johanpre44

Open up your Shimano MT15 hubs and check the cups (inside the hub), if they are OK continue using them (will save you plenty cash). The trick with Cup and Cone hubs is to tighten them with a little bit of play that the QR skewers then take up when "closed". I'm a bit hard on hubs (95kg rider) and trashed the cups by neglecting maintenance on the rear hub, a rebuild would have cost me at least R800 using a similar cheap Shimano hub and new spokes. I ended up buying a new wheel-set for R1900 (found a very good deal on a set of 26" Fulcrums 5). Nothing wrong with getting another set of wheels with nice hubs (like Hope's or others with cartridge bearings), but if you are still on 26" wheels keep an eye out for deals on new wheel-sets.

Decided to test out my new toy today (Garmin Edge 500) and when it picked up a course automatically (which I loaded last night) I decided to follow it. Was a nice ride, but learned that going over Northcliff from Fairlands on a 1x8 (34 and 11-32) is really not that easy (respect to everyone doing similar climbs without a granny gear).

Don't forget about the Crown Race which you need to remove from old fork and install on new one. They can be tricky to get off if its not the "split" type, but flat screwdriver and some patience should work. Installing it may also be a bit of a hassle but a hammer, some wooden blocks (or right sized pipe) and some more patience is required. Pipe cutter is by far the easiest to shorten the steerer. You can easily pull the star nut into the steerer with a long thread nut and washer (search youtube for some videos)

Silverback Sola2? They should be very similar in price to the Merida Big 9 500. What about the Momsens? The AL329/AL429 comes with a set of ZTR Rapid Rims which will make a tubeless conversion childsplay. The difference between these models is SRAM(AL329) and Shimano(AL429). Both these should be in a similar price bracket as the other bikes you have mentioned. Ever been to Cyclists Workshop (At Nicolas Plants on Northumberland next to Northgate)? Joshua gave me a brilliant deal on a Silverback Sola 4 and a Momsen STR29 frame.

Great service!

Think I will have it checked out by my LBS, just hope nothing has gone wrong.

I know someone who successfully swapped the stanchions on a 29er brain fork (which had a way too short carbon steerer) with the stanchions from a 26er Reba. Let me know if you want his contact details, pretty sure he will know if this can also be done on Fox forks (he owns an LBS). I agree with Skylark, the stanchion/steerer part of the forks for different wheel sizes are probably the same with only the lowers that are a bit longer (by 40mm max comparing 26 and 29 inch wheels)

Less is more! I recently changed my 3x8 to 1x8 and love the simplicity. To my surprise I found that I can still climb the hills, kind of you use what you have! Don't think I will be hitting any amazing top end speed with this setup, but if I work on increasing my climbing speed it may just average out.

Went from 3x8 on 26 inch wheels to 2x10 on 29 inch wheels. The easiest gear in both cases is the same (in terms of distance traveled per pedal stroke), but on the 2x10 setup I loose only the very last/hardest gear compared to the 3x8. For mountain biking I think the 2x10 setup is ideal (maybe even 2x9), but for road it may not be (in which case 28-42 chain rings will be much better than 24-38). If you had a 3x10 setup on a 29er, switching to 2x10 will probably give you a very big handicap because you loose several and not just one gear when it comes to the last/hardest gears. Do you spend a lot of time on tar?

I have recently built a new bike with a Suntour Epicon 29er fork. I have done a couple of rides on this bike (about 150km in total). On the last couple of rides I have noticed oil on the damper/right side stanchion. Its not a lot of oil but the dust seems wet (only partially, not all the way around). There is also a visible drop on the stanchion. The fork is still working brilliantly and I have not yet bottomed it out but the travel have probably work up to about 90% on several occasions. Do any of you hubbers think this is a problem? Note that the bike is stored upright, but I have had it upside down on some occasions when I worked on it, but this is a couple of hours max.

Why split the front triangle of a frame? Cool engineering but I don't get it...

I have just built a 29er with 2x10 (24/38 and 11-36) as a 2nd bike. My other bike is a 26er running 3x8. Reason for 2x10 on the 29er is purely to have a bailout gear (I do struggle up some steep hills), I must say that I spend a lot of time on the big ring and hardly ever use the small ring. What was interesting is that the 2x10 on the 29er gives me very similar ratios as the 26er on the granny end, only losing a little out on the fast end (ratios was calculated in terms of distance travelled per pedal stroke to account for the bigger wheels). Think I will stick to 2x10 on my 29er for a while. Plan for the 26er is to eventually become an SS, but since I have some of the parts (Hope 34t Single Ring), I decided to have some fun and replace the 3 rings in front with this, so its running 1x8 (11-32 casette). To my surprise this is great, even with the reduced gearing! My conclusion on front rings is that the shifting there is very in-efficient (especially on 3 rings). You also learn very quickly to push harder when less gears is available. Simplicity rocks! The only thing I'm wondering is when Shimano will trickle down the new XTR 1x(10/11) set-up to the SLX level of components (especially with the 40t cog). Not to knock the Sram 1x11 setup, I think its great, just very expensive (have to add the price for the different free-hub body, or new wheels if your stock wheels cannot accommodate the cassette).

Activity Monitor? Heart rate Monitor? It really depends on what you want to do. I have been using my Suunto Quest as a day-to-day watch. The strap is now breaking after 18 months which is probably not a bad lifetime for the strap, but I suspect if I did not use it as a day-to-day watch that it would have lasted forever. The battery lasted for about 9 months, but I did use the HR regularly (probably clocked about 150 hours worth of monitoring on it). Have you looked at the Garmin Fenix2? I would prefer the Ambit2 (looks better), but the Fenix2 is a bit cheaper and have some really nice features like Bluetooth and ANT+ (meaning that you can connect it to your phone to upload workouts and also use all the current ANT+ Sensors). It also includes a fabric/velcro strap. Note that the Ambit3 will be released some time soon, they have changed this model to use Bluetooth only (no more ANT+).

What's the size of the rotor at the front? Looks massive (like 203mm). It may just be me, running 160 front and back. Nice ride!

I'm a heavy rider (95kg) and due to lack of maintenance (by a week) I kind of broke my rear Shimano cup-and-cone hub. Started looking around for getting it fixed but the rebuild (using original cheap Alex rim and new spokes) would have cost me about R800. Decided to go wheel shopping and found a set of brand new Fulcrum Red Metal 5 wheels for R1900. The biggest gain for me is that the cartridge bearing wheels are just so much less maintenance. The axles are a lot stiffer (I also bent the Shimano axles/QRs epsecially on the rear wheel). The weight on the wheels are about the same (60g lighter on the rear wheel). Another plus was how easy the Fulcrums convert to tubeless.

I started cycling after being inactive for about 10 years, 5 months later I participated in the 94.7 cycle challenge and completed it in 5 hours. I really struggled for the first couple of months to get up hills (had to stop a lot), but eventually I could ride them without stopping. I weighed about 108kg and dropped down to 96kg in 5 months. Doing a very big race is maybe not the best thing, your immune system takes a huge knock (took me a couple of weeks to recover from the 94.7). But to keep motivation up I suggest that you find some riding buddies and enter events (even though just shorter/flatter ones to start out with, I agree GrantRH in his 2nd post a lot!). In a couple of months you should be able to complete a 40km flattish MTB event in 3 hours. Regular short rides help a lot, maybe try and do a couple of short 1 hour rides until you get fit. If work allows do 2 in the week and another 2 over the weekend (4 hours over a week is a lot of good exercise). I have heard that the Modderfontein reserve is a lot of MTB fun (I usually go to Northern Farms). During the week and most weekends I just to trails around my home (which involves a lot of tar). Have fun and keep the tires side down!

Depends on the Frame and crankset. Most frames takes the Band Clamp (clamp that goes around the seat tube) unless if the frame has a direct mount point on the frame (2 types of direct mount). What Frame do you have? If its a band clamp, the top/bottom clamp depends on if it will interfere with the bottle cages mounts. This you will only figure out when have already fitted the crankset to see if this will happen or not. Does the cable come from the top or bottom of the derailleur? In some cases the derailleur allow only for a cable pulling from the top. If you have some pics of the frame and crankset we may be able to help better.

Funny comment about the dancing shoes! Now I will never be able to separate cycling and tap-dancing...

Suunto Ant+ USB dongle should work, DC Rainmaker had a review on it a while back. They are around R400, should be able to find one since its used with all the Suunto HR watches like M5/Quest (excluding Ambit).

Anyone know who did the photo's? See the results have been out since yesterday on Spectrum Sports website.

Got my wife a Silverback Sola 4 a couple of months ago and she is really impressed with it (compared to her old 26er with v-brakes). I expect she will be happy with the bike for years to come, luckily she is not very competitive. The 8 speed drive train is very dependable and cheap to maintain, but I think the jump between the biggest two cogs is a bit big (jumps from 26 to 34 where 28 to 32 is a lot better, but the 34 is needed for the bigger wheels). The front chain rings is a bit of a mission to clean properly because they cannot be removed from the crank arm. If you are looking at something with a bit of a better drivetrain the Sola 3 is a very good option (solving the above issues) but its price is at least R1800 more (but this buys a better 9 speed drive train and fork). You should be able to get the bike for a good price like the Titan.

Would like to see some different angles on this bike. Seems like the belt drive is completely "outside" the frame. Nice!

60km is not easy, but not too hard. Was a good challenge, well organized. Think I'm in for next year, weather today was good!

Wow! Are those wooden rims?

Riser bars are "shaped" rather different to flats. I recently bought a riser, 740mm wide, 8 degree back sweep, 20mm rise and 4 degree up sweep. A comparable flat bar just have the 8 degree back sweep. I think with the rise I may be able to tune the feel quite a bit compared to the flat, but it may look silly with an inverted (negative) stem to try and compensate for the 29ers higher front end. I'm pretty sure that most 26ers have rise bars simply to raise the lower front end.. Think I will be more comfortable in a more upright than racy position (not worrying about the silly look for now). The Momsen up/down rise bar is brilliant, kind of a flat but it gives you that bit more flexibility without the silly look. There are also some bars with an extreme sweep angle (like the On-one Mary Bar), a friend had something similar on his bike and loved them (apparently a much more natural position).