Skip GT

I also have a Nespresso. I see see Checkers stock 3-4 different flavours of the pods which are Nespresso compatible at half the price.

I ride the Big 99 1000(2 yrs). Weigh in at 109 kg, was 118????. Wheels has never given me problems. Very solid frame.

I also run Ikons front and back. Does well on all surfaces. Dit the Gravel Travel mud race the other day and I was very impressed. They are light, but also gives very good kilos

My GT Karakoram 1.0, now almost 4 years old. LX/SLX spec. Only upgrade was the fork to a RS Sid. My son rides it these days. Bulletproof frame. These days I ride a Merida Big Nine 1000 FS,

Rained at 4H30........Will have to see!

I think it should be OK tomorrow. No rain tonight and normally the trails dry off fairly quickly at Welvanpas. 35 km definitely should be OK, maybe the 65 km could get a little muddy, IMHO.

I ride a Merida, but would take the Titan in this case purely because of the better fork. Nothing wrong with Titan frames!

Hi there I have been riding with Maxxis Icons now for quite a while and am very happy. Maybe yours is a dud. Take it to where you bought it, maybe they will replace? MTB tyres has gotten way to expensive for this to happen and not take it up with the suppliers. Regards

Like Caad4 said, take it to your LBS. It is as simple as removing the rivnut and replacing with the same size. No drilling the hole bigger or anything as traumatic.

My Bryton 35's heart rate monitor also started taking in moisture all of a sudden. Less than one year old. Sent an email to Bryton SA yesterday. Will see if they reply tomorrow or not.....

I agree with the above in terms of quality and pecking order, BUT: 1. SLX - Great value for money - crank weighs only slightly more than XT (40g?) at a lot less Rands, but rumoured to be stiffer than XT. SLX is the old LX and they were the bomb back in the day. 2. As complete group I would go for XT because of reliability and pricing as opposed to XTR. 3. If you mix the group then XT der's and shifters ( maybe SLX) and definately SLX crank to save a few bucks. 4. XTR does not feature in my frame of reference due to price. I think you get little more than a few grams for gain as opposed to XT for a lot more RRRRR. Performance is virtually the same as XT. Then again.......it all depends on your budget and how much you would like to spend. All of the above will do the job well. My 2c. Skip GT

Disy, I realise the impossibility of the task, that is why it was meant as comment, not a gripe. I am gratefull for this challenge being there. It gets me to ride at least 3 times a week and twice on weekends.

Mads, Sure, that is the only way to measure yourself. It still is a bit unfair towards a real MTB route as you travel a lot slower and put as much effort into shorter distances than you would for a 'road MTB ride", but I guess that is life...live with it!

Just a comment: I see some okes are logging MTB km's, but ride tar for 3/4 of the way to get to the dirt!! Does that constitute MTB-ing? If it was the other way round it would be fair.Say I ride on average 30 km for two hours in the mountains with 800 m vertical climb. Of that 30 km maybe only 5-7 is done on tar to get there and back. This I would call a MTB ride. Some of these okes do 50 km in two hours, but if you check the route most of it is on tar with only about 300 m of climbing, and they call themselves mountainbikers!!! Does this mean that, whenever you spread the legs over the MTB it is ruled as a MTB ride, even if you stick to tar?

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