DR ◣◢

Would most likely be me. I get a fright **** easy and I tend to squirrel. Would have sucked!

All you need now is the Evil The tubeless setup was a breeze. Never seen a tire seat so easy. I use the compressor from my 4x4 kit and all the tires needed was a constant stream of air to seat. Three pops and they are on. 2.4 is the max my frame can take and I never want to ride with a wider front vs rear combo again. Can't wait to test these out this weekend. I am a bit concerned about the rolling resistance. I'm already slow and I don't need anything else holding me back. I do however prefer good grip over rolling. A loud tire is ok I guess. As long as they are fairly well damped.

Over the weekend I damaged the sidewall on my trusty old Hans Dampfs. Not impressed to be honest but it turns out when I purchased them I opted for the normal Snake Skin sidewalls which offers ok protection instead of great protection. So off to the shops I went to ensure I could still ride on Sunday but I couldn't find anything in the shops in JHB other than a 2.6 Butcher and 2.3 Purgatory. My bike can max handle a 2.4 in the back and I thought the 2.6 front (more like a 2.4 but higher) would be cool. However.... Apart from making my bike look like a "stanced" Polo from Brakpan I also found the handling to be weird with the narrow & wide combination. Maybe it was just too extreme of a combo but I couldn't get the bike to sit right into corners, especially the ones pointing down. The grip on the butcher is great though and so is the purgatory. Technical climbs with tight corners also felt weird. Expensive mistake for me. Will keep the purgatory as a spare for the Spez in the house and I've advertised the butcher. Do you run a narrow wide setup? Why? Does it work well for you?

Side entry won't make a difference here. The bottle is simply too long. Odd that they installed the bottle bosses that high.

Dunno man. Seems a bit too billboardy to me

It's starts with a slap using a hand... what's next? A little paddle? The fun starts running out soon after that and they start pushing people off their bikes. Maybe a baseball bat? Stop the shitty behavior early and you could save a life. It's bull**** to begin with and shouldn't have happened in the first place.

The Lyne Components Holy rail should be able to slide that bottle a little bit further down and add a couple of their other cool bits and pieces from the looks of it.

I think deformation of character is when you klap an oké so hard his own mother won’t recognize him.

Mine was Northern Farms. He definitely wasn't smuggling a budgie. More like cuckoo bird.

I used NordVPN for about 2 years and I was really happy with it. On phone,tablet,laptop is worked great but I couldn't use it on my Apple TV and I couldn't get the installation to work on Linux either. I'm also in the market for a good VPN that adds DNS settings to your router. I'm tired of what Netflix passes off as good content in South Africa. Even if I enjoy Braai Master a lot.

I remember that guy. Holy ****. Throwback to around 2011 maybe early 2012. The guy was weird man. Rode with him once in a group and it didn't go well.

Now that is a whole topic on it's own. Manscaping.

Helped a kid a while back. His front wheel resembled a pringles chip and wouldn’t even turn in his fork. A couple of handy maneuvers against a nearby tree and he was on his way. Wheel wasn’t perfect but it saved him from walking. I couldn’t help with what his dad was going to say to him when he got home.

I love the retro look. From the boardroom to a quick century after work.

You just roll it inside out onto itself until it fits. Super handy trick. When I took the tube out of my own bike to help the damsel I had a spare with me. She needed a presta valve and my spare was a normal car valve. Since my rims were drilled for both I could help her out. Little did I know that my brand new spare had a couple of choice holes in it... I pushed the last 6km back to the car. On the way back we ran into a group of riders chilling in the shade for a bit to ask directions. They didn't ask if we needed helps. Maybe between the 10 of them they didn't carry spares. What nearly broke my heart was what I experienced a little further on. We met a group of kids at the pump track and asked if they had a patch. They immediately helped and the kid even patched my tube for me. This happened to be 3 kids just having the best day on bikes older than me. Torn saddles and smooth tires. They had very little in life and yet they shared it. I couldn't reach them again after that to thank them properly. I would have donated all the spares etc that I had gathering dust at home to get their bikes to be in better condition. We ride the same trail twice a weekend and every time I look out for them. One day our paths will cross again.

Almost feels like it reversed. More MTB guys asking and less road guys asking. I don't know what it is like outside of trail parks though.

On Sunday we had a flat that needed a plug. Unfortunately I didn't have the thin bacon strips on me and the slug plug was too big for the size hole that had to be plugged. A huge thanks to the guy that stopped and shared two strips with us. He even stuck around making conversation while I repaired the tire. I always stop and offer help. I only carry enough spares with my for my own bike but I'm always willing to pass on a tool or help a damsel in distress with repairs. (Even to the point where I took the tube out of my own bike to help get her back on the trail.) I'm also super impressed seeing the amount of riders who do ask if you're ok when you are stopped next to the trail. Karma really is alive and well I believe and in recently years more and more people offer help. If you don't offer help it's ok though. No one is obligated to either.

I still rate the SWAT system as one of the best stash solutions in the industry. My fiance's Stumpjumper is filled up with our spare tubes and bits. She carries that and I carry the tools. I do have a Tubolito in my hip bag though for the odd occasion that I'm out on a solo ride.

Going to 800 from 760 wasn't a big change to be honest. I could have gone for a 35mm stem instead of the 50mm but my fit on the bike is close to perfect now. Did you just ask if I have a saddle bag on my bike . No I don't (a quiet bike is a fast bike), I ride with a hip pack (with Camelback branding) that has the One Up pump in it. Couple of things stashed in the back like a slug plug kit with thicker bacon strips, R50 note, spare valve. I haven't needed any other tools on the trail so far. I'll post a photo of the bike later.

Ripped a sidewall on my trusty old Hans Dampfs and I needed new rubber I guess. First tried the Specialized Butcher/Purgatory combo and I wasn't too impressed with the handling on the 2.6 front and 2.3 rear. Very little rebound damping on the 2.6 and I was getting a lot of chatter through the bars. To the point of getting sore wrists. The Onza Ibex gets pretty good reviews so it's worth a shot. Running them front and rear. Not a fan of mismatching tyres. I did look at Maxxis options but the massive yellow logos put me off. Also had bad experiences with the brand in the past so I didn't feel like a repeat. I wanted to upgrade from 760mm bars to 800mm and also run the EDC system from On Up without having to thread my fork. This was the perfect solution. I will say this... I've had the headset come loose twice now. It took a little thinking on how to keep the headset preloaded as much as possible while straightening the bars and then tightening everything. Easiest is to use a cargo strap to pull everything together. After setting the preload you bounce the bike for a couple of minutes and ride down some stairs to let everything settle. Then adjust preload again as needed. I trimmed my steerer down by about 3mm to ensure I don't need to use the plastic spacers on top of the stem. They don't work and pop off when you remove the tool. A big draw was the lack of branding on it. My complete blackout on all my components is a big success to far. 800mm goodness with really good and understated looks. Do I find the chatter from the trail to be less with the technology they implemented? I don't think so. What I do like is the up and back sweep. Perfectly comfortable. The bars has various markings on it to help straighten everything out and get your controls setup perfectly. Again no crazy branding. So far this has impressed me quite a bit. The biggest and most impressive part was being able to tighten a crank bolt (8mm) by combing the quick link splitter and the 6mm hex wrench. I flipped out the rest of the tools and managed to stand on it with about 105kg. The quick link bit twisted a bit but I was able to easily straighten it again with nothing breaking. The storage compartment is pretty cool too. Takes a couple of strips of bacon, spare valve cores, the plug tool and the chain link splitter pliers. Quite a bit of space. I did break the first plug tool when I tried to tighten it into the adapter. Own stupidity and a very expensive mistake. The V2 of the tool is black which is quite nice. Never had issues with the green though. Looks pretty trick. So far I'm super impressed with the line of accessories from One Up. I also have their dropper post and I've had zero issues with it so far.

Sweet. I’ll have a look at Sportsman’s in Rosebank when I get my mane tames this weekend.

Never had a days issues with Hope. In fact I bought my current Tech 3 V4s in 2012 and they haven’t been bled once in that time. Just fresh brake pads when needed. Ample power with the V4 caliper on 203/180 rotors. In the past I also used the X2 race with 160mm front and back on my rigid hardtail. Good power but not as good as a quad piston. Bottom line. Hope is just my choice for brakes. Non negotiable.

Who stocks it? Running low on Finish Line (hate it) and the wax lube I’m using is terrible.

You can ask me directly. Happy to send it to you. XL top and L shorts please. But no budgie smuggler. I only ride in unbranded baggies but I’ll make an exception this time.

My bike is my pride and joy. I built it for me and my riding pleasure. I don't need to have branding on it for bragging rights. I don't care if someone recognizes the frame or not. I chose not to brand it. Car is really irrelevant in this discussion.