Brighter-Lights

Here's we go again... CSA and UCI... so who cares? They are destroying a great sport we once knew... who cares about doping and results at the back of the pack... we ride for fun and UCI is making what used to be a fun outing very complicated... CSA for that matter is expert in double standards. The rider should at least have been notified and questions asked before this was published. He could be totally innocent, he's a back marker - what does it matter... Test the pros who make money by doping. That's why their R6 000 000 doesn't go very far... Like David George said, they need R100 000 000, I guess then they'll be able to test each and everyone... I don't approve of doping, but I'm pretty sure many of us have unknowingly used a banned substance before. Life's complicated enough, if you have to go out and research every substance your Doc prescribe or weight whatever you take in you might as well stop riding. UCI is all about money and total control of the sport. http://www.cyclingne...p-oregon-events We need a new independent MTB organisation in SA who cater for 90% of riders as 90% of riders in SA are there to enjoy and race your buddy and not become pro riders in Europe... The small Karoo town who once organised a great MTB race as part of their annual festival, attracting 80 or so riders, who actually put in effort for the development of MTB in the local community, and offering a very enjoyable MTB experience, now have to spend half of the income from the race, paying CSA and their official to become sanctioned. The pro who happens to be in the region may not ride according to CSA/UCI...(if they are not sanctioned) - then the CSA official they sent had the witt to even ask if she may ride the race!!! While getting paid by CSA...who takes the organisers money to do it... That's how many great events, albeit small, die... CSA under UCI banner...

Some Kgalagadi photos taken during December.

Just to add to the replies that came in while I was typing. Long ago, I also thought the STD recommendetions were waaayyy too hard, but if your fork feels too hard pumping the STD recommendations, there's too much oil in the damper in the right leg. Do a simple test by removing the lockout, damper top cap, and then pull the compression damper out slowly while twisting. Turn the bike sideways and dump, into a cup, a little of the oil. Put it back again and test. If your fork is not locking out 100% as also said above, there's too little oil in the damper. When locked out, and taking a big hit, with thresold set hard, oil could also leak past the top stop/seal and get trapped in the upped part. So do the same as above, put back together. I'll make sure again, but I think I put 127ml of oil in the right leg.

With all respect to 'incorrect opinions' and disrespectful replies above: RS Sid's are not hard at all if maintained or set up correctly, in fact, few forks are as plush! The pressure table on the fork as recommended by RS normally feels much too hard. Because... Oil level in the right (damper) leg partly determines the amount of compression needed (in the left leg) to make the fork ride around the chosen sag percentage mark. On new SIDs is very easy to 'monitor' sag by looking down at the calibration marks while riding. IMO, setting sag as recommended by most, leaning against a wall while sitting on the bike doesn't give an accurate measurement as initial stiction plays an important role here and could result in a 'false' setting. Brand new SID WC (blue one) and 3 Sid Races I accuired didn't have correct oil volumes and some had nothing. Before these I had older generation Sid's and knew that they didn't come with oil from the factory so I serviced them before riding them. Let me explain... The SID Races had too much oil in the right leg, adding to the compression curve and recommended pressures on the left leg were way too hard for my 70kg... At that time I pumped new SIDs rider weight over rider weight, + or - a bit at the negative chamber. But... after replacing all the oil in the right leg and adding to the correct level, the indicated pressures were much more realistic for good riding fork, hitting 80% travel on harder hits. This changed from 70/65 psi for my 70kg to 100/90, getting the same feel, same sag and same amount of travel on big holes. 120/120 for a 90kg rider should not feel too hard at all if everything is in order. Are you capable of disassembling the fork? I highly recommend to get the tools (long 10mm socket and plastic hammer) and learn to do it yourself as these forks are very simple and easy to maintain properly. Step by Step Pdf's are on the RS website. I would take the fork apart and dump all oil and start from scratch, but if not possible, here's what I would do: 1) with the bike standing upright, drop some fork oil, or even gearbox oil - 1 or 2 drops on the front side of the stanchoin (about 30mm above the wiper rim) and let it run down to the rim of the wiper, and then backwards of the wiper, (fork is at an angle so oil wil slowly run downwards to the back of the wiper) compress and release the fork once - dirt hidden on the edge of the wipers will have lifted and sit on the stanchoin - wipe off with soft cloth. Repeat 3-5 times. This will clear most of the crud, and also lubricate the stanchoins to some degree. If the fork's upper bushes and foamrings were dry, this step will dramatically increase fork response - remember that any kind of resistance adds to the spring rate = harder feel with the same air pressure. I've seen SIDs that could barely move, (new generation ones) that's been serviced by bike shops! 2) deflate + and - air, set rebound and compression damping to the least amount possible - make sure it's UNLOCKED! and cycle the fork up and down... This should be totally stiction free, and check how much travel the fork achieves when compressed all the way. If the fork doesn't achieve at least 95% travel, something is in the way. That could be too much oil in the right leg (damping) or too much oil in the lower legs (lubricating) and oil can't compress - with these forks, it's very important to have the foam rings soaked + having enough oil in the lowers for lubrication - if THAT is properly maintained, the forks feels like your're floating on air. Very fast responding and smooth through the travel. Next... 3) Remove the valve cores with a core removal tool and make sure they are good and sealing. A negative that's leaking may also make the fork feel VERY VERY hard, as you esentially have i.e. 100 top, 0 bottom. Then pump the + chamber to 100, and then the negative to 95 psi. When doing this, it's VERY important - crucial, to properly detatch the pump nozzle, as air can very easily leak out when detatching. In case of the negative, which is a very small chamber, a quick psssssst can be 30% of air in it.... resulting in a false impression of pressure inside... you pump it 100 and leak 40% and think it's 100... in reality, the underinflated negative will make the fork feel MUCH too hard. I use a Risse Racing pump with seperate atachment chamber which cannot leak air while taking it off... many pumps work like this. First do the above and make very sure your pump is ok and that you're not spilling air while detatching the fitting... especially at the negative, because a 100 psi + 100 psi negative, which lost 30% while detatching, will make the fork feel MUCH harder than 100... Tell me your findings and I'll guide you further -> checking oil in the lower legs and foam rings + making sure oil level in the right leg (damping side) is correct.

Lupine = overpriced for what you get. Brighter-Lights.com = right here in RSA and highest performing custom build lights anywhere for price/weight/burn time. My first High Power LED lights will soon do their 5th Trans Baviaans.... Here's a preview of what's to come...No commercial light currently available illuminates this well at 150m!(and the beam reaches really wide, even while throwing 150m+)

It's very simple. You get what you pay for. The cheap Chinese lights are good value, but lack performance - there's numerous threads about them breaking, batteries giving in etc etc. Exaggerated light output and battery capacity, poor performing battery cells (cheap as dirt) . If you've delt with Chinese suppliers before, you'll know that they lie about almost everything they sell. It's a risk riding with a light that might go dead on that fast downhill... One supplier here is claiming that he's the sole appointed importer / distributor for these Chinese lights, but I guess they say that to everyone they sell to. They are hungry for sales, they'll sell to anyone contacting them. There's a few hubbers making lights. I was the first to build a proper LED light in 2006. Light output and battery technology has improved a lot since then, but all the lights I've sold are still going strong. Some has had to replace batteriy packs, but the batteries I build now use even better performing Japanese made cells and they'll last even longer than the old type batteries. Brighter-Lights have finished 2nd (mixed cat) in Trans Baviaans 2009 and 2010. Brighter-Lights powered me to ride 437km in 2008's 24 Hours of Omni-Motion and win it, and in 2010 took first in the Solo cat for Ladies in Bicycling/Omni-Motion 24hr . Brighter-Lights also finished first overall in the Oudtshoorn 8 hour MTB Marathon in 2010... etc. etc. etc. Good lights are expensive, but they are reliable, and built by people who can ride, and who has a passion for what they do. With my lights, if anything break, I'll fix it. There's a 2 year warranty and after that I'll continue to support any problems i.e. when you had a crash and something broke. My best advice, do proper research, and buy the best you can afford, as this type of investment will greatly determine your ride quality at night. I've had many many many customers coming back to me saying 'You know, R4500 is a lot of money for a light, but I'm so glad that I took the leap, it has turned night into day, literally'

I have been buying lots overseas for over 10 years. The last 3 months has been very bad. There's a big problem at customs. Too many public holidays I would say. Parcels were always delivered between 14 and 20 days... now it's 20-60 days. It's mostly parcels from China and parcels with tracking numbers that get delayed like that. This week, when tracking a parcel of which I've already faxed the invoices to customs twice (it's been at customs for 14 work days now) , the person answering said that that department is very far behind and that the wait will be long. So... it's better to use an overseas forwarding company, pay a bit extra, get all parcels delivered at once with DHL or Fedex... ship everything from the east to the US, because the US postal system works, then forward from the US to SA with Fedex. Our postal system is deteriorating very fast - like everything else in RSA... 3rd world we live in...

Batteries constructed of 2x18650 cells in parallel should have a minimum of 5A discharge ability - way more than any bike light require.

You can use Li-po 7.4v (8.4v is the fully charged voltage - 7.4v is the nominal voltage - 6v or 5.5v is the cut voltage) - using the 7.2v setting will increase battery lifespan but decrease available capacity slightly. -> Most 18650 these days have 4.2v as peak but the latest Panasonic, Sanyo, Sony, LG are going up to 4.35v for the 3100mAh cells. Most 18650 datasheets have 3 hours as standard charge time. Magicshine battery is 4000mAh at best (tested), although rated higher. So 0.5C would be 2A. I think the std. MS chargery is rated 1.8A with an open voltage of 8.5v (tested) There's been many problems with Magicshine batteries. Google. If you need a new battery, I build any configuration Li-Ion using the best Japanese made cells and have built quite a few large capacity batteries for Magicshine lights.

Superglue works very well on MTB tyres... you have to be very optimistic to think that superglue is gonna held 8 bars pressure inside in an abrasive environment.

Design 4 is nice, but it's not gonna work for MTB... too white... I just had to toss my white and blue giant kit after only a little mud... To those who think black kit is gonna be hot (as in design 1) it's not... ask anyone using a Fattracks shirt... they're not hot, even with lots of black... http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/9326_133032441909_730046909_3025732_2846910_n.jpg

Design 1

It didn't break - It's perfectly fine. Carbon is a lot stronger than most ppl think. A friend is doing his 5th year on a self built carbon frame...

My no name frame was 1156g...

Rarely lighter...some carbon frames however are as heavy as alu frames, but the avg. carbon frame weight these days = +- 1kg-1.2kg, the avg weight of a light alu frame is around 1.4kg-1.5kg. - the days of super light alu frames like the Orbea Kilo are gone... Check out the light-bikes.com builds and get an idea what parts to use, some of those are build really light with so so parts. Some older frames like the Giant MCM Carbon's are cheap secondhand and very light. My hardtail was 9.5kg with LUST tyres and x9, XT, AMC, EC70, KCNC, SLR 135, Juicy 7 mix... But I'm on a Anthem X0 now, 10.5kg with light tyres (450g), and the bike is faster, even though I'm feeling the extra weight on the climbs, the lighter tyres are faster and they don't take hard hits with the fully so I have been using them without issues, even in Attakwas.

IMO all sealed bearings should be serviced when used in a HUB or BB... it's very easy to pry the seals out and if you've been riding long enough and serviced your bike often enough, you'll know that 99% of sealed bearings leak grease and that the seals are not really doing what they should do, AND that most of them have very little grease inside as they are made for high speed applications where they normally would heat up and melt the grease. In a low speed app. it's a bit different though, especially where the bearing often gets submerged. (crossing a river etc etc, mud race etc. ) Press the bearing out, being very careful, using a very sharp object, remove both seals. (this takes some practise, slide the sharp blade underneath the seal and lift it, paying attention NOT to damage the seal) Wash bearing in petrol and dry with air hose/compressor. Then pack Castrol WB into the bearing until it sqeezes out on the other side. Pop one seal back, fill the bearing even further with grease. Pop the other seal back. Wipe off grease on outside. This way, it'll 'sweat' some grease for the first while, but my experience doing it like this, especially in a BB, give you peace of mind to ride through any river as water will not easily go into a bearing completely filled/packed with grease. This is messy, I do it once every 6 months on hub, headset and BB bearings, and once every 3 months on der pulleys ( +- 1000km offroad per month) The ONLY sealed bearings that I've come across that were sealing properly, even after 2 very muddy races, were those in Hope Pro 2 hubs. Not even the Enduro bearings seal like those. (I have Enduro's in our cranks - didn't pack them initially as they are supposed to be the S***, and they were rusted after Trans Baviaans 2010... I had to brush them and repack properly... ) I open even a brand new sealed bearing and pack it properly... because sometimes it's the right thing to do and the result is evident...

I use Castrol WB for all bearings. (pedals, BB, headset, hubs)

I've had a very bad experience with Aerozine - stay well clear - poor design. Male and female toothed section where left crank arm fit onto shaft does not match. So after time, (after 4 months of light riding for me) play started developing at the left arm and it couldn't be tightened onto the tapered spline anymore, because there's a ridge or shoulder. The importers did give me replacement arms. They questioned why I took the crank off once a month, but the BB was of such poor quality with no seals, just a plastic side cover, so I had to take the crank off to service the BB and one time was to put my old crank back - a Truvativ Stylo Team, which is a similar splined design, but never gave issues taking it off. See the pics... the chainrings clearly show how little this crank was used. I know another good rider who's used his without problems, but mine really was a poor crank. I'm now on a XT crank simply because it's so easy to take off, and for 860g the price is right.

Post on MTBR.com too... why are you just accepting it... fight them... I've had 3 Anthems and I love Giant and never has any paint flaked underneath all the diff. kinds of stickers and tape I've used. Read my earlier post. No paint should flake by applying tape... not even when left in the sun... the tape will crack long before the paint...

hellopeter.com...

Living in PE... how hard was it for EP Cycling's ppl to anticipate what to expect and organise it properly? They only thought about traffic the day before the race? Pathetic... Ever seen this happened at IronMan? Tomorrow it's exactly a year ago (when I was publicly humiliated by them at The Herald's 65km MTB start and sent all the way to the back of the lineup, even though I was one of the favourites to win the race - In the end I still came 3rd by only 35 sec's in the 65km MTB... but who can race after you've been treated like a dog in front of everybody, unfairly... At Tsitsikamma they had a seeding and made sure they called me to the front... pffffttt....) But nobody ever said sorry to me. Pathetic bunch of Amateurs... I'm sitting back and enjoying every moment of their destruction and humiliation... The wheel is turning...

If this is EP Cycling's F_up I would not be surprized at all... They can't even apply the rules correctly at a small local race...

Blaming the tape is the lamest excuse I've ever seen and whoever said that must be pretty dumb or have no experience applying decals or tape to anything. I've applied many different kinds of tape and decals to bike frames and NEVER has paint flaked. Something got screwed up at the factory when that frame was painted because on my 2 Anthem X0's, using 3M helicopter tape that sticks like crazy, and other tapes + decals, NO paint issues happened when removing them. One time I left the decals (vinyl) on for so long that they actually flaked when I removed them... but the paint/clearcoat was perfect. How many cars do you see driving around with decals, stickers or VPN on their bonnets? Do you ever see a car needing a repaint after stickers have been removed? Do you see every second bicycle needing a respray because decals or tape had been removed? C'mmon!!! Get real. A proper paint job will never flake. By looking at the FD clamp section it looks like you'll wash the paint off this frame with a pressure washer... It shouldn't be too difficult to get the decal/sticker myth above busted by any proper paint shop. Paint just doesn't flake off THAT easily...

bull****!! No tape is ever gonna take off paint or clearcoat from ANY proper paint job. No matter how you bake or do what else to it!!! I've seen a Scott Scale 30 do the same... clearcoat started flaking on rear triangle and Scott replaced it under warranty... Something went wrong when this frame was painted at the factory... (coming from someone owning 2 Anthem X0's...)

+1 Why CRC? There's many other shops who often have even lower prices than CRC... The initiator states that this is not a price fixing attempt, but what is it then?