droo

Hard cases are great for road bikes but are generally too heavy for anything but the lightest of MTBs. That 23kg single bag limit comes up quickly. Unless you're willing to go through the expense and admin of overweight baggage, the bag is the way.

Recces. 3 or 4 of them should be enough.

Desertcart is an import site. Shop there and you deserve what you get. Ask your LBS. Sometimes the interwebs are not the answer.

As far as I can work out the only reason for that thing's existence is to make sure the crank is properly positioned on the spindle. Once the pinch bolts are tightened it serves no purpose at all - it's definitely not going to stop the crank falling off if the pinch bolts fail.

Even me. OP - sounds to me like it's cosmetic damage on the outside of the rim from being sandblasted on a rack on dirt roads. If it bothers him, you can get a quote from an anodiser to strip and reanodise, but you'll be paying for a rebuild as well and you'll need to make sure the anodiser knows what he's doing. New rim would be the safer and easier option, and probably wouldn't be that much more expensive.

You seriously overestimate the mechanical sympathy of some bike riders. I'm going with a chain that's too long, B screw adjustment, or a combination. Bent hanger would cause shifting issues on half the cassette long before it broke anything.

Fixed

Also been pretty happy with 95% of what I've bought on here, and the other 5% hasn't been worth losing sleep over considering what I paid for it. As far as making functional - if the stanchions are shot, don't bother. You'll spend more than it's worth getting it to 50%. Stolen - in that condition I doubt it, probably more an "I know a guy who can do it cheaper" job that the guy's now trying to claw back some lost cash on.

Price seems accurate for what you got, description is definitely fiction. I'd be a bit annoyed, but for 400 bucks I'd not be expecting much more than scrap metal (although I do see more forks on an average day than most). Chalk it up to school fees, rate the seller accordingly and know that your "investment" has saved someone else from this pile of excrement. Spending more money on returning it with no guarantee you'll get refunded seems like a poor use of R 100. Rather spend that on a beer with a mate.

A wet noodle would probably work better.

As a general rule, reducing travel is easy. Extending not so much, especially with 32s.

Great, but no local support anymore. My current headlight is one of theirs. Ticks all the boxes - Gopro mount, compact, decent beam, bright, and blinky. Works for riding in the dark as well, although above about 40km/h you're guessing where you're going.

Varia at the top of the list, but if you're not up for a R 4k light the Blackburn Dayblazer 65 is another good option. 65lm is well bright enough to be seen in daylight on flashing mode, and it's got a less aggressive mode for early morning bunch rides so your mates can still see where they're going. Front light - anything over about 500lm with a flash and decent side spread on the beam will do. Bonus points if it's got a Gopro mount so you can fit it under your GPS. The front needs to be brighter because white light is less visible in daylight than red.

If it's dropping at the bottom you need to teach the sprog not to back pedal through rough stuff. Clutch and NW will help but not cure that issue, and a chain guide will only help if it hods the chain on properly at the top so it can remount or if it's got a lower guide as well.

RD doesn't have a clutch, no NW chain ring or extra tension will save you. 2 options - first is a chain guide, second is a 10sp Shimano Linkglide drivetrain upgrade which you can transplant to the next bike if you like.

If you have to ask, take it to a pro. Not the skill (although there's that too) so much as the special tools you'll need. Taking shortcuts will land that shock in the bin pretty quick. As for custom stuff - many people that can do it for you, but it'll cost you more than the whole bike is worth.

The newer Thule ones have sorted the spacing issue out. Took them longer than it should have, but here we are. Good points for the rest though.

Gen 1 is a rebranded 9.8 Fall Line. Avoid unless you like sourcing parts from archives. Gen 2 is a TranzX post. Same as a V2 Lyne.

I can make that happen for you if you like...

Morne beat me to it. We've got medium and large in stock. He'll confirm, you'll be more than half-and-half once you've sen one of these.

It's relevant to the Kama Sutra mural as well...

So now, instead of fixing what you have, you'd rather dig some old vrot unserviceable thing out of the archives of history, spend money on it, find out you can't get service kits for it, and end up back where you started but slightly poorer. Every machine in the world needs servicing at some point. Service the thing you've got and be done. Life is already hard, don't make it harder than it needs to be.

Nope, the dam is full. There will be much swimming involved. Even when it's empty you're not allowed on it except on foot, it's a nature reserve and there's no road. People have tried and either been nicked by Sanparks or got properly stuck in the mud and then nicked.

If you can convince him to fetch you in PA this isn't a terrible idea...

If you're up for an extra 25km of roughish pass in each direction, Gamkapoort Dam is at the bottom of Bosluiskloof off the top of Seweweekspoort. If rustic is your thing there are cottages at the dam wall (with the bonus of an interesting old geezer who's lived there for 25 years), for more premium accommodation there's another spot about 5km closer. Otherwise there are a few places to stay in Seweweekspoort itself, but I haven't stayed at any of them so can't give a review.