RossW

Hahaha, punishing me for getting on the 29er wagon! Yea, emailed them and now waiting .... Gavin, maybe keep that 29er Fox close at hand dude. I hope they will reimburse full courier fee if/when I send it back to them... Oh the joys of a "bargain"

So today I head over to my local post office to collect my most recent CRC order. I check the inside of the box to confirm it is all there and I even go as far as checking the stickers on each box to make sure it's the right stuff. You see where this is going .... I get home and prise open my bounty. Open my fork; Reba 29er SL taper and what do I find?! A Revelation Race standard steerer 26". So now I have paid duties etc and from reading previous threads it seems to get the duties back is near impossible. I really don't want to spend MORE money on sending this fork back and then sitting with a potential credit because hey don't have stock now. And then MORE duties when hopefully the correct fork comes. Do I flog it here, on TheHub or send it back and just swallow hard?

Gosh! Will just have to go black hubs then. I only want Hope Pro II's.

I love it! I have the black as well so it's great sort of knowing what my bike will look like finished. The only difference is I have a black RS Reba. Are you in the PMB area Edgar? There are now 3 Chumba's here Going for a X7 2X10 kit as well and Green Hope Pro II's and Green ESI grips. How did it fair at Karkloof? What did you get your weight down to?

Oh man, cannot wait to have mine built up and on the trails!

How does it ride D?

How does that Nobby Nick roll as a general purpose marathon 45 - 70km tyre? I have a Maxxis Aspen now but wanting to move full UST tyre soon. It's a Racing Ralph at the back for sure!

Oh heavens yes, you are right about that. Now you have 40mm instead of 25mm of usable travel on a 100mm fork

I've used both the monorail and crossmark. Monorail was really nice as a rear tyre. I did try it as a front and didn't issues. The C-shaped lugs seemed to dig in and provide pretty decent cornering - mostly moist ST or powdery ST here in PMB. Do not bring a cross mark near me! I will karate chop that thing to pieces! I may just be one of those 2% of riders who have used it and who don't like it. Case closed. I have been looking at the Race King as a rear but I don't like the Mountain King as a front. I want something a little more "free rolling" Many here in KZN have suggested the Mezecal (sp) from GEAX as a front and then your pick of small block 8, Saguaro, AKA or RK as a rear. I'm very tempted to get the GEAX combo or maybe a Racing Ralph front and back.

I would never even consider the Dart 3! I'd rather had a rigid fork, seriously! A mate has the F80 terralogic from about 2007 and it performs better than my now replaced Recon solo air 2008. XT brakes are decent. Got them currently. Stopping power could be better but I do run very holey rotors with sintered pads.

Both of those weekends suit me.

I have an old Giant Rincon which has a 1" steerer tube. Will be converting to SS commuter bike but now my question; where can I get a 1" stem? I have a standard bar, not the OS 31.8mm one. The current stem is rusted and manky looking.

The UCI World Cup weekend is certainly out of the question! In May the weekend of Saturday 14th May is also out. Also not available in July on the weekend of Saturday 2nd of July. Otherwise I'm pretty free

Count me in! Making the trip from PMB will be no hassle at all. Now to set a date .... and venue I would guess.

Karkloof in KZN?

Heavens I'm keen!

It's a great course! The most challenging course that I have ridden in my 3 years of MTB. There is nowhere to hide. Recovery time? No such thing. Cannot wait to see the pros ride it!

173cm and 60kg. I love watching a big guy sweat blood up a hill. And they don't beat me down the other side either!

+1 on that. 4 bar! WOW! I have mine at 22 and 24 psi (easier to read and fine tune than bars) I can honestly say I have never pumped my mtb tyres that hard!

1.72m 60kg Santa Cruz Medium (18")

I really like the bonus of getting fit while doing the "commute". Nothing like sitting in traffic for even 30 minutes knowing that you now have 30 minutes less of riding time in the afternoon! Makes my blood boil .

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Turning the shock around and the "locking" bottle and Bos even has the "cheaper" bottle in there that I use. Good on ya mate

I haven't read all the pages but here are my suggestions - my apologies if I duplicate. With regards to fitting the bottle in the front triangle. If like me, you have a shock that attaches on the top tube ie Superlight or Zula, turn the shock around so that the can is closer to the rear triangle and the stanchion of the shock is towards your bottle cage. When you mention the seat post holder losing bottles; try finding a bottle which "locks" in to the cage. Meaning, the Specialized cage which I have on my seat post has a lip which locks onto the specialized bottles. There are other bottles (cheaper! ) which fit as well. I ride plenty of rocks gardens, ski jumps and rutted roads and have never lost a "locking" bottle.

Thanks for the great ideas everyone! Having some spare shoes at work seems a must and makes sense as they are the heaviest bit of clothing. I'm going to give the Camelbak Lobo "backpack" a try with jeans and shirt for the day (wrapped in a plastic bag for sweat defense). Will have a drawer saved for socks, undies and deo and FOOD! I will most certainly be doing the riding in riding kit - much more comfortable in my opinion even if for only a 5km ride on the days I do not feel like doing a 'long ride' before. This is going to be an exciting start to commuting. Luckily there is a company car for use so I really do not need my car to stand in the sun all day. Maybe in suggesting theses ideas to a noob commuter; entrenched commuters may hear of ideas to refine their system ....

I like your idea of driving maybe once and leaving clobber at work. Makes the backpack that bit lighter each day. Thanks Mampara! Although, I even dare to think that a Camelbak sans bladder could carry trousers and a shirt (in the bladder compartment) - I have the one which is one down from the Mule. I think I will be surprised at the distance covered Tubehunter if I were to do a longer ride each day. Will certainly lift the fitness level and get one used to distance. It'll be a minimum of 125km a week I have a great 'longer ride' which is about 24km and ends 500m from work - bingo! That bit is solved.