capecyclist

It's easy to look at a situation and say what you'd have done. None of you except Bos were there, and he made a judgement based on what he thought was OK. I don't know the guy, but from reading his posts etc he seems like a pretty decent bloke. In hindsight, he says he should have stopped. I don't agree. Firstly, it was a race, and there were marshals and others to help out. Its not the same as being a solo climber onEverest stranded and having people walk past because they selfishly need to summit. Some people on this forum are just too bloody pathetic for words, snapping into 'moral' mode at the drop of a hat. If people were expected to stop every time someone falls there'd be no race, especially with MTB. I've fallen on descents before and had guys bunnyhop over me, ride over my bike and not once help out. Am I crying? No, it's a race. Get over yourselves FFS

Exactly, thats what will happen. So now we'll actually end up being worse off in the long run. The only good thing is that those shops that didn't collude will be able to keep their prices lower and hopefully people will migrate to them. This has all been coming for a long time, and as soon as the case has been settled it would be good to name and shame these shops involved, so people can avoid them. The short sightedness of these importers and shops always annoyed me. Do they honestly think people are THAT stupid? We all know the price of things, we all know we can get our goods cheaper online. Do they think we dont know that they buy directly from the manufacturer yet we still get things cheaper through an online shop? It's such an anti growth, greedy business model. Rather that supplying goods at fair prices, allowing people to buy decent bikes, and stimulate the growth of the industry, possibly seeing far more people becoming involved, they have chosen to drive Porsches. Name and shame.

+1 Glad someone had the balls to stand up for everyone here. You guys should all be thanking Johan. In the long run, he is helping to shape a better industry. cheers

By this mentality, you might as well feel the same way about 419 scammers, car hijackers or any other criminals out there. Many of them also have families to support etc. Lets not forget though that some of these cycle shop funded families have been living fat in big houses thanks to us suckers. I see no difference between collusion like this and any other criminal act that affects a consumer. We were ripped off for a long time. Zeepee, it's about the principle of the matter. To me, if someone lies it doesn't matter the size of the lie. I will never trust that person again, on any level. These business owners should have kept their honour and integrity, and put their families first. What they did was put their own greed and selfishness ahead of their families, which is shameful. Now they've been slapped on the hand, but the damage has been done. Many of us have found ways to import our bikes and parts now, and they are suffering for it. Do I care? Not in the slightest. I want to ride my bikes, and spend my money saved on my loved ones. I see where you are coming from though, and sometimes this mentality of 'give 'em a chance' is valid. A case in point would be the BP oil spill disaster. Many folks are busy boycotting BP by not filling up at the BP pumps. A rather futile attempt to show BP a lesson. The result is that the pump owners, who have families to feed, don't sell petrol. Now did the pump owner greedily skimp on engineering at the drill heads to increase his bottom line? Of course not. This isnt the case with these cycle shops. They all got together, had meetings about how to screw over the consumer, and anyone who didn't toe the line would get screwed over too. Its shameful. I was very sad to see Bowman's on that list, as I'd always liked them. Needless to say, I've not stepped foot in their shop again, nor have I bought any products locally since this whole thing came to light. VIVA CRC!

sounds like a travel mismatch. what's the frame specc'd for? and what have you put on?

I saw Glenn last week and he was looking really fit and amp'd about the ride. He rode the race last year on a tandem. The man truly is a machine, technically an awesome rider, fit as can be and is an awesome, level headed guy. Good luck to him and everyone else riding this epic race. We'll see you at the finish line!

Firstly, there is nothing violent about the 'girls' thread. Plus, the thread is labeled as being graphic. Your thread posed as a normal crime type thread, and never once hinted at showing some of the most graphic, tasteless, violent images. The fact that so many people relished the act was besides the point. It's up to the admins to decide if the content suits their website. What you didn't do is give us the choice. Had your thread's title been "Hijackers Killed - NSFW - Graphic Images" I'd certainly not have looked. The only reason I looked at the thread was because a good friend of mine (local musician) was killed at his gate.

hahaha, classic! although, from what greenmarket square used to used for, it's a fitting gesture

I hate the crime in SA just as much as everyone else, and those scums deserve what they got. That said, I found the post to be very tasteless, out of line, and not at all the right place for such graphic, violent pictures. There are some young people on this site, and people who dont want to see such images. The thread's topic was misleading and I actually had those pictures flash up onto my screen without any warning etc. Really bad taste guys, and I applaud Joe for having the balls to stand up and say his bit. Seriously, if you guys feel so strongly about this sort of thing then go hang out at one of the many many "I'm an expat and hate South Africa cos its fncked" websites.

sorry to say but if its human crap, the smell is there to stay. ive ridden through it a couple times and the only workable solution was to scrub the spot with boiling water and dettol a couple of times, and over time, the stench went away. with one tyre i actually just threw it out because of the foul smell. doggie poo is much easier to deal with. the smell goes away easily, which makes me think that humans are just the most disgusting creatures, below dogs even. many of the trails up north are walking paths for vagrants and hobos, and for some reason they love sh*tting on or near to paths. down here in the cape most of the trails are on nature reserve land and farms, thus only dog problems. on another note, those who ride at northern farms needs to be careful of not ingesting cow crap. sometimes its easy to when riding through those smelly puddles and pats. a mate of mine got really really sick from bacteria he ingested from cow poo.

Clearly I dont have as much free time on my hands as some people here do. Thanks Johan, I'll try sift through this 'analysis' at some point. To the OP, ride whatever hubs you like.

Point taken. I've had many bikes over the last 15 years of MTB riding. Most of them had Shimano. I switched over years back after riding a buddy's bike with SRAM. IMO it's a far superior system all round. Regarding their hubs, while yes the parts are cheap to replace and lots of people use them, this certainly doesnt make them better. What you gain from Chris King hubs is performance and reliability. By your reasoning it's like saying that there's no difference between driving a 150k car and a 500k car. While yes, the 100k car probably represents good value etc etc, it's undeniable that the 500k car will perform better. Sure to some going the expensive route might seem like a waste of money, but as I said, the added performance means something to my ride. It's great that you're cool on the XT hubs though, and if thats all you want to spend then they will be perfect. And for sure, they will work well too. I might be wrong here, but forums are also about opinions. Most people on this forum seem to give theirs freely. You are welcome to google every review, MTBR write up, spec sheet etc etc if you're after pure fact.

? I am with you on the Chris King hubs. Those bearings are just as good as Shimano's bearings.? But I don't undestand this thing about Hope hubs. Those things use O-rings to seal. Using O-rings on rotating parts isn't much of a seal. ? ? Hi Johan, I agree wrt the Hope hubs, however, I can say from my experience, that I have a set that has been on a bike for over 4 years and has never been serviced, cleaned or fussed with in any way. They remain perfect and thats on a well hard ridden AM bike. The Chris Kings are something else. They are very expensive, but are like butter. The rear hub functionally is different and because of not having inner pawls are always engaged. This is not such a biggie for some, but I like that a lot. Shimano, personally, I've never liked their products. probably not much wrong with them, but when it comes to drivetrains, I'd take SRAM products over just about anything (although the Rohloff is calling me a lot these days)