Jewbacca

I have no idea why South Africans are so against racing laps. Pretty much all social bike racing in most other countries comprises of laps. XCO. CX, Crits.... even world road champs and some of the classics are laps. The Champs Elysees is laps. It makes for really exciting racing, it's awesome for spectators, better for sponsor banners and way easier logistics for everyone. We are one of the only countries where XCM stretches out forever and our road events close entire cities for more than half a day. (slight hyperbole before anyone jumps on that) Laps are the future of sustainable racing and if you get over it, super exciting Durban isn't very pretty anyway, so looking at the same pile of litter and derelict house with tons of flapping laundry a few times vs different piles of litter and derelict houses with tons of flapping laundry isn't going to change the racing. 😜

I came here to make the same comment/question! A double rainbow stripe win at a monument...... Did the curse disappear with the peleton hierarchy?

I don't think there are enough numbers at these to have a Cat4 65km in Cat3 should be doable and if you get dropped it's not far to roll home.

No Cat4 if you click the link. There is a table with the categories, start times and distances

I may come and ride 65km in CAT3 Likely to be dropped though a week after doing Swartberg on my BMX!

Yoh.... I won't lie, that section between Suzuki South and Maynard Mall has scared the hell out of me for years. I worked near there for a while and expected death every other day I went to work. That was 15 plus years ago. I won't even drive there, let alone ride or walk. A buddy of mine got mugged and stabbed right outside the Wynberg Courts.

Ah ok, that makes sense then. I reckon a silver sub4 at Oceans is tougher than a silver at Comrades. The atmosphere at IM PE is awesome. You will love it!

In my very humble opinion, if you want to smash Iron Man, a 4:30 is too fast. I'd suggest running Oceans at any speed is probably going to be detrimental, but coming from me it's incredibly hypocritical! hahaha There is no bill rowan or half medal at Oceans, so anything i'd soak up the fun and keep fatigue as low as possible. Get to Iron Man without fatigue in your legs. Any sort of 'effort' past 35km will result in some residual fatigue the following weekend. You will probably have to sacrifice one to excel at one, or just enjoy both, but one will effect the other if they are only a week apart. I'm jealous right now..... I'd love to have that double header on the calendar!

That's helluva harsh To win you need to finish. He finished, the others didn't Let the man celebrate his victory.

I think the first bus is a 4:30. It might have changed, but I don't recall anything faster from the past. What time are you aiming for? Silver sub4?

I'm with the 50 to 75 minute interval or structured session on the trainer group I can't sit longer than that. In the junk weather I will run or surf or smash a ride inside a good weather window if possible, but the two short sessions with structure plus other non threshold training keeps me pretty able in Winter The cold is the cold. You dress up to get down. The feeling of surging cold that makes your nipples feel like they are about to pop when you drop from little chappies into Noordhoek valley is a reminder how awesome it is to be alive!

Dunno... My MIPS helmets all have holes that align with the other holes.... But it is weird/interesting to see how certain things are perceived by different people. I am not actively against anything, even if it doesn't do entirely what it says, it isn't LESS safe than any other sort of benchmark, so if it's within the price bracket all the added wizz nizz is a bonus. Oval chain rings are the same. I really couldn't care if it adds 0% or 3% or whatever, the chainring feels good, it's comfortable to ride and it retains my chain. So I lose nothing and 'May' gain something. (I don't use oval chainrings as a preference, it is an example)

Use BikeHub pay Seriously, It's so easy. There really is no reason to be scammed on BikeHub when selling anything of any va;lue anymore

I have one of those built into my tire lever It's also different if you're racing vs riding. Aint nobody got time to deal with valve caps when you're looking for formula 1 pitt stop efficiency. I saw the 18 second Buff Megamo wheel fix. They would spend at least 7 minutes looking for the valve cap that would inevitably be in a pocket or under a stone they had checked 34 times

Who uses valve caps? I'm more likely to make fun of someone WITH valve caps these days

If you're going to spend that money, just buy this? https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/item/dual-suspension-bikes/655473/2021-commencal-clash-24 As I said, I got to a point where scraping grams vs ease of build became a battle that wasn't worth fighting. A proper groupset with short reach (the cassette is the big gram saver here) along with the hubs and good cockpit. Tubeless tires in their various forms can save you 400g too. The Vee tyre Snap are pretty readily available here and work brilliantly. The rest is just a hack and will land up taking loads of time, efford and cash for almost no real gain. I build all my own wheels and have done all my own carbon work and rebuilding, but it's still been costly. I would also really recommend a light weight Alu bar and stem over carbon. Kids tend to fall a lot and also tend to be less precious about how they lean it/lie it down. A good set of alu bars and stem will weigh roughly the same and offer peace of mind in terms of damage and longevity.

George ..... If I had to pick a small coastal town with affordable housing, great riding and very good surrounds, I would choose George. Gravel passes and mountains just in land, Vic Bay right there, other good waves not far away. Amazing riding trails and riding community. Hiking and running trails a plenty as well. IMHO, as someone who lives in Muizenberg in the Cape Town and is not an overzealous local selling their own town, George has everything, even good health care and hospitals.

Your rebound might also be set super fast, OR there is too much air in the negative air bladder. If the rebound isn't set too fast and your sag is set at 25-30% ish, then you will need to balance the air chambers again. It's easy. You deflate the fork and manually pull and push the fork lowers until you hear a little high pitched 'weeeeep' like a tummy sound before you fart. Then pump it back up and re check the sag etc as it will behave differently. Hard tires are also a thing, but usually distinguishable from the fork. Good luck. Don't be afraid to play with the settings of your suspension. If it's as bad as you say it is, you won't make it worse.

What air pressure are you running? How much do you weigh? Sag set? Rebound setting? I have never ridden a harsh Pike.

You're welcome to borrow my wheel trueing stand if you go all in. You'll need to rebuild the wheels anyway. Good luck. It's a deep dive, but a lot of the 'upgrading' is just fluff. Once the kids are on 26 inch bikes it's probably worth investing. My boy is probably going to ride 20" bikes for a long time. I am in my 40s and still ride 20" bikes daily...... Bigger wheels isn't always better because it's easier for us. Stay smaller longer IMHO

Down to a T is generous. I have had to deal with a LOT of hurdles and it's been time consuming. I hard tail will definitely be easier From my experience, the rims make little to no weight difference at this size. Hubs will save you loads of weight. Just use straight gauge spokes. The kids aren't heavy enough to flex the wheels and weight penalty is nil. There is also the reality that things weigh what they weigh. I have a Momsen 20" kids bike. The frame and fork are carbon and weigh absolutely nothing. I've kitted it out with light 145mm cranks, a tiny sawn off seatpost, light cockpit and proper Hope Pro4 hubs laced to Spank spoon rims and tubeless tires. The whole bike weighs in at 7.2kg ish. I cannot see a reasonable, working bicycle weighing less than that unless it's SS with only a back brake.

I searched pretty hard. 28 and 32 hole rims are about all you will get that are decent. https://thebikedads.com/ This site is handy and links quite a few sites which we can import from. The only other thing I could suggest is contacting the Commencal importers and the Titan and Silverback importers. The Commencal kids bikes have Spank Spoon rims which are strong and light and tubeless. The others are rebranded or branded Alex rims, which are less good but honestly, the kids weigh so little they aren't going to be burping tires and struggling with ballooning on corners After a good few years of playing with this, I've realised not to overthink kids bikes for kids. Get some small hand short reach hydraulic brake levers, a small hand short reach shifter, a very responsive fork that can run at super low pressures without wallowing and let them rip

If you really want a project, Cut, sleeve, bond and wrap an existing bike...... I'm finishing off a 20" carbon full suss with 107mm travel and 120mm fork Made from a modified XL trek front triangle and a modded Transition rear end. I'm going to ride it hard to check that it's safe.

I'm both cheap and practical on this matter. I have a Spez Align 2 for the road and general riding and a Bell with removeable chin guard for when I shred the gnar. Both have pretty good safety ratings. One was 'cheap' at R1000 and one was not, costing closer to 4000zar. I have unfortunately needed my helmet to work pretty well on both the road and multiple times on the mountain. The road helmet hit and slid and the various MTB lids had some substantial cracks, lacerations and punctures. I obviously posses no natural talent whatsoever. When I replace the helmets, I will likely not buy the full face option again. I no longer shred the gnar and prefer to take a whole lot less risks these days, sticking to trails up to and equal to the Tokai DH/Cobra and Iron Monkey type thing NOT going full gas. I will probably buy a spez ambush or other well rated MTB trail helmet that exxtends over the back of my noggin and wear the gum guard/retainer/shock plate I'm getting after my dental surgery next month. As I have become 'good' at falling, I find the back of my helmet gets abused when I 'tuck and roll'. As to cleaning....... I have never cleaned a helmet in my life. I like the sickly sweet and sour odour of old sweat, new sweat, blood and adrenaline wafting off my head, filling my nostrils with nostalgia, stoke and amp.....

I've been down the road looking for 20 and 24 inch tubeless wheels. Anything 'good' you will need to import at a premium. You won't find a whole lot on the local market. 24 hole isn't going to save you much weight for the effort it will take to find. A good set of lightweight RELIABLE hubs laced to the rims you can find will be a huge weight loss already. Look at the crankset (I cut down 2 different cranksets to 145) as a lot of kids bikes come with pretty pathetic square taper BB/cranks which weigh a ton. The groupset and brakes are next. As an aside, skills and focussing on fun and learning are probably better motivators for a kid at that stage of bikes. I'm not going to tell you how to parent, but racing at that sort of stage in life shouldn't come with added pressure and expectation. It IS, however, a really cool project if you have the time and the knowledge to do it yourself. I did all this for me and my bikes, but that will eventually filter down to my son when he gets big enough to ride all the tiny, full specced bikes I've built.