25 now, had an account for about 8 years. Don’t post much but visit a fair amount.

Got a Tideace MF004 (I think?) on my gravel bike with about 1200k on it so far. No issues at all. Cost about £80, can’t remember if it came from EBay or Aliexpress.

I did it in 2018 as well, will jot a few things down later after work.

@montgomery love the Kona!

Got the WRT booked so far, with a friend who I do a lot of bikepacking with. Would like to ride the Shropshire Way over a weekend in April (looks like 2x100km with 2500m of climbing each day). We’ve done a week away in Europe the last two years (Torino-Nice Rally 2018, Adriatic Crest 2019) and we’ve both been thinking about cutting down air miles as well as reducing the time taken up by traveling/flying/faffing to the start of a ride so are thinking of Scotland for a week this summer. Looking like an even better idea given likely Euro travel restrictions.

Picked up an old (90’s) Specialized Rockhopper frame to build up a town bike for £2 from the local bike coop.

Looks good! I’d echo having the top bar move up as you scroll down the page and making the ‘posted x minutes ago’ less prominent.

Not sure about Arches but I’ve had 2.25 Rangers on Flows and Horizons on Crests and both have been a right pain, really requiring a lot of work to get both on and off, particularly when new. Flip side is that they work very well tubeless, Horizons popped on to the bead with just a hand pump! Just about okay to fix at the road side but it’s a hassle I could do without. Now got Specialized Butchers on the Flows and they went on easily by hand while also going up tubeless with no hassle.

Bottle and framebag for me too, not a fan of carrying a Camelbak if I can avoid it. Frame has double cage mounts on the downtube so I switch to two cages + rear frame bag on all day rides.

Flat bars (swept On One OG risers), prefer to be more upright in traffic.
Dynamo lights front and rear.
Full guards and big flaps.
Front rack with bag on top for laptop/clothes/lunch.
Discs.
Tubeless tyres.
Leave a lock at work to save carrying one.

What’s the stack height of your stem? Something like a Ragley Stubbing (others available) has a low 32mm stack height so could gain you wiggle room fairly cheaply if your current stem is 35/40mm.

Another vote for Brand-X, haven’t had any issues in 18 months which is much more than I can say for the previous 3 Reverbs. Nothing about the Brand-X has made me want to spend more on something else.

I use Lloyds home insurance. Price is reasonable and all bikes are specified to a value. Covered in the house/shed/locked up in town as well as for accident damage which got tested last year and they were very easy to deal with. Would happily recommend.

That’s a good point about using Stans rims with WTB tyres, I’ve found them the tightest and most awkward combos of any rims/tyres I’ve had (to the point of being almost unable to mount the tyres), and I think others have had the same experience. Both with Crest/Horizons and Flows/Rangers.

I’ve got a pair of 650b Crests (32h) that were used on my gravel bike (loaded up for bikepacking) and now are on the commuter with 47c WTB Horizons. I weigh about 75kg and don’t ride particularly sympathetically and they’ve been absolutely fine.

Edit: think mine are the mk2 actually.

I’m not convinced it’s low fuel related. After the first time I filled it to well over half a tank and the next morning had the same issue. Might need to go to a garage and see if any fault codes have popped up.

It’s been a few months since I’ve been up there but all the official stuff was still there then, around where the felling took place (below the road) as is the cheeky stuff (above the road).

No worries. Just the outer ring of a triple set of chainrings in the middle position of a triple chainset. It’s a 42t and there’s plenty of room.

When I had a work pickup (part of a government agency) they paid for fuel for commuting from home to the depot. All the vans were tracked though and no personal use was allowed, even picking up people on your route home etc. as apparently the passenger wouldn’t be insured, not sure how true that was though. They very much kept on top of checking the tracker though and one guy came very close to losing his job for nipping to the tip on a weekend.

I’ve got a similar aged one, it’ll work fine. It’s a 68mm shell so will need 3 spacers for an MTB crank instead of 1 for the road crank, if you’re running a hollow tech bottom bracket. I’ve got an XT BB and SLX cranks on mine at the moment.

Brand-X XL dropper (170mm) is down to about £110 from £170 with the code FLASH on CRC at the moment.

Filthy 30k up and down the Brown Clee this morning. Everything is completely saturated, glad I made the effort though.

Ordered a pair of Freerider EPS at 8pm yesterday evening, arrived just after lunch today for £58! Can’t go wrong with that, cheers!

I’ve done the boot lip/key thing twice now, with it locking the car both times. Once parked at Grenoside putting the bike in the boot, managed to prise the corner of the bootlid up enough with a car wheel nut wrench and 4 people getting their hands round the boot lid to fish them out. Second time was with the work van, took the AA a while to retrieve them. I don’t put keys on the boot lip now..

29 X 2.6 Butcher Grids front and rear on my Solaris now. Swapped a 2.25 On One Smorgasbord for the Butcher on the back this weekend, lots more grip now around a filthy Eastridge. I’m not a serial tyre swapper and they seem to be a good balance of grip/weight/rolling resistance/toughness. Might try a Slaughter on the back next summer.

The 2.6 comes up as a smidge over 2.5 measured on a 29mm internal Flow rim.

If you get tempted by an Alpkit seatpack, I really rate the exo-rail bag support that you can get with it. (it’s an additional loop of metal that clamps between the seatpost head and saddle rails). Really helps to firm things up, particularly as the Alpkit seatpack can move around a bit. Not had any problems with shifting seatpack or straps undoing since, works well with a dropper too.

Mine posted further up is a large (35mm stem/saddle fairly far forward/150mm dropper currently but could fit a 170mm). I’m 5’11” but don’t have hugely long arms/torso. Very comfortable sat down and I love the length/stability stood up. The size is definitely right for me but if I was any shorter think I’d personally go for a Med.

I’ve had a set for nearly a year now, from not long after they came out when they did the -40% offer. Got the free replacement endcaps (originals were a bit loose tbf) and freehub (didn’t have a problem in 500k with the original but swapped it anyway). Since then not had any problems, build was decent and has stayed true (29″ Flow rims). Would happily recommend them.

Snapped a foot nut off a pair for Fox 36s doing one last 1/8th turn for good luck after a lowers service. An expensive mistake.

Absolutely love mine, best hardtail I’ve owned by a long margin. Large Cosmic Black with 130mm 34 Rhythms as well (and Flows with 2.6 Butcher/2.4 Chunky Monkey at the moment). Feels like a really well rounded bike, climbs well enough and descends brilliantly. I’ve also used it for long bikepacking rides with lighter tyres and it does that well too, comfortable for long days in the saddle, as below.

Just waiting in the airport in Split to fly home after riding down from Ljubljana this week, on a bike I built myself (as in brazed from tubes), that’s put a huge smile on my face.

A lot of love for my Solaris Max too, they seem very popular around here! Such a versatile bike, easily the best hardtail I’ve owned, in bikepacking mode here:

I’ll take a punt on sizing/comfort on some M/L if anyone wants to sell on a pair for £17+P&P?

If you could email me on jakd ‘at’ live ‘dot’ co ‘dot’ uk, that would be great, rather than battling the PM function..

Got a set of M2s on my commuting bike, think they were about £35 with discs + bolts/olives and barbs for shortening/and maybe even caliper adapters. Really can’t go wrong at that price as long as you aren’t expecting top performance.

I’ve got a pair from when they were very first released that had slight loose endcaps on the front (still worked fine in the bike though). Superstar sent out new tighter fitting caps to everyone who’d bought a set for free and without any prompting which have been fine since (and a new freehub as supposedly they’d had reports of failures – although mine had been fine). Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them and their customer service seems to have improved a lot compared to the slating they used to get a few years ago.

Bin the helmet. If took me at least a week to feel anything like normal after a severe concussion (brief loss of consciousness and loss of memory of the day) a couple of years ago. Then a few weeks after that to feel 100%. Keep an eye out for any developing symptoms over the next couple of weeks too, I ended up with a slow brain bleed that only manifested in noticeable symptoms (hand/arm/face numbness) after 2 months, by which time I thought I was well in the clear!

I’ve been with Lloyds for contents insurance for the last two years. The bike specific part of it is very good, you can specify individual bikes over a value of £500 and specify the value for each one too. They’re covered in house/any shed/locked up in town/in the car and covered for accidental damage while riding too. Plus extra cover for accessories/riding kit/legal cover etc.

I got to test it last autumn when I crashed and badly dented (unsafe to ride) a 4 year old YT Wicked, they paid out cash for the equivalent brand new Capra of the same value as when new, all a very painless process too. Just needed confirmation from a LBS of my choice that the bike was a write off. Think I pay a smidge over £200 for the year for 4 bikes over the value of £1000 covered, with a £50 excess.

Edit: forgot to add that I think I got a reasonable discount due to having a current account with them.

Thanks all, sounds about what I was expecting. Will make sure to pack the rain jacket and decent sized tarp!

Yep, I’ve got one too, faultless in 18 months, far more than can be said about the previous three Reverbs.

Finished building this about a month ago, first frame of my own. Definitely tends more towards drop bar rigid MTB than gravel bike, geometry loosely based on a Salsa Fargo. Using it for bikepacking and long gravel rides.

@franksinatra if they have big 24″ pumps there, they can move about 1.4 cumecs.

I’m all for e-bikes, speaking as a non e-bike rider. A slightly different angle, my dad has a life long health condition that limits riding on a normal bike to 15/20km of flat pootling. A year ago he got an e-bike and has done 9000km since, granted it’s not as exercise intensive as a regular bike, but it’s distance he never would (or could more importantly) have done previously. It’s also replaced a lot of short car journeys for him too, adding an additional benefit.

Even more than that it’s meant I (age 24) can now ride with my Dad (56) and enjoy long/off road/hilly rides for the first time together, completely fantastic! A few weekends ago we did the Trans Cambrian Way over 3 days, he stayed in B&Bs to charge the battery overnight while I bivied, his speed on an e-bike matching nicely with mine on a regular bike. This is something that absolutely would not have been possible without an e-bike and I’m incredibly grateful that it’s given us a chance to do something like this together.