Oh and just think how many pagers are used in the NHS still ….

The NHS ones probably aren’t packed with C4 though

I got a Mystery Ranch Scree recently which has been good for work trips away, and also handy for walks with the baby giving quick access to baby equipment. The bag is well made, although it does have a lot of straps hanging off it which are a bit annoying when it’s windy.

I saw an ad for this Salkan which looks great, but no idea if the quality matches the price tag.

I have some Ksyriums on the commuter. They’re brilliant, and the freehub noise is so much better than anything else I’ve had! One thing to bear in mind is that the nipples on this type of rim can sieze into the rim after a while, so if you do bash them, you might not be able to re-true it.

My first and probably only big wall aid route. Too much faff and too far away for me now.

Woah, dude! Pictures the new bike! You know the rules.

It’s an old-ish Ribble CGR.

Thanks all. Got a set of tyres ordered. Apparently they’re discountinued in 30/32, but plenty of places seem to have stock still.

Yeah I was hunting for the tan ones with no luck.

How do they hold up puncture wise? I’ll probably run them tubeless but my commute is pretty bad for glass etc, just can’t face putting marathons on my nice new commuter!

Duplicated

There’s a ridiculous quantity of frogs in our pond at the moment, doing obscene things and making a racket.

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You what now? Is the 25mm a typo? What’s the commute? 15+ years ago I might have considered 25mm rubber but times have changed. Hell, pro in the peleton are riding 28mm these days. Your bike can handle 45mm or 40mm with guards – edit older generations if that’s what you’ve got maybe less, not sure. Im currently riding bontrager R3 in 32mm tubeless on my commute. It’s certainly not the last word in puncture protection like a marathon but it’s much much faster with better road feel. Run tubeless it’s been excellent with zero punctures in a couple of thousand miles. This is a very rural back road commute. It can handle a little bit of light cycle path gravel if needed too but is definitely meant more for the road.

Btw – that is one lovely frame for commuting.

The 25mm was as much for weight and rolling resistance – assuming the bigger the tyre, the heavier and slower it’ll be! Will have a look at some of these tubeless suggestions.

Yeah it’s a nice bike. The commute accounts for 80% of my riding these days so I thought I’d try to make it a bit more enjoyable.

It’s also the older CGR Ti without the dropped seatstays. Lovely bike and hardly used it seems. Ultegra kit, Ksyrium wheels (which I’ll probably change before too long for something with a dynamo), carbon bars.  I’ve already picked the naff union jack badge off (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t made in the UK!). I’ve put mudgaurds on and have ordered a pannier rack for it. Seems a shame to load it full of clobber but it was purchased for a specific purpose!

I have GP5000s on my road bike and even riding on nice countryside roads they seem to get a fair number of nicks and cuts. I think they’d be shredded in no time on my glass strewn commute.

Cheers. Hadn’t really looked at tubeless but worth considering!

Yeah I’m aware it’s not a sensible use of time or money given how cheap they are! I might make a replacement downtube and get it all fitted up, and see if I can find someone to weld it in.

Might be ok if it’s frozen!

Agree with the above – the timing of the noise suggests aux belt, or something connected to it. Probably not the timing belt if that was done recently.

It’s not really suitable for this time of year, but learning how to walk on a slackline is excellent for true agility, balance and bodily awareness. Fun, too, and once you bought it, free. Highly recommended!

Chill guys. These are the rates I would expect to pay; the bill has come in substantially higher. The concrete is based on some places charging for delivery for less than full loads, but is just a guess.

Yeah, I don’t think there’s enough penetration into the box section. It’s on max power already, but the flat bar there is about 10mm thick, so probably a bit beyond what it can handle. I have been belting everything I’ve tried with a hammer – think I’m going to need a bigger hammer as I’ve not managed to crack anything yet. Bear in mind I’ve done about half an hour of welding in total so far.

I’ve been using it on full power on a 13A plug with no problems so far. Easy enough to put it on it’s own circuit if it does start eating fuses I guess.

Yeah the earth clamp does seem pretty crap!

World of difference after I ground the mill scale off:

and get a few tins of anti-spatter whilst you are at it 😉

I thought you were having me on, a la striped paint and left handed screwdrivers. Sounds handy!

Here’s some pigeon excretia for your entertainment! A combination of insufficient power, wire speed, gas, surface prep and poor torch control :-)

I started getting some better welds on flat plate after some fiddling about, but fillets are still hard.

Sheffield. I design stuff like this for a living. It’ll be nice to have a go at making it for once! Got a big pile of scrap for practice first.

How many pieces are you after if that costs more than a welder ?

Six. 2.2m box with end plates and a couple of simple brackets. Quoted £800+vat, would you believe. Includes galvanizing but that’s only £75. Have asked a bunch of others too who’ve not bothered to quote it which makes me think they’re not interested.

Nice looking frames. They seem to very deliberately not state the weight anywhere. Is it a case of ‘if you have to ask, it’s too much’?!

I’m doing something similar at the moment, albeit without the garden wall – I’m putting steel posts in. Polycarbonate roof, 2×4 rafters.

Slope it away from the house – that way if the gutter blocks it doesn’t soak your wall.

Check your upstairs windows can be cleaned from the inside – or, make a removable panel in the roof so you can poke a ladder up there every now and then. Think about how you’ll clean the new roof as well – they go green and benefit from a scrub once a year or so. Again, a removable panel or two might let you clean it from a ladder.

Not sure about flashing I’m afraid. I going to use some sort of adhesive/sealant type thing, but it’s against brick so reasonably flat. Personally I’d try to avoid cutting it into the stone as it’s a relatively temporary structure and the wall would look a mess if/when it’s removed.

Cheers all, and thanks for the offer podge. I knocked up a brass sleeve on the lathe so will see how that fares for now. The shaft is from a pillar drill so it’s not going to be seeing masses of use, and a slow oil leak will just lubricate the quill…

The video of the plane urning is horrifying. Flames coming from every window, and at the front end it seems like the skin of the fuselage itself is burning (or melting?). If the upholstery etc is fire retardant, is all that really just from luggage?

@somafunk and others – finally got round to replacing the regulator on the back of the alternator. £20 part seems to have sorted it – thanks for the tip!

I had some cheap Chinese bars with internal routing cutouts and a flat aero top section. The flex was alarming (felt like 15mm+) and I got shot of them after a couple rides and replaced with alu zipp bars which are much more reassuring! I have some Ribble carbon bars to put on at some point but can’t be bothered doing all the cables again.

I went to try disconnecting the alternator this evening, but the bloody thing is working fine again. Not sure if that means the alternator is ok and it’s a loose connection somewhere, or if the diodes/rectifier could give an intermittent fault and still worth replacing?

Good ideas, thanks both. Not sure I can source a spare battery, but disconnecting the alternator temporarily is a good plan.

@timmys what sensor/app are you using for that graph? I also went for the ProBreeze which is now happily chugging away in the loft. Would be good to see what’s going on up there without having to keep opening the (well sealed) hatch.

The Meaco ones sound pretty good, but don’t have an app unfortunately, which would be handy for keeping an eye on it without having to keep going up to the attic and introducing a slug if warm air every time.  I’ll fit a drain hose so hopefully can just leave it be.

I’m not sure I’d see Middleburn as much of a downgrade compared to Red – certainly in terms of cost! They may be a bit heavier, but as they’re on a bikepacking gravel bike, weight isn’t as much a priority as durability.

This is it. The alu strips between the original glass and the extensions are ‘H’ profile, and there are  ‘U’ profile ones screwed into the ceiling.

I’ve just installed some extension pieces of glass so the shower enclosure goes all the way up to the ceiling. The fan does a really good job of sucking the steam straight out (100mm inline), and nothing escapes into the room other than for a second when getting out the shower. With the enclosure door closed, you can see the air being drawn in around the edges. It’s taken a lot of DIY fiddling, some alumium extrusions and two fairly large, heavy and expensive pieces of toughened glass, but well worth the effort.

The inside of the shower is going to be very much wetter and probably need a plastic ceiling as the paint will be saturated, but the rest of the room is dry and we can leave the bathroom door open now so better circulation generally.

Yeah I did the same recently. Piece of cake. There’s only two wires actually connected.

I’m actually not that bothered about new toys. It’s only £20-30 and I’d get shot of it afterwards. Reasons for are the difficulty of holding all the bits aligned and knocking nails in single handed, and shaking the panel too much. I don’t have anyone around to brace behind it unfortunately.

The actual question was about the size of the nails – 18G being too small or not?

Ta :-)

Yeah my worry with hammering was shaking the whole thing to bits when I’m in the middle of the panel!

UKC has a ‘politics’ forum area, and it is possible to switch it off. The forum is a much better place for it!

Thanks! The 503030 bit just means 5mm thick, 30mm x 30mm size. The charger is just a USB socket on the side of the light. I guess the circuit in the light could be what controls the charging via USB? Otherwise I suspect the battery is more likely to be LiIon.