Luke Rainbird

I think you need to decide what your primary goal is here, Mike. Are you looking to build the lightest parts possible (which some of your statements seem to suggest) or simply the best performing parts that also happen to be very light?If the former, people can deal with a little extra effort to remove a wheel. If the latter, ease of use plays a factor so the QR seems to win See also: I miss your face

Hold up, what? So he's officially let you go, but then called and asked you to come in and work anyway? Tell him that's fine but as a contractor your daily rate is £200 or he can go f**k himself. Can't have it both ways.

Sounds like a shit situation dude, and very sorry to hear it, but equally it sounds like in the long run you'll be better off not in that environment. Chin up and do what you can to go solo - from what I can tell (and what you've written above) you should be able to do alright for yourself at least a couple of days a week if you can get the infrastructure sorted. Shame to have your hand forced of course, but life appears to have given you lemons so it might be time to make dem beverages.

And only ever in a vest. Nothing else is acceptable.

I'd agree with that. I've not ridden a trials bike "properly" in about 8 years, with the occasional cruise around with a group since but very rarely. Even then, I don't think I was actively trying to "achieve" anything for a good couple of years before that in terms of bigger/newer stuff, just dicking about on a 24" doing silly stuff and having fun which is why I stayed with it so long. I have a Hex in the garage that's never been ridden and in the meantime the scene locally has died off a lot, so really I know I should just sell the bike now rather than it going to waste sitting there. Rose tinted specs I guess, as without getting into bikes (primarily trials) I suspect my life and the choices I've made along the way would look incredibly different. Life moves on though - I do a bit of climbing these days which is a relatively similar "scene" to trials in some ways (very social, slow-paced) whilst different enough in others (much more family-friendly, more cafes) to make it suit me better. I get out on the MTB to keep myself on wheels, and that's also something Soph can do which is nice. We even had a few of the SW OG trials crew out together a few weeks back, so hopefully do that again throughout 2019.

If anyone with a newer Hex wants to swap for my older one I'm happy to take one for the team

I had a quick ride on one a few years ago (I forget who owned it, sadly) with a more trialsy bar/stem, soft tyres (even softer than I used to run, which is saying something...) and F&R HS33s and it was a very hoppy machine. Felt hugely different to many others I've ridden and bounced around on one wheel just fine, though still rolled about better than most TGS/compy machines. Very much a middle ground, to be honest

How light is the pedal car? Enough that radial lacing would be sufficient? Shorter spokes, but super easy to lace up and get tension right Would imagine Tarty should be able to help with spokes - must be in the ballpark of 19/20" trials wheel specs?

How does 2019 sound? Boom, done.

Such a clown.

I did say... Glad you found something though dude - V50 is a Focus underneath and feels lovely and solid, hopefully the Ford does too

OG trials crew MTB sessions 2k19 yo!

If you can get it looking as nice as that one to the right then you're onto a winner. Looks a bit of a skip at the moment though. Edit; Flogged the Golf last night. Easy, pleasant sale and got more for it than expected too. Ideal.

Cracking film. Great to see some of the real OGs back on film together for a natter too

There are some old trials vids on YT, though I've not seen any other MTB stuff from him.

Enjoyed that

It's been built and serviced and ready to go for ages, so it's only the dust that needs tending to. That said, it's a bloody great mountain of dust and I think I could do with a service if I'm going to consider riding the thing

If you make the switch to 27.5" you may also need new forks - doesn't look to be much space under the fork for anything larger than you already have fitted. Worth a look on Pinkbike and Singletrackworld, as well as the usual eBay/Gumtree scouting Might have an 18" Boardman FS frame in the garage if it's of any use to you? Was a ~2012 IIRC, and was the last 26" model.

Will try and pop along to show face, though will depend largely on Mini-Me on the day. Might even dust off the Inspired for the occasion

Bleddy Millennial Snowflake lacing...

Yep, another Halfords "Pro/Advanced/whatever" setup here and very happy with it. One day I might even get round to organising tools and filling it properly. They occasionally do an offer of the big lower section and larger of the two top sections (ie not the 3/4 drawer bit but the rest) for ~£250-300 which is very good really. Proper roller bearing drawers, a big step up from the cheaper Hellfrauds/Clarke units which are just cheap thin sheet and slide awkwardly, nice latching drawers and so on

If this is the best way to contact the "Company" then it'd be worth Marino making that clear on the website. Better still would be to give you/whoever access to the email account, since clearly he doesn't use it any more

If that's all true, then it's pretty appalling customer service. I wonder if there's more to this than meets the eye. @Ross McArthur do you have frequent contact with the man in Peru? Able to help this guy out?

Call up BA/etc, tell them you've just realised a mistake with your dates, and move one of them. Even if they charge you for the privilege you should be less than £650 down. Don't go to Tijuana though, it's a shithole.

Oh absolutely, always nice to see an old school bike receive some love! So long as you're doing it for a project/fun rather than expecting to increase the value much then you're onto a winner