Ran my rigid Inbred (440mm fork) as a 69er for quite some time and it was good however the steering had a slight tendancy to feel a little floppy, probably the fork needed a little more offset (think the Hummingbird ones were like that).

It is now a 67.5er with a 2.5 WT Minion up front and is much better than it was as a 69er and I prefer it to when it was a rigid 26.

tbh I wouldn’t mess about with spray cans when you can get a decent powdercoat for about 40 sheets especially on an mtb

I have a foolproof solution to problems like this:

1. Go and have a look at your bike.

2. Imagine it painted in your favourite colours.

3. Choose one of those.

4. No brown.

5. Definitely no brown.

Hmmm

I had a brown Kona Dawg

I had a Tifosi road bike I had powder coated chocolate brown (still got the frame)

I have a vinatge Mercian I had painted Vauxhall Hazel Brown, quite metallic and gold, it’s awesome

I like brown

Makes sense, sounds good

Any hints on the bull moose specs ?

I used to have laverda jota bars on a moto morini back in the 99s why can’t someone make a bicycle version so we can adjust away

Was very tempted to try some as I wonder if I didn’t give the loops I had long enough before deciding they weren’t for me.

Think I am going to hold out for the bull moose revival though. About 20 deg sweep, 700mm wide and 70-80 mm stem and 20 mm rise please :)

@cokie maybe this mk4 pre sale will bring prices down ;)

450 is a tempting bargain though

Mk4 is tempting because I deserve a new bike this year…could be tempted by a mk1 or 2 frameset if anyone was planning to upgrade

Nw ring with 10 speed chain , job done

I would quite like a 40t rear but don’t think they come in 9sp sadly.

Sunrace make them , have one on my cx (1x) and it shifts grand

That beargrease on Merlin…

According to Salsa you want to be 175cm for a medium, I’m only about 173.5ish, so it’d be too big yeah…though it does come with a 70mm stem which is quite long nowdays? Not sure if I want talking in or out of it.

Most disappointing thread, expected something monstrous

@lego

they are just on one 26” chromo forks , my brother brazed in anything cage mounts for me as this is my bike packing bike.

Nice work OP!

This is my 26″ 853 inbred with midge bars , gevenalle shifters and 27.5. 2.8 front

unnamed1 by Shawn McFarlane[/url], on Flickr

I’ve been vegan for nearly 7 years however I’ve been an awkward dick basically since birth…I also don’t have a TV, just thought I should mention that to ;)

I have a modern Sturmey Archer 5 speed hub on a road bike, for just general riding around it’s really nice, simple and reliable with a good (256%) range.

Rod brakes only ????!

I find midges comfy on drops and hoods.  Have them on 2 bikes set up basically the same. I love them and hate standard drops but everyone is different.  They really need a longer drop section even if you don’t have massive hands so I fitted control tech extensions.

Doesn’t sound like you’ve even ridden on them yet?

unnamed by Shawn McFarlane[/url], on Flickr

Basically shes flippin crap, a highly strung paranoid Romanian rescue dog that only likes the wife and no one will look after her

Just for balance we have a 1 year old Romanian rescue and she is great, loves everyone.  Really well adjusted wee dog.

Only things I’d say is neither you nor your wife should be scolding her or raising your voice to her. Try rewarding good behaviour and ignoring unwanted behaviour instead.

Also, don’t force her to interact with you if she chooses not to. I mean when you come home first, don’t even look at her, talk to her, nothing, wait till she comes to you on her own terms.

This.

Try some very gentle positive reinforcment based training with her to build trust.

It’s also possible your username is just freaking her out ;)

I’m still waiting for someone to suggest a nice, rideable 100mile gravel / bikepacking loop in Dumfries & Galloway

I have a 300 mile route (not all D&G) I’ll share once I’ve had a chance to ride it over a few days rather than just in sections.

Though pouring over maps yerself is half the fun of course

I had flipped Mary bars taped up for a while to use mtb brakes and shifters was actually very comfy.  Or look at something like SOMA sparrow.

Now have Midge bars and road levers as I really like cruising on the hoods.

Either way having a decent length of fork steerer is half the battle to getting it set up to be ridable.

My CX bike is 1×9 (11-40), NW ring, 10 speed chain, normal road mech and all works fine.

My road bike is 120mm oln so I stuck in a modern 5 speed sturmey archer, it’s excellent, nice wide spread of gears

“Your judgment needs fixing lest you get what you wished for. May i suggest you listen to Jeremy vine, or worse still, feltz standing in for vine.”

Oh god yeah good point!

Great news!

Sara Cox please…or Scot Mills…or save Simon Mayo from that terrible Simon and Jo show and move him to the morning

So long as it’s not Lisa Tarbuck or Elaine Page I don’t see how anything can be worse than Evans

Tofurky Italian Style Sausages (250g)

@mechanicaldope easy to get the drops longer I have these on 2 sets of midge bars which also had very short drops.  Finished off with rubber velox plugs.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Controltech-Terminator-AC-62-AL6061-Bike-Bicycle-23-8mm-Handlebar-Bar-End-Plugs-/201490574975

Gear changing on flared is fine for me though I have gevenalle shifters not tried shimano

…As ugly as this thing is (no offence) it gives me inspiration to do something along these lines with my 456 Summer Season half-bike that’s hanging up in the shed (just need forks/front wheel and stem i think) instead.

A few Q’s for those who have made their own bike like the above…

Can you run normal mtb brakes levers with bars like that?

haha none taken !  It’s actually great fun and perfect bikepacking bike for me

that there above has a 27.5 2.8 upfront rather than a 26, was a 29 upfront for a while for extra goofy points

if you want to use normal mtb levers then a pair of mary bars upside down is pretty comfy, yes I did this for a while, same bike years ago with 26″ front wheel…or look at soma sparrow bars they will take mtb levers

unless it’s a 16″ summer season frame then you might be able to tempt me with it ;)

DSC02959 by Shawn McFarlane[/url], on Flickr

Yeah the hyper gravel name is silly.  Monstercross it is to those of us already there.

unnamed1 by Shawn McFarlane[/url], on Flickr

Looks great…but then I ride a drop bar MTB monstercross thing or a CX anyway depending on terrain.

“where the **** do these endless miles of actual gravel exist?”

I have a 300 mile route that is 90% gravel right near me.  I live in the UK.

I like riding gravel routes, endless views, peace and quiet, trees.  Suits me just fine for most of my bikepacking to.

My fulcrum racing sport freehub bearings and wheel bearings died so fast I managed to warranty them for a refund.  Shame as have had more expensive fulcrums that were good.

Any major purchase like a frame or something yeah I’d tell her.  Bits and bobs nah coz she wouldn’t care.  I think she’d probably be a bit horrified at the cost of tyres.  In fairness though she has 2 horses…

Go to Eriskay, walk up Ben Scrien.  There are a herd of Eriskay ponies that live wild up there during the summer months.  We spent a week there in a cottage and loved it.

I still have an ancient set (350 lumens?) though really only used as a headtorch now for dog walking, feeding the horses in winter and hill running.

Mine is the only one of those frames that I know of that’s been cured of the problem

Mine has been fixed to, still in regular use.  Totally cured any problem.

DSC02700 by Shawn McFarlane[/url], on Flickr

our dog used to go mental at the neighbours. especially when they put their bins out. jeez. we even took the dog round and got her used to them – they would call over the fence to try and settle her. didnt work. bark collar worked a treat

Reactive dogs are coming from a place of stress or fear.  Something about your neighbour putting the bins out is causing her to react.  By controlloing the effect with a bark collar (positive punishment) your dog is probably now in a state of learned helplessness.  Probably still hates the neighbour putting the bin out.

I’ve got a super reactive rescue dog he would go mental at runners, cyclists, other dogs, jeeps, lorrys, cars with trailers, you name it.  Months of very consistant counter conditioning are starting to make a massive difference to him. He’s now like “Oh a car with a trailer I’m not scared of them”.  If I’d just tried to control his barking at things with a collar he’d still be panicing inside but be in state of learned helplessness because of fearing the punishing effect of the collar. He’s my best mate, I want to help him not just control him. He’s a work in progress but having a reactive dog has taught me more in a year than 25 years of having quite laid back dogs.

Google BF Skinner, operant conditioning, classical conditioning and counter conditioning

Anti bark collars are a positive punishment form of operant conditioning I wouldn’t go down that route.  Try and treat the cause not the effect.

Get a second dog?  That will either cure it or make it twice as bad ;) Not a fan of lone dogs really.

It’s just like touring but don’t tell anyone

Bez +1

my inbred works because height wise I am between 16 an 18 but had a 16 frame and I had enough steerer for 40mm spacers

How about a pic of the  kona? Not much can’t be overcome with a silly stem and most of the suggestions above won’t be lighter