I’ve in past bodged a mud hugger mounted down at BB area and covering lower part of wheel and then another guard in normal rear wheel position. And usually got them overlapping or tucked under each other such that looks neat(ish).

Crazy prices deore  M6120 4pot  brakes on Alpkit eBay outlet. £90 pair and I got £8 off with a code.  Mad.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225990132438?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=5Iez2I_TTmO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=rDLdVOb6R7S&var=525092483575&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

To complete the post above about the Combo life. Got round to finishing the fork mount eventually.
2 modern large 29ers and a kids 24inch bike in no bother. With 1 rear seat still up. Probably need to raise height of one fork mount to give clearance for 3 adult bikes but rare I’d need do that.

“She doesn’t even drive the thing, I’m basically her chauffeur these days.”

was a telling point as I read it. Really not understanding why you can’t just take some initiative and go get sorted.

Sounds like disinterest rather than a clear no or reasons given for a no. I’d not try and ignore a clear and resolute  no but unless I heard it, green light.

better to ask for forgiveness than permission  and all that.

Mind you I do speak as someone who took the initiative made the decision and then sat in the shiny new car as after some moments my wife then said er where’s the gearstick? (Sneaky auto purchase and she’s a firm has to be manual driver. Oops)

FWIW I am finding a lot more programmes with failed to record or due to copyright reasons that prevent me recording from Samsung smart tv to a USB HDD. Not sure if same applies to free view recorders (years since we used ours) but something to think about. We can’t pause or record a lot of programmes these days. 

A yes to the Hope Road from me. Did a 2day loop from Lairg west then north to Durness then back via Hope rd few years ago. Barely saw a car in miles past Ben Hope. Mind you that’s a good thing road so narrow in places I had to get off stand in ditch let a car past. 

Don’t overthink it. I’ve rarely found cold/underdressed to be the issue. More so potentially in March. Bit like biking you’ll fair heat up and sweat when skiing. So layers and be able to unzip / zip up as necessary. But warm enough on lifts etc. you’d get decent enough salopettes or trousers in go outdoors for not much.

Shimano here. Mt401? Bikes not left house so can’t comment. Lever a bit longer and more basic feel than Deores and above I’m used to. Can’t say more til used in anger. 

Sentier 29 arrived today. Skipped PDI but as others have said bars and front wheel on was only task. Not checked gears or brakes yet but fine if need a little bike of tinkering. Looks smart, same finish as above in 29er form.  Have already got a not new to me 27.5 version which will be sold and it’s been a decent bike to ride. So this should be nice based on that experience and the new one having better spec. Almost nothing spec wise I’d say in need of upgrade. 

We switched to them past few months for full Fibre and porting telno. Have a sea4ch will find my own post on this forum and my and others views. Only had to use their tech support once as had an issue trying to setup a mesh extender. Couldn’t fault their help a long phone call as they talked me through each setup step and stayed on call with me until it was sorted. Actual Fibre been fine and a fairly consistent 500mbps as promised and no failures. 

Proof of concept in the Combo life. So here’s 2 size large modern 29ers circa 460-470 reach. With one of the rear seats still upright. Needed to offset one of the bikes for handlebar clearance. Pushing fork mount back reduces length available but the ‘slant’ negated that. I guess I could raise the height of a fork mount as another way of doing it.  Seats in normal driving position.

Not got photos but with 1 seat up can get 1 bike in all wheels on, if bars slightly turned and bike in diagonally across the load space. Not yet figured out a good way to secure it when like that tho so suspect front wheel off will be the main plan. XL would’ve been better but hard to come by and the XL only came in the lower powered diesel engine which put me off.

not sure about 3 adult bikes, suspect doable 3+3 with some thought. But any 3+3 for me will involve 2 kids bikes so easier to do. Got some mounting tracks and other bits arriving this week so plan is for a setup with multi positioned rails and easy to slide and move fork mounts so can quickly fit different sized bikes depending.

Yeah loving it. 18 months had it now. I spent an age DIY custom making templates and doing my own invisiframe type coating. So whole frame is basically covered. So can’t comment on how clearcoat holds up without that. 

https://flic.kr/p/2nF8nQk

https://flic.kr/p/2nCt4rf

AM9?

Interesting zafira comment as my wife has one and I actually found it quite comfy for long drives. Ours was the tourer tho and 2.0 diesel so fairly relaxed on long drives. Gearbox and clutch a bit stiff so never liked on town driving much. 

Will maybe sort photos of Combo if manage to sort my fork mounts etc. just back from b&q with some mdf they’ve cut for me. Zitto fork mounts already acquired.

On the berlingo variant theme, VX combo life here. Style points NIL but auto diesel and real nice drive. Pisses over an older BMW X3 in comfort and smoothness.

VX cheaper than Peugeot Citroen variants by circa £2k used IMO.

regular base full 29er both wheels just fits diagonally 2/3 seats down. Roof height no issue but tighter at boot door. XL would go in straight.

still to setup fork mounts that’s todays job. But 2 or 3 in front wheels off and still 3 seats should be doable.

a space tourer van be easier but that would be £8-10k more for similar age and mileage. Couldn’t justify that. 

Given current market you could probably buy a fair few BBs for not much and less than cost of getting faced. I’ve never thought of facing and BBs often last longer than frames  given my frequent changing or N+ing. 

Be surprised if you didn’t stick with smashpot given how good it is plus the initial cost of it. Though consider extra cost if you end up trying a few different springs. Just be aware that on weight the claimed extra weight was optimistic. I was easy an extra 200g over the website claim. Worth it though. 

Would be surprised if ship euro style, to me swapping over and bleeding is beyond what most folk would class as basic bike setup. Even though I’ve got the bleed kit I’d rather not have to do that to a new bike. We’ll see what arrives.

I got the email last night for an order placed Friday.

Stuck down in Ayr as home up the A9 not on today. Just glad we opted to stay put when saw conditions earlier or else could’ve been stuck at Drumochter most of the day. Shall attempt drive North tomorrow. 

OOS for me

150mm dropper £40 from Ribble. Looks like might be a TransZ/brandx variant. 

https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/p/LEOESPIM100BK00A3485/level-hydraulic-dropper-post-w-remote-lever-150mm-black-30-9-x-485mm/?affwin=Y&affid=249371&utm_source=AffiliateWindow&utm_medium=Sub%20Networks&utm_campaign=249371&sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=249371&awc=5923_1700553115_0e5de3b048b45feaf3a7e97dc2223967

Trail maintenance it appears, Chris cross closed for work on it. Dunno if just today or for longer. 

We had same car and engine. A 64 plate owned from new and traded in earlier this year at 50k. The possibly helpful news is the intermittent clutch sticking down thing we had for the last 3 years of ownership. But it never resulted in any other issues. Had clutch checked over at VX dealer at least annually over that period and they couldn’t diagnose it and as above said we could go new clutch but weren’t  recommending based on cost unless the situation got worse. It was long out of warranty so no reason they couldn’t tell us if was a known issue with the car surely?

we only traded in as car was 9yo and a replacement was in our thinking anyway, not really due to clutch. It was maybe a once or twice a month event at most. No pattern as to when or why.

What’s closed and why?

All sweet now, honest! 

It’s 2x 7530 routers I’m using too. 

I got 2 Pairs of sleuths delivered this week. All good. The leather ones perfect for mooching about this time of year. The ‘sand’ colored canvas ones definitely have a pink hue to them. Nothing to say there were women’s when ordering!

Success. Was fairly easy (eventually). If anything the Fritz user guide was confusing in places as didn’t exactly tie into menus/options in the UI. Did the mesh setup more intuitively this time with the fallback of knowing I now knew how to reset routers if I had to. 

No luck connecting to router i’d clearly done a major FUBAR.

. Can’t fault Zen tech support though. Despite what felt like about a 20-step process he talked me through it all and now back to a single working router.

now to decide if knowing how to unpick I’m brave enough to try setup as repeater again. 

I’ll at least give the kids 1 hour of working WiFi before I kill it again. 😀

Thanks will have a look at tomorrow. The Fritz repeater was £100-£200. I picked up a new router same as the installed one for £40. And the instructions to setup as an extender looked easy 😩 

Shredder, sure you’ll be well happy with it. I’d suggest telephone calls to Gary best bet to check on progress. One man in a shed is my impression so as he’s builder and painter, and everything else, admin and customer contact maybe not top of the list.

I’ve got the new smoked clearcoat. Had bike since Aug22 and only in last month or so have seen some spider-rust appearing. The smoke clearcoat means not as noticeable and is a darker color than rust color. So lest rust like in appearance.  As said above, you’re well warned and for now I’m not bothered by it. Knew it was likely. For me a big ‘want’ for getting a Curtis was to see the brazing, almost a shame to paint over it. 

To complete the post, ordered 3 days ago, garden dug up and Fibre to the house today, zen router arrived too and now sitting here with 500mbps. So far so good. Mrs P dealt with the install but seems to have been fine. Team of 4 turned up and done in an hour. Trough in garden I think only 6” deep so maybe not ideal but it’s not in a place should be an issue.

no improvement in range over BT so back of house doesn’t pickup Wi-Fi. Just need figure out if I can do anything clever with the old BT router and LAN cable to extend or maybe not if that’s mixing Fibre router and broadband router. Or look into extenders. Probably cheaper a DIY solution than a £9 per month ‘every room’ add on from Zen.

Not just an AM9……

I’m more Mtb then gravel than road. So any recommendation from me will be avoiding roads. May not be what you’re looking for. if wanting pedal from town rather than drive, then:

up Great Glen way to top of Craig Dunain and follow GGW out to top of Blackfold. Then for shorter route drop down to Lochend (descent a bit rough in places but all fire road and I’ve done on gravel) and back along canal. Maybe 14miles all in but decent  climb to start so 1.5 hours all in. 

variation on above is keep following GGW route to abriachan (mainly road) and return same way back, or stick on quiet back roads down to Moniak and back along the firth. Maybe 20ish miles. All good tracks or road so no issues.

SLNT down to Dores and back along loch side and riverside. Navigation maybe less obvious and more of a daylight option. Mainly Landy track, Singletrack and small amount of road. 18-20 miles. anything else would be Mtb on Craig Dunain but that’s not for gravel bike. More enduro stuff. 

Or more road focused rides. Or drive to somewhere. 

can dig out gpxs

What does this actually mean for the layperson who’d never heard of IFTTT? other than our the box Alexa functionality it’s only BBC sounds and Apple Music I’ve got linked. So does this mean voice activation of those services won’t work? But voice activation of Alexa and Amazon services still work?confused. 

Maybe another time, 31st Halloween so family stuff with kids. But stay centre of town and if it’s night ride then might work another time. 

Thanks all, ordered placed with Zen