Brighter-Lights

Not all chasing dogs are agressive. But if it's an agressive dog, I just stop and yell in a controlling manner: 'gaan husitoe!!!' - most of them retreat then - if they don't retreat, I mock charge them (yelling or throwing a stone) and most then ran off. If they don't, I pepperspray them. The bad thing is sometimes at night you don't see them and they wait until the last moment before chasing, can be very surprising, especially if it's off road near farms and you're cruizing along peacefully, thinking that nothing can bother you. Pepperspraying dogs (especially if you encounter many of them) can become quite costly. I also believe that if you've sprayed a regular attacker properly, he'll remember you and stop chasing.

Search The Hub for the Dealextreme thread. You'll want to think twice before ordering from them. Sometimes you'll pay VAT on the value, sometimes not. MOST times, customs will detain the parcel and send a slip to your PO box, informing you that an invoice is needed. That sometimes takes a week, and another week for customs to send it to you. Just search the for the DX thread. It's not always bad, but if it's bad, be prepared to wait up to 2 months or more to receive your items. Everything shows as 'in stock' even if they can't even source the items... lessons learned... There's alternatives to DX... what about eBay? on eBay a seller HAS to perform in order to avoid negative feedback...

The problem is... to build a decent flasher, using a really bright LED and Li-ion battery, the parts alone will cost you upwards of R500... Most people want their lives to be saved, but don't want to pay for a decent flasher - and remember, people will still fail to see you! Even with the brightest flasher you can think of. The other day, with a 1000+ lumen light on flash mode facing forward, illuminating road signs during bright daylight, a car drove right over a stop street almost into me. One thing about a bright flasher - at night, you are the king... cars really slow down before passing you. Forget about these 3xAAA toys you see in shops. Forget about anything red if you want to be seen during daytime. If you don't want to build something yourself, get a 3-mode Ultrafire WF-502B torch with Li-ion batteries and charger and use as is, WHITE. White is much more visible during daytime. Easy to fix it to seatpost with clever use of 2 reflector mounting clamps. And yes! Very very exciting LED technology available soon!

Bikeradar Winter glove test: http://www.bikeradar.com/commuting/gear/article/7-of-the-best-winter-road-and-commuting-gloves-13252 Chiba Gel Winter glove (one of Bikeradar's favs) at CRC: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=43474

I've been quite bold about the delamanation issue as I never had such a problem in 4 years and over 30 tires... until a few weeks ago when my Maxxis Crossmark LUST delaminated and made a bubble... def. delamination in your photo... comes down to poor bonding... In Stans delamination tests, the tyres all delaminated after extensive abuse to them. So a good one could delaminate from abuse, but a bad one can delaminate without abuse. I've seen 2 brand new tyres with humps like that before... Looked like both were moulded skew. It happens...

Not always' date=' but a lot of times, and sometimes as much a 50% less than locally. Check with CWCycles.co.za, your LBS, and search google and other shops. I've found quite a few items cheaper than at CRC. The convenience with CRC is you get free shipping on orders over R3000 and everything arrives together. CRC's currency calculator uses a different exchange rate than your local bank. My CRC cart's Rand value was R9300, but R9700 went off my CC. On top of that, add 15.4% VAT if buying bike parts only, but up to 45% Duties + VAT on clothing. Or.. R400 to R1000 for a private broker if you're unlucky to get problems at customs... Check eBay too... Brighter-Lights2010-05-27 23:57:53

Are you sure the shock pivot is lubricated and clean? Take the shock off and press the aluminium inserts out of the eyelets and regrease them and check then...

Use 10w40 Synthetic motor oil in the lowers. If you need fork oil for the damping side, get Castol Fork Oil... Different weights available... I paid R35 for almost a litre 5 weight. RWC recommends using Finishline Stanchoin lube with their Enduro wipers because there's no foam rings. I enter the uppers past the seals, then turn the fork upside down and add the recommended amount of oil to each lower, then I pull the uppers out until the wipers just seal - holding it like this, the oil runs down and fill the foam ring cavity completely. As you ride, oil will slowly work down into the lowers again, keeping the sliders and wipers like butter much longer. On the topic of travel change, you CAN do the travel change without removing the lowers... BUT I recommend taking the lowers off to clean the wipers and foamrings. If you're lazy... 1. deflate both air chambers. 2. take off the positive air topcap. 3. turn the fork upside down 4. loosen the airspring locknut with your long 10mm socket and tap shaft loose with plastic hammer... 5. lubricate + (positive) air topcap with some grease so it won't damage the airseal. 6. using a thin wooden dowl, push the airspring shaft back/out until the air piston passes the threads and come out.... at the top - remove spacers. 7. put it back and be careful when passing the air piston past the topcap threads. 8. once the shaft is in, add the correct amount of oil into the lower leg before pushing it in all the way. 9. tighten the lower leg locknut and turn fork around into riding position. add 5cc fork oil in + (positive) chamber to lube spring seal. 10. put topcap back and tighten... 11. inflate/add pressure... Once you know how to, it'll take you less than 10 minutes to take off the lowers and lube the foamrings - something MANY riders never do, making for stiff forks and worn stanchoins... Let the bike stand upside down for a day once a week to let some oil get back to the foamrings. Afte rthat, the rebound damping might not work 100% , but it normally returns to 100% after a few strokes...

http://www.sram.com/_media/pdf/rockshox/dealers/TM_MY10.pdf

With spacers removed, it probably is already at 100mm... = add spacers to decrease stroke, remove spacers to increase stroke. It can very easily be done yourself. Download the RS service manual... everything explained in detail.

http://thedangerousofficial.blogspot.com/2008/08/olympic-scalpel.html Of course saving every gram makes a difference...

Get a cover!!! What works great for a back shock is a canondale lefty boot or a universal steering rack boot. What also may work is offroad bike fork boots... or ralley suspension/shock covers. Just cut them shorter... quite cheap on eBay and comes in many diff. colours. Cut to size, then cable tie top and bottom and NOTHING will get in. You can even cover the whole shock and will keep it looking new much longer. You'll also need to service the rear shock a lot less, and incase of a crash, there's some protection on the slider/stanchoin.

CRC has been out of Hope Pro 2's 32H for weeks now... anyone have an idea what's going on there?

The NEW Revelation-1100 - the smallest, lightest, brightest and most advanced light available anywhere! 110g light head - 100% waterproof. 400g battery - recharges in 2 hours. 1100 lumens for minimum 5 hours, or 800 lumens for minimum 7 hours high beam. Up to 100 hours burntime at 110 lumens. Microcontroller driven - fully programmable. Choice of 4 dimming programs let you customise dim levels and let you decide how bright you want each dim level. Build in thermal protection and battery level indicators.

It depends... Taking 2kg off a 11kg bike will make a noticeable diff, but a huge diff if most of the weight is shed from the wheelset and tyres. Most of the diff. however, will be felt while riding fast, climbing fast on drags etc. But on climbs of 15+ gradient it won't make you feel much different. An example is me riding up a 3.5km climb with average gradient 17% and max 24%. Jeeptrack that climbs 500m in 3.5km. With my 9kg hardtail and race outfit at a controlled effort (not at race pace, but steady HR) I go about 6 to 7km/h... some places quicker... with a 10kg backpack I ride up the same pass 5km/h +- that's a 70kg rider loaded with 10kg... not MUCH slower than without the extra weight... and in both cases I ride in 22/32 aka granny... So when going up gradients that's VERY steep at low speed, bike weight doesn't play as big a role as trying to keep your front wheel down plays... but at speed on a gravel road with 10% or 5% climbs, the 70kg Jo will smash the 70kg+10kg backpacked Jo... but the 72kg Jo will keep up with the 70kg Jo... change the wheelset from a std 1.8kg to 1.5kg and save 200g per tyre, that Jo will do 2 to 3km/h quicker at 30 to 35km/h on a flat gravel road... If a rider has a good power to weight ratio to start with, the biggest difference will be felt when shaving weight off the bike - more so the wheelset... If a rider is so so to begin with, saving weight on the bike will hardly be noticeably to him, unless he takes 1kg off his wheels and tyre weight...!! Body weight plays a role... but 2kg won't be noticeable at all... I'm 5kg heavier than in 2005 and I'm faster, I've got better endurance, but I have to work harder on the climbs, but I'm still faster than when I was 65kg... Take a 2L camelbak and ride with it, and then without it and get the idea of how a 2kg body weight saving will feel like - barely noticeable at 2kg! 2kg off an Anthem X which is already 11kg? Will cost lotsa bucks to get a Anthem X to 9kg... a 11kg bike can be pretty fast as long as the wheels are light...

Once you've ridden a high end full suspension, you'll never go back to a hardtail, ever. And you don't need R50k to build a sub 11kg full susp... you can easily build a sub 10.5kg full susp for under R30K if buying the right parts from overseas... or locally... KCNC stuff are actually cheaper locally than on eBay...

I've recently sold my almost brand new triggers here. Been through 5 sets twisters and will never use triggers again. X7, X9 and X0 are all exactly the same shifter, just use different type grips and paintwork. I don't like the X0's soft grip, didn't last me long, the X9 one has a harder and bigger grip which works fine in rain. The rubber grip part of the twister does wear out sooner or later, so long term, trigger is better, but performance wise, nothing beats that KRRRRRR you get with the twisters, you can change many gears at a time, works great for XC where it's steep up and down all the time. You get used to them so quickly that you won't really make more than one accidental shift. With twisters you gotta be careful not to scratch or crack the indicator displays when putting your bike upside down.

Yes, mounted on the same place but not aimed at the same place. Even a blind person can see that the 2 light's hotspots were not aimed nearly in the same direction or area. Makes a huge difference in where the light goes, and how the camera's AUTO program will decide which apperture and shutterspeed to use... Just hover your mouse over the original pics in the folder where they are saved and windows will show the apperture shutter combination. If your camera's AUTO program use centerweighted average metering, it will underexpose the whole scene to expose for the bright center section. And the SOLO 620 has a much brighter center section than the MS, can easily see in the above animation of your 2 photos. Take them to a section of trail and you'll see the difference in brightness at 60m... the Solo 620 kills the MS when it comes to throw, and if the beam is set up correctly it gives very even light from right near your front wheel to past 60m... AUTO can't be used unfortunately to take beam comparison shots, the camera Automatically under expose to tone down highlights.

This test is misleading because you didn't use the same camera settings to begin with PLUS, you didn't aim the Solo 620's beam at the same mark you aimed the Magicshines beam at. To the untrained eye, the Magicshine appears brighter because it's aimed at the center on the driveway floor, with light bouncing off the floor to the building. The Solo 620 is aimed at the 'sky' so to speak. I immediately noticed that something was not right. (to see the effects of light bouncing... take any light and aim it at a ceiling and see which part of the room is lit more. Effects are even more noticeable when the background is white.) The Solo has a narrover hotspot, but throws MUCH further than the Magicshine, which cant be seen in these photos because the driveway is only about 30m long. The Solo reaches 80m+. If you've aimed the lights at the EXACT same spot, the photos would've been very different, and if you don't believe me, take your bike light and shine it against any object and learn about light bouncing - I learned about it in photography. The camera was also not held at the same area in photo 2. Good initiative from your side to do a comparison. But it you want to do this kind of testing, especially if you plan on making the results public, you got to use the same parameters for accurate results. 1) Lights center spot aimed at exact same area (use PVC tape and mark a X) 2) Camera on tripod 3) Manual mode, ISO 100, F4.0, 6 seconds, daylight white-balance. Pics up when I get more Magicshines. The MS is by no means brighter than the Solo 620 you got to be kidding me! I've had a couple through my hands! The Magicshines I've tested in an integrating sphere (measures all light emitted from the reflector) were actually the same and some even dimmer than the Solo 620.

I'm one of the early pioneers to have used new genaration LED's in bike lights. I decided to build my own light because what was available in the shops were not very bright, or didn't burn long enough, and I wanted a light which would enable me to do 70km/h on gravel at night. When I started out in 2006, the internet had very little info about high power LED's, because at that time they just started to become available and development was slow. There were no 'how to build's' with photos like there is now. It started as a very costly excercise, I had to buy small quantities of everything to test, 3/4 of the parts and LED's I received wasn't good enough for what I wanted in a bike light. There's Brighter-Lights systems out there that'll soon do their 4th Trans Baviaans. Technology is advancing faster than we can design new products and that's very exciting, and a bit frustrating. If you want to stay ahead, using the latest available technology, you have to manufacture small quantities. I consider myself an expert when it comes to LED illumination. I've not only read it all, but I've actually had most of what is and was available on my test bench, and I chose what works best, and I'm a perfectionist. So what's coming from the Brighter-Lights store? Quite an amount of manufacturers emerged in the meantime and they're using what I've used yesteryear. In the last 2 years LED's have increased in brightness by over 40% and became 50% more effecient. Right now, LED's of more than 100% brighter are being tested. That's very exciting for the future. In the next few of months I'm launching some very exciting lights. System A, which most people will buy, is only 500g incl. battery, and delivers over 800 Lumens for 8 hours. Why the long burntime? Because with such a long burn time, you'll only need to charge the battery every other week, which means you'll get a greatly extended battery lifetime and excellent performance for years to come. System B is just 600g and capable of delivering 1900 Lumens for 3 hours. It's actually capable of 3300 Lumens at 40 Watt's, but with Watt's comes heat, and to keep the light lightweigth and very small, it's tuned down to 1900 Lumens. You'll be shocked how small it is... System C is a portable emergency/survival light system which uses the same hardware as system A, but with a 120 Watt per hour battery, (700g) which would give you 800+ lumens for 17 hours, or 110 lumens for weeks at a time. You won't need the 110 Lumen setting though, as the lightweight 60 Watt solar panel, which I'm building myself, will charge your battery in just 3 hours in bright sunlight. Alternatively, the panel is powerful enough to direct drive your laptop, or charge a multitude of other portable devices at the same time. Here's a sneak preview of the first prototype I'm using now...

Vergeet van die 'commercial' ligte... hulle almal gebruik verouderde tegnologie omdat die heel beste LED's maar in klein hoeveelhede beskikbaar raak. Hang af wat jy wil spandeer... daar's baie opsies. Party van die commercial ligte gebruik sommer baie verouderde LED's... soos bv die lig hier op die hub wat 'n Seoul P7 gebruik... die P7 kom al meer as 3 jaar en is die laaste 2 jaar nog nie weer verbeter nie. Die nuutste LED's is amper 40% helderder. Iet's soos DIE sal jou lewe DAG maak... Ek't nog net een vir myself gebou, maar ek kan daaraan dink om hom af te staan... 460g lithium polymer battery met balanseer stroombaan in waterbottel OF 400g sonder water bottel in shrink in shrink wrap (100% waterdig) 170g ligkop (kabel ingesl) Laai van leeg tot vol in net 2 ure Ten volle programmeerbare stroombaan laat jou kies tuseen 4 verskillende 'mode programs' , daarbenewens kan jy elke program se 'levels' se helderheid ook self kies. Die lig dim homself as hy sou oorverhit (soos bv. op high beam wanneer jy stilstaan) 3 'stage battery level indicator + low voltage shutdown' 2500 Lumens vir 2 ure (net in koue omgewings - baie hitte teen amper 30 Watt!) 1900 Lumens vir 3 ure 1400 Lumens vir 4 ure 1000 Lumens vir 6 ure + 110 Lumens vir 65 ure +