The thing is, those missing out on care are also those who for years have voted for governments that are running the system into the ground, so sod em.

And those who are also missing out on care but didn’t vote for the governments that have ran the system in to the ground?
Are they just collateral as well?

The only thing the NHS provides that private healthcare can’t is ‘equality’, well you can achieve that by adopting the French system and the government can give us all £x a year toward health insurance. If that’s enough for you you’re all set. If that’s not enough for you, you pay more in yourself. If that’s too much for you, well that’s a nice problem to have. If you can’t pay extra you want to top up with, at least that’s down you you, you don’t have the frustration of it being someone else’s decision.

So what happens to those who need extra care and can’t afford the extra care?
Do we just leave them to suffer once their money runs out?

I genuinely don’t know a single EBike owner that I ride with who hasn’t had a motor replaced under warranty.

I’m sure there’s plenty out there who haven’t had issues but with the amount of reliability issues I read about online, it’s the one thing that’s put me off buying an e-bike.

Is motor reliability likely to improve that much over the next year or two?

With the general unreliability of e-bike motors from Shimano and Bosch, is it not a real risk to smaller bike companies like Bird and Cotic to potentially have significant amounts of motor failures?

Would dealing with the potential workshop time and admin of repairing/replacing faulty kit not take large amounts of time away from their core business as well as tarnishing their brand reputation?

Keen to try ‘build me up’ but over like 18 weeks….

I think I’ll try something like that, it’s the only way I’m likely to get any fitness back but can’t commit to the full program in the 12 weeks or whatever it’s meant to be.

Thanks for that.
I think I might just jump straight in to the 12 speed then, it’s probably cheaper in the long run.

Nice one, thanks for that.

@slackboy
Did you need to size up or anything to get the fit to work for you?

I like it. The bars are a bit too high right now, because i’m still messing, but in flat bar mode its a nice comfortable bike.

Needs some faster tyres and I’m getting some Jones Bars in to try out. Its an old school geometry mountain bike with modern standards, loads of mounting bosses and mile munching geometry.

And its £200 off until the new year. What’s not to like?

In fact, its basically a MK3 Soul 29er.

That’s interesting, if I’d known it would be any good I’d probably have bought one of these a while back before I sold all the bits I had that would fit it.

At £649 it could make a rather tasty replacement/upgrade for my trusty do-it-all hybrid

@slackboy
What’s the verdict on it?

though they are being coy about the exact weight of the Solaris, I can’t believe it’s that much less .

I think I red that the new Solaris would be approx 100g lighter than the Max, depending on size.
I was quite surprised that the Cascade was the same weight as the Solaris Max!

For me the RAW only has the seat tube bottle mount over the Solaris which I hope I can fit two bottles on the smaller sizes on the downtube anyway.

The more I think about it, the more I’m thinking I might as well stick with what I’ve got.

I fancy a change of bike but not just for the sake of it.

Ah, I’m not sure they can be reduced so that may rule that one out.

Flat mount rear is easy enough to get hold of, I’d be running 120mm SIDs so normal post mount front to go with it.
Not sure how it would ride with the flat bar though, that’s the main worry.

I’ve just noticed that the Cascade has been discounted now as well.

A flat bar Cascade could be an interesting option. Looking at the geometry, it’s not a million miles away from my old Pivot LES hardtail!

At nearly twice the price. It was on my list but I’m not keen on the colours.
Much harder to justify the extra cost then.

I had this when the Bokeh first came out, I spent ages trying to justify the cost and tried both a Singular Kite and a Kinesis Tripster rather than buying the Bokeh.
I still ended up with the Bokeh and it was far better than either of the others and it would have saved men a fortune just getting the Bokeh straight away…
I don’t plan om doing that again!
Luckily, I can afford the Mason and I can justify the price to myself by saving money rather than chopping and changing bikes to get what I wanted in the first place!

It is blooming pricey for the frame though.

I was all set to pre order a frame but the colour choices were holding me back.

Now I’m having second thoughts…
Do I just go with the new Solaris and ignore the crappy colour choices?
Do I stick with my current Soalris Max?
Do I just say too hell with it and go for a Flare Max?

Tough choices!

Edit: A bit of a curveball choice, what about a Mason Raw??

The site seems top be working properly again now. There was a vast improvement from midday yesterday.

I know I’m unlikely to get an answer but realistically, how much would users have to pay as an annual sub for the site to be advert free? I mean the whole thing so it avoids the crappy advertiser interface thing that seem to keep breaking the forum?

I’m not on Chrome, i’m on Edge for STW as Chrome was terrible for this forum (without being harsh, all other forums (fora ? ) are not)

To be fair, it’s not just Chrome. It’s pretty shit on Safari on iPhone, iPad and MacBook as well.
Unsurprisingly, no other forums or websites are problematic…

My SID ultimate’s are superb. Checked for correct fluid levels from new, and adjusted as typical Rock Shox low.

I’m glad you mentioned that, I’ve not checked mine yet. Might have to strip them and have a look next week.

I’ve just fitted some of the 35mm SID Ultimates to my Solaris Max, replacing a set of Pike Select forks.

There’s the obvious weight difference with the SIDS but in all honesty, I’ve not noticed much difference in the forks when I’m riding. This could be because I’ve not had a lot of rides on the SIDs yet due to the poor weather. I guess a lot of it is down to the kind of riding you’re doing, mine is mainly XC type stuff.

I’ve not had much of a play with the pressures on the SIDs either, just sticking with whatever the Rock Show app suggested. I’ll try and get hold of a Shockwiz when the weather improves and get them set up properly.

I’m not having logging in issues but the site in general is almost unusable.
It hangs mid-page when loading pages, freezes up the browser when loading pages, PM’s are hit and miss whether they work or not, the Login/Cookie link at the bottom of the page just lead to a “something’s gone wrong” page. The list of problems seems to be ever increasing.

I only subscribed as it was supposed to make the site useable, despite subscribing it’s still blooming awful.

The Fairlight Holt also springs to mind

They’re a lovely looking frame, just a shame they went with a 27.2mm seatpost.

I’m just waiting to hear back from Cotic on sizing then I’m going to be ordering one. The Solaris Max is a great bike and looks great in Hubble Purple but I think this new Solaris will suit me a bit better.
Shame about the colour choices though.

I struggle to describe how much I dislike Brompton bikes.
I had one for a while, it was awful in every conceivable way.
The ride is uncomfortable, the handling is twitchy, the brakes close to useless, the gear shifting bloody awful, when it actually worked. I don’t think it had a single redeeming feature.
I sold it after a few months and went back to walking to/from the station.

I’ve had a Tern folding bike for a while now and it’s better than the Brompton in almost every aspect.

That looks to be a decent upgrade from the Solaris Max. I’m quite tempted to get one ordered as it sounds perfect for the riding I do, hopefully it’ll be a bit more spritely than the current model which can sometimes feel a little numb.

The only downside for me is the matte finish, I prefer something a bit shiny.

Ford Anglia?

Lots of dealers have paid insanely high prices for used cars over the past 18 months-2 years. They won’t be wanting to lose money on them so the prices will stay high.

The variation in used car prices is ridiculous. Was looking at selling mine a couple of months back, virtually identical age/spec/mileage cars had prices varying from £8k up to £14k!

From what I’ve experienced this week, they’re not doing a particularly good job with Special Delivery stuff either!

You only get one e-mail notification the first time a new messenger sends you a PM. After that you’ve got to remember to go and check they’ve not sent a reply. That’s how it works for me anyway, and I can’t find a setting to change to improve it.

I’ve found this as well.
It’s a real pain in the proverbial.

Edited to add: I now seem to get a red notification dot in the top right hand corner when I’ve got a message waiting to be read.

https://downfor.io/pinkbike.com

Not just you.

Just say that Westminster say yes to another indy referendum, the votes are cast and counted and again the Scots vote against independence.

What happens then?

Do the same vocal pro-independence people just carry on shouting the odds about how unfair it is? Do we just keep having referendums on it every few years until the vocal few get what they want?

Thanks for the offer but I’ve decided to stick with the current frame instead of replacing it.

@ayjaydoubleyou

I’ve got some bits I’m about to list in the classifieds that may interest you. I’ll send you a PM.

Bike related, on the hunt for an AXS drivetrain

Road, gravel or MTB?

I’m keeping an eye our for some Mesh wifi kit.
No idea what I need but the powerline kit I’ve been using has just died so it’s time for a replacement.

Also, purple ano accents are still cool, right?

Was there ever a time when they weren’t?

The OS subscription is pretty handy. The app isn’t great though.

Is Memory Map better than the OS app?
My OS subscription has just expired and was waiting for a Black Friday discount before I renewed.