Gear Reveiws

PVM – Octane Gels


PVM – Octane juice

Garren Soutar - PVM’s Octane juice provides instant as well as prolonged energy it also helps replace electrolyte losses, which in turn helps to keep away cramps and fatigue. Using a variety of flavours throughout the race ensures that you don’t get tired of any particular taste and continue to consume adequate amounts of fluids to stay properly hydrated.

Jeannette Walder - All the flavours are great, They don't taste artificial and for the sweet tooth cherry and tropical are perfect while orange and citrus are for the less sweet tooth. The last two are my best and they so easy to use in their little sachets which mix 1 litre.

Alex Wagner - The head lamp is great to race with on the hiking legs particularly having the functionality of being able to switch between a spot light to see surroundings and the diffuse light to see where you are going and to read the map. For me it is a bit cumbersome to put over my helmet for cycling and so I don't use it - having a multi function head lamp there would be useful. The only issue was that I forgot to put the headlamp in the dry bag during the river crossing and so after it got wet it went on the blink and so I didn't use it again. Waterproofing could be better (particularly of the light section - battery pack seemed OK)

Garren Soutar - Battery life was excellent. The torch fitted well over my cycling helmet, so I ended up using the Black Diamond Icon head torch while cycling and found that it out performed my cycling specific tourch.

Hanno Smit - This headtorch I found brighter than it's competitors, thanks to n ew technology! The battery pack fits like all others: on the back strap behind your head, but I found the spiralled cord to the battery pack a bit too short when mounted on my helmet. The light functions are quite diverse: the sin gle pushbutton activates alternately the bright spot light or the less bright two led's, situated on either side of the spot light. Secondary to this activation, it can also be pressed in halfway up to three times, thereby selecting the intensity of whichever type of light you are using. I found this light very effective, not too heavy and also comfortable, but it could be tweaked slightly to be a bit more robust for our African way of life!. 
Black Diamond – Cosmos Headtorch

Cobus van Zyl - The Giant Anthem 1 was my first step towards a lot of luxuries. My previous bicycle was a fairly well spec’d  mountain bike, but it was still a hard tail with v-brakes.  My first impression of the Anthem was obviously based on looks, and it looks extremely good – this might sound a bit like what a women would say, but when something looks and feels right it does a lot for your attitude towards it and the sport, and the Anthem 1 does just that for me – It looks GOOD.
The whole frame look and feel small and slick, which of course helps a lot in AR where you sometimes have to carry the bike over rocks and through bushes.   
Now onto riding, which is the whole intention when buying a mountain bike J: Once I have gotten used to the bike I started noticing all the improvements over my previous mountain bikes. This bike handles extremely good, it has much quicker, more response handling than what I’m used to, which is very important during bumpy, rocky down hills with sharp turns. I have become much more of a downhill maniac, it is as if the suspension does a lot of the work for me and I do not have to work so hard to keep the bicycle on track. In general I just feel a whole lot more in control riding the Anthem 1. Since I have this bike I can climb loose rocky steep up-hills which I couldn’t have done with my previous bikes. The rear wheel stays attached to the ground and delivers good climbing without unnecessary wheel slip. I also find the controls on the shocks easy to use and to adjust during cycling. For me it is a very handy feature to be able to lock the shock when cycling on hard flat surfaces, so I like playing with these settings. Of course the disk brakes have the extreme advantage of not clogging up with mud like v-brakes do, and that is a very big positive for an adventure racer.  
Comments on the not so positive side:
I do feel that the standard seat post that comes with the bike is too short. I had to replace mine with a longer seat post and understand from the cycle shop that this seems to be a Giant Anthem problem. I really preferred my old Shimano dual shifters over the Rapid fire shifters that come standard with the Anthem 1. I prefer to have a shifter setup where the back and rear shifter have to be pushed in the same direction in order to achieve easier or harder gear settings. They should mount the rear shock the other way around, which will ease the use of the shock setting when having a water bottle in the cage. This is clearly personal, but the standard seat is just too hard for my behind so I had to replace it with a more comfortable seat. All in all, I am very happy about my latest mountain bike purchase, the Anthem 1 has taken my mountain biking to a new level and has similarly increased the whole experience for me.

Hanno Smit - This bike just keeps on getting better for me. I've moved from an aggressive hard tail uzi to this cross country sofa. The key factors I like most are the rear suspension, not too soft and the light and toughness of the ALUXX SL butted alloy frame. The other factor is the very aggressive cross country geometry. Then there is the front shock, the Fox 32 giving you 80mm of quality suspension. Although the bike could be fitted out with any groupset, I have the Shimano XT Deore group throughout and is definitely the best value for money. The wheelset could also vary, but the DT Swiss 370 hubs carrying Mavic 317 Disc rims makes a killer combination for some hard-impact riding, making for a smooth ride over the most daunting sections.