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Cool trip this. Must have been a stunning experience! A lot has changed in Canada in the last 20 years. My better half is Canadian. For her the trip was a return to home after 20 years of South Africa. She said she did not recognize the country she grew up in. One of the reasons we left again.

Thanks for the contact. @Johnny82 : could you please the 'right' email addresses with me?

Ok, good to hear. I sent my first query via their support system a week ago and did not receive a response yet. It doesn't feel good to feel so ignored. Maybe Garmin is coming to the CTCT Expo. I will take my 840 have them 'fix it' in front of as many potential customers as possible.

The 8th replacement unit? How can this be so bad? I am confused.

Thanks for the direction. I just came back from Canada. So the 840 is not bought here, and it is out-of-warranty anyway. However I would expect at least the ability to have it repaired. The deal is the same over there. You obviously have to pay something and then get a replacement, just as you describe. Just hope they see the electronics failure in a lenient way. I will try my luck at Sportsmans Warehouse.

I was on the fence between the Karoo and the 840. Now here I am with my choice. Damnit. How is the Karoo in daily live? And most importantly: who is selling and supporting Hammerhead in South Africa?

That is not the issue. The 840 just stops reading all forms of radio - Bluetooth, Ant+ and Wlan. I normally don't even wear my watch while cycling. Only used it to test the sensors, and since they work, I am using the watch as backup. I reckon it could be caused by an small ICB issue that trips the firmware. Hence it can work again after a full reload; until it trips again. But that is just a theory, I don't have the means to analyze this further. This could be done by Garmin but they simply don't respond. Is this how Garmin is in SA? I am somewhat bewildered by that.

I have an interesting and frustrating issue with my 840. Garmin SA seems in no hurry to answer my question or offer any form of support (strange for such a big company?). Maybe somebody came across the same thing - please let me know: The units keeps on loosing contact to my HRM, power meter and phone. I seems like the Bluetooth and Ant+ radio function crashes. The problem persists even after a normal restart. All the sensors however are working. When this happens I usually continue to record the workout with my Fenix. The watch picks up the power meter and HRM immediately. The only way to fix the 840 momentarily seems to be to reset the 840 in a way that the "Connectivity Software" fully reloads. But it does not do this every time I do the '10s power button' reset. I do not know how to trigger the reload of the "Connectivity software" reliably. I could not make it do it the whole of last week and then suddenly it did do a reload and it was good for 2h and then lost connection again. Unfortunately this is making the unit unusable for my training. Btw, I have the latest firmware installed.

Some perspective: We just came back from 3 years in Canada, Ottawa, or the Quebec part of it called Gatineau, specifically. Canada LOVES their rules. And there are plenty of rules about cycling. You gotta go single file. Groups larger than 15 are prohibited. You have to have a light switched on front and back from 1h before sunset to 1h after dawn. Red lights? Stop signs? You better watch those. The cops are everywhere and quick to nab you. Red lights is a few hundred $ and points off your license. Almost anything in this list is 80$ or 120$. Taking the fun out of things a little. And btw, the drivers are just as much of a threat as here. Only the cars are a LOT bigger. And the road are a lot shittier (not kidding). And a contractor's F350 with a 20ft trailer passing you with 80 with 300mm clearance is happening as often as the same with taxis here. If YOU don't watch it you get killed. The driver surely would get fined. But that doesn't help your corpse. Same as here. Compared to the rules and fine craziness we enjoy great freedom here. So, just chill a bit. Ride single file on the road already, it doesn't hurt that much. And that urge to skip red lights? Why? I don't get it. I am not surprised that otherwise normal and reasonable drivers get frustrated... Anyway, flamesuit on. fire away

Mind that this is meant to be an introduction to XCC (XC Short track). It is 10-20min absolutely full gas. The 'Homerun' trail is fast and has some nice forgiving doubles to jump and some loose corners that will take out a rider or two ;). Also, there will be two races to be run, with both results added giving your final score. Could be a fun and interesting day out there!

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...