TomvdP

Hmmm, I tried ghetto, but as cheaply as possible: 2 X BMX Tubes 1 X Ryder sealant Cost ~R120 Had two new folding monorails and an air compressor - but couldn't get the one to hold air for more than 3 hours, the other lasted a day. Tried riding it like this but it kept burping air, despite being much harder than when I use tubes. I abandoned the idea until recently when I was donated a bottle of Stans, which has been sitting on my desk for 2 months tempting me.

Excuse the hijack (although this is still pretty relevant) Does a tubeless conversion (non-tubeless rims with Stan's conversion, UST Tires) hold air as well as a full, properly tubeless system or will you have to add some wind everytime you want to ride? How about ghetto tubeless? I realise that everyone's experience with each system is going to be different but I am just trying to get a general idea - I have heard that UST systems never leak, whereas ghetto and Stans (or any conversion kit, really) tend to produce mixed results. Is this true because I have been putting off going tubeless until I can afford to do it properly... /hijack

Guys please don't be so stupid as to buy this, it is a total rip off... Rather get it off Gumtree, R80 there Link to ad

I nearly smashed my keyboard against my face when I read that this thing has a waterproof limit, until I clicked the link and saw that it is a watch as well; and as a watch it actually looks quite funky. At least these have SOME practical use, just dont get me started about its infra-red, ion nonsense.

It should work, I have done a similar thing and my costs were: Chain tool, crank puller (borrowed a BB tool) and cable housings. Other possible costs are cables, if your current ones are too short - unlikely on a scott scale; also, if your steerer is too short you will give yourself all sorts of headaches. Another thing to consider is can you take the headset over, and if not you will need to change the crown race on the fork. Even will all the complications, for me the most difficult and time consuming part was aligning the gears.

Yea, I would agree with that to an extent - I have always worked on 1.6 BUT It depends on the route, when I was starting out racing last year I hit it off with the Tru-Cape MTB 20km, the went on to Die Burger 30km - my TIME in the 30km was better than the 20km (complete with the traffic jams at every single track) simply because that was a drag race through farm roads rather than long climbs and technical singletrack. Not to mention that by average speed for the Knysna 50km was better than my Argus ave spd (mind you, there weren't any massages in Knysna to slow me down) 1.6km Road -> 1km MTB is a good starting point but don't use it as a hard rule. I have a roadie friend whose first MTB race was the Tru-cape 50km this year, he believes it is way more than 2km road per 1km mtb after that - and I wasn't far off from agreeing with him!

I cant say much for the Dart 3, but if it is anything like the dart 2 it is terrible. I had one and under no circumstances could I ever get it to compress more than halfway through its travel (done experimently to eliminate all variables by standing on the crown) - and that would only happen at low speeds; quick knocks were wholly ignored. I since upgraded to a Tora 318, 500g lighter than the dart 2 but about the same as the dart 3. I tried swapping bikes with a friend one day and felt all the old problems I had before as well as plenty of flex, something I noticed when coming off the Tora. I have also done the same with a friend who has the Suntour and was pleasantly suprised - it's no Tora, but I didn't notice any flex and it almost as plush, felt very good. Hope my thesis makes sense...

I find that hard to believe, maybe they didn't know what a cassette is... All the more reason not to use them I suppose

What nonsense, moving the magnet closer to the rim will make the computer think its going faster. What you really want to do is move it inwards, where your tangential velocity will be lower. You clearly have no idea how those things work

hmmmm, I always thought the Trek 69er was a good idea until looking at this. With this setup you get extra speed from the larger diameter rear wheel with all the handling of a 26er. Like this you will also go faster uphill (more distance covered per rear wheel rotation and all that), and faster downhill (thanks to weights comparable to DH bikes) I wonder why no-one has thought of this before, Giant's big R&D dept is clearly sitting picking their noses - come on Morewood, time to really make your bikes stand out.

when I bent my seatpost I couldn't see the bend at all, not even when I lied it against a flat surface. The easiest way is just to try another seatpost and see if that goes in easily.

I don't know what to say if the frame is bent. BUT I have done something similar, landed funny (haha) after a dropoff and after that my seatpost was really tough to adjust. I too thought I had bent my frame because there had been very little seatpost in the frame, but by checking with another seatpost I found that it was in fact the seatpost that had been bent. Sorted it with a new, longer, seatpost.

how does he expect to sell without pics on the couch???

I would be interested to know this as well. When I was buying pedals I was told that the 540 (or was it 520, can't remember) did not have sealed bearing and the XTs did, I was actually advised to buy the Ryder SPDs because (apparently) at that price they are the only pedals with sealed bearings, they are also noticably lighter than the XTs (confirmed). But one year on the bearings are often making unhappy noises - for quite a while now, however, they come with a lifetime warranty so no harm done really.

I would say the GT, for some reason the specs on their website are lower than what it comes with. I have a friend who bought this bike last year and even though the site said 8-speed deore, the bike came with 9-speed SLX - if you look closely in the picture too, you'll see it as well. (edit) not with this pic it seems, but you will see if you look at the bike in a shop. Also, I would avoid the Dart II like the plague - if you buy the GT you can at least put the money you saved towards a better fork. At present the only gripe he has with the stock bike is that, painted onto the handlebar is "For best performance, grip handlebar firmly at both ends" tom8932010-06-08 01:41:17

I have also always wondered this, I'm pretty sure that the main factors are the headtube and for far forward the wheel is on the fork (like how older road bikes had bent forward forks). This is just an educated guess as my previous bike was a fairly slack trail bike, which was very easy - and my current bike is a more race centered XC bike that is a lot more difficult. Also, I discovered that if the wheel isn't true and you try ride 'no-hands' the front wheel can get into a very exciting wobble.

My word, this video is bordering on life-changing

TOP TIP Buy last year's models I was in this same position last year - If you wait another month or two the bike shops will start trying to make space for 2011 stock, so prices come down. I also found Cyclefactory (http://www.cyclefactory.co.za/bicycles/new-bicycles-from-cycle-factory.html) to be cheaper than anywhere else, they also put their prices online. I would look at the Scwinn Mesa GSD 2009 (R5100) - Deore RD, Suntour XCT fork, hyro discs and one of the most comfortable frames I have ever ridden. edit: wow, see above for same info tom8932010-05-28 08:26:42

I kinda like the sign - the only thing I would change would be to just have the first S being the girl. It is a bit hard to read otherwise - especially at a glance.

surely you will notice a decrease in rolling resistance much more than a 200g decrease - and I remember reading an article by Schwalbe that basically showed how their larger volume tires had less rolling resistance. tom8932010-05-27 16:49:52

Ok, while I agree with JB that no suspension can increase downforce on the wheel there are certain types that can resist compression under pedal induced acceleration. The diagram below shows Giant's Maestro suspension (and to a certain extent VPP - they are very similar) Green - Force by shock (actually down on the rear triangle due to swing arm) Blue - this is the important one, this is the force of the chain pulling the rear wheel forward, as well as the forward drive from the rear wheel. Solid red is the swing arms If the bottom swing arm was actually where the dotted red line is then all that forward force would be for nothing BUT By placing it at an angle when the forwards force is applied there is actually a downward force (on the rear triangle) from the lower swing arm which will prevent pedal bob. So lockout is actually not necessary on this system - unless your pedalling style is inefficient to the point where it overcomes this force.

I have also noticed a creaking in that area. Set about finding the source today and it turned out to be where the stem connects to the steerer tube. Dunno what to do about it though, sounds like the stem is fatigued - not sure what to do about it because it is quite a lightweight road/xc stem that I use for some pretty hardcore xc.

Most important for me is rolling resistance, grip comes second because for normal XC use you will rarely reach the end of your tire's grip. I had always used WTB Velociraptors until last year which have so much grip I believe that if you covered a wall in mud, you will be able to ride up it. But the draaaaag... I have settled on Monorails now, which I will recommend to anyone. Very fast rolling centre but when you lean it over it has much bigger 'C' shaped cups that bite into the ground.

Dont can the project, you say you are looking to make a bike for beginners... Now if you go stand in a bike shop for 10 minutes you will see someone come in, say that they are looking for a nice entry level first bike, and promptly be shown a R6000 bike. These are the sort of people that are looking to pay R5000 *max*. At the moment Silverback has this market taped with the Oakland, R2350 and you get a comfy bike with shocks and lockout. There are 2 reasons this isn't the first bike the shop shows you... 1) They don't make as much money so they may as well show you the R6000 and try sell it. 2) It is honestly, poo So If you can make a decent bike for about R3500-R4000, that's where the money will go. A cheap alu frame is important, but more important at this price is probably the paint job Must be comfy, keep it as racey as possible without compromising any comfort AT ALL Use a cheap, but real MTB groupset, you can easily go Acera/Alivio (or even no name on less important parts, maybe look at Microshift) all over - maybe a Deore RD for some bling (Deore is the cheapest "small" deraileur) If possible use disk brakes, even if they are mechanical, they work much better and will really make the bike stand out at this price point. I think this is possible, I remember Solomons running a special last year where they were selling Raleighs like this (Disks, Shimano) for about R4200. I really do believe this is a fantastic idea, don't can it. Edit: Silverback Saturn R4500 (hydraulic discs, Suntour shock), that is going to be quite hard to beat. tom8932010-05-21 05:11:59