quade

Wise words, they have always had high end kids bikes like Isla Bikes, his current bike is 8kg, but the new one is 12.3kg, and he just struggles to lift it as he's quite weedy, it's more about not putting them off than winning, and finishing and enjoying riding rather than struggling to handle a lead weight I spent my youth racing MTBs in the UK trying to keep up with my bro who was the UK MTB champion back in the day, I want to give my kids the opportunity to enjoy biking as much as I did I also really enjoy tinkering with their bikes ...it's therapeutic for me Regarding the cranks, I just bought a set of goldix cranks from AliExpress, very light and lots of kiddy sizes available

The current hubs are lead weights and feel like sand paper so will be charging these out as well so it's a new build, and since I'm starting from scratch I figured I'd do it properly 32 will work but will be heavier and you don't need 32 for 24" wheel on XC .... Enduro and jumps are a different story. If there is an option, I'd rather get lighter

Hey all My kids are racing in the Western Cape schools league, I bought a new bike for one of them, it's the lightest available but still horribly heavy, so I'm switching out the forks and trying to find light wheels I can find a 32 hole rim but for XC racing a 24 hole rim will be fine ( he doesn't jump) Any ideas where to find the rim so I can kick off a wheel build project ? Alternatively are there any other light weight rims or wheel sets in 24" available ? Thanks Mark

I've just ordered a set of these for my 9 year old: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005335472302.html I went for the 155mm crank with a 30T chain ring and BB They do lengths from 110mm upto 160mm Its only around 550grams so not bad, and cheap at approx $50 Downside is they will take a long time to arrive, I didn't fancy paying the same price again just for fast postage and although they have good reviews, I'm still cautious. It amazes me they put 175mm cranks on kids bikes, they are simply way too long. If you want to figure out what crank length your kid should be running there is a rough calculation: height (in CM) /10 +0.5 That will give you the crank length in CM so if your kid is 150cm tall 150/10 +0.5 = 15.5 CM (a crank length of 155mm) Read this article for more info https://kidsracing.co.uk/blogs/bikes/kids-bike-components-framesets-cranksets Remember to use a smaller front chain ring, I went with 30 but I deliberated 28 I'll run a 1x12 (11-51) setup on a XS 26er frame, so that should give him plenty of uphill granny gear range. The obvious problem is these kids grow quickly at this age, so I need to see him ride as he grows to figure out if I should move to a 160mm in future, one you get to 165mm, there are plenty of main stream crank options available, but under 165mm they are as rare as rocking horse poo

Thanks This link seems to have some interesting info https://thebikedads.com/kids-cranks/

Following this thread Is there a rough guide on age/height and crank size ? My 12 year old is riding 175's and was looking at shorter options Not sure how small they go off the shelf ?

Thanks all The bike rack from VW is meant to live on the car and you pull it down when you want to use it, and you can operate the boot when bikes are on without any adjustment so the convenience of that was super appealing, but the price wasn't The other suggestions look good, especially if there is a 6 bike version (assuming the rack is quick to fit) I'll add these to my consideration list

6 mtb bikes, so need 4 on this rack and will use my towbar Thule for the others if they can squeeze in the space

Hey all Thanks to everyone that contributed to this super old thread, we ended up in Somerset West, bought a house riding distance from Lourensford bike trails A nice mix of Afrikaans and English friends here, the SA crowd are super welcoming and lovely!

Hi I'm looking to buy this official VW Bike rack https://www.bodans.co.uk/project/vw-cycle-carrier/ https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305306219220?hash=item4715ab32d4:g:mggAAOSwHsBlc0WN&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4EWjGIzkf5x4Qo9%2FvG5mt3KezuJwZqu7CdwiQEti22cXFy5ykrDuoc5SbmEOey6TiOr%2FXb92BR4VbMt8h1ZuC06%2BaJm%2FaNvx5mDOSVMTxKzZKcNKz8Ac2RiaRVNHzSYJofjJ%2Ff1hiaPTwRz9uXTmKDqY6L2%2BSrhAUhs2wtWQh8SdsJPCtIN2%2FcIu09Jeu0CODjIGdeNNlluiWhb0aNRo4RyzwO%2BJslU3MuzFFfV4HJdweta1BFQRnAe45t0%2BBSPJZggpLRQkF%2FKUstHFq7jCu%2BGW7dQS94YDrfamlQ8AeWx1|tkp%3ABFBMhO-A14lj I contacted my local VW stealer, but they wanted R21,600 for it. Are there any other places to get this at a more reasonable price?

From my advanced (wikipedia) research it says Paarl/Wellington is mainly Afrikaans Is that still true? Would it be similar to durbanville or more afrikaans?

perfect thanks

Thanks fella. Paarl sounds financially tempting.... i'm a cheap skate at heart, growing up on the breadline and with single parent I got it drummed into me! And the security aspect is very appealing.

how much are asp.net developers with 4-6 years experience?.... I also need to setup a company and employee some guys

yup, thats exactly where i'm at!

thanks man. I earn in dollars, and the rand is very weak (as opposed to a strong dollar) So its grossly exaggerated right now, i'm sure that wont be the case forever. Sorry if I came over as obnoxious, I think we just live in different economies Its funny reading what you wrote, because we struggle to make ends meet some months: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Nairobi-rises-to-become-Africa-s-most-expensive-city/-/539546/2232544/-/bt1kjmz/-/index.html http://www.nation.co.ke/news/-/1056/2756246/-/14n1q2xz/-/index.html All my SA friends are on BIG money here, i'm by far the poorest (my house is made of mud!...no honestly it is!) One SA friend calls it velvet handcuffs, they would love to move back to SA, but the NGO packages they offer here are very good money, and they said they could never get close to it in SA, these guys are easily on double or triple what I earn. People seem to come out on 2-5 year contracts you would be looking at earning 10,000 USD per month to live comfortably and still save a little each month (without kids) If you got offered 5,000USD, it wouldn't be worth coming (certainly as a family) My friend has 4 kids, and it costs him about R 1,100,000 just in basic annual school fees (no trips, lunch etc included) State schools aren't an option here. So yeh, just vastly different economies!

Is Paarl worth me considering given my criteria? and is it loads better for security then? If so i'll add it to my list of places to visit when I head down

Thanks man Yes i've watched it nose dive and seen the link to precious metal with the ZAR, although i'm not that clued up on the economy I don't really want to spend any more than R90K a month unless i'm investing in a house or plot of land I guess what you are saying is the house I buy maybe worth sod all in future if I ever want to pull the money out, thats fine with me, I've got investment/rental houses in the UK that are for the retirement fund, but if i'm settling in SA, I will want to own a home I just hate throwing away money on rentals as a long term option....it feels so wrong! ....Unless you guys are thinking its only a matter of time before you leave SA due to the political situation seems to be the in most of Africa!

my interest rate on uk house is 0.89% Doubt i'll get that, but will easily get 5% or below

My neighbour visited christmas time and said he wants to buy a house and retire in George Sounds pretty nice!

9% interest in SA...fudge that! I'll probably offset against uk house and get a euro mortgage Thanks for the heads up, will get on gumtree now

R35K buys me a house? not sure what that means is http://www.property24.com/the best site for looking at rentals?

ok thanks staff costs are a lot more expensive (i knew there must be something!) Does that mean its about 5-6k a month for someone full time?

potentially a loaded question you didn't mention staff, I take it people don't have cooks, cleaners, nannies, gardeners etc?

Thanks for all the info, I can really work on a budget now!