Mountainman44

There you go, get rid of the BB if the clearance bothers you! And to sweeten the deal you get a set of 28" rims so you don't have to worry about making the tough decision between 29er or 650B,

Above average. However, if you are entering a race with seeding such as the Nissan Trailseeker, you will be seeded into the H or I or Z batch and be behind 700 other riders, most of which much slower than you. You will stand around waiting your turn to cross obstacles and will end up averaging 16 or 18 kph due to this. Nevertheless, go out and simply enjoy the first couple of races while you work yourself up the seeding rankings.

Interesting thread, I have had one of my staff who was conned with a property rental scam with face to face meeting as recent as last week, and someone else who got conned out of his guitar after having a face to face meeting and even drinking a beer with the con artist. I didn't realise there was such a large risk of being conned out there. I had a quick peek around the Hub and the Stolen bike list is not very user friendly in terms of a useful list to identify stolen bikes except for really recent stuff. I think a single downloadable document with stolen items and serial numbers plus descriptions would be much easier to use to check against possible transactions. Also a list of scammers and their tel numbers could be useful to protect our fellow Hubbers. But it is probably too much admin to keep updated ....

The foreshortening effect of video makes it look easier than it really is and that looked pretty steep to me, so it must be hectic in reality. anyway.... those Cyclocross style bike-porting back markers would open a can of whip-ass on most of us any day!

You know what, you take a dive and all of a sudden you are behind the back markers, and it is hard work to get past them..... especially if these back markers carry their bikes down the rock garden.... really? at that level?I think Philip did well considering his sudden unplanned dismount.

Absolutely fantastic and well done Burry! Next Time! I had my two sons nailed to their seats and glued to the TV watching you. You have been instrumental in inspiring two more youngsters to take this gruelling sport seriously.

I agree with Zilla on this one, I have had similar problems which disappeared when I installed an older chain.

Have you heard of ultrasonic osteogenesis stimulation or Sonic Accelerated Fracture Healing System (SAFHS) ? Not sure if it is applicable, but it reportedly helps bone growth and repair of fractures. I am not in the medical field, maybe you can check with your specialist. I picked up on this treatment on a US MTBR forum topic where someone claimed it worked for him.

Once I was riding behind my 14 yr old son, his rear wheel hit a half brick sized rock and he instantly went flying one way with the bike and the rear wheel going the opposite way. Cost me R600 to have him stitched up in the emergency room at the Kloof hospital. Upon inspection I found that the little allen screw that secures the rear derailleur hanger was missing. This caused the wheel to be less secure due to the skewer being tightened against an unsecured hanger. Worked OK until hitting the rock caused the sideways force to kick the wheel out of the frame. check that little hanger screw!

Great advice from the TheV. I have the same problem with my wife, I go down hills hell-bent for leather, and she leans on those brakes, going faster up hills than down!!! I am taking her through a slow progression of longer and easy to steeper descents. Nothing more I can add to the TheV. Go out and enjoy!

Slovakian mechanical engineer Braňo Mereš has created some pretty nifty one-off bicycle frames over the past several years. Some of his construction materials have included riveted-together strips of titanium, a woven bamboo fiber/epoxy resin composite, and carbon fiber rods. With his latest creation, the X-9 Nighthawk, he has taken yet another approach – the frame is made from sandwich panels that have an aramid core and carbon fiber skins. Wonder if a pig's RADAR gun would work on this?

I haven't tried this route, but my impression from driving around the older part of the city is that there are no significant service roads next to the railway line from Pretoria station out to Hatfield area at least. So I had a quick peek on Google Earth and it looks like all rail (both MetroRail and Gautrain) and no dirt track between PTA station and Hatfield.