+1 for going tubeless with your Crests. And I use the Mavic rubber grommets to make presta valved tubes a better fit in my old Alex rims. They’re about £3 for a pack of 10

Managing expectations. :|

“Let’s twist again” ? Can’t remember if that was Fats Domino or Chubby Chequer – when I can find my specs I’ll have a better look..

Kitchen, nuff said.

Get well soon. I’m still working through various ongoing problems with the physio after a heavy OTB 10 weeks ago. Take it easy, I went back to work almost immediately, which with hindsight was clearly a bad idea.

Was the ‘off’ in that first pic due to the trail coming alive?

Haldon’s easy enough to get to from Exeter.

no silly Jay boy 29r wheels

Er, which rock have you been hiding under pussy? They’ve been doing 29ers for a while now..

You should be able to re-use your existing olive surely (they’re split aren’t they)? If it’s a braided hose, you just need to carefully remove a short section of the outer plastic sheath so that the olive is sitting on the stainless braid. I’m sure they’ll be a tech video on Hope’s site to that effect. HTH

6′ with 32″ inside leg. Medium mk1 running a 70mm stem. Would buy a large if buying again.

Looks the absolute dogs ! Chapeau !

That looks great Kayak! I’ve not come across that process before – do you have to neutralise the fuming or does it just cease once the ammonia’s removed? Does it affect the glue joints?

Drive side and nds caps on wrong way round? Think they’re different lengths.

My Soul, when it was single speed (too many teeth on the front for me to cope with the local hills – 38 – 17 on the rear) so now geared.
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[slight rant] I haven’t been able to ride for the last 7 weeks due to a neck injury – I’d give my one remaining I-tooth to be out on the bike whatever the weather! [slight rant over].

GTFOWI ! :-)

Got this welded up today – for a client in southern France, to accompany a similar dragonfly sculpture I made them about 12 years ago! (Nothing like a bit of repeat business!)

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Couilles du chien, surely? Can’t help beyond that, only ever had cats.

Syntace rear hub – how loud expensive? FTFY !

Seven weeks with a damaged neck following a heavy OTB. Go for a stroll, I’m just glad I still can.

Last March, on the Soul. It’s only limited by the rider!
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Not sure bigger wheels would make me faster, but a mask and snorkel might help next time!

What tyres for Van Downlifting?

Younger than 20 apparently, with a VO2 max of 70 (WTF do you do with that figure then?) All of which is odd given I’m almost 45.

Having spec’d Gates belt systems in machinery related installations in a former life, I can’t imagine they’d deal well with the type of wattle & daub in my picture above. Any significant build up would put huge stress on the belt & hub/chainset bearings, and something’s gotta give.

I think regular cleaning is the only way forward. Oh, and a brake set that lets you run the pads well off the discs (Hope X2 for instance). Got approx 40 miles out of a set of Hayes pads (sintered) on the 2011 Kielder 100, just because there wasn’t enough clearance between pad & disc & it was so wet & gritty. The Hope’s I replaced them with have given 1850 miles out of a set of pads (organic). YMMV obviously :-)

Simmy – did it look like this?

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Still not off-roading on the bike due to spinal injury, but would love to be out and about in any weather!

Jim, has the issue of UK agent/warranty work been resolved (I seem to remember it all went a bit shit-shaped a while back)? Still wondering about one myself (27.2mm so not many options and Thomson are being a bit tardy with theirs!).

You can get a Pukka Pies jersey somewhere – thought I might get one, it’d be the closest I’ll ever get to being ‘sponsored’. (Shame the payments are all going the wrong way mind..)! :lol:

Anyway, leave that Ritchie Portly alone..

2×10 on the Soul, (38/26 with 11-34 cassette & clutch mech) and (apparently) old school 3×9 (44/32/22 with 11-32 cassette) on the Cube. Prefer the 3×9 if I’m honest, but that might be partly down to how sweetly it shifts.

FWIW I put a small jubilee clip around the cable (upstream of its original mounting) and played around with the position until I was happy with the shifting, before drilling the hole. It’s an XT shadow plus mech, but the concept would be the same.

10 speed shadow plus mechs will work with a shimano 9 speed shifter. You just need to move the pull point nearer to the pivots. I wound up drilling a 1.5mm hole through the litle recessed flat 6.5mm from the edge nearest the pivots. Thread the cable through and around and secure with the original screw.

Not quite a Renovo, but I sketched this up for one of my woodworking students a while back. We didn’t have time to make forks / wheels, and it’s pretty heavy, but as a town bike it’s fine.

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Must be great fun in stop-start traffic (not). I just love ‘progress’.

Blimey Grilla, which gym did that thing escape from?!

Crudguard & crudcatcher plus innertube between the fork legs for me. Waterproof shorts are great til you use them a few times without guards, and the grit thrown up your backside wears holes through the seat of them.

You’ll need to remove the cassette lockring before you can get the axle adapter off.

Running Hope Tech evo brakes it’s the shifters that touch down first – looking forward to potentially swapping out the m/c’s for the new Tech 3’s so I can rotate the shifters up to a more comfortable angle. Should stop top tube fouling then.

Given how much of the time is spent riding across loose surfaces, just how ‘stiff’ do you need a fork (or wheel set / back end for that matter) to be? If everything was (from an engineering point of view) absolutely unyielding surely the ride quality would be awful, unless the tyre pressure adjusted itself for different surfaces, and suspension tune was absolutely dreamy (impossible on a hardtail).

If it goes where you’ve pointed it most of the time, and the rest of the time’s a controlled drift, what’s not to like?

Agreed, hence the initial question. Bump for the evening crowd?

Sounds favourite!

Not sure you’d be successful re-using one of the original pins. Why not just buy a 10 speed connector pin?

Was using talas (140-120-100) but back on 120mm SID’s at the moment – have toyed with the idea of spacing the SID’s down to 100 though, as the handling’s as sharp as new pin at that length. The strip down to add or remove spacers with your forks will only take 10-15 minutes, so try both to see which you prefer?

Pushing the front of your lid vertically upwards (from your brow) would probably lift it off your head, but pushing horizontally on it shouldn’t move it appreciably IMO, unless you have no perceptible brow, or the helmet’s designed to sit way high on your head (unlikely, given it’s role in life).

It’s crucial that your lid fits well all over your head, (FIT) and that it doesn’t move around much during an impact (FIT & CHIN STRAP TENSION). If it’s not snug against your bonce the polystyrene wont dissipate the force of the impact as it’s supposed to. Least that’s always been my understanding of it, same for motorcycle lids too. I’ve just survived a high speed OTB head-plant which rote off my Fox Flux. I’ve replaced it with another one as it was an excellent fit, and had proved itself in service! (thankfully).