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Ready for swartberg100, only doing the half, didn't have much time to train, will be a slog going up swartberg against the gravels but there's a nice downhill at the other side to let it rip a bit😁
I had a carbon hardtail, road bike and a DS. Too much maintenance etc...Kept the road bike, sold the DS and sold the carbon hardtail for tire clearance issues. Tried a gravel bike but its too harsh of a ride and kept dining rims on descends.
Bought a rapide frame and have a 30mm id rapide wheelset and a set of AC wide lightnings, have a fox 32 100mm and a fox 34 120mm forks + a Rigid fork and looking for a lauf.
Most of the time I just run the 100mm fork with race kings front and back, its fast and the steel frame is nice and soft.
For gravel races I just put on the rigid fork with the race kings, for attas and the rough stuff just run the 100mm or the 120mm with some 2.35 tyres.
Its a quick swop, takes a few hours.
The rapide frame is heavy but if you can get a nice carbon frame with good tyre clearance its a good option
12 hours ago, W Smith said:Time for the organisers to consider moving this popular event event to a cooler month.
Stem ja, skuif hom, that atta 2 years back was my last atta because of the heat, my Desember holiday is also so much more relaxed not training for the atta
Got a injury from spez saddles..switched to ergon, problem solved. Ergon sm and smc range is like sitting on sofa
Buy a rapide in the classifieds
I am happy with my Rapide, running a 100mm fork and some race kings on 30id rims, I would say a 120mm fork would be perfect, for my local trails which is short ups and downs with some flow, sometimes you need to sprint to keep some speed where the race kings are nice and light and have enough grip, for the local xco's loops i would just put a 2.35 on front for jumps, drops and some more grip. Coming from a carbon hardtail with a 120mm fork for marathon racing which I don't do anymore, the rapide is much more relaxed and much softer springy ride. No internal cable fiddling, easy to service as I live in Ladismith and have to do everything myself. It's just so much fun and good looking bike which I can just hop on and not worry about chips and cracks and not taking the jump because I might break something... love the thick 800mm bars and short stem....it just works for my do it all bike
Could not help myself...
8
Damascus nougat bars you buy at spar
3
I got some rapide rim brake road wheels, no complaints
If you have money buy some race kings
in the meanwhile just put a few rubber bands around your bottles
Well done boys...sure looked like a hellish ride for sure...I would just cling wrap the **** out of everything...
Rapide.co.za sells big blue rolls different widths for cheap, work great for mtb, 1 layer is enough, the yellow stans rim tape is probably the best overall, specialy if you have very tight road tubeless tyres, 2 layer and its fit and forget, I find the tight road tyres damages other rim tape like the blue rapide tape when the tyre has to be mounted, where the stans yellow tape is stronger, , always clean a rim with spirits before aplying tape and when you pull old tape of use a hair dryer, doesn't leave as much glue on your rims
My 2c
3
Flip sealed just dont work in tubes, the thorn or piece of glass sit in the whole and moves all the time and the hole dont seal. You have better luck with those rim strips between the tyre and tube, would be cheaper as well.
rode the route from caldis to oudtshoorn yesterday, bit loose here and there but the rest is not bad at all, breeze with a mountain bike but gravel bikes will have a bit off a tough day. Weather is perfect if it holds
3 minutes ago, Super Sywurm said:
Looks great thanks for the input from all, Will have basically the same setup, have 2 fox 100m fork which i will use, My current carbon hardtail only have space in the rear for 2.25 tyres and feel bit beat up lately, bit more rubber will be great and the tigre frame is a no brainer and relative cheap compared to replacement carbon frames
thanks!!
MTB weight obsession - unnecessary?
in The Bike Room
Posted
use to ride a 10kg carbon hardtail, me weighing 88kg I still was left behind on the climbs and it never felt planted on descents etc.. sold it and build a steel hardtail more for trails, bike weighing 12.5kg and super comfy, did my first race on it the other day which was 80km with 1700m climbing, thought I was going to be murdered by all the 9kg gravel bikes and the R80k carbon duellies however I never felt out gunned on the climbs, came in 10th out of 110 people and was pleasantly surprised. Dont think the carbon hardtail would have been so much better...however I could barely walk the next day, felt like I had done about 600 squats the previous day