SCD

Supporting local deserves to be high on the list but this pricing is moving to outer space, wow.

A comment from a different part of the world. Ottawa, Canada. There is no MTB Marathon scene here. At all. XCO is highly competitive, Enduro is quite big, but scary as shit (those trails have real consequences if you make mistakes, and they guys and gals race hard). But they call themselves the Gravel capital of the country. Many ZA Marathon MTB races would run as Gravel races here. Definitely the ones with no or little single track. Following this different \'branding\' poeple ride Gravel bikes and no MTB obviously. You see very few MTB of the type that dominates the ZA market. I am yet to see a single Spez Epic in the wild, let alone a S-Works. But Gravel bikes are everywhere, they even fly past on rocky single tracks....

I read through this discussion, and one thing seems to have gone amiss: sense of humor.... I enjoyed Patrick's mails. They were informative, wacky, rude and blissfully hilarious! Because of you bunch of politically correct citizens the club will have to do the 'right' thing and tell him to stop. Well done. You achieved something today. The world has gotten a bit more correct and a lot more boring. Patrick, keep up the good work. I miss your trails dearly!

In that size range go rigid and focus on spending fun time with the kid. They don't care about the equipment anyway, they just want to spend time with you. And it is better if it is cheap because they love riding through the mud over and over again until all bearings are wrecked ;). For the next sizes up I was quite happy with Momsen's JSL series. 24" and 26". You can find them as 2nd hand bikes too, occasionally. Price is still ok but they at least try to be sensible with weight - use 1x drive trains, tubeless capable rims, hydraulic brakes and air forks. I would omit the fork of the 24" bike - the kids are too light to really make the fork work. They hardly overcome the stiction. Lastly, I made now a really good pick with a 2nd hand 26er Fox Fit4 Factory for my daughters latest build. The damper really works well for her 35kg and the fork is smooth and functional even under ridiculously low air pressure.

I rode many thousand km on XT/SLX and on Level TL/TLM. Both are good if maintained well, and both a **** if not. You not have to bleed your brakes when they start feeling off, so actually should replace your entire brake fluid every now and then. I like better with Sram that you can take them apart easier and clean the internals if needed. You can also get spare parts. Not so for Shimano, which has always been a mystery to me.

Nice move, nice story, nice outcome. This is how we should live with eachother....

Trained for and rode Epic 2017 on cSixx carbon rims. Wheels build by Jaco of Black Sheep Bikes. My Epic partner is still riding them today, more than 20,000km in. Quality stuff!

I used Triptych for the last three bikes. 2 days turn around. All three times. No problems. I can happily recommend them.

Seconded. Good guy, good shop, good service.

The chain ring does not wear your chain. It is worn BY a stretched chain. Chains wear by abrasion between pins and inner chain plates, and abrasion of the inside of the rollers. This will increase the pitch of the chain causing force concentration on few or even just one tooth of the cassette or chainring. This will wear the tooth faces until the pitch of the teeth matches the chain again. If the teeth are hardened steel like high quality cassettes or your steel chainring they are more resilient and wear slower. But they WILL wear towards matching the chain. I personally never wore an alloy chain ring so for me the steel option is not interesting. Curious to hear if there are other benefits?

Simple answer. The supplier has to carry the costs of the shop. His part, his pride, his sale, his risk. Strange that there is an argument?

Similar answer as to the post above. If the cassette accepts a new chain better keep on using new chains. No need to rotate yet.

This is a very expensive strategy. The chain will not start slipping this way until it is too late. The cassette will wear with the chain, just a bit slower. First shifting quality will drop, the chain will do funny things with the jockey wheels, and it will also wear your chainring. Once this chain slips you will need to replace chain, cassette and chainring. Don't do that. Replace your chains when they reach 0.5%.The XX1 chains last >5000km if you clean them regularly and lube them well. Keep those 0.5% chains. Only when the cassette makes a new chain slip, then start rotating the old chains. This will multiply the mileage you get out of cassette and chainring. Much much cheaper running costs.

Update on X01 Eagle cassette: 12,389km. On my third XX1 chain now. This chain has about 1,500km now and no sign of wear. The cassette accepted the new chain without issues. I did a few >800W efforts on all gears to test it and all good. So, I'll carry on

Just choose a gear that runs smoothly and train in ERG mode... obviously you cannot race and shift as needed there... but training in ERG is just fine...