I’m at just under 120,000 on a 2013 2.0 tdi Octavia estate which I imagine is 99% of the same engine parts as this. Apart from servicing and tyres I’ve not had to touch it since buying it a few years ago with 62,000 miles on it. Apparently the timing belt is due for a change at 120,000 miles (or every five years) so I should probably sort that but it didn’t sound too bad at around £400 for our local independent place.

I know for the DHX that I’ve got to work in the standard version came with a valve on it so that the user could set the chamber pressure to their liking. The only reason the one I have is different is that the valve and dirt cal don’t fit when the shock is mounted on the specialized frame it cane with.

I’d be surprised if they had changed the materials on the newer socks to something that would be damaged by some air (as long as it’s not too moist).

I built up a set of XM481s onto some straight pull 350s last year and just used the same spoke length everywhere (calculator was saying there was only 2mm difference between the shortest and longest). They haven’t exploded yet and I clock in well above 110kg with my kit on.

I ended up buying my straight pull sapim race spokes cut to length from spoke for Ryan as they were close to the cheapest I could find those and I needed a fairly odd size because of the straight pull hubs.

I’d be interested in knowing about where you got the needle/tools from as I’ve got an old DHX 5.0 that needs a service. If you could share it would be much appreciated.

Ta, guess I better hunt out the local scrap yard then.

DaveSport, I think if mine weighed 60kg I’d be happy to let someone come and take it off my hands, even if I didn’t get anything out of it.

I’ve had a very tasty time with my two Meera Sodha cook books. One of my wife’s favourite things in the world comes from her made in India book (the pistachio chicken curry) and her newer one, fresh India should be a good fit as it’s all vegetarian recipes.

http://meerasodha.com

Now I’ve had a chance to get out on it a few times I’m really starting to enjoy my chameleon. That’s set up as a 29er with 130mm fox 34 forks and has been riding very nicely indeed.

Another alternative is draftsight, the free version is pretty much where AutoCAD was in the early 00’s and is pretty easy to use for creating 2D drawings as well as viewing .dwg and .dxf files

Draftsight

£11 seems like a very good price for the chain ring, was that a steel NX part or the aluminium GX type?

Yes and yes. Pretty sure this is marked on the outer edge of the chainring.

I recently built up some XM481s onto straight pull 350 hubs and they have been serving me well so far. I’m >110kg without any kit or bike and haven’t been to worried about taking these down some fairly rocky trails or over smaller jumps (probably no more than two or three feet from the ground if I’m lucky) if that helps as a comparison.

I think I bought mine in 2005 so not sure this will be too helpful but the only thing that annoys me on that version of the bike is the loose derailer hanger/sliding drop out arrangement which makes getting the back wheel on and off a right faff.

Looks like this is mostly sorted now though (they now have a fixed mech hanger) so the only, slight, remaining issue that I would expect to encounter would be the annoyance of needing to loosen/remove full wrap around mudguards if you want to get the rear wheel out of the horizontal drop outs.

Apart from the above mine has done sterling sevice over many thousands of miles as a touring/commuting bike and I’d be happy to give the new one a try if it ever got nicked.

Do you mean patterned like the invisiframe kits, where all the shapes you need for your frame come pre cut? Or patterned like the tape having hatching or some other surface patterns?

I’ve recently put in a claim for a custom chameleon that got squashed in a car accident after only its second ride (it was a very sad day). I ended up claiming for a considerably more expensive off the peg build of the same bike that the local dealer suggested as a comparable build for insurance replacement purposes. This put a replacement cost of £3200 on a bike that cost just shy of £2300 in bits (though this did include those £200 fox 34s from Germany that have all gone now).

Having said all that, I imagine they will charge you a lot more to insure a £3000 bike than a £2000 one so it may be worth thinking that various options over and see how the valuation impacts the premium costs.

Edit, it may be worth saying that the claim I put in was against the insurance firm of the driver that hit my car, so I may not have been able to try claim so much back if I’d just insured the original parts cost on my own home insurance policy.

I can second the broken earth trilogy, got through them I’m short order earlier in the year.

I’ve also enjoyed Ann Leckie’s ancillary justice (and the rest of that series) and Becky Chambers’ the Long way to a small angry planet (and the rest of the wayfarers books).

The sram direct mount cranks use different chairing offsets for normal and boost configurations. The normal ones are listed by sram as having a 6mm offset and the boost ones have a 3mm offset. So, if you have a boost rear wheel I’d guess you would want a boost chainring from Sram or superstar for the best chain line and frame fit.

Apparently this is still by far the best thing I ever bought for a present.

https://www.lovehoney.co.uk/product.cfm?p=30320

I’ve got one fancy Philips one that dimms well without needing a specific led comparable dimmer. I think it’s specificaly a warmglow (or similar name) and it even gives out a more yellow/orange tint to its light at the lower settings.

Now according to fox I’m meant to put in 40ml of fox 5wt Teflon infused oil in the air side (which looks like lemonade) . And 10ml of 20wt gold into the damper side (dark golden/brown like honey)

I think you might have this the the wrong way round, the 5wt should go in the leg with the damper and the 20wt should go in the leg with the air spring.

I think I may have a couple of 26 inch Mavic ceramic rims (attached to Deore hubs) tucked up in the shed, probably 217’s but couldn’t say for sure without looking. Give me a shout if they might be of interest and I can go and double check they are still there.

The plunge saws that run on guide rails will be much better than the table saw for what you want to do and you don’t need to spend festool money to get one.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/workzone-track-saw/p/087060236365900

Saying that, I did mine with a decent jigsaw (dewalt cordless) and some nice new progressor blades. Didn’t get any chipping on the gloss laminate surface and it wasn’t too bad to cut in a reasonably straight line (masking tape with a pencil mark on it)

P.S. I also cut my worktops with the jigsaw, but I wouldn’t recommend this if the joint will be visible or have to make up with another section of worktop. I only needed straight lengths of worktop where I could hide end end cut under a little silicone bead against a wall so the slight wobble didn’t make any difference to me.

https://www.first4magnets.com/hook-eyebolt-clamping-c40/32mm-dia-neodymium-clamping-magnet-with-m4-hook-or-eyebolt-36-4kg-pull-p3828

A magnet fishing kit? Might not be much fun on Christmas Day but looks like it could be interesting depending on how much stuff is in your local waterways. (Fair warning, I’ve not tried this so it might be as dull as)

Well, I’ve ordered up some grip paste so if it turns up before I get out again on Thursday I’ll report back as to how it went. Hopefully it won’t be any more expensive to dirt than this.

P.S.  it’s not a Thomson post, I’ve got one of those on the old road rat and never had any bother with it.

That sounds a bit hard core for Thetford forest !

If you think that’s bad you should see the bike that the bike that the chameleon replaced. It might have something like 170mm of travel and didn’t get too many away trips in the last few years.

A couple of the German stores seem to have them in stock now (both the 2.35 soft and 2.6 speedgrip); prices are quite a bit higher than you will pay for the old model but reviews seem a lot more positive so hopefully worth the extra.

https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/schwalbe-hans-dampf-evo-addix-29-tle-folding-759136

Think I’ll probably just go with the 2.35 soft for now as that won’t leave me wanting to buy two new tyres if it looked like the 2.6 would actually fit in the back of the chameleon.

So, we’re saying the extra girth will trump the soft and sticky rubber when it comes to extra traction?

North

I tried unsuccessfully a few times before giving champix tablets a try (a friend had good results with them) and finding things much easier to manage.

I think the tablets can have some nasty side effects for some people but I didn’t seem to get any. After taking the tablets for a week or so the nicotine from the cigarettes just stopped working so from then in it was much easier to stop as the cravings were removed from the process and I just needed to find something to occupy my time with instead. Does mean a trip to the doctors to get the tablets but the person helping out was very reasonable and not preachy at all.

All I can say is that I’m jealous of how much most of you seem to be paying for nursery. Little ginge is currently costing us £1200 a month in fees and that’s a with a discount for him only attending in term time ( Ms. Ginge is a teacher so keeps him home during the holidays).

Even if he was suddenly at university I can’t imagine him being any more expensive than he is now.

I did just wat your proposing a month or so ago (replaced an old school mechanical thermostat with a nest unit)

It was pretty simple to install, it took longer for me to work out what wiring was what in the old system than to install the new parts. I even reused the old wired connection to the mechanical thermostat to send the power from the nest control box to the new thermostat.

Its really nice to be able to set a different temperature for different times of day rather than the old all or nothing approach if the old timer/thermostat pair. Also made us realise just how far off the settings in the old unit were (19 on the new unit feels like 25 on the old one).

Just remember, it’s Christmas soon. Might be nice to get some fancy new (old) bike bits from under the tree?

I’m currently riding with one of these and a lezyne macro duo as a helmet torch, gets me round my 2+ hour night rides without any trouble (so long as I keep the lezyne off it’s brightest setting)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CSNMY3S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_DnpXBbN5BSPJX

Hi, some very useful information here but does anyone have any experience with any places to buy decent ply in east anglia?

Rather than spending £20 for the proper squorx tool you can just pick up an e5 torx bit for a couple of quid to use in its place. I did this for the xm481s that I built up recently and ended up not touching my spoke key all the way through the build. I did drop a washer into the rim though, extra annoying when it had been covered in grease and was sticking to the inside wall.

Kraftwerk 220005 Torx E5 insercion 3/8 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GFIWFYA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_9OiSBbP75678J

I’m not too sure about anything close to the racing but mildenhall and Newmarket both have public sports centres that you might have a chance with (assuming you’ll be traveling back home west down the a14). At the very least you could go for a “swim” in the Newmarket one to get into a shower.

Cotic Roadrat?

Not easily.

There is a fair chance you could swap them out with the help of a torx driver but it’s not something I’ve tried yet. I probably wouldn’t want to try it in the dark at the side of the trail either as they look like pretty small screws.

I’ve just bought one of these from amazon (or at least the same thing with a different name on it) for about £35, figured it was worth a punt before splashing out on something a lot more expensive. Much to the annoyance of some of the people I ride with it does look like it is putting out somewhere close to 1800 lumens (when compared to some rather pricey exposure lights) and easily lasted the 1:30 I had it in for this week. It’s very solidly built with a decent handlebar Mount (no helmet mount) and sensible controls; you will need to borrow your mobile charger though as mine didn’t ship with one.

if the link below doesn’t work try a search for cree XM-L2 and you should be able to find some more lights that are of the same construction.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071DX232Z/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_EhVIBb948DJFP