DirtyFrank

Beer , potatoes, chocolate.....my Belgian heart could not handle it!Well done Andrew, good share. Altough I reckon going that without beer and chocolate would put me on antidepressants which would probably make me eat more in the long run!

Having just waffled on about absolutely f*ckall, i actually intended to add that a set of Conti BMX tubes(with removable valves), some cheap sealant and any reasonable quality tyre will give you the cheapest ghetto tubeless setup.

Jeeeez dude, where have you been? The hub is now debating the virtues of electronic shifting on mountain bikes. Carbon fibre frames(fakes incl), 29ers, 3x10,2x10,SS, 27,5ers, short stems, slack geometry and tubeless are all old news in 2014 along with carbohydrates and heart rate monitors. Welcome to today.

" If you can`t be with the one you love......."

A big thumbs up to Linden Cycles for their kind donation of a mountain bike which was raffled as part of a fundraising event for the Forest town school for children with disabilities.

My useless 2c worth.....I must unfortunately agree with Nathrix. I also rode a few 27,5`s and was not convinced that the improvement is significant enough to replace my 26`r just yet. I also rode a few 29`ers and concur that for most of SA`s conditions this is the better wheel size. However if your bike is really due for an upgrade and you want a longer travel bike then it`s a nobrainer to choose a 27,5 as we will probably see spares for 26`s becoming scarcer as 27,5 becomes the new `standard` , just don`t expect to become a contender based on an extra inch or so. If you have a high spec 26er then you may as well hold onto your bike until it`s worn out or upgrade to a 29er if you want a slightly faster and easier handling bike for most of our xc conditions.

I have actually thought about this, Fly down for the race, go to pnp/makro the day before and buy a special, set it up( pump the tyres), enjoy the ride and scenery for a change! Stop for a few beers along the way. Finish in 5-7 hours(Time relative to amount of beers consumed), Give the bike away at the finish line. This could be quiet a lekker charity drive if one could get a group of similarly minded idiots together.

Don`t insurance companies ask for frame numbers anymore?

Irritating to read some of the stupid comments on this post and feel obliged to reply as I have`nt had my first cup of coffee yet to cheer me up. Fact 1 : He went into the bike shop and buys a specific branded bike. Fact 2 : Bikeshop sells him this bike at a price seemingly in line with the market value of said model (whether new or 2nd hand) Fact 3 : Bike shop does not inform him that this is a fake/ cheap knockoff and man accepts in good faith that this is an original branded bike ( hIs level of knowledge on the brand has absolutely nothing to do with it!) Fact 4: Man is informed quiet by coincidence by a reputable 3d party that the bike is a fake Fact 6: Man confirms this information through his enqueries with the agents/ importers. Fact 7 :Man goes back to bike shop to demand his money back but bike shop refuses and confirm all along that they knew the bike was a fake/cheap knockoff and they assumed he was aware of this( Again, his level of knowledge is not relevant ! ) Fact 8 :The shop offer to sell the bike on his behalf, thereby perpetuating the fraud and making him an accessory in the crime( presumably they were not intending to inform the next buyer that this was a fake or else they would not get a good price for the bike?) As far as I am concerned this is a case of fraud and he should take legal action against the shop whether in court or in accordance with the CPA. All the negative commentators/`experts` should step back and think about this a bit before they attack the man for exposing this.

You know you want me!

The irony of this is that they made a shedload of money selling 26ers over many years......are they now suggesting that they were wrong all that time?.....in that case i can see a class action coming! So stupid of them to pigeonhole things with such simplistic tags but that kind of sums up the general level of knowledge that you will find on the floor at CL. We are the fools for buying into all this sales talk, why is yesterdays hero always todays zero when the next best thing comes along? I still love my 26er even though I tested 29ers and the new 27,5ers which in all honesty did not blow my dress up, admittedly the 29er feels better i.m.o. for certain applications. It all depends on the quality of the components of the specific bike, and the a good 26er will feel better than a mediocre 29er and a 27,5er is so close to 26er that the differences are even harder to define and are further complicated in the minute differences in geometry and bike setup. Just love your bike man and don`t forget that 98% of us are not contenders, no matter what the next miracle performance advantage the retailers are touting, after all , they had a big power band display in their shop for many years!

Standard DT 240s hubs have slow engagement and agents/importers seem totally incapable /disinterested/ignorant of of sourcing the ratchet upgrade to double the engagement speed( standard DT part) ,the hubs are good though but you need special tools to service/remove some bearings.Not sure about CK but only heard good things. Hope hubs are too noisy but on the upside ,you won`t need a bell on the trail.

Keep it, don`t be a woosie. Nail it to the wall. If anyone asks you about it deny any knowledge until they produce concrete proof that you put it there. if they produce any then dish the dirt in their closet back to them especially if they have any Tour winner memerobilia (excepting Wiggins and Froome maybe ), if all fails confess on supercycling but tell them that everyone was putting these on ther walls in those days but that you were simply better than them at mounting framed shirts with a hilti !

Very low res as taken from FB

You will find lots of info at the following site http://sheldonbrown.com

Some good advise below and you can also run a combination with sintered on the back and organic on the front as a lot of riders tend to contstantly feather their back brake which can build up heat and sintered pads are more linear so you are less likely to lock up your wheel contstantly whereas on the front, where your real braking power is ,organic are better due to their stronger initial bite and better stoping power. For general all purpose use though sintered are best, squeeling is just there to warn others that you are coming! Don`t run organic in the wet/mud, first hand experience.

3:50 on my Trance XO , NN/RR knoblies.Done it in 3:32 a few years ago on same bike with MK/RK combo. suffered a bit as i am very unfit ( 95kg/ average HR 157). Only training ride was previous weeks MTB queue event so pretty chuffed nonetheless.Big to all the knobly riders who did it.

Nice ride,great vibe, some horrible accidents though, heard a lady crash behind me near the bottom of Homestead/Douglas, she was wearing yellow and must have been badly hurt judging by the scream and sickening crash followed by silence, Hope she is ok. Reasonably happy with my 3:50 on my Trance dualie with NN/RR knoblies, especially considering my first training ride was the 94.7 mtb race.My bum did appreciate the soak in the pool afterwards though i can tell you!

Hell - with all the talk of bottlenecks and now number collection, I just can`t wait for the whingeing about the `goodie bags` to start!

You`re right.( although my waife would probably disagree on the `idiot` thing ) I would not log any seeding for anyone but the first 250 and I would not include the technical singletrack. In terms of the entry fee i think the planning and organization of this race with the road closures etc involved probably add a lot and i'd like to think that the balance goes to charity as is the intention of this race. It`s a `race`in name only as that is the selling point to convince the average weekend joe that he is a competitor rather than just another rider. The cause is still good though.( I hope!)

This is not a race. Its a ride, that`s it. unless you are a contender or start in A1 you may as well treat it as a training ride. I think a lot of riders were so fed up with the bottlenecks that they simply took the quick fork to the beer tent, the timing results are simply an accident of these diversions and should not be taken seriously or used for seeding purposes. My Polar reckons i did 55,9km with 735m ascent at an average of 15,9km per hour, the last 20km were tough for me but at least i got in one training ride for the road race. My bike is going to the road race as i parked it, It will get oil on the chain and some more air in the tyres. See you on on the road, Lets go scare some roadies!

Lots of experienced riders i know would have struggled with that particular stretch of the course which was way to difficult for the average weekend joe.The organisers stuffed up, thats it!

Roboguard wireless beams. Best you can get.

Horse was called Silver, Indian(native american) was called Tonto. That reminds me of another Lone Ranger joke. Lone Ranger stops to have a slash somewhere far out on the prairie, rattlesnake bites him on the end of his john thomas, he drops tro the ground in pain and knows his days are numbered if he doesn`t get some medical advise. He calls his trusty sidekick Tonto over and in excrutiating pain tells him to ride to the nearest town and get an antidote from the doc. Tonto is off in a gallop and eventually rides into town to get the docs advise " you have hurry back to make a small cut on the bite and suck the poison out" the doc says " or else the Lone Ranger will surely die!" Tonto gallops off and gets back to the Lone Ranger just in the nick of time as the poor man is slipping away by the minute....." Tonto, Tonto he cries,.... I am so glad to see you,..... what did the doc say?"................Tonto leans over and whispers in his ear " Doc says you gonna die....!"

Spotted at Cash Crusaders Campus Square shopping centre , Auckland park Going for a bargain, Merida 96 Carbon, Monkeylite bar, Brand new Conti x-king tubeless tyres. Ugly gobi saddle. R 11 999.00 I