MORNE

If you are choosing between those, and 2 pot, the Formula Curas are monster stoppers in my experience. I use the non X version 2-pots on a 17kg enduro bike and they rival many 4-pot brakes ito stopping power and modulation. I like them so much i have 2 sets on different bikes. The X version just cuts weight but is the same epic system. Extra bonus is all the spares/parts are available locally - more than you can say for shimano or even sram in some instances. i like shimano brakes…but nothing more expensive than SLX - so you don't cry when you have to throw them away when they break because you cant find parts. if you are shopping in XTR territory, don't forget about Hope’s. (XCR X2 etc) Fully rebuildable locally too. Nice bling too.

‘Doing afrikaburn right’ is a slippery slope and things just go down hill from there. Might as well go full retard and take a DH bike😁 PS: legit thought about this pic when i read your post…this is pretty much the look you should be aiming for:

Yea you have the same problem but at the other end of the spectrum. Size S bikes are also considered a niche size - at least in SA. And Rare!. My wife is 170cm and i built up n medium Hyrax for her, but literally had to build it as the smallest medium size bike I possibly could so it could fit her right. Modern bikes are long.

Look Im not a bike fit expert by any stretch lol, but i’m very in tune with how i like my own bikes to feel when i’m on them and i know my preferences well enough by now that i can look at a Geo chart and know exactly what i would need in terms of components to make it fit me right. I can and do replicate that feeling as close as possible across many bikes, road-gravel-mtb. This is partly because I used to CAD them out on the computer haha. This made it possible to overlay different bikes to see how touch points were affected and what i needed to do to get the fit right. it could be as simple a saddle shape/position/height issue. Or even armpump depending on what trails you ride, which is very much a suspension and or tyre pressure related. It could also be a combo between reach and bar width. A 800mm bar on 450mm reach puts you in a different position than say a 760mm bar on the same reach. Backsweep, roll, rise too. Wider bars pull you forward. Many variables. But I’ll say If your saddle height measured to the floor is roughly the same as your grips to the floor, you should be relatively neutral and centerer on the bike which means the sizing is pretty close. Your arms are longer as you stated, that means you have room to play with in this regard. Lucky! It SOUNDS like your weight is slightly biased to the front which could mean you are keeping yourself up with your hands off the bar - leading to the issues you are describing. Negating someone with a washboard core and monster abs, you should be able to hold yourself up and have the grips float loosely between your fingers without wanting to ‘fall’ forward while seated and freewheeling along. “Heavy feet, light hands”. That has always been my gauge and how i know my bars/reach/stem are close to being in the right position. A very tall saddle combined with slammed bars or too long a stem will put your weight forward naturally, meaning you will be holding yourself up more with your hands than you probably should. Ofcourse some people want this too, as it results in more grip on the front wheel. Go feel both sizes out, move the bars around. Look for that heavy feet light hands feel. Avoid feeling stretched out. You’ll be pretty close then.

I’m 197cm, 1:1 ape ratio….and i can promise you that you don't need an XL. In fact..as @ChrisF alluded to, modern Geo means you might be lucky enough to try M or L bikes depending on brand and also what your preference is ito bike handeling. A smaller bike will feel less cumbersome ito handeling. I should probably be riding an XXL…but i’m not a dentist and dont have Santa Cruz money. There are only a few brands sold locally in these sizes…spez S6’s being one and SC being the other. Trek mskes small bijes so i dont regard their XxL too big. That being said, i prefer to ride XL bikes, with some caveats - knowing full well they are probably on the ‘smaller’ side for me. They are still massive bikes though and will never be as nimble in the twisties as L and M bikes. 480mm reach vs 520mm is huge. Then, ask any tall rider and they will all moan about how low the stack is on most modern bikes. Bike brands design bikes in size M/L and compromise all the others. Proportional sizing is rare. I want a frame with 680mm stack…instead i have to accept that 630-640 ish which is in most cases the same as a size M/L. I want longer chain stays, instead i get the same ones that are on a size S,M,L. Low stack automatically means 50mm risers to get a better seated position and more comfort with less strain on my hands. If a 300mm dropper post existed and could fit in a frame, i would be able to use one lol! I have some noticable saddle to bar drop even with 20mm spacers under a 50mm riser bar. Before droppers i had a hard time finding seat posts long enough (410-450mm to get minimum insertion) i currently ride a bike in XL that feels great…but its in the smaller side of the XL spectrum imo (495mm reach and a pathetic 637mm stack)..i mean there are size large bikes close to those numbers out there. BUT, it has proportionally sized rear triangle, as in..rear center grows with larger sizes…so its actually as long as an XL bike is supposed to be and it gets me in the center of the bike where others have me hanging off the rear. It rides great. Its still a boat (big long XL bike) but just rides so much better than many other compromised XL’s ive ridden in the past. In conclusion: Try a M and a L.

Yes, to simplify for those who might not yet know - basically fiber, since your body cant absorb it. So if something has lets say 20g of carbohydrates per serving, of which 5g is listed as fiber…net carbs can be expected to be around 15g. Also, dont take food labels as gospel. Its a well known fact that they can vary by up to 20%.

Me neither, all i meant to say is even if you fast but end up eating more than your expenditure…the fasting wont do anything if weight loss is the goal.

Agree, id say if this is how you want to try it @Robbie Stewart, try to cut carbs to under 10-20% of your total caloric intake. For most people 10% carbs on a calorie restricted diet is basically one apple. Eat around 30% ish protein and the rest fat. Be honest. Its hard, there are hidden carbs in everything..milk, fruit, starchy veg being most people’s downfall. I almost find it easier to just go full carnivore for 2-3 weeks to kickstart the process then settle into a loWER carb higher fat/protien cycle.

Although i’ve done IF on and off in the past, the thing that got me to drop 30kg around 2016 and keeping it off for the most part, was starting to eat more fat and protein. so yes…basically keto. but to OP, in. The end you can literally eat cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner ( probably shouldnt)…if you aren't burning more than you are consuming, you’ll stall and wont lose weight. No fad diet or magic bullet will chamgr that reality. You seem to be lying to yourself somewhere when it comes to calorie counting. As already mentioned, high fat foods are calorie dense. A small amount eats inyo those limits fast. They do keep you fuller for longer though. Just my personal XP. ps: i went from 197cm 110kg all the way down to the leanest ive ever been..79kg (race weight). I did ut to see what was possible back then. I also realised my body doesn't want to stay there. It’s much happier around 85kg…so these days, thats my goal.

Passing roadies on the gravel shoulder again were we? 😉

These are all roadies riding their ‘xc weapons’ on the road instead of the gravel shoulder👀- boggles my mind every time i see it. God forbid you go 1km/h slower by riding on the gravel shoulder with your OFFROAD tyres🤣.

You are starting to sound like one of those pre-covid table mountain mtb grouches… ”not enough gnar mah bru” oh..wait. 😊 all trails are fun in their own way and as difficult as you choose to make them. Too flowey and/or manicured? Go faster! (And hit the floor 40kph+ when it goes wrong instead🤣)

Many (or not so many) ‘eons’ ago brake pads in cars contained asbestos too, but hey, they worked great except for the increased heat generation and uneven wear patterns, oh..and the cancer dust. This meant discs warped way easier due to the huge temp deltas. Surely then you must know that discs wont warp by being briefly splashed by a small amount of water? Like say…in the rain…or what about driving through a large puddle. Hell, there were f1 teams using this trick in the 80s to cool brakes, exploiting a loophole in the regulations by adding water to the brake cooling system during a race, effectively making the car lighter through the race. On a bicycle, excess heat will glaze the pads and or boil the fluid way before warping the disc anyway. You are more likely to warp n bicycle rotor in a crash or by bumping it into stuff. On the topic of using water to bed in brakes…you are literally just using a squirt of water on the brake pads/caliper like you would when you wet sand something. You arent cooling anything to the point of a 100*C temp swing. I get roadies are a bit late to the disc brake party, but these are all tried and tested methods to break in pads/discs on mountain bikes. Imagine warping a rotor every time you rode in the rain or through some puddles. I wouldn't trust a ham fisted car mechanic to work on a bicycle that costs more than most the cars they work either 😅

Get them straight from the source instead: https://everydaycyclesupplyco.com/collections/restrap/products/top-tube-bag edit: on second thought… i forgot i actually have one 😅, PM me and we can discuss selling it to you for a fraction of new cost. I’ll even include a wolftooth B-rad so you can get it in the exact spot you need on the frame.

Dont know, not really that interested in riding XC/marathon events anymore. Plus…the people who do these generally go down the fast bits too slow and take away all the fun. And since we are on analog big bikes, they get annoyed with us on the climbs. Anyway, no riding bikes for me in the foreseeable future. Maybe in april i think (hope)…and even that will be going against what the Ortho is trying to preach🤣 (12 Months - sy moer). Im glad i didn't enter all the usuals late last year. Skipped on early bird CTCT too. I’m a bit over events anyway.

Your disks basically work because when you apply the brakes, a small amount of material from the brake pad is deposited onto the rotors, creating a friction layer. When you clean them, you remove that layer. So yes, when you bed them in initially / from new…you are basically trying to get pad material on them. As mentioned already, this is why water helps when bedding in a new/clean rotor…it makes a bit of a ‘paste’ which settles into the irregular braking surface better. They’ll be noisy for about 4-5 hard pulls but you’ll feel the power increase exponentially.

Im sure someone will correct me but I was under the impression that the whole epoxy PF BB thing was a common spez (carbon frame) practise - there was even mos that thread a few years ago about the guy and the spez shop and his cracked BB due to workshop error. As already mentioned, i also never had issues with the bike i had that used a PF42 standard with shimano reducing cups. Also, i only use Wheels Mfg bb’s these days. I have them on all my bikes. They are worth their weight in gold. The dub one on my enduro bike has ~7000km on it and it spins as smooth and free as the day i put it in. Their seals are just amazing.

Same for me when it happened to me luckily. Even took me to his place of work because in that moment i couldnt remember anyone’s phone numbers to call, i literally had to google her place of work as a work around🤣 - and i mean im the guy that remembers our house line from the 90’s, knows my wife, kids etc ID numbers, account numbers etc by heart lol. Funny how your brain prioritises when in that scenario. i drive a pretty ‘shitty’ car i dont care for that much. I will use it as an object to diffuse a situation without hesitation😅

I got me a set of South Industries enduro wheels on Hope’s late last year for a great deal and while the weight benefit was marginal at best, for me the biggest improvement was how the carbon wheels felt vs the alloys. Its almost like they feel more spritely, zingy, poppy…they ‘hold’ energy better while still providing amazing compliance and comfort. It’s something i immediately felt coming out of the first corner on them. Not very scientific i know…but they FEEL better and thats enough for me. i justify any bike purchase like this - if it makes me want to ride more…it’s better and worth it. They replaced a set of burly Hope Fortus 30’s on the same hubs (amazing wheels too) but the South wheels feel so much better in fast corners and going fast over chunky terrain. They also sound better. Its like the carbon build resonates the sound from the freebody differently to the alloy set with the exact same hubs on them. Its a huge investment for sure, but after taking the plunge i would deffo say it was worth it. in short, better wheels are more betterer than less better wheels😅

They know most motorists wont do anything. example - a few months ago there was that crash on the N1 incoming where a bakkie carrying workers on the back got hit by an out of control car - rolled over and threw bodies across all the lanes. That bakkie was the car right in front of my wife that morning. in shock, she stopped next to the road and then eventually realised she was the only one to do so. Realising there were obviously people hurt, she proceeded to phone it in just to check if help was on the way. City official said nobody had reported it - and said they rely more on a few random cameras along the N1 or a metro cop spotting it than the goodwill of other people calling accidents in. Apparently almost nobody bothers - because it’s not their problem. They asked how many ambulances to send out and that was that. One of the guys from the back of the bakkie died on the scene. So yea, i fully expect the average motorist to see it happen and proceed to do nothing, as ‘someone else probably will’. People these days will rather take a video for socials…

Death to press fit BB’s!!!

Brought them in from the UK. They make bike model specific ‘sets’ so you don't end up buying a set with 400 drifts you don't really need. The set for my bike is for 4 bearing sizes and i included extra drifts (you can buy them loose) for wheel/hub bearings. All the ones i need on my current bike. Thought it was a good way to buy what i need now and then eventually just ad extra drifts as needed. https://www.bearingprotools.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqEKZ_8xkO8tQjZ1MBer4XAamgiYWLzLcFT1-F64lSr-iwij71E

When i still chose to mess about with Press Fit BB’s….I used these: essentially turns a press fit shell into a threaded one by expanding that sleeve as you crank it down in there. Worked well enough and never had creaks. Lasted well too and are fully serviceable. But yea, these days if a frame is not BSA i don't even consider it as an option when im shopping. On a different but related home spanner note, i finally got me a set of press, extractor tools and drifts to do my pivot bearings myself. Once a shops does it more than twice it becomes close to what these bad boys cost. So decided to take the plunge. Also, tools are nice. I also did my first 50h suspension services this december. It was annoyingly simple, cant believe it took me this long to try it myself haha. Same with dropper services. But I enjoy working on my stuff and don't have 2 left hands either. I acknowledge not everyone has the time or patients though. Im virtually now emancipated from bikeshops - except for bleeding fork dampers or doing full services on rear shocks. That I’ll leave to the guys with the speciality tools and knowhow (for now😅)

Even after the second time on my right shoulder they cant ‘manoeuvre’ it in manually in E.R. They usually want to try and cant then manage..then go Xray to see why, ten put me under and i guess probably moer it in with a mallet or something😂🤷🏻‍♂️

My first dislocation happened in covid times and i was not allowed to go do a mri or see a physio - you know….non critical injuries and all that. I was also handed a inkjet printed copy /manual of shoulder rehab exercises to do at home by the ortho. I worked through it all and built up to the more advanced movements in about 4 weeks and it all turned out fine. I think if you are committed and have the right info to reference, a physio is not 100% needed. It depends on the injury obviously too.