MintSauce

I agree with the "amount of travel available part" but not with the geometries story. There is in effect just two geometric variables in a bicycle frame as we know it - suspension or not. That's the head tube angle and the seat tube angle. The difference of the two extremes usually no more than 3 degrees. Very few people can describe how this affect ride feel other than to say the one is more relaxed that the other. Relaxed in bicycle terms is meaningless and one angle (within in the reasonable range) doesn't offer any more comfort than another angle. Bicycle frame manufacturers like to use the word Geometry in their marketing bumph. It works best with words like "aggressive"' date=' "fast" "comfort", "Stable" and other meaningless terms designed to trigger certain responses in certain audiences. I once ended up in one of my usual word fights in the pre-online days with an editor of a bicycle magazine. He had more ink than me so he won the argument. Until today he has not told me how he managed to find that one frame could climb better than another due to it's "climbing geometry". I don't think an answer is forthcoming. He's probably reading this. [/quote'] What about wheelbase length, chainstay length? When people talk about 'relaxed' geometry they're not talking about comfort. It refers to the bike's handling. My Titus Motolite, in 4 inch travel mode, steers slower and is more stable over rocky, technical terrain than my previous bike, a Titus Racer X with 4 inches travel. The Motolite is said to have more 'relaxed' geometry than the Racer, i.o.w. slacker head and seattube angles, longer wheelbase, taller headtube. The result is that the bike is less 'edgier' if I can use that word. It requires a bit more effort to steer in tight situations but offers more stability in steep and/or technical terrain. As for climbing, the length of the chainstays will affect handling as it changes your position relating to the rear wheel and can thus to an extent affect grip or lack thereof. Same goes for seattube angle eg. a more upright seattube will also move your weight further forward. It's not as simple as it seems.

Because stiff enough is stiff enough. Let me explain. Modern bicycle wheels are stiff enough for anything we throw at them. 1) In torsion (We apply on average about 7NM of torque on a rear wheel), the difference in spoke tension from pedalling is in the region of 5% of static spoke tension. It doesn't deform the wheel. Making the rims stiffer therefore serves no purpose. In braking (with hub brakes), the forces are a bit more, but again, with no ill effect to the wheels. 2) In cornering, the wheels are subject to NO lateral force (bicycle and motorcycle cornering exerts only radial forces on a wheel). They are already stiff enough to carry our weight and not deflect with any ill effect, so why make them stiffer. Incidentally, a deep section rim is stiffer than a box section by an order magnitude and we don't notice the difference. 3) In honking up a hill we apply a small lateral force to the wheel. However, the deflection is less than the space between rim and brake pad. Making it stiffer will achieve nothing. Therefore, stiff enough is stiff enough. To use an absurd analogy. Lets make pillow slips stronger and sew them from Kevlar sheeting or.....lets make shoelaces very strong and make them from braided steel cable. Everyday examples abound - make cutlery stronger by forging them from boron steel. Make your office printer stronger by stamping its cover from a sheet of titanium. What purpose do you foresee for stiffer rims? This industry of ours loves the mantra of "lighter, stiffer, better." I question that. I would think that a company that wants to stay ahead of it's opposition would improve their product in any way possible. It sounded at first like you were saying that there's no need for them to improve the product. If they can make them stiffer in some way, then surely as a result they would be able to shed some weight and still make them "stiff enough" Which I guess is probably what they're doing anyway

Very, very pretty

I'm pretty sure a setup with Hopes, DT Revolution spokes and Stan's rims would get under 1500grams and be cheaper than Crossmax. If you're not worried about cost, I've heard of builds that go as low as mid-1300g disc specific and sub-1200g for V-brakes using Tune Mag hubs. I don't thing there's anything in it really. A custom set is just simpler and cheaper to maintain since it uses normal spokes. Granted availibility of special spokes(ie mavic) are not really a problem anymore

Bleeding heart liberal... Hope you have on your Steve Biko T-Shirt today. My Steve Biko shirt is in the wash! I'm wearing my "Llama Star" shirt today instead. Is it ghey to say which of your guy friend's t-shirt is your favorite...? Anyway....Gav's best T IMHO, says.... TREAT ME RIGHT

Why do you say this...? Just wondering

custom, custom, custom.....but I don't think anyone's listening

Ti should see this

A friend of ours knew someone that was interested. So, jaguar gave the bike to this friend to show to the potential buyer. She kept it for two days(she might still have it....I don't know) to see if she liked it or not. This happenned AFTER he posted the ad. Is he supposed to remove the ad everytime someone shows interest....?

hagar....I'm not going to assume too much, but the seller of the 1st Anthem, jaguar, is a very good friend of mine and he happens to have outstanding ethics. I'm trying to get hold of him but can't right now. When I spoke to him yesterday he HAD a local buyer that he gave the bike to to try for two days. He was going to hold it because your friend told him she can only come to Hermanus on Sunday. Is that his fault...?! He can't be expected to jump in his V6 bakkie and waste R750 on petrol driving to Cape Town after a maybe buyer. As far as I'm concerned if the buyer is so interested she should make the effort to come see it. Have a bit more discretion before naming and shaming!

Interestingly, the only company with a warrenty that covers the bike irrespective of how many owners it has had, is the oft knocked/ripped of/slagged Raleigh. It's 5yrs, not a lifetime warrenty, but really now, a frame can't be expected to last forever. I have heard stories of boutique brands in the USA going out of their way to keep customers happy, even if the bike is way out of warrenty. Depends who you're dealing with. With forums as busy as they are these days, they'd be silly to not repair or replace a bike that really does have a defect, even if it isn't the original owner Another question relating to insurane companies not covering manufacturer defects. Say the frame breaks after I jump a 4 foot to flat drop-off and I landed heavy. How do you tell whether it was defective manufacture or *** riding? Whose resposibility is it to prove which one it is? Meaning, is it my obligation to prove it was *** riding or do the insurers have to prove it was faulty manufacture?

Which area?

There's only one punt I'll give a Mavic wheel punt 1.Football. a kick in which the ball is dropped and then kicked before it touches the ground. Compare drop kick, place kick. MintSauce2008-09-10 02:31:36

I have also heard many good things about Giba and Natal as a whole. Have been discussing possibly getting out there with some mates....later this year or early next year

Send me a postcard when you're there

Digging an old thread up I know, but this is too funny....you are kidding me.....right? No really....you must be joking!

That's brave. However, a 29er wheel in a shorter 26er fork would still be too high. No point in starting with a 29er fork. Check the exact measurments and then start with a 26er, allthough you'd likely still not get the correct geometry. Also, fiddling with a carbon fork is risky. If you wanted to use your existing frame, rather contact someone like Vicious Cycles in the USA and get a quote from them to build you a custom steel fork to the exact measurements. They would do all the math for you. Much safer. It won't be as light and will probably cost the same as a carbon fork or a little more, but it's a much safer bet.

Suspension corrected means a rigid fork is the same length as a suspension fork when it could be made shorter and still accomodate the wheel. this is because suspension forks need to be taller to allow room for the suspension movement. Why would you want to shorten a 29er fork's stanchions...?

yes

I was about to say the same thing. However, I guess it might be possible to fit a 29er wheel in a 26er rigid fork that is suspension corrected. Depends if the design of the crown will allow it. You'd probably have to check to make sure. Perhaps Kiwi can do this since he's bringing in all that On-One stuff...? There should be enough space. Not sure how it will effect the handling as you'd still be lifting the front by 1.5inches.

Big benefits to going 29er, but putting a 29er wheel on a 26 specific frame might affect the handling a little. There were justifiable complaints about the handling of 29ers when companies started making them years ago. And that refers to frames that had the geometry adjusted. My point is that it took a while for companies to really get 29er geo dialled. Throwing a big wheel on a 26er frame could leave you with messy handling. Switching to rigid from a suspension fork is quite a change. I'm not quite sure how my kidneys lasted through the first couple years of non-suspended riding. Only really realised what I did to them when I started riding a rigid again recently. Only occasionally though.

Is it just me, or is the tone of the article on the funny side.....I think someone's taking the piss...?