RobynE

OP lives near Kroonstad

Bro, without cycling shorts, that’s pretty much turning the meat and veg into soup. At least with shorts they’re a stew. Jokes aside - sounds like an awesome outcome all round. Happy miles!

I’d say when you have a gap take the bike with and pop in to Mellow Velo in Broadacres, which is essentially Fourways. Mitch will sort you out 💯. A good bike fit is the bees knees! I remember once riding to the shop feeling like the most unfit, pathetic human, and rode home after the fit like I was finishing podium in the Tour de France. It’s really significant.

RockShox SiD WC circa 2016 gets my vote. So light, I have one on my bike and my daughter had one on her 26er and it was pretty bullet proof. Really light and reliable forks and still serviceable. I had an old Fox F Series 26” on my hybrid and it also worked like a bomb and fitted the 700cc wheels with 40mm gravel tyres, but that would depend on the tyres you’ll run on your bike. Definitely not more than 2.2. Also still serviceable.

This is my world right now. If you go with a new (current, meaning it’s currently listed on their website) Novatec it will serve you well. But once it’s been discontinued you can’t get parts for it eg a freehub body. Other options in terms of serviceable second hand: Hope Rapide (Wayne is very quick off the mark if you email them, maybe you’re in luck with a new one available) Stans or Lyne DT Swiss

@Titan Racing Bikes

I got on a bike for the first time in 25+ years back in 2022 aged 41 as I prepared for a spine op. Those first rides were HARD. I pushed a lot. I couldn’t even ride up my driveway at the end of a short ride. I was absolutely knackered. Lots of granny gear during the rides. What helped my riding a lot was standing up and pedalling. I did some rides with my kiddo where I pretended I was on a single speed and stayed in the same gear no matter what. My first 10km at my local trails felt like I’d run the Comrades. Gradually I got fitter, and stronger, and 5km turned to 10km etc. Now I do between 30 and 40 at the trails place and I rarely need granny gear and spend most of my time in gears 1-7 (of 12). So, fitness and saddle time are important. Graduate it and you’ll get fitter and fitter every day. BUT - it does sound like maybe a nerve or something is getting compressed, in your case. I would check saddle fit (size and shape). There’s a reason there’s a million different saddle types and they can really be the difference in good and bad rides.

Thanks DD. I came to the same conclusion about Chosen, as the closest visual ID I could get was on a mid-tier Giant with M6100. Sadly I had to bin it as after closely inspecting it I could see two small channels in the actual ratchet teeth thingies and not knowing the model/manufacturer for sure that was throwing good money after bad.

Depends on the spec but not more than R8k for sure. Chances are probably closer to R5-6k (sadly) and possibly less if the rims are mismatched.

Last thing I’m doing is absolving the dealer; quite the opposite actually. If you want to buy and not return for failures that’s on you. If you signed something that says the dealer is absolved from responsibility that’s on you. If the dealer commits to the bike having been through DD and offers some sort of guarantee, that’s your security. If they don’t stick to their end of the bargain that’s on them. For everyone who won’t return for failures there are probably the same amount who will point more fingers at the dealer and try get things in a sneaky manner. You can’t dictate to someone how much they must accept for their item or how long they must wait before they can sell it. If you are comfortable accepting a low ball then so be it. Willing buyers and willing sellers. People make dealers out to be like the (literal) horse traders of old, as if they’re snake oil salesmen. Surely if there were so many lemons we’d hear more about it? All I ever see about dealers is people being upset at their low balls. Either people being low balled on something they’re selling, or upset because the seller sold to a low baller. Business is business 🤷‍♀️ and who you choose to do business with whether buying or selling is your prerogative.

Let’s use my example here on my purchase of a bike for my kid. I bought a bike from an acquaintance. Typically stand-up guy (and I do still think is a stand-up guy). I didn’t lowball and I believe I paid a market-related amount based on the apparent condition of the bike and the specs. A few rides after getting the bike we picked up that the rear wheel is making “a bit” of noise. Nothing gnarly, just not sounding quite right, but intermittent. Note: it sounded fine when I got the bike. We note that the spokes are touching the cassette sometimes and the cassette can be rocked from side to side. So, we get the wheel off and fit a small spacer but now we can’t get the cassette locked on. So, we open up the apparently Novatec freebody and there’s a clump of ball bearings tucked away in a corner. Like a lot of bearings, all in a bundle. So, we remove them, clean them, put them back in as they should be but there’s lots of play and we realise something, somewhere, is missing. Perhaps some sort of cap or seal or something. So we MacGyver it but it doesn’t work out and I start googling. The hub in question should have a freehub body and axle as a single piece. It does not. The freebody should have sealed bearings - it does not. It should also have a spacer (and comes with one) - it does not. This particular hub is also discontinued and there are no spares available for it. If I bought the bike from a shop/dealer I would be back there with it showing them the findings and insisting they make right. But, I bought privately, and so I am waiting for a new hub to arrive so LBS can do a rebuild and get the bike rolling properly. I don’t think the seller knew about the hub business but if I’d bought it from a shop I would have expected them to know. NB the bike is ridden by my 40kg daughter and has done nothing in terms of gnar since we got it - I don’t think it’s done 50km yet. This will be the second wheel build in 2 weeks because it already got a new rim in March when kiddo had a flat and on stripping the Sunringle wheel we realised it was corroded and beyond “patching”. There were no outward signs and I don’t think private buyers will ask someone to remove tyres so they can check if rims are corroded. So, I’m in for a new rim and hub (just the parts) and labour for the work (x 2 wheel builds). No-one to blame in my opinion except the person who at some point stuck a freehub on that “sorta” fitted and said the bike was cool. The rim - well, it’s what rims do. I know that now but that knowledge hasn’t come for free. If a dealer had bought the bike sight unseen and before purchasing hadn’t removed the tyre and seen the rim corrosion and heard the intermittent noise, then the dealer would have been in for the cost of probably 2 equivalent new rims (so they would match, which mine currently doesn’t) as well as matching tyres and a hub as parts, before they could sell the bike on. This bike has a retail value of R8,500.00. I paid R8,500.00 including delivery from another province. I have since purchased a new back tyre(original one was patched), rim and now hub, plus the labour for the wheel builds. So my R8,500.00 bike is a R12,000.00 bike if I factor everything in. If a dealer paid R4000 for the bike they may have ended up making a grand on the bike selling it at R8,500.00. Sure, they may have paid R4k and ended up with a squeaky clean bike and flipped it with a wash and lube and sealant top up. The same economics apply whether it’s a R8k bike or a R80k bike. If the 80k bike had a corroded rim or trashed suspension or cracked frame or poked brakes or whatevs, there would be outlay relative to the spec, and they may or may not have good used components on hand to remedy the “niggles”. But somewhere in that 80k is the money for the 8k bike, and another 8k bike, so lots of us can buy 8k or 20k or whatever bikes. Peter/Paul scenario. Risk and reward. Win some, lose some. I think dealers win and lose all the time and somewhere the scales need to balance. It’s impossible to keep everyone happy, all of the time. The bike that got snapped up under your nose by a dealer - there will be another one. Or, just buy that bike from the dealer and inspect it with a fine toothed comb, and you have recourse if you have a poked rim/hub/frame/brakes/etc. Hold them accountable. They must walk their talk. But - if the dealer won’t offer you some sort of guarantee or assume responsibility for poked things that fail shortly after you get the bike (crashes aside), that’s a whole other story, and then they deserve aaaalllll the shade.

I think it’s more about the low, low ball offers. Eg bike in good nic (according to owner) and priced market-related, then a big dealer comes in and offers 30% of the asking price. So let’s say a 3 year old bike with a new price of 40k, seller offers it at 20k, dealer comes in with an offer at 5-10k. But, willing buyer willing seller and clearly there are many people willing to sell at the offered price as BM and other dealers aren’t running low on stock from what I can see. If you’re desperate to sell (for whatever reason) you’ll take what is offered, and yes, not having to deal with potential scammers (I have had scammers try on everything I’ve ever loaded on FB Marketplace) may be worth the knock if you need it to be. Dealers also sell the bikes with some sort of guarantee, which increases their risk. I think it’s a win some lose some for dealers but you need to be able to win a lot to cover rent, utilities, staff, etc, if you intend on moving volumes. But again - willing buyer, willing seller. If you low ball me and I don’t bite, neither of us are willing 😁

Mellow has this Trance X 2. Components aren’t upper tier (eg SRAM SX) but you can ride them til they break then upgrade. Not the lightest bike around but pretty near bulletproof and new for the price of 2nd hand. Not sure what frame size though. 2022 Giant Trance X at Mellow

And then of course plenty second hand dual sus in that price range on the Hub Marketplace too.

Depends on your height in terms of frame size but Solomon’s has some good deals on GX and Deore-equipped Titan and Merida bikes at the moment with components from the likes of Manitou, DT Swiss, Raceface. All components that will serve you well. They don’t have all frame sizes in every model though. At a glance the models that look decent are between R30-40k. You don’t have to limit yourself to carbon as there are modern alu bikes that are plenty light. Depending on where you are you can see if your LBS would do a same or similar price for you which makes the maintenance etc so much easier.