Blackadder

I had the manual one too, and really like it. Unfortunately I lost it last weekend, and found this when looking for a replacement.

Has anyone ever seen/used one of these? Any thoughts?

I understand how you work out the cost of replacement parts, how did you and your friend establish that every "1kg that you save on your bike it is equal to 5kg body weight." How do you get to this ratio? Not arguing, just interested to understand the science behind the arguments around weight and performance.

How did you work this out?

http://www.spectrumsport.co.za/Portals/17/ResultDoc/ASG_Sondela_MTB_20120708.pdf

The Momsen looks really cool, and I doubt that the absence of a front fork will make much of a real world difference. I bought my daughter the Silverback Eclipse 20", and have been very impressed with that. And its about half the price.

I agree, I measured 45.1 on the 40km track. Also, have to question the lengthy section on thick sand. All it caused was a lengthy bottleneck and added little to the race, IMO. Having said that, a really fun morning, and a race I enjoyed.

Indeed, I feel the same way. The WHAT series of magazines are good, generally not afraid to do proper comparative reviews, and seemingly not overly influenced by advertisers.

Came out tops in terms of the overall package, especially value for money. This does not mean they rated it as the best brake in terms of absolute performance.

Is there a website that lists the times when it is open, so that people don't have to keep asking on the hub. I tried looking, but could not find anything.

I enjoyed the 30km route as well. Event was very well organised, and staggered starts reduced the bottlenecks a little.

I checked the link before I posted. Contains no significant information at all

Can anyone provide any information about the venue for this race, The Big Red Barn.

The major advantage of the Classic is the disk size, 160GB, which allows you to run uncompressed rather than mp3 files. Much better sound, especially if you have an external DAC

Thanks, a great review. I would love to see a comparison between these lights and the Ay Up, which What Mountain Bike magazine rates as the top light on the market at present.

That's reasonable. The Specialized guys at Melrose Arch quoted me R1,100 for the setup

I have a Gobi XM that came standard with my Giant bike. Took a while to get used to it, but am loving it now. What confuses me is the number of differently labelled Gobi's I see advertised (XM MTB, XM Muzzel, XM K:lum, Braided, etc.). Obviousy there are differences between those with lighter and heavier rails, but other than that, what are the differences? I simply do not understand the blurbs on the Fizik website. And are there differences between the ones that come standard on a bike, and those sold seperately?

Why don't you consider some of the weekly Johannesburg Mountain Club rides? Many of these are in the area you want. www.jmbc.org.za

I'm in.

Rebecca Rusch has a nice review of E-Motion Rollers on her site: http://www.rebeccarusch.com/e-motion-rollers-review/

Rather spend your money on a Wahoo Protector Bike Case kit, which includes cadence and speed sensors, and heart rate monitor. Turns your smartphone into a cycling GPS that is at least as powerful, and probably much more versatile than any dedicated Garmin or Bryton unit.

I also enjoyed the blue route today. My iPhone running Cyclemeter died at 27km, but I guess 33km is about right. On the whole, a lovely trail that will only improve with usage. A few thoughts/suggestions: 1) Trail designation. The blue route is perfectly OK for beginners, certainly not "blue" in the sense that trails are usually graded according to difficulty. There were two places where I had to think twice before trying. In the first blue loop over the dry-river bed crossings; and at around 26km when you ride over the huge rock. (This was a highlight for me.) But otherwise, certainly less technical than the green route at Rietvlei. 2) Bi-directional parts As has been commented on above, the lack of any indicators to indicate where the trail is bi-directional is actually very dangerous and in my view, is clearly negligent on behalf of the trail organisers. At one point there is a very twisty piece of single track with bamboo and grass obscuring your visability. How long before two riders crash into each other at full speed? And it wont be the riders fault. 3) Distance from parking to trail Its not a biggie, but I cant believe it would be too costly to simply employ a car guard and let people park at the gate to the nature reserve. The ticket office could then be moved to the gate. Again, a lovely trail and I had a great ride. My comments should be read in that light.

I have had very good service from Mike's Bikes in Greenside. Never felt that I was being pushed to do anything I did not need, and treated nicely by Jean and Mike. My experience at some of the other larger and more well known bike shops were along the lines of those described by the OP.

Out of interest, what settings/fit did Concept Cyclery come up with that the others missed or differed with.

Singapore is very expensive for most things. Can't imagine you will get a cheap bike there