markmad

Chris seems below 10 years old official race distances are below 10km and I've noticed with my 8 year old at 10km shes had enough. I've also been warned against pushing the boundaries too much so I do technical stuff with her and she started with the WP xco series this past Sat.

I thought Shaun Peters did a good job and the first race had a nipper that was in over her depth and one of the officials ran along with her and kind of helped her along .He didn't have to do it but it shows the level of commitment of the volunteers Hope the parents thanks him .

That was for Friday practice .Race day is of course sorted in specific age groups.

I will sound biased but I am all for encouraging kids to partake because today's nipper is tomorrows possible elite rider . What may help a little is if a time slot can be given to the younger riders only say for an hour ,you may extend this further for older groups but when dealing with really young kids it becomes intimidating for them to start sharing a track with adults who I might add can become impatient . I saw this happen at the previous event and I saw kids who perhaps felt the need to give way but in doing so they compromise themselves by not getting the track time and offering the respect to older fellow competitor . For me the big question is how do you get a kid from just riding a bike to doing wpmtb ?

Couldn't agree more with this above however if you look at the nippers the problem I have encountered that the step up from a child doing Spur MTB vs WPMTB is a very big a jump and he or she would need some serious training to partake . This means I cannot encourage tell my kids friends come and participate have some fun because the child might end up hurting themselves.

Guys don’t compare a locally made product to a Taiwanese imported wheel which would be the case of most of the other manufactured wheels .These will be more expensive but if they made where I think they made then they will be class. We should be making the hubs locally as well but it might push up the price even further. Just getting hold of the correct materials at times becomes so frustrating that I have found that at times component manufacture could be cheaper in the UK than in this country which is shocking.

Madmarc,I know the reply is a little late as I haven't been on here for awhile but would like to say you make a good point and your insight is of value. I would like to add a little though and I have found this interesting as I have had dealings with some young students lately and have done some catchup studying myself. The old NTC 6 with correct pass mark and 2years ex gives you a ND.A Underated course imo probably because it's offered by a fet college so lacks the status of a university.All exams are national so everybody writes the same standard. Universities of technology or technicons. Year 3 = ND with one year practical or very much the same as the old T3 Year4=Btech deg or old HND with one year practical or like old T4 But I find the Btech seems to carry more status even though structure of the course seem to be the same as the old HND. My concerns are that not all technicons are upto the same standard and exams,projects etc are in house .In the case of projects the team shares the mark so a hanger on gets through this way. Bsc degree.Is the only proper degree in engineering but my view is these people are analytical people and most of them seem to be happier been office bound . If you measure the ability of an engineer by asking whether or not he or she has passed a GCC then according to my info the most successful candidates have been form the technicon educational system .The BSC candidates actually don't excel with this exam and there has been some controversy with them been excused from one of the two exams though that has changed. Even more interesting is you could complete a N6 (fet system)with necessary GCC subjects write and hopefully pass the exam and your status within the organization with a NQF 5 will be superior to aBSC degreed person with a NQF 7.

Madmarc , you are putting a lot of emphasis on whether these courses are accredited in terms of the NQF system and seemed to be concerned with regards to the lack a SETA involvement . Since the inception of our new systems to try and churn our artisans as quickly as possible and to try and match a NQF next to a certain level of education it has only been but a disaster .If you work in the technical environment you will understand why South African industry is in constant battle with candidates from our new fast food system. So allocating a NQF means really very little as it’s not a qualification but just means of incompetent body trying to evaluate qualifications in general .So a person with a 3 year deg probably gets a NQF level 6 or is it 7 ? These disputes are ongoing because a person that has just finished a diploma at technicon also gets a NQF level 6.And please don’t give our qualifications board any credit by trying to use their inept system. These courses are expensive imo but to somebody that is a day to day pen pusher and really has no tech background might think it to be good value for money, which given that nobody has had the foresight to do this before then I say good for them as they making a positive difference .Imagine the rent they pay for the floor space just to be able to open the door every morning. Making a trade out of this is perhaps pushing it because really I would think in 6 months they would cover all the basis and more time imo wouldn’t be necessary, and besides trades in this country are not of the caliber they used to be and have been like that for the past 10-15 years .Now when you look for quality staff you have to check at which company they were trained at because evaluating a person on having a trade test alone has become meaningless. I would rather these people stay far away from SETA and any NQF system and rather uphold a high standard themselves by offering a course structure that has been proven and been around for some time.

If you like both then let the deciding factor be the wheels ,and it looks like the momsen has the better wheel set.

I get what you saying but realistically if someone can complete a hard 60KM then is not fair to assume her/she could just as well do a 75. Perhaps someone here could elaborate on technical ability .I sometimes think I have some then then realise I have none, then realise the person who just passes me down a tricky section actually does it because its sitting on its brain and stuggles to climb the next incline .

Why so many distances? I mean if you can cycle 42 then you should be good for 50? Same goes for 60 - 75? Perhaps I'm missing something .Or perhaps this is how you satisfy everybody's meeds.

If anyone has an entry for the 60 they will not be using ill be intersted to purchase it ,woke up late again for the second year !!

I would be inclined to look at a 27.5 due to your height. Even myself at 182 I feel I might be more comfortable at times on a 27.5 .Don't get sucked into the gimic of 29 must be better **** ,rather buy according to your body size imo.

I would be inclined to look at a 27.5 due to your height. Even myself at 182 I feel I might be more comfortable at times on a 27.5 .Don't get sucked into the gimic of 29 must be better **** ,rather buy according to your body size imo.

Any one interested in a drive share?I have room for one person travelling from table view / park lands. 0835010866 Mark