Strongly recommend the TRPs. Always had the avids and then got some spyres and wouldn’t turn back now. You can adjust both sides and they are shinier :)

Ebay then? Not seen many on here…

I had the same predicament in June this year. But arrival of the little dude means my saved up cash is still in the bank! I think I am going to go RussTi but custom so I can run a double and go for external cables

Was excited by prospect of Moonmen but then saw it’s another crazy priced job along the black sheep line

Well done getting on the rollers alpha 1653 – I moved my bike and turbo into the spare room last week but still haven’t used it. My self imposed excuse being that it’ll wake up the little chap. Probably not true! The worst thing for me is, as others have said, the self imposed guilt! My wife does actually keep saying I should get up early and do a ride etc but I end up getting up with the little dude and letting her have a lie-in because I feel bad about not doing it since it’s the weekend. My fault entirely.

The job is going to have to change. Going to give an ultimatum…have realised family and friends (and cycling) take priority over work. Keep your fingers crossed for me as I’ll probably be doing it before Christmas and hope it doesn’t backfire horribly!

Wow! Thanks for all the advice and support chaps. I’ve only read a few posts and looking forward to reading more on the train home.

Yes, work is the main problem. I live in Kent and work in London. And I work for a tech startup (that you might be hearing about on here quite soon in fact) and so for any of you who work in that field you’ll probably appreciate hours can be pretty challenging. Painfully the founder still thinks I actually have quite ‘easy hours’!

Early morning rides during the week could be a good plan. Particularly in the summer. Will read more later to see what awesome tips there are. And loving how many Dads and Dads-to-be are on here. That in itself has made me feel a hundred times better (been feeling quite low recently). Dads-to-be, it is awesome by the way. Every minute of it. When I say feeling low, it’s nothing to do with being a Dad. That bit is ace!

Bedgebury?

I’m trying to decide between Stanton Sherpa ti and a travers russti

Tough!

+1 for the evans rides. Did a good one in Kent.

Central America is ace. Guatemala through to Panama was very cool. Lots of gravelly roads and off road options too. And amazing scenery

The bedgebury fee of £10 is probably the most painful – feels weird they charge so much considering how cheap the others are. But still feels like a good amount of smiles for miles to me as the course is really well maintained. Recommend the annual membership – you can free bike cleaning tokens for that too :)

Rabbit

I do quite like but it does also look a bit like ladies retro bike…

Give it 5 years and I reckon you will! Decreasing tv spend and huge increase in bike spend…

Drank one warm the other night. Chill it. Is it really in lidl?! Win. Last time I went in they had whitstable pale ale which is also rather nice slightly chilled

It’s a tough climb after a fry-up (free excuse for you…)

Out of interest OP are you going to go for the 29+ or the 29/27.5+ build? I have also pretty much decided to go ahead on a travers but am torn on whether to go 29+ or not as I think it might be tricky to get 29+ tyres in the future.

In a dream world I’d go for the 29+ and it could take 27.5+ wheels as well but not sure the horse shoe design will take it.

Perhaps someone who over bought and then thought ‘crap, I only get 50% of their value secondhand so I’ll get them stolen’ but didn’t want to go the whole hog with their insurance scam?

You’ll be fine. I have a 9 week old and never really wanted kids. Now I can’t really understand why I didn’t want them. I haven’t ridden my bike for 3 months (the weeks immediately before birth are kind of out of bounds in terms of leaving your partner for anything other than essentials) and I’m not really that bothered. Which is weird as cycling (mostly on my own as I’m a bit of a miserable git) is what I love most. And now sitting with my son seems to be a pretty ace way to spend the day. Although I am kind of looking forward to a ride one day soon!

Everything people say about changing life perspective is true too. It’s awesome.

Repack clothing does some understated MTB jerseys…admittedly the Lycra does have the big logos etc but the merino might hit the mark when it cools down http://www.repackclothing.com/shop/

Yup, suspension and looking at 100-120 travel. Haven’t got the wheels yet either and thinking of getting boost wheelset (frame will probably be a travers Russ ti

Maybe the travers Russ ti is the best bet but in the 29er to 27.5+ variety so I can alternate between plus size and regular 29er. Suspect something like h bars would be a good compromise to the drops. Love the look of those Open cycles. But obsessed (irrationally) with getting ti or potentially stainless steel. Bike tart…

Interesting @dovebiker – why the dirt drops? I have to say I’m dirt drop curious but concerned about the braking…

What sort of travel can it take up front? Would be good to be able to go 120…

I have a nice small retractable cable lock with an alarm on it. I’d never leave my road bike out of sight for more than a few mins but this always makes me feel a bit less nervous as I order my coffee ;)

maybe i am the maserati head of marketing and this is my stealth tactic to get you all talking about maserati…mwah ha ha ha…you will all have a maserati by the end of the month.

Or not…

That travers rust ti looks ace! And planning the same ride in a couple of years. What kind of travel is it optimised for?

Tbh, it’s just something I’ve always wanted. Recognise irrational but just decided like the idea of ti. Stainless could tempt me though!

Thanks oldfart – tempting but I’ve decided it’s finally time to treat myself to something new. Have never bought a new bike and my very generous wife has been making noises about buying me a frame for a while now. And with my 40th looming in a few months time the stars are somewhat aligned…

But do you generally get a better quality and more bang for your buck if you go custom made? Or will I find something that is actually a little bit better etc because it’s been designed and stress tested if I go off the peg?

Yes, I am talking mtb. So…I can use 10spd but not 11spd?

So I can also put an 11 speed on?

P.s. I think ‘the cyclists’ champion’ is a nice sentiment and is what I hope they will become.

I just finally bit the bullet and splashed out on a new pair of Hopes. They are lovely. Got the E4 X2 (i think) and they have 2 nice little dials so you modulate bite point and reach point. If I could afford them on other bikes I would. But have settled with XT on other bike which are fine (and also allow a bit of modulation). But when you want something special and have a spare £250, I’d recommend a pair of Hopes.

+ 1 for skin and a nice warm bath afterwards

Sidi mega are pretty wide

I went from a Titus (racer X) to an ibis mojo and I love it. Got lucky on an ex demo one for £900 and it’s a lovely bike to ride. Feels much more accomodating than the Titus that was probably better off in the hands of the racing snake I bought it off. The ibis is a great skill compensator (handy for me) looks lovely (lots of envious looks) but agree they do come up a little small. I’m 6ft and the large needs a layback for me…

its an alu frame…will that make a difference?

Quite a few ways really…but serial number feels most obvious. I am actually working on a consumer identity system at the moment that will allow people to attach things to their personal digital identity and then transfer ownership etc. but it’s all under development at the moment so not much point showing it ;)

Just putting it out there but more competitors would dissolve the marketplace making it harder for sellers to reach as many buyers and harder for buyers to see the full range of goods. We’d end up with aggregator sites scraping data from competitor sites and probably charging an additional fee. WHich would be great for all you haters as you’d have something else to complain about ;)

I have done it with 1 x 9 and a 32 but added an emergency granny that I could manually shift into when needs be. Unedited twice and was grateful!