Bluto….good call. From what I understand they seem to work on the principle of…keep it simple…less to go wrong…less maintenance required.

Thanks for all the feedback

One final question…and it’s a stupid one but hey ho…!

In comparison to bouncy forks, have you found the rigid forks disappointingly slower on the fast down hill bits?

I’m hoping that whilst they’re obviously going to be a bit slower, it’s a little scarier / better fun etc etc!

Bump for the evening crowd

Cheers Steve.

If it was the Surly Krampus fork then, according to the Surly website, it would have been their 100mm suspension corrected fork or 483mm in old money.

Sounds like my saw usage is more or less identical to what you describe.

Stihl MS 390 here. Bought it second hand three years ago for £250 inc new trousers / gloves / boots and hat from a pal who works for the FC so it saw (pardon the pun) a fair amount of use before I got it.

I’ve not done much in terms of maintenance other than clean the filters and give everything a good clean at the end of the fire wood season. Starts easily and runs smoothly with no excessive vibration. I can use it for 6+hr a day without any discomfort in my hands. There are lighter saws out there but I’m happy with mine.

The ROS9 has 142 dropouts so that rules out the Rohly

Oh and I wouldn’t die in a ditch over steel so alu / carbon / Ti are all up for grabs.

In all my own searching I’m coming to the conclusion that ‘my’ ideal frame doesnie exisit so it’s a custom jobby 🙁 Then again that means I can get some internal cable routing sorted out.

Any further options?

Fair point Northwind. I was speaking from my heart and not my head. My answer is still No!

I have to admit it spoke volumes to me last night watching the WW1 service in Westminster when the 4 home nation soldiers stood guard around the grave to the unnamed soldier. We all fought together and stood together united against adversity.

Yes, the world has changed and yes it does kind of bug me that the SE ‘appears’ to sometimes only consider it self but I’m a no…better together for muggins here. There…I’ve said it…

Thus far this debate is only confirming my fears that it’s just a big food fight with all the dummies getting spat out of the pram.

Oh well…I guess I’m in the minority again!

There’s a market for a self cleaning chamois!

Here in sunny Glasgow expect to pay £75 per BB for softwood and up to £100 for hard wood.

This is my second year of buying 60 x 3m lengths of spruce. they were felled maybe 18 months ago so everything is circa 20% at the moment. They vary in size but I can man-handle them myself onto the saw horse…just! I usually team up with a pal to harvest / load / unload them all. I cross cut them all @ 200mm and then chop then on our wee hydraulic chopper thingy.

Total cost including hire of trailer is £75 per year + travel /saw petrol & my time. I’ve calculated I’ll get circa 10.5m3 from that lot which ‘should’ do us through the winter if it’s not too cold. I recon from start to finish it takes 35ish man hours to harvest / cross cut / chop and stack. If I were to buy this lot pre chopped / dried then I’d expect to pay between £650 – £750 + maybe 3-4hrs stacking time.

We light our 5kw stove mid afternoon most days as its the primary source of heating in the evenings so it gets a fair amount of usage.

2014 firewood. 60x3m lengths by Rosscopeco[/url], on Flickr

Just back myself from the event. Fantastic atmosphere. We progressively worked our way around 75% of the circuit and trust me…all these guys & gals were horsing along.

Oh, and Batty is even nicer in real life 😀

Duffer: I’ve had the original dropouts replaced with Paragon swinging dropouts so the clearance ‘hopefully’ shouldn’t be an issue. My chainstay length will obviously increase but it may be worth it!

Agreed re trying it on the front first…however the benefits in terms of additional grip and cushioning appeal.

Did the Skiddaw loop a week today with my 13 year old son. It did involve a little ‘gentle persuasion’ as It’s a stiff climb (we walked for 15mins or so) but the way down soon makes up for it and he was high as a kite for the rest of the day. Not too tecky, depending on what you mean by tecky.

Mmmmm…..why indeed. Probably because I saw some marketing dude mincing on about how good they were and I’ve taken the bait.

I’ll take your advice and get cracking with a Toolstation special. I suppose if a simple ‘up periscope’ solution is good enough for the majority of those who do it everyday then it’s good enough for muggins here.

Cheers for all the advise…my favourite is definitely the chicken solution!

He quoted £90 originally but I got him down to £75. He said if I got it done 2 times a year he’d drop it to £60 a go.

Trail rat: can you use a drill with the standard ridding poles. I’ve read elsewhere that they can unwind if you’re not careful?

I’ve used the Trangia gas conversion kit for 15+ years with my Trangia pots….they’re still going strong.

Linky to their next outing. [/url]

If that doesn’t suit, I’d be happy to show you some local Mugdock routes one evening if it works for you?

Ahwiles:

Agreed until I compared my old flatbar to the feegle earlier tonight and it’s actually a fraction forward from the flatbar so it’s not that!

Rickon:

Again, I totally agree but I swear this is what happened. My only thought was that my weight is more centred on the whole bike and it just seems to work better as an overall package.

Anyway, I’ve dropped my Rebas back to 100mm from 110mm so we’ll see how that goes.

Re standing up more often….fair shout I suppose. I’m just being picky and always looking for the perfect set up.

sugru

It’s a personal thing. The numbers are irrelevant. What matters is that you can experiment and more importantly, replicate your favourite settings.

+1

I ride a 29er hard tail and I’m 85kg. I’ve one of those digital gauges too but it’s more a reference thing. I’ve just rebuild my back wheel with some wide P35’s rims running tubeless with a 2.25 Rocket Ron so I’m testing how low I can go without the tyre deforming and damaging the rim. At the beginning of each ride I let out 2psi and my digital gauge says it’s now at 22 but I recon I’ve another few psi to loose before I start touching cloth on the rockiest trails around here.

There’s a hard techy climb with 2 or 3 very large square edge rocks that I use as my ‘test’ ground. If I can clean that line without the tyre collapsing and deforming too much or the rim banging the rock then I know it’s all good for everything else.

A good battery drill is like a third hand. Anything from the DeWalt 18v range is good and will last for years. I bought a 18v set 8 years ago that also came with a hammer drill, rip saw, jigsaw etc and it’s still going strong after 2 house refurbs and hundreds of these little faffy jobs you mention.

If you can afford Festool then they are the cream of the crop.

Oh, I love this thread…I just can’t stop laughing at gonzy’ bike and punch bag ones!

Early morning rider here although I struggle with anything before 05:30.

Food wise, I’m out for 2hr max for these morning rides so a big glass of milk before I go and a flap jack / fruit & nut bar in the pocket if I get the shakes halfway through (like this morning although that might have been too much red wine last night!)

Some good life experience advise above.

The only thing I’d add: Remember the old saying…”Do something everyday that scares you.” When I feel the mojo dying (for anything) I find that going to that bit of trail that scares me works wonders for re-lighting the fire.

This is for the rear of my modified Solaris (swinging dropouts), I’ll stick with the crest on the front. I’m a little concerned it’ll be tight. I’m currently running 2.25 Rocket Ron’s with a 435mm stay length so there should be some wriggle room but I may have to lengthen the chain stay if it goes pear shaped.

Looking forward to all the extra traction these rims will give me!!!!

Cheers wwaswas, that’s what I was thinking anyway if nothing else came up.

How to do you find the blunts?

Profi dry lube for the last 8 years, all year round. It’s from some boffins over in Germany and I think it’s rather splendid.

I’m out on average 3 times a week doing circa 50miles and 1 can does me the whole year. I usually give the chain a quick squirt after I’ve hosed it / dried it post ride.

How much wear? 😯

Not to highjack the thread but I had no idea the latest offerings wore out that quickly and cost so much to replace. I’ve been running a Rohloff for years and with the latest 1 x 11 offerings I have to admit I’ve thought about going back to a traditional set up on the account of saving a little weight but…..I’ll be sticking with my rolly!

bedmaker – Member
Surely nobody seriously expects to get a days work of someone skilled for £100?

For a laugh, I once tried to work out what it would cost to insure myself to a similar level as my wife (a nurse) for time off work due to sickness/accidents.

It is impossible, but to even get near it you’d need to charge around a squillion punds a day to cover the premium, which you still need to pay in the event of a claim

I think £200/day is an absolute minimum, unless work is very slack or as mentioned above, it involves months of steady work.

+1

What’s the old quote…if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

This is a timely thread for me…and apologies if this is a bit of a highjack but IMO it’s on a similar topic.

For The Record…I went through the ‘usual’ 4 year electricians apprenticeship and ended up with a HND in Elec Eng but more or less stopped being trained after I’d finished. It was my own interests that led me to pursue other academic qualifications and I went to Uni after serving my time and ended up with a fist full of qualifications including a Degree and a Masters.

I’m now a self employed Construction / Project Manager working towards ensuring projects (both residential & commercial) are suitably designed / in budget / tendered and then built properly.

So…I’ve been doing a bit of academic reading about the trade market over in Scandinavia / Germany / Switzerland, specifically regarding the construction methods of Passive Housing (which would appear to be the standard type of build of house over yonder). The current trend in our building regulations continues to push the quality of buildings in the UK higher and higher (a great thing) and I’ve been struck by a few observations.

Broadly speaking and in comparison to the academic investment our country is currently engaged in the construction trades have largely been left behind. Through no fault of their own many trades don’t appear to have many of the necessary skills to build the types of buildings that are coming our way through the betterment of the Building regulations.

Conversely, the trades over yonder go through a far more rigorous training program which continues beyond their apprenticeship. I’m led to believe that they can in many spheres of society enjoy a similar social status as other ‘professionals’. Does that mean they get better paid?

I work with lots of trades every day and not surprisingly there are some good ones and some not so good ones. IME the good ones are worth far more and I happily pay them more for their services.

How do we put a value on a job / profession / trade? Is it their professionalism, their qualifications, their patter, our perceptions about how much they know, our perceptions on the complexity of their jobs, how hard they work?

If we trained and invested in our trades more would we be happy to pay them more?

IME: I did a couple of years of early morning commutes (12 – 16miles) on coffee / empty tum and then had a ‘late’ breakfast of porridge. Did I loose more weight than the tried and tested routes of lowering my ‘normal’ food intake? I honestly can’t say. I certainly had consistent weight lose but I was also careful of what I ate at normal meal times.

Did my cycling stamina improve? Again, I’m struggling to really justify this approach against proper training regimes. I did the WHW whilst doing the above and it was certainly wasn’t a breeze. In fairness, i struggled time wise to get many ‘long’ training rides in, 75% of my training was very much concentrated on 1 – 3 hr stints.

I read this interesting article and it seems to suggest the majority of us cyclist ‘overeat’ when on the bike. I can vouch for that. On one of my few long (8hrs) WHW training rides I stopped and ate half a soreen loaf in one sitting…I very nearly puked within an hour and the rest of ride was a HUGE struggle as my tum stopped accepting anything…including plain water. I later discovered that whilst soreen loaf is a great thing to eat it’s stuffed with carbs and my tum probably just gave up trying to digest anything. I was a total mess by the end…Mrs Rossco wasn’t amused!

I’m now ‘training’ for a 10ish hour ride on the Great Glen Way and I’ve decided to follow the British cycling recommendations re eating / drinking 60-70g of carbs every hour at a steady cycling pace. I’m out maybe 3 times a week doing 2 shortish slots at a medium to high pace (2.5hr), and 1 long stint at a medium pace. I try to ‘up’ my time on the bike by 1 hour each week. A good handful of wine gums / nuts / fig rolls / small chunks of snickers works in the main for me. So far so good….If I start getting peckish, 1/2 a peanut / jam sandwich and a few gulps of milk hit the spot every time.

Just go out and ride and don’t think too much about it!

Another DE shaving convert here…for maybe 5 or 6 years. I don’t think anything could persuade me to go back to Mach 3 etc.

Having a wee think I’ve dabbled with the following:

Merkur 34c, 37c slant, future, vision
Gillette 1944 vintage
Muhle R89
Parker 29L
and just about every blade / soap on the market. Feathers & proraso white being my go to blades / soap.

However…..the revolution in my bathroom is without doubt SE shaving!

I took the plunge 3 months ago and bought a SH Cobra Classic. Oh my! It’s a small fortune and the blades are dearer too but I get an easy 7 days out of each blade. IME it’s soooo much better than DE shaving. Much much closer, a way smoother shave with (to date) not one nick and ZERO irritation. I’ve been using after shave balm for years but with this beauty I just rinse with cold water and that’s it.

I have found my nirvana!

Spotify.

Keeps me blissfully unaware of the mayhem when the kids get home from school.

Probably the only down side to working from home…. 🙂

I’m on my 3rd Keela smock over the last 12 years. I’ve no doubt there are more breathable jackets out there but for the cost I can’t complain. 80% of my trails are through fairly dense forestry, things get snagged and ripped on a frequent basis. If I went for a more expensive jacket I’d be greeting but the end of my first outing.

I’m struggling to compare their waterproofness against the rest. If it’s hosing down water inevitably gets in one way or the other. Over all, it keeps me warm and dry when it needs to.

I’ve just had a butchers at their site and sadly, I can’t see the smock I’ve got. The Stashaway Pro looks almost identical other than it having a full length zip.

FTR, I’ve also got a Falkland and Munro jacket for fishing / climbing and they’ve never let me down. IME the big difference in their extreme jackets being they don’t ‘wet out’ when the heavens properly open.

I’m not sure if you’ve read some of their buff re the effectiveness of gore tex when it’s cold and damp outside compared to their offerings…makes for some interesting reading.

Its supposed to be hosing down here in Glasgow…again. It’ll be another indoors activity weekend then…

Hope you all get sun burnt 😆

We had a 40m2 area of the back garden astro’d several years ago and it one of the best things we’ve done in terms of having an ‘all season’ patch for the kids. You’ll see that we added a small extension on, I didn’t manage to get the same stuff but hey ho, it works for us.

Here in sunny Glasgow, and especially where we live, the ground is 80% clay so everything stays soaked for 9 months of the year…and then some.

Regardless of the weather: rain, snow & sun it requires no more cutting, feeding etc which translates as ‘less time swearing at the lawnmower and more time doing other enjoyable stuff’. All it needs is a wee brush every now and then. I’ve even had the hoover out on it!

For the record, I never put any sand down on it and it stays down fine, regardless of what the kids do. The trick is making sure the sub base if well compacted. use sharp sand and not builders sand. The latter won’t compact and stays fluid like.

It’s also great fun on a sunny day as the kids squirt some fairy liquid on it with a wee touch of water and they then use the slid to skid along for miles…or until they hit the fence at the bottom!

Oh, and no more mud being dragged into the house by the little darlings…arguably one of the best ‘marriage’ aids around!

Untitled by Rosscopeco[/url], on Flickr

Untitled by Rosscopeco[/url], on Flickr

OK, not really anything whilst our early riding….must try harder.

Was out VERY early for a spot of shooting on a VERY remote grouse moor. There was maybe 7 or 8 of us all stung out in a line walking through the heather and out of no where 2 x fell runners bob along right across our line. We were all still a wee bit tipsy from the night before so it’s all a bit hazy but I can remember we were all rather lost for words…so we drank a little more Grouse!

Whilst fishing on a local loch a RAF chinook helicopter appeared on the horizon. I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be cool if I caught a fish just now…and hey presto a fish complied. It eventually hovered within maybe 20m from where I was fishing and close enough to the ground for the chap in the back to jump easily to the ground. They eventually disappeared leaving me thinking…did that really just happen? I later found out the local RAF officers fish there fairly often and they are usually buzzed at every opportunity by their colleagues.

Let’s see what it would be like against the CBR1000 on a circuit or country lanes. The volvo wouldn’t see the bikes arse for dust.

Interesting question. I was having a chat with one of my pals (who runs a R1) the other day about what would be faster on a windy, undulating road, somewhere like the Glenshee to Breamar route. His opinion was that without a doubt the car would be far quicker through the corners. On the straights it’s usually bikes (unless you have a volvo!) but through ‘typical’ uneven corners a car would be quicker.

New Cedar clad garage door. It had to be replaced after trying to teach my 11 year old how to reverse the car…he stepped on the accelerator rather than the brake! 😳

Happy with the end result though!

#cedarcladding by Rosscopeco[/url], on Flickr