RobynE 🚵‍♀️

My limited knowledge is that a whole new damper is required, which would not make economic sense, as the brand doesn’t carry value very well. I’ve never seen spares for them advertised but also I wasn’t looking so maybe they are. You’d be better off getting a popular brand fork (Rockshox or Fox) and selling the X Fusion, or keeping it for if you want to sell your bike down the line.

Gill runs a tight ship in this regard and it is well worth supporting. Last year we started like 2 hours before my batch would have started and getting a meal and drink afterwards in the hospitality tent was the business! BCR does incredible work for Border Collies and you’ll be shocked at how many BCs become unwanted and need BCR’s help. It ranges from “I didn’t know this would be an active dog” to “we’re emigrating” to “it grew too big” to full on neglect and cruelty cases. We’ll see anyone who signs up, there!

There’s a Niner Scandium frame in size S for sale on FB Marketplace

Main comfort things for me: Tubeless tyres. They run at way, waaaay lower pressure than tubed and that makes a massive difference to comfort. Not all tyres can be run tubeless and some tyres have the same name (model name) but if there isn’t something saying TR or TLR or 2Bliss or something like that on the sidewall, you can’t run them tubeless. Tyre choice: knobbly MTB tyres may offer some butt and hand comfort but rolling resistance is a thing. Pedalling chonky tyres on tar is crap. Maxxis Rekon Race and Forekaster are fast rolling MTB tyres that give plenty of confidence on the dirt as well. There are semi-slicks in all the brands. The right pad in the shorts. They are not all created equal. Bib shorts ie suspender shorts. While not great for toilet business if you’re a lady, needing to basically strip every time you need to wee still wins over bunching pads and pads hooking on saddles and the associated chafing from your shorts moving around. Temu has decent bibs for small money - check out the last few pages of the Temu thread on here. On the subject of chafing: chamois cream aka anti-friction cream. Apply liberally to your shorts or your bits. There are a few different brands. I use FIT and carry the Ass Magic travel sachets which literally save my ass on long rides. More about chafing: find the right saddle and shorts for your wife and then ditch that seat cover. That is probably the singular worst thing for riding efficiency and chafing. Saddles: squishy does not equal comfort, actually. Eventually a lot of that squish is where your power is going. You want a firm saddle that supports your hips. It doesn’t help if you’re rocking or squishing on every pedal stroke. You want a saddle that transfers everything you’re doing into forward motion. No-one can tell you what saddle that is. And whatever saddle you buy, it will take some getting used to before you see the benefits. Whether you use a bottle or a backpack, one sip every ten minutes goes a long, long way to keeping you feeling fresh. Try not to die and then stop to hydrate. Rather stay hydrated. And don’t ride on an empty stomach. Also not on a full stomach. But you’ll bonk really quickly if you haven’t eaten anything. And bananas are your friend.

Welcome! Assuming that your gears are functioning as they should, the only way you’ll get to your ride goals is to ride and build fitness. If the gears are not functioning as they should and or are inconsistent, that will need to be remedied by your bike shop. In terms of upgrades, there are none that will make economic sense on the bikes. They are both very entry-level and unfortunately don’t hold their value very well as a brand so you’re already in the red. Hope this doesn’t sound condescending because it’s not meant to be - just the truth (from someone who spent money where she shouldn’t on my first “getting back on a bike” bikes).

I can’t see clearly but that is already a 10 speed SRAM derailleur on there already. Does it have a model number? The fork is a Suntour XCR32 which is flippen heavy but hey if it works. An air fork would be nicer. The brakes will need to be remedied which will mean a different set (non-integrated) and you may as well go hydraulic. You’d probably be looking at around 5-7k to turn it into something decent, more if you change the fork, if you do it all yourself.

You can currently get pretty good 10 speed stuff at great prices. If it’s 2x10 you can just leave the front derailleur off and run a narrow wide chainring up front which will help with chain retention. Assuming it’s currently Shimano you will have a hyperglide freehub body which will support up to 11 speed in Shimano original stuff or up to 12 speed using an aftermarket cassette. So you will need a shifter, rear derailleur, cassette and chain. If your brake levers are currently integrated with the gear shifters you may need a remedy around that ie either new shifters or new brakes. Then you will need a chain ring and perhaps a new crank set depending on what is on there now. If you go 10 speed a slightly bigger chain ring will help you with some top end stuff. Smaller chain ring will give you better climbing ability. All very doable for not much money. Stick to Shimano or SRAM for the best shifting (versus Microshift, L Twoo etc). And within Shimano and SRAM there are levels. SLX and XT are great in Shimano and GX in SRAM.

Best thing about it is escaping to Limpopo at the end of June is like running away from Gauteng winter for a few days - heavenly!

If they will fit the frame, I have 2 x 38c Spez Armadillo commuter tyres (not tubeless) complete with reflective strip for you, in great nick. But I can only give them to you probably second week of June as the one is still on the bike and is waiting for a Temu delivery for me to be able to change that tyre out to something bigger.

This sounds absolutely brilliant. I think though a lot of folks are committed to Trailseeker #4 (Sondela) the same weekend but hopefully it won’t affect your target market. It looks like ridiculously good value and I hope I can join the next one.

I can’t answer on the derailleur question, but just see if you can ride a 52t example first. There are some very weird jumps in what I find to be important places and I find it really messes with my rhythm. Of course we’re all different but that’s been my finding. Maybe a person gets used to it but I really struggle to. I personally find the 10-50 to be spot on.

I’ll take them off you Jay

No, that will be myself and my daughter on the tandem. We’ll probably still be out there for some star-gazing.

There really isn’t a tangible difference between Deore and SLX unless weight saving is a big factor for you. As such you can add Deore into the mix too. But if you go Shimano you’ll need both hub and shifter. Your SRAM shifter won’t shift faultlessly on a Shimano cassette. Opinion: your simplest route will be sticking to SRAM in whatever variant you choose. I personally absolutely love the smooth shifting of Shimano, and find it less clunky than SRAM, but microspline is an irritation when HG and XD are so versatile.

Marakele 70km with a collapsed Thudbuster seatpost (was not part of the plan!) yesterday. The vistas within Markele (big 5 National Park in Limpopo) are other worldly. This pic was a few kms after I saw very, very fresh elephant droppings, still shining and steaming, so it was a very quick snap and go. Seatpost doesn’t look collapsed in the pic but with my weight on it I was pedalling a Harley up every hill, 80mm of my reach taken away, and had bump compliance in the negatives. Spiderweb saddle added to the joy of the day. I feel my medal was well earned lol. I am absolutely shook that my tyres didn’t lose air, because I was so tired and sore trying to navigate the soft sand that in the last 30km I just moered through the bushes at the side of the track and figured if I die, I die. But nope, not an ounce of air lost and not a spot of sealant (which was freshly topped up on Thursday) to be seen. I’m so confused by this whole experience 😂

I haven’t been for a year or so but I wouldn’t call it a gravel venue myself. It’s pretty steep, wet and kinda gnarly in all the spots I rode.

You’ll probably have a hoarde of XCO kids accompanying you in the Vembe/Musina area!

Just because something is old/was free, doesn’t mean it isn’t worth today’s money. You must be put back in the position you were in before the incident. So if your 10 year old bike is stolen/wrecked, it is replaced with like for like in terms of its parts, less your excess. My own claim with Old Mutual was for a wrecked American Classic rear rim. It’s discontinued (the whole brand) and the hub and freehub body is proprietary. So the damaged rim was replaced with the value of a new wheel build including hub etc as per LBS quote, less excess. It was paid out to me, so I bought a set of Spanks second hand because I didn’t want mismatched rims. Should something happen to the Spanks they would be replaced in the same manner. I know some insurers insist that you specify everything, provide slips and receipts etc. That’s why we chose to go with a broker, because when we had a home invasion some years back Outsurance wanted “proof” of everything we claimed and made us feel like criminals; an assessor sitting in our house checking slips and taking photos etc. despite us having frequent Outbonus payouts, infrequent claims, etc. Our hundreds of thousands of rands of premiums and our claim history over the years meant nothing the moment we claimed. If we didn’t have an invoice or a photo of the item, it was excluded. It took 6 weeks for us to get back the value of probably 50% of our loss. Broker all the way for us.

Signal and TR both have suspension forks on 20”, maybe reach out to them.

Yesterday, the first 80km of Race To The Sun, our first outing on the tandem. Our plan had been for us to do the first section on the tandem from Harties to Beestekraal, and my cousin would do the “actual” 50 miler from there to Sun City, so we’d have finished 100 miles as a team. But then my cousin broke her arm so it was kiddo and I solo and ending at Beestekraal. It didn’t go too badly - but for the first 52km it wouldn’t shift to the small chainring, and I was not loving my 53 ring to 25t AT ALL on the hills 😂 😭 I eventually managed to somehow shove it onto the small ring at the WP at 52km and we did the rest of the 80km on the 39 ring using all the cogs (11-34), which was infinitely better. The first part of Race To doesn’t have a lot of elevation but two people on a steelie tandem - you need all the gears you can get!

Or get one of those universal bike light straps off Temu for like thirty bucks. One part straps over your light body and then other part goes around your bars. Like so:

I think the Concept lights use the same strap, if so just buy a cheap one from any bike shop and move the strap over.

On my daughter’s bike I found the solution to be an Elite mid size bottle.

Ja we’ve got 3 and they all work extremely well after the 2 years. My daughter has dropped hers a couple of times and while it “thinks” for a moment before it starts charging these days, it hasn’t let us down yet! None of them have ever gone flat-flat, as I always charge them when the ring turns red. They’re really such bang for buck.

Riding with a flashing light at night seems a bit self-limiting 😂 We use flash during day to alert cars and steady at night to see where we’re going. Flashing at night would probably send me right into a tree if I tried using it.