RiderX

Dont stress too much everyone has a bad day on the bike sometimes where things doesnt want to work out well. This is very normal, some days you just have more fun on the bike than on other days. My advice would be to first go ride a trail that you know quite well and enjoy riding. You will feel much more relaxed and then you can go and try the more difficult track again. You will start with a lot more confidence and be able to focus much more on your riding. You can ride with some friends that are on the same skill level as you are for this but try to do at least one ride every now and then with people that are more skilled. Riding with skilled people can be stressful for beginners but is the best way to eventually progress. Look for what they are doing and ask lots of questions, most people would be very happy to help out. The good news, beginners can progress much faster than skilled riders, so before long you will become much faster and start keeping up with them!

Real Mountain biking = Riding your bike in the mountains. Surprised how many people still doesnt seem to get this.

Hope this guy realises he sounds like an old stuckup lady who has nothing else to do but complain! At least the article could have been funny, which it is not and in the end just a poor attempt at trolling.

Where exactly did the cable snap? The only place I can think of for this to happen is at the cable bolt where you clamp the cable. If this is done too often or the bolt is tightened too much, the derailleur cable can become worn here and possibly snap.

Not all metal pads are equal. It also depends on what brand of brake pads you decide to use. For instance Ive found that Shimano metal pads makes a huge noise and I have had much better success with alligator replacement metal pads. Resin pads wear a lot quicker when riding in muddy conditions. If you gonna use this then make sure you take a couple of spare sets with.

Midas stocked the Castrol Mineral oil for Citroen aswell the last time I checked. However me and another guy decided to rather import a litre of the stuff from CRC for cheap and then split the cost and oil in half. Here: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=5620

Had a good look at all the stuff on the site and its looking great! Will have a look here first when I need something again. EDIT: How about stocking some DH pants. Can't find these anywhere!

Cool glad I could help, enjoy the ride the GT is going to be a lot of fun!

If this: http://www.evanscycles.com/products/gt/avalanche-10-disc-2011-mountain-bike-ec024766#features is the spec then the spec is also looking very good. Like the serfas it is much better than the other 2 choices. Unfortunately you dont get an air fork but the drivetrain is much better. Im not too sure about the GT hubs you'll have to research what people think about that. Its a close call between the two but I can definitely recommend the GT. Please do make the salesman understand that the 2011 GT is an old model and that you should get some discount on it. Then it would be a very good deal for a first hand bike. To be honest I dont really like either the Silverback or Axis. Silverback is only 8 speed and today one expects to atleast get 9 speed even on entry level bikes. The Axis have some unknown inhouse components in critical areas such as the hubs and rims and I really dont know how these are but expect them to be of lower quality and heavier than more well known components. Both have low performance Suntour forks which is really bad. If both cost about the same then the silverback is probably the better buy even though the axis is 9 speed.

Yeah best to leave the scratch it doesnt seem that bad and your bike (and you btw) are still going to get lots of scratches, its part of mountain biking. With a new bike its always painful to see but after a while you wont care about all the scratches that much.

The fork and wheelset are the most important components to look at when buying a bike. Between the three the Serfas is by far the best value, then the Silverback and lastly the Giant. I really wont go for the Giant the spec is horrible. Also look at what mongoose has on offer they are often a good choice for an entry level bike. If you decide to go with the Serfas then the first thing to upgrade would be the drivetrain. This needs to be changed in any case after you have been riding regularly for say a year and a half and therefore you can afford to save a bit here for now. One other option you can investigate is to go second hand. For R5000 you can find a much better hardtail than you will ever find first hand. This is the best route to go for an entry level bike imho especially since the second hand hardtail market is rather saturated. Be sure to take someone with that knows something about bicycles to view the bike with you though.

Sounds like an AM bike would be ideal for this course. Damn if I knew about this earlier I might actually have flown over to PMB for the weekend!

Medals should be chocolate wrapped in gold foil, that way you can either keep them or eat them.

Running tubeless without sealant is a bad idea. You dont really want to get a puncture with UST since its much harder to open up the tyre and put in a tube than with a regular tyre. Especially in a race this is the last thing you want to be struggeling with.

Please also post a pic of this frankenstein of a bike

Sounds like you want a 100mm fork. Unfortunately all the Fox forks are pretty expensive. The cheapest ok fork is a RockShox Tora but they are a bit heavy. If weight is a problem try and go for a Rockshox Recon Solo Air they are great value for money. You should be able to buy one second hand from someone for a very good price.

The whole "track please" thing is the wrong way to approach the situation imho. You need to wait until there is a suitable place to pass someone, then loudly say "Passing right" or "Passing left", then go for it and say "thanks" as you are passing the guy. There will be a spot at some stage on the singletrack where the track widens and an opportunity presents itself to pass and the rider that's behind needs to take this opportunity. Its not up to the guy in front to make way for everyone that wants to pass, as long as he is on the bike riding. A request can be made if it is a low speed situation but then its up to the rider in front whether it is safe and convenient for him/her to make way. In all cases the rider that's behind takes responsibility. Of course if someone is not riding and walking the course then this must be done off the main line and well out of the way of the guys that wants to ride. With bottlenecks unfortunately you just have to wait your turn and this is one of the main reasons why I dont do much racing anymore.

Take the tyre, bend it a bit especially around the sidewalls. If there are cracks then you probably need new ones but if everything looks fine then it won't suddenly develop problems on the trail either.

Well I for one would buy from you if you can get some decent full finger gloves as well as riding shorts with side panel protection which would be great for downhill. These are hard to find and I know motorcycle shops only sell long protective pants.

I'll be there either with my AM or DH bike, what time you keen on riding?

O man I wouldn't mind doing this again for a change but I fear i won't be fit enough. The 45km sounds brilliant though

I don't think there is anything wrong with charging as much as you like for your second hand bike. Those that have tried to sell a second hand bike will know that it is extremely difficult to get anything close to the original value of the bike when selling since the market is saturated. The buyers have a wide range of bikes to choose from and will from their side always try to negotiate a price lower than advertised. Sometimes so much lower that the offer becomes ridiculous, wastes the seller's time and becomes dependent on the seller being desperate for money. Is this behaviour from the buyer unethical? My opinion is when buying anything secondhand one should atleast have some idea of the value of a new model and look at lots of different options. Someone hunting for a second hand bicycle on bidorbuy is already on the web and a simple search in google will bring up available bikes on thehub as well. So it becomes very easy for the buyer to do the research required before making the purchase decision. Being ignorant in this regard is the buyer's mistake and unfortunately in business this means you loose out.

Wow this is an excellent idea to get people into this thing

I also find CRC's service to be great. When stuff are wrong/damaged they make a big effort to ensure that the customer wins out of the situation.

Ja I did the job myself had some help here and there though Basically all the main pivots that contains bearings needs to be removed. But you might have to remove some additional pivots depending on the frame. You may need to remove the crank aswell to get to some of the pivots. I would suggest looking at the tech manual of your bicycle manufacturer. Took me about 3/4 day to do it this includes all the time I wasted looking around for missing tools, driving to the shop to get bearings etc. Also it was the first time I did it so I was super cautious. I think if your workspace is neat and in order it will take a lot less time. Luckily I have one of those BBB mini torque wrenches which came in very handy. You have to be willing to take it slow and spend the time thinking things through and researching stuff on the net when doing this yourself. Since it can take a lot of time. Otherwise the bike shop is prob a better bet. But if you enjoy this kind of thing then def go for it its a great learning experience and you save some cash in the process.