I live round the corner from Weeksy and quite like it.
I’ve got the Ridgeway at the end of the road which opens up hundreds of miles of XC riding.
Not into road riding at all, but we have nice country lanes for pottering with lovely cafes & pubs around.
Considering it’s the South, it’s actually quite quiet once you’re in the country side.

The biggest things I miss though are the sea, forests and mountains.
I lived in Cornwall for a fair few years and miss the surfing, water, views & everything else that comes with the sea.
We have no forests at all, just the odd wooded section, and our elevation is quite frankly pathetic so the trails are as tame as it comes.

That said.. 45mins to London, 1/2hr to Swinley, 1hr to A417, 1 1/2hrs to FOD, 2hrs to BPW & 45mins to Heathrow, so the travel isn’t too bad. Just a bloody expensive area to live in.

We’ve done this 3 times now. Use their financial deals to get the discount and then pay it off within the 14 days.
Easy to do and no issue at all. We’ve gone on to use the service/warranty over the years with each car and also not been an issue. You never deal with the sales team again post purchase. It moves over to customer service department.

For me it would be a custom tuned EXT too.
Everyone I know that uses the fork & shock rave about them.
I’ve yet to try them, but would buy on reviews alone. They are great riders and don’t often rave about kit.

Argh.. that discount is doing my ebike itch no good. £5k seems reasonable VFH for that spec too.
I love Whytes- The geometry and kinematic seem to suit me and the customer service I’ve had has been exceptional.

E160 RSX (the one reviewed) is down to £6,499 too!

That’s 5 years old now, plus the risks and hazards have changed.
Would be worth rewriting and focusing on all riders and areas, not just one event and location.

Please do!
I’ve had it drummed into me that cleaning your bike too much is bad.. but that’s from a purely mechanical perspective and sits at complete odds with ecological risk.

We need a industry and community readjustment. It’s the only way I think people might learn and understand. Maybe STW can run an article?

I wonder if there’s an interactive map anywhere to track this.
If I do a long day epic I can cross several counties and many woods, fields, etc.
My thought isn’t to clean the bike straight away because of biohazards, but maybe it should be.
I tend to only clean the drivetrain, suspension & dropper after rides. Rest of the bike doesn’t usually get touched regularly.

Got to love a happy ending!

Years ago we had a bit of an odd character across the road who we couldn’t suss. He had a clapped out rusty old Transit LWB pull up every night around 1am, stay for about 20 seconds, neighbour opens the door, driver passes something and then van drives off. We couldn’t work it out. Thought maybe he was a drug dealer. All the neighbours had wild theories.

Turns out the van was the milkman’s and the neighbour does night shifts so is up and around at 1am to collect his milk director from the milkman.

I’ve been looking at surrons and tbh have even been thinking of a trail motorbike or even a quad as the the prices are similar and once you go surron road legal it’s tax/insurance anyway.

That’s where my mind wandered for a bit.. £6k gets you a nice electric trail bike that’s proven and reliable.

Andreas Preuninger, head of Porsche GT, swears by them. It’s the only way to go off-road without annoying anyone as they’re silent. Germans are pretty strict on greenlaneing.

Lose some of the freedom, fitness and benefits of an ebike then. You’re into a different realm. So, back to ebike musings for me!

I want an ebike to compliment my normal bikes, but these posts are just putting the fear of god into me.
I’d want it for the slop and some hard winter days but doesn’t sound robust enough..

There’s a huge amount of online only retailers selling ebikes and all it makes me think is ‘what happens WHEN it goes wrong?’.. does it get posted back whole? That’s uneconomical if that’s being done 2+ times a year.
I’ve got a few great LBS’ (Whyte & Specialized) here but not spoken to them about their take on it. Although they’ll be in full sales mode I imagine.

I had one of the best weekends riding in my life on a Giant Reign ebike in the Polish mountains last year. It absolutely blew me away with how capable it was and how much I was grinning. It’s this experience that keeps dragging me back to getting one…

Vw Transporter T6.1 Startline – looks like it has the strip behind the headlight.

https://www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/Blog/transport-t5-t51-to-t61-facelift-conversion/

2 stand out for me;
– Whyte Whitechapel R7; first hybrid bike. Just blew me away how comfortable it was and how much speed it would carry. Opened up long journeys for me. Bought & sold for £175.
– Whyte 529 V1; bought as a cheap HT hack to lock-up and not care about but turned into one of the best HTs I’ve ever had. Replaced every component bar the frame and it was the perfect blend for me of weight, geometry & comfort. Sold for a SolarisMax which was awful in comparison. I did a few thousand miles on it and had some of my best rides and adventures on that thing. Still regret selling it.

I’ve currently got the opposite issue.. leading a remote dev team working flexibly. Like herding cats.

A left field suggestions.. Stooge Scrambler or Mk5.
Modern geometry, lots of mounts, quirky looks and great fun to ride.
Various bikes & framesets floating around for less than a Cascade.

It’ll be interesting to see how the TranzX holds up.

Nice, thanks! Definitely need a bag to stash some essentials.

This really appeals to me.. I’ve never spent any meaningful time on drop bars, but the descriptions sounds spot on.
It makes sense for me to get a gravel bike for the ridgeway alongside my other bikes.
Question is if I can get a demo on one of these.

Although I think the lack of room in the centre of tubless rims might be a bit of an issue.

Surely with the trend of wider and wider rims, they can now accommodate Shrader?
BMX has been running Shrader for years. Never seen a tubeless version of Shrader valves though.
Plus everything else tubeless and MTB related seems to be geared around Presta, so lots of tools to replace to accommodate for the change.

One of our neighbors has a Frankia I8400 QD Plati– £200k plus and bought brand new.
It’s so big that it sticks out the drive and obscure the whole pavement.

I’ve seen it disappear once for one week in over 3 years- other than a few day trips, but assume that’s for a service/mot.
House is worth £700k, so seems an odd purchase. That said, he also has an SL63 and a supercar hire membership.

Guess he’s happy with the house and looking at ways so waste his money? Would rather leave it to the 2 kids he has.

That’s a hell of a drop on your dropper- 200mm?
You’re still managing to keep it clean in this weather, that’s commendable!
What Cotic frame bag size did you go for? Looks like it fits nicely.

My build is hefty too.. definitely more than my 150mm FS.

More photos, just because I’ve been getting lots of miles in.

Our road has a ‘waiting list’ apparently, but our neighbours listed 3 months ago and not a single viewing.
Post-covid the houses where flying here. Selling within a week at silly money. Now they are reducing regularly and sitting for months and then many are pulled. In the last 6 years there would regularly be 10-15 houses on the market for the village at any one time, now it’s 0-4. This is a nice and sought after part of rural Oxfordshire.

I’ve got family on the market in Gloucester too and it’s a similar story. On the market for 2 months and only 2 viewings.
Price now reduced..

We want to move later this year, but the above doesn’t give me much confidence.

Currently;

– 150mm 29” FS

– 140mm 29” HT

– Stooge Mk1 SS

(- Stooge Scrambler BNIB until I need it )

– various wheel sets, tyres and forks to spice up thee above

I’d quite like a drop bar gravel thing, Cotic Cascade?, a DH bike for big days at uplifts, a full fat ebike just for giggles and days I feel crap and a ecargo bike so fairy child around and go shopping and reduce the need for a second car. I don’t need any of these, I just want them.

Meh.. hideous looking thing with a steep HA and slack SA…if you put a 140mm fork on the SA will be even slacker and if you couple that with those short CS you’ll just be sitting over the rear axle when climbing with no weight over the front. It’s not very long either. Definitely not a UK hardcore hardtail! Needs to be longer, slacker and designed around 140mm fork.. i.e. Cotic BfeMAX or Stanton Switch9er.

Lovely if built up as a light XC/trail bike with a 100-120mm fork.. still ugly though!

I had a SolarisMax with 130mm fork- ran it for a while but ultimately didn’t get on with it. Couldn’t quote place what it was. It felt dead over my other bikes. Paint was rather soft too, but looked awesome.
Looking at the geometry, not sure why I like the Bfe so much more? Geometry is almost identical and most difference can be accounted for by the 130mm > 140mm fork, and it’s a heavier build. I wonder if my riding styles changed over the last couple years plus riding lots of other LLS bikes. Riding the same trails and same conditions.

Exactly my experience.. just back from a short lunchtime spin, 5 PRs and 6 other achievements on climbs & descents. I’ve ridden the trails hundreds of times on all sorts of bikes, so to get some PRs in these conditions is pretty impressive.
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Trail wides with 2.4 Hans Dampfs

Oh, that wheelset with those tyres looks tiny for some reason! Proves how much clearance these bikes have.
Agreed, tan walls and gold bits looks lovely.

Oh, that’s a lovely colour and build! The grey is a lot lighter than I thought it would be.

Looks like a more XC/trail build with the RRs. What travel are you running?

Oh, that’s a point!
I’ve got a set of 27.5+ wheels in the shed- 40mm rims with 3.0″ tyres.
Will try these when it starts to dry out. I forgot they’ll clear the frame & fork.
Current rims are 31mm ID.

I’ve put a Magic Mary Addix Super Trail TL 29×2.6″ on the front of the BFeMax.
What a tyre! Grip is fantastic. Just did a day at BPW and felt super confident pushing it into the corners and features. I haven’t noticed the weight or drag people speak of, plus it clears well.
I paired it with a Minion DHR II 29×2.35″ in the back. Also plenty of confidence and rolls fast.
Lovely combo! Should add that I’m rarely impressed by a tyre, or kit/components in general.

Front is a Magic Marry 2.6″ and rear is a Minion DHR II 2.35″.
Zero issues at BPW with clearance. Tyres stayed clear all day. Couldn’t be happier with the combo.
Just my local trails that are really sticky. It’s the chalky Ridegeway so doesn’t drain.
Not sure any tyre & frame would clear it.

Had a great day at BPW. Bike was sublime. Some of the reds were on the cusp comfort wise, but the bike was super fast and stable. No regrets taking this over the FS.

How are you getting on @ogden?

Quite like that, but it’s silly money for a pretty compromised drivetrain.

This is why I want a Berlingo! Would suit our life style so much better.
The Qashqai is hopeless in that regard. Big outside & small inside, small and not very useful boot.
Seats don’t fold flat. 35mpg long term average. It’s actually easier getting a bike in the Polo and UP! than the Qashqai. Wife loves how it looks though and it has all the toys.

We need a new car. Wifes health means we need an auto and we have the same criteria as the OP.
Currently we have a new-ish Quashqai but I’m trying my upmost to push her towards something more practical.
The Berlingo & Stellantis brothers are perfect, but wife doesn’t want to be seen dead in it.
How do I convince her? Are there less fugly practical cars? Probably 2018+..

Looks cool! Hope it comes in raw.

Here’s a link- https://www.airdropbikes.com/collections/airdrop-slacker-bikes

Your bike looks great! Love the build & tan walls set it off nicely.

Oh.. not quite what I was expecting! Clearly no PDI at all then. Not sure £60 of merch is fair either. That’s a shame.
It’ll pick up plenty of marks by the end of the winter season anyway I guess. Always found Cotic paint a bit soft (I’ve had 3 previously).

Oh, sorry to see the damage @ogden. Contact Cotic and they’ll sort you out! It looks like it’s been touched up so I imagine it’s a seconds frame that somehow got posted out to you.

Had another very muddy ride today and still mega impressed. Given how sticky it is, it’s been remarkably fast.
Got some mud clearance issues, but I think this is down to the how sticky the mud is and how big the tyres are. Stand over clearance is ludicrous. Almost looks like a trials/DJ frame when I look down. LLS geometry means it’s not as easy to manual but it’s not too bad to play around on.

Esh.. I had a test ride on the Giant Reign 29, Whyte T140 RS, Vitus Escarpe 29 and others.. this thread put Giant on the black list, so I picked up one of the others. Giant was the lightest and top contender on riding feel too.

Buying bikes is as much, if not more, a heart decision as head decision. You emotionally invest in the brand/model through experiences, marketing, customer service, giving back to the industry and everything else that pulls on the heartstrings. Take emotion out and we’d all be riding no-name alibaba frames with deore that hit the right price and functional points, yet the trails are filled with Transition, Cotic, Santa Cruz and other brands, large and small, that are far more expensive than they need to be.

I’ve had 3 Giants in my time and won’t be going back now. No matter how things change. I’m just not emotionally invested in them anymore.

Don’t limit yourself to non-boost.
There’s some really reliable and easy to use adapters out there.

Few more photos from todays ride. This bikes fast! Amazed how fast it climbs and descends given draggy tyres and muddy condition.

I bought it on the 3rd of Jan and it arrived on Friday the 6th with a fitted headset. Insane turn around really. I think they tried to fulfil orders before their site move.

Supper happy with the matte red.. I wanted pink but wasn’t sure I’m cool enough.
This is much more subtle.

It feels so much more lively than the Stooge Dirtbomb I’ve been riding for months.