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you right. but its a sad day when you go for a morning ride and get mugged or shot. i think we are way way past the point of it being a sad day.

Today I saw this backpack that doubles as a bulletproof vest in 2 seconds (see the short video clip) A MTB friendly version of this is something I'd buy but it may be heavy........... https://www.masada-armour.com/bullet-proof-backpack

this happens with sneakers and shoes. i use clear bostik glue gently squeeze in the gap mould and let dry overnight. in the morning use a black permanent marker to colour over the glue. let dry. no one will know its a home repair and it works to prevent further delamination.

Just to add - I had the Lenser XEO 19R a mean light- with 2 CREE LEDs, sold it recently. I found a German test which gave an honest review of it. The max output as stated by Lenser is 2000 lumens which is accurate given that each LED cannot push much more than 1000 lumens. the review found that on boost the light pushed a real output of 1700 lumens. Which is good and close to 2000, but it cannot sustain that due to the heat buildup, no light can unless it has amazing cooling. The light then dropped to 1,000 lumens on high- and after a while settled at 700 real lumens. Most lights will follow the same pattern- and this was an expensive light R3000+. The Extreme lights that many people use are thus good options, their service is good and their batteries are good so the runtimes are long (I have nothing to do with Extreme lights, just saying).

Hi as stated this light won't push 3,000 lumens not ever. The battery pack is 4400 mah pushing 2 of these LEDs- thus each one is driven at 2200 mah so the theoretical max output is around 761 lumens for each LED. That is with a fully charged battery and optimal conditions and assuming the light cools well. Thus your max output for the light in theory is 1,522 lumens (half of 3,000). But you will get less on the trail and especially after the power drops from 100%. This light has no power option of constant current vs dropping from 100% to prolong max battery life. The power will drop from 100% from switch on and after heating up. See this- http://www.light-test.info/en/faq-en/171-cree-xm-l-1000-chinese-lumens You may get around 1,000 real lumens at best for a while on the trail. Then you decide if that is worth the money. You mentioned EXTREME Lights- https://www.extremelights.co.za/collections/bicycle-lights/products/endurance-bicycle-light-1 For 2k here you get honest lumens- 3 of the CREEs pushing around 700 lumens each on max (boost) for a total of 2,100 lumens. Running them comfortably on 250 lumens each for a total of 750 lumens on high... gives you 10 hours of light. Based on this your twin eyes light after a while will give you a real 500 lumens output figure... a far cry from their ridiculous claim of 3,000 lying lumens. Extreme Lights are honest at least with their runtimes etc. It is a Chinese light yes but better quality than the twin eyes you are looking at for 1.2k- I'd buy the Extreme lights one but that is just me. Good luck.

Okay point taken. I should have said Cape Town is the 15th most violent city in the world. Doesn't reassure me much however at all. Do have a look at this however- https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/best-and-worst/#most-stressed-out-countries South Africa is the 2nd most STRESSED country in the world (2nd only to Nigeria). This is based on the homicide rate, gdp per capita, income inequality, corruption score, unemployment rate, pollution, and life expetancy. This is a good indicator yeah?

thing is they can attack a cyclist for his : watch wallet cellphone, etc not only the bike. it is criminal theft and sadly so violent. you not gonna stop it- south africa is one of the most dangerous places on earth to live.

you said it. the way this country is going there is a way to stop it- and only 1 way that would work- a group of say 5 cycle, and are all armed, and well trained. if 2 guys with guns ambush them those 2 are shot dead on the spot. this will work. it wont be implemented for many many reasons, but it will work. but yeh it wont happen and these attacks will continue. it is too easy for 3 guys 2 armed with guns to hide and ambush cyclists. if pure robbery or desperation was the motive then why shoot him in the BACK (like callous savage hate filled vicious cowards) after they had outnumbered him 3-1 and they were armed and he wasnt? take the bike and leave. they shot him to murder him. or- did they shoot him to murder him in the BACK first? and then take the bike. either way its way past the point of "i have a weapon gimme what you have" which is how robbery works in say canada. it has moved into the realm of pure evil where you are assassinated for a material thing.

crazed resident you could find and lock up. robbery you likely won't find them. what a f....d up country.

I had the same thing. A ding in my rear Rapide rim last year. I gently wrapped a wrench in a towel and bent it out very slowly and carefully. Which left a smaller ding. Has been fine since including on some hectic Drakensberg trails. The key is the rim tape- to seal it properly. I suggest as others said, to take it to your LBS or one of the awesome wheel builders on here. My LBS built up the ding on the inside of the rim a bit, to get the rim tape to seal. My wheel runs true and holds sealant. I did insert a CSIXX Foamo into this rear wheel to help prevent this again when running low pressures on tubeless. You may want to look at an insert, depending on the riding you do.

Gumtree...hmmm. Tina Manata...hmmm. "apparently at.." ....hmmm. "faith in humanity...." ...in South Africa in 2018...hmm. "I'll trust him....."........hmmmm. "he promised ......."..........hmmmmm. see the problem..? sorry you had this experience dude. wait for funds to reflect then send the goods next time.

I didn't want an XD Driver, so I put on the Sunrace 11-50 cassette..... with Sram NX derailleur... and a 34 oval upfront. The Shifter I put on is Sram GX. Took some tinkering at home to get the shifting right, but now it works well. It is my first time with Sram and I am happy, but kinda feel that next time I may go back to Shimano....

wow thanks beautiful awesome vid! amazing skills..........

yeah. 2 LEDs doesn't heat up incredibly. the machining is superb not much plastic so heat dissipation is good. it is well engineered. you can run it in run down mode so it dims from the start to preserve battery time, that way it won't be as hot as constant current.

not fun. i was cycling at Modders at night on the Green on my own feeling safe and fun and heading back on the long way out by the fence and my light died. dark is dark and moonlight does not help much. it sucks. i saw a faint light ahead and thought this is it i am being bike jacked. got my knife ready as it was either back into the big reserve and it was cold and dark- or out. i headed out and the light was the torch of a security guard on a bike. 2 lights only way to go.

I like torches and lights Just bought the Blackburn 1600 lumens new light which has a spot melting into a wide beam, will test on the handlebars soon enough. Has a useful meter in % terms re how many minutes you have left of light time. You can also programme the light to go into eco mode ie runs down high to low, or in constant current mode where it stays as bright as possible and then dies. It also remembers your last light setting when turned on. Battery and LEDs in one, a quality item. I have used many of the Chinese lights (Extreme Lights are made in China as are most of the lights including Lenser which I have also used) and you get good ones and crap ones. Extreme Lights are good Chinese lights they have sourced their lights well. These lights like the Marvel ones and Speedmaster etc all seem to have the same core setup: Cree XPG LEDs or the better Cree XLM LEDs. The Lenser XEO 19R that I had and the Blackburn I have now have 2 of the Cree XLM LEDs which are great. They push around a max of 1,000 Lumens each and it depends on the ambient temp and air flow cooling environment too. The Speedmaster with the 4 XPGs for example which I had were good but not as good as the better ones that cost more. It also heated up incredibly and dropped brightness quickly too due to the heat. I have also used Ryder lights which died on me and I threw them out. I have come to realise with lights and anything MTBing related, to buy the best you can afford at the time. I'd be happy with the products from Extreme Lights but currently prefer the setup of battery and light in one, like my Blackburn and like the Exposure lights. I use this on my Bar and then a smaller lighter spot torch on my helmet as backup and for shining light where I look. The one LED spot lights like the Extreme Lights Core light and the older Zartek spots are good, better quality beam and colour light than the R400 spots one can get out there. I have used these , but I didn't like them for MTBing though, better for road riding. Remember- in my experience, if you have more than 2 LEDs it heats up quick and is hot to the touch and eats battery power generally quite quickly. And if it says 10,000 lumens it probably isn't. Even reputable makers like Lezyne inflate Lumens. Go here- http://wetestlights.com/ for very interesting runtime testing and beam angle figures if you like stats and stuff.......... There are significant differences in beam shape and colour that can help you in making out that pothole on the trail at night and avoiding it, or riding straight into it. One thing - always take a back up light or have 2 on bar and helmet, I have come short where I took one light and thought it has been charged but was not charged up..

thanks Dave...good tips..I tried this today with new rim tape and your tire tip helped tho' I still needed one tire lever for a final push- I then managed to inspect the rim tape at that point and the lever had made a tiny hole in the tape but not in the middle so I put a short piece of fresh tape over that. It then wouldn't seat with a floor pump so I used 1 bomb and it seated. I then let the CO2 out and put sealant in, pumped up and all perfect. It is amazing what a difference the rim tape installation makes and how careful you need to be.

i may need to redo the rim tape......

rear wheel UPDATE : SO i did the rear wheel which has a Foamo inside. I got the tire off with a tire lever and cleaned up then put new rim tape and... the Foamo actually makes it hard to get the tire back on.. it keeps the beads apart thats how its designed.. was a battle including using a heater fan to warm up the sidewall and then it went on. It pumped up and began to seat.. then air and sealant decided to exit via the valve stem and spokes... 1 layer of rim tape aint the same as 2 layers of gorilla tape anymore.. I didnt feel like battling the sidewall again so I had a gym workout of furiously pumping and adding more sealant until eventually it began to seal and seat. the LBS is definitely easier.. but there is satisfaction in getting it done right yourself

UPDATE: thanks to the tips for getting the bead in the middle of the rim... i managed to insert a tire lever (a crowbar one) under the bead after folding the top of the tire and pulling it to the centre of the rim and a bit of soapy water helped. so yeah i did have too much tape on the rim.. i had 2 layers of gorilla tape which i removed and replaced with 1 layer of rim tape. gorilla leaves a white sticky residue that is a pain to get off, another reason not to use it if you ever want to put new rim tape on. i managed to get the tire back on without any tools just a bit of soapy water, i guess the bead stretches with use on the trail. i then pulled the bead out towards the edges of the rim and it pumped right up with a normal pump and sealed with a pop. then i let the air out and added Joe's sealant through the valve core and it pumped up fine again. this was last night and it is holding air fine this morning. the middle of the rim tip REALLY helped, as did not using multiples layers of thick tape on the rim. if i want i can now carry a spare tube on the trail as with some effort i should be able to get the tire off, insert the tube if i have a bad side cut and the tire should be relatively easy to get back on.

hmm.. yeah maybe.. I put the rim tape on myself and did a damn good job lol ie maybe one layer too many... I gotta get these tires off somehow and redo the whole tubeless job properly with one layer as you say....thanks...

I'm all for supporting local esp with quality products. SO I have a few pairs of Versus socks I prefer the thicker trail version. They're great for work wear too very comfy and well made. For socks I refuse to pay 100s for one pair, so I have a couple decent cheaper pairs for mtb'ing too. It seems the in thing is these type of socks and the so called happy socks with funky designs. That's where I won't pay R300 for a pair of socks whether made in Swaziland Lesotho or China or the Queen's palace in Denmark. Designs are designs and they are still just socks. But there are differences- some of these socks perhaps Chinese made are crap- they look nice but they're not very well made and I've tossed out a number of these pairs. I don't know about copyright here with Versus versus Checkers- could be Check Mate? But- there may be a noticeable difference between the two in terms of fit thickness and quality of construction. I have never had an issue with Versus socks but have bought cheap Checkers funky socks before and threw them out as honestly they were just crap.

Never tried that before.. I can give that a try...I usually try pry them off the rim... but yeah I see what you mean.. in the middle of the rim will give a wee bit of slack.... I'm currently using Spez Purgatory 2.3 tires Grid (not the new Gripton ones)

Hi guys I searched the forums but could not find an answer to this dilemma I now have: The tires I put on my rims last time I put tires on, I really battled to get them on (Rapide 27.5 rims internal width 27mm). Seating them once on was fine. To get them off is another battle so I top up sealant through the valve which is fine and I can hear the sealant sloshing around in the tire so I know to topup when I no longer hear that. However are there any workable tips to get a tight tire on/off a wide-ish rim? I don't have special tools just the usual tire levers etc. It would be nice to be able to get them on/off and clean the tires out every so often. Also on the trail if I get a sidewall cut, that sealant won't seal- there is no way I can put in a tube (so I no longer carry a spare tube) as I know if I can't get the tire on/off at home without battling for hours then there is no way I'd be able to on the trail.....

So I took your guys' good advice and moved it down the mount and used a nylock nut which I didn't have before and it is much more secure now. The chain guide seems to work but as you can see hmm.. maybe it is the design , or maybe i don't need a chain guide with a sram RD and an oval ; or maybe it is the oval shape but the fit seems to change as per the oval- here it is top of the oval 50T and it looks okay- and here it is bottom of the oval 11T where it is barely covering the chain- (if I move it lower the chain ring will then scrape the chain guide when it reaches the top of the oval again)