Probably bought 3 at a time. One to build, two to sell on later!

Italian parent company, French customers make up about 80% of annual orders and they’re not willing to take chances with new orders. MIGHT have some new UK customers, but nobody knows. HR director more-or-less telling me to look for another job, then making out it’ll be alright.
B-word.

Something tells me it would be a lot more than what youd pay via tax and I’m fairly certain your income tax wouldn’t go down the whole way either!

Actually, my wife saw them over Dover today as well. Apparently over the coast of France then back North.

SKIDZ! Is what would happen.

I’m with Plusnet; have you been getting robocalls from a “London” number that changes each time and leaves a message in Chinese?

I’m sorry to go off topic so soon, but out of interest, are you using Rabbit Hole or similar width rims?
I use Velocity Blunt 35s and find that 18-20 psi is as low as I can stand; anything less and I find it too wandery. Do the wider rims make that much difference?

I stopped buying them years ago as they just seemed to fall apart in no time.
Best ones I’ve had were Adidas Superstars. Had those for five years.
I like Onitsuka Tigers, but they disintegrated in a matter of months.

Actually, £1100 is for the singlespeed. The geared one is £1400.

It would be nice to see these new rigids pop up on the Youtubes when they do a “rigid on an enduro course” video, rather than a 25 year old budget hack.

I’ve had my eye on that for a little while now; I think it looks pretty good, though edging away from the good price point.
Looks about as steep/slack as you’d need to go though.
https://theradavist.com/2019/08/trevor-and-his-cascadia-cycles-doug-fir-rigid-mtb/
https://www.peterverdone.com/pvd-sopwith-camel/

Very inventive. The last one with the roundabout actually made me feel sick very quickly!

@lunge There are a few completes still about, as mentioned before Brother do a nice one, as do Ribble. Wonder and Marin have good ones under a grand, but I’ve been perving over the 2020 Kona Unit-X that’s just been released. Still cant afford it, though.

I wanted to add this one, but didn’t have any suitable pics, until this morning on a long way in to work.
1996 Trek 850, that because of it being my commuter/everything else bike, ends up being what I probably ride more than anything.

Lots of personal project parts- Brake boosters, bar-ends, chain tensioner, bash ring, 26.8 dropper, ghetto tubeless.

Well, here’s my effort.
<img src=”//i.imgur.com/SRw9iYT.jpg[/img]” alt=””
Had it……..6? 7? years now. I would like something newer, but it’s just not given me any cause to!

I’ve got one on an old Trek 850. I had to do a fair amount of work to get it anywhere reliable though.
For the money, though, not bad. Be careful, as there’s a forward facing and a rearward facing version (the pin faces front or back).
As for the lever action, I found there is a bit of a knack to it. If you unweight the saddle, pull the lever, then sit to drop it, it’s a lot easier. Same with returning.
If you insert a lump of plastic inside the rod as well, this creates a bit of vacuum inside the cylinder, allowing you to control the return rate.

As birth rate falls, its actually people living longer that fill the world up. Yet, I never hear the people talking about population control offering to do something about it themselves.

I’m sure there are actually quite a few brands or makers in this country already like that, but they’re going to have a potentially small market share. This is where a website showcasing, collating and bringing this all to the fore is the way I see it happening.
Repair local,make local,buy local, ride local.

There’s so much good stuff coming out here, I’m finding it incredibly hard to take it all in, think about coherent responses, remember them and then try to formulate some response!
It’s always frustrating to hear the “Chinese power-stations = what’s the point?” line; I don’t think that was the @legometeorolgy’s angle, more a personal concern with their own impact. I’ve been trying to avoid the trite concept of mindfulness, but I think it fits.
We’ll all NEED new stuff at some point, we’ll all WANT new stuff and I’m sure we’re all guilty of convincing ourselves that our old wheels are no longer as round as the new wheels.
Peer pressure is a hell of a thing too. Mostly I ride on my own, but on the odd occasion I hook up with local group rides, I feel incredibly self conscious turning up on an old rigid bike, in basically fairly normal clothing.
This leads me on to another problem, which is one of perception and hard cash. MTB’ing, as projected, is NOT a very accessible sport or hobby. Yes, you can have fun with an older cheap bike, but, if you’re new to it, that’s not what you’d be sold. The problem with this local/sustainable/durable side of MTB’ing or cycling in general, is that it’s probably hopelessly unsexy. It’s interesting that the people who do seem most in tune with this are the bikepacking and touring folk; why should that be? Is it because the focus tends to be on durability and actually a wider view of the world, not just a gravelled chute down a mountainside?
We’re being sold on potential performance rather than real needs, in all areas of life.
I’ve been wondering for a while about the original singlespeed mtb movement and if the conditions that led people to do that then are similar now, or would that be co-opted and marketed back?
It’s encouarging to see though, that there are a lot of people who do seem to feel the same way. I’d love to see this thread grow and not just wither away, but how to keep up momentum?

Local motion?

I’ve got no idea. It’s probably something to do with the BBcode from Imgur.

Thank you @kayak23 I would have preferred to use a thread-on cog, but I can’t seem to turn a thread that precisely with my lathe. I’d like to make a rear screw-on freewheel eccentric SSMTB hub, similar to the WI ENO.

So, same amount of the same spacers for 68mm and 83mm?

Actually, going back a few posts, I’ve recently found using Trailforks has really opened up the riding potential locally. I’ve been adding as much as I can, but also finding things that I had no idea about. Sometimes within a mile of my house! I found Strava useless for finding new stuff, but all linked together, it works. I think that’s a perfect example of a smart use of technology in keeping with this thread. You show me yours, I’ll show you mine.

It’s amazing to see what people are capable of. The quality on this thread is high indeed.
My humble offerings are these I made recently, as my boss is off for a few weeks with a knackered finger.


(that took three goes to publish)
Anyway, these are for a late 30s Dawes Efficiency Tourist.
3 piece 6082 T6, 36 hole, 90mm OLD front, 110mm OLD rear with an ISO disc cog fitting, double bearings on drive side

If there’s one promising idea I’m getting from this thread it’s the potential for some-sort of movement to make local riding something special, not just something you do when you’ve no time for something better. I guess there could be scope for some sort of arty but informative blog-style site with routes starting within or on the edge of major UK cities, some high quality media, musing on simple bikes that still embrace genuinely awesome modern tech like droppers, some public transport info for more adventurous rides that are well served by trains…

My thoughts exactly, but rather than a wordpress style blog, I think something closer to Bikepacking.com or TheRadavist where there’s regular updates, different subsections and archives. I’m afraid though, that would probably be a full time job in itself.
Any ideas for a name?

@kayla1 Ha! No, that’s the beauty of it- it should be all about NOT requiring a new type of bike.
Articles on bodgery, what-works-with-what etc.

@legometeorology I’ve been following this thread with interest, as it seems we’ve been thinking roughly about similar things. I’m a complete sucker for trawling all the notable cycling sites and often getting pulled down into the shiny-stuff rabbit hole. My saving grace from all that is just being skint- I have to make stuff last and just can’t afford new gear all the time.
I’m lucky though, that Dover is such a good place for MTB, that the need to drive anywhere further away rarely raises itself.
A great part of it all, I think is the aforementioned interwebz and magazines, STW included.
Sites like The Radavist and PathLessPedalled do showcase more of the sustainable side of MTB as well as the latest and greatest, but rarely outside of the US. I have been thinking that there is an opportunity for a UK equivalent, focussing on “boring” riding. Think RSF, Bikepacking.com, The Radavist, bimbling, Bicycle Quarterly etc. But all in one place and actually made to look as good as the glossy, rad stuff. It doesn’t have to be necessarily over-worthy and hair-shirt, just make it look as good as it feels. Any takers?

Can I have a couple of quick words?

That’s funny; whenever I open a new pack of processed ham, the little burp reminds me of an unwashed taint.

I was thinking last night about replicating SA AW ratios with a derailleur set-up. So, using my SS as an example, gear 2 would be direct (in this case 36/18 = 53″), gear 1 would be 39″ and gear 3 would be 70.49″.
So, that would equate to a cassette with 24, 18 and a high of about 14.
So the next question is, what is the largest gap one could reasonably have between cogs and at what spacing? 8sp, 9sp, 10sp?

I remember Ted James built a bike with an Alfine disc hub mounted above the bottom bracket. The cranks drove that via the normal chain and the disc mount had a Velosolo cog which then drove a fixed gear hub on the back. Disc must have been on the wrong side though thinking about it…….

I’ve got Velocity Blunt 35s, though they’re some years old now, I’m sure you can still get them. Wide enough for ghetto-tubelessed 3″ but also fine down to 1.9″

I’ve noticed the 2020 Kona Unit X is now back to 29″

Ive done that before and currently getting bits together to do it again. The type of tensioner that works best is one that apes a derailleur cage, like the Paul Melvin, Acor or Shimano (Nexus, I think).

I would. The tendon can shorten and leave you with a permanently bent finger.

@legometeorology I get that part. I’m thinking you need two chains and sprockets, effectively just shifting between which geartrain is actually driving the wheel? I think that “could” work. Getting the clutch ring to shift could be done with a rotating ring, similar to the SA rotary hub, though I think you’d need a double cable desmo actuator.

@shermer75 I was mulling this over on my ride home last night and no matter how I picked apart the question, I couldn’t find any logic that would suggest the “4/four” answer, maybe only for smartarse value. I’ve googled the question and a few forums throw up that four is correct, but I still hereby withdraw the four.

I didn’t see 23; I suppose putting “answer to this question” would make it too obvious.

Is it 1 or four?
Actually not 1, of course.