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RobertWhitehead

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Everything posted by RobertWhitehead

  1. Here's my 2c: Fox is way smoother and better than RS. There's specialist in the field of forks and shocks for a reason.
  2. Not that I would like to compete with a "design team" but it would've been nice to put my spin on it.
  3. www.cycledelic.co.za - speak to Annette
  4. Someone who wrote matric in 2022 and were allowed to open a vleisboek account. Or a 16 year old who finally got a phone for passing grade 10. I can think of lots of people who opened a vleisboek account in 2023
  5. Forget about CL and come and pay me a visit (based in Garsfontein) then I will: 1) Give you a loan set of wheels - which I am sure you will not want to return (set of ZTRs with Hope Pro II hubs) 2) Then I will have your set rebuilt with decent hubs (brand to be confirmed - I do have quite a bit of stock). I even have colored nipples in stock 😜.
  6. Very very difficult to say, mechanical items can either work perfectly for millions of miles and others just fail off the bat. I mean hell, I once took a brand new XT chain out of the packet only to have it fail after 5km. I threw that chain in the bin after break number 5. Previous XT chain went for close to 6000km before the quick link failed. If you can answer one or two questions for me I have an offer I can table. 1) Is the frame boost 2) Are both wheels QR (I assume it is with entry level hubs but I want to confirm) 3) Does the Hub slip or is it now the cassette?
  7. I told this oke that I think his price has one too many '0's and he obviously thought I was smoking and low balling him: https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/item/dual-suspension-bikes/711149/momsen-vipa-carbon The moment I get an offer from them I remind myself that I have something they desperately want, so much so that the owner is willing to make his name poephol to get it .
  8. On paper that's a great idea, in reality the chances of that happening is very close to zero. foot in Cycle Lab again - you can't say that. There's a lot of folks who believe that going to a biiiiiig LBS will give me the best bang for buck. It's the Marko model . Buying 6 years worth of handy Andy and 3kg of polony in one go is the bees knees
  9. Hang on, wait. I have had a look at this bike. It has very nice lines, reminds me of the Marlin from Trek (the brand you should have gotten ). I see from the specs that it tips the scale at 15.55kg - flip that's heavy. No wonder you think you bought a dud. As mentioned before, it is a decent looking frame, what's letting it down is it's baggage (the fluffy Christmas fat if you want). You will be able to get the weight down to around 12-13kg even more if you upgrade some of the parts: Fork will likely drop: 1 - 1.5kg Crank and BB: 800g - 1kg Tubeless - unsure really, can't recall if this drops the weight Upgrading the microshift 1x8 to some Shimano or SRAM 1x12 may add weight You can always have the wheels rebuilt with proper sealed bearing hubs but I'm not sure what the rim quality is like Total savings in terms of weight 1.8 - 2.5kg 15.55 - 1.8 = 13.50 ish 15.55 - 2.5 = 13.00 ish 13 is still on the heavy side but at least you'll have a proper jumping off point for future upgrades. Just a side note: I can guarantee that the freehub on the back wheel will not cater for a wider cassette. I can also not confirm from the kiekies if the steerer on the fork is straight or tapered and lastly it also does not say if it's boost or non boost and because I am lazy and it is late I don't want to explore other websites . The above will have a big impact on the price of the upgrade parts.
  10. First off, welcome and congratulations on the first post. My 2 cents, and just note that you'll get a lot of opinions from various folks and there's a lot of other posts on the same topic. To answer the question: yes and no, stuff like fork and gears are quite significant in terms of quality but the other thing to bear in mind is that if you don't know what a higher quality component will offer then no, you won't notice it. I believe getting an SME (Subject Matter Expert) to join you on your journey will add a lot of value At 1.87 I would go for an XL rather than L although L can also work.
  11. So I re-looked everything Discovery has to offer. To put things into context, I have: Insurance - structure, content and motor. Medical aid Vitality Bank - I just have a R5k limit on a CC for me to be able to convert the miles. Now let me give a rundown quickly: My medical aid is always depleted by around May, this year I am already there The insurance has a new clause that they will only pay up to the amount of R10k for any claim less the excess regardless of the value of the item claimed. It never used to be like that. I had to open a cheque account on top of the cc cause I "saved money" by bundling and something else which I can't recall. Got a quote today on insurance for more cover, less excess and a lower premium of R1500pm. No more need to specify individual items either. On top of the vitality of R349 and the bank fees of around R250 I am starting to look pretty. Next step is to cancel and move the medical. It's all hogwash with no real benefit, do the math on your end and see if what I am saying holds water
  12. It's their modus operandi, they've been doing it for many moons. Even the one particular lbs with their "price matching perk (for the lack of a better word)" has started to catch on and follow the price match question with: do they have stock
  13. Depending on your size I do have a Cannondale Topstone currently in the works otherwise I would always prefer mtb over gravel but it's catching on
  14. I won't go that far to say the bike is not as advertised, I mean you will most likely find that those unbranded hubs are in fact some early level Shimano with cone and ball bearings. Have you looked at that model hubs? They go for R399. As @thebob mentioned, no point..... Other than that the chain guide was most likely forgotten during the assembly process
  15. Those holes were made in error so they plugged it with rivets
  16. That's a high number, I am of a similar age and had my PSA tested last year September and it came in at 0.65. Anything above 2.6 is high and should be taken seriously. Health is Wealth
  17. You know, back in the day I used to know everything about the vitality engine etc. etc. but now I couldn't be bothered. I closed my Ucount stuff last week. It is similar to blockchain and crypto, it mostly only has value on their ecosystem. But to the point, I pay way more for Vitality than the benefit I receive so I will also be canceling my membership
  18. I opened a Discovery account solely for the miles, they do come in handy when converting but other than that I agree, no use IMO. If you have lots of miles then don't loose it, open an account, transfer them to said account and then close both
  19. Ok, great stuff. So here's my opinion and take on things. Just note this is my opinion and it's not the rule right through the bank: For your budget you'll most likely have three scenarios 1) The drive train will most likely be the stock 2x or 3x and the original owner will most likely try to offload his / her bike to upgrade to something better. 2) If someone has gone through the hassle of upgrading the components they will most likely have discovered that the frame has a straight steerer and upgrading the frame is almost impossible so hence the sale. 3) If it's great all round then the bike won't hang around for very long before someone snaps it up 😁. If you've managed to get to this point in my booooring message then big on you . I can make you an offer which I think will be a pretty decent rig: Frame - Silverback Sola 3 Fork - Manitou Minute Pro (with a catch - more on this shortly) Wheels - ZTRs with Hope Pro II hubs Drive train - 1x11 Brakes - Magura MT4 PS: The fork does not have a thru axle, yet. I am importing one which will only be here at the end of the month or mid April. PPS: I deliberately posted the specs on your thread to get opinions from Le Hub
  20. 1) Size of the bike you want or how tall's your son? 2) What's your budget? 3) Do you want a HT or dual sus? 4) Does your son already have kit or are you going to have to purchase that as well? 5) What's the main discipline / use of the bike?
  21. You won't find . Our friend the big blue one doesn't provide those items to the bike shops
  22. Spanks are great, as mentioned before the Stans are known to pull through. Not a big fan of the Stans, they're also quite soft. I owned a set of Spoon Trail 345s since around 2021 and they look pretty on the bike hanging on the wall and when I do go out to ride them they're very impressive. Maybe a bit heavy for marathon riding but then again, meh.
  23. Internal cable routing is one thing, but just imagine the disappointment when you see a frame with internal routing already fitted only to find out after shaking it that you're going to have to add some padding
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