Ibis S35 Carbon, from what I gather basically a rebranded Stans Baron CB7.

I’ve worked in construction for 25 odd years, variously surveying, estimating and running a joinery shop. My background before that was Joinery for about 5 years, so did have a bit of knowledge going in to it. As I said, happy to help design and set you up with cutting lists etc if you do want to have a go.

How competent with a Saw and a Screwdriver are you? I built my own and it turned out a Lot cheaper and frankly better (better quality timber etc) than most of the ones I looked at. Happy to talk through design and cutting lists etc!

sorry @DezB, that was more referencing their MTB one that states its not 35 compatible..

@dove1, 35mm bar, Garmin haven’t gone thet MTB yet..

I tend to run Joystick on the helmet and a Sixpack on the bars for night time MTB. The Mk is just the release version, as they update pretty often.

At the advice of the LBS, I have the Hellkat/Nevegal2 pairing coming on the new toy on Monday, several of them said its the best combo for mixed riding currently. (Time will tell, lol)

Thanks all for the feedback here, broadly mirrors what I have seen online (though there isn’t much about yet). Trigger has been pulled, bike will be here next week sporting a DVO on the front. Will see how it turns out!

That was a more recent addition (and we have since been there again, and other places), possibly sparking the thought that I was something of an asshat to just see what happened with the Carrera, lol.

We were as good as could be about getting out of the way of faster riders in fairness, one of those things though, everyone starts somewhere..

I wish I still had it, the thing was bombproof and returned 50 odd to the gallon! (2.4L 5 cylinder diesel)

I’ve been running Panaracer Gravel Kings on the Slate for around 12 months, no sign of the sidewall rubbing off. Could just be a dodgy batch?

I am running the ‘Bontrager AW2 Hard-Case Lite TLR’ in a 28, tubeless on 2 bikes. Generally been a great tyre.

The wooded area between Bicton, Yettington and Four Firs has some great trails on both sides of the little valley there, and some more nice stuff heading North West (ish) from Wheathill carpark, as well as some nice trails crossing over onto Aylesbeare common and dropping down towards Newton Pop. Basically some nice trails all over the place! I have several GPX files of the area taking in a lot of it, I’ll ping them at you when I get home later (if someone hasn’t already sorted it).

Definitely build, I ordered a ‘Quality, heavy duty’ shed online for a not inconsiderable sum of pounds. It was garbage and lots of parts were already broken/warped.

For less than the cost of that shed, I got all the materials (including the insulation) and built it myself, Considerably stronger than anything I saw online.

I have successfully helicoiled a brake mount on an old set of Floats where I did the same thing, they are still working on a singlespeed winter hack ~10 years on.

No, a match is never cheap for short runs as the machining cost is a set figure. It would be around £6.30 a meter for the timber and a flat £40.00 set up for a simple skirting. (This would cover up to ~15 meters, after that there would be extra labour costs)

Where abouts in the world are you? We can run an exact copy if you are anywhere near Exeter, I’m sure there will be a company near you (if we aren’t) that can do the same.

Another vote for the Panaracer Gravelking. I don’t use the SK variant though. The standard one is effectively a fat road tyre with a file pattern on the sides, the SK has a little tiny block tread, so will be a little slower on tarmac, but better on the gravel.

If these are the same cable to hydro brakes I have on my Contend SL1, the one with the conversion gubbins and reservoir on the front of the stem, they are actually pretty good. Only real downside I have found was limited space on the bars for lights as the thing its self is quite wide, and it has cables/cable tails coming out horizontally each side.

Just as brakes though, certainly a big step up from cable disc, if not quite as smooth as hydros.

Path of Exile (Free to play ARPG, but can be worth buying a few extra stash tabs)

Minecraft (Heavily modded, Feed the Beast Infinity Evolved pack)

The 11-42 Sunrace really is great quality, I put on on my XC bike fairly recently, same as Jon above, Hope Pro2 ally freehub.

Done it a few times now, the Gap is great, stunning view all the way to Brecon if the weather is good!

I stuck with the 36-52 on the front, but went for the 11-32 on the back with a mid cage 105 derailleur. I got a new 105 chain, rear mech and cassette for about £80.00. Its ok so far, but if I do much more off road I’d consider smaller chainrings as well. You want a max 16 tooth jump on the chainrings ideally, though I have run 18 on some bikes.

I have one of these, various uses as a standard 5v power pack, but will also deliver a few hundred amps at 12v when required to start a car/forklift…

Small enough to take with you on your bike as well!

http://products.einhell.com/com_en/cleaning-car-accessories/energy-stations/cc-js-8.html

Chainline is pretty good, and the chain isn’t that old. If anything it looks to be the other way, the pitch of the freewheel is greater than the chain pitch.

@scaled, full guards would fall off/be broken off if using it correctly!

Its made my commute a lot more fun. Its close to as quick as a road bike, with the option of fire roads and bridleways opened up. The stock gearing (on the 105 at least) is stupid, and the tyres are pretty thin.

New tyres (Panaracer Gravel Kings), med cage mech and an 11-32 cassette though, and its brilliant.

I have the Topeak super tourist DX on my commuter, its disc, but a 700c not 29er, there is room for a much bigger tyre though so I’m sure it would be fine. They do it in black or silver.

We have a couple of the Evolution ones (Screwfix) kicking about in the workshop, seem pretty decent and you will get one within your budget.

The Slate has the Shimano CX-70 front mech, seems to be a much shorter lever arm.

You can try isopropyl alcohol/setting on fire etc, but its very rare indeed for a properly contaminated pad to come back to life.

Gatorskin would be my first answer, but if your rims are compatible I’d go with a Bonty AW2 running tubeless.

I have found the anodising on some rims (I’m looking at you DT Swiss 511) won’t let tape stick easily. Just give it a bit of a rub with some fine emery cloth.

Just to come back on this one, I’ve not had time in the interim to try these again, so thought I’d have a go tonight. The bike has had the tyres on with tubes in it for ~7 days/~120 miles.

I didn’t touch the tape, didn’t make much effort to not disturb the second bead, just took the tubes out, popped in the vales and attached a compressor, both popped straight on within a second!

Added Stans goop through the valve and both are holding pressure.

Definitely worth having tyres fitted with tubes for a while first if people are struggling.

In the spirit of recommend what you have, I have a Stumpjumper Expert 6fattie, its Awesome!

What sort of places are you going to be riding? The stumpy is quite a lot of bike, and the low BB can get in the way sometimes on tech climbs.

I find my stumpy (29er/650b+ flavour) to have a very low BB already, you would be pedal striking just riding on the flat I’d expect.

16 front 18 rear is where mine tends to stay.

The chances are you will have a short cage mech, for an 11-32 cassette you will need to change the mech to a medium cage as well.

Generally that is for when you have a log stuck on the blade, you can turn the axe over and swing the flat end onto your base block using the weight of the log to push its-self further onto the blade/split it. Its a carbon steel head though, so with the normal precautions for steel on steel impacts (goggles at least), it should be fine for a splitting wedge as well.