FlandersZA

I'm a bit sad about all the trees I see being cut down at NF. I'm sure there's probably a good reason for it but damn, summer is going to hurt there if they keep it up.

Well, after today's NF ride there's no way I can't issue the full cleaning treatment. There were some serious swamp sections due to irrigation runoff and my bike reminds me of that 'worst toilet in Scotland' scene from Trainspotting. Grinding paste 101...

Really? I did not know this. Well I ride the entire range on the middle ring all the time and lowest and highest gears are no exception so in that case I suppose I do "cross chain" a lot then. As long as it aint making a noise then I aint worrying about it.

Haha, not really hey. I did the straaaava climbing challenge this past month which I find actually cranks up the fitness levels nicely for a not-too-serious oke like myself. I wouldn't normally ride quite that amount of elevation in a standard month. Too many gears? Almost certainly. Which is why I've been pondering a 2x or 1x setup. I must admit though I am reluctant to say goodbye to that ONE gear I use on the big ring for downhills. At this year's Juma, one of the most memorable parts was the flat out dice I found myself in with a bunch of guys slamming it down Beyers to the cemetery. A fleet of knobblies doing 70 on tar sounds remarkably similar to a formula 1 race. Without that gear I would have spun out and not experienced that. Also, I wouldn't have seen a guy clang his back rim on the high curb at the bottom at that speed (and carry on riding!) I think what's going to happen is that my bike will not be sold and the next bike gets the 1x. A collection is born.

Okay, interesting. Thanks for the responses so far. I was under the impression that intensive cleaning was essential for prolonging chain life, so long as the chain is well lubed prior to riding. I will try and solve this then by process of elimination. I'll get another of the same model chain and dial back the OCD cleaning and see what happens. If that doesn't help I'll go for a KMC.

That's the weird thing. I'm definitely a cadence guy. I spin faster than just about anyone I know.

It's a 3x setup but I really only use the middle ring 95% of the time. I do some riding in the burbs during the week when I can't get to the fun stuff and then I'm only ever on the big ring down mine shafts. Granny is basically for that rare Mankele outing or Magalies Monster type ride. In fact, my granny ring looks almost brand new. When I got the bike (my first "serious" MTB), I was completely clueless about everything and I ran that first chain for 6000km without really looking after it well at all. Granted, I needed to replace ring and cassette after that too when I started getting slip and suck but damn, works out cheaper than what's happening now.

Hi, I'd like to get some opinion on chain wear since I seem to be flying through chains at a high rate. I have a 9 spd setup on the MTB and I've been using the Shimano CN-HG53. My LBS guy who does my services actually sent my last chain back and replaced it for free as he was under the impression that it must not have been correctly tempered and could have been from a bad batch or something, based on the mileage done which was only around 400km. He had recently replaced a ring, cassette and chain and when I needed to send the bike in for something else, he noticed that my chain was toast once again. I hadn't even checked it because as far as I was concerned, 400km on a chain is basically new. I've kept a record of mileage and elevation on the new chain since replacement. I'm 80kg. 580km and 10000m climbing and after I'd cleaned my bike yesterday I checked it and it's showing 0.75 on the tool. Is this normal? I'm in JHB, doing typical highveld winter riding in which a dry lube seems perfectly adequate. I learned the hard way early on that not maintaining a drivetrain leads to accelerated wear and so I lube religiously and I clean my drivetrain thoroughly with a degreaser and scrubbing brush after every trail ride, to the point where I'd eat off of it. Yet here I am with another worn out chain. At this rate it'll work out cheaper to just run it into the ground, along with the rings and cassette. I've heard of guys going through chains on 50km rides but that's through mud and terrible conditions, which is not the case here. I'd been considering switching to a 2x10 or even 1x11 setup at some point but chucking on a new chain every 500km with the higher priced 10/11 spd chains will end me.

I was doing a sneaky week day spruit ride with my boet and as we left Emmarentia it started belting with rain. Soaked to the core, we crossed the concrete bridge at Old Parks and continued north. A section I'd done a hundred times before was now completely flooded with water but "no problem," I thought, "I got this!", as I barreled onward. The dip, with its familiar suspension-squeezing 'U' shaped trough suddenly became very unfamiliar as my front wheel slammed dead, beyond axle deep, into its now very much 'V' shaped trough - eroded by the sudden downpour. Blasted out of my cleats I was, as I surged through the air in a spectacular high speed OTB. The only sound louder than the breath being expelled from my chest cavity as it made violent contact with terra firma was the sound of my brother's laughter coming from behind me as he rode up to recount the tale of the banana in my riding pack being launched into orbit as my groin merged with stem. One consolation to the whole thing was that the hissing sound I'd immediately heard after the crash turned out not to be a shredded tire as I'd feared but rather a punctured can of coke acting as a second stage to the banana rocket in my backpack. I got out of that one relatively unscathed in the end and although I can't be sure, I'm willing to bet that my first words as I scraped myself off the ground that day were "What...the...fsck?". So, probably a reasonable qualifier for this thread then?

This, 100% I also find the Vittoria's to be tough and long lasting. Mine have lasted at least twice as long as say, Rocket Rons.

Cracking thread Editing tools for activities in the browser version offer a chance to fix those accidental drive recordings after a genuine ride by allowing cropping of start/end of track etc. So I think guys should be given an opportunity to sort it in x amount of time at least before being flagged. But the blatant, intentional stuff? Nah, it just kills it for everyone.

I'm not sure what happened but the venue's GPS co-ords took me about 50km away from the place and so missed my marathon start. Managed to get there eventually and got a very late start in the half marathon. Was still fun but I was a bit annoyed about that.

Yup, that's the spot. I'm talking at least 6-8ft high.

Two weeks back I had a humdinger of an OTB on one of the downhill sections I've done a hundred times. The grass was overgrown along one of the sprinkler sections and I couldn't see the ground properly and so hit a newly formed erosion ditch. Not a poke at anyone, just a word of warning to take it easy if the trail isn't visible. My absolute wet dream for NF would be to have a huge berm at the bottom of the first cow hump descent at the start and then another at the bottom of the next descent. I'd love to be able to carry speed through that section. Make it happen! You guys can grow mushrooms out the back of those!

On the subject of the sore arse - People tell me I'm mad but I don't use padding and never have, nor creams or any of that. My bike is a DS though so maybe that helps. I started riding with normal baggies and just kept going like that. I'm probably lucky in that I just never suffered from sore or chafed undercarriage issues. Maybe my syncros saddle and I were just destined to be together? Standard baggies only last about 3000km before being worn through so I got my first proper pair of fox rangers in December which I'm loving, although the first thing I did was to remove the padding. We'll see how many km they're good for. My longer trail rides are over 100km with the longest being 160+km and the last thing on my mind, when it comes to what is hurting, is my posterior.