Kom

Pasting my segment times for the first 100km between 2018 and 2019 at around the pot, 45 min difference and 4kmh difference in average speed:

Haven’t seen any commentary here on rider weight. Gravel bike enjoyment=blend of: tyre diameter, any cool tech for seat and hand resonance/vibration absorption, gearing, technical skill minus the riders shape/fitness. Controversial comment, but much above 90kgs @ 1.8m rider weight/height, i would not recommend a gravel bike for our ZA district roads. Ive personally carried a range of weight on around the pot from 83-95kgs and can tell you it’s night and day on the same bike.

Im seeing a perfect line on the right there 🤠

At least entrytime gave us number boards big enough to see our race numbers from space - and we get to sail our bikes home with the wind behind us 😆

Mariske Strauss gave a good Acronym for this -> ARTTT (there was a retraction on the word Terrein, replaced with Turf 😂)

Route for the 50miler --> https://www.strava.com/routes/3093485871712448584 Route for the 100miler --> https://www.strava.com/routes/3093486369123925700 Weather looking ok in the morning to do the 50miler.

Starts at 8am, 100miler starts at 7am

Feel like its important to circle back that Dragon have taken back the rebuilt wheel and replaced it with a completely brand new wheel. Completely happy with the outcome - really important to say thanks to Gert and Gavin from Giant Cape Town to sort this out for me.

I find myself using BH pay a lot more than I used to. The formality of adding beneficiaries for payment, deciding which messaging platform to coordinate on and occasionally having to remind hubbers to post my goods, BH Pay just makes it easier to use all the automation, feels like a takealot experience at times.

I’ve seen a couple of 1st Gen GX AXS upgrade kits for as little as R9,999 - still my pick for value. Might be some time before the UDH version is seen on one of my bikes.

I can’t seem to find this workshop, what’s the name of the dealer in Somerset? Are you talking about Williams?

Not sure if you use Autotrader at all, but they recently (last couple of months) have added a fair price label to their ads. Dont know how they derive these labels, assume it’s a combination of blue book value and their own sales data which gives you an idea of how cars are priced independent of the sellers asking price, quite risky if you ask me. In the bicycle space, the value in this data is to as a buyer / seller potentially ensure you are both getting the right value, but oddly when I’ve presented data, for active ads on this platform, I’ve 9/10 attempts not managed to sway sellers to drop prices. “My price is my price, take it or leave it, I’m not in a hurry” type of answers. My point is that with luxury goods, the combination of how small the ZA market is, and the general bullish nature of the segment of income earners that advertise here, granular data analysis would not easily present a trust worth conclusion beyond the very broad/blunt data that was presented by BikeHub earlier in this thread.

List the bikes for an opinion? I would not try sell a road bike rn, but gravel, MTB and even a kickr should do ok.

I’ve done a squeeze test on spoke pairs in both Drive and non drive sides, and they feel “relatively” even. I don’t have a calipre to measure accurately. if the nipples on these wheels were accessible this thread would not even exist, I’d just bush-mech it myself, but these particular rims are super finaky.

“contact made with sellers dropped off considerably after Q1 2022” Could this be more first contact on WhatsApp and not BikeHub messenger? As you say this is blunt data, but would like to see something more granular mapping indoor trainers and the start of winter weather, road bikes in exchange for gravel bikes and the uptake on gravel events (and potentially the decline in MTB?). I consider myself a frequent trader on BikeHub and can honestly say that in my category or “taste” of things, I’ve not seen a slow down of product availability nor sellers that are mega negotiable. (I honestly don’t even try the BikeMarket-Low Ball anymore at the risk of being shunned by other hubbers 😝).

Thanks Chris, that’s useful to know. I’m hoping Dragon will come around, but cutting losses and moving on might be prudent. Huge fan of giant product too, but no doubt that after-sales has gone for a ball.

***Warning: here comes a rant.*** I gave Jason and Gavin from Olympic cycles a lengthy opinion on how the pride of being a bike mechanic in South Africa seems to have changed to one of complacency and disinterest. A few mechanics even bother with training or certification, it seems to have stopped being seen as an artisanal job, and now one filled by individuals focused on side hustle’s or other “main” interests, while they wrench bicycles by day. Few even actually ride bikes themselves. The average bush mechanic (read non professional mechanic, but passionate cyclist 😁 ) is in my opinion, levels better in experience and equipment setup.

These are giant gavia pro tyres, actually bought these after I was told that continental gp5000 tyres i initially supplied were not compatible with the giant rim. In hindsight I should have pushed back, although the gp5000 do have a reputation for being super tight. I’m more convinced now that the rim supplied by dragon is defective.

The problem with these wheels is that the nipples are only adjustable from inside the rim, tape and tyre removed. Once the tire goes back on, it seems to develop this wobble, as if the rim itself is defective or too soft. I’m told the spoke tensions are all checked before the tire is refitted. I’d be curious to hear about experience with the p-slr giant wheels, i can’t imagine this is a spoke issue.

Uploaded to Youtube for easier viewing

This seems like the right place to ask for an opinion on some work that was done by dragon sports. Long story short, i asked Giant Cape Town to replace a rim on my Giant Propel (SLR 0 65mm deep section). These wheels have been awesome, but after some damage, decided to replace. On the 15-Feb i was invoiced R5500 for a complete set of spokes and the rim, but have not felt comfortable with the work done by Dragon who themselves carried out the work. I got the wheel back after being with them for two weeks, and from the video am slightly disturbed at just how untrue this wheel is. I asked Gert for comment, and am quite surprised: "In my view the rim is well within spec. The deviation is slight and mostly the result of imperfections inherent in the complexity of producing carbon rims. The overall dims and wall thickness always have slight variances. The deviation you see there will not impact the ride quality as the centreline is stable." Any wheel builders out there with experience with the P-SLR product care to comment? IMG-9526.MOV

anecdotally and slightly off topic, but in support of this statement, ive made a couple of purchases on the hub lately where the condition of the item was not quite as advertised, or missing accessories i needed to buy. in both cases, buying new from LBS would have been cheaper and probably quicker to get done.

if something is to good to be true, it always is ... new hubbers should be forced to use bikehub pay IMO until at least 3-5 successful sales have been executed.

I bought the cartoon top that was trending on various socials - honestly a great fit and has lasted several washes. As far as fit goes, unlike Ciovita and a couple of others, the pockets dont hang off your butt, they actually sit nicely above your butt when loaded. A pet peve of mine. The shop in De Waterkant is worth checking out for sizing, but from my experience a large is a large.

One legged drills are not to uncommon. I recall James Reid training with this contraption—> https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/components/groupsets/cranksets/powercranks-x-lite-review/