camelman

Before you start drilling, filing and so forth. Would it not be worth it looking at something like the Nokon/Jagwire housing. It seems like the liner comes separate and might fit all the way through from you shifter to the derailleur. Then you just build your bling housing as long as you need with the small little "end caps". I am not sure if the liner will fit through the lugs, but worth some research before modifying your frame. http://www.nokon.com/NokonUSA_Home.htm Not sure if the Jagwire one works the same way, but worth some investigation. http://jagwire.com/products/v/road_elite_sealed_shift http://jagwire.com/products/v/mountain_elite_link_shift Ja, I know "n boer maak 'n plan" is always cheaper, not always the best though Good luck

That bike looks great. Now you only need a black cassette and chain to make you the "stealth downhill bomber" . I have to compliment you on the choice of the Zee crankset. Any other converted double would not have looked the part. Its quite a nice looking single ring crank

Ja, saw that on your Vipa Build. I think that baggies should be minimum requirement for a dropper post. You should produce proof of baggies when buying it. All jokes aside, I never thought that the 80mm on the back of that bike would be enough, but from what I have seen and heard it seems adequate for some light trail riding. Just slap on a longer fork and away you go.

First of all it depends on the riding you do. Take your decision from there. If you ride trails only with baggies backpack and pads: Pyga ; Genius If you ride trails and a bit of XC, with baggies and backpack, then consider a Pyga, Spark 910 If you ride XC only with lots of lycra, ballerina shoes and want a light bike: Vipa, Spark I would go with the Vipa or Pyga. Get the frame and build your dream bike I used to be a big Scott fan, great value for money and very light bikes. However the suspension design on the Scott is not that great (getting ready for a roasting, but it is fact), therefore the lockouts. Also the rear triangle on that model is still in aluminium and if I have to compare it with my GF's genius, It make the bike feel a little unbalanced, or it is just the heavy back wheel? I am sure Mr Morewood put a lot of thinking into the suspension design to make it work properly on both the Vipa and the Pyga. A usable 80mm/110mm that uses all of it is much better than a 100mm that uses 60mm. Be a proudly South African and buy South African Design. I hear Specialized are having some great deals at the moment ... I hope this post has confused you even more

Without a suspension fork and a triple chainring as well, you are not truly dark. But baby steps..... Sure its gonna look awesome. Love the black. Enjoy the build, it's as rewarding as riding it.

That's true, forgot to add that different levels at different depths. Well spotted. The deeper you go the less you get. Ok, enough of work, lets ride bikes, or at least talk about them.

I used to do a lot of work in the bottled water industry in South Afirca and in those years (2001-2008) it was illegal to bottle ozone water. We used to use the ozone rich water to disinfect the water that those plastic PET bottles got washed with. That was as close as you could get to it ozone water. Ozone however does not last long in the water (+- 30min) after which its effectiveness goes down. What the law says around it these days I do not know. II also got an overdose of the stuff doing some work from a pipe that was leaking. It felt like I was going to cough my lungs out for a few days. It is not good Receiving Oxygen enriched air in an hyperbaric environment is a science that has been going on for a long time and does work. I currently do work in the diving industry and this is how divers get treated that have contracted the bends. It is also used for medicinal purposes of which you can find info everywhere. Divers have been using it for many many years with no side effects.

Ozone is O3. It is used to disinfect water, remove odours and so forth. Do not go and breath this stuff. It is not good for you. Ozone itself is very dangerous in high concentrations Oxygen treatment, now that is a whole other story. Just use the correct terminology. Of oxygen treatment I know very little except the bit where you can go and sit in a hyperbaric chamber under pressure and breath oxygen enriched air. Apparently speeds up recovery. Same process as used when divers get the bends. DO NOT GO SUCK ON AN OZONE TUBE.

Just gotta love this quote from the article: A trademark attorney wrote at the time: "It is unlikely that a significant number of the American population would know that Roubaix, France is the location of a well-known annual bicycle race." Very true.

I have thought long and hard about this: I am willing to dispose of all your brand new Specialized products you don't want anymore, because you feel guilty. If it is worth more than the shipping I will pay it. I am especially looking at Carbon Fiber bikes. They will take preference. Come on, throw away your brand new Spez equipment and feel good about it. The equipment will definitely be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner,so no need to worry.

For everyone out there on there high horses, vowing never to ride Specialized again. Just remember who you are hurting. The brand out there will recover, Mike Sinyard and his clever people will put a spin on this and make them look like the good guys in the end and the story will die down, but everyone will remember the bad stuff about the brand. The people that will really suffer is the LBS around the corner, the guy you rely on at the end of the day. He needs to sell 2-3 bikes a month to make ends meet. Do not go out and punish him, he had nothing to do with the whole affair except trying to make a living. Find some other way to make Spez pay. Just some food for thought.......

Ok, apologies Especially for you, no more logic, objectivity and common sense till friday . Let the ranting begin. Some more fuel to the fire http://bikeportland.org/2011/03/10/epic-wheel-works-will-change-name-due-to-potential-trademark-conflict-with-specialized-49504

I did not bother reading all the posts, but if you read further on in the article in cycling news, a big part of the problem is the fact that this guys produces his own wheels called Cafe Roubaix wheels. And under those terms I am pretty sure Spez is able to sue, or at least flex their muscle a bit. Granted, I think Spez could have handled it in a different manner. Huge amount of bad PR on their side, whether they are entitled to it or not. And for everyone out there swearing off there Specialized gear, remember to also ditch your Merida,etc. Same pants different pocket. Here is a link to the Specialized help desk. Watch this space and see what answers they come up with. Usually they answer all questions withing a day. Many comments made, many questions asked...lot's to answer for for. http://specialized.desk.com/customer/portal/topics/89075-general-questions/questions “There are three sides to every story. Yours Mine. What really happened: the truth.” ― Jeyn Roberts, Rage Within

Just blinged up my brakes with some X0's in silver to go with my new silver X0 shifters. Cant say they work better, but they look the part. No idea why Giant would spec a 160mm on the front of a 29r. Twice I lost front brake coming down a massive descent(I should probably not have taken the HT there ) because of overheating. Pretty sure it was because of the 160 working way to hard. It surely was not a weight issue with those train wheels that came with the bike. Anyway enjoy the ride. I am gonna get dressed up in my parka and endure the cold and wet today.

Only gets caught on the walls, doors and stairwell, GOING FOR A RIDE.

One last comment. Wider rims are definitely better, even for XC. The bigger fooprint "fattens" up the tire, and at lower pressures dont feel like it will roll off the rim in corners. The arch ex's are 21.6mm. So anything along those lines will make for a nice rim with a 2.25 tire. My tires always used to feel like they were going to roll off on the old giant p-xc2's. I think they were 19mm

Gempen. Local Basel ride. Last 100m of vertical in the snow.

Every evening I try to drink less wine and beer as well. Not working though. I stay thirsty

Just did the same for My XTC 29 advanced two weeks ago. Arch EX, Black hope hubs, Wheelsmith DB14 SS spokes with brass nipples cos I am big and fat. Super happy. The missus got the bling deal with the red nipples and red hubs. Huge upgrade from those P-XC2's. Any takers for that? Another upgrade was the fitting of the 10mm through axle in the back. Supplier drilled out the 9mm QR end caps to 10mm(rather machine it in a lathe) and I fitted a 10mm DT Swiss RWS thru axle. Whether its stiffer, I don't know. The engineer in me tells me its stiffer. Also put the Magura Storm SL Rotors on 180 front and 160 back. Massive improvement in braking power, almost went over the bars Enjoy the ride

That's a sweet ride. I almost bought the SB95. I loved the blue linkage/"switch" in the frame. It's like engineering porn Single ring is definitely the way to go on a bike like this. You suffer a bit going up, but have no hassles coming down, or changing gears. Not sure about your white bottle cage though

Did the Portes de Soleil this year. 2 countries snow bikepark riding at 0 deg Celcius in the rain And all that on the 25th of June

Just a word of caution on buying lights. I bought 2 Magicshine's and they are pretty ok. Build quality is decent and so forth. Then I saw this cheapy that looks exactly like the Magicshine. About half the price. Differences that I could pick up where the following: Cable was a lower quality-Cheaper harder PVC cable The connector was not a sealed one. Looks the same but the more expensive one had a nice rubber boot The light from the cheapie was very focused and all in one spot. The velcro strap for attaching the battery was terrible and looked like it would break at any time Smaller battery for the similar Magicshine Charger had an american plug on it and looked very cheap. Worked on 230V though. If you can live with those minor inconveniences then you will be ok. I have to agree with madmarc as well, one light on the handlebar and another on the head. Something like a 1000-1600 on the bike and a 600 on your head.

I just built up a set of ZTR Arch ex's with hope hubs, albeit in 29r version. Bling red hubs and nipples for the missus and black hubs and brass nipples for me, the fat ou(50g heavier build). I am super impressed with both the rims and the hubs (for now) I seated my notoriously difficult Schwalbe tires without sealant first up. Three pumps and they were seated, no problems. Based on that fact alone I will go with the Arch Ex's for my 650b conversion soon. My 2nd option would be the Novatec Flowtrail. What Iike about them and the classics is the metal strip in he hub to stop the casette from eating into your soft aluminium hub. As for the Mavics. I destroyed a set on my 26" within a year XC riding and had endless freebody issues. The other day the missus rented a bike with Mavic wheels, same freeboy issue. Its probably just a matter of regular maintenance on it, but still something I dont want to do.

Yep, I think we might just stick to the 700 it comes with. She does say that the 720 on her Genius is wide, but that is for trail riding and you need a lot more control. Only am only picking up the bikes in 2 weeks though and wanted some input from some fellow hubbers to get an idea. Just hate cutting handlebars, especially carbon ones. Lets see how it goes though. I am gonna get shafted for saying this: The style of riding I think does influence your handlebar. For XC you don't need that wide a bar as the control is not as important as when you do trail/All mountain riding where you really need to muscle the bike around, usually with a shorter stem, heavier wheels and heavier bike too. I am 1.90m tall and ride a 720mm on both the XC bike and the Trail bike. However I think the 720 on the XC bike is a tad wide for me, might cut it down to 680-700. Bit by bit of course.

Thanks to patches for the very informative presentation