janneman72

Well, for one the Epic and Pioneer are much of a muchness just the Pioneer is a lot cheaper. The rest is for interest sake, the Garden route is much harder of the 3 day stage races than the others etc.

Apparently 3 day MTB races are called stage races and events such the Epic and Cape Pioneer which more than 6 days are called multi-stage races. Have a look at the video's posted on youtube..... If you google for it only the cape pioneer and epic comes up: http://www.google.co.za/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=multi+stage+race#pq=multi+stage+race&hl=en&cp=5&gs_id=3&xhr=t&q=multi+stage+mountain+bike+race&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&safe=off&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=multistage+race&aq=0b&aqi=g-b1&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=d1362685be459c5b&biw=1920&bih=955

I totally understand where're you're coming from and I was totally anti-29er and though the 26" is the sh*t...but I have a Cannondale 26"DS as well as a 2012 Flash 29er HT. The HT accelerates much faster than the DS on straights, flats and climbs. The gear ratio is also totally different which makes the pedaling the same. Remember I'm comparing a 26"DS with a 29er hardtail..... My girl weights 50kg and did the 94.7 in 2:42, so she's quite light weight and we though that she'll be unable to pedal a 29er. She normally rides a 26" HT but when she rides my 29er we average about 2-3kmh more which is 10-15% faster. I'm really don't want to start a 26 vs 29" fight, but I feel that both bikes have their place depending on the route you're riding..... Also, I paid for my DS about R58k with a carbon lefty and for the 29er R20k, the 29er weights 1.5kg's lighter with a alloy lefty.....

Great, for the first time with the Argus I'm actually in the sub-3 group without riding sub-3 on my own, yeah!!! This should be a breeze!!!

I just bought a new 2012 Cannondale 29er Flash 1 Alloy as a training bike for R21k(barends,egg beaters, saddle bag, tubeless conversion and cordless cateye costed me another R2k) and it rides much better than my 2011 Cannondale RZ120-one which retails for R48k(stock standard with Carbon Lefty) was suppose to be my racing bike. But the Flash is much lighter, climbs easier and much more fun. So my racing bike will become my training MTB and visa versa, I can really recommend the Alloy Flash 1 in that price range!!! (I use to be an anti-29er fan but now believe that each bike has it's place and it certainly has having best of both...)

We're doing the GR300 but have done the sani and w2w before. I want to know how much more difficult is the GR300 vs the other 2 3 day stage races. The GR300 is 100km/day with almost 2000m vertical gain every single day whereas the other 2 races is about average 80km/day with average 1200m vertical gain. Has anyone done the GR300 before to be able to comment on it? We're very excited though but nervious about the training as we can't find any MTB routes in Pretoria with that much climbing, the most climbing we found here was 90km with 1000m climbing...

Start MTB'ing, much safer!!!

The winner, Chand Karjieker, did only the 94.7 and no other race and was born in 1972, makes her 39.....hhhhmmmmmmm.

Banana's no problem, the rest must be kept on you....

Slicks vs no slicks normally depends on your fitness and time....Did it with both and with slicks are actually no challenge but much easier, without slicks I think you can get categorised in the MTB category and is obviously a bit harder.

I agree 100%. BTW, I did the Sani, W2W & GR300 with a Cannondale DS and don't know a lot about Merida but what I meant was buy the bike or brand you like, that will motivate you. My personal goal is to do the next 3 with multi-day events with a single-speed, forked Niner, but we'll still see about that next year

If I owned a company like Shimano, Cannondale, Gaint or whatever, the perfect place would be at a race where your brand is represented(whether it's fake or not) between other cyclist with the same interest. Their income on clothing is probably < 1% of their total income but with a lot of people riding in their gear and promoting their brand they might sell more Shimano parts that they would've sold clothing. That's probably the reason why all the suppliers turns a blind eye on the issue. Other scenario then, why do you think with the Sani2C goodie bag you get all those clothing items worth almost R2,000 with branded Aca-Joe, Subaru etc branded on it, for exactly the same reason, promoting their brand. We received sponsors by various companies to ride the 94.7 in their corporate cycling jerseys, only choosing one though, same reason again. All fees regarding the race paid and it's a bargain for us. Lastly, if they bothered selling the brands of cycling clothes in which they sell bikes/parts etc in, probably more people will buy the gear but they don't so some people import the stuff from China or wherever. Marketing 101

I think the suppliers must pay the cyclists, regardless of being a fake or not, a fee each time you ride with their brand. It's great for marketing! In SA for example they mostly import the bicycles without the brand clothing(although they have the import/distribution rights for it) because they're to lazy to sell the gear and the profit margin is not big enough. So I can't see any problem with it though.

Just buy the Merida you want, I don't think you can go wrong. I've done the Sani with a Cannondale DS and my partner with a Scott HT, both 26'ers without any problems. For the Sani you don't have to cater for rocky roads and bumps, rather cater for a good climbing and single track bike(like the Merida you want). Just let a pro fit the bike for you and buy the correct frame size!

Never seen something like this before, sorry to say but it seems like a "bit" of bike abuse to me and the originator of this post disappeared? Cannondale and all other manufacturers, I recommend not selling this guy your bikes!

94.7 MTB Event Sucks - Why was this topic deleted???

I noticed odd 500 of the 2000 rider DNF, whats up with that?

Me too!!!

If you do it with a MTB do it properly without slicks, that's the real challenge. Pump the wheels hard and go at it on the climbs and stay with the bunch on the flats and downhills

I can turn sharper left than right, is this normal?

I agree 100%, the harder you pedal the easier you'll stay on your bike and go over obstacles (but the harder you'll fall [if you fall])

Hi camerons, that's exactly what I'm referring to, how smoking affects your cycling performance, what is smoking fit etc. We all know that smoking is bad for you therefore posts like eccentric1's is missing the plot/question here.

Do you think that smoking affects your performance with cycling and what does other cyclist think of smoking cyclist(Road & MTB). I saw guys on the Sani2C this year who smoked during the ride but rode like animals, extremely good climbers and very good racers. At the Amashova I saw a VA guy puffing just before the start and kept with the VA's all the way, can it be the nicotine ...What do you guys think? Even the TDF guys smoked in the old days during the race!

No apology required and I'm not offended at all(the name change suggestion was quite funny as well), I can understand that the truth might hurt some fellow hubbers but it is a genuine issue for some cyclists.