DownhillGuru

To all Greonkloof regulars. Say hi to "Monty" the new resident training partner. He will be particularly helpful with your sprint training

See you later!

Well done Wes, You achieved your goal! Now time to set the next one hey! Hows the diet / Weight loss coming on? (or off)? Congratulations

.....and I live right next door to Hazeldean! Ok. This is not cool. It would be in both your and Single Track's best interest to communicate. You're obviously peeved at their response to the issue. It would appear that they're trying to get off lightly. I'm looking forward to their comments. VT-2 Don't back down brother. I don't think that a waiver (which may appear on their wall somewhere) will cut it if you go the legal route. In my opinion you should have laid a charge of theft whether you were going to claim from your insurance or not! Singletrack - do the right thing here and correct this situation! Did they really have the 'sorry, it's not our problem' attitude? Unbelievable! Guys! Communicate, communicate. Sooner rather than later! Steve

[ Stewie, it was a brilliant place for okes and their bikes. It is near the Ngwena Village at the extreme Western end of Beyers Naude drive in the sticks. It was the brainchild of abrasive/misunderstood Geoff the Aussie. He transformed the crappest piece of land in the world into a fantastic place to ride. It is a large plot overgrown (but I mean overgrown) with bluegums, blackjacks, stink-apple and other obnoxious plants, through which he carved many kilometers of twisting track. It has drop-offs, bridges, scary rails, crazy bridges over a sewage dam (I kid you not) and a long hard uphill. It was great fun. The most fun to be had was to watch Geoff throw smokers off the property with a flurry of swearwords. Walking on the little patch of lawn was a crime too, but I loved the place. Geoff then went on to greater things and built the MTN Bike park. And to think that I wheelied my bike out of the 'shop' / office onto the grass patch! He must have been spitting snakes! Oh well, what you don't know can't hurt you

Lets not forget the sponsors!!! A big thanks to Giant and the guys at Dragon Sports for sponsoring Glenn's Hardtail Frame as well as his entrance fee to the Freedom Challenge!!!! Also to Grant (Hope) for you assistance.

I picked up a front wheel in Groenkloof a few months back. Posted it on the hub but unfortunately no one ever claimed it. Sad, the oke or chick would have had to buy a new wheel and it's lying in my garage gathering dust.

Thanks! Excluding the wheels and chair (saddle) the cost was R430.00 (powder coating) and the anodizing was free! (the monkeys never charged me). Wheels: NS Bikes Hubs where around R850.00 Halo hoops plus spokes and nipples and wheel build came to R 1500.00 and that's about it. Oh and it also cost me one hell of a lot in lost riding time! I'm sure Father Christmas will still bring my assistant his presents

Rolling Chassis

Had to clean out a number of threads Progress pic with one seriously untidy workbench. There is a partially build bike in the somewhere!!

I bought a new set of hubs (NS bikes) as well as a set of Halo Combat rims and had my mate Daryll build up the wheels with straight gauge Stainless Steel spokes and red anodized nips. He also gave me a set of Continental Diesel 2.5 tires. Now I have a set of seriously strong (read heavy)! wheels.

DownhillGuru2009-12-07 08:14:58

Yeeha!! I'm finally back! Unfortunately the project stood for a while due to work pressures. So, as you know I've been agonising over the painting / anodizing of the frame. All the new parts I ordered arrived ages ago from CRC and Once I eventually decided what to do regarding the painting, the project was revived! I wanted to create a brushed Alu look simmilar to what was on my (ex) Cannondale. Originally I assumed that it was polished and brushed with a wire brush then clear coated. Not the case! Then I tried to have it anodized in a satin / clear anodize. I cannot describe the dissapointment when I went to collect the frame. There were specs of the old Maroon colour showing everywhere. Then my mate who does the vinyll cutting suggested that I do a camo effect. He gave me off cuts of vinyll which I stuck onto the frame in random odd shaped pieces was going to then spay the frame grey, add more vinyll pieces and spay again in charcoal. Once all the vinyll was removed it would have given a nice Bare alu, grey and charcoal camo effect. The problem was that I should have rather used 'masking vinyll' instead of regular vinyll. This was pointed out to me by Nico (painter) when I took the frame back to him stuck full of random bits of vinyll. I had to pull it all off and sit wiping away the sticky residue with a rag and benzine. By the way, I eventually found out that the shiny alu look I wanted is achieved by doing a process called Phosbrite which is simmilar to anodizing but very toxic, which might explain why I couldn't find anybody who could do it for me. So by now I'm gatvol! I want this bike back together and I'm tired of pretending that my GT Chucker is actually not that bad as a trail bike (Ja right)!! So it's off to JG Powdercoaters with my 3 pieces of frame. So I asked for a charcoal powdercoating. "with sparkle?" they asked, "Yes ok but just a little, sparkle" I said. A week later I made some bull$!t excuse about seeing a customer in Boksburg and went to collect the frame. When I first saw it I must admit that I was worried about the "sparkle". It's going to look like a girls special from Makro I thought. But now that it's together I'm really chuffed, over the moon actually!! I would insert a picture here but the F#@!&% hub tells me that I have insuficient permission!!

Why do I have to live in Cowteng?

Good advice from Daxiet.

Ok but do they come in Blue?

I've ordered 2 meters in RED. Just hope that 2m is enough for both brakes.

Why not have your existing components anodized? I'm seeing the coaters who are doing anodizing for me tomorrow so will find out if there is an orange available. Otherwise powder coating?

P.S How much weight you saving?

Yes Weight Weenie. You must cut back the plastic coating. I've also ordered Goodridge hoses from crc and should have them in the next few days. I'm running avid but they use the same bolt fitting as your xt's ie. no crimped fittings. If you don't come right I'm sure we can work it out.