I wish I could make bikes all day 🙁

Also, there is so much foam, forgot if you melt it out or not, do you? Will it add a lot of weight? To save weight I think you should drill random holes in all of the tubes.

I would love to have a go, I follow it every year but never think I am going to get chance, straight after uni is going to be job and that’s it then.

Suddenly responsibility.

You’re mental.

Its a great trail, Ive ridden end to end once on a mtb and twice on my cross bike (so I can get breakfast in scarborough) and you could ride it on a road bike, it is bit lumpy in places though.

After a lot of research, looks like the etrex 30 is the winner with the easy to change and source batteries and usefulness whilst running and walking.

So use the 800 or the touring with the OS maps on and that will be good enough for following on/off road routes?

The head badge on my custom artwork’d karate monkey

Rider dependant, I rode the blues and reds on my 26HT and didnt fancy trying the black runs as death may have happened and I was driving back to Loughborough straight after. There were riders with the club (a expert downhiller and an expert [one down from elite?] XC racer) who did all the runs on their 650b HT’s with the saddles at climbing height because dropping them would be cheating and they absolutely dominated a lot of dual crown bikes, but they are both insanely skilled on bikes.

Probably no death.

I run, more for enjoyment though but I do make sure there is a set of intervals in there somewhere as I won’t be casually running in cross. I also make sure I do some transition work (come in from a run, go out for a ride and vice versa) but thats mainly because I want to stay fit and able to do duathlons.

Is woburn any good for the XC loop? I am equidistant between that and cannock so not sure if I should go and try it out.

By far the best XC photo I have taken, at the XC worlds at dalby.

I wonder if he has thought of Ackerman for that steering. Looks like a beast thought and the price tag isn’t that bad considering an extra wheel, fork, brake etc.

MJ Machining?

edit: maybe not based on potential Michael Jackson questions..

How about a combination of yours and your business partners initials?

Is that a 6 pot caliper?! Never knew hope made brakes with that many pots.

I want some sexy reynolds 853 tubing, paragon machine works drop outs and some Columbus chain stays. Then I want some new 29er hope/crest wheels and some Marzocchi 320 LR’s to go with. It is going to look sweet when I’ve made it all.

If you run sram you can get a mtb mech on the back and run a standard 11-36 cassette. Infact that is exactly what I do for my cross/road bike.

If you run shimano (10spd road) I think you can get a 9spd shimano mech and run 10spd mtb cassette, which goes to 34 I think.

If you want a larger range with the same step you need more gears, and the most you can get at the moment is 11.

I didn’t realise you were that old nathan 😉

Looks very slack and tall, what frame size is it? Looks like the X to me.

MM (20)

Hopefully bling, completely monocrhome apart from the lovely gold chainring, mmmm. More pictures found on my blog (shameless plug).

I think so to, hence I am never going to get rid of it!

Reliant Scimitar GTE, its one that I wish to own someday.

If you want to hold onto your money and eventually have it grow again, get a Morgan (V8 preferably!), they are beautiful if you get the right one and you couldn’t get anything more british.

My current surly karate monkey (built as a dingle speed cross bike atm), enough fork to go for 100mm of travel if needed, lots of rack mounts, mounts everything on it possible (including things I’m not sure I will ever have or need) and its custom decorated (shameless blog plug) and as it was the misses who decorated it I am never going to get rid of it, its too perfect for me.

I would be so game for an endurance CX, like the three peaks but with less hike a bike would be perfect, and less steps for me to get rattled apart down.

I love a huge variety of surfaces, makes for interesting riding when you are going grass>tarmac in the wet, makes it lovely and sketchy!

My dads shimano pedals are still going strong after 20 years even the return spring made of rubber hasn’t disintegrated yet.

No, its gash. You can’t use CO2 cartridges with it as it immediately dries out all of the sealant, it has never sealed any of the punctures I had with it, it blocks valve cores in an instance and its no cheaper than stans. I’d stick with stans

Why not use a standard 135 disc hub, swap it round and run one of these on it? A lot cheaper than a new hub.

Similar issue here before but when I had swapped cassette over from wheel to wheel, I forgot the spacer closest to the wheel (on a 105 cassette) so the whole cassette moved as and when it wanted to.

I have one XC bike, 120mm 26″ hardtail, same components all the time, ride it at races and train on it. Also use my cross bike (a lot) for casual riding because of the skills boost and sketchyness, but can’t race that in XC events!

Sram all round (cross, road and mtb) as it makes my kit interchangeable so if I brake a mech, no problem, just use another one from the other bike. I prefer the agricultural feel as well, shimano always felt a bit light to me.

Campy on my campus bike because its an 80’s raleigh and thats what it came with

Thanks ben, you may be getting an e-mail at the end of the summer from me 🙂

aracer – I have looked at them and my calculated spoke lengths are ~378, I know you can get away with 1mm either side of that but am yet to speak to the person I would get to build the wheels if using longer nipples would be appropriate (I don’t like to pester him with too many questions, I imagine I get annoying after any period of time). Those penny farthing spoke blanks are something I hadn’t considered though, and in the correct gauge.

clubber – yeah, thinking about it properly (and not being a numpty) I don’t need the same force in each caliper to equal a standard one, together they will equal a standard one, it’s the equivalent rotor size I am after, dual 120’s would give me the perfect rotor size but to make sure I don’t gather too much heat in the pads and glaze them over or cause power absorption failure I have been advised for 160’s.

Admittedly yes, dual discs are overkill, but it does cancel the reaction forces out and mean I don’t need a custom rotor (which I am more worried about designing and making than a hub) or custom caliper mounts. All the safety critical bits are not my problem 🙂 .

Clubber-very useful thread!

It seems no mater which system I use the force will be halved, just means heat build up is less likely to fail the pads, which is no bad thing. Maybe Ill use that mechanical puller and get on the squash balls for grip. It will be a lot simpler than either dual hydros or a semi hydro system.

Jamie – The rest of the bike is on a back burner, I have a very good idea of what I am going to do for tube sets etc I just need to decide on rear axle spacing and head angle/mechanical trail to try and get it to handle like a 26″ bike. My other project is coming first (shameless plug) as I would like a 29er before the 36.

I ask questions like this as I want to do a stupid amount of research to make sure I don’t get further down the design stage for nothing.

But so far its looking like 110/120OLD front hub, Hope pro2 trials rear hub (or SS specific so 135OLD but may go to fatbike 190OLD), 100mm BB and a 31.6 post. Going to keep ATC as small as possible and it will of course have a 1.125″ headset with a 44mm HT. I also want it to have 15mm axle up front and a 12mm axle out the back (if possible with the given hubs) with pinch bolts on each for extra security.

Decided against hydro brakes for the front at least as the piston movement in the lever is designed for one caliper, leaving me getting half the braking force at each caliper so not improving anything (apart from heat dissipation and resistance to the power mode of failure). The mechanical levers will be much easier to bodge either 2 lever bodies to one lever or incorporate a cheater system into the cable run to increase pull. Although I do still have concerns about the force still being halved or a huge amount of set up to get anything worth while.

As I said, its all in my mind atm and I have it down on paper in a few places but the 29er project is coming first in the funds department which is hindering the 36″ project.

Steel – Check
29er – Kind of check (700c I am afraid)
Rigid – Check
Single speed – Almost check (dinglespeed)

My monstercross Surly karate monkey with custom artwork.

P20 – based on yours going for 300(!!!) it’s unlikely to fit such big wheels in I don’t think I’ll be looking for those forks (although the hub looks good!) seems pretty rare as well, probably quicker to make my own.

Player Layer (guy in the club works for them)
Or Inverse (our current supplier) they come out of spain but you deal with a guy in derby.

Jamie – This is as far as I have gotten so far.

Spacing between disc and spoke flanges has changed since I rendered the image. 110 OLD with 4 sizeable bearings, need to grind my own QR15 axle and also need to find somewhere for custom 14G spokes in the 370-380mm range else my flange diameters get huge.

Also depends entirely on the dual crown geometry (that I am yet to get hold of) and how much bodging would be required. Reasons for not using a double fixed hub are sealing issues but surly seem to do a double fixed 120 OLD with cartridge bearings so if this custom one doesnt work, those may be worth a shot, but the flanges are pretty tiny.

Mainly it depends on spoke lengths at the moment.

I am currently saving for the bits and tubes for this build. The MED Homebrew, because I want to build my own bike out of steel and its not any more expensive than buying the frames I would have bought anyway!

That’s the plan, one cable running through to the two calipers, then a canti-equivilent set up to pull both equally.