michaelbiker

SRAM or Shimano 12-speed, the adapters shouldn't be diff. I use a Shimano 105 12-speed HG cassette on my Kickr with the 148 adapter on the one side and the thru axle adapter on the drive side and it works without issue on my Eagle AXS bike. I do have to do a bit of derailleur trim adjustment to get smooth shifting but that's to be expected. Edit: the 148 adapter can be flipped around to be 142 compatible. My Kickr is quite old, so maybe this has changed.

Tokai in the wind

Both TR Expert and Scott seem very close in spec unless the TR expert has carbon wheels - hard to tell. The TR Comp is a much better specced bike. GX is a huge jump from NX in terms of longevity and it does have a better fork. So I would go with that. Geo seems on point too but they are all very similar. Have you seen these bikes in person? It’s often easier to decide that way. TR also have a gen 2 cypher which is a very nice bike but I’m not sure if it’s in your price range.

We paid approximately $1100 each for full board, accommodation and transport but excluding tips, alcohol and flights for both trips. I am not sure how expensive Georgia is but both Laos and Thailand have cheap accommodation, food and labour costs. I don’t think what you are suggesting is too bad but I’d leave out the flights and include meals. Have the guests find their own flights. That way the prices don’t fluctuate too badly and you don’t have to eat the changes.

Yeah I guess that could work. It depends how much some of the riders want to have a car behind them the whole way. I still would feel better with two guides. Particularly if one of the guides gets ill or has an issue. We had a guide that broke a spoke in Thailand and he had to go back to the city to get it replaced. Photos look amazing, thanks for posting.

Yes correct. Even though everyone had the map on their head units didn’t mean they could read it. Also the guide in front should know where the dangerous parts of the trail are. Riders are essentially riding the route blind and the group will have varying skill levels. Same for the rear, riders will have quite varied fitness. Having a sweeper at the back is important in case of mechanicals / medical issues etc. Yeah they were supposedly trained in first aid. We didn’t have any incidents apart from fatigue and light heat stroke. Mechanical issues we mostly had to deal with ourselves, particularly with spares. First trip in Thailand was about 40-50km per day for 5 days. It was a mix of tar, gravel and singletrack. The last day was not possible on a gravel bike. MTB only. Ascent about 800-1200m per day. Just bear in mind these places are hot and humid and muddy. Laos was a lot harder, we had two 80km+ days with 2500m of climbing. Both days took the entire day to ride and we finished in the dark. The other 3 days were less hard - around 800m to 1500m and went from 40km to 65km. The roads are in very rough shape but some of us were fine on gravel bikes. The group had a mix of age and fitness and some people really struggled on the harder days. Particularly because they weren’t used to the sustained climbs. This made the days longer as we had to stop at points and wait for them to catch up. The vehicles on both trips took strain and in Thailand we had to have the radiator in one replaced and in Laos our truck ended up bending a rod after a river crossing - so it was knocking all the way. Laos roads were mental!

I’ve done a couple of these style trips in SE Asia. Firstly, it’s a lot of work and planning. You need to know the route and area well and you need to know the local language well too. Small groups are better for everyone. I did a trip with 6 and a trip with 10 and the larger group had more likelihood someone will struggle, get sick, get injured etc. You’ll need at least two guides and a follow vehicle. The follow vehicle is important for emergencies. It’s also great not having to carry your own food and water for an entire day and it allows some to bail if they aren’t up to it. Point-to-point vs stay-in-one-place, that I guess is up to logistics. Booking hotels and guesthouses individually along the way can be difficult and complicated if plans change. The first trip I did in Thailand was very well managed. There were 6 of us, 2 guides and 2 double cab bakkies with drivers - one of the drivers doubled up as a guide to give someone a break. The one had a bike trailer as we didn’t ride from the accommodation every day but started sometimes out of town. There were sections where we didn’t have a follow vehicle as the road / trail wasn’t passable. Thailand is quite well suited for tourists and we weren’t ever in a very remote location. The second trip we did in Laos there were 10 of us. Laos is a lot poorer than Thailand. I think it’s classed as the poorest country in SE Asia. We had two guides and 2 follow vehicles. One was a flatbed truck with racks and the other was a Toyota Quantum. It was also point to point and on one day we had to cut short due to bad roads. The guides weren’t fit enough to keep up with the group, so they would often just ride in the truck behind us. It was an amazing trip but a lot tougher and a lot rougher than Thailand. Long story short - unless you are keen on making money out of this and love people, I’d give it a skip. Particularly a point-to-point option with follow drivers for larger groups. You have to make sure tired, grumpy cyclists are happy after a very hard day on the bike yourself. You have to be super flexible if you need to change plans. You have to be able to help when there are mechanicals and deal with scary medical situations. You will need staff to help with guiding, driving, booking etc. You will need to deal with special dietary requirements. The list is endless. That being said: guiding small groups around a specific area might work. I wouldn’t mind visiting Georgia and checking out those mountains and roads. Sounds beautiful. Send pics!

Looks like it’s back

Yeah seems it's broken for everyone. cc @Nick

Love my Curve. Bought it from Benky last year. Was pretty straightforward and he shipped it straight to me. He was also super helpful in answering my six million questions.

2x MT8 pros from lordgun with shipping

You can get levers from some overseas stores for quite a lot less. Check some of the German and Italian sites. Be wary of shipping via SAPO but sites like r2 have DHL Express option. Local magura agents can go suck a bag of bananas with their markups.

Saddle rails definitely can creak. I have tried fixing my spez power saddle with some epoxy where the rails connect to the saddle. It was driving me crazy. This worked for a few rides but it’s now returned. Try changing your saddle temporarily and see if the creak disappears. If it does, it’s the seat clamp or rails. A good clean should sort out the clamp but the rails I’ll get back to you on…

FYI Magura have a 5 year leak free warranty, so if they are leaking and still under the warranty period you can get them replaced.

The new Peatys is pretty good. They changed the recipe recently. Been using it for about 6 months now on the gravel bikes and it sealed a couple of thorn holes quickly without causing a mess. Enduroseal works well too but I find it dries out a lot quicker than Orangeseal or Peatys. It is way cheaper though and easier to find. Nice thing with Enduroseal is you can just peel it out of the tire in one piece.