high load roast dinners

That made me laugh. Thank you.

We’ve got a Panasonic one – a hand-me-down from the in laws after they moved back from France and brought it with them. It replaced a bog standard cheap microwave, which I think is still up in the loft awaiting the demise of this one.

It’s awesome for baked potatoes, but I think that’s all we use it for in the oveny mode. I WFH and use it for spuds a fair bit in the winter, and the rest of the time we’re cooking for the whole family, so it’s often easier to use the full oven.

The rest of the time we just use it as a microwave. This is probably because we didn’t set out to buy a combi, so I really should look into it a bit more.

The only exception is when we were replacing our kitchen and basically the back ground floor of the house, which meant we were cooking in the hallway for a family of four for about six weeks. It sat on top of a very sad Freecycle fridge and was a bit of a lifesaver.

I ended up with DB8s on a new bike instead of Shimano 4 pots and was a bit skeptical – my initial thought was to put some Guide Rs that I had hanging around on instead, but the adapters weren’t compatible and I was itching to go out and ride it, so I left them on. I’m glad I did – they’ve been smashing, and I’ll be buying new pads once the first set reach the end of the line.

@thew – where did you find the rims? I’m looking for some replacements at the moment.

Two water bottle bosses and some tool bosses, looks like lots of room for longer droppers. Looks like it will be a really nice bike to ride with all them angles.
And then they go and ruin it with all the cables and the brake hose through the headset. Who thinks this idea is a good one? Who the hell up one day and chose violence?

They’ve got the Wahoo Roam for about £148 after discount as well. Not clear if it’s the V1 or 2.

It looks like NATS is down 30% of qualified ATC staff for Gatwick due to Covid. Fun times:  https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66917138

can you get a round file down there and get it off?

I can indeed. I’ll live with the 180 for now (It’s a 31.6 shimmed to 34 as it was from a bike I just sold) to see if it does the job before taking a drill or file to the frame; if it’s all good, I’ll probably buy a 180 long 34mm Oneup at some point.

My preferred method would be to drill it out from the outside, which is what I tend to do with pop rivets on alloy dinghy and keelboat spars. A lot less swearing.

Apart from that I assume it’s no different to another OneUp anyway which are good but not particularly better than the Trans X / Brand X equivalents.

Yes and no. I’m a shortarse, and that means to get as much drop as I can (on account of stumpy legs), I need to have the shortest possible total length with the longest possible drop. I’ve had really excellent experiences with Brand X, but Oneup is just a longer drop for the length, and for that reason, I have a couple of them.

Examples: Trek Fuel EX standard dropper = 150mm. Oneup is 210 and 5mm off the collar. Specialized Fuse M4 Command post dropper: 160mm, Oneup is 180 and only hindered by a cheap rivnut water bottle boss that I’m giving the beady eye to at the moment.

My (work) flight back from Munich got cancelled last Monday; I normally fly on a small flag carrier, but this time was on Easyjet. Apparently there was a shortage of air traffic controllers at Gatwick, which Easyjet claims counts as Exceptional Circumstances.

The app and web site had completely fallen over, with no flights back out until Thursday. I called Easyjet from the train to the airport and was told to book flights and a hotel – 200 Euro tops for the hotel, 800 Euros or less for flights. I got a connecting flight to Frankfurt to catch a flight to Gatwick the following morning on Lufthansa. Sadly no fun times in town that evening as I had to be up at 5.30, and I really wanted to be back with the family.

I’ve no idea whether I’ll be refunded for the flight and accommodation costs – it will suck mightily if they say no, especially as I did exactly as their helpdesk recommended.

They look like the shims Shimano used to include with front mechs so they could be fitted to more than one diameter of seat tube. Right down to the little double sided tape thingies to stick them on with.

I thought I’d heard the name before.
I assume this is the same shop – there’s a YouTube channel I’ve found really helpful for some of the odder bits of Brompton maintenance (some Brompton work involves sacrificing a chicken and dancing around the entrails widdershins whilst singing the Marseilles backwards in Swedish). Really well-presented, with stuff explained clearly and simply. Brilliantbikes – YouTube

Ah, happy memories of the Sport and XC hubs. I only sold mine because of the change in axle spacings and sizes – they’re pretty bombproof beasties and mine had survived three sets of rims. As said above, there’s not much to them, and if you’re really stuck then give Hope a call – often you’ll be speaking to someone who had a hand in designing or making what you’re asking about.

Looking forward to the offside 911, nearside DS half and half!

I’m also in the process of looking at insulating / making less manky a slightly more modest garage. I replaced the roof with wool backed agri box profile sheeting about ten years ago when we moved in. The wool back should, in theory, help manage condensation. There’s decent airflow through the sides. I know this because of the draughts and because of the wisteria that’s invaded the roof space.

There is airflow through the taller bits of the agri sheet, so I’m thinking of insulating between the overbuilt 200mm joists installed very 18″ and then putting a thin insulation skin over the lot. Haven’t got as far as thinking about the walls, floor or doors yet.

The problem is that I’ve described a cold deck roof – something that doesn’t meet Scottish building regs and is actively discouraged in England (I’m down south) – the big problem with cold deck is generally condensation.

This is going to get expensive, isn’t it?

I remember 802.11g being “new” and supplanting a/b and that would have been, what, early to mid 2000s

There was  huge hoo haa when the original iMac was launched (the one that didn’t come with a floppy, and in the very early days of USB) because a/b was on the same wavelength as some of the French military stuff, so a whole Apple product line couldn’t be sold in France unless the adapters were swapped out. Steve Jobs’ ego vs. French bureaucracy was fairly hilarious.

On a press tour to Nokia at some point in the early ’00s we were all loaned PCMCIA mobile data cards because they (quite rightly) didn’t trust journalists with access to their Wifi or wired Ethernet connections.

I was using a Powerbook G3 at the time, and the CD ROM with the drivers didn’t include any extensions for MacOS 9.1. I found a spare phone port in the press room, got an outside line, connected via AOL (at the time, the only way to get online if you were travelling to multiple countries was to have an AOL account, which gave you access to lots of toll-free POPs in most countries) and downloaded the files I needed to get the wireless modem working.

It was fairly low stakes stuff compared to one of my lecturers who used to file copy from the wrong side of the Berlin Wall using a Tandy TRS-80 Model 100 and a 300 baud modem.

I think our media handler almost had a conniption when he found out. It made up for the six (six!) hours of PowerPoint we had to sit through that day, and he got his revenge with salmiakikoski later that evening.

Hey – I resemble that.

I had a DeKerf Generation for aaaaages (I think 13 years, all told) and it had always been my go-to bike, even though I often had a longish travel FS bike on the go. Think I went through four pairs of forks (Judy, Bomber, Project 2 and Reba) and had it converted from canti to disc. Lovely, lovely bike.

I got properly into singlespeeding and bought a Singular Hummingbird, which I ended up spending more time on than the DeKerf. That Singular was replaced by the first of many 29ers, and I’m now on a Specialized Fuse for a hardtail.

I think the thing is you end up hankering after your regular ride because you know exactly how it will respond in different situations, and maybe a new bike won’t behave the same. In fact, it probably will.

What I do know from recently switching from a 2014 Kona Process to a 2023 Gen 5 Trek Fuel Ex is that it will make a massive difference – you probably just don’t realise it at the moment. The first thing I’ve noticed is less fatigue and more speed – I get to the bottom of a climb feeling a lot fresher, and ’round here it’s all short sharp climbs and descents. The trails round where I am have changed a lot over the last 20 odd years – bikes and riding have progressed.

Start with the Slack-r and see how you get on. As you say, you’ve not carked it in Wales; I’ve had fun day there on a 29er hardtail with 100mm forks and I’m here to tell the tale. Equally, I’ve ridden it on bikes with more travel and had a ball. Your bike sounds like a really sweet set up. It’ll carry on giving you plenty of fun for years and years as it is. Enjoy it!

@cardiff.ac.uk in 1993, I think. Pegasus and Gopher as a result of having to use the computer labs to write copy for the student newspaper, which only had half a dozen Amstrad 286s for the writers. Used to bump around on the early MTB mailing lists with that there Mike Davis fella. I think one of the earliest things I turned up on Gopher was an article about Alex Pong and the Cannondale V4000.

Worth asking the retailer – I have found a lot of places will allow it if you pay the 15% admin charge that Halfords charge. Depending how much of a discount they are offering, it can still be a good saving (and paid over 12 months).

I was chatting to someone yesterday who said Halfords’ cut is now 20%. With the level of discounting going on at the moment,  that’s pretty much the gross margin gone for a shop and they’re shifting them for the cashflow. In one case, this person said the buyer got the name of the voucher scheme wrong, but they still honoured the price they’d negotiated and ended up making a loss. There’s a reason a lot of shops are putting more emphasis on servicing and spares and why quite a few manufacturers are dabbling in direct sales.

I’m asking my employer to consider switching to CycleScheme or Cycleosolutions next year, as both, from what I’ve heard, are fairer on the shop. It’d be interesting to hear from people in the trade about this; I prefer buying local if I can, and I would have liked to have put what to me is a massive purchase through one of the shops I’ve been going into regularly for the last couple of decades where I know the staff by name.

I should say that, even though I’m not a regular customer at Balfe’s, the customer service team on the phone and the peeps in branch were / are absolutely brilliant to deal with.

Looks good! To be fair I thought the Trek Exs now did have 150mm forks, so maybe it’s right?

The Gen 6 ones do – they’re a bit more Grrr as well, though. And several thousand quid dearer

OK. Disclaimers: It’s a lot dirtier now, the garden’s a mess and will continue to be a mess for the forseeable. There was a ten day holiday in the middle of it when I couldn’t ride but I’ve put a few more miles on it now.

I think I mentioned I like claiming and am rubbish at getting my wheels off the ground, and that led to some very good recommendations for more climby bikes. That would have made the thing I am goodish at easier and (potentially) the thing I am bad at harder. The Trek is a bit of a monster truck and is just so much fun up and down; it’s a way better technical climber than the Kona was and is so composed downhill. I can pick lines, I’m not descending then recovering on climbs from being thrown around and so on. FWIW the Specialized would probably have done the same, but the absolute solidity of the front end, possibly because crabon and 36s is really good. Bearing in mind it’s replacing 34s and an alloy frame, albeit with a sightly lower handlebar position, that’s a positive, but there are likely lots of factors. I think (but haven’t confirmed it by taking all the air out) that the forks are 150 not 140 – there’s a smidge more than 150mm of stanchion on show.

Any descent on the more technical end of things where I’m not stuck behind someone slower is a PB, it seems – well, for now.

A couple of notes – supply chain still seems to be an issue:

• I went for Invisiframe and it was good – more for protecting something I’ll probably run for a while than anything else, as I don’t mind chips and scuffs. I can see the point, but I probably won’t do it again. That’s my personal preference, mind – I’d just rather have been getting my first ride in.
• Dropper was a 100mm, but the shop has said that was an error and have a 150 in from Trek – I queried it, they asked for a pic of the short post, Trek has shipped the right one, no questions asked. Top customer service.
  I’ve got a 180 OneUp dropper in there at the moment, can fit in a 210 so will probably do that.
  The brakes are the new SRAM DB8s rather than SLX 4 pots. I thought I’d give them a go before chucking my Guide REs on, and I’m glad I did. They’re mineral oil rather than DOT, and feel a lot more Shimano-ey than the Guides – less modulation in a good way.
  I suspect but am too lazy to confirm that there’s a 150 air shaft in the forks, based on the amount of stanchion. Whatever – it steers well and rides over stuff like a monster truck, and that’s more than enough at the moment.
  Tyres are XR5 2.5″ rather than 2.6 and they’re actually good enough that I’m not rushing to replace them
  Cranks are potentially quite chonky non-series ones, so I might swap to XTs at some point if I’m bothered enough
  The Arvada saddle feels great for the first 40 minutes, but then my sit bones start to disagree. Jury’s still out, but if it’s not to be it’ll be Spoon time
  I wish I’d swapped my SPDs out for new ones earlier. I though they were fine as the bearings were still sweet after 10 years, four of which involved a daily commute, but the steel cages were actually really worn and no amount of new cleats would make them less shoogly. I’ve put three pairs in the recycling bin as a result.

The good / bad news is that there’s oversupply in the market and so a lot of bikes are heavily discounted. If you can get C2W this saves you a load as well. I’ve recently done that and picked up my first new bike in a long time (I usually buy second hand).

When you say ‘short travel xc bike’ – what attracts you to that kind of ride? When I was shopping recently I asked on here, as it happens, and mentioned that I love climbing but am rubbish at jumping, leading someone to quite sensibly suggest the Specialized Epic Evo, which is a *fantastic* XC FS bike. But to my mind that would make the things I’m relatively decentish at easier while making the things I find more challenging harder. I actually went the other way and got a bike that isn’t known for being an uphill rocket (actually it climbs pretty well, especially on technical stuff) and is a monster truck downhill.

So: have a think about the riding you’d like to do and the riding you actually do. There are some amazing 120mmish FS bikes out there that are incredibly capable, especially if you’re coming from an older design – stuff has moved on more in the last 5-8 years than it has in the previous 20, in my opinion.

[EDIT: you want recommendations. Look for the massive discounts on the likes of Specialized (Epic and Stumpy) and Trek (Top Fuel and Fuel EX). ~£1800 – 2.7k will get you an amazing bike at the moment.[/edit]

Oh: and you’re definitely doing the right thing getting out on a bike – any bike – to fight off the Doom. Keep at it, and more power to yer elbow.

Impossible to make a bad choice out of those two.

That’s what made it so difficult :D

A quick note to say thank you to everyone who chipped in on this.

I’m currently waiting for the shop to call and let me know they’ve got the Trek in. It’s probably worth me talking through my thought processes so far for anyone wanting to do the same (or those of you simply looking for some sort of closure).

I looked at both bikes from the perspective of what I’d swap out long term vs immediate changes.

The Stumpy, I’d likely replace the wheels (they’re about 2.5kg stock), the dropper (too short) and I’d probably also worry about the total insertion length a bit, however much I play around with the numbers and the on-one dropper calculator.

The Trek comes with 36s, the wheels are 108 point engagement, of decent weight, and I can chuck an existing 180mm OneUp in immediately and worry about getting an even longer post later if I needed to.

What’s not sorted out is a comparison of the two suspension systems, something that would probably take me a while to figure out anyway as short test rides really aren’t enough and, frankly, most modern bikes will probably be an improvement on the Kona.

I may or may not be right with this assessment, but I’m fairly certain that either bike would have been fine and fun. They’re both pretty sweet, and I particularly like the move to matte finishes that both bikes came with. The translucent blue matte on the Trek is pretty nice as it shows up the carbon underneath, so I went with that as I’m a tart.

I’ll happily post a rundown on how it rides on here if people are interested and once I’ve got a few miles on it.

The combination of 36s on the front, a wheelset that seems to be more than half decent and decent dropper accommodation were all deciding factors on the Trek;

I haven’t weighed my old Kona, but I imagine both new bikes are either the same or lighter.

From the minutes:

In response to a question, The Director of Corporate Services confirmed that
Red Bull had accepted responsibility for the damage caused but had not paid
for the damage to date.

– A member asked whether Plas staff were present during their stay. The
Director of Corporate Services informed the Board that Red Bull took the
building over during their stay and Plas staff were present during the day but
weren’t comfortable to stay overnight.

– Members discussed alternative income sources and whether holding more
weddings was an option to produce additional income and promote Plas. The
Director of Corporate Services advised that it would be difficult to find an
income source to match the income made from Red Bull.

Classy, Red Bull. Very classy.

edit – oh and the Timberjack

I missed this – Inbred’s right. If I was starting from scratch today, I’d buy one of these frames. It was on my original list years back ahead of the Chameleon and Stache but even Charlie (who was the Bikemonger at the time) couldn’t get them into the UK. They are well-thought-out (See seatpost bottle bosses) and just really nice looking frames.

As someone who stayed with steeper head angles for a while, I’d say don’t be too put off by slack angles; it’s still just as fun on the zippy stuff but you have a bit more room for maneuver when things get accidentally gnarly.

Of then list up there, I’ve owned and singlespeeded the Singular Hummingbird, On-One Scandal mk2, Stache and Fuse.

Singular was just the most lovely bike and I only swapped out because of the wheel size. EBB was fine.
Scandal was agricultural but rode very nicely. Track ends were / are low tech and work well with a chain tug.

Stache was great; shorter in reach and steeper in head angle than the Fuse and my FS, but an absolute hooligan to ride – so much fun. The sliding dropout arrangement was set and forget, but bear in mind you’ll need a socket or spanner to adjust. My main gripe was seatpost insertion because I’m short – but the carbon version has more drop IIRC. Massive tyre clearance – I ran 2.4s and it’s designed for 3.0s. Super short chainstay makes for much fun.

Fuse is longer (at the front – rear is 430, maybe shorter – can’t remember)and slacker and that’s no bad thing. It’s not as zesty as the Stache on steep stuff, but I’m running the wrong offset forks. Who knows? Dropouts are simple and just work, lots of clearance for up to 2.6. For my height and riding style, 430mm chainstays seem to work, but equally I loved the Scandal at 445. I have a second hand 2020 Fuse Expert in brushed and clear coat finish, and it’s (subjectively) a very good looking frame. The only thing I’d change is the seatpost bottle bosses, which mean I can’t put a longer dropper in. But that’s a super minor issue as 160 seems fine.

Yeah – upgraded to Endura trousers that I used for commuting years ago – easy to ride in, don’t go all cold when wet like jeans do, and have decent stretch. They’re celebrating their tenth anniversary this year. I think they cost £50.

Rapha and Brain Dead are getting an absolute boatload of awareness and exposure with this, aren’t they?

Full disclosure: I’ve got one of their bum bags (sorry, Enduro packs) and it’s pretty good. Might be tempted to buy more of their stuff if I wasn’t a misformed hobbit.

Hilarious nonsense.

Oh, so very much this – speaking as the owner of a Specialized Command Post. I had a Reverb and it sucked. One of the Udderlets got one with a second hand bike and I’m waiting for him to grow out of it so I can sell it. They’re such a pain.

We’ve owned a *lot* of Brand X posts (I think six in all), plus Giant, OneUp and Specialized. I’ve yet to service the Specialized but it’s been utterly reliable. I’ve serviced the Brand Xs before selling them on to make sure they were 100% and the grease has invariably been clean. The Oneup needs an upper service every couple of months.

If you’re not worried about total length (I’m a shortarse with weird frame predilections, so I am) then a Brand X is a no-brainer. The same OEM manufacturer makes the Bird and PNW ones, from memory, but I’ve always had the Brand X ones, and they’re well-sealed, easy to service and just completely reliable. If I could fit a 180 or 200mm in the bike with the OneUp, it’d already be there.

PS: you can tune return speed on most posts by using more pressure in the cartridge and lighter lube – but you’ll need to increase maintenance intervals as a result.

Like it or not, we’ll probably all be on ebikes eventually if we keep riding long enough. I’m looking forward to still being able to ride long into old age with the help of one. Just not quite yet, for various reasons. But I’ll be quite grateful that all the people who bought them now have basically helped do the field testing for whatever I end up on in 20-25 years’ time.

Also, when riding with the family, a friend with an ebike and a towheee can keep everyone moving, even when they’re tired, and that’s cool.

My main complaint about ebikes is that very few of them use their power to run margherita makers, and riding is thirsty work.

I think the final thing is probably bound to my local trails, which are basically short, sharpish climbs and short descents. As and when I ride in a group with ebikes, they’re often able to do another trail in the time it takes to winch our socially-paced analogue group up to the top. That means both groups have to make compromises, which is a shame, as it’s often quite fun riding with lots of different people. But we had that with singlespeeds not so long ago, too: I still occasionally go out on one to remind myself of how nailed my knees are, and zooming off up the climbs because I have no choice in my gear selection is pretty antisocial.

What was that Surly blog? This one, maybe? Yeah. https://surlybikes.com/blog/some_answers_to_just_about_any_bike_forum_post_ive_ever_read

Bang your email in here and it should return any vulnerabilities or data breaches where your email and associated data may have been compromised.

That are known of, is the key thing to point out here. Some breaches go unobserved or unreported, and those won’t be in the database.

Loads of good advice up there. I’ve always been able to either self-rescue or get the injured person to a road, and with a Trans Cambrian on the books for later this year, I’m starting to think about what needs to happen if either of those aren’t possible. A bothy bag is probably going on the kit list as a result – I should have got one years ago.

Short local rides: I continually swap bags because one of my bikes doesn’t have bottle bosses, so I got survival blankets for each one. They take up next to no room and weigh nothing. I ride in the Surrey Hills mostly, since it’s on my doorstep. Even here it can take a while to get help to people – certainly longer than it takes for someone to get really cold if they’re lying down or standing around with an injury. What Matt says up there about insulation from the ground is really important. It’s like a massive heat sink.

Another bit of get-you-home kit I’ve used several times (yay – flinty local trails) – cut up an old toothpaste tube to use as a tyre boot.

@badlywireddog – yes, it’s flagged as a sponsored feature up at the top. I’m a subscriber too, and don’t mind this either if it pays the bills – there’s transparency.
The only issue I have with Vitus is availability – and it’d be jolly nice if my employer’s B2W vouchers worked for Vitus stuff – for some reason they selected Evans…

Its a loss to lose the work – work as in the time spent typing – but she only has to type it again really. She hasn’t lost the idea.

Yes, but no. I write stuff for a living, and this is my absolute worst nightmare.

If she lost the work, as in it was discovered online and leaked, thats a bigger deal and that where her and her publishers actual income comes from.

This happened with one of Jamie Oliver’s cookery books, although there were theories that it was actually a marketing ploy.

Beryl Bainbridge wrote plenty of her books on a Logica VTS (well, more than one – I imagine it was Trigger’s Broom) and saved the manuscripts on 5.25″ floppies.

Bomber by Len Deighton can claim to be the first book researched and written using a word processor. If you can find a copy of the book, there’s a description in it somewhere about how the author and a researcher used it.

Yep – don’t mess around. Get cracking with this: https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money

@chrismac

Renewables will take over eventually once they have figured out how to make cost effective and efficient batteries to store surplus power to smooth out the inevitable fluctuations with renewables. Whether these batteries are water, sand or other materials they are sill being researched.

Not the long term answer and not terribly scalable, but I did some work a while back on an EC project that looked at how used EV batteries (from Nissan and Renault, from memory) could be reused for two things: Datacentre power backup and neighbourhood renewable energy storage. Most of these packs get ripped and replaced when they fall below a certain output that makes them efficient for Nissan Leafs – but they still have a lot of life left in them. This allows a longer life for EV batteries before they have to be reprocessed, as space and weight aren’t such a big issue if they’re stored in a shed. That said, it’s not a terribly long term or efficient solution at a grid level.

Funny how renewables are the answer and the likelihood of power cuts goes up every time the wind drops.

Yeah! Damn those wind powered solar panels! Renewables are *definitely* the reason why there might be power cuts this winter.

@b33k34

Any idea why? I’ve not tried riding it but the burnt section is looks almost entirely intact (except maybe where they drove a truck over it) and the next section with the rocky entrance is completely fine (tape keeps appearing with some notice about ‘dangerous trees’ but not clear what the actual issue is (trees fall in the forest the whole time, if there one particular one get a chainsaw on it).

Yes, it looks intact to me as well – although it’s not as simple as raking away the debris. It’ll need drainage reinstated, sight lines and performance cues checked and possibly re-routing to take into account the now-visible terrain, because suddenly losing all the trees makes something feel quite different when you ride it. When that and other sections (notably the bit after the burnt out SUV) were harvested years back, what was a hectic speeder bike run through Endor suddenly became quite bland and boring; basically, we had to make it more swoopy and twisty because you could see a lot further ahead, and so had plenty more time to react to changes in direction. Depending on the volume of line changes, it could be quite a big job to bring it back and also make it fun to ride without the trees there.

The current delay seems to come down to resources and familiarity; in the past, it would be a case of us (ie Redlands Trails) organising a work day, tallying up build insurance hours, grabbing the tools and risk assessment clipboards (oy vey!) and heading up there. Redlands Trails is no more, we can’t buy insurance from BTCV these days, the tools are probably still in Dave’s lockup and it’s likely that half a dozen beat foresters have been and gone from this post – which manages more woodland than the whole of Scotland, and in tiny little chunks all over the place.

I’ve made a little bit of a flap (Work and children have curtailed my free time in the last ten years) and others are making a far bigger and more productive set of noises.

That’s a good read, and a really positive perspective.
I think one thing that’s potentially missing from the discussion is the general impact of trail centres over the last 20-odd years; Coed Y Brenin was transformational, and I’ve noticed a massive change in the way people think about riding since it appeared. Most of my riding is from my doorstep in the Surrey Hills, and we’re pretty fortunate to have exactly the sort of trail structure that Dave maps out at Cwm Carn. Maybe it’s not fortunate – it’s more like years of work from lots of people, often working independently.
The IMBA Stacked Loop system is something we used (again) 20 odd years ago to talk about the structure of wild trails in the Surrey Hills when we talked to landowners about Summer Lightning and the other trails we ended up building; what we (ie Redlands) talked about was a set of trails that addressed problems both mountain bikers and land owners faced at the time: mountain bikers would find popular trails were congested or hammered from over use, and landowners then found lots of new trails as a result, or mountain bikers spreading out onto multi-use paths or trails, which resulted in conflict. By building or maintaining a small number of high-volume trails for heavy use (Summer Lightning, BKB, Yoghurt Pots as examples) a lot of pressure came off the surrounding area; most people wanted to ride stuff built to a certain standard with no hidden surprises or unexpected features.
This has worked quite well for a long time, certainly longer than Redlands Trails was around – the Hurtwood trail builders are now doing some really great stuff, for example.
But it’s also meant that Forestry takes a quite different approach to stuff; when a section of Summer Lightning burned down in August, two sections of the trail were closed and won’t be re-opened any time soon, by the sounds of it.

A friend’s son has one. It’s fantastic for parks like BPW or Rogate, a bit of a nuisance for trail riding in the Surrey Hills, which is mostly lots of short steeps that aren’t particularly high or drawn out climbs. It’s enormous (he’s now taller than me – how does that happen?) and quite hefty compared to what he was riding before. The Ohlins shock may help with climbing manners – just bear in mind the bike is more toward DH/Park than trail. I’m a sucker for single pivots and used to really enjoy riding my old Meta 4 in the days of 26″, and it seems thoughtfully put together like a lot of Commencal stuff. 170mm is well into the range of probably needing some sort of fancy(er) linkage from Dave Weagle to make it climb better, but those come with hefty price tags. If your riding is more lift assisted than self-propelled, this is a sweet bike.

It’s very easy to overthink almost every aspect of wheel building / repairing. I learnt myself and have built wheels for all of my bikes that have stayed true and round for over 20 years now. I think I last bought whole wheels in about 2011 because the cost of a pair of Hope Hoops had dropped below the cost of the parts to make them in a flash sale of some sort. the only build I’ve struggled with was the latest one I did, which used straight pull spokes. I couldn’t find measurements for the flanges on either hub and got one wheel’s spokes out by about 1-2mm. Expensive and annoying mistake, that one.
As above, have a look at the Sheldon Brown web site and give it a go. One other thought: if you have a good local bike shop that you’re a regular at, you might also see if their resident wheel builder (There’s usually at least one who really enjoys it) you could always ask if they’d fancy doing a bit of paid tuition. Don’t lowball them, and do provide tea and cake.