Nukeproof Scout 290

They do a few different specs and a frame only option. Looks like a good all rounder to me….

Done.

Awww! Mine brilliant I knew I could rely on this place even know I didn’t really want to ask.

No need to be sorry to ask. You might get more views if you can get it pinned to the top of the forums?

Not too bothered about colour – I do have an irrational dislike of the now common, little brace between top tube and seat tube that I can’t quite learn to deal with. Not a stopper – but an aesthetic factor that counts against for me, (only rules out about 80% of bikes I otherwise like)! :-)

@chapaking

Yep, it would be IME. Maybe stick to a 120mm fork though.

Thanks for the feedback – confirms what I was taking from the discussion on the Solaris thread. Nice try on the stealth ad – medium’s too small for me though and I’ll probably start with a nice new frame and second hand everything else if I go for it.

I still really like the Soul so I’m happy to take my time and prevaricate for as long as it takes, (well until my eldest starts stripping it for parts anyway)!

….. just don’t let him go full LL&S if your local riding is all easy.

This is the bit I struggle with! As a 26 Soul rider with no easy way of testing loads of bikes I’m not sure what’s ‘full lls’ what’s ‘a bit lls’ and what’s just XC, (well I have an idea – but slightly bewildered)! I thought the Solaris I had in mind was a good compromise for my general sort of Surrey Hills, Cwmcarn and Swinley riding – but I now wonder if even that is too lls? I don’t have a lot of (any) free time to test so eventually I’ll probably just take a punt on something.

Sadly I had to sell my TR6 last year to fund my kids lavish lifestyle, (food)! Before that I used Footman James for many years and they were competitively priced with a good breakdown scheme, used it once and all ok). Other people I know rate Peter James or Adrian Flux. Worth getting a quote from a few anyway.

I’ve tried a few lights over the years and the Halfords 1600 one really is good value for money. Don’t forget you probably won’t be using it on full burn the whole time anyway. Not sure 500 is going to be good enough to really enjoy night riding in the woods….

Cotic specify non-boost chainring up to 32t (non oval) on the Solaris Max. Anything bigger definitely needs a boost crankset. 11 speed SLX Boost crankset is £68.50 on Chain Reaction at the moment…

Thanks for the info & quick response @robertpb !

I find the pre-set torque wrenches useful for those little jobs that I ‘might’ otherwise be a bit heavy handed on.

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/x-tools-essential-mini-torque-wrench/?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&sku=100277051&kpid=100277051&utm_source=google&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Shopping+-+All+Products&utm_medium=base&utm_content=mckv%7CsSdftddSX_dm%7Cmcrid%7C295296961877%7Cmkw%7C%7Cmmt%7C%7Cmrd%7C100277051uk%7Cmslid%7C%7C&mkwid=sSdftddSX_dm&pcrid=295296961877&prd=100277051uk&pgrid=57437518777&ptaid=pla-521847778279&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI55m8g_u55gIVWODtCh1n2AxqEAQYBSABEgJ1iPD_BwE

Thanks for the link – looks like some good stuff there.

Great analogy! What did the band look like though? They seemed quite old to me when I saw them in Aylesbury Civic Centre in the late 80’s – they must be ancient now! ‘My Favourite Dress’ and Tame by the Pixies were defining musical moments for me back then.

Yep – the camera phones were like the modern equivalent of lighters almost! Even weirder – I saw a couple of laptops out and I-pads. I think the number of bald heads gave away the number of us reliving the 90’s! I’m off to see AJR on Tuesday for a complete musical contrast!

Hope the ride goes to plan. Maybe you should ask the moderators to pin this to the top of the forum(s) for a couple of days – might bring in a few more £ for him?

Sorry to hear SWR ruined it for you theotherJonv. @choppersquad – hope you enjoyed Underworld – I was there too and we had one of the best nights we’ve had in ages!

Done – hope all the support gives him a boost.

I’ll get there on the LLS thing eventually – I’m saving up for a Solaris Max frame to start building up – except every time I get close something falls off the house/car breaks/Christmas happens (delete as applicable)! No rush anyway, I’ll keep the 26 Soul remnants to build back up for one of the kids when I do upgrade.

Failed image posting attempt….!

Rare clean moment

I stuck some reflective tape on my mudhugger after someone commented I wasn’t visible enough on the little road section to my local trails (despite my lights). Job done.

I relented and bought one of these to replace my ancient Fluxient (that’s finally died). The Fluxient was also 1600 lumen so a good comparison. I think the Fluxient was a bit more ‘floody’but the Halfords light is a bit brighter – not much in it. Took a couple of rides to get used to using it and the myriad settings – but really pleased with it now. Did 2.5 hours this evening (minus 2 brrr), and it was still saying it had 1-2 hours left on the highest setting. The rubber mount has been fine for me with the extra rubber stabiliser trail riding. I have a Joystick on the helmet which complements it perfectly. Anyway a great buy for £40.

@twistedpencil

What a nightmare – can’t really add anything useful other than wishing you all the best and hoping you can get the right help.

Boring but necessary final training ride with wife in preparation for holiday of a lifetime cycling across Vietnam, (due to fly out the next day). 1\2 mile from home, wife knocked off bike by car coming out of a pub car park (didn’t stop). Broke her arm in two places. Holiday cancelled, (poor consolation prize was week in the Canaries). Fast forward 9 months later and first of three children born. Holiday never re-booked! Maybe one day….!

2nd worse was riding with a mate in Swinley. Weird fall in the Labyrinth (going uphill to make it even weirder) and he shattered his ankle. Had to leave him on his own while I went to get a phone signal\help. Unfortunately the very kind lady from the forestry team who was first on the scene, didn’t have a stretcher. Air ambulance was called but couldn’t land for some reason. In the end a couple of passing mountain bikers helped me carry him out to the forestry flatbed trailer and we got him out that way. Obviously a lot worse for him than me, (although when I got him to hospital, the nurse insisting that I be the one to cut his cycling shorts off has to be comparable – some things cannot be unseen)! The bike was fine by the way.

@twistedpencil
Thanks for the insights and the support, (we’ve had too many evenings where we have run out of words and are only able to offer a hug in the end). We are getting some external help for the dyslexia now – we were put in touch with a really good local tutor for him who only tutors kids with dyslexia (she is an English teacher by profession and also the SENCO at another local school). She has taught him some good strategies for improving his reading (and writing) speed and accuracy and also helped by getting us to try various coloured filters\overlays (green works for him). She seems to have a really positive impact on his confidence above all else. He is scheduled for a full vision assessment at a specialist optician in the New Year. The school are quite good on this too – they allow a bit more time for tests and have him on a touch-typing course to prepare him for later years where he will be allowed to use a computer in some circumstances rather than writing in class, (his writing is beautiful by the way – just takes a long time over it).

The anxiety is better since the school intervened on the bullying but it sure is a roller-coaster, never quite sure what I’ll be going home to!

Anyway, don’t want to hijack the OP’s thread but thanks again for sharing your experience.

OP good luck whatever you decide as a family on the school move; only you and yours really know what’s best for her ultimately – and you are clearly trying your hardest to do that.

Hi OP,
Apologies for the long post in advance. We are in a similar situation with my eldest (age 10 – year 6). We are in a three tier school system, so he moved up to middle school last year and will move again for year 9.

At primary school he was lively and popular and loved school. He has quite bad dyslexia and works ultra-hard to keep up with his peers. Last year he started to suffer some persistent low level bullying. The school took it seriously but the action taken was fairly soft. This year the bullying has escalated and he has had a very tough time of it, culminating in ‘not wanting to be here anymore’ and very low self-esteem – a completely different child. However, the school have now taken a much more serious approach (I feel because we documented what was happening in my son’s words and explained it calmly and objectively to the school – we know he’s not a saint but he is clearly the victim in this).

They acknowledged there is a real problem with the year group and other kids were sharing the same experiences. They have now had an external behavioural specialist visit the school and interview each child individually and confidentially about how they feel, who they like, who they don’t like etc. From that they have restructured the seating in the classes, established little support groups for the kids (the kids don’t necessarily know they are support groups!) and ongoing one to one sessions with a child behaviour specialist for the kids being bullied and the bully’s.

It has not completely solved the issue but it has helped a lot and is slowly giving him strength and confidence. I can’t really fault the schools efforts now. We previously discussed taking him out of the school but he pragmatically identified that it could be just as bad at a new school and ultimately he will have to face these kids in year 9 so wants to sort it now. I think he’s right. If the school refused to acknowledge the issue then I would think differently.

It is extremely hard to find the right balance on social media. Much of his bullying is about being ostracised by kids he thought were friends and excluded from the groups that form. Not allowing him on social media at all makes him feel even more isolated, (and gives the other kids another thing to bully him about), while letting him on there opens up the risk of cyber bullying and seeing things we don’t want him to see at his age.

He is a very mature kid in a lot of ways and the compromise we arrived at is that he can join the class WhatsApp group and other groups with kids we know, but we will monitor what is being said. We will be non-judgemental on the day-to-day stuff that they talk about\share but will intervene if we see anything that properly concerns us. Practically this means that we let it pass when we see other 10\11 year olds swearing – but we get raise concerns if they talk derogatorily about another kid or share anything obscene, (which has happened). That intervention would be to discuss what had been posted, whether it merits leaving the group, whether it needs to be raised with the school etc.

I instinctively dislike him being on there but have to acknowledge it is a lifeline for him to be able to chat with old friends that went to different schools and his cousin who looks out for him with a teenagers viewpoint.

Like you we have seen things we never thought 10 or 11 year olds would discuss – depression and suicide, relationships etc. The girls in particular talk about boyfriends all the time – they seem to chop and change on a weekly basis, I think it is all fairly innocent although you are right to try and keep up with what your daughters current situation is! I wouldn’t hesitate to report anything of a safeguarding issue to the school – I would want to know exactly what action had been taken about the knives in school that you mentioned – it doesn’t necessitate knowing individual names.

With regards to gravitating towards certain types of kids – I don’t think you can control that or choose their friends for them – the best thing you can do is what you are doing – talking to her and talking to the school. The fact you take her fears seriously is really important, she won’t forget that.

Dealing with this can be exhausting. Don’t know if any of this helps you – but you sound like a good dad and are not alone!

Thanks for the suggestion – my set was actually from Torchy – I had checked the spares part of his site but nothing listed – I didn’t want to hassle him for support on such an old light – but he was always very helpful in the past so perhaps I’ll drop him an email.

My 10 year old Fluxient (ex Torchy the battery boy – is he still around?) finally died half way round my ride this evening leaving me with only a mk13 Joystick on my head. It was absolutely fine on its own – I can confirm I didn’t die and had fun! I will be looking for a ‘floodier’ light for the bars again to compliment it – but it really is very capable.

Yep – been wearing the 8 hole black pair I bought in 1996 today – still look virtually new despite being older than nearly all of the people I was working with! Also got a pair of steel toe cap DM shoes from when I worked in a factory in the early 90’s – mainly for garden/DIY building projects now – my toes owe them many debts of gratitude!

Blackspire Snaggletooth here – about 1500 miles with no real sign of wear – cost about £25. Chain Reaction often have them discounted to less than that if you’re not fussy about colour.

Thanks for all the info everyone – gives me more food for thought. I’m erring towards getting the frame (before they all sell out again!), and taking a bit more time to find the right fork for me – might be a few bargains to be had in the run up to Christmas anyway.

Voodoo Bizango Carbon? Might be an unfashionable choice – but actually looks like good value for money…

I always coveted the 1999 era Specialized FSR Comp (bought a Proflex instead ’cause it was cheaper – weighed a tonne too). It just looked so totally different to anything else at the time – not sure what it rode like though! I did end up with a Stumpjumper FSR Pro in 2004, a good bike (that I still have in pieces)!

Always wanted a Cotic Soda too – but that’s just because it was shiny and lighter than the Soul – the original FSR changed the way I thought about bikes and what you could do with them I think…

Hopefully it opens the door for companies that have stayed loyal to Hope and Hunt (like Cotic ‘just for example’) to start offering 12 speed XT in the new year! :-)

For info – I spoke to Hunt about this last week. They also thought they would be able to supply the new freehub from January and that it would be backwards compatible with all their current MTB hubs.

querulous

– habitually complaining or complaining in a whining manner.

(I have three young kids – enough said)!

Intrigued by this thread I dug out the details of a £5 premium bond my grandad bought me when I was 8 (1981). I lost the certificates years ago but registered online with the holders number and was slightly amazed that all the details are indeed still there and available. The site shows history of any unclaimed prizes or transactions. Sadly I have won £0 in the intervening 38 years and my investment value is still a heady £5.

My (notoriously lazy) 8 year old daughter however has won £50 twice in the last two years from the £50 that her own grandad gave her and seems to think that’s just the way the world works, (much to the disgust of her harder working brothers)!

RRP – bit ugly but very effective! Mudhugger on the back to complete the anti-theft disfigurement though.

£65 + p&p on eBay…

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sunrace-Cassette-MZ800-11-51T-Black-for-Shimano-12speed-NIB-/173974819714

You can set Safari to automatically close tabs after a day, week or month now – avoids holding hundreds of them in memory.

Oddly the scan document function seems to have moved from Notes to Files, (just to confuse you)

I did 20 years on SPD but went to flats when I was trying to inject a bit of change/fun back into my riding a couple of years ago. I wouldn’t go back now – biggest difference for me is that I move about a lot more on the bike and get more out of it as a consequence. All a very personal choice but definitely worth a try. It probably took 5 rides for it to really click with me though – first ride was littered with foot being in the wrong place (probably the right place in hindsight).

A cheap way in is the Nukeproof Neutron EVO – £25 at Wiggle at the moment.

I’m on Vaults but have used the Neutron too and it was a good alternative.

Shoes are trickier to get cheap. I did forget my 5:10’s recently having driven to a ride, (I’m getting old) and rather than miss out on the ride, bought the cheapest, flattest soled shoes I could find in a local Mountain Warehouse for £20! I didn’t die and it was surprisingly ‘OK’ to ride.

Just to close this off – using the adjustable spanner worked a treat. Just went round the rim methodically and then took any hint of burrs or roughness off with very fine wet and dry. Its weather proof and straight, so good to go!

Thanks again.