Captain Fastbastard Mayhem

And this here, folks, is the personification of #downduro. 210mm rear, 180mm front.

35mm/780mm

Weight of fork overcomes front wanting to lift on 30% climbs... Seriously though. The climb up to the contermanskloof mast at times hits more than 30%. I am VERY impressed that I managed to keep the front down on a bike with a 63.5-64 deg HA, 35mm stem and in 1st gear.

Nope, just a beeeg pile of rocks next to a communications tower. The DH line starts about 5m behind where I was stood. But yeah dude - yesterday's rain was VERY welcome, but far too little. I'm hoping that the 10mm forecast for tomorrow turns out to be 100mm. And the same for Friday / Saturday / Sunday. Heck, we need 2 weeks of sustained showers just to get us to a suitable pre-winter level.

Contermanskloof. Faaark, I love this bike.

^^This. So much this. Saddles should NOT be moved to achieve a desired reach and / or height relative to bars. The only thing that should matter for seat positioning is your lower half's specific measurements and flexibility characteristics. Obvs for Time Trial cycling it's a bit different due to the way they utilise their muscles to "save" them for the run.

Bar width, stem length, stem degree, stack height, saddle height. All things that affect the way in which your body will bend when seated.

Frame size will not change stack height. In some cases, it may INCREASE the stack height, in which case it would make the bars even higher. His saddle would remain the same height as the measurement from BB to saddle would remain constant across frames. Small 29ers unfortunately suffer from a higher stack height relative to their 275 & 26er cousins, purely due to the size of the wheel having an effect on the length of the fork lowers and therefore resulting in a higher stack. This, together with your stem angle, means that your saddle may well be at the right position and your bars will be above or at the same level as the saddle. The only way to rectify this is to: Flip the stem (thereby reducing the height of the bars) Shorter stem (thereby reducing the effective "reach" in a seated position and also bringing the bars lower) Remove spacers Shorter cranks (going to 165mm cranks from 175mm cranks will allow you to increase your saddle height accordingly) Get a frame with a shorter stack That's ALSO why a lot of short XC pros run those HUGE negative deg stems - to get the bars lower, due to the higher stack height. That's also why a few manufacturers spec their small / x small bikes as 650b - because it will, by nature, have a smaller stack height, which will suit smaller riders. I know I'm notoriously known for this, but I would strongly suggest trying out a wider bar and shorter stem. This will go some way to alleviating the "problem" (not that it is a particularly large problem - you'll have to work slightly harder to weight the front in corners and get a bit further forward and down on steep or tech climbs) and at the same time give you more direct control over your steering. I wouldn't suggest a riser bar, as that would be exacerbating the problem. Putting a shorter, but lower rise stem in place will result in you having more or less the same "shape" on the bike, especially if paired with wider bars. You'll just have hands that are closer to you, but further apart from each other. In the end - if you're comfortable, don't worry about it. If you are worried about it, flip the stem. Don't get a riser bar when you do that. You'll just be at square one again. If that doesn't work, buy a shorter stem and wider bar, and marvel at the difference it makes to your ride. At 172cm you're kinda on the border of small and medium, but changing to a medium frame in and of itself won't remedy the "problem" unless you go for a frame that has a shorter stack. Good luck, and happy trails.

That stem..... even for a roadie, that offends my sensibilities. Damn fine bike, otherwise!

Top of contermanskloof for a brilliant dusk ride. Conditions were PERFECT. Was one of my best rides this year. Getting a lot of those lately. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awesome news, Ian. Thanks for all that you've done!!!

It's pretty easy to get to grips with tbh. Angle of attack, using the rudder and main sheet (rope) to manipulate the sail angle. If it starts flapping at the back, pull it a bit tighter. If it's flapping but it's at its tightest, you're "too close" to the wind (the boat is pointing into the wind and the sail can't catch any breeze) Cats are such fun to sail. Especially when the wind picks up, and you're on one hull and trying to get faster and faster, whilst keeping the leading edge of the water-borne hull from going under and ruining your fun...

You'll love it. Had a halcat when I was in durbs. Used to sail it at Midmar at least once a month, and then when we went camping over the holidays. SUCH a jol.

They may be titanium, or at least have some sort of petroleum tint on them.

yeah, the Panigale... Sjoe.

Joh. That's stunning

Niiiiice

Mjolnir, Thor's hammer, is only loftable by those that it deems worthy of lofting it.

Nice shots, Don

eish. That's a lot of climbing for 10k.

ah yeah, fair enough. In that respect Strava is rather useless...

AFAIK you can earn active days through Strava, which you can run on the apple watch or at least export to. So my uneducated guess would be yes.

SUPER JELLY!!! Looks like you had a great time from your Instagram pics!

August last year. 1st a frame on the way back to the parking lot, hitting 40's. Landed to flat. Stem was slightly under torque and wheel twisted while bars stayed straight. OTB and cracked ribs and concussion.