Thanks for all the replies folks, will be ordering tonight!

Should be fine, I split one in mid February 2 years ago and both halves been very strong. Mrs nut was sick of the stuff by june this year!

I have a mk1.5 in XL.absolutely love it. I was a bit sceptical about buying a trail bike that had the same wheelbase as my xl trek session d.h bike thinking that it might be a bit of a handfull in the tight stuff but it just isn’t the case. The geometry puts your weight more central between the wheels so it actually seems to turn faster for me than the shorter bikes that I’ve had in the past.
I’m another with short legs, at 6’1″ and 32″ inside leg. The 125mm reverb is nearly as low as it’ll go in the frame for ‘proper’ pedalling height at full extension, and I run a 30mm stem. It feels really good, easy to get over the front on steep tight descents and it climbs really well too. So happy that I finally have a bike that feels long enough whilst still having decent standover clearance and space for a 125mm dropper.
I’d be making the shift to a 145 but I cant afford to change to boost as well so I’m going to stick with the 140 for now. Looks a belter of a bike though, go for it!

I have a zero a.m, built it up about a year ago and it’s been a belter of a bike. Loves B.P.W, and is in it’s element on the steeper more technical natural stuff. The length is not an issue on tight turns and still feels quite ‘flickable’ once you have adapted to it. It definitely felt a bit stuck to the floor and more of a high speed bomber than my old chameleon, it isn’t as nimble or precise at lower speeds but once up to speed or in the steep and tech it comes alive. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t use it for more pedally rides, I do use mine for that but it does feel a bit more sluggish than the chameleon.
The t.r is the more x.c/trail oriented bike and being lighter may suit your needs a bit better than the a.m. It is a longer bike, but you could always drop down a size to counter this.
You’re welcome to try my large a.m if you happen to be in the forest of dean any time.

Are you making the blade from the old mower blade then?
If it’s definitely made of a steel with a high enough carbon content you’ll need to get it red hot – properly glowing red and the quench it in some oil. You can get oil specifically for this, but I guess any oil will do as all you’re trying to do is cool it down quickly. That will harden the steel.
The next step is the tempering. Depending on how hard you want it to be you’ll need to heat it until it is a pale straw through to blue colour, straw coloured will leave it harder than pale blue, darker blue will be softer still. This will make it less likey to crack.
In terms of your forge you’ll need a good strong blue flame, and you could easily cobble together a structure to help stop the heat escaping using some hearth bricks, heatproof bricks or asbestos (!!!) This part is quite important as you’ll really struggle to get the steel red hot in open air- you want a small enclosed space around the part you are trying to heat to enable you to heat it quicker.
For the flame, I don’t know much about the gases but I’m sure you’d normally use oxy-acetylene, but perhaps propane would be enough to heat a thin blade.
Good luck, sounds like a fun project!

They’re not overly thick but sensus swayze are a nice grip, especially if you have wide hands like me. Plenty of room for my large paws without the clamps digging in.

I am currently having the same dilemma as you o.p. Have you made your decision yet?
I’m very tempted by the curry’s 1300d deal. But have read that the d3300 is the better camera. Though the 1300d has wifi… oh, I just can’t decide!

I this problem a few months ago. At first I thought there was no stopcock in the hole in the pavement, but actually the hole was just filled up with about 4 inches of dirt. After cleaning that out I found that the tap didn’t work anyway, but as the tap was outside of my boundary it was the waterboard’s responsibility to fix it, which they did quite promptly.

I’m running m8000 mech, shifter, cassette, cranks and brakes. It’s all very good, apart from the brakes which always seem to have air in them no matter how I bleed them. The older M785/6’s are way better in my experience.

If a berlingo would cut it size wise, have you considered the renault kangoo trekka? Same sort of thing as a berlingo but 4wd. My 2wd ’04 1.5 dci does 50mpg easily, and is cheap to insure and not too bad on the tax either. Obviously the trekka would be a bit more thirsty due to the 4wd but still pretty economical overall I think.

If it’s field and showers you’re after this is a good spot: http://beechesfarmcampsite.co.uk/
It depends when you want to go as I think they close over winter still but it’s a lovely spot about 25 mins drive from pedalabikeaway.

Depending on your knowledge of the trails both whitemead and bracelands are ideal with loads of trails right next door. Whitemead is probably the easiest/best in terms of location as dowies/shutcastle/countless other off piste trails are just minutes away, with lots of trails finishing just a minute or two ride away from the campsite entrance. Bracelands is only about 10 mins ride from the top of sallow vallets (The area by pedalabikeaway with the offical/busy/worn out/strava straight-lined trails.)

Braun superclipper gets my vote. Several years in and used every week and they’re still going strong. Rechargeable too.?

Hi zeesaffa . Read this out to my oh. She said she had been exactly the same when she was a kid to the point where her parents took her to see a psychiatrist. The shrink basically said she was bored and suggested finding something that mentally challenged her. If you can afford it then something like lessons in a foreign language (which is what my oh started) or similar. Apparently this really helped.

Cheezybeanz- I love a good download festival.

One of my favourites for needing a poo is “time to drop the tailboard”

Just had this exact experience myself. I’ve cancelled with b.t and moved to John lewis broadband. Sounds terribly middle class I know, but they do seem to be top of the pile customer service wise and they were a good bit cheaper too.
We only got switched yesterday so no real experience with them yet. Time will tell I guess.

As stu said they had buddy bikes at pedalabikeaway in fod. Two of them. They were based on a cheapo steel mountain bikes. Weighed an absolute ton but they were a great laugh on smooth (and wide!) trails.

I have a brand new maxle from a pike for sale, email in profile if you want more info.

As above, 109 a bit underpowered but fine if you’re not in too much of a hurry. A 58 plate shouldn’t have any rust as vitos were galvanised from around 06 or 07.

Why so high on the front? I find most bikes, especially hardtails ride best with no spacers under a low or zero rise stem and 10 or 20mm rise bars. Get yer weight over the front and hang ‘er out. As said above fork sag is important and you’ll probably want less sag on a hardtail than you do on full sus.

I don’t go to Gloucester these days, but I’ve heard that cafe rene is good for drinks and music. Come to the fod for a ride though it’s less than half an hour away. If you don’t know the off piste stuff give me shout if you want a friendly guide for the day, there’s so many great trails here but you need local knowledge to get the best out of it.
Have fun in Glossturd…

Pretty much anything on the urban takeover label.
Some that come to mind:
Mulder- getting blunted, stick up kid, don’t believe.
Eps&2vibe- keepin it real/funk da fied.
Aphrodite- stalker.

Probably loads more somewhere in my head but it’s it’s been a few years since I thumbed through my tunes and it’s all a bit hazy now!

We had a new kitchen last year. We didn’t bother going with higher worktops in the end mostly because of the complications with cooker height, but pineland who made our kitchen were more than happy to make the units taller if we so wished. I’d recommend them 100%, they were faultless from start to finish and we love our new kitchen.

I found they’re pretty good about warranty issues. My belair 2 had red printed detailing which rubbed off after a few rides. Compared to my sdg falcon on my other bike this was pretty poor I thought so I sent it back to ubyk and the had me a replacement quite promptly. Wasn’t really expecting this as it was only a cosmetic issue. The replacement is now 7 or 8 months old and still looks great. Dead comfy too!

I’m no expert, but based on my experience the vito is as good as t5, better in some respects. From 06 (I think) onwards vito has galvanised body so no rust. I prefer the drive of the vito too. For some reason I have a t5…. It made sense at the time as I wanted a camper and didn’t have time to do my own conversion and there is a lot more choice in t5 than vito. The seem to hold their money almost as well as t5 too.
Hope this helps….

My grandfather built one about 20 years ago in my mum’s garden. It’s about 18 thick, and 3-4 feet high and a good 30 feet long. He’d not built many walls before (or since, he’s now 93!) But that wall was impressive, beautifully built, straight and square and it still stands that way now.
The wall retains level ground and runs along level ground too.

I have had great experience with Bird. No issues with the frames, but I emailed them about an issue with a sram wheel and they replied within 9 minutes with a ‘stick it in the box and we’ll send a courier to collect it and take it back to sram’ I haven’t actually done this yet as I’ve been away but after reading comments above I’m hopeful that sram will be good too.
I know a few folks who have had issues with YT, very slow response, or no replies for days or even weeks over issues with components on nearly new bikes. Sorted in the end, but took months.
Crc have been good over the years too, and I’ve had good experience with specialized with frame claims also.

I’m an ex- trail fairy, have posted a link to this page on the the fairies facebook.

If it holds pressure while the pump is still attached it can only be the pump or the schrader valve on the post that is at fault.
Try a third pump or a different valve i reckon.

I sold a reverb seatpost a few weeks ago, sent with hermes. It showed up on the Wednesday as delivered, left in porch. The guy who bought is emailed saying that it wasn’t there, he’d been in all day and that the porch was locked. Lodged a claim with hermes as it was insured. Took 3 days for them to email back saying that someone from the investigations team would be in contact in 24-48 hours. 72 hours later and no email i emailed them again to remind them. Another 2 or 3 day wait and i get another email the same as the first one they sent. That was 4 days ago- and i still haven’t heard back from them. The crazy thing is the seatpost did actually arrive about 5 days after day their tracking system says it was delivered. My hunch is it was dropped at the wrong address, but they’re so incompetent that they can’t figure out what has happened and they’re choosing to ignore my emails instead of telling me that they don’t know what has happenned to the package.

+1 for the bird zero am from me. Built mine up last night, looks great. Can’t beat bird’s customer service either- had a slight issue that was rectified in just a couple of hours via email/phone. Already have an aeris which I love, can’t wait to get out on the zero after Christmas!

I thought it was spring, my daffs just came out and the grass needs cutting again!!!

Xt 11-40 11spd cassette with oneup 45t big sprocket. Perfect shifts every time with m8000 shifter and less hassle in the (currently constant!) mud than sram 10t and a bigger range to go with it, for less money than a sram 10-42. Ditched sram a few years ago when their mechs started to spontaneously disassemble mid ride and their brakes needed bleeding every week…

I’d say they’re worth mastering, and using on days when the extra ounce of effort really matters (like races) but generally stick to flats. They force better technique and you’ll feel the benefits of riding clipped in more if you generally ride flats.
This is worth a read:

The Flat Pedal Revolution Manifesto: How to Improve Your Riding With Flat Pedals

I can’t compare them to renthal as I’ve never tried them- I have large hands too. The sensus swayze get my vote, I run them on all 3 of my bikes.

https://goo.gl/photos/vdXCDCLs7SH6k6yv7

I’m already in, I have 2 bigfoot smokestones from around 1993/1994. Might be persuaded into selling one, 2 does seem a little bit overkill!
I would agree with a lot of what has already been said- they’re great to look at and tinker with and I ride them occasionally, but I’m quickly reminded that steep headangles, narrow bars and long stems went away for a reason…. and then there’s cantilever brakes. In the wet….
But if any of you fancy a retro ride in the spring in the forest of dean don’t hesitate to ask, I’d love to show some retro fans the trails that got me into mtb 25 years ago. They do seem rougher now, not sure if that’s cos they are, or just because I’ve gotten old and used to modern suspension. Perhaps a bit of both…

Hard to say without seeing the bike, but this sounds like caliper flex to me. The old avid juicys used to do this, but the guide calipers look like a muh better design that should prevent this. Are the rotor faces parallel? i.e, they aren’t worn on an angle which is in turn wearing the pads at an angle too.

I have sent you an email old skater.