Grandad on my mum’s side was a truck driver for Tate & Lyle and signed up to The REME when war broke out. Served as a driver in a recovery vehicle pulling disabled and captured tanks off the front. Lost his whole team to a mortar shell….. He only survived, he said, due to his good hearing as he heard the whistle of the incoming shell and managed to dive behind the truck.

Disliked the French….He said when they returned to Europe on and after D Day that the French public were spitting at them and accused the Brits of leaving the French to the Germans. Also hated Churchill (Said he got thousands of young men killed) but had the up most respect for Monty….. Not sure how true that is.

Grandad on my dad’s side ended the war as a Regimental Sergeant Major in The Royal Mounted Artillery….. Served all over and received a DCM in El Alamein. His battery was surrounded by German forces. He spiked all the guns and at night lead his men through the desert (and German lines) back to the retreating British front without losing a man.

He remained in the army until his retirement at 68. He was hospitalised at 74 with complications arising from shrapnel fragments in his body which were untreatable. He said then that the Germans ‘Finally got me’

Both were great men who spoke very little of the war and when they did is was mostly regarding the mates they served with and the stories they had about them.

Sounds and looks like an awesome trip and route….. 👌😁 Totally my kind of touring, endless road days would break me..

Do you have a route gpx? Or some Strava link etc…..

Pics are cracking also, looks like the weather behaved for the most part? Bar the heat it was fairly stormy last year (I live in Croatia…. Last summer/autumn was brutally hot. Pretty much did not have a winter this year…. Lush but worrying)

Formula Cura 

@STR

REEB sst 120mm…… It’s on my ‘ I’ll never be able to afford/justify one’ list

SST Coil GX

Not much around me for much over €150k…… This ain’t bad for €75k, needs 25k chucking at it but 🤷

https://www.njuskalo.hr/nekretnine/kuca-seosko-imanje-habjanovac-dubrava-oglas-41330864

Although we are looking to move to Zagreb, somewhere in the foothills of Sljeme. This is on my list…..

https://www.njuskalo.hr/nekretnine/stan-zagreb-medvescak-156-m2-prodaja-oglas-40731194

The forum does not subsidise the magazine. In many ways it’s the other way round.

Is it not that members are paying for a magazine membership in order to use the forum ad free and thus it is, in part, the forum funding the magazine?

I’d happily pay the same if I knew all of that money was going to making the forum what I am paying for, not funding a magazine I don’t read.

It seems most members are here for the forum and that is what they pay for….. That is the case for me anyway, I don’t read the mag at all.

The mag is a secondary for the vast majority and, I assume, is also where most of the company outlay goes…… If that is the case then the subs paid by full members to keep the forum running (poorly) are propping up a failing side of the business…… It makes little business sense.

I may be completely wrong but to me it seems I’m paying for the forum, like many others, but I’m funding a magazine.

I’d love a Mk5 but am still riding a Mk1 and can’t justify it in any way as the Mk1 just pedals so well and is all day comfortable……. Still my favourite bike after so many years.

I’d say there was no need to change the geo, maybe a little more clearance at the chainstay, but the Mk1 just feels perfect. Don’t know if that is years of fit adjustments and just being used to it but it feels like Sam nailed it first go……

I totally understand, regardless of how well the older models ride, that marketing and current trends dictate ‘on trend’ geo but I think the Mk5 has struck a balance between the old and what is needed to gain enough interest. It looks stunning to….. Classic Singular.

I’m probably way off, just trying to justify not spending a grand on a new frame……… 😉

Conversely I chopped the end of my thumb off at the first knuckle 4 years ago and can still feel the tip that isn’t there….. And what is there has sensation in the wrong place.

.

I live in rural Croatia….. Bought a fally down rambling old farm 10 years ago. Put a new roof on it when we moved in and made some windows both of which are not finished 10 years later but it’s dry (if the wind doesn’t blow while it’s raining) and warm…… My business workshops are very ‘al fresco’ and all the outbuildings are ongoing building sites.

It’s all certainly more fally down then when we got here but, well, **** it…. Spend 9 months of the year outside anyway and it’s a house that works for our families needs. It’s our home, we are all happy and healthy and that’s what matters.

I gave up making lists years ago and now just fix things when they are totally broken….

Sorry for the public display of ignorance, but what is the fabulous red bike that @sharkattack posted?

REEB…. https://reebcycles.com/collections/sst

anyone know if I can put a GRX single ring on a GRX double crank? at £51 its cheaper to buy the crankset than a chainring but I want to keep my crank length at 170mm

Yeh you can, I converted my double to single….
same mounting pattern across the range

I’ve got by so far by spacing with washers between the caliper and mount on the front for a 203mm rotor and grinding down an old +20mm adapter to clear the caliper for the rear 180mm rotor.

Been a bit of a ball ache to get these up and running but they are superb once you get there.

Waiting on some Magura QM40 and QM44 adapters from R2 bike to get them mounted without bodges….. Confirmed to work on the below thread….

I have Magura storm 2mm rotors to, less lever throw then on the thinner Shimano rotors.

https://www.mtbr.com/threads/caliper-adapters-for-hayes-dominion-a4.1156071/

I just picked up a used Nordest Britango to see me through until the new Sirius S6 arrives….. Not identical but similarish….. Sort of….

I just ate a tin of tuna…..less than 2 minutes from opening to washing the tin and lozing it in the recycling.

Wasn’t enough so had a slice of cheese on top of a half stale burger bun.

Feel like a tramp but it was ace.

Particularly as our parents aren’t able to help out and we have no siblings nearby either so we have no help and no break.

This is a big thing for us….. We moved to rural Croatia, in part, to raise kids in a safe and healthy environment, we wouldn’t have had them if we had stayed in the UK……

But along with the semi isolation of being an expat (language/culture) there came the struggle of doing it alone….. Don’t get me wrong, it was the right decision for ‘us’ but not without many struggles, a lot of them being the lack of any support… Which is compounded massively when you live in a country where 3 or 4 generations of a family live in one house or within walking distance and raise the little un’s together.

They’ve cost us a fortune in time and money, both of us, but especially me, have sacrificed career and personal goals to give them time and opportunities, and it’s all a factor in my mental health issues.

I get this, not so much the money but definitely the time.. In a world where everyone else’s lives are visible (truely or online fantasy presentation) I try really hard not to compare and feel like they have stolen time when I could have been doing all the other cool stuff others are doing…. Seeing people’s epic rides on Strava for example, when I barely have time for a spin around the block at 10 at night.

Truth is I ‘gave’ them my time freely, not them taking it away from me. They really are awesome, if annoying/irritating at times and they fight (big sis, lil bro) a lot but I do believe I would be a worse person for them not being around…. They make me be a better person as I try to make them good little people before they flutter off into the world. I truely believe I’m not a natural parent, I really have to try to be that person….

If I manage not to screw them up too much/give them need for therapy in the next 10 years then I’ll consider it a job well done. 😉

I just ordered…… 118€ and end delivered to Croatia with the ‘SAVE’ code.

Had to order separately for the code to work on each brake….

Ok, Thanks chaps….. I’ll take a punt on a Large and see how it goes.

My melon is 59cm exactly which puts me firmly in the middle of a M and a L…… Can anyone suggest which way to go?

I’m in Croatia and would be ordering from one of the German sites so not keen on returning one.

Any pointers much appreciated 👍

Does anyone know, or have an inkling as to when these will hit the shops ? Plenty of pics and reviews from radar,pinkbike etc,, but im not finding any for sale as yet.

I saw beginning of March somewhere……. Could just be my head making it up though.

7 for me…..

Hardtail geared

SS rigid mtb

SS road

Gravel/road

Rigid geared utility mtb

Zwift Roady

BMX for pumptrack

Too many but can’t think of one I’d like to be without……

Regardless of whether Dan is a nice guy or not he, as director and owner, had the moral responsibility to utilise the funds invested, the money paid by buyers and the advance products from suppliers to further profit the company and make returns in product and revenue……

Instead he got 2.1 million in debt and then, seemingly, wrote it all off, washed his hands and picked up a ready made, debt free business for probably nothing while everyone else got shafted.</span>

Or have I got this wrong? As mentioned above, leaves a pretty nasty taste.

What a piss take….. I really feel for those who have been shafted while the ones who allowed the business, through their own actions and decisions, to get so far into debt get to just ‘have another bash’…….

I know it is all not so simple but it does leave a sour taste and discolours the brand. I mean 2.1 million quid?! How do you even get that far into debt before thinking ‘hang on, this is out of control, we ain’t never going to be able to pay that back’……. Say you make 300 quid on a frame, that’s 7000 frames just to pay the debt before running costs and all other outgoings…..

Just seems like bad business in, admittedly, a very tricky climate but it shouldn’t have been allowed to run so seemingly far out of control only then for the balance to be reset do you can try again while others get shafted.

Says me, with no particular knowledge of the ins and outs of the business/personal situations/anything.

Cheers chaps, I’ll go for a large in the hope I can squeeze myself into it….. They are stretchy right? 😁

Croatia….. Half the budget on this place…. 45 minutes from Zagreb, an hour to the coast. This area is a truly stunning part of the world….

https://www.njuskalo.hr/nekretnine/jedinstvena-kuca-rijeku-mreznicu-oglas-27071135

The other half maybe on a mountain/ski cottage in Bosnia.

Job done

Most of the modern top brands will be more than enough for DIY/home use. 3ah batteries will be plenty.

Each brand have their ‘better’ tools….

Makita and Milwaukee for drills
Bosch and Mafell for saws
Festool for Sanders and the Domino.
DeWalt….. Pah, robust but unrefined.

I’m 25 years in the Bespoke furniture and boat fitting trade. I have a mix of tools but stick to Bosch for cordless just for battery sake and they are good tools. (Makita batteries had a habit of dying, dunno if they have fixed it)

I don’t really have much in common with them. I know it sounds harsh but I’m just a bit meh about them.

This….. Never really had anything in common with my three older sisters, we are just different people/they are dull/we have vastly differing views on most subjects….. We just don’t get on and seem to rub each other up the wrong way. I see no point in entering into situations with them that just cause bad feeling so I just don’t bother. I feel for my mum as she tries to keep us all together but it is just not worth it….

Was very close to my old man, miss him everyday and would give anything for 5 minutes with him again, just to hear his voice…. 12 years now.

This would be a brilliant start to a short story.

My blood pressure jumped. I kicked down the kickstand, went around to the drivers side and reached through the open window to place my mangled hand upon his weathered manliness. ‘you’ve been naughty’ I whispered between chastened gasps. ‘I know’ he replied while ejaculating more filth from the small opening to land seductively at my feet. ‘pick it up’ he said, ‘slowly’…..

A Jacobs cream cracker….. Without butter

Thanks for the info and pics Rocketdog……

I’ve got the wheels and tyres for 27.5×2.8 so gonna give it a go.

I live out in Croatia where the riding is generally dry rocky/rooty trails so figured a large volume tyre would provide a little more comfort…. We’ll see how it goes

Cheers guys.

Rocketdog….. What’s the clearance like at the chainstays? Don’t spose you have any pics?

Also how does it ride compared to with it set up as a 29er?

I live out here, albeit inland near Zagreb.

I wouldn’t worry at all. Although we have cases here it is very well managed with mild restrictions/measures on the whole being very well adhered to…. This is ex Yugoslavia, people are still used to doing as they are told. Add to that fines for businesses that do not comply and you have a safe environment in which to enjoy your holiday. Bring masks though, you’ll need them in shops etc.

The coast is relatively quiet still, down 55% on normal so easy to find space and distance yourselves.

There won’t be any further, harder restrictions…. Croatia simply cannot afford to lose anymore tourist trade so the borders will remain open to ‘stranac’

The weather is good, the sea is warm…. Just come enjoy your holiday.

Awesome at: Buying parts and building bikes out of said parts…

Suck at: Actually finding time to ride the bikes I have built.

Can’t see us wanting to move from our little estate here in continental Croatia any time soon….. It has given us the best life we have ever had in so many ways. We appreciate it all the more in the current situation…..

If anything we’d move to the southern Balkans, southern Bosnia or maybe Montenegro…. Somewhere closer to the Adriatic with a more relaxed attitude.

Life here, if you can cope with/work around the bureaucracy, is pretty idealic.

We live in rural Croatia so have effectively been self isolating for last 7 years :)

Our reclaimed timber business is on site so I wfh everyday, no issues there. The very pressing issue is exporting our product…. With borders closed and international transport cut we will struggle to deliver.

Saying that we live pretty self sufficiently…. Food in the ground, water in our own well, wood fired heating and several generators on site. We have enough stock to work through though so can stockpile finished products….. We should be ok for a year at least should it all go tits up big style.

Just ordered 24 more arrows for my horse bow….. Ain’t no fu**er getting my bog rolls before they’re stuck like a porcupine.

Also a slab of baked beans and a crate of Guinness…. Healthy balanced diet right there, so I’ve been told.

One of the reasons I left the UK 7 years ago…. There seems to be an underlying tension everywhere. No where else in the world have I thought I might step into a violent situation at any moment for no particular reason….I’ve had my fair share of run ins with chavs and general English dick#+ads. England is not a place I wanted to raise kids, so I left to move to a place where crime is virtually non existent.

I met a long term traveller back when I was dicking around Asia 20 years ago, a seasoned backpacker who seemed to not have a bad bone in his body. He said England was the most dangerous place he’d ever been to. Lost a few teeth and learnt to keep his head down and mouth shut….