markmad

Ive been here(UK) 6 months and honestly the market here is so different and have been unsuccessful in finding anything close to the bikehub , this must rate as a leading cycling site. Amongst quite a few observations the cost of higher end bicycles in the UK are probably more expensive here that in SA taken into account the prevailing exchange rate at any given time .

Problem is that generally speaking the cycling market are misinformed with BS thinking carbon frames must be light , aluminum frames are more compliant etc .

My findings are that the revoshift 6sp grip is pretty good and served us well for about 1 year. The 7 sp trigger as per ChrisF photos are very good because the trigger is smaller for shorter fingers. The problem is if you go 10 ,11 sp as then you back to adult shifters so in my case I went back to grip shift in the form of Sram GX which has proven to be a blessing. No more sore fingers and know more why aren't you changing gears.

Chris seems below 10 years old official race distances are below 10km and I've noticed with my 8 year old at 10km shes had enough. I've also been warned against pushing the boundaries too much so I do technical stuff with her and she started with the WP xco series this past Sat.

I thought Shaun Peters did a good job and the first race had a nipper that was in over her depth and one of the officials ran along with her and kind of helped her along .He didn't have to do it but it shows the level of commitment of the volunteers Hope the parents thanks him .

That was for Friday practice .Race day is of course sorted in specific age groups.

I will sound biased but I am all for encouraging kids to partake because today's nipper is tomorrows possible elite rider . What may help a little is if a time slot can be given to the younger riders only say for an hour ,you may extend this further for older groups but when dealing with really young kids it becomes intimidating for them to start sharing a track with adults who I might add can become impatient . I saw this happen at the previous event and I saw kids who perhaps felt the need to give way but in doing so they compromise themselves by not getting the track time and offering the respect to older fellow competitor . For me the big question is how do you get a kid from just riding a bike to doing wpmtb ?

Couldn't agree more with this above however if you look at the nippers the problem I have encountered that the step up from a child doing Spur MTB vs WPMTB is a very big a jump and he or she would need some serious training to partake . This means I cannot encourage tell my kids friends come and participate have some fun because the child might end up hurting themselves.

That sounds ideal though i did look at the website and only found a junior 26 bike nicely speced but not that light. Thanks for the info , Momsen is ok but needs some work imo.Ive attached a photo of the one x mod i did .Modified crank ,new spider and raceface chainwheel all saved 650g

Couldnt agree more but i fear the reason for this is because all 152 crank sets are tripple so the manufactures take whats on the self of catalogue.

Job i guess the kids must be taller i JHB than down here in the Cape or perhaps the league is so professional that the parents dare not put them on something smaller that might fit a little better. Anycase my child at 8 can just about fit on a 24".My first mod to the new JSL 40 is complete taking it to a 1x

This makes for an interesting read . At my daughters first Spur schools I saw many kinds in sub nipper on 24 inch bikes and imo most of them should have been on 20’s , perhaps parents skip a size to save money but It’s not worth it as kids struggle on bikes that are heavy and sized incorrectly .Mine won sub nipper on a 20 inch (JSL 20)one of only a few used on the day. However 24inch is not too far away perhaps 6 months or so I’ve been looking and came up with a list of below 20 k bikes . Momsen JSL 40 (nice , pitty about 3 blade crank ) Giant XTC (might be worse than the JSL 40 imo) Cube SL (though they don’t answer emails so I guess you can’t do business with them ) Specialized (though listed at 24k doesn’t look any better than the competition but does have a better groupset and brakes ) Scott (probably the better option at +/ 15k but having no fork and standard as a 1x it’s not that light .) My thinking is to go Momsen and convert to a 1x 10 or similar and save weight where possible in the obvious areas . Any insights on this would be appreciated

This is a question that I have asked myself especially when you look at pricing from the big S and tend to think the distributor and the manufacture are the ones making the money and the LBS is perhaps the one left to trying to find that 20-30% margin on a already expensive item.

Seems like they may of had a little more than just booze to be that state. Perhaps the parents own private properties so they will be back at work ready for the next round. Rather don't cycle so early as our cities are littered with intoxicated people or people sending text messages whilst driving.Just ride a motorcycle through traffic and you'll realise things are really bad.

Specialized has a a very good marketing department and it makes me wonder what Giant and likes of Scott are thinking especially Scott because i would think if the latter would market themselves like S have then it might be a different story. For the record a cannondale seems to attract some attention as well as many just dont like the fact that Cannodale dont see the point in wasting material having two sanctions where one does the job. Imagine if Specialized had a decent engineering department that came up with the idea of having a lefty fork I think they might be selling twice the amount of bikes for even more money .