Dustbug

Put Crossmark on the back and Ikon on front an amazing combination, good reliabilty and excellent grip. I use both Ikon and Conti xkings on my bikes upfront only crossmarks full ust on the back, I would say the Ikon is slightly better up front. I weigh 90kgs and pump to 1.8 on the front and 2.0 on the back for both my 29er and 26 all are full tubeless on stans crest rims. enjoy your ride.

Definitely go with the higher spec from the start it will cost a small fortune to upgrade to that level of kit later. You will then be able to start saving for the tubeless .

I ride with a carbon enve bar on my 29er since I fitted it no more numb hands, previously Ive ridden for 3 years on KCNC sc bone bar and no problems at all, but then I dont put huge pressure on my handlebar, Ive had a couple of good falls at speed with both sets of bars and besides a few scratches no other signs of damage.

contact garmin sa just google them they have an office in jhb.

as long as the rims will seal and hold the tyre u can go either way all the methods above will work as long as you do it properly and clean the inside of the tyres properly for tubeless or beaded tyres, but if you are a fairly heavy rider over 85kgs I would not recomend a non tubeless on the back. with the non tubeless you will have to run slightly higher pressure as the tyre does not have the tube support and will tend to fold easier if too low pressure is used causing some good accidents.

You have chosen 2 very hard climbing events to switch to 40k+ on so be prepared to ride the first half at least at an easier pace, then see how you feeling before pushing the balance ofthe races, study the profiles and see where your hard long climbs etc are in relation to the distances you have done and still have to do, dont whatever you do get cought up in the hipe at the start and go out to fast. Do yourself a favour and drink 300 -400ml of an energy drink in the hour prior to the start and take a banana cut into 3rds and an energy bar, you need to eat something every 30 to 40 minutes to replace your energy levels, 1 third of a banana and a third of the energy bar each time. too many riders wait until they start feeling tired or have depleted their energy levels before topping up, then they bonk and dont know why. you must start topping up from the word go so the fuel has time to get into your body. use the coke on the race for fast topups but only drink small quantities as you will also have your water/juice bottles with you. The coke particularly after long hard climbs replaces fuel very quickly. Never rely totally on the tables for replacement food and drink, you dont know if they have had logistical problems or not and on very hot days they can run out easly. Use the water at the tables to cool yourself off as well. You will note everything is in moderation small regular constant replacement is they key. good luck and enjoy the rides

This did happen and the zebra was not the only incident the 40km riders had a rhino cross the track between the 3rd and 4th riders and stop blocking the track from the 4th position backwards for 7 minutes everytime they tried going around him he would snort and shuffle in their direction so they had to play a waiting game until he moved off.

clean the system out and replace the fluid with a compatible fluid known to be used by the local shops we had a similar problem last year with a number of bikes of different brands and brakes it turned out they had cold climate fluid that heated up and expanded in our temperatures causing the brakes to tighten up progressively, you can test this by leaving the bike in the sun and see if the brakes start binding. just watchout not all fluids are compatible with all manufacturers seals so you must get a compatible fluid.

Many thanks everyone for the help. Ive been doing most of my longer rides into the early afternoon so hopefully will be fine.

Hi Start by setting yourself a short term and long term goal prefferably an event then enter those events so you are committed then find a training guide to suite what you are trying to achieve remenber you wont be racing every weekend as you now have goals to achieve, If you are on a plan and have to miss a day due to family commitments so be it dont try and recover that day your rest days are critical. look at the web sites for various races ie: hill2hill, sani, cadence, discovery, fittrack for programs and adapt them to what you feel you can do, a good solid base is important so dont be unrealistic with your approach rather take longer and build up properly on a solid base of good miles and good hill climbing, being a good climber will be your best friend so dont avoid the hill work. when doing the intervals etc use your cadence to controll your heart rate as well its not all about power and speed, the recovery rides are just that easy going basically just turning the legs over and keeping them in tune the intervals and power sessions are the hard working ones but build up into them, you cant go from zero to hero overnight.

I did all these gear ratio calcs etc but at the end of the day it is what you like using and are comfortable with, my 38 /26 11-36 is perfect for me as a master, when riding offroad I do find I change more often between my front chain rings than before as it is quicker when maintaining momentum and speed than jumping up and down the rear cassette. remember a 29er requires momentum particularly on the hills so dont go too small on the front rings rather test a bike with a 24 front ring first.

Hi some advice please guys, Im using the cadence guide on the hill2hill site for my training as a guide, Im doing on average 10 to 12hrs a week about 220kms with an average of 2600 to 3200m of climbing with one weekday hill session of 800 to 900m climbing and the balance on weekend training rides and at the moment am up to 2 x 4hr weekend rides, I have one full day and a half recovery and do core work 2 x week with stretching after all rides. Ive also lost 6kgs so far. At what point should one build up to the very long training ride/s and how long before the race should one back off the long training rides and is there a point one should stop loosing weight and stabalise before the race. any help would be appreciated Im 52, 90kgs and a novice at this distance.

If you just switched to 29er ride the 3x10 for 4 to 6 weeks trying to avoid your small ring while you get your strength up then switch to 2x10 38 or 39 with a 26 or 28 depending how strong you are and you will never go back to 3x10 after that, yes, you are short a top end and bottom end but offroad over 50km/h shouldnt be neccessary and you will occasionally be short on the granny gear side but just stand up and get over the top its generally for very short distances the steep climbs anyway.

Monorail is more grippy than crossmark but I found it threw up a lot of collateral dirt and moisture, now use x king and Ikon up front both protection type fitted tubeless no hassles at all and plenty of grip and a good rolling speed.

ZTR crests are rated at 90kgs on the stans site so anything over that no warranty and you r taking a chance. yes we all ride them over that limit me too Im 96 kgs used crests on both my 26 and 29er for 3 years now and swear by them but I have also seen a 65kg racing snake trash one on a simple rock garden, your lbs should be prepared to swop them out for a more weight suitable set of rims there is always a demand for crests so they shouldnt have any problems with your request. enjoy your riding

Cleats are a personal preference but most riders prefer them, when riding without them on rough trails and loosing your footing a few times which basically means you loose control of the bike you will understand their value. I decided to swop over now riding with cleats I get nervous if im not cleated in particularly on the single track. dont buy the dual pedals, cleats one side flats the other a shown in the picture above they are not balanced properly and will always swing to the cleats being underneath/down, best to get a reasonably priced pair of shoes with spd cleats and reduce the tension to the minimium setting, then sit on your bike and practise clipping in and releasing, just press down to clip in and twist sideways to release. once you happy with that take them for a ride it will become instinct to unclip when you need to without realising you are even doing it. good luck and enjoy the riding.

the manufacturers spend a fortune on R&D and design systems to work together, sure you can mix and match within limits but they wont work as smooth and slick as they are meant to, the systems differ in small ways and those will eventually over time wear and become more prominent causing you huge dissatisfaction, rather go for the slightly lower spec part at a better price than mix systems as long as it is truely compatible. Cassettes are generally pretty similar in quality it is mainly the material and weight you pay for in the high end ones.

I use the spz mounts fitted with the giant carbon cage and fitted a bit of tube/o ring between the wings havent lost a bottle ever, I only keep my backup bottle in it and rotate them when I finish the one in my front cage. another thought i have is to get a slide bracket made to fit to the seatpost mounted brackets that will allow the cage to mount to the slide bracket and be slid 50mm or so below the seat post clamp, if I get it made I will try post pics.

According to the papers this week the anti doping guys have a 8 year statute and are only now retesting samples stored from the 2004 olympics period with modern day methods so any athlete / competitor who believes he will succeed against advances in modern science has to have a few cells missing as they will ultimately be exposed as a cheat. The SKY article is interesting as I have heard SA cyclists say exactly what is being said that they move from race to race and do little training as such due to raceing and travelling so a structured training approach would certainly yield decent results over time. Wiggo's TDF will be interesting his TT speed is a definite advantage and he has largely been sitting out near the front being towed along with a fairly low amount of effort compared to those making breaks etc, it will be interesting to see over the next few days in the big hills how he goes as he should be reasonably fresh, besides the TT's his entire time out front is about 1km.

Before you open a new store check with the suppliers, there are already too many stores in Durban and some suppliers will not supply any new stores impacting on stressed existing stores. the bluff does not have a big enough cycling comunity to keep a store going go and talk to the existing stores around you if they feel the area can handle a new store, you will be competing with Wisemans, Cyclesphere, Evans and Leigh's plus a few more in westville and pinetown.

Quick question guys with the 2x10 you can buy just about anycombo of front chainrings and fit as you want as long as they are within specs but with the inside chainring if you fit a smaller ring ie: 24 in place of a 26 will you need to reset the derailleur or will it drop down and pickup as for the 26 bearing in mind it is not a huge diameter difference? I know the outer ring will need a reset.

Been using it for a while spray the bike off to get rid of large bits spray on power sol wait 5 to 10 minutes and spray off very little brushes or rubbing required, I use the concentrate and mix it to my own dilution which is slightly stronger than their recomendation.

Having been in a situation out on a race needing to help a diabetic rider out on a race in an inaccessible area please mark the back of your race board with a permanent marker with the neccessary numbers and your condition. if you get into trouble at least the other guys can help you if they know what is going on or what the problem may be. those emergency contact arm band goodies are of little use to other riders when out in the field. use 32GI as a drink I know a few diabetic riders and they all swear by it. Enjoy your riding

I believe the next lot of stans wheels and rims will be in at the end of the month We have tested the 650B on the rocky MSL 50 and 30 and both fit with the fox 32 forks the clearance is not huge about 1cm under the fork and on the back tyre that is with schwalbe's

Using discovery with reasonable returns and now with a lot of the KZN MTB races listed on SA Active scoring the vitality points for riding is an additional plus