MaxUmis

I have a question too. How do you okes feel about a quick release pointing forward like in the picture? Personally I'm very nervous about wheels coming off whilst in mid air. Especially because I've had a front wheel drop off and roll away down the road while I was busting some air. What are the chances of something snagging and ripping open a QR pointing forward?

Well Jean-Luc from Commencal lend me bike to "test ride" during a 60km race. They sell it as demo unit afterwards anyway. With my luck that'll be the one I buy!!!

You won't regret the Monorails

A thought... Muddy conditions = MASSIVE wear on bikes and equipment. I wouldn't send a shiny new bike on muddy trails if I could help it.

Interesting topic and you could spend days deciding on combos and and and. But I think the solution is to have more than one set. My Monorails are the berries when it's dry. Rocky, hard, sandy, whatever, they are lekke. BUT put some water on any of the above and BAM!!! No good; slip, cake, slow! okay, so get some wet/mud tyres as a second set.?. (Schwalbe Black Shark Mud or Geax Barro Extreme Mud XC/Trail Tyre) Here is where I'm stumped. Even at the Nissan event yesterday, mud tyres would have only been good in the mud, but there were a LOT of hard fast sections where my Monorails came into there own again and where the wet/mud tyres would have been useless. So what to do? I basically gave up on this internal debate and settled on having a single Schwalbe Albert Sport I'll put on the front when things get wet... the other option is to have a set of Panaracer Rampages for when it gets... NOOOOoooo it's starts again!!!!

You need to train for this event??? oh dear...

Donno if this is the same dad. But this is what it's all about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHkejvzGD_s A true inspiration.

I had a rubbish time trying to race this race... In retrospect, maybe it was because I was racing for myself. The Dad, The Cows, Rad and Josh, even the Post bike okes, they were there to race for others. Big up guys. My heroes for the race are the peeps that tried and failed, but who'll be there next year; to try and succeed! You are the okes that cannot be beat!

yup. Luckily I parked my car with an hour and 10 minutes to spare. The 4.5km walk to tar took about 50 minutes... Very glad I had my MTB shoes on. However, those shoes definitely ain't made for walking. Then had to push and compete to get to the front of my start group UU. Got there JUST in time.

You call yourselves MTBers starting in F!? Come start in UU with me, if you want to test your reaction times and heat stamina

GPS co-ords get you to the front door of the convention center... then try and find a place to store the transportation device you arrived in... think they call this parking. After finding this lesser spotted "parking", re-find the convention center. IMPORTANT: when entering the tiny hall containing the masses of heart-attack candidates for Sunday, go stand in the queues STRAIGHT AHEAD if you already know your race number (UU xxxx in queue UU and QQ xxxx in queue QQ and so forth.) IMPORTANT: Only if you don't know your race number or have a query or need to be reseeded (because you're an x Iron man (do all Iron men, ex and current shave their heads???) that got put in ZZ), stand in the NON MOVING queue to be helped by friendly students on the RIGHT HAND SIDE of the hall. Note: Security will tell you with a friendly nod and a "yebo", to stand in this queue if you have print outs of your online entry stating your race number... do not however listen to him... he's the flat tire that'll spoil you tiny little exhibition experience... IMPORTANT: If you are hungry after all this queuing and checking doff stands (WHASP, you're in to deep... Peeps are gatvol by the time they get to you okes) on your way to the exit, find the Bar One and Energellies in your goody bag... You don't have to wait till you get back to the office an hour later. This all may sound negative and sarcastic, but that's because it is... One positive thing I can say is that every one must have gone there today, hoping to miss the rush, so the rest of the days should be nice and crowd free. MaxUmis2009-11-12 06:26:01

Rise Against - Prayer of the Refugee

I just saw that USN is the official supplier for the drinks station... I'll just have to take my own preferred energy drinks along.

You okes are right... les Alpinistes are entered with 2 girls in the team (the term girl doesn't include our lesser experienced male riders). One of which is very novice. Time for wondering whether or not to enter is over. Now's the time to start figuring out how to put the team on the track after dark!

hehehe, that first rotor is PIMP!

a friend once made me a rotor for my TZR 125 motorbike... So I'm sure they can be made... Do you have some fancy design in mind?

I'm looking forward to an answer... I've wondered about this too.

Well... I run Maxxis Detonators (at 7 bar, since the max stated on the tyre wall is 8.2 I think) with Specialized's slime tubes... Whatever that's worth...

I've done about 400km using Specialized's slime road tubes... No punctures so far.

Does anyone know how many km per lap? And how technical will the course be? I'm quite keen on entering a "kaas and wyn" team.

My dad had a spell while we were in Plet one year. He was feeling a little off-ish and couldn't walk straight... Actually looked like he had to much to drink... Anyway, we took him to hospital, were they discovered his ridiculously low heart rate. It was something like 30 bpm. The doctor couldn't believe that my dad actually walked into the hospital on his own two legs. So my dad was in hospital for 2 days or so while they gave him stuff to get the heart rate up again, but nothing had a satisfactory effect. So in he went to get a pacemaker installed. He was awake for the procedure and was awake and all good as they rolled him out. He was 72 then and is 76 now and there is no doubt in my mind that his quality of life is better than it would have been without. He still plays golf and can even play a couple of games of tennis when he feel keen. He really is in great shape. A big thank you to the doctors (Think it was Dr Darby/Dolby/Darlby... something like that) that did such a good job. MaxUmis2009-10-09 02:15:40