BenGraham

Well done to these guys. Impressive stuff. And good luck for the next one.

Stop it. The marketing departments have lost their minds. 29 made a bit of sense. But fat bikes, who's stupid idea was it to try and sell them in a country without snow, then industry wide adoption of 27.5 clearly a marketing scam, now 279. They've all gone bonkers. Next they'll be telling us to ride unicycles for the ultimate weight advantage.

This is hilarious. As someone who rides a steel frame mountain bike that hovers around 12.5 kilos I can only laugh when I read about a bike that weighs 4.5 kgs. Frankly I'm not sure I'd have the guts to ride such a machine at 30ks an hour never mind 80 to 100. Road bikers are clearly much crazier than mountain bikers. Good luck to them.

But can you get them in 26?

Dude. This tool is amazing.

I had no heard of bikeroutetoaster. I'll definitely be having a look.

Every build day that has come up has been during a very awkward time for me unfortunately. I'm leading a strangely hectic life at present. If the spruit fairies organise a race to raise funds I'll be there. Problem is organising a race is a lot of work. The course design for Juma was actually pretty damn awesome. The guy might not be a mountain biker but i can't fault him on the course. It was a darn sight more interesting than a lot of xc stuff I've seen. Perhaps not all the money goes back into the spruit but its the only event on the spruit at present so we can at least see some of the money going into it. I don't actually think R400 is that absurd since the logistics of this race are a lot worse than some race out in the countryside where its a little bit of single track linked up with long stretches of farm road. I agree that we should support the enduro scene and I'm trying to get out to those races too but realistically at present xc has the market share and can handle the numbers. I wouldn't want to do the enduro event at hakahana with 2500 people breathing down my back.

This is expensive but I'm pretty sure I'll be entering. If nothing else I feel it does the spruit good to have so much maintenance and development for the race. They'd better not dumb it down much (although I'm all for rubber mats and such). I had a great time last year despite standing around for about 2 hours (according to my gps) over the course of the day in various bottlenecks.

R40 a bar. Holy cannelloni. I'll stick to pvm bars. Who knows what's in them but at least I can be sure its not my future financial independence.

This is awesome. Would love to ride one of these.

Well that's a much more helpful image. Always liked the colour of steel. I approve. Not that anyone cares.

Don't worry I'm done discussing this. Nothing more to see her.

Wow. So much for open debate. You do realise that as soon as you make a personal character attack like that you completely invalidate the strength of your argument. Lets all just agree all the time. Won't that be fun. Sometimes I troll, in this case I was simply being frank. I'm also not the only one on the internet who feels this way apparently. http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/why-is-all-bike-stuff-black-and-red I stand by what I said. If you are looking for something unique; red black and white isn't it. You may love it and be very happy and that's great who am I to say otherwise but frankly I wasn't making a personal attack I was making an observation. Also I never said the bike looked rubbish which it doesn't infact it looks great but it still doesn't scream "I'm the only one of my kind". If you attack people for not sharing your opinion you merely stifle the potential for real innovation and creativity at every level and create a boring homogenized culture. And finally yes, I took a moment out of my day to comment on something that was put on a public platform encouraging discourse. Not only that I commented on something that appears to be an advertorial for Mercer bikes. I like the fact that a South African is building these amazing machines. But I also feel far too often the line between advertorial and forum thread is all too murky. TheHub creates trends, its only a matter of time before lots of these are riding around. Thus if I ever hope to own a bike that isn't black red and white I'd better voice my opinion now in this open platform in the hopes that some bike manufacturer notices. Case in point: The vipa custom builds descended into a hilarious circus where the powers on the hub basically pushed the bike as the answer to every possible scenario. The underlying message being that whatever you ride is insufficient. You need to take out a loan and buy a Vipa or your life will never be complete. And guess what that bike was black red and white too. Lets all just remember that culture is driven by opinion. Opinion requires that someone disagrees with you. Unfortunately I read a book in 2007 called Culture Jam which makes me balk at most marketing exercises. I used to take the approach that if I had nothing nice to say I shouldn't say anything. But that resulted in me being railroaded by people who weren't afraid to voice their opinions so lately I've been telling people what I think when I think it. Have a nice day.

Red and black is really passe in the mtb world as far as I can tell. Surely they could have delivered something a little more interesting. All those visual references to come to the same conclusion as so many before. Red, black and white go together well. Grief its like no one who rides a bike has ever heard of colour theory. http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2014/10/learn-the-basics-of-color-theory-to-know-what-looks-good/

Um. Do I have to be the first to point out that none of those fat bikes appear to be on soft snow, that looks like the snow equivalent of hard pack dirt. Pretty sure you could ride that sort of thing with a set of ice tyres like the schwalbe ice spikers and a normal bike. Show me some terrain that actually requires one of those absurd machines and then I'll pay attention. To be fair though I don't know the first thing about fat biking and riding in the snow. It looks like a beautiful place but if I spent all that money getting there I'd be a bit bummed if I didn't at least try and go skiing or snowboarding. *flamesuit on*

Hi guys. I'm going to need new tyres soon. I currently have contis mk2 2.2 front x-king rear. Been very happy with grip but durability seems poor. I have a number of holes in my tread thanks to lugs tearing off. Despite this they seem to still work well. They seem to be a highly regarded tyre but I'm not happy with what I'm seeing. Do I stick with them for my next set or ditch them in favour of something that will last longer. I'm also planning on getting a wider tyre upfront next time for what that's worth. I'm just getting into a bit of enduro and trail riding so that will influence my decision but my bike is a hardtail with a big fork so not really a full sus enduro machine.

Dude. This is one of my favorite live songs cover or not. I tried to listen to the original. It had noting on the live version.

I learned that at Mankele. I found I had to slow down a few times because I had a stitch and I was barely pedaling. I've never had a stitch from xc style stuff. You work the whole time. Its amazing though I'd never experienced such a state of bliss on a mountain bike. It gave me the feeling I've only ever had rock climbing at the edge of my ability. Loved every second of it.

Build it yourself and use a torque wrench. Then you can be sure. Of course how do you prove it. Therein lies the rub. Now you've gotta take pictures of the torque wrench every time you tighten a bolt. Or you could buy a steel frame.

Just for the record. I've not bought forks or rims in the past. This experience is based on my current bike build. I'm not an old hand. But I've even phoned distributors and they tell me straight that they have no intentions of bringing in aftermarket 26er products. They've decided its the end of the line. Fortunately 26 aint dead overseas.

Itchy I see. I totally understand. My new bike is sans wheels at present hanging in the garage. Actually most of the groupset is still sitting in a box at present too so its not going anywhere. But the new rims are in the mail. Dying to just get on the thing. Still a hardtail but in a totally different league to what I currently ride. Looked into the 650b thing. Some stuff to watch out for. Older frames only accept 1/8 inch straight steerers. There are no 650b forks currently available with that standard. They all use the new tappered steerers. With that in mind if the headtube is compatible you may be able to install a special headset that allows a tapered steerer in a non tapered headtube but you'll need to do the research. Also full sus is more questionable than hardtail when it comes to 650b since while the wheels might fit statically when you compress the rear suspension all the way you end up with the tyre rubbing the frame. This is something that there's a lot of discussion around so if someone has tested the frame you're looking at you might get an answer otherwise you need to get a frame in person and collapse the shock by releasing all the air pressure or removing the coil. And finally what everyone is about to say. You are going to struggle to get a decent beefy tyre in due to reduced clearance. All mountain and enduro bikes like broad high volume tyres in the 2.2-2.4 range. Running 650b rims in a 26er frame usually means loosing volume in the tyres ie running like 2.1s or something. And this of course means less rubber on the road so that larger contact patch means basically nill (at best you've changed its shape but it still the same area). Of course freeride and enduro frames have more clearance for bigger tyres inherently so you may still get a reasonable tyre in but this is the risk of conversion. If I were looking now I'd probably just look for a 650b frame not because I think they're better (they're a side step in my opinion, the bike industry tapping into something that forces everyone to buy a shiny new bike either out of fear, ignorance or pride) but because no one will sell me 26er rims of forks anymore. Its bloody annoying. I'm a live and let live kind of guy and it irritates me that the big bike industry players have declared the premature extension of a wheel size that works just fine for me and one that I'm fairly invested in. Riders didn't turn 650b into a political debate Giant, Trek, Pinkbike and others did.

My vote is for reitvlei. The spruit is still very much a city route with the road crossings and dogs and such. Northernfarms requires a great deal of pedaling to get to the cool stuff (which is amazing actually). At least from what I've seen. At reitvlei you can experience a great piece of single track within 11 short kms. If I'd started at northern farms it probably would have been a struggle and the spruit is just not really that scenic with more jeep track than I'd like. If I was trying to get someone hooked reitvlei is where I'd take them and frankly if they don't have a good time there then maybe they should be a road cyclist. Nothing wrong with that; honestly the single track there is non threatening but still lots of fun. Just stay off the proper blue.

This thread couldn't have come at a better time. Currently building my bike and have quite a few new bits to put on this weekend. Very exciting. Just ordered a torque wrench to be safe though but alas its not reversible. Any way around this for tightening BB cups? Maybe someone knows of a clever trick. I think I'll probably torque the non reverse thread side and get a feel for it and then apply the same feel on the reverse side. Hopefully that'll get me close enough. I bought the cheapest torque wrench I could find. Yes some may say you should buy one that will last blah blah but its still a hell of a lot more expensive than no torque wrench which was my original intention.

Oh and before I get painted the noob I realise that A) 80th is actually pretty rubbish and B) a fancy bike probably makes a huge difference. I just believe in using something to its limits before upgrading. And also that description of the various styles was very informative.

Hey Jester. Don't ever let someone tell you your bike isn't capable enough. Okay perhaps if you're trying to get into proper DH or Trials. But if you want to fly down stuff in the most irresponsible way possible my suggestion is to pick a reliable bike ie not carbon (since you might be afraid to crash and that's not conducive to learning) and maybe stay away from super light rims for the same reasons. So like perhaps an entry level scott or something like mine and take the ride it till it breaks approach; and break it will, I'm on my third rear axle, fourth rear derailleur and second front. Hey if you're on the hub you probably already have that bike. I pitched up at this year's Mankele avalanche in lycra (I wear it cause its cheap okay) with a 100mm steep head angle hardtail with cantilever brakes and I still managed to beat out 26 other people. Came 80th in a field of 106. All of those people had bikes worth at minimum twice what mine was worth and most were probably considered all mountain ready and I was the only fool running cantilever brakes. I reckon half the battle is in your head. Owning the right bike for the job has little to do with being able to ride a trail at least semi acceptably (ie without dying or walking the whole way) and at the end of the day if you're just dipping your toe in you aren't trying to win anything anyway. Ride the bike you have till you scare yourself so bad you feel the need for something new. If I tuck my head on fast smooth downhills now and I can hear my fork creaking - when I first heard it I was a little freaked out but I figure its so heavy at worst it'll seize I doubt its going to fail catastrophically. But hey if you've got the money go wild and get a Giant trance 650B or something stick a dropper post on and smile all the way down the hill. But don't let not having that bike be an excuse for not trying something that looks awesome.