BenGraham

I was wondering what happened to the Spur series so this is helpful to know. He is only starting grade 1 in the new year so I don't know yet. I don't remember seeing MTB on his school sports list but his school is literally a few blocks from the Spruit so it totally makes sense. I will certainly be advocating for mtb to be a school sport if it isn't already.

That would have been perfect. Just had a look now. Will keep an eye on them. Hopefully there are more events like this. Thanks.

So my son who is about to turn 7 has been really enjoying riding single track with me on the Spruit. He has a little competitive streak and recently asked if he can do a race. I honestly would love to make it happen but I don't know what events are available to a 6/7 year old. He does about 8km with me at present. We did Delta recently and he loved the descent. I did need to provide some additional motivational support a few times on the climbs though. He does the Emerentia full anti-clockwise like it's nothing now and has been asking for new trails to ride every time we go. I've started riding to Victory Park with him but his mom worries about crime along that section. I suspect I may have to wait till he's 7 to enter most things. But keen to hear what's on offer for him. Would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks.

If I had such a short stroke I'd also want to avoid drawing too much attention to it.

Glad to know I'm not the only one. Something changed somewhere. I've never had a problem before yesterday.

So it had somehow been added to a list of blocked sites. Which is odd since I explicitly told brave to allow cookies. I even tried logging in with shields down. Weird. But logging out and then removing all references to bikehub cookies as well as deleting all existing cookies and then logging in seems to have fixed it. Thanks for the advice. Seems I was the problem not the site.

So I've discovered that I can't access the forums on the Brave browser. Chrome works but I refuse to use Chrome due to privacy concerns. In Brave I am able to sign in on the front page but as soon as I click through to any other part of the site my nav bar then shows me as needing to login and I am not able to comment on any discussions in the forums since I have to login. So I login and the cycle repeats. I've only tested this on Brave and Chrome as I don't have time for exhaustive tests but this is an issue for me as I do not use Chrome unless I am absolutely forced to. Chromium is great Chrome isn't.

I've never ridden it but I have shot it as a photographer. I think the best part is probably the Northern farms section which is where I got the best pics (but to be fair I haven't seen the whole route). I don't think they go anywhere near the spruit. Northern farms is great but you don't need to do the race to get access to those trails. If you haven't ridden at Northern farms and would like to it's probably a good way to go. IMHO I'd do the JUMA over the 947 MTB (which is exactly what I have done in years prior). But I don't think that will be happening this year. Others could probably tell you more but that's what I know about it. Honestly I'm a little interested but It strikes me as a little too XC gravel grind for my liking. I shy away from races where people consider a bridge technical.

Nah its definitely e-bikers.

I did not know this was a thing. Unfortunately if my financial prospects don't suddenly and dramatically change I'll be missing out this year but I will hopefully make the next one by which time, if all goes according to plan, I'll be arriving by private helicopter.

Hold on. So you guys wash your helmets? I just wait for it to rain on me at some point. Always happens eventually.

You should visit Sabie and Mankele. They have some stuff that looks like this. Honestly Sabie and Mankele are both amazing. I need to go back. You earn your turns though. There are no free lunches on that side of the world.

Something to be aware of with Hennops is it starts out a bit boring. You have about 12km (or was it 16, I can't remember) of generally uphill not particularly interesting xc stuff to get through. But once you get to the good stuff it really is nice. I wouldn't describe is as super demanding but it is really good. I'd take it over Van Gaalens for riding on that side of things tbh. One good thing about it is there is never really any gravel grind stuff. It's pretty much all single track which is quite something when you're used to a few gravel grind road sections to connect the good stuff. I hope Hennops keeps expanding as they have a good thing going and their trail builder/s seem to know what they're doing. I'm still sad that Hakahana seems to have closed down completely as I loved the trails there.

It's literally printed on some rotors. I've seen it with my own eyes.

Would probably help to identify the brakes. Also it's worth noting that you get resin and metallic brake pads and they can have a significant difference on braking performance. Metallic is apparently stronger but you have to have rotors that allow them as metallic pads on rotors designed for resin pads is going to massively increase wear. An important thing to understand is that on a hardtail something like 70% of your brake force is coming from the front so that's where you'll see the most significant gains. I run a 180mm front and a 160mm rear and find this to work well. I would say 203mm is probably excessive outside of DH. That said I recently replaced my ageing brakes and the new ones are better but it's not so much outright power as it is modulation (this matters but it's hard to quantify). They actually felt slightly weaker (or maybe just less apparent bite) at first but I think they're bedding in now and they seem to be getting better. Also a good bleed is important. My brakes were getting very spongy so I bled them (poorly) and that's how I messed up my rear brake and ended up replacing them. A brake bleed is cheap and effective sometimes. And messing it up yourself can be expensive. Anyway these are my thoughts.

I'm just dropping a note to say that the update looks great. Super excited that things are being addressed. I for one have had my share of issues with the old platform but I realise that it takes time to build things so I'm just excited to see the progress. Bikehub represents the kind of website I'd like to see more of and I can even put up with the occasional car ad if it keeps the servers running and the developers paid.

I may have come off a little aggressive. There are events that accept solo riders. It seems most stage races expect teams but even so there are a few that go against that trend. I have decided that I'm just not into multi day stage races right now. One day if I get into it I'm sure I'll find people also looking for team mates. I'd start by asking on the hub and clearly stating your goals so you can see if there is a rider out there with similar aims.

When are we getting wireless brakes?

I ride a single speed mountain bike. Why am I watching this?!

I've never had a Rapide product fail me on quality. Not always the lightest, not much in the way of bling but the designs are always solid. I own a saddle, bars, chainring and single speed tensioner. I always check their site first when I'm looking for something. If they have it they are generally my first choice.

Yeah, the sock is kind of ugly. The bike shop said one size fits all. They were wrong. My bike is big boned. Will be looking into an alternative soon I'm sure.

The countersunk nature of these is a problem. Need something with a flat bottom. Pan head or truss head is what they call them I think. But the ones I have used seem fine for now.

So case closed here. The chain guide from BaGearA was the perfect solution. There were a couple hitches. One was I needed to track down machine screws to install as the originals had been lost. This turned out to be a little tricky because the head size is fairly specific. The ones I had were too tall. The ones I eventually installed are screw head ones and I would have preferred hex ones but whatever they work fine. The other gotcha was my 30T was actually too small for the chain guide to have the desired effect. Its not the fault of the chain guide (which is only rated from 32t up to 38t) I think its just a function of the geometry of the situation. My chain stays are also monstrous so that makes things trickier too. Anyway I eventually figured out that I could use the 32 tooth middle ring from my original 3X group that was just collecting dust in my parts box. I have a 34 as well but even the 32 felt hard so 34 would have been brutal at my current fitness level. The 2 tooth difference definitely made me feel slower but my average speed was actually better. I think I'll get used to it soon enough. Now the actual experience of the ride. Wonderful. The drivetrain was silent and ran super smooth the whole 32km ride that I put in yesterday. Power transfer felt better but that's a hard one to quantify. Generally I'm super pleased. Thought I'd need to buy a 32t nw ring but this setup is so bullet proof I doubt I'll really need to. Will need to take it over rougher terrain than the spruit to be sure though. Overall I'm super pleased and would recommend the setup to anyone with the parts and mounting points to make it happen. Thanks everyone for your advice. And especially to BaGearA for the chain guide itself.

Okay it's official I've bought the csixx chain guide from BaGearA. Hoping it installs without any gotchas. Will post a pic assuming it all goes together smoothly.