RockCoach

I think I had Probenecid recently in hospital to concentrate the effectiveness of the antibiotic in the drain in my broken arm.

Steel cassette on aluminium freehub is always going to do this. Bigger stronger riders make it even worse. Mine dug into my Hope freehub by about 4mm. Ever since then, when buying Hope hubs, I always ask them to swop the freehub for a steel version. They do this at no charge.

I wonder if his blood or urine was tested or both?

Dewald, if you have an aluminium freehub body then, as stated above, the cassette can bite into it. You just need to tap it a bit in the reverse direction.

If Chris was treated for asthma as a kid there would be records of that.

You don't want to miss all the trash talk on the Friday night!

A year or two ago, Maxxis I think it was, posted a couple of vids we put together of riding on the Spruit and surrounds. We had so many questions from Spruit regulars who didn't recognise where we riding: ie fun stuff and not just jumps.

I saw Dips clear the bombhole on the way there!

I'm sure you get 180 to 203 post mount. Whenever I have a technical question like this I always call Jason from Int Trade. They sell the Hope mounts. FWIW, I enjoy having 203s on the front being over 90kgs and liking the downhills. Reduces the chance of boiling the brake fluid and just gives awesome stopping power with Tech X2 brakes. The 180s never felt as good - had to use much more pressure for the same performance.

I reckon the head angle would steepen substantially in that scenario.

Not true. The wife was stationary turning right at an intersection when an old Porsche driven by an old drunk driver came out of the centre where the pub was and sideswiped our car. Driver then proceeded to try and get away up Jan Smuts. Fortunately she was in our GTI and managed to catch him and pull him over at Hyde Park and manages to get his details (I would have had him arrested but that's another story) About an hour later we get a call from his insurers that they will pay for damages. Cool, fine no problem. We get quotes and submit them. They accept but say they will only pay 90%. Oh, really??? Well maybe your client would like to come down to the police station and tell us why while we lay a charge. So they paid 100%.

How much sag are you running with that set up?

Cool. I suppose the weight weenies may have a heart attack though.

Some of the guys building and ripping down your new Enduro lines were newbie XC guys less than a year ago. It's just about expanding people's minds

Those kind of things also looked intimidating to me a few years ago. As I said you build up to it. Your thinking slowly changes and you look at things and realise you have the skills - through experiencing similar obstacles. But it all depends if you want to or not. Many people are happy to keep riding the way they always have been. Some want to ride Enduro level right from starting MTB. And then their learning is very quick - because of mindset. Anyway, I don't want to derail this thread which is about the marathon events.

I heard today that they have been fixing the Klapperkop line and a couple of others nearby there. Will have to go check them out.

The line we did down Helderkruin just had a few kickers. No jumps and not too steep. Doable on a hardtail with decent head angle. Some of the other lines have hectic jumps. 140 to 150mm is perfect for SA.

Ja well, you can fall at walking speed like I did and break your arm anywhere.

You learn on smaller easier drops. Sometime in the future I will be running skills weekends out at Hakahana

Every time I see the thread title I think it's another thread with complaints about the Spruit

By the way, what is it your wife says at the end there? Or is she just spitting out the dust you kicked up?

Dude, you could have tried pinning it a bit more

http://vimeo.com/97319351 I'm not a big fan of the rear facing camera for 90% of the vid. Only good in small doses but we have extra footage now to make a great vid.

Did you watch the vid I posted? Bottom of page 7: Hakahaha stage 1. You see guys hitting it from various angles. I hit it before there was a berm or even any trail so basically had to stop in the rocks on the downslope. I would never attempt it with a XC bike with a high saddle.

We're working on a proper vid of the new Hakahana downhill section that's 90% done (all of it is rideable but we still have to add in more fun features ). There are some awesome bloopers too... haha. Unfortunately our editor in chief, Sidewinder, is really busy at work. You will have to watch out for updates in the Enduro thread: https://community.bikehub.co.za/topic/137132-hakahana-enduro/ I'm hoping that some of you guys who do the marathon (40 or 70) are going to join us for the Enduro - date TBA. It really is a lot of fun. You ride/push up the hills slowly joking around with your buds or making new friends. Then you get to the top, relax for a bit, drop your saddle and take your turn to ride down. Rinse and repeat 3,4 or 5 times. You are timed only on the downhill sections but you don't have to be fast or super skilled to enjoy yourself. There are always a good number of xc guys trying it out and we may even create a novice category... . If you can ride most of the descents on the marathon without getting off then you can ride the Enduro routes. There will be a couple of hectic obstacles but they are well marked and always have easy B lines which will take a few extra seconds. You may even see some of these gnarly jumps and drops as you ride past them on the marathon. The beauty of this format is that because it is short, you can go check out and practise the timed sections beforehand. Also take note which lines you prefer to ride or avoid. There is more time to recover between stages and chat to others about how you creamed a section or totally ballsed up another. You check out each others bikes (and ask the experienced guys what you need to upgrade to go faster ) - so it becomes a much more social affair.