Cheers, lots of great stuff posted here and the links I’m sure will help too once I’ve had chance to read them. Registered with bearbones forum earlier so will have a look there too.

I’ll definitely be using a flat bar bike. Currently only have a full suss mtb (Orbea Occam) and a roadie. The shock is nicely tucked up under the top tube on the Occam which does give reasonable space in the triangle if you had a suitable bag but I probably won’t end up using this bike. I’m eyeing up a hardtail when the cycle to work opens in March (not just for bikepacking). Current favourite is the Sonder Transmitter. I know the frontier is more suited to bikepacking but this bike will be used for a bit of everything, including local trail rides etc so happy to compromise a bit to have something that will be fun around the trails but can still cope with bikepacking and ive seen some pics online of people bikepacking with the transmitter.

Interesting debate about the harness vs bar bag. Will have to look into that a bit more and work out what will go where. I guess ideally I’d like the tent in a frame bag as it’s about 1.9kg and 40 x 15cm packed so be good to get that weight central, so then the mat and sleeping bag probably on the bars – I guess similar to P20’s setup, up there.

Anyway, lots to ponder, but this is great to get me going for now.

On the anker soundbuds fit, mine came with about 5 different sized rubber ear bits that you can swap over to get one that fits. Once I’d got the right size one they fit great whilst running. Sound is fine to my non audiophile ears.

Not sure they survive the washing machine though. I had a pair that I think went through and they worked after but the Bluetooth wouldn’t connect anymore. I ordered a new pair and then somehow got this new pair and the old pair muddled up! Left in a situation where it wasn’t possible to tell which was which, I had to assume that the old pair had come back to life and were the fully functioning pair and these newly ordered ones were faulty. Amazon are, despite having questionable tax arrangements, pretty good at refunding goods that are faulty if it’s within a few days of purchase.

Anker Soundbuds off Amazon

No need for longer screw or anything like a goat link.

Yep, been great. Only issue I’ve had is that the cassette chewed through my freehub but that’s not really the fault of the cassette but the alu freehub.

I really like the range you get and it’s been reliable. Did some XC in the alps this summer and it really came into its own there, having the 50t option. It’s a really good balance of range, reliability, usability and replacement parts cost IMO.

I’ll be replacing with the same. Tried to do the chain recently but I’ve missed the window as it skipped on the cassette, so put the old one back on and now running the chain and cassette until they die and will get another 11-50.

For reference the rest of my set up is XT shifter, XT SGS mech, KMC chain and OneUp Narrow Wide front ring.

Sunrace recommend SGS with the 11-50 and that’s what I’ve been using with it for past year. The article mentioned above tested it with other mechs with varying success.

Flights for the family to fuertaventura for Feb half term. School have an inset day on the Friday before half term and picked up some discounted rayanir tickets for that date which knocked best part of 1k off the price of going on the sat or sun.

….and the Bikehut light

Picked one of these up today for £31.50 with BC discount. Was going to be for the wife but really impressed with it on first impressions. I’ve been using an Evolva which I’ve been really happy with but on the full power setting, this looks a bit brighter with a wider flood. Only slight concern is battery life. The Evolva lasts forever but this suggests only 1 hour on full. Will have to do a bit more of a comparison.

Recently ordered a pair of 4 pot deore calipers from them. First time I’d used them and all fine. Ordered Wednesday evening, dispatched Thursday, delivered the following Monday with DHL.

Love where we live in Whitstable, Kent.

10 minutes walk from the beach and 10 minutes ride from the doorstep to a pretty extensive network of trials in the woods between here and canterbury. The town is really nice with a high street full of independent shops, with good pubs and restaurants. Has a really nice buzz in the summer particulally around the oyster festival week. We have two kids and it’s a really family friendly place with good schools. Weather is great. Pretty dry and consistently get actual summers (I grew up in Liverpool and the weather is really noticeable for me). Good access to the continent. Not really bothered about London but it’s close enough if you want it. We don’t live in the centre of town so no traffic issues. Canterbury where we used to live was a bit of nightmare at peak times but it’s generally fine here. There’s really nothing I don’t like and have no desire at all to move.

Yep, Same as Jambo, got on gmail when it was in beta so have my name.surname@gmail.com.

I’ve got two main doppelgängers. An Aussie in the real estate game who cheated on his wife and got found out (had an email from the bit on the side) and the most prolific is a Texan bloke who seems to have money and dating issues as I get loads of dating site registrations confirmation emails as well as credit applications.

No way of contacting them so just dump their stuff in the junk folder. It amazes me that they don’t clock the fact that they register for stuff and don’t get any emails?!

In my case my caliper was dead so no real re-sale value. Also, quite lazy I guess, but my frame is a bitch to internally route cables and I was willing to try just swapping the caliper to save the ballache of that!

The 4 pot calipers are meant to use the 90 hose (2.1mm internal diameter) and they have the straight fitting rather than banjo.

However I’ve just swapped M447 calipers for the deore 4 pots but kept the M506 levers and 59 hose (2.3mm internal diameter) I already had. Works fine. Got a pair for £80 delivered as above from Bike24.

Id say as long as you’ve got the correct hose fittings they should work with most set ups. Weather it’s perfectly optimised is maybe another question but happy with the performance so far (only had a couple of rides) despite not using the recommended hose.

Specs here: https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/product/component/e-bike-e7000-series/BR-MT520.html

Just to update this, ordered a pair of the deore mt-520 4 pot calipers from Bike24 which arrived today.

Swapped out the existing M447 calipers, which had the straight fitting rather than banjo fitting, and as this was the same as the new 4 pots too, it was a direct swap.

I decided to try it with the existing ‘59’ hose rather than the ‘90’ that Shimano recommend. Gave both ends a bleed and all seems fine.  Had a very quick blast down the street just to test them. First impressions were good! Feel less on/off than the 2 pot M447s which may be due to the wider bore of the cable, but if I slammed on the anchors there was loads of power.

Looking forward to a trail ride after the pads have bedded in properly to get a better feel for the overall performance.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Txlarxw45jo

Few of my favourites…..

Sebastian Tellier – La Ritournelle

Air -All I Need

Bonobo – Kiara / Eyesdown / Pick Up (almost any of his stuff)

Little Dragons – Twice

Zero 7 – Destiny / Give it Away

Telepopmusik – Breathe

Yuna – Live your life

Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats / Crosses

Avalanches – Since I left you

Craig Armstrong – Balcony scene

Cheers Ben. Spent a bit of time reading about the 59 vs 90 hose. There’s various connection types and and as you say the main difference is internal diameter. 2.3mm for the 59 vs 2.1mm for the 90.

Ive also read a few forum posts where people have reported using the 59 where officially the 90 is recommended (obviously the version with the same connections) and have reported it worked fine. Potentially just a bit less bite power but feedback suggests this is minimal in practice. Also seen a few bits about shimano originally speccing the 59 hose on their road hydro discs to give a more ‘road feel’ but then also specced versions with the 90 to give a bit more bite.

If this is right, I’m tempted to order and give it a try with the 59 hose as the other connections are the same. If it’s crap can order the 90 hose later and will still be cheaper than a full brake set.

Will have a bit more of a read around but tempted to try it.

Sounds promising.

Do you know what your hose is? Bit confused between the 59 version and 90 version and banjo vs straight connection. I think I currently have the 59 hose with straight connection caliper fitting.

Looking at the Shimano specs for the 4 pots they’re the straight connection but recommend the 90 hose?

I’m with the OP.

Id suggesting getting on the school roof in full hi viz Lycra with your bike, have a good rant before riding across the roof to the teachers car park, quick skid to spray a few tiles off in a machine gun style before dropping off onto the offending teachers Mondeo. Endo down the windscreen and ride off flicking the Vs.

Managed to find it in the end! Went to local timber merchants who didn’t have it but they suggested trying Jewsons who did.

One tip the timber merchants suggested in case we couldn’t find it, which we hadn’t thought of, was taking some matching skirting from somewhere out of the way like behind a fridge and then bodging that area where it doesn’t really matter. Didn’t have to in the end but it was a useful back up option.

This is two small sections in the lounge on a chimney breast either side of a wood burner we’ve had fitted. The original skirting was cut around the old fireplace/hearth and the new hearth is narrower and shallower and it no longer matches up.

Probably only 50cm either side that needs repacing but it will look crap if the architraving doesn’t meet and match up with the skirting that runs down the sides of the chimney breast and the rest of the lounge.

The house was only built in 2004 so was hoping it was relatively standard stuff used and wouldn’t be too hard to track down.

In Kent. Didn’t think about custom options.  Will have a look if can’t get anything off the  peg.

Have a look at the Oex fathom range from go outdoors. I’ve got the 200 and impressed for the money. Very lightweight and packs really small. They do a 300 and 400 (3 or 4 season) for similar money, all around £40 ish, if you want a bit more warmth and don’t mind a little more weight/bulk.

Our place uses Vivup. No problems from an end user perspective when I got a bike earlier this year. No idea what they’re like from the organisations or the LBS end.

KitKat Club followed by a course of antibiotics

+1 Erpeheide

Went in Feb half term 2 years ago. Had a ‘pony cottage’ where you got a pony to groom and ride all week. Indoor pool great. Loads to do. Loved it. We’re in Kent so not a big deal to get over. Miles cheaper than the UK when we went.

Half price Spotify premium if its still going

Weird end to the WBR London flat race there. Was in a group of 6 most of the way round, about 0.5 miles to go I was just getting into position for the sprint when the others all disappeared and my distance to the finish went up to about 0.8 miles? It was as if I was sent on a different route to the finish. Ended up doing that last bit on my own which was disappointing after a good race up until then.

Back on to Zwift for the first time this side of summer last night. Was going to do the KISS at 8pm only to find the kids had drained the iPad! Charged it and jumped on the WBR road to ruins a bit later instead.

Enjoyed it and was probably a bit fitter than expected. Managed 2.7w/kg which isn’t too bad for me on a hilly route. Got in a nice group of 4. Brilliant sprint between us at the end. Overtook one lad and thought I had held off the others only for another one to catch me on the line and pip me by half a wheel! Forgot what it was like to collapse over the bars shaking and sweating.

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/hub-spares/dt-swiss-onyx-shimano-freehub-body/

Arghh, doesn’t say 2 pawl anywhere? Just assumed it was compatible as it says 370?

The current one I’ve got is 3 pawl. If this comes as 2 pawl will it not work at all?

Thanks for the replies. I’ve gone for the one liamvc96 linked to but found it in the UK at SJS cycles. Looks like it should work as states it’s compatible with 370 hub which it seems the m1900 uses and is steel. Fingers crossed.

I planned to go XT shifter and SLX mech but when I looked at the costs of the mech  there was hardly anything in it and so just paid the extra few quid for full XT.

Interesting to see the positive reviews of the Parkray Aspect. That was one we were looking at along with Charlton and Jenrick Fireline 5XW

Does your new frame take a direct mount derailleur? If so you may need to remove the B link from the mech to get the Sunrace to work.

I had the same problem when I initially tried to fit an 11-50 Sunrace and an XT mech. It wouldn’t shift to the big ring at all. Took ages to realise what was wrong as I didn’t release my derailleur hanger was direct mount. Removed the B link and then as above, it worked a charm. Loads of B screw left to play with and and no need for any extra components.

I’d be surprised if LBS didn’t suss this themselves but you never know.

We’re currently looking at stoves at the moment and chatted to a local supplier yesterday. He said that with the governments proposed clean air strategy he thinks that in the south at least, from 2020, it going to be increasingly difficult to get coal, even smokeless. He reckoned the market will die for anything other than seasoned wood or you’ll be paying a premium. I’ve personally got no idea but this is what the guy was saying.

Would also be in the queue for a souped up SE. Better battery, processor, camera and waterproof would do it. Can’t stand these massive brick sized phones.

Flowers

Hendry

Le Saux

Sherwood

Sutton

Shearer

Mount arrived today and used it this evening. Fits the Fluxient perfectly. I did Loop an O ring over it just for extra security but it was probably unnecessary as it seemed nice and secure clipped into the cradle. Thanks again for the recommendation.