Just Keep Pedaling

That is fairly far to cycle in one day.

Maybe they mean't bike + rider. I know from personal experience that taking the bike uses more of my energy than taking the car - even if I factor the enery spent on working to earn the money to buy the petrol. Long live petrol.

My 2 cents Wider = softer ride. Narrower = lighter bike and wheel setup. Narrower = cheaper tire (some brands). Wider = better grip. Wider = a little better protection of sidewalls from rocks because the the sidewall is at a greater angle. Wider = BETTER rolling resistance - this is according to research by Scwalbe and is counter intuitive. This only applies on offroad terrain, the reverse is true on tar roads.

Carbon on an all mountain bike is like solid gold pants. Impressive, expensive - but overall just a waste of money.

As the three biggest selling value brands there won't be much difference between their value offering. Rather pick a good bike shop in your area to buy one from.

Is it still two loops?

"The BG Fit at Concept Cyclery in Melrose Arch." The really serious cyclists I know rate this is the only option. Free or cheap setups can often be worse than doing your own play it by ear setup. Their opinion, not mine, btw - so keep the flames gentle.

Word of warning: Forks need to fit at both ends. You can get Tapered or 1 1/8' (and others I am sure) at the top and quick release and various other standards at the wheel end. Don't buy one that does not fit (GT Avalanche don't use tapered steerers as far as I know).

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The Rock Shox Recon people keep mentioning is like the Toyota Corrola of air shocks. They are about R3000 - R3500 new. I have one and it is great, but nowhere as smooth as my friend's R8000 Fox.

P.S. The store owner would recommend FOX as he will get more revenue from the repairs and services.

"I saw that yeah... Is it true that Fox forks/shocks are largely regarded as being the better/best shock option? I know that store and the owner, nice guy!" Rockshox and Fox have their pro's and con's. Fox might be generally consider better but they are expensive to maintain and you don't get the same 'value for money' that Rockshox gives. In the end its probably 'horses for courses' sort of thing.

If you are determined to upgrade something: Forks and wheels are the best things to upgrade as you can always port them to your next bike, sticking the old one back on the current bike when you sell it. Plus they reportedly make the biggest differance to performance. Consider buying a top of the range Fox or Roxshox, they will probably cost more than your whole current bike but when its time to sell the Avalanche it will likely still be an upgrade on your new bike - and you can sell the new fork to someone if its half decent.

Drove past a Metrocop traping this morning. She was asleep in the chair. She is a symbol for the current regime.

I won't pretend to know why. It might be something to do with GPS receivers only getting info from satelites at long intervals to save battery - but that is just a guess.

Went to Germany this year. Watched the end of a MTB race and everybody seemed to have 26" no-supension on the front end steel framed jobbie from 1991. Respect.

I suggest trying MTB'ing first before you splash on an expensive bike. Maybe you don't like it. Borrow a bike for a ride or two first. Seriously, you can get a decent enough bike for R4500. Once you have decided you want to take it seriously then you can consider the pro's and cons of nice things like 29'ers, carbon, fancy suspension and 70k bikes.

50% of the price of a new one. 40% if he is a good bloke. 60% if he is a bit of an ahole.

If there is a boom they must let you through. It is still public roads. You may have to sign in. They will have a residents association or similar. Maybe contact them and ask for a sticker or something to allow you to cyle there without signing in.

As JB pointed out once, liquid latex has both water and ammonia in it. Listening to the sound of the sloshing around in your tire is not a good indicator that it is time to change the latex as the ammonia could have evaporated while the water remains, meaning the latex has dried up. Rather just replace on a schedule of three or four or six months.

My friends all have Scotts and the colour schemes come straight out of the circus. If you care about that, get the Giant.

They don't do stock takes often enough. My last order was a total balls up due to discrepancies between website stock and warehouse stock.

A lot of mountain bike riding is not 'trail' but 'marathon' in which case setup is just as important as on the road. From personal experience even small setup problems can result in pain / injury.

Another point: Disc brakes are vastly superior in wet conditions. In dry conditions that differenace is not that big. Disk brakes are expensive to buy and maintain.

Hi Raven MTB is different to road in that wear and tear on bikes is significantly more. In other words, buy new unless you enjoy repairing bikes. I would suggest a GT Avalanche 2 in that price bracket. Bike weight will have little to no impact on your enjoyment unless you plan to win races (in which case budget 35k+ for a bike) so don't get involved in that bollocks. Buy a sturdy, comfortable bike. Ps.Same applies for remote lockout. Components are consumables. If you buy XT all round after a year be prepared to replace most of it. I would go for bottom of the range as it is actually very good. Tubeless is by far the best ugrade you can do. Then fork. Then wheelset.