There's all sorts of speculation around that, that may or may not influence your decision.

To the best of my knowledge Ariane and her partner Eric rode Giant Anthem 26er dual suspension on the Epic. Their normal race bikes are hardtail XTC 29ers. Of all the pro teams I think the majority of the top 10 were on dual sus and most on dual sus 29ers. I know from chatting to one of the top 10 SA teams that the only reason they didn't ride 29er dual suspensions was because their bike supplier's 29er dual sus wasn't good enough. But given the choice they firmly believe 29er dual sus is the best bike for Epic. I race a 29er hardtail but will definitely ride a dual sus for Epic next year.

Fantastic! Those books will certainly find a place in our home.

Oh I forgot the one thing I really hated about them was the fact that the front caliper wasn't square on its one mounting tab with the result that once you'd centered the caliper on the rotor and then tightened the caliper, it moved relative to the disc. Basically a poor quality casting.

True - I just much prefer the short 1 finger levers on the SLX as opposed to the clunky 4 finger levers on the Elixir 5's I had.

I started in B at Tygervalley and we must've passed 10 A bunch riders in the first 10 kms. Something is clearly not right with their seedings.

I also got tired of noisy Elixir brakes that also faded under heavy prolonged braking. I fitted SLX levers and calipers and XT Icetech rotors and the braking was transformed.

The plastic tabs under the 500 that lock onto the mount are notorius for breaking off which results in a warranty claim and getting a new one from Garmin. All good and well if you notice is falling off but I know a couple of guys who have lost them on an MTB race only to notice some time later. YOu can't claim on something you no longer have. Mine broke off while riding my MTB on the road. Luckily I saw it and went back for it. So anyone of these mount sthat secure the 500 without relying on the mounting tabs only is a good thing to protect an investment worth a few thousand rand.

So they killed because they are black or they killed because their victim was white? Or both?

Nope they're run by elected politicians just like SA. Their crime and murder stats are driven by socio-economic factors and societal "norms" and culture just like in SA. And just like in SA there are far too many people who feel nothing for taking what is not theirs to take, whether that be a person's life or their property.

Huh? You need to read a reply in context before asking rhetorical questions. gummibear said the the level of crime and murder in our country does not happen anywhere else and used an example of a SA news website (showing 3 murders) and one from Luxembourg (showing no murders) to illustrate his point. It was in the context of this statement that I contradicted him by saying that our levels of crime exist all over the world and I listed some examples of that.

Nope sorry - I'm probably like you - never at a loss for words. But your reply above answers my questions - thanks.

Ok - have you been to Brazil or Mexico or Columbia? Their crime and murder stats are on a par or even worse than ours.

Really? Do you know what's happening in Syria at the moment? Do you know what's happening in Iraq? How about that Anders fellow who murdered all those innocent children in Norway? How about that man in France who killed a father and two of his sons in front of their school? How about the regular school killings coming out of the States?

Chap/Sir/Boss/Dangle/Oom/Boet/Bru - take your pick - just a form of address - no disrespect intended. You can answer all of your own questions by explaining what you meant when you wrote this "there might just have ben some degree of sense in the method of madness with that segregation years ago,".

Easy chap - you really are quick to fly off the handle and become personal and sarcastic in your replies aren't you. When you say that going back to a segregated society, a segregation based on racial classification, might be the solution to savagery like this, then I'm afraid you're branding blacks as being the only people capable of such savagery i.e. exclude them from our society and the problem will go away. Sorry chap but that the blacks aren't going away and even if they did there are plenty of white savages out there who will perform some savage act and ruin your illusion of a civilised white society.