Captain Fastbastard Mayhem

Well, that's not hard...

Saw the ad on Tuesday. Then it was UK10%, but still available to the rest of the world. Pity I placed my order on Monday. Otherwise I could have got more goodies!

here's a pic of the frame... you can see the niggly bits that I'm referring to. Absolute bastard, they are! please excuse the quality!

Update - frame is ALMOST ready to paint. It's just the little niggly areas like the shock mounting point and the seatpost bracer, as well as the pivot point that are really doing my head in. I'm going to get rid of as much paint as I can, and then smooth out the remaining sections so that the primer can go on without a fuss. What I've done to it so far is strip the paint, using a *** stripper that had next to zero penetration. This necessitated multiple coats (I think I got up to 10 in some areas) and I've started finishing off the frame with steel wool to get the blemishes from the stripper off the frame. It's looking mighty shiny right now. I have taken a pic, but my phone is being a beeyatch so I can't post pics at the moment. Swingarm is 50% stripped of paint, fork 95%. CRC order is at the international hub (yippeeeee!) so the rest of the parts are on their way. Cranks have been primered. The primer is white, and it actually looks helluva good on the cranks. I might think about keeping them white and just sealing them with the enamel topcoat instead of going the black route. Hmmmm... Anyway - I will upload pics as I have them. Tires are now fitted & inflated, and the rest is on the way. I still need to grind down the v-brake mounts on the fork though. That could take a while, 'cos I don't wanna stuff that up! Cheers for now!

Lolz... I dig to ride!

Good looking bike, Paleodom.

+ another one. I've got a set of 8 speed shifters and an old Suntour 100mm fork that's sitting in my shed gathering d®ust, and some oldish tyres (IRC Mythos XC) but they still have good tread on them. Also got a BRAND NEW BB that I bought for my project bike, only to find out that the cranks are mismatched. FAIL! BB is a 68/121 English thread.

Add to that the fact that nobody in their right minds would attempt to sell a full carbon GT or similar bike with a Tora fork on it, and try to claim that there ISN'T some shady back-door dealing and part-swopping going on. MRT 1 - either you're deluded, or you're just being wilfully ignorant.

XC is by definition comprised of multiple short, technical laps of the same course. Marathon is a long, single day race where you cover distance over the countryside, from point A to point B. Trail riding is when you go out for the enjoyment of the trail, and ride for the sake of riding. This forms the majority of what we do in RSA. Trail riding is, quite simply, riding the trails. Wherever you want to go. Therefore - XC bikes require lack of weight, aggressive angles and less suspension travel to optimize speed over short, hilly courses while still being able to negotiate technical stuff (albeit slower and less gracefully than a trail bike would be able to) Trail bikes don't need to be fast up the hills, they are just built for the enjoyment of the trail. Therefore, they have more travel, to make the ride more comfortable and to be able to soak up more technical sections...

Fk, b-rad, that chicken is just FOUL!!!

Argh. I can do neither. I've got a wedding to get to on Saturday afternoon. Bugger!

Can't this time bro... Got a wedding to get to! Should have done next weekend like you said in the Warthogs mail! Dammit!

Looks as if he's still trying to control the thing, instead of letting go and unclipping. Stupid. That's why so many collarbones are consigned to the scrap-heap...

Minion Front, High Roller back. Both 2.5 super tacky 2 ply. Dunno pressure yet. Haven't got the tubes for them, and the bike ain't built yet!

Damn. Just bought mine yesterday... Sorry buddy!

Damn, that blows, dude! Take it back, I say! Wishing a swift recovery for your steed.

Small update: The road bike is gone, so things will get a bit faster from here. I've since discovered that the cranks that came with the bike were mismatched. Not in itself a problem. Until I discovered that not only were they mismatched, but they were different lengths as well. So. I've just bought a pair of old Hollowtech LX Crank Arms (reasonable nick apart from the normal scratches from not lifting cranks when negotiating rocky areas etc) but I need a BB as well. Also picked up an old pair of MoshBikes pedals. Some of the grub screws need replacing, but at a blue and brown for the crankarms and the pedals, I can't exactly complain, now can I. Now - my question (before I give my c/card a haemmorhage courtesy or CRC) What BB (octalink) should I get? I've sourced an LX one, to keep it in the family, but the one I see has an "Italian Thread" which I presume is a bad thing. Also got myself a set of tires - Minion Super Tacky 2.5 2 ply at the front & a High Roller ST 2.5 2 ply for the rear... And a chain. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

And DON'T, for F*** sakes, skid to a stop or around a corner when you're MTBing. Gives the rest of us a LEKKA huge braking rut to negotiate, and erodes the trail to no end.

Too late! She cried. All decals gone. As is sense of humour. Called it a night after 3 applications of stripper, but the next application should see it all come off. I'm stripping the frame RIGHT down to bare metal, so a bit of residue won't be a hassle. The stripper does fantastic work at getting rid of latent k4k.

Shot bro... Might be going that way tomorrow, so will check it out!

Okay, so the paint stripping has commenced. Fork is almost completely bare, just a few random spots. Rear triangle is a work in progress, but shouldn't take that much longer. As for the main triangle - oh. my. word. Decals are all over the place. ALL the colour on it, apart from the blue, are made up from decals. What does that mean? Paint stripper fail. Especially seeing as the paint stripper I got isn't the best, but I couldn't find the Genkem that Martin Hattingh was talking about earlier. Guess I'll just have to sit it through and carry on slaving away. Anywho. Tomorrow, I'm off to get me the rest of the bits & bobs that will make this puppy rideable. Can't wait to start the paint, and then get on her and ride!

Congrats mate! Told you the stem was the right place to start! ;-)

Dammit. You beat me!

Funnily enough, I haven't exercised NEARLY enough over the past few weeks/months. I've just been eating smaller portions, and "jiggling" during the day. EG: When I'm at my desk, my legs carry on moving, as if I'm doing mini calf-raises all the time. Gets the blood flowing just that little bit faster. That, and stress. That's a big one in my books at the moment... In terms of HR though, you're not exercising properly if you're at less than 70% of your max. At least, that's how I see it...

Crept up to 103 over the break from reality... I've now managed to shed 7 of those kilos in the past 4 weeks. Feeling far better, and they (mostly) fit again!