Rock Guy

CWC used to be the closest in terms of pricing compared to overseas online shops. I believe I read somewhere that this was because they essentially bypassed the local distributor on certain parts (drivetrain bundles come to mind). Then they get bought out by the notorious Cycle Lab and slowly the real specials started to disappear. I haven't seen a real special from CWC in a very long time. Seems to me like there are some stakeholders around with an interest to keep the South African cycling retail market exactly the way it was before CWC started causing a stir. Also, aliens and crystal skulls are real.

The classic overpriced SA retail market again. Rest of the world = $600, ...SA...$830....coz you know, (long list of excuses).

I've run (cycled) into him many times on that that very trail. He's always incredibly friendly despite not knowing me from a bar of soap. From our brief chat once on Irish, I reckon he was well honored that they named that trail after him. Thanks for all the efforts that you (Bobby, Specialized, STF, trail builders, and countless others) have put into our trails and for how much you have helped progress the sport of mountain biking in SA. I can only imagine how you and everyone who have helped build the Stellenbosch trails must feel after the fire swept through there again.

Hey, the money has to come from somewhere. Giving up their profits on products sold so that they can raise funds for good cause is a fantastic thing to do. Nothing wrong with growing your business an building on your brand name at the same time. Edit: (This actually makes me quite proud to be on one of their bikes)

Looks like he could have gotten the SL6 S-Works frame for 60k, or the similarly specced SL7 Pro for 138k. Maybe he could have scored some significant discount, but I doubt he would have gotten away under 100k. So ja... he did get a lot of bang for his buck. The last bike I bought 2nd hand required about 30% additional spend to get up to good working condition (it was a high end MTB). Based on these incredibly robust statistics, he would have landed at about 80k total. Although...what is the price of confidence? After my last experience, I won't be buying a 2nd hand bike or frame again. There were just far too many 'interesting' surprizes that I could really do without. I reckon everyone is far better off waiting for decent discount on a new bike from a shop. Or if money is no object, just support your LBS. The level of service I have received after buying my current bike brand new from my LBS has also been amazing. It definitely scores you some kudos.

I haven't fact checked any of your statements and I am not a lawyer, but, let's assume what you're saying is correct. This basically means that all sales made via the classifieds on Bikehub through anyone that isn't a dealer puts the buyer at risk of financial loss, except for a few very specific conditions. Now lets stop shooting holes in everything for a minute and see if there are any steps that a buyer can take to help ensure fair legal protection. Would a hand written and signed invoice help at all? (probably issued through a triplicate book, so both parties have a copy and one copy on record). This would at least prove the sale did happen. What about a contract laying out some very clear terms that are fair to both parties? Again, I'm not a lawyer and have basically no experience in these matters (which probably makes me a law expert on Bikehub), so It would be great to hear the opinion and suggestions of someone that actually knows the law well.

I'd also like know. Surely there must be something more to his persistence? I see only three possibilities: 1) AdamA knows the seller (and is possibly the friend he sold the bike for) 2) Trolling 3) AdamA, the Hubber that is well known for being a great buyer and seller of goods in the classifieds (5 star ratings all round) has recently succumbed to his alter ego, AdamB, who dislikes buyers with such veracity that he loses sleep thinking about them and must publicly voice his disagreements regarding their poor regard for due diligence in ensuring they are not conned by sellers (who by his definition are innocent of all possible wrongdoing).

Very Nice! Lots of percussive therapy happening on your bike by the looks of that mallet.

As much as I disagree with most of what AdamA has had to say in this forum. He brings an alternative opinion to the table, which is always good.

Ai Rickus. If you haven't noticed, things are spiraling out of control on this forum. You should take the opportunity to make things right with FreeSoul. Whether you feel he is right or wrong is almost immaterial at this point. I am sure I am not the only person on here that knows exactly who you are. You stand to loose far more than 60K if this escalates further, and for what?

Yup, totally agree. Insurance will however often dodge paying out on a claim based on some fine print. I highly recommend clarifying this with your broker, preferably over email so you have a record for when the paw paw hits the fan. My broker always tells me to have some kind of proof of payment on record in case I need to claim. You could also ask your LBS to to do a valuation on your bike. even if you pay a small fee for this it will help to justify why you insured your bike for the amount you specified. In my experience you may need to politely remind them a few times to do this for you as it's obviously not a priority to them (I'm sure they would much rather be fixing and selling bikes). (Also Santam is legit)

hmmm.... I wonder if the seller is disclosing any of this income to SARS? Perhaps he is due for an audit? Not that I wish the wrath of SARS upon anyone, but maybe he deserves to pay some school fees himself?

Who was the seller? I'd like to avoid buying from him/her in future.

Full refund would be the right thing to do. If the derailleur is visibly cracked in the pics the seller used to sell the bike, surely the seller was lying to the buyer when he said the bike was "absolute mint". Either the seller didn't inspect the bike properly and just said this to get a sale, or he knew about the issue and still said this to get the sale. Either way, stating the bike was in prefect condition was untruthful. If the seller fully believes the bike is fine, and is willing to replace the parts, then he can sell that bike to someone else easily. On the other hand, how do you expect FreeSoul to trust the bike? How did the crack happen?? Is there other damage hidden? Maybe there are no scratch marks on the FD because the seller took the time and effort to hide them? Perhaps there are hidden scratches and cracks on the frame as well? You see where this is going? The seller should offer a full refund even if his only interest is to protect is income (assuming he sells 2nd hand bikes for a living). If not, I feel the buyer is obliged to report the seller to Bikehub and inform the community to avoid buying from him. It is not about what the the seller's legal obligation is here, although I'd argue its in the buyer's favor.

The crack on the FD visible in the sale pics really is a bit of a smoking gun. The seller should offer you a full refund and pay for the return shipping costs. In my opinion, this counts as either negligence on the seller's part, or just plain sneakiness. The seller really shouldn't argue with you. Edit: I wouldn't feel comfortable riding a bike that was supposed to be "absolute mint", only to discover clear faults upon riding. There are probably other issues with the bike as well, hence why a full refund is the only correct outcome here.

I can list a multitude of reasons why Graphenlube is worth the cost 1) It makes your chain match the powder coat on the rims of your Mercedes X class. 2) It is 100% guaranteed to give you an authentic black chain mark on your calf, the sign of a true cyclist. 3) 4 out of 5 dentists use it. 4) It will reduce the urge to spend money on other unnecessary things (mainly because you will have less money. 5) it allows you to eat 4 extra jelly tots a week and still have the same lap time around the velodrome. etc, etc...

I went from a 100mm carbon Scott Spark to a Pyga Pascoe 140. It was probably one of the best MTB moves I have ever made. The 100mm XC scene just wasn't for me and I adjusted very easily to having more travel on hand. To be honest the only real adjusting I needed was that I could hit way bigger features with much more confidence than I ever could on the Spark. I should mention that the slacker head tube angle took a bit of getting used to, you will need to learn how to weight the front wheel a bit more in corners sometimes. Kiss those Uphill PR's goodbye though. These bikes ride uphills totally fine, but they are made for descending, not beating your buddies to the top of the hill. That said, the extra weight never really bothered me, and I'm probably fitter now because of it. I eventually cracked my Pascoe frame, but the Pyga guys sorted me out with a new frame in about two weeks. I believe the welding done on the new alloy frames is better now and the warranty can be extented to 5 years ( at which point you'll probably want a different bike anyway). The actual frame material doesn't really mean that much to me in the trail/enduro realm, rather buy the bike that feels right from a manufacturer that you know won't be looking for excuses when the day comes that something breaks. I suggest you give the Hyrax a test ride. I test rode one not too long ago and found it just didn't feel right for me, so I went with another bike. But hey, that's only me, and I know that lots of people love the new Pygas.

I guess it's to be expected that as a service such as BH grows it will need to re-asses how it generates income. Giving people the option of an ad free experience is a good way to do this. Also I think the way you guys are handling this is admirable. Basically things stay the same for anyone that doesn't want to pay. That's great. Doing it the Strava way leaves a really bad taste, and I probably won't be paying their subscription fee. Also I don't really need their Summit features. I don't really need BH plus features either, but you guys aren't forcing a downgrade on me, which actually makes me more inclined to subscribe. I really hope that this remains your long term plan, and that you won't phase out regular features or introduce Plus features that create a large chasm between user types. As for me right now, I'll have to wait for my full salary to be reinstated until I can join Plus. Ps. I too would love having comments back on the classifieds. Maybe make this a Plus feature and allow the ad owner to reply to comments on their ad? Probably easier said than done I suppose.

That's not too bad actually, considering you're getting a CC frame and lifetime warranty.

I guess I'll spend my spare bazillion Rands on this steed.

The old lower Canaries were my favourite climb, before the fires went through there. It had just the right amount of difficulty, made the climb go by so quickly. It would be awesome if we could get something like that in the Tygerberg network. I guess you need those sandstones which we don't really have in Tygerberg. Razor sharp hornfels doesn't really have the same flow to it.

hmm....lets put some slow, unskilled riders on a trail where better riders are going top speed to clear jumps...yeah, that's a great idea. It will be a hazard and it will cause nothing but frustration to all riders involved. I can't ride these jumps, but I respect those that can and I feel that they too deserve to have some fun on the trails.

Time of day plays a big role. If you are actually trying to hit the bigger jumps and drops then you can really only do the skill spark in the morning. If you ride there after twelve you will be sharing the park with the South Easter. The wind can get pretty hectic around those parts this time of year.

I’d like to thank Tygerberg MTB for sending out a response to the concern I raised here earlier this week regarding the drastic increase on membership fees. The intent was never to insult the club in any way and I think my original post made that quite clear. The trails offered by the TMTBC are great, they really offer something for everyone which I think is hard to come by elsewhere. Sure they aren’t the world gnarliest trails, but they are good fun and there are more than enough seriously technical features to sink your teeth into if you so prefer. I have yet to see anyone take the ski jump road gap at Contermans. I must say however that I have been disappointed by the way in which so many TMTBC members decided to take things personally and start calling names etc. In my opinion it is unprofessional and just proves that you cannot argue a point. Calling someone a “moaner” or directing any kind of insult to an individual achieves nothing except to aggravate them. Anyway, that will conclude my life lessons for the day. To the TMTBC committee members. All you needed to do from the start was to include the very brief explanation you sent out today with your original mail. That would have helped keep people (myself included) quite happy. People pick up on small details like changes in membership fees, and they don’t always raise their concerns. When they do, you at least have the opportunity to rectify the situation. When they don’t, well, maybe they choose not to renew their memberships. Call me what you like, but I was not insulting in any way. I am sorry if I rubbed anyone up the wrong way, but I felt that Bikehub was the correct platform to raise my concern. Ultimately I believe it achieved the goal, and that was nothing more than to receive an explanation for the increased fees. Now I can make an informed decision on whether it makes sense for me to renew my membership. Thanks for the amazing trails Patrick. Time for a beer.

please... "I would love to hear from a Tygerberg MTB representative to explain the significant increase. " Now: a) are you a member of the Tygerberg MTB Committee? and b) did you explain why the fees went up by such a high percentage?