Ok, whilst I’m not driven by budget I do have a finite number to spend (basically I sold my bike to find a new one but the deal fell through on that so I’m bikeless and rushing into it!)
I could afford to go full GX but I had that on my old bike and wasn’t particularly enthused by it, I like shimano brakes (going for 4 pot deores) and I like clean bars so want ispec EV fixings. Shimano kit is generally lighter.

My wheel is a syncros X40 one (they’ve not arrived yet) bought off eBay last weekend because they came with tyres and they’re 40mm rims – I hadn’t thought about getting a microspline hub as the wheels are a few years old and I doubt they have one to fit.

So we’re stuck with a SRAM Casette.

I suppose I could get a set of Guide brakes and use matchmakers on GX but then I need to lower my spend on saddle, dropper and bars/stem… hence running with Deore.

Does that answer everything that’s been asked?
As long as it works I don’t mind (and yes I’ve got the 50t cassette in my basket) mixing things but I don’t really want a sram shifter and shimano mech – might as well go for full SRAM at that point.

Might just have to flip a coin and press order!

That’s the sort of definitive answer I could have done with before trawling through a load of drivetrain forum posts over the last week with every feasible permutation having been reviewed. Thanks!

Added benefit of course is that this one actually exists!

I bought the last remaining Marino built Sick Wulf frame from Luke earlier, mentioned it to a friend and asked how his frame was going and he’d been told it will be here pre-Xmas too. I’ve been enjoying seeing his Instagram stories of the parts that have been arriving over the past 4 months!

I started a thread about 2 years ago asking about alternatives to the Sick frames as I wanted a Wulf but couldn’t afford one – the answer was Marino and now 2 years later I’ve managed to get the fame I wanted for £350 rather than the £550 Sick wanted for it!

Cheers All. Will check them out

Other than my road bike (16 months) I don’t think I’ve ever kept a bike for a year.
I like my road bike but as a lifelong mountain biker I don’t know much about them, it’s sort of comfortable to ride for 2 hours, might be too long, might be too short, but is much faster than any bike I’ve owned since 1995 so overall I’m happy with it.

Just sold my Giant Reign after 11 months so I can buy an E-Bike, I liked it, it probably grew on me over that time and I was sad to see it go. But then I’m always gutted to sell a bike even though the next one is normally even better.

To be fair to the OP I won’t lean my bike against the car either, I always used to and once it was leaning against my shiny new E Class for about 10 mins before it decided to slip and crack the lens on my rear LED lamp cluster. Not ideal.

I’m cheaper than the OP though, so I solved it be leaving my bike on the floor now seeing as that’s where it’s going to end up anyway.
I’m not fussed about it getting run over either. I figure they’ll be buying me a new one if that happens

Ps, my kids have also always been lightning fast on their scooters – it’s been the biggest hurdle to getting them to ride bikes in my experience

You’ll find you’ll possibly struggle either way, if she’s not into cycling a heavy, upright bike with flowers and a basket on it won’t help her much, but if she’s anything like my kids she won’t want anything else.
My daughter was 6 when she learnt to ride without stabilisers at which point we’d been through a basket bike, an Isla, two hotrocks (one she finally learnt to ride) and my son (4.5) has had a Cuda that he liked but couldn’t ride (very tall bike, terrible proportions) and now has a wiggins that fits him well, is light and stable and generally great but he doesn’t want to ride it because it’s not a space ship or motorbike.

Basically, either buy whatever she wants in the hope that will encourage her to ride it, or buy a Frog or Isla so you can sell it for nearly what you paid if she’s decides she isn’t as into it as you’d hoped!

I’ve always withdrawn cash on a 0% balance transfer to purchase at something I can pay off over a “reasonable” time period like 2 years at an “acceptable” monthly cost. The acceptable figure differs, but my most recent bike was about £2k and I paid it off over 2 years.

My issue is now I want an e bike, and I believe I need to spend at least £4K to get what I want – I’m set on a YT Decoy, Levo (SL) or Canyon Neuron type bike. So I just need to sell my current bike for £1.5k ish and whack the rest on tick for a few years.

Can’t get my head over spending £4K on a bike but I’m going to need do just that soon!

Have to say I’m planning on getting an e bike for the same reasons as the OP, but with one added extra – I rode one for 4 mins and fell in love.

I ride once a month at best, and I’m too busy to get out on the road bike much more often, my riding mates are generally out a few times a week, they skin me up hill and it’s soul destroying knowing they’re hanging about for me. I get nothing out of riding up hills, no satisfaction, no pride, just sore legs and sore lungs. Conversely I love smashing down them and generally keep up with the guys no matter how often they ride.

I’m only really looking at Levo SLs at the moment as I don’t want it to be overkill, just the extra boost to keep me alive at the top of the trail. Seems the perfect choice to me.

In fairness, I’ve tried to stay off e bikes as long as I can because I decided I couldn’t afford one but then had a go on a Mate’s Trek and had a blast, I knew then they were the bikes for me!

I’ve bought like this before, sometimes I pay them Extra to sort a box and get a courier,
Sometimes I sort the courier. If they won’t get a bike box there’s not much you can do.

This thread is absolutely pointless, all of the bikes posted look great so it’s not helping anybody…

OP, you need to see if they’ll do the diesel/oil slick blue they did in the early 2000’s because that was great, like a blue with a goldy/yellowy pearl to it, beautiful colour.

I’m paranoid enough selling something I know is perfect never mind selling something that needs work!
If I could do it myself I’d fit the bearings, if it was more of a job I’d probably lost it cheaper than others and only accept cash on collection so the buyer knows what they’re getting and can’t ask for a refund down the line.

That week after posting/couriering something To the new owner is so nerve wracking, awaiting them sending that message to say they love it or hate it. Nail biting!

I’m addition to the above, I don’t really care what people do with what I sell. I tend to sell for 2 reasons (or used to)
1. I’ve bought something to make money on, in this instance I will hold on to it until I get what I want for it (or close) which will in my opinion be a fair price. If someone else can make money on top of that then fair play to them
2. I’ve bought something new and need to get some cash back. This is the only reason I would sell something now, and I will have a minimum I’ll accept having had to justify the new costs to my wife. As long as it sells reasonably quickly I’m happy, and if someone wants to make money then that’s fine too.

I’ve given away many parts before, and I’m sure sometimes I was taken advantage of but it’s not the end of the world.

I used to flip bikes to make cash, or to get better components for me. I’d buy poorly listed or poor condition bikes and make them worth more through appearance so I put the effort in to make the cash, I didn’t just buy and relist. I remember buying a Camber cheaply that had no fork decals, rusty chain and the bars on backwards, all easily sorted and made good money but nobody would have paid much in the original condition. Also used to buy bikes that had something I wanted on them that might have been slightly incongruous to the bike, XTR cranks on a base spec enduro or something, I’d swap the cranks out on the enduro for some deore or whatever I had laying around and sell it for what I paid, boom, free (ish) XTR cranks. I mainly used this as a way to get the bike I wanted but couldn’t afford outright, it worked ok.

I made a max of a few hundred quid a time selling the bikes (most expensive I sold was about £1,800) and some I caught a cold on by making so little that the sellers fees took any profit away, but generally did ok from it, I don’t think I’d bother now as the market seems buoyant and prices have moved on so much that even second hand everything seems too expensive for me to want for myself, never mind to buy and profit on!

I bought an inflatable kayak this week for more than the rrp of when it was new, they have increased in value so much recently that it was still less than the current new price so I didn’t mind buying – almost bought a £40 Lidl one for £100 because that was the going rate too – I don’t mind some enterprising folk making money if they need to. If they’re genuinely that desperate for the cash then who am I to grumble.

It’s basically the service that Chris and Mojo used to build the popularity of Fox in the UK. They’re still the great team they were, just selling and servicing different stuff.

I like mine somewhere in the middle of where Chris Porter has his on his Geometron and where used used to have the nose way up for slalom and BSX in the early 2000’s. Erring on slightly nose down.

Why not send Marino in Peru a message? He can knock up a full sus frame for £450 so should be able to do a front triangle easily enough. Use that as a mule, see how you like it and then when you decide what you’d have preferred to differently (geometry, size, weight of tubes etc) you can go to Matt at 18 and get it done properly.

More expensive in the long run, but every manufacturer goes through prototyping.

Ebay for a few quid. Just type in boost adapters into the search. They worked fine for me, make sure the disc adapters come with long bolts.

To be fair to them I’ve had nothing but good experiences when it comes to Superstar and their customer service, and my only issues with their products are their absolute cheapest products. My last set of wheels were absolutely amazing, and I wish I could have kept them, I’ll still almost certainly buy my next set from them too, but probably go for the V6 hubs and better rims.

Nobody has time to read that PistonHeads thread, it’s a monster!

Funny you should say that Neil, about the end caps… when I got sent the end caps for my front hub after they didn’t come with them I forgot to put grease in it, and it squeaks, and I can’t get it off! :)

I thought it was just me… I’m sure I can do it with some soft grips, but it’s nice to know it’s normal!

I recently bought a set of their V3 “essential” wheels, basically the cheapest 29er wheelset i could get from them.
They arrived with no front adapters and a non-functioning freewheel. Not a good start.
All sorted within a week but the rear isn’t dished properly so it sits to the right, albeit it does run straight.

I bought “pre-order” so maybe when all the parts came they threw them together as quick as they could, no idea, but pretty disappointed. That said, they were £140 and I couldn’t get a rear Hope hub for that so it’s not all bad, rear engagement isn’t great but they do a job at the cheap end of the market. Last set I bought from there were Electra hubs on 27.5 rims and to be honest they were superb, so I wish I just had new rims built on to those.

As a ‘barely ever’ bike ride I figure I’m a good test of this sealant stuff. Well, Stans anyway.
I built my wheels up into a tubeless setup in May 2018, have ridden by bike about 9 times since and when I took the tyres off the other day Stans was still a lovely wet sealant. A few holes had clearly been sealed and the Stans has just gone slightly grey. I used it as extra lube to seal my new tyres on my new rims (new sealant in the tyre, this was just to help it along)
So if you don’t want it to dry out, use Stans with Maxxis tyres.

I haven’t ridden an Enduro since my large 29er 2015 model, but that was horrendously short in reach. If it’s been gradually increasing I’m sure it’s got to the point now where it’s a belter.

My new boost rear wheel has just arrived. The 3mm disc spacer and 2x3mm wheel hub spacers I was using until now are yours for £7.50 posted if you want the easy way out.

I will have when my new wheels turn up, it’s a disc and axle spacer set from eBay which you can have for free (just not yet…) as soon as superstar start building:selling the V3 sale wheels they advertised the other week.

I miss all the fun, I really wanted to see that bike!

@Tomhoward can you link us the photo? A twin chain steel high pivot bike with dual crowns sounds a lot like the new Starling.

Thanks Jameso, I think I saw the weight either on the Evans site or on a review.
I’m really struggling to choose a new bike as I want a roadie, but also like the ability to head off down gravel paths, and the spec is great on the D2.
Might see if Evans bristol have one so I can pop to see it and have a sit on it.

I’m currently trying to buy a road/gravel/adventure/cross bike and to be honest I’m struggling. Because I’ve only ever ridden MTBs I’m convinced I need some comfort and grip, hence the gravel type bike with larger tyres. But I’d also like to do some triathlons so want some narrower tyres.

I’ve just had a look at the arkose D2 but at 11.5kg it’s heaver than I’d hoped for, is much of that in the tyres? If I could lose 1.5kg with some less voluminous tyres for if/when I do a trim I think I could go for it.

@brant i’m looking at something similar and to be honest I’d love a space chicken, but I’m being a cheapass and using cycle2work which means I’m not getting a space chicken.

Would’ve been nice though.

My Dartmoor Primal is a semi-mullet I think.
It’s a 27.5+/29 frame, and I bought some 160mm 29” Pikes for it, but run it with 27.5 wheels and 2.4 tyres. The extra height at the front makes it ride really well (although I’m sure it would ride nicely anyway) and I’m keen to get a 29” wheel on the front at some point to fully commit but funds don’t allow right now. I’ll totally embrace the mullet bike if it works though. That said i’ll Probably buy a pair of 29” wheels when I get the front so might just big wheel it front and rear.

My “it turned up” comment was a bit tongue in cheek to be fair, but I’m still pleased to help them make some profit to deliver some awesome bikes. No doubt they’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way but I like their intentions (or intentions as I see them) and I hope they succeed.

Bought a Sick Bike’s tee shirt the other day and it turned up which was nice, I’m happy to support them and if the few quid they made from my purchase helps them deliver other items then I’m happy to be of service.

My forum username is based on a comment someone once made about my on-One The Gimp in about 2000, and as this bike has basically nothing to do with The Gimp (I.e. the Gimp was a jump bike) I don’t think it should have the name of Gimp at all.
But I’m nostalgic like that.

I think the name needs to be a northern Double Entendre like their best names are. Reet Ard was one of my favourites.

My company also offer a similar bonus payment for healthy living purposes, but ours isn’t limited (well, someone once tried to claim for samurai swords but that was rejected)
So I got some new shorts and a jacket from CRC and some XT SPDs and some 5:10 clip shoes. They’ve transformed my riding.
Also, we do have Bupa so I could have got a jump bike if I wanted ;)

On the subject of car sizes, I took this photo a few weeks ago to show how small a family car used to be compared to modern cars.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BugErYFlrzA/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=lnodikn3i8xw

The stack of frames and photo of Cnc dropouts is embedded in the mailshot that came out the other day.
I read it that they were at the manufacturer though so still not particularly close to being delivered, they’renot even painted.