Captain Fastbastard Mayhem

Yeah. Absolutely. He seems to be connected pretty well, though. It's the only way I can imagine the plans were put through as they were, and that there hasn't been much comeback (yet) regarding the construction techniques that he's used and the lack of retaining in place. But I envision moerse k4k in the not-too-distant future...

Mojo Jo-Jo... EDIT - if you think about it, we do... Snake Eyes / Rinkhals / DH1 / 2 / 3 all have service roads above and below... A lot of wheelbarrow work will be required, yes... But we can get it there!

As Vader says, setup is key. The new bike WILL be different to the old, so before you commit to a new stem, go for a re-fit on the bike. Use your existing (GT) stem, and then do the measurements from there. No use buying a 100mm stem only to find out that on the new bike you actually need an 80mm stem. And yes, the different bikes will have different characteristics, therefore different parameters will apply. Different seat angles, head angles, tube lengths and so on...

Or factor in some more Urban stylee into the current WC setup? Hmmmm... That would be fantastic.

LOL... I know, it is a long time, and I will be more efficient as time goes on. Basically, I take my time getting changed as I sweat more than a paedo at a school sports day. The commute itself takes 50 minutes, give or take. Yes, that is slow. I'm a 105kg oke on an MTB with full knobblies and a 5kg backpack. Plus, I use the cycle lanes and I stop at red lights & stop streets. Take that out of the equation and I'd do it inside 40 minutes without a hassle. I was timing it from when I leave home to the point at which I sit behind my computer in the morning. That means - Commute, get to gym, lock bike, shower, change, breakfast, ride the 1k to work, lock bike, change to work kit & get into the office. Also factored in is a 2nd change at the office, 'cos there's a 1k ride form gym to the office and if I wear my work clothes, they get wet as hell thanks to the backpack and remaining heat from the commute and shower. If there were a shower AT work, it'd be a different story. But my goal is to get the whole schpiel to be less than 1h15. It'll take a bit of tweaking, but I'll get there in the end.

How many bags you reckon we'd need to do a proper job of it? 200? 300? And more to the point - Mr. Bo would, quite literally, **** bricks...

Yeah, absolutely... I've seen enough damage to substrates & surfaces to know that surface prep is key, but the prep of the substrate is even more important... Thanks for the advice though. If I had my own backyard where I could build jumps etc, then this would be the way to go for sure... Tokai is Tokai Forest, our major venue for MTB trails and part of the Table Mountain National Park. Also a pine plantation, that is being logged and being "put back to nature" That's the major reason that the concrete wouldn't even make it past the front gate, let alone anywhere near the trails! Also, there's no way of limiting traffic. Public place, souff effrican mentality that says bugger you, I'm gonna ride anyway...

with a few chicken runs in it, of course...

Now THIS is how our DH races etc should be supported. And this is how the Urban Assault shoulda been...

yeah. GMaps doesn't register the ped bridge over the train line as a walkable route. You'll probably have to Gmaps the route to Windermere Station (12th Avenue / Acre Road in Windermere) and then from Ratanga Junction to wherever you're going (town / milnerton / parklands etc) The route I commute is from Wynberg through Rondebosch / Pinelands / Ndabeni / Windermere to Century City. Easy as pie...

shot, cap. Gonna cache them vids now...

post it! post it! We can boost brightness on our displays. We have GPU's that offer that tweakability...

Out of Pinelands, you can go towards the Century City train station, over the tracks and towards Milnerton. Then you have access to the BRT Cycle lanes all the way into town... Or, you can do the Pinelands / Rondebosch / Salt River / Town route. More hazardous, but shorter. Best way to check a route is to go to GMaps and get directions, but set the setting to "walking" so that you aren't directed to the main thoroughfares, but rather the shortest walking friendly (read quietest, generally) route.

Thanks mate... The concrete dry-mix plan would work, but unfortunately this is Tokai we're talking about. For starters, there's no budget to speak of. Secondly - there's no way we can stop traffic on a certain section of trail. It'd be fantastic if we could, but you know the average souff effrican attitude to signs and trail closures... If it were my back yard, I would have ripped out a bag or 100 of cement mix and gone to town. Unfortunately, we can't. We also have to take into account the environmental impact of the trails. I don't think SANPARKS & TMNP would appreciate bringing cement into the mix (excuse the pun) and "ruining" the natural habitat more than we are at the moment. Yes - it would be fantastic for drainage, and would create a MUCH harder base than the sand/clay mix alone. But it's just not an option for us.. So - for the moment, we're constrained to using the available clay (80 cubes trucked in from housing excavations in Baron's court) and whatever water we can get in with the Jo-Jo containers and the available rain water (which is not really available in summer) I know very well how the sand / clay mixture sticks together, given enough moisture. The only problem at the moment is that we need mounds of water to be able to "set" the sand / clay mix, and if we don't have enough water to hand its viscosity is all wrong and the trail doesn't "bed down" properly (not to mention sticking to every available tool that we have - spades, Mcleods, shovels & shoes - and the effort is nullified. I'm afraid that, at the moment, we need to either work whilst it is belting down (only going to happen in winter) or when we have the Jo-Jo tanks available to us... The cement, as good an idea as it is, is just not an option for us... Meh.

You have no idea, bro... on all 3 sides, they have cut back the clay to make a sorta 3-walled box (like they do in Fresnaye and Clifton, high up on the rocks) but get this - there's no retaining on ANY of the 3 walls of clay. There aren't even any weeping holes, or concrete facing on the clay walls. 15m away from the rear wall is a pool of approx 80,000 litres. 10m away from the right hand wall are the neighbour's foundations. My folks are reasonably far away ito foundations etc, so they're not so worried about their place. But it's pulling values of the surrounding houses down by the week. All the run-off goes into the road, and consequently into the property at the bottom that has those geese, and that have just built a new massive outer wall. Yes, there is a storm water drain right on the corner, but it wasn't designed to take the amount of water that will now come through with the altered landscape. The plastering has only been in place for just over a year, and is already cracking and they're having to repair it. They didn't put any waterproofing in place, and the roof section is TOTALLY level. No angle to it at all. Which means - the water sits. And seeps. They still haven't put a grade onto the roof, and simply patched the cracks in the plaster. They're going to have to re-do the roof in about 3 to 5 years if they don't sort out the waterproofing and ut a grade onto the roof. And you know how that area can be affected by a summer storm...

Pics, or it doesn't exist!

OOOOOH!

LOL! Yeah, mate. I love it up there, but CT is now home for me... I'm a convert. It's just so superior ito administration and so many other things. Yes, there aren't any thunderstorms (love those babies) and the surf is cold as feck, but it's a good place to live. Property's just so farking expensive down here.

hell yeah. AM type stuff I was referring to was the AM stuff that the overseas guys rate as AM - like some of the stuff in Tokai...

Whew! oh, and - FAIL.

yeah. That transition looks good. 130mm on a 29er - the start of a trail / AM style 29er revolution. Still a bit lacking for the big AM stuff, I think, but getting there.

Damn, Nige - I wish we had that type of soil down here! Sick & tired of this sandy k4k! Only way to get it up to scratch is to lay layers and layers of clay over the top. And to find the clay you have to either truck it in, or dig dig dig to find it under the sandy ****.

Agreed... So much better!

I'd go shimano. Easy to service, and reports say that the RM's at the lowe end are a bit softer and less stiff than the competition. Shimano is easy to service, reasonably strong (not going to win any awards at this price range though) and will last if you look after them.

Thought I recognized his mugg from the articles and stuff...