Danger Dassie

Think that it more likely would’ve been Mark Hopkins from cSixx, who used to be Pat‘s partner. Mark carried on design consulting for a period with the new owners of Swift. Pat worked in colab with Victor Momsen on the Momsen Vipa.

Elite/U23 Women's race should be good as well. Some good showings from around the country, Amy Wakefield and Candice Lill also competing apparently.

You'll need a full race licence, you can enter on the day and process all of this, but you will have an unseeded start.

EDIT: @TheoG apologies, not 100% at all as per TR's post. I actually chatted with the designer the same day, and one or two other designers to. It looks like it may be compatible, and one SRAM rep mistakenly confirmed it at the time. The tinkerer in me would still like to give it a go and see if can be made to work. Which will probably be the case for a number of frames. That said there are UDH-compatible 2020 model frames and above out there, but not all frames within a brand stable. Pyga TiG for example is UDH compatible.

Still going strong with a few mods done, and couple still due.

I freelance with some of the industry media and tech areas. The UDH standard and T-type derailleurs have been in development over a few years. Other than comms from the marketing dept and supply chain/product managers I had seen some of original test product on the derailleurs with engineers a few months back. At the time the information was under embargo, especially for the T-type derailleurs and new drivetrains. More recently some of the SRAM staff have also confirmed the info in discussions since the official release during Epic. SRAM also had one of their senior staffers at the Cape Epic. Yip, that is a 2023 model, and pretty blady mooi! It’s a UDH compatible frame, which relates to the hangar. Remove the hangar and fit the new type drivetrain. On a side note, always felt Merida are woefully underrated and undervalued bikes here in S of A. These links are helpful as well; https://www.sram.com/en/sram/mountain/products/udh https://www.rearmechhanger.com/product/rear-gear-mech-derailleur-hanger-cnc999/

👍 … UDH compliant frame, remove the hangar and install a T-type derailleur. Which will include Shimano even, at least going by the current patent circulating.

UDH compatible frames have already taken off, chances are if you're riding a frameset from 2019/2020 it is already compatible. Plus someone will come up with a conversion solution if they haven't already. That list from Bikefinder is a good guideline but not comprehensive, expect that it will become more so as it's updated with more niche/none US brands. Brands like Pyga and Titan Racing for example aren't on the list, yet their framesets are UDH compliant.

Been down this path already with vesconite bushes when at Denel ten years back. with mine and a few mate's bikes. After numerous attempts, it doesn't work. Ultimately if it was a viable broad-based solution for end users then the industry would have adopted it. Droo and Wyatt have summed up the solution going forward, anything else just leads to an expensive experiment.

Cheers Droo, updated my post. Been a while since dealing with TRP, will be a great mix with Classified under Omnico.

Agency for TRP (Edit, Omnico). Would venture that they would be likely to push it. TRP is pushing hard on the OEM side, so at some point, a distributor will have to cede to market demand. A smart distributor would take advantage of the opportunity.

We'll be lucky if it lands at 25k cost. While doing bike checks at Epic we did a conversion from Czech Koruna (0,83 Rand) Chain equals approx R3000 and cassette approx R14 000. By no means conclusive as far as CCS costing, but an indicator of local pricing at least.

That was a trickle-down introduction from an established platform which uses cross compatible components, chain etc. The UDH stuff is an entirely new system and standard, it'll be a while before we start seeing it, expected OEM for some brands will be in 2024 whilst hopefully we see some trickle down to GX in the first quarter of 2025. Pricing is a whole other topic!

Open a case at the area SAPS/Metro or Traffic dept? Negligent driving with attempted GBH.

It's almost like no one read the very last sentence 😉

Most of these issues will become redundant anyway, since Cape Epic will be changing their format …. https://bikenetwork.co.za/leaked-cape-epic-switches-to-enduro-race-format-for-2024-and-beyond/ 🍦

FACTS! … and the most glorious post coffee shaza the next morning.

Would have to sell a lot of boerie rolls to make it worthwhile. Beyond the organisers fee there’s the cost of following the race village as well. There were at least three food vendors in the race village and I found the food options pretty good. Especially if wanting a break from the dining tent food. For the finish area tent, those guys are going to have really pull finger for the organisers and riders. Big shoes to fill from Woolies and it’s like they made zero effort.

He’s a public figure? So it will by default come up. This way it sucks the wind from the drama lamas. Peter Sagan did the same. Personally I dgaff, but in their position it’s entirely their prerogative and doesn’t really bear further discussion. Similar to forums nosing around about people’s family relationships because of a surname really.

Also factor in that cycling/tyres often have material not found on car tyres. Kevlar beads, graphene compounds etc .... Fyi I don't know which car tyres are that much cheaper really. Anything 15inch and over is way more than any cycling tyre. Don't even get me started on motorbike tyres.

OY 🤨

Dave Moseley

Lot of hyperbole that’s not necessarily accurate. And at least one multiple Epic winner disagrees, conditions were exceptionally beyond the norm.