Thanks. I’d be pretty happy with £800! In fact I’d be moderately happy if anyone would actually turn up to quote when they say they will. I guess business is still good at the moment. You’re not in Sheffield are you?!

I’ve been dismissing the update prompts for Android 12 for about 6 months now, after it ballsed up my gf’s 4a (which was replaced under warranty and new replacement still sat in it’s box, if anyone’s interested…). I expect at some point I will have to let it update, but I’m putting that off for as long as possible.

Token ninja thread together – or ninja lite a bit cheaper and lighter. Won some design awards but similar to both hope and wheels just 1/2 to 1/3 of the price.

Thousands of miles and just fine.

That Token option does look good for about £50. I’m not sure if the bearings are replaceable like in the Hope and Wheels one though. I’m leaning towards the Hope partly because it looks neater without the large notched flanges!

I think I’d trust Velobuild to be more helpful than px in the event of any problems! The one I’ve chosen is lighter, T1000 apparently (I know nothing about carbon but 1000 sounds better than 700/800) and it includes seatpost, axles, and fully-internal-cable stem-bar for the $500, and doesn’t have HOLDSWORTH all over it :-)

I did, but I’m a bit wary of press fit as I previously only had BSA. I’d quite like a fit/forget BB rather than potentially have to try and remove something in years time and risk damaging the shell. Press fit seems to have a poor rep in general for short BB life.

Just putting it out there…Hambini

No ta. It’s 3 x the price of the Hope, and even though he probably does know what he’s talking about, he comes across as a bit of a knob. Would rather give my money to Hope.

Thanks for the replies chaps. I’ve ended up going with this from Velobuild – it’s the best price I could find and includes all finishing kit, lighter than most other options, cheap custom paint, and comms has been good so far.

The Ortlieb adapter is simnilar to something I made recently for an Alpkit Gravel bag. A bit of plywood to carry the Klickfix back plate means the bag can be clicked on and off easily for popping into shops etc, and avoids having to use the annoying velcro straps which inevitably cause cable rub and wear patches.

I sometimes get teased about my spreadsheet :-(

Two of us in a three bed semi. We’re pretty frugal with the heating already so not sure we can reign it in much more next winter.

Do you have a plan for Ireland yet? Mrs Mowgli and I are going from Belfast > Giants Causeway and then around the coast to Limerick over about 2 weeks starting on Monday. I’ll look out for your flag!

Just to back this up a little, I am very much a passive investor as I have a Vanguard stocks and shares ISA. It’s incredibly easy to manage (I use their LifeStrategy funds), I’ve got a monthly direct debit setup and I just ignore it now. I wish I’d got it started sooner.

I started a Vanguard S&S at the end of 2019. The recovery from the Covid dip in 2020 was pleasing, and at the end of 2021 it was pushing 20% up – not bad for two years. The subsequent tanking over the course of this year is painful – I feel like I can’t/shouldn’t take anything out of it until it recovers a bit, but who knows how long that will take.

I still think it’s better to have the cash sat in something like a S&S ISA rather than paying off the mortgage as long as the ISA rate is greater than the mortgage – but you have to be flexible enough to ride out the dips, and hope the dips do eventually recover.

5’8 and medium with 70mm stem. I think a lot will depend if you want gravel/off road upright position, or head down roady position.

Bit of an update on this rivetting discussion! I was slightly alarmed how quickly I had secured £48k in 0% credit, and transferred to my current account. Five credit cards all with instant approval, and account access within a few days. Paypal applied a ~£2k limit per transaction, but I was able to systematically empty all five credit cards through paypal with no fees. You could really get yourself into trouble!

The cards are all due to be paid off around summer next year, but I’ve just recieved the mortgage as we were concerned interest rates going up might put us in a spot of bother in 12 months time. So now have £50k in the current account, extension work paid for, and 12 months before the cards need paying off. Where best to stick £50k for 12 months with zero risk? The S&S ISA is pretty tempting as it’s at such a low… ;-)

Thanks for the replies. I am not getting a lease car – no way, absolutely not. I find it mad how many people are swanning about in cars costing (much) more than their annual salary – feels like a bubble which has to burst at some point.

I kind of thought the being helpful/complimentary/regular tea+biscuits/bacon sarnie on a Friday was a given! I guess there are some miseries about.

I had a 10″ Clarke thicknesser for a while. Same as the Scheppach and various other equivalents. It was pretty crap really – flimsy chassis, poor grip on the wood, not enough adjustment to get it set up well, prone to overheating. I bought a secondhand Kity 636 a couple of years ago, and although it’s the same sort of size, it’s an infinitely better machine.

If you definitely want a new one, I think the Metabo HC260 is pretty good. Record Power do an equivalent.

Things have kicked off this week. Lots of shagging frogs and maybe a dozen newts.

In my experience, it is at best decent minority, and a majority of complete bellends unfortunately.

Perhaps the decent ones don’t ride where I ride, and my experience of mx’ers on bridleways is by definition the knobbers who are happy to ride illegally.

There are cones around the bits which are falling down. It’s a lovely ride – feels very unusual for England, with the forest and the long climb.

Suspended floor which is down two steps, so there won’t be a lip to step over. Full cellar below so access to insulate well between the joists. It’s definitely possible to do a decent job, just hard to decide if it’s worth the expense!

The Andy stand looks good, but a bit nice for washing duties. I think I can make one of these for about a tenner:

Ooh that is cunning, thanks! Need to check my axles but hopefully it’ll work!

Waited for the builder to go home this afternoon – think I might have got laughed at…

Thanks all. The Reolink and Tapo ones are more at my end of the budget scale!
Cheers,

Glad I’m not the only one. Never had a problem before but got a few sore bits on toes on my left foot since WFH. Any idea how long they take to go away?

Recently got an electric blanket which has been amazing, after trying to be tough and not have the central heating on too much. Well worth the money – it costs less than 2p/hr and is very toasty. Might get some plug-in socks to go with it.

Thanks for the comments. I probably should have pointed out the turbo’s not been used up there since the summer, and I’ve kept the hatch closed when working up there.

Had this back from DCC – some contrition?

Dear ,

Thank you for your email on the work carried out recently at Pin Dale.

Before work started we consulted and agreed with the Peak Park, Natural England and Historic England that a specific locally-sourced limestone would be used on the site.

However, due to site conditions it was considered, with good intentions, that a recycled material would be better to form a good foundation, with a further layer of the locally-sourced limestone on top to complete the job.

Following the concerns raised about the recycled material not being appropriate we are now looking at removing it and replacing it fully with locally sourced limestone, as was the original intention. We have halted work on site while we liaise with stakeholders about our proposal to remove the recycled material and will re-start work as soon as this plan has been agreed.

I hope that this will alleviate your concerns.

Kind Regards,

I have one labelled Douk Audio, but it came in a Nobsound box so I guess they’re the same. It’s excellent – paired up with some ancient Wharfdales. Only annoyance is there’s no way to disable the bluetooth, and bluetooth overrides the Audio In line which is sometimes annoying. Nice to have the wireless option though.

I’m in a similar position to the OP and had been looking around. It seems pretty hard to beat Ikea in terms of value/fetures for the money. This one for £500 is our favourite so far – 78cm wide, bridge zone, individual controls, will do a 11cm moka pot. Think that’s all our boxes ticked. Anyone else got this model?

Accu do a range of blackened stainless fasteners. I’m sure you could find something on there.

For example

Thanks Greybeard, that looks like a sensible option – although possibly the diagonals would need to slope the other way, to support the middle of the wall and send the loads around the skylight? Something our engineer was banging on about was the overall stability of the building – so not necessarily just taking side loads, but perhaps stiffening it all laterally. We’ll see…

Thanks all. Don’t know why I hadn’t thought of putting battens up – seems much easier so think I’ll go with that! Surprised the dot&dab stuff will stick to the foil surface on the celotex, but even so it sounds messy. Much happier with wood and screws! It’s not a massive wall so should be able to set the studs flat/straight.

If I foil tape over the studs to join the celotex I should be ok without vapour barrier… right?

Just got stuff through from EDF (I was with Zog). Pretty slick trasnfer it seems, although prices have gone from 2.34p to 4.2p per unit, and 16.8p/day to 30.8p/day. So pretty much doubled, and it will probably double again when the cap goes up :-(

Yeah I’m afraid I’m with him. The head is best part of 80kg and the down force from the quill is at least that again. There’s a reason the column is 70mm solid bar, and it’s not so it looks good!

Haha, yep, that one looks it ought to work! It’s actually off a much smaller drill and wasn’t till I got it home that I realised I need something much beefier, even if the OD is correct. I’ll try a few more local machine shops, cheers.

Jut received my frame back from George at Fastline. They’ve done an absolutely excellent job and were very nice to deal with. Just over 3 weeks from sending it off to getting it back. This is the H series ‘Navy Blue’.

Bummer. I have £150 credit with them.

It does have modulation, but it’s very sensitive so feels quite binary. Bit like jumping on Shimano 4 pot brakes if you’ve been used to Hope mono minis all your life ;-)

I have an M18 drill and driver. The driver is really too powerful for PZ2 screws. It doesn’t have much in the way of modulation and shatters the driver bit quite often (currently using deWalt bits. Maybe others would be stronger). Much prefer my Bosch 12v driver for smaller screws, even if it is a bit slower. If you could get a driver with adjustable torque that might be a good bet.

Radio might as well match whatever battery platform his other tools are.

From reviews I’ve read, the M12 Fuel series is pretty powerful for its size and might match other 18v tools. Depending on how heavy his work is I’d tend towards M12 for the driver.

Good grief this is depressing. I’ve just had my Rocket repsrayed and had planned on getting the new headbadge and decals for it, but think I’ll steer clear now. Are there any mountain bike companies who are not making these monstrous lumbering mx-lite machines for the lazy and overweight who can’t be bothered to put the effort in?
/huff