swoosh1973

Kandui Please OM when next you do this ride. I am diffinetely interested! PLEASE

Guys. A BIG THANK YOU!!! This is very valuable tips and believe me I will be taking your advice to heart. MT BIKING is a seriouse part of my life. I do road riding too but only for big races or if a team of freinds ask me..not realy my thing if I can help it. I just love single track but I also require seriouse and mean long climbs to feel that I get a decent workout fix.

I will be moving to Pine Town (KZN) area in January 2010. Where can I find loads of trails near Pinetown? Where can and cant I ride? Any safety tips? Any incidents and bike jackings? Besided Giba gorge what are the best options. Group rides, organised rides? PLEASE HELP. I am comming from Sommerset West in Western Cape and I am very spoilt with ride options.

Johan B my man!!! I always enjoy your posts....good on you mate. Tell it like it is. I recently lost 6kg in 3 months. That has made one heck load of a difference in my cycling and certainly more than loosing 6kg of my bike. I have realised that I am only an above average rider and that if my bike was 6kg lighter I would barely improve my ride time by a few minutes difference! 6kg of my lard arse body has seen me improve my last race time for the lourensford Classic by more than 30 minutes. 3hours 56 minutes! versus 4 hours 28!No weight reduction on my bike of 6kg could give me those results. Stuf the fancy shmancy bike crap. Go for reliabilty rather than price and branding and focus on your riding instead! , NOW GETTING BACK TO WHEELS. You said that the HOPE hubs are more resistant to pressure washers, riding with hubs through rivers etc? These are all things I like to do. Yes I know I am not supose to but krums I am too nackered after every long ride to bother with soft spunges and gentle flowing water away from BB's and hubs. Spunges and soft washes are reserved for the other women in my life. These are all things I like to do despite your advice not to. Do these HOPE hubs allow me to pressure wash and ride rivers with say once every 6 months open and regrease?

THANK YOU SOO MUCH FOR THE ADVICE!!

Rock..thanks boet..now I am getting somewhere!

Thanks. What do you mean by "engaging points"?

Ok, thanks guys. But going on a wheel building course and building weels once in 5 years. Im not sure if thats practical for me. I would rather have him build them. I just thought there might be someone on the hub with experience and knowledge on the subject of what the actaul best components are? I dont want tp pay through my nose and find that actaulay XT is the same quality as XTR except for weight. Budget? R3000, tubeless yes. Kilometers covered per week. I average60-90km a week of actual MTB riding. Enjoy many races. Ride in the Cape. But will be moving to KZN in January.

If you know about wheels for MTB please enlighten me as to what the best hubs and hoop combination for Cross country endurance riding and why? Also what makes a hoop or a hub quality in your opinion? I am looking for something with the smoothest rolling motion possible, with the highest resistance to wear and going out of true. Weight is not my biggest concern. Not sure what to choose. Then I plan on finding a good wheel builder. None of these factory built stuff no more. I am tired of rims that go out of true and loose spokes. I have been told a good wheel builder does a better job than a mchine? Opinions on this would also be welcome

Helliose, the advice above makes sense. You need to build lactate threshold. However this is not as simple as it sounds because you build lactate threshold with very high intensity. What nobody tells us is that we cant do this every day and fewer people emphasises how crucial it is to recover correctly after such sesions. Correct recovery makes the difference. This is what makes us stronger not the actual training itself. So understanding what nutrition to take during and after high intensity sesions and when is in essence the secret. My riding improved substantialy when I began to understand that recovering correctly is worth more than the actual training sesion itself! The learning curve is for you now to explore the details of what foods/drinks and intervals, rests and programmes are appropriate for you. Yes there are generalisations but we are all unique. One mans rule is another mans curse. Correct recovery applies to everyone.

:rolleyes:Have a good hour of bedroom gymnastics just before bed. That works like a charm!

Morewoodmad...I agree 100%. I voted in agreement with events being too much..however I was not referring to races like Die Burger. It seams the average is between R90 and R150 to ride some fantastic fun rides here in the Cape. Consider that we usually have less than 500 participants per event in the Cape it's excellent value for money, because theres infrastructure, standby medical, trail preparations(yes thats correct) trails are refurbished and made friendly in many races to allow for flow, which contributes to the fun factor irrespective of your level of fitness. This costs big bucks. Otherwise enter the cheap races in Gauteng and be happy with riding boring public dirt roads. The proceeds are often also donated for some or other charity. Races often take place on land where purpose built bike trails exist. Purpose built trails are very expensive see Amarider(who I support) Furthermore compare to other sports like running. These range from R40- R90 for an average normal event but they have thousands of people entering and only need to arrange with authorities for road closure, an ambulance or medical team have no trails to prepare and proceeds go to the running club organizing the race and sports bodies. In this respect the R180 is not excessive for such a small field usually. Die Burger is a big race on Cape Standards but is still small compared to Gauteng races unless something as changed since my move to the Cape. However I object to the stage race prices..ABSA CAPE EPIC comes with an Epic entry fee per team(close to R30 000, Wine 2 whales and some others are over R10 000. I would love to enter a stage race. However I refuse to pay that even if I was able to afford it. Now the organizers of these races make no bones about the fact that they are there to make a profit and they are fully booked with a waiting list! Demand dictates pricing..end of argument.

Krums, Johan I dont have a favourite! I simply dont know enough other than what I got on your course. I liked the cartridge bearings because they are so eay to replace. You mentioned that they were about R80,00 at the time and expensive compared tpo the cone bearings, but considering what a new hub would cost that sounds reasonable. Now a very important question regarding the lubrication of cup and cone. I serviced mine some time ago and used some very fancy lubrication from america in machines we sell that have shafts sliding thousands o times a day. Its like a thick syrup, that maintains its viscosity at varying temperatures without thining and consequently draining. It also does not get absorbed in rubber seals so is safe to use on rubber o-rings compared to conventional petroleum based lubes. Is there any reason that I should not continue with thislube? Or do I have to use the so called grease suplied by the bearing people? How crucial is the type of lubrication used in the bearings? Also I think most of the friction on my bike comes rom the sprocket mechanism on my hubs anyway.

Just thought about it. If someones doing this ride at another time then I would like to join if thats ok. I stay in Sommerset West.

This is a great ride in my opinion. I have done it twice. The dangerouse section is between Grabow and Thee Watrskloof. No shoulder on some of those very sharp bends means that motorists going to fast around the corners will not be able to react intime but if there is oncomming trafic they would have to choose between us cyclists or the oncomming vehicle. I choose to ride the dirt with my skinny wheels risking punctures at that section.. I would be counted in if it was not for stock take Saturday 17th. Hopefully we can have it finished by Friday but this is rare.

Johan What type of bearings would you choose if you were wanting to do a downhill event and every fraction of a second counted? Hubs with cartridge bearings or cup and cone? Also what brand of hubs would you recommend and why would someone choose "x" brand over brand "y" if it only comes down to cartridge versus cup and cone? What sets brands like Hope, Chris King and XTR apart from someone purchaing the cheapest lightes hubs?

grrrrrrhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bike jackers beware!!!!

Dudes... Thanks for the techno posts, these were actualy excellent the 5 good ones out of 25 posts. But heck save the testosterone for the act of cycling. It has no place on any forum. Seriously, we South Africans sure get worked up in our fields of expertise. It is counter productive to active debate. The problem with us in SA is that any statement that gets remotely construed as a contradiction or goes against what we believe is taken almost personaly. Why? We are in essence in this techno forum a very small minority of the cycle community. Why not lets all change our way of thinking to debates of all kinds. Rather try to look at debates in this manner: To be proven wrong should never be seen as a reflection to oneself being a failure or stupid . Rather consider being thankfull to a person that shows one wrong as a succes and reveleation for being proven wrong is what opens ones eyes to the path of enlightenment. This in turn gives you the gift of a more advanced understanding of the things that make up this wonderfull world. Why not be gratefull to someone that shows one a new way of thinking and not ridicule each other in agresive tones. This in turn will encourage people to express their views without fear of being nailed in a condescending manner. Being rediculed may cause people with a different perspective to clamp up. Thus keeping their thoughts and ideas to themselves resulting in an overall loss of exposure to fresh ideas and thoughts that would have freed you to a new way of thinking. Sorry for asking the question..my BRAIN is fried

I have ridden the following tyres.:MK, Race kings, Maxis crossmark, LarsonTT and GEAX Mezcals and Continental "double edge". and Specialized the Captains. My personal allround favouriet and first chouce. Specialized Captain in the back. Geax mezcals in the front or Continental "double edge" Why Specialized the Captain in the back? They are the fastes rolling tyres on hardpack that still offer excellent mud clearance, better than averag grip on cornering and the best ever grip on steep wet rock ascents I have ever had the privilidge of riding. I use to swop my Continental "double edge" n the back. I have now experienced that if your riding hardpack then sure the double edge or mezcalls are superb. BUT, the Captains roll almost as fast, offer excellent mud clearnace and superior grip on wet rocky ascents like I have never seen before. Do not be fooled by these tyres becuase the tread has gaps on the ridge. These tyres fly on hardpaack despite the misleading apearance. In adition if you take sharp corners they just dont loose traction. The disdavantage is the wear very quickly. You will be lucky to get 1500km before the side walls show damage before the tread weares. Geax mezcals in the front or Continental double edge. Because your weights in the back the centerlines are smoother offering much faster rolling and the knobs on the side are big offering good control on cornering. They are problematic in mud even if only on the front Oh and once you have Thed Captains on theres no need getting use to thats for sure. There is a market difference in ride quality(for me at least)

Does any body know how the mechanism of this brain shock works? They sound absolutely awsome? Any expereineced riders on these bikes and how these shocks compares to the ususal rock shocks and Fox, Manitou etc? Anybody know the brain mechanism? My brains being fried trying to figure out the tehnology behind it

Stephan Well said, you are spot on. Also from personal experience a simple ding on metal or alu not serious. If ridden you will not have a catastrophic failure causing an accident. However the rider needs to inspect that part after every ride. What happens in my experiene is that a hairline crack may start to develop. Once this happens you can eithe repair it or replace the frame depending on the value of the bike but the bike can not be ridden safely from here again. By the look of it being a steel frame its probably cheaper to replace than to repair.

Sorry no need to reply, I just spotted your post on the broken fork, now I understand

Coola, yYou seem to have some daggers out for them?

OB is Jaques Oberholzer who is the mechanic of mechanics man. If you are finicky about your bike then he is the man to work it.

Well the reality is as I can see that bikes prices are insane from any dealer even CRC. If I see what other goods cost. For example a (Vuka scootas from Builders warehouse in Cape town are less than R5000. How the hell do they make a motorised bike in China, import it and then still retail at less than R5000!!!!!!!!!!. Dont believe me, go have a look at Builders warehouse in Paarden eiland. After that sobering thought I was wondering how I get suckered in paying R1200 for a set of dikwiel tyres. There are too many middlemen. The copmonents probably get mass produced in china, shipped to Europe and USA, painted and decalled, shipped to wholesales, who ship it to the LBS who assemble it for. In the end everyone puts their mark up. Then theres us the cyclists, that fall for the advertising hype not realising that a Shimano SLX is the same quality as shimano XTR with smoother shifting and a few grams of weight saving. We all hope the XTR will make us faster because of weight savings but does it realy help? It helps make your bank balance lighter and you get to shave a few sseconds of your 50km time. That means you go from position 421 out of 956 to position 405 out of 905. We as cyclists are also to blame as we allow ourselves to be suckered by marketing and being prepared to pay. The local chinese shops sell bikes for R500 wheels and all.