beanz

I agree it doesn't make sense to get a super light rim and put heavy tires on. I'm running the Racing Ralph snakeskin, which is pretty light and strong, just wears a bit quickly, but there's not much room to save weight there. The other option I've considered is to go with a front Crest and a rear Arch. I figure the snappy handling in the front might be nice and a bit more beef in the rear. I find it's easier to clear trouble up front, but more likely to bottom on the back wheel. Where is the extra flexiness more likely to be felt, in the front or rear? Anyway thanks to everyone for chiming in and giving some pretty useful input.

I never thought of that. I can imagine that might be a problem on your Tallboy.

I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a wheelset upgrade for my Giant Anthem 29er. I'm thinking of getting custom built wheels with either Crest or Arch EX rims, probably with hope hubs. I weigh 70kg, but I do like to take on some pretty rocky descents at decent speed and I'm not the best at always picking the right line. I do the odd race and will be taking them on the berg and bush as well. I don't want to use them for just races - they will be my everyday wheelset and I'll probably just keep the giant wheels as a spare, or maybe offload them. There seem to be much heavier people than me on crests but also people my weight or lighter on Arches (or Arch EXes). I'd love to hear from anyone who's had experience with either, or both, especially at my roughly my weight. 1. How perceivable is the difference in stiffness between the the two wheels? 2. How much do you feel the 70 odd gram difference per rim in weight between them? There seem to be lots of happy people on Crests, and it's generally the popular choice it seems. But maybe some riders on Crests modify their riding style to compensate for the fact that they're on less robust wheels. I obviously want to go for the lightest wheels, but not at the expense of a very noticable drop in stiffness. Can stronger spokes compensate to some extent for lighter rims in this regard? I suppose either way I'll be much better off than on the 2.1kg stock giant p-xc2 wheels. Any insights will be much appreciated.

I'm going to be at mountain sanctuary park that weekend, so I'll be coming over from the other side. Maybe see you at the top.

Nice pics. Looks like plenty of snow still about in the berg. I also wouldn't be surprised if they lengthen it next year. Somehow if the longest distance is only 45km, serious mountain bikers struggle to take the race seriously. But then they would probably need to add a middle distance, maybe a 35km, skipping out the drifters climb. I wish Chris all the best for this event and hope it grows from strength to strength, but I hope it also doesn't become too serious and lose some of the appeal it has as a great family weekend event.

This is fantastic mountain biking territory, mainly along old horse trails. It looks like some new trails have been added recently. The whole section linking with the Cavern is new, as well as all the purple trails. If you do the trilby trail and montusi gorge trail, it's about 40 km of great single track with river crossings, some technical climbs and descents, and generally very nice challenging riding, both technically and from a fitness point of view, but not undoabe. And in the most pristine drakensberg environment. Mountain biking doesn't get much better than this. Also there's the drakensberg MTB challenge in May / June which has several distances, the longest is 45km, but it's pretty challenging, with a climb that takes you up about 400 - 500m, followed by an awesome descent down a rocky 4x4 track. If you like a race that is not just 70km down corrugated farm roads with queues at the technical sections, but great single track that you almost have to yourself, but still there's a really cool vibe, this one is worth making a weekend of. And a nice goodie bag to go with. I can see this event getting better and better, as the new trails will open up new routing possibilites.

Yes I hope everyone is able to find their missing body parts!

Hi Everyone, I'm a newbie on the hub as you can probably see. I took part in the ride from Fratellis. Just looking at the temperature graph on the GPS it was 0 degrees when I set off at 7:15am! Thankfully it warmed up nicely. I'm not in any of the photo's - I had to duck before the group one was taken. Nearly cancelled myself going over a jump at speed after chasing the fast guys! So I'm happy to be still in one piece! Have to really take care going over some of those jumps with steep lips. Thanks everyone for really nice ride. Very enjoyable.

Similar problem. Did the 70 in just under 4 hours. The results said I DNF. I queried it, sent my Garmin activity, and they said they'd fix it. Now my result is around 5:30, just about stone last. Still waiting for resolution. Otherwise it was a really nice race. Apart from the congestion on the technical sections. Starting in batch G, riding these was not an option as everyone was walking by the time I got there. Would like to have at least tried some of them. It does seem like the only chance you've got of riding the technical sections is to get into a better start group. There was a 12min break at the waterfall where things had ground to a complete halt. Probably not such a bad thing for me - a chance to get my breath back - getting to that point in the wind had been quite tough. The rest of the race was really great. Hope they can get their timing issues sorted out for next time.