s14phoenix

Hi everyone, My mission lately has shifted to my son and his riding and love of riding mtb XC. He is now competingin the schools series here in Gauteng and has started shaping really well. Currently I have him on a 27.5 hardtail that has really progressed his riding and his skills has grown so much. Now I always like having the next bike upgrade either waiting or as a work in progress. Which is where I am now... I need to get the next upgrade or at least as a start have a build in my head... The issue is I am torn between an XC lightweight hardtail in 29" or a dual suspension ligthweight in 29" and I am unsure if building a dual is the way to go while we are getting a new frame or just keep the weight absolute minimum and build a hardtail... As it sits there is not much between the 2 on cost. Any advise???

We did the trailseeker event at Cradle Moon which he really enjoyed bar all the back markers and traffic. The next one is at the bosveld... maybe thats an idea to get to know the place also... Many thanks for the information.

I have to agree. I did the monster as kinda a dare which became a reverse dare and me and a buddy slogged out the proper full original monster in 2014 and 2015. I later returned to what to me felt like a watered down money maker. I drove there and drove back the same day a far cry from where I almost could not walk after 2014 and 2015. I was hoping the sting would be put back at some stage but alas not much was improved and the race lost a lot of appeal to many...

Hi Guys, Looking for some updated information on trails around Gauteng that are still pretty safe, clean and worthwhile. My son is really starting to enjoy mtb and I want to start taking him to trails thats still good. We have done the Benoni Country Club a few times but thats pretty flat and I would like to start getting him on some climbs too. Nothing too serious but fun enough. The usual suspects I have heard are terribly bad and dirty now like big red barn and Modderfontein reserve. Is Thaba Trails still good? which others would be recommended? I would really appreciate the inputs.

I just got one of the 1x square taper cranks that come on the Titan kids bikes. It is 155mm also but not as heavy as the 3x that was on the bike at least.

My boy just turned 6 and has been on his 24inch the last 6months. I have also been on this mission lately - started with the usual Titan 24" which came with 3x7 setup and 13ish KG. Change to a 1x kiddies crank which was R400 and then relaced the rear rim to a normal freehub rear hub. A lot of the issue is the 36 holes and spokes which limited the hubs available - which needed to just about be free. I then fitted old SLX 9sp shifter and XT rear derailleur with a Sram 980 11-34 cassette. Maxxis Snyper tyres. kcnc cockpit with a carbon seatpost - in total I shaved about 3kg off the bike but STILL weighs 10kg. It is rediculous what the kids bikes weigh for their size. I have now decided that no futher upgrades would be going onto the 24" and would focus rather on the carbon XS 26er @ 9.5kg (currently) that I have "waiting" for his as soon as he fits - that my wife rides when we go out as a fam. The aim is to get the 26er to about 8.5kg which with careful parts selection shouldn't be too difficult as it has not even been converted to tubeless yet and has a very heavy gel ladies saddle. good luck bikehub daddies - glad to see I am not the only fool suffering with this 😄

We did a ride with the kids there Saturday and it was pretty good. There was a few fallen branches in some places but overall it was great riding. My 4yo loved it and now cannot wait to go back for more trails. I am going to need to get a decent 20" to upgrade his 16" soon. I can already see the day I cannot keep up... 😆

Hi everyone, raising the dead it seems here but is BCC Trails still there and ridable? Anyone been there recently? Still being maintained/trails grass cut? Was hoping to take some newbies for a trail ride.

I rode from my reseeded entry in G group to a 2:53 which I am extremely happy with. With almost no group from about halfway it was tough because everything you catch is slower so there was no way other than to grit your teeth and dig deep. the steep climbs was enough to humble anyone. The seeding seemed to be a real problem since I cannot say how many C, D ,E, and F we passed that clearly didn't belong there - I mean 15min in and we already where passing some from C. Then the dodgy car guards and parking arrangements was another problem the organizers have to addres - seemed like anyone with high viz vest could rock up and be a parking attendant. We were forced by one of those guys very early this morning(by race standards) to park at the top of Nasrec miles from the venue and very dodgy since "it is full" - once I rolled down towards the venue I could see how empty the much closer parking was and a quick call to the family meant they could actually move and be close enough to the venue to be at the start and finish and not sitting 3km away in the veld. Lots of police patrols and presence was nice to see. I miss the vibe from before COVID at the venue and I would not be taking the family with again since the venue provided seemingly nothing for the people waiting. The people that came out to support made the route very enjoyable as always. Pity the venue was disappointing.

I got a group Q to group G upgrade Was expecting no upgrade but at least they did something. 😁

Race was a blast! So did the wind in some places - thanks for putting up a very awesome raceday!!!

just gonna wing it tomorrow and hope I can stick with some sort of bunch and not have to solo it. Good luck everyone - this one is going to be interesting with the open unseeded bowl of alphabet soup. 🙈

geesh thats a shame - looking forward still to this race as my first back on the bike after 2.5yrs... makes picking a start batch difficult...

I call that Illegal bumping of your for sale thread - mods please look at that... Clever marketing - I will give him that and only that.

This is such a bikehub thread from a noob who decides to exploit a Friday rule, whom does not want answers to his questions but rather a possy to join what seems to be a torch and pitchfork crew. @MM You need to perhaps re-think your approach to an open forum since you seem to like doing name calling and directing defamatory comments to people who seem to differ from your opinion. Then when you seem to have grown tired you ask for the thread to be closed. You are lucky a admin or moderator has not deleted your post along with your account since it seems like you came here here looking for some sort fight but under the disguise of a Friday thread just like the an empty rattle can you refer to. But hey enjoy the weekend my maat!! 👍👍