What’s your budget for a complete Nuke? I have frames ready to ship and build kits ready to go. We can’t really compete with CRC on price but could get pretty close and deliver you a more personal spec. Plus our paint job is better :D

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGLGj4bHo6J/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

If a bike rides well with an air shock, it will need a progressive spring. Bit of an over simplification, but if you are looking for the progression you get from your Float X, just buy the Vault in the rate you are currently on. Floating around 30% sounds perfect. If you like it, take it to a car place and get it powder coated any colour you want.

At first glance it looked good, then realised the quoted range was way off (you have to max it out with the optional battery packs and I think solar roof?) And it doesn’t have any form of rapid charging. So you end up with a 100 mile range max and 7kw charging only. Looks fun though.

I saw a VW T4 in Fife with a green plate flash, not sure if it was a conversion or a joker.

In Scotland, Laggan has a pair of 7kw chargers. Glentress can be ridden from the Peebles Hydro, that has four 7kw. Rapids in peebles town. Innerleithen has a rapid in the carpark next to No1. Rapids and fast in Aberfeldy town centre, great for the ‘Glassie Bike Park’, Pitlochry can be ridden from the dam carpark, free 7kw chargers (fed direct off the hydro I like to think), Dunkeld has a rapid in the town carpark with another two on the way. Aviemore has rapids in town and a fast charger right at the bottom of Burnside trails. Comrie Croft has four fast chargers, charged off their own solar array and battery storage. In the deep south I know Cwmcarn trail centre has a bank of fast chargers (that I think are free). Callander has rapid chargers in the carpark, great for riding Ben Ledi and the local tech. For the rapids we put it on when we get back from riding, then get changed and pack the bikes up. If it needs longer go grab a coffee, same as we usually would anyway. If anything it’s MORE of a faff having to go back to the van and move it before the 40mins is up. I prefer 7kw charger where we can leave it for the time we are riding, it’s less demand on the grid and leaves the rapids free.

Go on the Windwave site, search Diamond and look at the spares available.

Go on the Zyro site, search Lyrik and look at the spares available.

Go on the Hotlines site, search Mezzer and look at the spares available.

I won’t spoil the fun here.

We leave ours on 7kw posts while going riding all the time, Glentress (hydro), Laggan, Aberfeldy, Comrie Croft (free and solar battery setup!), Crieff, Pitmedden etc. Most smaller towns have a few slow posts, and starting your ride from there rather than an FLS carpark means you are closer to the cafes. Really helps with not having a home charger.

They did aye, and my preference is still a Soul but you see plenty of them going about so must be OK 🤷 They aren’t all in the bin.

Both ours are CCS and long term provisions for Chademo might be an issue, but most being installed now still do both. I think.

CCS is fantastic, we get 100kw in the van and it’s fantastic, but, the amount of times we have tried to charge places and it’s failed during handshaking is crazy. Perhaps it’s the naff CPS aging chargers.

My preference is for CCS, but if I was looking to spend 15-20 on a used one then there are ways to look at Chademo as an advantage. Then again I was charging at the Stirling hub, leaf shows up next to me and can’t get it to work. I offered to move to her one as if it didn’t work I could in a pinch just leave, but the one I was on didn’t work for her either. And her first one was fine for me. Rapid charging eh.

You certainly can’t go wrong with a Leaf either if you can find one in budget. Same warranty as the Soul, well known to be great solid cars. Same Chademo socket too – most of our rapid charge failures are down to CCS protocol issues, while Leafs happily charge away next to us…

A quick look on Autotrader is showing old gen Kia Souls for £14-15k. 110-130 miles range but that’s actually realistic. The computers in these are amazing. And I think the older ones use Chademo for rapid charging so less problems with handshaking/broken chargers compared to CCS. Really long warranty too. Got a range boost for 2018 so look for an 18/19. We have a current gen and it’s amazing. Will do 200 miles through the Highlands in winter and come back within 5 miles of the estimated range. This is something Hyundai group get really spot on, and it makes a huge difference to living with it. Our Peugeot van is all over the place, it loses 10 miles if you turn it off and on again! The Souls get a sort of reverse ugly tax, so better deals.

*waves hi* 👍👍

Nice, that’s all the info I didn’t have time to share when I first posted.
For anyone looking we have one last V3 left at £1799 before they move to £2199 once the new ones come in 🤟

Edited to actually put the link in..

Banshee Prime V3 Frameset

What frame size are you looking at? I have a large in my shop and a range of posts to depth test if it helps. From memory a 180 OneUp doesn’t go quite to the collar.

The V3 will be cheaper if it fits, the 3.2s are an extra £200 RRP to RRP

You could always have a Commando socket fitted for all those power tools/fare ground rides and then buy an OHME charger for it.

There is a snap ring to stop the high speed adjusters undoing. You can see it, and would have to go pretty hard to rip it out!

They just visually line up with whatever you want. They work in full 360 turns as you say, so long as you can do a full turn of the Allen key it’s easy to keep track of. If the frame design restricts it then it’s a bit harder.

Posh products not worth it are always a disappointment, but if you find something good it can be so much better.

Pilot Brewing for a nice IPA, and Unorthodox Wee Stoater for a coffee bean. Luckily both very local to us but do ship, highly recommended both

Something worth checking, don’t take your sag as a 35% visual of the shock body, you have a 57.5mm stroke on a 65mm body, so do 30% of 57.5, a range in mm is written on the back of the seat tube. Also it’s quite a linear link, you might want the biggest volume spacer (although officially the compression ratio is too high) or see if anyone is selling a Cascade link for it and convert to essentially a Sentinel V2 :)

I have been doing a ‘UPF free December’ which has been nice. Partly because of the mentioned studies on ultra processed food/scary stats from the Dr Xand podcast, but I also wanted to cut out a lot of the single use plastic. And because basically anything sealed in a packet has things added to stop it going rank, two birds one stone. Makes shopping easier too as you can only use about four isles. We eat a lot of veg, pulses, tiny bit of meat and an even smaller amount if cheese. Can still have crisps if you buy plain tortilla chips, so easy snacks still available.
P.s you know that veg is carbs right? And you should eat veg? No sensible diet involves not eating veg.

I have used Tier1Online for all our business PCs and use one for our home TV too. They just take old office kit, do it up and sell it on. Been spot on. Easy to plug a low end graphics card in as well for a bit more oomph

We have just fitted a Hershal infrared panel to the ceiling in our spare room/office, been amazing so far. Silent and a very nice heat to sit under Vs the electric fan heaters I have at work, the infrared doesn’t dry you out. It just feels like sitting in the sun. And because you aren’t trying to heat the air then convect it about the place you don’t need to leave it on all the time. The programmable thermostats are easy. And while they are a bit more expensive to buy, the one in our room is 900w vs the 2500w oil or fan rads from work. So thumbs up from us so far, and thinking about converting the full house when the boiler packs in.

I just popped another £100 off this as we are trying to freshen up the display…

2020 Bombtrack Hook ADV

Thanks for all the props guys :) I don’t think we are going to get any more Spur frames or bikes at pedals until around April next year. We have a large green frame that has been on order since July. 2020.. We should see that in Jan, got a nice build kit ear marked for it. 34s, AXS and the like.

They look amazing though, would love to have a few more of them!

We do have quite a few carbon Spire bikes, alu Spire frames, Sentinel frames in both alu and carbon, and an alu Scout frame.

Just passed our 10 year Transition anniversary ❤️

Is it really a Burnside ride if you don’t ride through the wee tunnel? We always park at the big shopping centre/hotel do da as it’s free, quiet, loads of space and has decent loos and a shop for posh juice. Then you get a nice bit of singletrack before that tunnel on the way up, just a tiny bit of tarmac through the houses before linking into the singletrack climbs. I miss burnside

I am 5 foot 9/176 and ride a large, at 6 foot you could go on either a large with a 50mm stem or XL with the 35. Standover and seat tubes are low so it’s more just ‘choose the reach you want’ rather than ‘the right size’

There are advantages to a shorter bike too. Amazing bikes.

Can’t help with a demo but I do have a large XT in stock and on display, can weigh it if you want.

Also got medium and large GX in stock 🤟

They look great and everyone has been really happy with them so far, drop the shop message if we can help with anything.

What's in stock now?

And you can’t mess around too much with the roll on the One-ups or you put the flex zone out of the right axis.

They are great bars too, and offer something different with the flex zones. If you are going to buy far east bars then the OneUps are amazing, but if the sweep on the Hopes is bang on, get them and save the Co2. It’s COP week n all.

The Hopes are the only bars made in the UK, so less shipping miles and spot on quality control. Rentals might be a bit lighter, depending on version.

Especially if you are getting a Hope stem, get the Hope bars. Really really nice finishing too.

The insurance is weird, both our Soul and Expert are much higher groups than anything previous, and a lot of the quotes were an extra £350+ each on the Panda/Vivaro they replaced, but then a couple were much much cheaper. The Soul ended up £100 more expensive than the (2011) Panda a year which is fair, and the van ended up £100 cheaper than the 11 Vivaro. I think while they are higher group, this is overruled by data showing EVs are involved in less accidents, I guess 🤷

Yer, just what they say. Dab of grease on the nipple, stick the washer to it, two birds one stone

Hutchinson Mambas in 650×50, best tubeless fit, decent tread pattern and £30.

They are always going to be more expensive, at least for the next few years. As I mentioned above, when I looked at the full cost of the last few years van running, going electric worked out at a £75pm premium. That did include a new clutch through, however in the end was slightly offset even more by managing to find much cheaper insurance at the last second. Once we had actually ordered it I never re-did the numbers.

Buying outright or finance would have been better for the business but we didn’t want to be without the cash at the moment. When our Soul is paid off in two years and the lease is up we will look again.

https://www.drive-electric.co.uk/vehicles/peugeot-e-expert-electric-van-75kwh-long/

These lot were great, when I could hardly get the main business centres to talk to me, they were more interested in selling the diesel models from stock, than taking a more expensive order for three months away. Drive Electric give you a free podpoint home charger too which is nice, and getting rarer.

At the end of the day only you can figure out if it works for your situation yet, but for us it has been great so far. Always nice to rock up for a ride at Comrie Croft and stick it on their free solar assisted chargers then come back to a full battery 😁 It is a big battery though so tend to sly them a bit more for parking

£781 pm ex vat does sound very high, are you trying to finance purchase it with a small deposit?

We went with a lease because there was no discounting going on the purchases at all, so I thought just lease for 2-3 years until there is a bigger range then see where we are at.

The lease costs are nowhere near that obviously. Check autotrader for ex demo ones as there were a few up last month

I lease a 75kwh E-Expert through the business. We took our combined purchase and maintenance costs over the last three years and averaged it across the months. With fuel included we are paying a premium of about £75pm for this van. But, I really liked our electric car and wanted to change the vehicle we do most miles in. It’s just hit 3000 miles and we got it in July I think. Some bits of it feel cheaper than the 2011 Vivaro it replaced, and it’s smaller, but it’s suitably quiet to drive and much nicer to do longer runs in. On a full charge range counter shows 200 miles. It has averaged 2.7 m/kWh so far, so allowing a bit for never having the guts to run it to empty expect 150-180 miles between charges. A 100 mile run from Banchory to the forth road bridge leaves about 45 miles left on the range.

At the moment there aren’t any alternatives really. And yes you can get it in a combi. Expert/Vivaro/Dispatch/Proace, just pick whoever will reply to your emails. We went through drive-electric as the dealers didn’t GAF. They were spot on to deal with.

For next year the VW offering and a new Ford should mix things up a bit. I want to see a dedicated EV platform Trafic or something from Kia/Hyundai, as they make our car and the EV parts of it are quite a bit better than the Peugeot.

If there was, I wouldn’t live in Scotland now.

I think with the Xbus the 600km is not the same as most brands range, they are designed to be modular so the top 600km is every extra battery you can plug into the back and a very generous allowance for the solar charging. If I understood it right.

I am really enjoying our E-Expert but it isn’t up the the quality of our Kia.

Hopefully there is a larger range (geddit?) available when our lease ends in a few years. Perhaps a new Trafic as they are part of Nissan. First dedicated skateboard chassis van… Or the same thing from Hyundai/Kia would be great too.

Perhaps it’s a Scottish thing because of CPS, but one of the big reasons we were OK getting on board was how long we spent parked next to chargers. We ride bikes eh. Had become aware of them and noticed how many were everywhere we ride.

Dunkeld, Aberfeldy, Ballater, Peebles, Pitlochry, Aviemore… Even Laggan trail centre.

This weekends riding involved a 45 min charge on the inners rapid. Got back from riding and plugged it in before sorting the bikes. A wipe down, re-lube, changed and ate a sandwich and the van is back at 95% ready for the week. Free fuel. No hunting, no waiting, just making use of the time we were busy and near the van.

We have a Soul and love it to bits, amazing car. Range forcast very accurate, 210 odd in real winter and about 280 now. Essentially a Kona in a different shell, but because it looks a bit different they have chucked all the bells and whistles at it. I would have quite happily gone for the Kona too, but the soul worked out cheaper and better spec. Plus Kia let us have a 48hr test drive in a Niro which was really useful. That was great too, but felt a bit long and low we are used to Doblo/Panda/Vans. And was a bit scared of the RWD in the snow/ice.

Battery swap stations already exist, in China and Norway if you own a Nio

https://www.nio.com/nio-power

Have you read the review of the E-Expert I posted on the first page?

We leased ours. I looked at the previous three years van running costs, all in I think this is around £100 per month more expensive. Savings on fuel, tax, insurance, engine repairs offsetting the higher cost. The more fuel you put in the smaller that gap gets. Buying one outright at the moment would be crazy, but in three years when ones like mine come up for sale post-lease it would better.

Why are you all arguing over the 82 mile range Transporter, which is to be honest a crap stop gap like brands shoe horning 27.5 into modified 26 to fill a gap quick, when I literally posted a link to a real 200 mile range, mid/LWB sized van, that exists and can be bought, and will do 0-80% charge in 50 mins while you have a piss/walk/pump track?

The rapid charger at the Torridon is broken just now so it’s slow only, fine if you are staying over night but at £500 per night for the remaining room I gave it a swerve 🤣