SCD

Believe it or not but our entry went through! Paid, done and dusted! See you there!

I have a 32t Raceface and a 36t Rapide. The profile of the wide tooth requires quite a fat slab of aluminium as base material. Raceface put in some effort to slim out the aluminium body of the ring where possible while Rapide just cut out the teeth and then left it. The difference in weight by this is quite remarkable. Your current design proposal is looking more like the more solid Rapide approach. I think it would make sense to apply some of the Raceface profiling. Other than that: great idea!

Where did you order the XT 16t cogs? I would love to have one too!

Thanks man! We signed up on the morning when it opened to the public. But was sold out already before we made our move...

Sitting at a hopeless position on the waiting list of the Race. So I am looking for a individual or team substitution. Please PM or SMS to 0836808998

53km of awesomeness! A mother of a climb to warm up and stretch the field and tecci single track to die for. The rain was a no-issue really. Just that one puddle that was as deep as a lake... Never pedaled through water right up to the top tube!!!! Sorry Rydogg that the bomb didn't do it...

I recently had a set of M785 XT Brakes sent to Shimano for servicing because one lever piston got stuck and the calliper itself was leaking oil. It came back with a note: "brake is too old you need to buy a new one, but: Sorry no stock." Enquiries did not trigger a further response. After research and help and explanation from elsewhere I learned that the XT brakes are actually not meant to be serviced. There are no seal kits available for the lever nor the calliper. While I truely love these brakes I am left flabbergasted. So it is "enjoy it while it lasts" and then chuck them in the bin? This is just a pity. Maybe this comment will get us some more comment from Shimano than the enquiries via the LBS, maybe not... However I thought you guys should know this...

I am riding a Giant XTC 29er hardtail at the moment. Don't mind the other small jump or technical section like the Conterman's mast singletrack down but avoid stuff like HK's Widowmaker.

So here it is: Two bikes, awesome reviews for each of them. The Niner a XC machine with good trail abilities and the Pyga a trail machine with surprisingly good XC capabilities. The frame price is not very different (R19k <> R22k). The Niner will be 1kg lighter. But the Pyga is robust, local and the green just looks rad! I ride Table Mountain and Durbanville trails and hit as many XC races as fit into the calender. Ok, let's see what you got! :-) (I know its Friday and I am already wearing a flame proof suit...;-))

Roneblack46 I see you are using a SRAM deraillor. I have a similar setup with XT Shadow+ but I am not entirely happy yet with the shifting in the lower gears. The 42-36-32-28 are butter smooth but below that it is not very crispy. How is your experience with your setup?

Was riding 1x10 on 32t and 11-36 for a while now. The only limitation that I found was that you are forced to go really hard on the steep climbs (low cadence and high power) and this wasted too much energy in 50+km races (for me). So now I added a 42t Wolftooth (thanks Janos @Evo!) in the back and ditched the 17t and 15t and added an old 16t I found. The latter is easing out the big shifting gap hat may be an issue for some. Did my first ride on Table Mountain this morning and was wondering why I actually did this because I never used the 42t...but jokes aside it is a perfect bail out gear if you need to catch a breath on a steep climb or hit something like the MF series that is simply not doable for me on 32-36. Technically: The shifting from 36 to 42 works amazingly buttery with the XT Shadow+ (med cage). Well done Wolftooth! Only thing is that the shifting in the lower gears of the cassette has lost a lot of crispiness because of the big offset between jockey wheel and sprockets, the downside of the extreme derailler setting to clear the 42t. But I am still playing with the settings. In this context I am very curious if someone has experience with the X9 Type 2 derailler in such a setup? Overall I am completely sold to 1x10. Would go for X01 if there wasn't the silly cost of replacing chains and cassettes every few months. So until this changes I will keep on tinkering ;-)

Various Maxxis Crossmark LUST and IKON EXO with Stans since 3500km... Hundreds of punctures and not a single flat... And no other issues either...just my 2c

My humble contribution. Newbie rider, 1 year, 4000km in the saddle, a dozen races. I commute to work and ride Table Mountain once or twice a week. Alu Hardtail. I switched from 2x10 XT to 1x10XT several months ago. 32t Raceface + 11-36 XT cassette. Love it. Tough on TM, but you shape up to it. The toughest climbs make you cry but not fail. Limitations on the commute: 32-11 spins out at 40+. Just rode the Argus MTB 55km. Climbs were ok, no issue. Generally faster than the pack. No issues on the flats in this race. Going forward: 42t conversion at the back and 34t in the front to up the max speed. Hoping for Evobikes Shimano WT 42t to arrive soon. Winning factor: simplicity. Big time. My conclusion: it is the way the go for me and does not need to be expensive. Cheers SCD

Bought slicks at the Cycle Expo last year. Was R100 a pop for 26ers. They worked well and did what they needed to do for that day. Intend to do the same for my 29ers this year. Tubes with slime or Stan's should deal with the punctures.

Hi there, I just had my trusted hardtail stolen at the Grabow Country Club. Parked inside the gated area when the bike was nicked of the rack in broad daylight. It was the following spec Momsen RaceTec2 Alu frame, black frame with the red and white decals of the 2012 or 2013 "129" model. Size L Full XT Group incl. XT brakes. Raceface NW 1x10 conversion. 32t. Fulcrum Red Power XL 29 Wheels with Maxxis Ikon 2.2 tyres White Rockshox Reba RLT Fizik Gobi saddle. Cockpit and post is basic FSA alu stuff Spez ergo gribs Note that the photo is a bit outdated. It still shows the 2x10 XT chainrings and the crossmark tyre. This upspec'ed 129er Momsen will definately be a rare sight. Please let me know here or on 0836808998 if you see it anywhere on the trails or for sale. Cheers Sebastian

Hi Jaco Hi Jaco, thanks for your thoughts. I know that the 11spd and 10spd SRAM deraillors are very different and I also know that SRAM and Shimano deraillors and shifters cannot be mixed. Question (4) in this context adds some confusion. (4) is a standalone question asking about anybody's experience with a home-made 42t cassette (ie General Lee or One-up conversions) and the XT Shadow Plus deraillor. To the best of my knowledge no 10spd (no Shimano and no SRAM) deraillor is officially suitable for 42t but it is used as such anyway. Back the main topic. Can I run the X01 deraillor with a 10x SRAM shifter on a 10x cassette? The shifter is responsible for the positioning of the deraillor. This is done by a ratchet based mechanism pulling the cable and the deraillor responding with a defined movement. The indexing is dialled in to correspond to the sprocket spacing. So do the X0 and X01 deraillor have the same pull ratio? Discussions in other forums seem not to find a conclusion on this. SRAM uses "Equal Actuation" (EA) for X0 and "X-Actuation" for X01. They describe EA really well, especially the 1:1 pull ratio part. The information to XA is really thin, nothing is said to the pull ratios. Bottom line: if X01 also uses a 1:1 pull ratio then it should work. Anybody played with this yet?

Hi guys, Since some time I am looking into the options for a 1x10 conversion and settled for going for the ONEUP 42t on my XT cassette. I would need to buy a new clutch deraillor as well. I think I read most of the XX1 and 1x10 pages and one issue seems to be either accepted or left unresolved: the non-XX1 deraillors are not meant to work with the 42t sprockets. When adjusted to clear the 42t sprocket the offset of the jockey wheel to the other sprockets is quite large and not ideal, leading to a drop in shifting performance. I know that the X01 or XX1 deraillors are supposingly not compatible to any 10spd system but: (if this has been answered elsewhere I missed it. Please forgive me I this case and throw in your experience/knowledge anyway). 1) is a 11spd cassette not the same total width as a 10spd cassette? With a smaller incremental spacing between the sprockets? 2) are the 10spd and 11spd shifters and grip shifters not very similar, just with a different increment on the shifting ratchet mechanism? But actuating the same length of cable over the full range? 3) if 1 and 2 is true then the X01 deraillor should work with a 10spd shifter on a 10spd cassette? 4) Since some of you are already riding 1x10 with various adaptations of 41t or 42t conversions how does the XT Shadow Plus deraillor perform? Now I wouldn't trust any SRAM documentation on the answer to these questions. The only way to find out would be to try it out. Anybody out there tried this? I know that there is the option to just stick to combinations like 34t/36t front with the 36t at the back and toughen up, but this topic should more focus on the technical issue than rider strength. Cheers S

Hi Johan, I was reading this thread on the search for an answer to my creaking wheel. After an elimination process I am 95% sure that it is the rear wheel. The noise is only under pedal load, independent on which pedal is loaded, only under chain tension (so most likely not the BB, external XT Shell), and mostly only a few minutes into the ride. So I suspect the hub bearings. The wheel is a Fulcrum Red Power 29XL. There was a little bit of play between axle and wheel. Took all apart and found the bearings looking intact with no play. The hub bearing on the freewheel side felt a bit gritty, just a bit. The other three felt silky smooth. Greased and reassembled, ... and the noise is still there. So the magic question: Which of the Fulcrum wheels are the ones with the expensive non-standard bearings? Hope not the Red Power 29 XL.....

Looking for a lift from Knysna towards Wilderness after the race. Willing to through in same cash. Anybody have some space?

Is there progress on your import project?

I was thinking about this but then I pictured 1000+ blokes queuing.... This will make the quickest pickup a mission... Maybe I am wrong. How was is last year?

Thanks! Sounds straight forward!

Guys, Do you know if it will be possible that one of our group is doing the registration on behalf of the whole group and picks up race numbers and packs? What would he need next to the print of the RaceTec letter and chip?

Has this Jacket launched yet? Do you have a weblink?