Wally39

My favourite combo is DHF front and the Minion SS rear. Excellent grip, good rolling resistance and a ton of fun. 2.5WT front and 2.4WT in the back. I think the Hanger in Somerset West had stock of the gravity orientated Maxxis in recently

Yip, just got myself one of those. Waiting to get it into SA but that could take a while. I saw last night that they are now even more reduced. The Dee Dar has also been reduced to £150!!

Ja, I did that but am looking for a frame only option as I have almost all the parts for a build. From what I can see they do not have Slade frames only.

So, how much and where would someone find a Slade frame only? Asking for a friend as I, apparently, have enough bikes?

Strategies are going to be very different this year as opposed to previous years. Still a World Cup race after this, in a very tight season for both men and women. Guys with a shot at the over-all might have that in the back of their minds and not go as hard as they usually would at Worlds? Injury at Worlds could also blow their chances at the over-all. I think Bruni and Hannah might "suffer" from this. Pierron and Cabirou will just go full gas. They are my picks for the winners.

Any updates on Stephan Garliki? PB had him having a major off and being airlifted off the mountain? Healing vibes to him. Dude must have the worst luck.

I started riding 4,5 years ago at the tender age of 38. On cleats, and was very comfortable hitting most of the black and double black lines at Helderberg but knew my technique sucked. I could not manual or wheelie and that my bunny-hops were not legit. I felt like my riding was stagnating and wanted to make a change. About 2 months ago I got a bee in my bonnet (partly because I found OneUp composite pedals for R485). Got some 5 10"s and took the plunge. Was it woth it? To me, YES! My riding regressed as I could not do half the stuff I did before BUT that was temporary. I am now hitting about 80% of what i was doing before the swop and can feel my technique improving every ride. It recharged my love for riding. I now feel like a kid learning it all over again. Trying to pop wheelies, manual and bunny-hop at every opportunity, albiet not too succesfully yet. OP, stick with it. The benefits are real. On a side note, you use very different muscles on flats opposed to cleats (no hammies involved anymore). I have been going Dan Grobelaar Biokenitics for my lower back issues and had a bike setup done by him 6 months ago. Awesome setup, was very effective. Re-did it yesterday after the swop and can feel the difference straight away. Well worth considering.

To be fair, no, it was the control casing. Make no mistake, it was a great tyre and i was bummed when I destroyed it. The SS is just, IMO, better.

Was riding the Slaughter and loved it. Great rolling resistance with loads of cornering grip. Then it died and I replaced it with a Minion SS. No comparison, the SS wins hands down! Faster, grippier and i think going to be longer lasting too. got the DD casing.

I was running an Onza Citius 2.4 upfront with the Aggressor 2.3 rear and was very pleased with the combination. Last month I did the Piket-Bo-Berg 37km and decided to change things up a bit. Put the Aggressor up front and a Slaughter SS on the rear. WOW, I was blown away. Fast rolling, grippy and a confidence boost of note, altough the confidence boost could also be the wider handle bar I put on at the same time. Definately going to keep this as my summer combo. Funny thing is, the XC guys i did the race with (both on Epics) were ammused by me calling the Slaughter a semi slick. Has more and bigger knobs than their tyres. All about perspective.

Just put the Aggressor on 2 rides ago and have to say I am super happy with it. Haven't ridden in proper mud, or clay as we have in Somerset West ,but so far so good. Good consistent grip

+1 for going natural remedies. Last year was on my second round of anti-biotics for bronchitis and still getting no better. So I went to a naturopath friend of mine, got some remedies (mustard seed foot bath to name one) Cleared the infection with no extra anti-biotics. Took a bit longer to get better than taking loads of drugs but, for me, is the way to go. I now have this bugger of the flu but have gone the same route and am hoping to get back on the bike this weekend. Was at the doc today to get a sick note for work, so far I have kept a chest and any other infections at bay. Resting heartrate is still 80bpm so no exercise for a few days Oh, and the treatments are way cheaper if you don't have medical aid

I noticed that with the Citius, my face was getting peppered with sand. With the weather coming up in Cape town this week I will be putting the mud guards on, will see if this helps.

Can't agree with you more about the Citius. Holy cow, that thing grips up front. Not the lightest tire in the world. Been for 1 ride with it and am VERY impressed

Got these on Friday, did my first ride on Sunday and am very happy so far! Sun Ringle Inferno 29 rims with Novatech hubs and Wheelsmith spokes and nipples. Thanks William

I'm seriously looking at buying 1 or 2 spares before the hike comes in from the rand slump. I reckon R1000 is not too far away.

I took a Ra-Ra Performance and converted to tubeless and had no issues with it loosing pressure. Ran it for a few months with no issues. Admittedly it was on my 29er and I was still very much a nooby and thus not pushing it. As for the Spez purgatory 2.3, you won't be sorry you went for it

my experience with the conti protections was not great. When I set them up tubeless, it seriously looked like someone had pricked them a 1000 times with a needle. Air bubbles everywhere. They did settle down after a day but never held pressure properly.

Got the helmet about a month ago and the chin bar yesterday. Test run tomorrow morning early before the wind starts (hopefully)

Makes sense, good thing I bought a 1l bottle of Stan's

Ja, that's going to have to wait a while. The purgatory has only done about 100km and it's getting hard to justify the money to my wife. Going to run them as is for a while and then swop them around and see if there is a marked difference.

So about a month ago I got rid or the X-King I was running up front and replaced it with a Spez Purgatory 2.3. Super stoked with the grip I got and the confidence to push harder in the turns was awesome, but still had the 2.2 X-King at the back which was not much fun. This week-end I was pushing my limits on some trails and almost saw my chops because of the rear wheel washing out. So thanks to my bonus I was looking for a new rear tire. I bought a 2.4 WTB TrailBoss, which to me looks more like a rear tyre, but because it was supposed to be wider swopped it out with the Purgatory up front. As it turns out the Purgatory is 54mm compared to the Trailboss at 57 mm. I'm running 21mm internal rims. All I can say is WOW! The grip and handling of the combination is incredible! Super stoked with the new set up with not much increase in rolling resistance.

Yes, please

What he said. If you look at the pads they are almost twice the size of normal pads. This equates to way more stopping power and less fade on long descents.

You are going to enjoy those Zee's. Done 2 rides with mine and they are frigging awesome. Just take it easy with the front brake. It's pretty simple to shorten the cables if needed. I didn't even need to re-bleed afterwards.