TBH Amazon returns is so good I’d be tempted to get a couple and try it. If no good return them.

Genius idea! Nice hi-fi in the lounge two of the bigger Amazon speakers linked up to the downstairs system. Try it all out for size and sound. Works – thumbs up! Doesn’t work – free return and money back after you post it.

That’s sealed it for me – cheers everybody.

One issue with this idea is you’ll have half Amazon Echo and half Sonos. You won’t be able to join the lounge and rest of the house as a group and play sync’d music everywhere.

Would it work with a full Amazon set up? Amazon Dot hardlined into the separates amp, then a couple of Amazon echos in the other room.

Can you even string Amazon devices together in sync

Wow some £5grand solutions listed here! Bit much.

Thinking of just putting the amazon dot in the lounge connected to my separates amp and floor standers and just buy a pair of Sonos ones for the kitchen/dinning room side of the stub wall.

On my 2nd VW Caddy Maxi life, 1st was 08 plate 140bhp 2.0l. Owned it for 8 years with nothing other than wear and tear items, although with all the power in the front wheels the tyre life isn’t great. Could not fault it. Always run as a 5 seater, with the rear two just stored in the garage. Flip one seat forward and you get 2 bikes in whole, with the boot still practically empty and still a 4 seater. Got 40mpg on a run. Sold as 40mpg was seeming low compared to big estates.
Now bought a brand new (good discount) top of the range 150bhp 2.0l Euro 6. So much better in the latest model. Much more car like ride, more power, much better fuel consumption regular 50+ on a tank, 55+ if all motorway. Better plastics and finish and all mod cons, heated seats, sat nav, rear camera parking etc. Equivalent spec in a T6 was £12k more expensive. Won’t be changing it any time soon.

Never done any serious music other my separate system.
But most of the Sonos speakers look to be mono rather than stereo, or does that not seem to matter these days?

I presumed my amazon dot would mean that I wouldn’t really need to use the apps as it would integrate into the system??

What do we think about 3M Command™ Large Black Picture Hanging Strips?

The large comes with 4 strips which say will hold 7.2kg

Hmm…not to keen on taking a air chisel to my kitchen!

I will have a look at the Sanojtape – cheers

Ivan – what forks are they? Ti?

How do they ride, look chunky legs but Ti forks have a rep for being too flexy

Suggest giving Steve Olsen an email. I considered one a few years ago and he was very helpful. He does a more ‘normal’ looking one now if the elevated chainstays are not you’re thing ( built by Carbon Wasp I think)

The major benefit of the Olsen over 18bikes is that pinion bikes are not that light. But Olsen frame weighs 1.2kg vs a 18bikes frame will weigh 2.6kg and that’s before you add in the pinion. A steel pinion bike would be a weighty one

If you want a good knife. Buy one good one rather than a few and a great place to start is a santoku and maybe compliment with a nakiri or a paring knife.

But buy a carbon steel knife rather than a stainless knife. Stainless is good for one thing – not rusting – and not much else esp holding an edge. Once a high carbon steel has a nice patina they are very easy to look after. Either buy one already forced, or force your own patina (wrap the knife blade in toilet paper and vinegar then tin foil for an hour or so) then all you have to do is dry the knife and it won’t rust.

Look for o1 tool steel as a minimum and you’ll have a knife that holds a super edge and minimum fuss. Damascus looks pretty but doesn’t bring anything to the party bar looks and they are more upkeep.

Solarider – dropped you a DM

Tdog – i’m not quite as positive about the warranty/crash replacement and its the problem with a small company. Rust have been fantastic to deal with and talk to.

I think its super strong and wont be an issue for many many years and i wont worry after a crash like i would with carbon. But they have been out of stock for a long long time. So if you did need a crash replacement, you couldn’t have one as they are not in stock. They aren’t selling many products at the moment, so will they be around in 10 years to honour a warranty?

Again it doesnt really bother me as the product is superb, but its not the same kind of back up as you’d get from a big manafacturer

I have a pair of flat Tortus Ti bars aswell, they are far more flexy than the Rust, they are on my wifes bike now. Too much so when pushing hard into corners. I find the Rust bar the perfect compromise, with all factors, esp. longevity (from memory the Rust bars were put through double the reps on the ISO/CEN tests and still past with flying colours) but more for the fact that if i crash i dont worry about the Ti bars, while with carbon once scratched i never trusted them fully.

I came from Raceface aluminium then sixc carbon bars, before that Easton ali and carbon when bars were narrow.

Yes – Rust bars are the best i’ve ever had. Comfy, light and strong. Extra comfy for me as i run Revgrips on the hardtail as well.

From memory dont hold your breath them coming back in stock, i’m sure there were issues with the factory which led to a big redesign needed or change in factory. Like i say dont quote me but they have not been in stock for a long time.

Depends on the area you live, i have two big sycamores in my garden both have TPOs on them.

Pain in the backside as one is clearly a self-set tree as its younger than the main one and very close so bends out as the tree is fighting for light. So ideally i’d like to take the smaller one out, to give the bigger one more room. TPO so no chance – as they are both technically ‘healthy’

All the big trees in my area have TPOs irrelevant of species

The Fortitude Race is a lot lighter than the Longitude. Both those bikes listed are heavy alfine fortitude and a 2×10 (or maybe even 3×10) geared bike. I picked up a Longitude frmae at the time i had my Fortitude Race built up at the time much heavier esp. as i had light wheels on. But the Fortitude’s main issue was rear tire clearance i struggled in the mud with some 2.2s

No fused about sliding drop out as they make light frames heavy adding about 400g for paragons

Genesis seem to have it correct then Jameso left and they switched from Reynolds tubing to heavier gauge cheaper Cromo

Dont mind the look of the Stooge but again they are sooo heavy unless you buy Ti

Salsa El Mariachi- great bike.Again better before the sliding dropouts. But the problem with these older bikes are the reach and stack measurement are really short (even the fortitude) when you are used to a long modern trail bike. I’d have to buy a XXL in an old frame to get the appropriate reach on a modern large frame.

What the world needs is an updated Genesis Fortitude. A dedicated lightweight steel rigid 29er. The longitude and tarn are really tubby and overbuilt both around 2.6-3.0kg for a large frame only – i’d like 2.2kg max which is entirely possible even with ISO/CEN regs

The closest you can probably get is the Kona Unit X but its heavy due to cheaper Reynolds tubing.

An updated Genesis Fortitude built around 29×2.6 tyres, longer reach and higher stack for a 30/40mm stem, but lightweight and springy tubing 853 would be ideal, or a nice Tange prestige with plenty of braze on bosses. Would be fab, but anything like that is custom built only at the moment

Any new additions? Photos and what kind of weights are people getting

Thinking about ordering a short travel twist in the current lockdown offer

Thanks – I am presuming that the CSUs are different lengths – 20mm different length i think. With the 27.5 CSU being shorter

The 29er a-t-c is 20mm different for the same travel fork, i think previously that the CSUs were the same (bar offset) but in boost Pikes that changed.

Its the only way that they can use the same airspring for the same travel in a 27.5 fork as in a 29er fork (previously the same air spring gave different travel depending on wheel size).

Pike max out at 160mm in both wheel sizes, but i’m planning on using the re-legged changed fork at 140mm, so even if the 27.5 CSU is 20mm shorter than the 29er CSU, i’ll still end up with the same amount of bushing overlap. So they ‘should’ be fully useable and safe. I think if i intended to use the fork at 160mm with the 27.5 CSU i’d end up with too little bushing overlap. Which is not a good idea.

I’ve asked the question about the bushing being included to the german website. But looking at the exploded diagram in the SRAM parts manual the bushing is not listed as a separate item only the seals and foam rings are.

Two key items are missing from the camera for me.

Despite having the super fast and modern A13 chip, the phone is only using that chip for HDR and portrait mode. Its missing the more advanced use of the chip for:

– Deep fusion
– Night sight/mode

Even though it should have the processing power for both, they have been omitted

Anybody else done this or have any more info?

This thread seems to suggest it works but you loose 20mm of travel if swapping to 29er legs. But I think the thread is old enough that they are talking about A1 Pikes.

https://forums.mtbr.com/shocks-suspension/swapping-650b-uppers-29er-lowers-1065589.html

But that was the case with A1-A2 Pikes as you used 160mm 27.5 airshaft gave you 140mm in a 29er fork using the same airshaft. B1 forks use the same airshaft regardless of wheel size

Same 35mm stanchions.

I’d be running them at 140mm so loads of overlap compared to them at 160mm. The same air spring which sets travel is used in both.

Bigdaddy – we need that image to post!!
That sounds amazing and very tempted to buy another Porsche 911 kit to make this.

You bought the $15 instructions I presume? I have never fancied putting my details into that website but its a Stratos

Bugger! I was going to buy a UCS millennium falcon. But China can only ship up to 10kg to Europe so that rules it out as the falcon is 17kg!

So are we saying that if you buy the 30mm bearing separately:

https://www.bike24.com/p2283482.html

Then they will fit straight into a Hope 30mm Bottom Bracket.

Might be a good investment in the future

Shiny CK Mango – is the one. Even looking on the American websites i cant find a Salsa 35mm lip-lock

Never though about Tune

Just after a 34.9 seat collar really. I’d have gone Salsa lip lock but but can’t find an orange one, 5 years ago would have been no probs, that’s why I thought maybe Wolf Tooth but maybe not

A very nice email back from Cane Creek answering the questions i asked about ‘only 1 year warranty’. But basically Cane Creek dont know how long the bearing will last or if they will actually be better. They are taking an educated guess based on the application of the technology in a different industry. A ‘lifetime’ warranty is baked into the overall price to pay for the replacement of any that fail – which makes sense.

Even though Hope BBs have skyrocketed in price over the last few years, i still think that I will buy Hope and as the bearings are user replaceable ‘if’ the technology works buy a pair of these SKF solid bearing in a couple of years when the Hope ones die

In the case of our BB’s, there are a few variables that we don’t immediately have answers for. We pulled this technology from another market, specifically the food industry. Nobody has ever done this before for bicycles, and so we don’t know for certain what long term failure rates will be. The cost of production is quite a bit higher than a typical high precision stainless steel bearing. We have pretty high expectations for the long term viability of these bearings – they’re rated for pressure washing, and there is physically no space for contaminants to make their way in, which are the primary cause of worn or destroyed bearings. We believe they’re the nicest bearing for BB’s out there right now, and we have high expectations that they will work better than any other bearings out there. But at the moment, they don’t have the decades of testing behind them to verify long term fatigue rates like high precision stainless steel bearings do, and so we don’t know with certainty what long term failure and fatigue rates will look like, so increasing the price and baking that guarantee into the price doesn’t make a ton of sense at this juncture in time.

I would be surprised if we don’t ultimately increase their prices and include a lifetime guarantee after we’ve had a few more years to let the technology mature, reach more bikes and riders and get a better sense of fatigue rates, but for the moment, we’re just providing what we believe is the best bearing on the market.

But Cane Creek warranty eeWings for 10 years and some of their headsets (which obviously contain bearings) for lifetime warranty. Chris King products are all lifetime warranties.

So Cane Creek are not adverse from offering long warranties on certain products but not on a bottom bracket which to quote:

provides unmatched bearing performance and reliability.

Pair our eeWings titanium crankset and Hellbender Neo bottom bracket, and a rider will experience the most robust crankset/bottom bracket combination in cycling history.

I’ve emailed Cane Creek to ask why

Did anybody try these?

Looking at a new Bottom Bracket and now Hope BBs have a retail of £90 it’s not much more for a Cane Creek BB using these bearings.

Thing is if Cane Creek think that they are so good why do they only have a 1 year guarantee for use

Cool will try

.

Just messaged you Hatter

Hatter – are you selling a 20.5 Race frame and forks? I so give us a shout if your buyer falls through

I killed a 2.3 eliminator grid on its first ride. Hit a rock and got a big hole plus a cut at the bead I couldn’t fix.

I’ve had no such problems with butchers and purgatorys

I did exactly the same but with the 2.6. Ran previously a 2.6 butcher on the same trails for a year with no issues.

Plus the eliminator is much smaller (both in width and volume)than the equivalent butcher which measures up a true 2.6 on 35mm rims. I’m firmly back on the butchers on the rear. Just grid with a tyre insert, although I do have a black diamond version I’m yet to try it, but the extra heft it will prob be without the insert.

With the shadowfoam, I can understand the cutting out round the tools, but how do you cut the bottom out nicely for large items like the wera hexkeys? Also what’s stopping you cutting all the way through the 30mm sheet?

How many places/tickets are available?

.

Loads of Li-ion heated gloves out there, pretty much guaranteed to stop you getting cold fingers…

But just like the shoe footbeds they are designed for skiing and not getting shit up and filthy in 4 hours pouring down Peak District mtb rides unfortunately.

They all seem designed for ‘dry cold’not UK wet through cold