NGM

Thanks. Things were escalating out of control there.

Wow - that suspension arrangement on the lapierre...not sexy at all.

What he said. I think when it comes to bike stands if you buy a cheap one, you will soon have to buy another one. Rather buy a good one once. I had a Park Tool PCS 9 stand which could hold my bodyweight. It was simple, robust and heavy and could be stored under my bed. I sold it when I moved to SA and wish i hadn't. It took 2 years of abuse and was still in perfect working order when sold.

I think this review got it spot on. I have a pascoe and before that was riding a decent alu hardtail 29er. My climbing is noticeably slower on the pascoe but it's not unexpected; the bike is a bit heavier, the smaller wheels don't roll as well, and a bit of energy is lost in "pedalbob". It's also not comparing apples with apples. So would it climb slower than another 650B full-sus alu bike with 140-160mm travel? I have no idea, but I hope not. Going downhill it inspires confidence and is shedloads of fun. And this is why I bought it. I am by far the limiting factor of the two of us. A more skilled rider could do so much more with this bike but I'd rather run out of talent than run out of bike. All things that were a hindrance going uphill are an asset going down. On a side note, it was also nice to read a bike review on Bikehub that was not constant gushing. Many of the others I'd read were all like "This bike is so flippin awesome, etc".

Yeah I call it the JCB, primarily because of the colours and industrial strength, but also a subtle reference to my riding speed and ability to eat dirt (not in the good way).

About time that I made my own contribution to this thread considering the amount of time I've spent on it. Attached is my Pascoe with the stellenbosch mountains looking equally awesome in the background.

More often than not they are lying on paths to warm up in the sun, not to get to the other side. Could be a long wait.

Ja but I got mine before they were cool. I'm probably going to buy a new bike now, one you guys haven't heard of yet....

I know this is not currently on topic, but for those interested I recently had a Pascoe built up by trinity cycles in haartebeespoort. From putting in the request to receiving the bike (in Stellenbosch) it took all of a week. All along the way I was sent pics of the build in progress and then had the bike couriered to me, all of which was at a cost (including the courier) that couldn't be matched by anyone else. Very happy customer here. Pics of my own will follow soon. Anyway, I just mentioned this in case anyone was in the position I was in a few weeks ago - wanting the bike but not sure where to source it. I had a really good experience with Trinity cycles.

Tip of the cap. It's not too often that you see someone spell "gruppo" correctly.

Hi Pyga Lovers, I'm looking to do my own pascoe build and have a pretty good idea of what I want to use for the various components. My question is, for most of the people that have built their own on this forum, where are you sourcing things like brakes, drive train, fork, headset, etc? Previously all my online shopping was in the UK so it was all off chain reaction, which is prohibitively expensive from here. Vague question I know, but if anyone has any suggestions on good value options to source components online (or western cape) please let me know. Cheers

This is sort of stuff is all over the place. Over a year ago I tried to sell a car on autotrader in the UK, and received a largely similar response, with the main difference being that "Jennifer McCale" was an Oceanographer, also having to work offshore, etc. For a qualified oceanographer Jennifer's grammar was really not that good, so from the start I was cautious. As a joke/test I told her that the car smelt of urine and that I had mistakenly filled it with diesel so it wasn't running well now - did she still want it? Apparently she did. The concerning thing is that this scam still exists more than a year later.

If I was poor, and it was insinuated that I stole my average bike by someone who then proceeded to take a photo of it, then yes, I'm pretty sure I would be offended. To answer one of your last question with an example, your heart can be in the right place by wanting your wife to lose weight, but it would be offensive to tell her that she's fat. In any case, discussions like these seldom end with one person conceding. So lets agree to disagree.

1. "He claims he bought it" You must have asked him how he got it to get this response, no? How do you ask this without implying that he nicked it? 2. You couldn't even see the bike properly, you were just guessing (incorrectly) that it was expensive. 3. You make a joking reference to his "briefcase" In other words "You look too poor to afford that bike that I can't really see properly, so let me just take a photo so I can ask people if you stole it from them." I'm aware that your hearts in the right place, but that is pretty offensive if you ask me.

That bike of yours is an absolute thing of beauty. I'm looking at the very same frame for my own all-mountain/enduro build. My own 5 cents: Coming from a person who bought a dropper 2 years ago - it's a game changer. The best thing I ever bought for my bike, by a long way. It changes the way you ride in that you can approach large drops confident in the knowledge that you'll be able to get your weight fully back if you need to. Technical stuff becomes fun instead of scary. You start to use the whole "cockpit" of the bike and will wonder how you ever lived without one.

I'm sure there's a lot of truth in that. Interesting stuff.

hahahaha. They're also really good looking and intelligent, you know.

I'm pretty sure east african genetic abilities in endurance events would shine through if there were even one tenth of the bikes or pools in those countries than there are in 1st world european countries. It's a great scientific debate (nature vs nurture) but for me, genetics is the biggest factor. Until recently, there had only ever been one person to run a sub-10 sec 100m who WAS NOT of west african ancestry, and that was Frankie Fredricks. Since then there was one other, who also happened to be the first white person to ever do it - Cristophe LeMaitre. And you can't say that whitey doesn't have access to good running facilities and coaching. If anything, the average caucasian has much better socio-economic advantages in this regard. It's just DNA.

So are you saying it's magic?

Interesting stat! I've always suspected this and my theory was as follows: Take a family with 3 brothers. The youngest always has guys maybe 2 and 4 years older than him to bowl to him/tackle/challenge in general etc. He competes at a higher level than his classmates/age-group because of his older brothers. And if he has any shred of natural ability it is exposed quickly by playing sport with people bigger and stronger than him. So often the youngest of 3 brothers is the best at sport for this reason. So why the 2nd sibling succeeding at the olympics and not the 3rd? Well there are more 2nd children than 3rd, even your mom will understand that (no offence meant). I'm sure I'm not the first person to have thought of this though.

I had the honor of shaking this guy's muddy, sweaty hand at the 2013 Fort William DH. Surpassed only by meeting Rob Warner at the same event an hour later. Can't wait to download this movie.

I have no idea what that means.

I have recently returned home after really getting into the MTB scene in the UK: I'm deeply troubled by the amount of lycra being worn. I'm filled with dread each time somebody from work says "hey, you like mountain biking? I do too... lets go for a ride!" Noooo, 100kms of jeeptrack! I don't own a garmin so I can't tell if my heartrate was 0.2bpm slower this week. I'm not on the Tim Noakes diet. I don't know who the crap half of these swiss riders are that won the epic once or something. And worst of all, nobody seems to know who Steve Peat is.....he who did more for downhill biking than osama bin laden did for terrorism.

It sounds like we're all better off for it.