sometime

Well said that man. I also have a Scott Spark Elite 29er and I also read the one review saying the DT Swiss rear shock wasn't up to scratch and that Scott should go the Fox route. I agree everyone jumped on the bandwagon and now after someone noticed Evans and George racing Epic with Fox shocks on their Sparks, suddenly you mustn't touch a Spark because of the rear shock? Rubbish! I owned two Giant Anthem's before the Scott and I agree that both (Fox RP2 and RP23 at the back) gave a more plush ride than the Spark. But the Spark climbs a LOT better and has a far more aggressive and responsive setup and feel. As a race bike I far pefer it to my Giant. I ride the Spark like a hardtail 80% of the time (i.e. locked out) but on rough downhills or bumpy tracks opening the shocks makes it more than forgiving and compliant enough. The wheelset is absolutley fine although the Schwalbe Rocket Ron tyres and VERY thin tubes are only good for training rides. I did upgrade my wheelset (ZTR Arch on Hope hubs which I use for races only) but apart from that everything else is standard. This bike was good enough to take me to a top 25 overall position in the recent 3 day Garden Route 300 as a 85+kg veteran who trained 30 hours a month in the two months prior to the race. My point being that this bike is more than good enough for 90% of riders out there and at the price point I don't think there is anything to come close to it (even with the extra cost of the upgraded wheelset). Total bike weight is 12.5 kg all in for a large frame. Spez make great bikes but IMO you certainly pay a premium for the brand that I can't justify. I don't know enough about the Niner to comment. Merida and Giant also offer great bang for buck new. Edited to add: Second hand MTB's are a minefield. You can buy a lot cheaper than new but a few weeks later suddenly you need to replace the complete drive train and that's R4k, the fork needs servicing and that's R1k etc etc and before you know it that bargain costs as much as a new bike.

Game on! I think we were with you in that middle sector chasing the wheel of the big guy on the Tallboy - we were in the white and yellow 24/7 kit? I think we got away from you guys up the climb then promptly threw that all away when I missed a turn plus some bike admin after that. We just about caught the Tallboy at the finish.

I'm 86kg and chose to go the ZTR Arch route on Hope Pro II Evo hubs. In 10 years of MTB racing I've never had to worry about wheels buckling and I wasn't about to take the chance on the Crest rims that I am right on the weight limit for, just for the sake of saving 200g or so. You buckle a wheel and 9 times out of 10 your race is over. You can't risk that on a race like Epic where you have invested substantial time and money. Ask yourself how much time you stand to gain in a race running Crest rims vs how much you stand to lose if they break because they're not designed to carry your weight plus 8 day of abuse on the Epic? The Hope hubs are superb, well built, almost bullet proof - You can get lighter hubs and you can get cheaper hubs but to my mind they are one of the best bang for buck hubs on the market.

The Skyline would've been squashed up to the back seat. Only car that if you jacked up the car change a flat tyre, the back windscreen used to pop out - that's how soft and flexible the bodywork was (on the coupe version anyway).

Seeing as though everyone's giving away their identities - I see I'm KOM on that segment

Yes - your point being? Check again.

Would prefer to keep that to myself but any decent LBS should offer their good customers a discount on the retail price and the frame prices I mention above are correct.

I said around R8k - I actually paid R8.5k after my loyal customer discount. Check with your LBS and their recommended retail price should be R9.5k

LBS

Lifetime of the original owner. The point being the product is of such good quality that the manufacturer is willing to offer this type of warranty. You'll get nothing from any blank manufacturer. I cracked a Gian Anthem frame after 2.5 years of racing - they replaced it a week later. I have a friend who crashed a Volcan 29er HT recently - he was able to ride the rest of the race but let's just say that riding a bike with the downtube broken in half was "interesting".

And for R8k or so you can buy a Giant XTC Comp 29er frame with a proper racing pedigree in the World Cup XC and marathon stage, plus a lifetime warranty. http://www.giant-bicycles.com/_generated/_generated_us/bikes/models/images/2000/FR-XtC_Composite_29er.jpg

That's exactly when we realised how short the race was going to be and started riding at a 60km pace rather than an 80km pace - bit late though. We had a 4hr ride in mind but came in well below 3 hours.

No - we were heading down a long fast district road downhill (after the very bumpy mielie field section which was just after the tight twisty single track in the 'forest'). There was a left turn into the veld halfway down the road with no markings on the road, no marshall and just a turn sign on a roadsign and some barrier tape stuck to some grass. I had my head tucked down doing 45+km/h with my partner watching my wheel behind me so I/we missed it completely.

Thank goodness he passed me half way through the first lap - if I had to listen to that for another 2 hours I would've got seriously grumpy.

We also missed a turn but luckily only did about 3km extra. The route marking was poor in places and I also have a major problem with advertising a race as being an 80km and it ends up being 'only' 67km.

Results: http://www.waterpoint.co.za/sites/default/files/results/2012-04-14%20Results%20-%20USN%20Mountain%20Bike%20Cup%203.pdf

It was a really good race - given the location I certainly didn't expect the singletrack to be as good as it was - fast and flowing. It was also great to find those doing the 30km race being aware of the 60km riders coming up fast behind them and either getting off the track or keeping their lines - thanks guys! Thanks aagin to the rider who lent me some lube on the last lap while he was bombing his tyre. Feedback from all my mates and one of the podium finishers was just as positive - I'll certainly be back there.

Thanks - I'm very chuffed with it and it's very quick! 11.1kg all in - XL frame incl. pedals, bottle cages and a mainstream component mix. Plenty of place to lose weight if I was that way inclined, but I'm about as far removed from a weight weenie as you can get (20+ years of riding competively and this is my first carbon bike!).

My new race bike: Giant XTC Composite 29er

It is a very nice route and I think the race deserves more support from Gauteng MTB'ers - but it seems the organisers don't do enough to promote it on sites like this? I'm running 1.8bar tyre pressures on large volume tubeless 29" tyres and didn't feel like that was too low (I weigh 85kg's). Having said that the route is rocky and I chose to sacrifice some pace to avoid the worst of the rocks. I don't like the finish either - having to find your way past very slow 30km riders on very narrow single track is no fun but this problem isn't unique to this race. I had a big fall after trying to squeeze past someone which exactly what I did last month... I'm clearly a slow learner. But it is nice to ride this route every month and be able to compare your race pace on the same route each time - I did the same time as last month which was disappointing but I'll be back in May to hopefully take some time off that.

There's a little water right at the finish when they take you on a zig zag purpose buillt singletrack course next to the river. But when I say a little water I mean crossing a few puddles, otherwise it's typical Free State bushveld, farm tracks and district roads.

Dirtmax in Parys on Sat 7th. I did the 60km in March - nice little route with a good mix of track and conditions

Scott Spark Expert 29 er for R29k + R5k on a decent wheelset.

Any guesses at which bike (brand & model) was the most popular out there today?

Any idea when results are coming out - Spectrumsport website has been down all day?