Luke Rainbird

Oh man, the manual dream. You haven't lived until you've had the manual dream.

Didn't at all And yeah, it can be pretty painful at the mo. Maintain a long-term outlook, if it was good enough to buy then it's even better to buy now at a cheaper price, in most cases. Pound cost average to bring your mean entry cost down, and so long as you've not done something silly like sticking it all into Roubles on FX it'll come back in due course.

MSE is a great reference - when Martin has a team dedicated to spending all day finding the best deals, it's hard to compete! We're still a way shy of the "expected" peak for interest rates, so it's likely that there'll be some better deals to be had but of course you risk missing out on returns between now and then. Fed announcement on Weds so that's close enough to wait for, but given it may go up again in another 3 months I'd be tempted by whichever instant access or short-term notice account is offering the best rate in a week or so, with a view to putting it in a fixed account early next year. For longer term, medium(ish)-risk stuff, global stock markets are offering a 25% discount to the start of the year. You'll have to tolerate some volatility in the shorter term, but once things settle down economically and geopolitically, there'll be some good gains to be had. Usual rules apply too, of course. If you can guarantee a higher "return" by clearing debt (ie. mortgage, student loan if you are sure it'll be paid off before being wiped etc) then that's not unwise. If you're on low fixed rates then the finances may not stack up so well, but the emotional side of it plays a role too.

At the risk of talking shop, what are you classing as "savings" Dave? If you can lock it away for 12 months you can net 4.5% or more on cash with Shawbrook at the moment

Come racing instead. You can ride around the paddock like the cool kids if you want.

Reverb pictured is 125mm so works fine, but I have a brand new 150mm Fox Transfer Post that I'd quite like to run really (it's internally routed, plus it's not a Reverb). It's a smidge higher than ideal at full extension, and given I don't need more height, it's the extra 25mm of drop which would be ideal. Nowhere is close to me really (unless people want to trek all the way to Cornwall for a day at somewhere like Woody's, but there are so many better options for a proper day's ride that I understandably can't see it happening. Cannock is pretty central, which is entirely sensible. Abotu 3 and a half hours from me, but I can probably find a way to man maths that down a bit. I'm actually up in (almost) your neck of the woods in a few days. Ashby for work and we're racing at Donington this weekend. No space/time for the bike though, sadly.

Interesting that you don't rate the EDC lite, Mark. I was thinking about dropping one in but will stick to my trusty old Topeak multitool in a pocket for now. Loving the SC on tanwalls, Tom. I did - ended up rebuilding both hubs with fresh bearings and stuck a new freehub body on the rear, laced up to some Hope Fortus 26 rims. Swapped out the 32t, Boost offset chainring that came with he cranks for a 34t 6mm offset too, though on paper I could have gone further as this still has significantly more range than my old 10spd 40t setup - the extra spinners may help me haul my unfit ass up some steep bits I guess! Couple of minor bits to address, but really I just need to make time to get out and get some miles in my legs and work out the kinks as I go. Main gripe is that the frame, being a Large, is a smidge too long for me to run a 150mm dropper. That's a first world problem I can address at some point down the line though. I think there's enough insertion depth available (giggidy) that I could chop the seattube by 1" or so and run a bigger clamp without any issues if it really came to it. For now, old (non stealth) Reverb will do just fine.

That sounds cool. I guess if you're not doing long slogs constantly the long travel bike isn't a problem like it could potentially be if you were needing extra efficiency uphill? Although the Swoop seems to get a decent write up in that regard anyway from what I can see. Oh yeah, a TF meet. Should be able to make that work if I expedite my usual timeline, given they usually take 5 years to materialise. I'm so grotesquely unfit now that an eeb might be a better fit

Sounds like a good fit for what you're after, Mark. What sort of trails are you riding these days? Bagless ***. I'd add my own non-trials update while I'm here, but I barely got round to building the Yeti I mentioned 38928 years ago and haven't taken it out yet.

How very dare you, I'm not a filthy accountant! I occasionally help people avoid uneccessary tax, but certainly not evade it Not sure I get paid that good money either, perhaps I should see if Red Bull will pay me - a minor raise of £1.8M should do the trick.

Snacks and sick pay, innit.

Oh wow, that's absolutely flown!

I meant the wash cycle, not the kids No judgement for what folk do on the latter regardless. Besides, Aneurin can't be 3 yet, right?

7 years? Surely they're done by now?!

Quite like Mike @ Stanceworks' vids, but know where you're coming from with the voice!

Yeah, Avonmouth is not the one. For the love of god PLEASE do not judge the rest of the country on that basis

Sadface Thank f*** face. Sometimes I get a bit sad at the way forums have gone over the years. Occasionally, just occasionally, a wall of text like that gives me a glimmer of hope. Props for spending some time laying it all out for people who may stumble across this down the line

I was even luckier that neither of ours would even entertain a bottle Once the nighttime poos calmed down, I was getting decent sleep before too long - given the sleep deprivation is the most brutal part of it all, I was thankful. There's definitely a line somewhere where they go from being largely inanimate to being more on the go and things get much trickier, but then you keep going and they turn into proper little people and it's all kinds of awesome. Ella's 4 tomorrow (which is a pretty mad concept in itself) and she's a proper little winner when she's not having a diva moment. Oscar's nearly 2 and a half, and wants to get stuck into everything. I didn't really think much of it before when people would say shit like "it'll fly past, enjoy while they're small", but it's so feckin' true. Both of them being small small is a proper blur, so I'm thankful we did the whole "21st century millennial parent" thing of taking loads of photos as we have a Google album of the best ones for family to look at (rather than spamming FB etc) so often go through that when they're being a bit tricky.

Well that seems to suggest the risk was worth taking. Nice one Sam, stoked to see it's working out well for you man.

When you had Zoo pads, why would you need any other options?!

When I first moved to Bristol for uni, I could only navigate about the city using riding spots for the first month or so. This wouldn't normally be a massive issue, but they had to be in a very specific order, which was NOT the most direct way at all, so some of the freshers' events in the centre that should have taken me about 10 minutes to walk to were a 30 minute stumble home after a heavy session

Shame you're such a shortarse, Tom.

Sounds like a cool addition to the stable, gives you optionsssssssssss

I can't really blame anyone else for this one, sadly! Ah well, cheap and cheerful solution. In other "FFS Rainbird you mong" news: Laced up the new front wheel yesterday, got the bike out of the garage to use the forks as a truing stand and proceeded to drop a brake fitting. Naturally, it went straight through between the decking boards never to be seen again. Classic.

Well, after feeling all positive about getting the bike (pretty much) done this weekend, I've been the master of my own downfall. A while back (9 years, according to eBay) I had to convert my Pro 2 rear hub from 36h to 32h. It appears I grabbed a Pro 2 EVO shell at that point, which is the same as the non-evo version so swapped straight over. The axle, of course, isn't the same at all so the 142x12 end caps, which I bought after checking the shell and seeing it was definitely an EVO, don't fit and I can't get it on the bike as hoped. Muppet. Ah well, the new axle is only £20 and it's a good excuse to replace the bearings as they're also 8 years old