DMR V12 are my personal favourite, always loved the V8 but the V12 is more comfortable.  Lovely pedals.

McCartney is well past his best, it’s embarrassing watching him these days, and it’s been that way for quite some time now.

I respect the guy for some of what he’s achieved, but I don’t understand why some people worship the ground he walks on and ignore the fact he can’t actually sing anymore..

I thought First Aid Kit were good, haven’t listened to them much the last couple of years.  Will have to dig out their albums later.

Unfortunately, I think the worst is yet to come.  Biden is the death knell and if him and Harris try for a second term, I suspect it’ll be clear road to the White House for Trump.

I’ve always said the US is a developing nation, with third world infrastructure.

I quite like watching Jo Wiley’s coverage of Glasto, although the headliners this year don’t interest me much.

Radio 6 Music is great.  Huey Morgan, Craig Charles, Giles Peterson, Mary Anne Hobbs all have good shows.  Kate Tempest is dreadful, wish she’d bugger off, as can Mark Radcliffe and Ceris Matthews.

As a long term user of the rail network in this country, I can assure you that our rail services are a damn sight better today than they were in the early 90s.

The vast majority of those who support renationalisation of our rail service don’t even use it.

Googled that one! Sounds about right though.

East of Falmouth does seem… tricky. Unless you have a boat. The Roseland is beautiful and a commute across the Fal would be amazing!

That would be ideal from my experience of the area, Tregony has popped up on my radar as a potential place to put down roots.

Some great advice, thanks!

So the job is based in Falmouth, so probably looking within a radius (mainly to the east) of no more than 40min drive ideally.  Thought about renting for 6-12 months and getting to know the kind of areas we would like to settle and buy a home.  Falmouth would be great, love the town personally but we’ve got 2 cats that love to roam and 4 chickens, so a small place with little garden area doesn’t really suit.

The distance from being anywhere is probably what I’m most anxious about, and have considered maybe basing ourselves in Devon, but that might just be a pain for work and not much fun at all.

Obviously work for me is the reason for moving, my other half will have to find work, but her role in a Luton secondary school is something she is happy to escape from.  She’s probably able to pick up work in a local school or a home based distance learning type of job.  We’ll see on that front, but I’m sure she’ll find something eventually.

My Hope MS free hub came with one, but it looked and fitted identical to the one I already had on on my old Pro II.

Not quite 150, but the Kona Hei Hei Trail DL 140 or Supreme on mega discount at Merlin Cycles.  DL reduced from £6k to £2.5k – lovely bikes to ride, probably not full on enduro capable but capable of fairly heavy trail stuff

Awww, I missed out by the looks of it, back to normal price :(

Noticed a few bike parks have opened up again, seems riding with others is ok! 🤔

Ha! No I can assure they weren’t in need of a service.

I purchased a pair of NoS Pikes about 3 weeks ago, ran them for a week and upgraded the air spring.

The Revelation has a different damper to the Pike, it’s definitely a better fork than it used to be, but still not as sensitive as the Pike IMO.

I’ve just done the upgrade to a pair of my Pikes, it really makes a difference.  They really are more ‘plush’ now, well worth doing

I’m talking 10 meters or so on the trails, its easy because thats what the distance I’d normally be at to be honest.  Hooning around the trails at a 2m distance is asking for a pile up at some point.

I’ve decided that riding with a friend is fine now, I have been out today with a buddy, will be going out with a local couple on Sunday and probably with my brother next week.

Its easy to keep the correct distance when you’re out so I see no problem with it.  And today was thoroughly enjoyable to get out and have somebody to ride with.

If I were you I’d do a complete oil service (not just lowers), change the foam seals and maybe the rubber too.  It doesn’t cost much more to do and isn’t that difficult.  Cleaning, removing old lube and applying fresh stuff in the top legs and air cartridge will help no end.  I did my old Rebas recently and they felt like new again.

Having everything apart will also allow you to check that nothing is worn or damaged.

Anybody who says you can’t get a good finish with rattle cans is speaking absolute rubbish and isn’t doing it correctly or using crap paint.  I’ve had better finishes with cans than I’ve had with the gun before in fact.  Longevity will come down to the paint you use and if your prep and application is correct.

At home I’ve recently used rattle cans to respray my old Kona Kula frame as part of a build project for Mrs Beanoir.  My advice would be firstly to get good paint, do not use the paints you get in Homebase and B&Q, they are crap for this kind of job.  Find your local paint shop and have them mix 2K in activator cans for you, this will give you the hardest and most durable finish.

Decide if you want a flat colour, or metallic, pearlescent etc.  If you paint flat colour, then you don’t need a clear coat/lacquer on top as you would with a metallic.  Flat colours are more forgiving in that you can flat them back to remove any blemishes or orange peel etc and polish up.  With metallic, you can only flat back the clear coat, not the base coat colour – well you can but then you need to apply another coat of base before clear.

Prep is key, so make sure you’ve spent plenty of time sanding back the original paint, you don’t need to take it back to bare metal or anything like that, but make sure it’s smooth and clean.  You WILL see absolutely any blemish in the final paint, don’t be fooled into thinking the more paint you put on the more it will fill blemishes, it doesn’t work like that.

Try not to spray outdoors if possible, and in this heat at the moment the paint might dry before it hits the surface, so I’d advise doing it in the evening when it’s cooled down a bit.

Warm up rattle cans before you spray though, either in a bowl of hot water or in the sun.  This will help the paint flow better and it makes a big difference.

Pay attention to the time between coats, there is a time period in which you shouldn’t apply another coat.  If you leave too long between coats then you will have to wait for it to cure before keying and applying the next coat with some paints.  Often the paint requires that there is still some tackiness to it so that it will adhere, or you will end up with poor adhesion in the future.

The biggest improvement in my spraying skills came from learning to be more patient and applying thinner coats.

Good luck and show us how you get on!

I recently opted for the Shimano 12s XT groupset, having come from a 3×9.  I’m not a fan SRAM generally, and so stuck with Shimano.  So glad I did, the shifting performance on the new 12s (XT and SLX) is epic, best I’ve ever ridden.

The SLX fits your budget, just make sure you go with the full package including Shimano chain and cassette, you won’t get the full benefits of it otherwise and some that skimp here often run into issues with it not working correctly.

Selle Italia C2 Gel for me, I’ve had it 11 years and I keep trying new saddles then going back to the old one.  I may buy a new one, but I have read many people raving about the Ergon saddles, so tempted to try one.

Budget build finished, got the decals from Graphics Direct and I’m not that impressed with the quality of them, might try the other guy at retro stickers as he seems to get good feedback.  Still, it looks ok for now.

Looks good @gt56 – how did the BMX bars works out with that bag?

Love the Ragley, nice colour combo, dark grey and ‘kash’.  Which dropper post is that?

Haha! I found myself wondering if an XT groupset and DT Swiss rims were really necessary for my other half who can barely ride a bike! But it’s what I had.  Probably drawn the line at CK headset!

Just picked one up from Alpkit, the one that worked size wise for me was out of stock on Planet X.  Good shout though 👍🏻  I quite liked the look of their Adventure bundle…

I reckon I’ve got a day pack sorted now.

I’ve recently in the last couple of weeks sold my road bike (Giant TCR Advanced 2) that I bought 18 months ago, it’s the second time I’ve tried to persist with road biking and given up.  I find it uncomfortable whatever fit or position I’ve been set to, my neck normally suffers the most. The truth is road bikes are just not designed to be as comfortable as a more upright style of bike is.  Not for everyone.

I’ve always had mountain bikes since the early 90’s and just find them more enjoyable to ride.  My recent bike build I’ve specced a lightweight carbon frame and will build a set of wheels with skinny semi-slick tyres for when I want to do a reasonable road ride.  But right now I’m much preferring being back on an MTB again.

I have purchased an airlock 13l jobby from alpkit.

I might have a look, quite fancy a bar bag.  I’m not sure I’m ready for full on bikepacking yet, but like the idea of a bag to carry a small stove and do a brew and grub stop.

I’m tempted to do another lockdown build, this thread is given me some inspiration to try something a bit different.

hmm…

I think it’s a great idea! What bag are you using?

Nice work, some awesome projects on the go!  Keen to see all the progress, so keep us all updated!

@gt56 are they BMX handlebars?

I did cut a piece of 3M vinyl out to help protect, you can just about see it in one of the photos, it’s black.  I did think it might be a bit thin to do much in the way of protecting.  I’ll have a look into the Scotch though, thanks.

That said, my other half is not likely to be doing much more than bumbling around on it, so it should have a fairly easy life

I’ve just stripped (wet sanded) my old Kona aluminium frame and resprayed it.  I decided on a metallic pearlescent paint, in rattle cans from Halfords and then obviously finished with clear coat, again rattle cans from Halfords.  I’ve no real experience of spray painting but I took my time, didn’t rush the prep and read up on technique.  Cost me the grand total of £22 and I’m really pleased with the finish.

I have a set of new decals in the post, so should look pretty good.

Well I thought I’d just bring this to a conclusion.  With the help fo @carolos and with the parts list mentioned by @brianblessed I’ve now managed to convert my old Pro II rear hub to accept a new Shimano Microspline and 12s XT cassette.  Bike build finally finished and took it out for it’s maiden voyage today, rode like a dream!

Decathlon have quite a few (Mavic etc) in 26”

Wow! I’m building a spare parts bike at the misses, It’s a bit retro compared to that though!

I had a similar experience just recently with Singletrackbikes.co.uk.

Seems they sell you stuff online without making it clear that it’s not actually in stock.  I had to wait weeks.  To top it off, when I enquired I got a rather blunt and sarcastic response from them.

I run an online shop, we wouldn’t dream of advertising and selling stock we don’t have to sell.

Haha, yep let’s call it packaging!

I’m not normally one to butcher things, but given it’s just a tool then I’m ok with that.  Still odd though.

@uggski there’s a hole in mine too.  Trust me I’ve been analysing various videos and photos, I can’t find or see any visible difference.  I think it was manufacturing of the tool rather than the crank being different.

Well I managed to prize the plastic ring out, it sits almost flush in a recess inside the tool.  But a small precision flat head and a rubber mallet nipped it out quite easily.

Success!!!

There won’t be on mine soon – it’s going to get messy here, don’t watch!

@sillyoldman I did.  The tool goes past the splines and stops just past where the splines end.  I did just wonder about modding the tool.  My friend in the next road has a CNC machine, so I might ask him to do that for me tomorrow…socially distanced delivery and collection by drone of course!

On the inside of the tool, it looks like there is a plastic ring, doesn’t seem to be protruding but maybe that could be removed.