I did this in the past for my MSc loan.
Instead of paying it back on the stupid 9.9% ‘Career Development Loan’ from Barclays, I took out a 2.8% loan from M&S over 3 years but borrowed an additional £2,500 to reduce the interest by 1%.
I ended up paying it all off in 6 months with no penalty.
I’d just double check the small print, but none of the providers I checked had early settlement fees.

Edit: M&S still offering 2.8% on £7.5-15k. That’s probably the cheapest option, by setting aside the additional borrowed and overpaying (either lump at beginning or end, or spread).

I can certainly tell the difference, along with different wheels (XC>Enduro) and fork stantion size (32>35mm). I can’t tell the difference between cranks or stem/bars size though (i.e.- 31.8>35mm).

yes, no, maybe, it depends

+2

I’ve ridden Alu that is pretty comfy and compliant, but also ridden steel that is stiff as hell, and vice versa.

Triumph GT6 (mk1,2 or 3).
I’m in my twenties so a bit odd to be on my list really, but when I was a kid there was an orange Mk3 at my Aunts that their neighbor ran as a daily. I just love the shape, size, sound, interior and the way the bonnet opens. Glorious.

I wonder if it’s linked to the geometry evolution.
Possibly ‘slacker, lower & longer’ means that the pivot position needs to ‘evolve’ to complement the change?
Plus, it gives them another buzz point to help sell the bikes..

In general, not bothered, but I still miss my T129..

There appears to be a Medium T129RS still for sale.. 😐

Good read.
I find it interesting that you opted to go for ‘extreme’ geometry changes before testing the stock geometry (which appears to suit you better anyway). Was it a case of trying to get the Bird to emulate the unsagged Geometry of the Spitfire straight off?

3-4 times a week over the summer and slowly decreasing as the weather gets bad to 1-2 times a week.

Probably averages out at 2-3 times a week..

Plus a trail center or big wilderness visit once a month/every other month.

You might be able to run the Hope adapter without the circlip..
Years ago I had a Halo Spindoctor(?) which I converted to 20mm using their adapters. The adapters just sat against the hub body- no o-ring or circlip. A bit of a faff getting them on as they constantly try and fall.

What’s my crests on pro 2’s likely to weight?

Front 748g,
Rear 867g
Total: 1624g
(based on 26”)

So 2.5kg is the weight of your Crests with almost 2 XC tyres too 😯

Great PSA!These’ll do for weekends & day trips.
Rats ate my Lowas at a mates house.

6079smithw –

cokie –
They got rid of the minging wishbone! Yes.
Looks great.
Completely agree. I hated the wishbone. Made it look a bit on-one..

Wrong. Wishbones look great. Reminiscent of Muddy Fox from days of yore. [/quote]

I’m not that old 😉

I’m interested in this too.
There doesn’t seem to be many 120mm aggressive trail bikes out there.
I loved my T129, but they never made it in Carbon and they’ve discontinued it now.

You’ve got:
Evil Following (thought QC and CS seems flakey)
Santa Cruz Tallboy (not aggressive geometry)
Whyte S150C RS (150mm travel..)
YT Jeffsey (150mm travel)
Intense Primer
Spec. Camber Carbon
Trek Fuel EX
Yeti SB4.5C

They got rid of the minging wishbone! Yes.
Looks great. 🙂

Completely agree. I hated the wishbone. Made it look a bit on-one..
Looks fantastic now, and that Black with multicolour stripes/panel looks great. Good job Cy!

I think the S-150S is perfect. Not a massive fan of carbon, and it comes under the £3k budget..

Mboy, is the S running the new ’18 Revs with 35mm stantions, or older 32mm?

Last bump for the evening crowd 🙁

Bump for the afternoon crowd

NOFX- First Ditch Effort was an awesome album. Much more polished and better recording quality, yet kept some of the punk roots. Lovely.

Future To The Left- A Peace & Truce Of.. was also a fantastic album. Just carried on the weirdness.

I did exactly that a couple years ago.
Walking was quite fun actually.
We had no queues for tickets or to get up, despite being half term.
So many beggars, scammers and pickpockets around there though.

Jamie T
Flogging Molly
Gorillaz
Crystal Castles
Die Antwoord

Would love to sell it to somebody from here, otherwise it’s going on the dark and dirty ‘Bay.

Shortly after..

Regular forum dwellers (in general) make shit up from thin air, that’s why they are called Forum Morons.

..but you’d still love to sell to one of us, of course.

Very nice. Love Orbeas!

(Also, what car is that? Love the rear door handle & indent shape. Can’t work out what it is though)

New Bike Build
Forgot Singlespeeding hurts
Rewarding wet ride

Stooge Mk3.
Yes, a little spendy but it also includes a fork.
They also hold their value.

The Mk3 looks more refined than the other version and the colours are superb.

I’ve also noticed that JRA have dropped their custom wheel builder. You can only get limited rim options on one of their JRA hubs now 🙁 . I can’t find anywhere offering custom builds with a wide variety of options I want. Hope Hoops it is!

Also really interested in comments on this!
I had a T129, sold it for a T130, now looking at a S150 or trying to find a T129.

On a side note, T129 stock is none existent and they haven’t included it in the ‘New Arrivals’ page on the Whyte site. I assume the S150 is it’s replacement.

I started watching it last year. Started well, but you could see it progressively becoming more chaotic until it got axed. I wish they kept it going. I would have watched it.

I need to pickup on what they’re showing now. I’m not at all surprised by what you’ve described Binners. It already started going that way near the end of the episodes last year.

What really got me was the lack of forward planning. As Monk says, they just kicked back on the beach, made a ‘massage tent’ and rode the high life on rations.

If it’s your first order with Cycle Surgery you can get an extra 5% off with WELCOME5

Ohh, thread resurrection!
It’s been 3 months in total now. Turns out it has been much easier than I thought. Not been tempted by any BBQs, enjoyed lots of new meals (inc. some recipes from this thread) and feeling great. I’ve cut down on other animal products too and can’t say I much miss them.
Lets see how I get on in the next 6 or so months.

Good PSA! Wish this was available when I bought my Brand-x Ascend.
The Ascend is good value but there is play in all directions straight out the box and the leaver is horrible. The Easton has a nicer leaver and more size & drop options.

Good PSA! Wish this was available when I bought my Brand-x Ascend.
The Ascend is good value but there is play in all directions straight out the box and the leaver is horrible. The Easton has a nicer leaver and more size & drop options.

I’m going back the other way.
After 26” ‘died’ I got a 650b hard tail which I enjoyed, then got a 29er HT alongside which was even better for my trail riding. Got a 650b Orange 5 and didn’t get on with it so when 29er T129 which was superb! Then fancied a change so tried a 650b T130 which was also great and also bought a 29er HT, but doing more trail riding and am looking to go back to a 29er FS now- possibly S150.

On the whole I prefer 29er and will slowly phase my main bikes back to that. I’ll keep the 650b Explosif for ever though.

Joe was banned from the original UKGE series for some creative line choice.

They’ve cleaned up well after that mess then! I can’t find any results on Google using any terms. Every term I try, Google says ‘Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe.’

Did I miss something? When did Joe Barnes cheat?
Google shows that results have been removed when searching the term ‘Joe Barnes cheat’ or similar.

Is that a perfectly reasonably helitaped frame – yes.
Is that a ‘professional standard’ helitaped frame better than I would do in half an hour in front of the telly – no.

+1, especially as you’ve paid £130 for the privilege.
I would be embarrassed to send that to a customer.

Yeah, much the same here!
I’ve now opted for the big wide open trails of the Ridgeway, and some wider forest trails. Less fun, but it’s the better choice.

If you fancy some lovely bike bling then the new Pauls Components through axles is what you want.
Lovely![/url]

Congrats Z1ppy! Awesome bike. You’ll love it. You also got a lightly used & clean example 😛

For what it’s worth- I love mine. Go to bike for me (despite having some other nice metal in the garage). Very competent bike and love the geometry. I do about 100-120 miles a week on it of mixed riding. Originally bought as a winter hack, but that soon changed.

I did the same thing- sold off everything and built it up as a frame only. Very pleased. I opted for the Whyte because the geo seemed spot on. I haven’t seen anything out there that compares for this price point. I’ve built it up with Sram/Shimano 1×11, Pikes, Hope hoops, dropper and wide bars. Perfect. I think the whole build is around £1350 and perfect.

With the Whyte 2018 range just being released, you might get a discount on the 529..

Either way, worth it.

[Renton has a large frame sitting in his garage. Whether he’s selling, I don’t know..]

Yup, thanks Stoner! Very grateful- saved me a lot of trouble.