Jewbacca

Get hold of Pieter Rossow in Paarl to build you a DH/Enduro bike upright rack? https://www.instagram.com/p/Cry3Pc1I5nQ/?ref=srmma1jpt_miv

Hey Cole, I think I have spokes and nipples too Give me a shout

I will check the climb portal out tomorrow. I made my Zwift/trainer return this morning for thew first time since COVID My butt hurt!

I get that. There is a place for premium products because we are taught to believe we need them. There are often cheap options that do the same or similar job. It's the whole 'luxury vs necessity' which, if you grow up on a certain side of the tracks, is quite different to those whose necessity is a luxury. I wouldn't pay 3000zar for a cycling jersey. Mostly because I don't have to as I have 2 tops I made that are tried and tested in far more telling conditions than I get on any day in Cape Town. I'm part of the 'it's an unnecessary market that rich/wealthy/image people feel is necessary. Much like overweight, only semi fit people buying aero wheels and light things chasing marginal gains. The industry and society has sold them something they don't need, but want because they are told they want it and believe that it's better. Diamonds? Gold? Camps Bay? All absolutely unnecessary but all lusted after because society, pecking order, status and luxury

Then why on earth did you suggest the Tigre would make a good 'Gravel oriented' bike? It won't.

I'm still confused by the Merino wool being less sustainable/eco than fabric extruded from crude oil. Animals grow fur, fur is cut, animals grow more fur.... vs the crude oil process. The 'fake' fabric is also not extruded/mercerized or woven in SA, so it involves long sea journeys too. Or am I missing something? I am simple. @LazyTrailRider back to your comment about people riding in rubbish kit, I made 2 x full zip short sleeve cycle/sportsing jerseys out of blanket fleece. It cost me 3 hours, some pattern/sewing skills, 25zar for a zip and 200zar for fabric. These have kept me warm for Freedom challenge, Multiple adventure races in the wet, snow, altitude, snow etc.... The fabric is so junk and fake it retains almost no moisture and does an ok job blocking out the wind. I made them 11 years ago and they are still going strong. Sometimes cheap and junk does work.

Agreed. The 'new' green jersey is classy and rad, but it sucks for TV and spectator purposes. It's not a good change IMHO purely from a visual stand out point of view

I know I definitely used my terms firmly with tongue in cheek! hahaha

Extruded from crude oil mostly....... Then spun and mercerized. Not sure Synthetic fabrics are the answer to a 'green' alternative. Shawn sheep/goats wool, flax and cotton are probably 'better' but then as mentioned, you have people offended by farming practices, so really, we should all wear self harvested leaves from wildly grown vines

The Geo of the bike and the fact that it will be relatively heavy definitely don't make it a good 'marathon' bike. It's likely not going to be super responsive and a bit of a pig to accelerate. This is where Geo is king in buying a bike. There was a new gen Niner SIR9 steel frame in the classifieds. I bet if you swapped out the Tigre frame with that you would have a winner. I have a ROS9 and had a SIR9 as well. Both are steel frames, one is for trails, one is for racing. I kept the trail bike as it's more fun and I've quit racing

I've been throwing various hardtails down those trails for a very long time. It is a lot of fun. Admittedly I ride a lot less than I used to, but these days, my only MTB is a steel hardtail having sold everything else. Anyone who tells you it can't do most trails quickly needs to work on their skills

Huh? The geo/frame is designed and built around being a rowdy hardtail for shredding the gnar. It's incredibly versatile but honestly, with a 140mm fork it is the very epitome of a hardcore hardtail designed for going down hill. Long, low, slack steel frames are banging bikes for SA trail centres, especially the Western Cape

Yoh.... this stage has been nuts! Jonas is flying

Scott bikes are made in Taiwan? Do you have any real world experience on how they hold up or do you just love nay saying? Titan bikes are designed in SA and manufactured elsewhere, much like almost all other bike brands. I know guys that have absolutely shredded their Momsen GP300, Titan Switches and Rooks. Every thread asking about Titan or Signal you just shout it down. Who hurt you? Why do you always have to be negative about these bike brands? I'm genuinely interested in the answer. It's like clockwork, every time a thread pops up mentioning the SA brands you pop up saying 'None of these!' Or some such. OP, the truth is, bikes these days are all pretty similar in a similar price bracket. I would look for Hydro brakes and tubeless ready rims as a basic. The rest will come down to whether you want it for going fast or going comfortable. I'm sure you could get a carbon frame Titan Switch for 25k ish. There are a few decent bikes in the classifieds under budget too with Tubeless tires and hydro groupset.

That final 3km was difficult to watch! Fast, twisty, aggressive and nervy First 'flat' day goes to the in form, top of the pops big man!

So was M-net open time. Living in the past doesn't yield solutions 💋

Sjoe.... 2 explosive days to start the race. I have thoroughly enjoyed this more than the usual ITT prologue and flat stage roll out. Cav might need to win Tomorrow or Tuesday as his current form shows he might struggle to make the time cuts on stages 5 and 6........

The first line specifies 'Manufactured in SA', hence my questioning it.

Is CORSE still in business? I haven't seen anything new from them in a really long time. I'd be weary of a discontinued hub. Any replacement parts will be difficult to come by

Pretty sure almost none of the Rapide catalogue is manufactured in SA. It's a comprehensive catalogue but I'd hazard a guess it's imported to order

This is always a topic for the keyboard experts to be more right. I am short, but at 1.75 I prefer small bikes. I hate feeling strung out and hate having issues with stand over height. Some people love riding bikes way to big for them. I've seen guys the same height as me riding Larges. While the 'experts' will tell you bigger is more stable and have a skew of reasons, the truth is it comes down to feel. What FEELS best for you. I love tiny bikes. Real human size bikes do not look or feel nice to me. But I am certainly not going to tell those riding on the wrong size bike that is way too big for them they are wrong if they like how it feels. So, OP, test some barn doors, test some normal size bikes. Spend some time trying things out, even if it's in the car park of the bike shop. The bike should always feel 'good' when you get on it and little tweaks make it 'perfect'. It should never feel awkward with the 'I can fix that with a longer/shorter part'. Odds are you can make it less awkward, but it will still be far from good. Take your time buying, if you're stretching a budget it's already a big enough layout to get 'as close to perfect' as possible, even if it takes a few weeks

Things probably not available that would be 'made in SA' Groupset including brakes Saddle Dropper Grips Pedals C-Sixx, South Wheels and Pyga would probably cover almost everything else. I'm not 100% sure the small batch carbon stuff like bars are made locally though It seems an unnecessarily expensive, complex problem, but if you can afford it, quite a fun one I guess. I'd definitely support Lyne for the miscellaneous missing bits like a dropper and grips, then just apply common sense with the groupo and pedals. Enjoy, good luck and post pictures

YES! It would also be pretty cool if that dude from Bahrain Merida wins stage 1.... Bilbao wins in Bilbao!

Pretty sure the goal will be to win some stages and try to get Pidcock in Yellow at some point. I mean, stage one looks all set for a Pidcock/WvA, MvdP, Jalla show down. All could do with a win and A day or three in Yellow. Danny Martinez is probably the GC 'hopeful' but I'm guessing, by the make up of the team, they will be shooting for non GC goals this year.

The thing is, rim brakes failed/had issues too. These guys push their bikes to the limits and hundreds of them are/have descended thousands and thousands of big mountain passes successfully. Sometimes unsuccessfully. Speeds are getting faster, times are getting quicker and pretty much the whole pro peleton is riding disc brakes successfully. I'll go back to it over and over, if they sucked, people who only care about winning wouldn't use them