Swift01

Hee Hee I just rode Groot Marico and without thinking to check the route profile first I decided to take the training bike (old Gary fisher) as the racing bike had a puncture. As it's a training bike I have a 44/36 up front and a std 9 speed 11-32 on the back. After the 3rd hill I snapped a chain as I was putting too much pressure on it due to the gearing. After that it was up to walking a few hills when the going got too tough. Guess a 2x9 is not the way to go ha ha I don't have a 2x10 and I am curious how one solves the ratio problem on race like that. You have district road that one used the 44t on your 3x9 setup for the first 11km, then on the way back about the last 18km I was also mostly in the 44t up front and quite often in the 11t at the back, but when it came to some of those hills one could have used the granny a bit for sure. This is a race in my opinion where the 2x10 may have come short as for half you woulf have needed the bigger cogc up front to prevent over spinning, but then if you had that setup, one would may be have had a problem on the hills. What would be the prefered setup. Must say so far after riding a year on the training bike with it's 2x9 setup it's the first time I have had to stop and walk. Poor shoes took a beating. Awesome race though

Hi, Seems to be a common problem. Try sand the pads a little with very fine sand paper. Also the leading edges where is is square sand a slight 45 degree on it. Had similar problems with brakes before and I found taking the "square edge" off the pads helped. Also copper grease just a little between the metal side of the pad and the caliper plumger (not much) helps takke away squeaking and also could help solve some of the vibration. Personally i would not recomend going 120mm rotor. A race like Groot Marico you could overheat the rotor as it's too small and end up like Kevin evens

Finally they have sorted out my other 13 entries and left me with the very first one......... Team 1548 is accepted and ready to roll.... Just need to pay but that's another situation to be solved on Monday

No one can pay yet. I spoke to Judy this morning. Everytime I clicked register yesterday and it gave me an error message i was actually entering. Seems I have entered 14 times and I am not the worst by far. It's going to take them quite sometime to sort out entries and send the entry payment emails

Hee Hee I have emailed them to query it...... I am an entry hogger and proud of it :-)

So how am i on the waiting list even though i rode last year and people that have entered after me are in???? Mmmmmmmm I smell a rat

Adn we wait for that "Congratulations" email you have wone the lotto............ Seems nearly everyone has gone onto the waiting list. May be they have cut back the numbers per race to make sure they have a 3rd race???? 500 teams per race?

I am on the waiting list even though I have done the race for the last 4 years.............

I am also still waiting since 12. Just been getting errors. Aaaaaaah well this is africa after all :-)

Flymango your the winna wenna :-)

Hee Hee "There was an error processing your request"..... same old from last year

Let me know if you come right. My Gary Fisher paragon 2001 model (used for my outdoor training) still runs V brakes while my indoor trainer bike (stays on the trainer) runs Disk brakes ha ha. All I need it the adaptor

Yeah I would take the computer back. The computer will be under warrantee so they should swap it out. As I also said there would have to be a huge amount of flex. May be candy floss is being too nice, more like rubber band wheels which is not the case. Sounds like a connection problem for sure.

Hi, Thats very strange. Could be the flexing on the wheel. Try make the sensor on the fork virtually touch the magnet (making sure the middle of the magnet is in line with the line on the middle of the sensor). When I say virtually touching, should be 1mm or less. At least you can determin now if it's movement by the wheel. If it still does not work then, either there is a connection problem on the cable even enough it's new or that wheel is flexing a very long way. The sensor is not that sensative so should be able to handle a few mm of movement. How old is your fork? There could be movement on the stanchions as well and when you brake the fork will "flex/rock"

You have brakes on your bike Does it happen everytime you brake or only when you brake hard? Sounds like wheel flex when your braking as Josh already explained. What wheels set do you have also what fork are you using. Another thing to check is the cable. When you brake the fork will dip in. There could be a brake starting in the cable so when it bends (due to the fork dipping) it looses connection. Happens alot on cable speedo's as we tend to cable tie them to the fork and it's constantly flexing. Over time the cable becomes hard and brakes. Easy to fix with a new piece of cable.

The tube bends more depending on what size the frame is. Friend of mine has one and she loves it.

Singletrek had a 15inch Treck 8500 Zr9000 frame for sale. Don't know if he has sold it but send him a message. They are great light aluminium frames. Just got a medium for my GF.

Try the Santa Cruz Highball................ Don't think many people know about it. Their Duel Sus bikes are awesome so can't see their 29er being bad.

Hey you will only see your front wheel while you ride, who cares what's behind you :-)

They didn't call me swift for nothing hee hee. Man Shimano hubs just drink up water when going through puddles. Just as well there was "Hope" out there and now I have loads more free time on my hands......... Just as well rouxtjie sold his wheels from the old Zula XT hubs = 0 ..... Hope pro = 1 I now sleep easy at night after the GF has gone through puddles.

Johan is correct. While adjusting the cones is quite easy the first time you do it can be very tricky and easy to get either too tight or too loose. Just one of those jobs that you learn over time with feel. Not a job for a torque wrench for sure

@rouxtjie I think you should change that to I have XT/Shimano and I HAD a zula with XO .................. Hee Hee May be the XT brakes are working well because your's has Avid Cleen sweep 3 rotors and the Avid Cr's only had aligator Pizza rotors......... Hee Hee Must say my CR brakes improved a lot when i ditched the Aligator rotors and put the real clean sweeps on. Same happened whan we went Magura Rotors with the Magura brakes (instead or aligator rotors). There is a reason why companies say stick to their products try not to mix n match. Ask Kevin Evens........... I will say my Avid CR's even with the Aligator rotors were way better than the Maruga Loiuse BAT brakes that had the same Aligator rotors. Since buying the correct rotors and pads for both brakes (Magura Storm SL's and Clean Sweep 3's) both sets of brakes have drastically improved but I am sad to say my GF's Magura brakes are way stronger and stop way better than the CR's..... Food for thought. As for the XT shifters vs XO I can't comment as I went from older generation XT shifters to XO and you can't compare them. I have read though that the new XTR brakes are the business, and what I read makes sense. Now it looks like the technology has filtered down to XT. So it's catchup time for Avid I reckon..... Can't wait. The heat fins on the new XTR and XT make a lot of sense my R5 worths (hey inflation is bad) Oh and I have first hand experience of Shimano XT hubs...... Be prepared, very prepared to service them often......... (Thanx to rouxtjie I sleep well at night as he sold his Zula and now the GF has new set of wheels on her bike)

On the one Sani2c we got stuck along this one section with sticky clay type mud. The only people that were getting through fairly ok were guys with Kenda Karma tire and Fox forks. The tires seemed to work great, while the Rock Shox forks were collecting loads of mud by the arch as it runs very close to the tire. The Fox on the other hand had a big gap and caused less build up. By the way I am not promoting forks, I don't run either of them, but the Manitou did seem to be inbetween as far as mud clearance goes.... My Kenda Sb8 at the back sucked in the mud :-(

Sounds like the frame is the wrong size for sure. My GF has a similar problem (although her frame is the correct size). Mostly due to the slow speed she does the hills at. we solved the problem by making sure her saddle was in the correct position and also dropped the handlebars a but. You can experience slight backpain for a ride or 2 when you drop the handlebars as you are in a different position. Seems to have helped her. Also dropping the elbows is one that I use a lot. Get the frame size checked and then the setup. I think your problem lies there... Good Luck

Singletrek has one. He calls it Goofy. Strange bike to see in real life, but he says it goes well..........