kennyg

I would go with the Shimano shoe, great range and gave me good service, I went through a specialized shoe in 8 months, carbon sole and all. I am now in Sidi, and have been for a year and love the flexible toe box, and the stiff centre sole.

Hey I am an Engineer, specialized in Manufacturing, mainly plastic,composite and ferrous metals. The only thing you need to do is prove your seat post was in far enough. The weld HAZ( heat affected zone), is where the failure happened, this is actually a failure in the annealling process post welding. Not enough time to remove the internal stresses generated by the weld. The crack can be presenting as fatigue, to an untrained eye, because it does have the shape characteristics of a fatigue failure but specific point of origin typical of fatigue. Either way this is a manufacturing failure... if you need more insight, I am happy to help.

I think they should take the elite( all licensed riders, top age groupers) out, start them first... Then let every one else stand in the starting chute. Block off small groups of 20-50 riders and let them go in 1 minute intervals. The amount of riders in the group can be worked out by the distance in kiometers( or hundreds of metres) to the first single track/ bottle neck. e.g first single track 6km, 6000m, random 60 riders, all go over start/finish mats.Time taken, give position. The current Nissan start batches of 250, or so are too big. Passing is now part of MTB racing, the brave/stupid/fast are rewarded. Chicken runs can be added, but marshalling will always be an issue with so many riders.

not so much... We had a tow bar fail, with a bike rack on... R5k, bike rack, 3 x R50k... bikes... insurance companies dream. Total weight, ~40 kg. Basically, we were covered but the 'Approved`installer, got a great bill for a R7k towbar. It bolied down to low tensile strength bolts being used, for the main bar to body connection and some faitgue.We had pulled a boat for the a long trip the week before and imagine if it had failed there... probably cheaper... but still. The 80 kg and 100kg loads are generally for the castings themselves, and we all assume the mounting hardware and every thing else is capable of the loads.

I have a rim set of 32 h, tubular ready 29er rims. For R7k, I can get a complete Wheel set 105 Kg weight limit, 1600g. The 7k includes tyres. I run them on my SS, and they have been great. There is a significant weight saving when looking at the wheel system as a whole, Rims plus Tubular tyres, for a entire wheel set is nearly 800g. For XC racing I have two option tyres and both are a good combination of strength and weight, rode the Nissan series on them. I have a carbon wheel set that goes for nearly 20k, but weight savings is nearly 1.2kg, not really worth it.

I have been playing around with a few options 1x1 has been great...tough but good fun and adds some extension to the training. The 11-36, 10 speed cassette is great for 90% of the applications, especially when paired with a 32/34 front ring.You cant climb super steep, or ride the flats super fast. The 2 x10, has been a good general setup with enough top end gearing when added to a 29er in 26/39 front ring orientation. It covers you for 98% of the situations you find yourself in on a bike, for gearing requirements. I am very keen to move to 1 x 11, chucking a shifter and a cable and a derailure away sounds like great news. Just cost is a major demotivator at the moment.

they have adjusted the course, its a lot easier, no concrete climb, or decent... so a goo beginners race..

I have had great service from my 3 dales... Only had a small issue with a first generation Scalpal, it was sorted within a day. I also broke: A giant NRS - cracked rear triangle A specialized ALu stumpjumper HT, down tube A mongoose Canaan - Down tube The spec and the Giant were extremely difficult to deal with. I am an Engineer, worked in the motor industry, we did some engine testing to failure( Over rev, Electrical failures, contamination), crash testing and to comfort you all, all major brands failed at similar points. Looking at all the brands, the UCI has great sense in the weight limit for racing as there are a few material fundamentals that we don't have the technology to deal with currently. Yes, the brands on the lighter side are taking a slightly higher risk when using material and design assumptions to make their latest equipment. We can argue tried and tested, vs computer modelled and FEA refined, and if people weren't willing to take those chances, we would all still be walking everywhere.

My gut says scratch but if you send a more zoomed pic... I would like to have a look,

What colour is the rest of the frame? Is there any white? Is it the had tube area?

I have to giggle, i have 2 degrees and a couple diplomas. i refuse to grow up. i wear shorts to work, my staff dress better than i do and are far more brand concious than myself.I got my stats for the first time in2012, and was told my race ratio was wrong. i said to the auditor we are all african, accept it and #%&* off. our rating is no different , i actually have more points than in the past, so wtf. i am a 9nth generation south african through one side of the family.

Multi-tool(with chain breaker on muddy rides), heavy duty sealant( 100ml), duct tape, cable ties, self adhesive patches. 3 x bombs, adapter, 2 x quick links. That for racing, road or MTB, all in a roll up in my pocket. Triathlon, sealant and 2 x bombs with adapter. All taped to seat tube,

I have been on tubbies for 13000 km on mtb and Road. Have only been let down once. Tubbies need to be managed very differently, I do carry a spare tubbie on long road rides,used ( twice). The heavy duty sealant does a great job, even at 6 bar plus. It will blow out at 8 bar. The cheap tubbies are asking for trouble, 80 TPI casings and a whisper of tread. The 200TPI casings offere a great puncture protection and good feel under 7 bar. MTB, the weight benefits are obvious nearly 300g per tyre, puncture resistance on rocky stuff is good due to high TPI counts, a cut side wall doesnt stop you due to the internal tube, the worst i had was to force a quick gator into the tyre body as the tube started to push out the side wall a little. If a tubby is glued, its a 30 second change, to get to the end of a ride, tape- you need to be super human to rip it off at that rate. Rim wise, I have shattered a proto-type mtb carbon, at 250g for a 29er, was sort of expected. The alu rims I run on MTB are great, stiff and cheap and just on 320g. Tubbies and glue under extreme braking does make for an interesting combination, but I havent found any hills in SA to match the Apline monsters that have caused that. With disc brakes going to the road, the scope for improvement on the tubby is far greater that a clincher, ito weight reduction, but I dont see it as a critical factor given the new age deep section rims.

monster every time, getting tired of dirt-roadie events.

I rode and bricked NF both days, didnt hear or see anything this weekend.

Well, I have a story... We had just moved house about 5 years ago, the wife decided, we needed some company and we became cat owners, I had grown up with cats and have never worried about it. We had Kitty Kat, for 8 months. She then disappeared, she wondered a little and was spayed, we thought she had run away. 11 months later while we were on holiday the house sitter phones in a panick and says she cant get rid of this cat, eventually a neighbour MMS's a pic, it was her.Although, it was Kitty Kat, who is now Vet Kat,had decided to come home...

Looking at those figures they look about right... The control of the fork is really done by adjusting the damping ratios, this helps provide apparent stiffness and since you are not increasing air pressure the element that you missing is time. The time differences may be extremely small and almost unmeasurable but the issue you need to take note of is the %. You may find a pure lock out is one of the only measurable effects of a system like this. The various settings may only have a 40 % difference across the three settings from a design point. You seem to be measuring between 11% front and 9% rear. In raw travel, which is the delta across the travel range as the spring is using absorbing energy differently based on the damper energy requirements in the various modes, the times to return to sag position, will probably make up for the rest of the difference. Just for reference, I ride a rigid 95% of the time and race on a hard tail. I have dabbled with a few dual sus bikes and duals but cant get around the slouchy feeling, its great for comfort.

I am 73kg, great setup... ride them on my rigid SS, they flex plenty, so a good comfy ride... I would look at arches or something similar if you do a lot of rocky riding and need to take the odd hit. Nothing worse than walking in a marathon.

I ride a 2.0 tyre... its rolls very quickly and is great in Sand, mud and hard pack. I do miss the volume on the rocky rocky stuff of the 2.2, but its that much worse. It teaches a little HTFU...

there is very little structurally wrong with that...its a surface scuff that i doubt will lead to failure in the long term. This is going to fall under the wear a tear portion of an assessment. I had a fair bit of composite experience, and in that area shear is maximised and you into the thicker area of the lay up, so ride it. As for the fix, two white thick cable ties, as preventative, otherwise, an extremely thin alu, plate, epoxied over the frame arm, will look pretty and work a treat, but you will need to DIY.

I run my own powder coating, the hardest part is stripping and rebuilding... I can also offer carbon tubbies for MTB... at R17k ish, with tyres, complete rims with DT swiss 240 hubs, complete wheels with tyres at 2.4kg, nearly 700g saving on your best clinchers. I also have ALU tubbies, I have rim only at R650 in black, tyres at R1088. They come in at 2.8kg, and roll really well, and are 32 hole, budget for spokes of your choice, or I can supply fully built, takes 3 weeks.

thats now a ball crusher... I would replace...

i had a set of crest where the was a flattening of the bead holder that meant no tyre could stay on the rim... The first time it happened was at 2.8 bar too, and I needed new pants, as I had just started walking away and the tyre slipped off with a bang.

running crests on my lefty hub for 2 years, 7500 km... not an issue... maintenance is just about keeping the boot in good order and the filter clean,a little extra grease every so often is also useful.

Front Triangle... the easy part.... Now the rear...if you need some help let me know. Its brave and will be awesome when it comes right. How are you doing the gussets?