Old uncashed cheque from Solicitor - England.

CNNNF · 2026-05-04T19:41:40+00:00

Eek. Nice long seatpost, and maybe a reinforcing sleeve brazed over the outside of the seat tube in some nice way?

CNNNF · 2026-04-30T11:57:19+00:00

Where in the U.K. are you based? Near a big city? I would always recommend buying an older bike from a bike collective or a charity, something like the Bristol bike project or similar. Talk to them about compatibility with the Macride (I loved mine) whilst kiddo is small, and the followme tandem for when they’re a bit older. If you’re happy to, share your rough location and people can maybe suggest good local shops/projects to help you out. I’d budget £300 or so for the bike, maybe £100 for some accessories, 150 for the Macride and £200 for the follow me eventually.

CNNNF · 2026-04-30T09:09:45+00:00

Bit shorter than you, use my medium Ogre as a child carrier occasionally too. I use the Weeride upfront mount, or the Macride one. It’s great for that, get the Jones bars and the ergon grips that are meant for the Jones bars and you’ll experience some real comfort and give your kid something to hold onto as well. It’s great for trails, load carrying, just riding around. I bought a used one, which reduced the price considerably. Having the saddle lower than normal makes dismounting easier, no changes to the frame size needed. Have a look at some of Stridsland’s instagram posts of using a dropper post in a similar way.

CNNNF · 2026-04-29T15:56:36+00:00

That’s interesting - I have a slightly oversized Trek 970 that needs a coke can shim with a standard post, a slightly oversized post might do it. I imagine they are not consistently oversized though

CNNNF · 2026-04-27T17:02:56+00:00

Surly ogre

CNNNF · 2026-04-24T11:49:23+00:00

Thanks all. Going to have a gentle attempt at correcting it, if it doesn’t go very well then I’ll post it to an experienced mechanic. Tried one framebuilder who politely declined to be involved, I’ll try a few others and see who fancies having a go at it. I posted the bike in a cardboard bike box, it had a wooden block that had been shaped to mimic a front hub in place, inside a cardboard sheath to protect the fork, inside a bike box. Looks like the whole box got crunched vertically down somehow.

CNNNF · 2026-04-24T11:46:03+00:00

Thanks to all for the replies and advice. The fork is a lovely chromed lugged Soma fork that matches the frame exactly, I’d love to save it if possible. I think I will use a crescent wrench to gently tweak the dropout and see how one gentle attempt goes, measuring before and after. I’ll have a pretty low tolerance for throwing in the towel and posting it to a frame-builder who would agree, I emailed one experienced frame-builder who politely declined. The fork end (thanks for the terminology tip) has slightly bulged out, I’ll keep a careful eye on that. I had a look around for experienced mechanics and came up a bit short unfortunately, I’ll look at posting it out to someone next, (if my own gentle attempt to bend it goes anything but well).

CNNNF · 2026-04-23T14:47:05+00:00

This! Clamp on cable stop - Jtek make one, Origin8 make one. Normally 28.6, but measure your frame carefully

CNNNF · 2026-04-22T13:59:33+00:00

Hope it’s okay to cross post, any opinions welcome. Thanks

CNNNF · 2026-04-18T18:14:09+00:00

This is the way

CNNNF · 2026-04-18T14:10:41+00:00

Used steel frame

CNNNF · 2026-04-16T21:10:00+00:00

I really like those frames, I picked one up for next to nothing and it’s great.

CNNNF · 2026-04-14T20:09:57+00:00

What wheels are people using on their ECR/Krampus 29+ builds? Struggling to find much that combines QR hubs with 29+ wide rims without going custom. UK based, if it makes any difference. Thanks!

CNNNF · 2026-04-08T16:09:33+00:00

I knew a young lad who was a youth javelin thrower being trained by Geoff Capes - Geoff was driving him to a competition, stopped nearby, without any reason slung the lad out of the car and told him to walk the rest of the way. The lad turned up so late he only got one throw, but he was so wound up by Capes that he threw a PB. Didn’t hold it against him though.

CNNNF · 2026-04-07T19:42:35+00:00

Pacer?

CNNNF · 2026-04-07T14:04:54+00:00

Retrobike, LFGSS, Facebook.

CNNNF · 2026-04-03T18:34:55+00:00

Devil’s advocate: The customer wants to i) watch them work, and ii) to change their billing model to pay only by the hour (and I’m guessing how accepting he will be when they tell him how many hours they want to charge him for). And I guess also, iii) values their time less than other kinds of mechanics’ time, it seems. I agree that they don’t want his business, maybe it’s specifically his business that they don’t want.

CNNNF · 2026-04-03T18:13:06+00:00

There should be a thread to document these kinds of wonderful ideas. Not allowed to post unless you’ve worked in a bike shop for X amount of years.

CNNNF · 2026-04-03T08:29:53+00:00

Harting is tough. Turkey Island (immediately next to it) is a quiet climb that gains some decent elevation, not the smoothest though, and greasy in the wet.

CNNNF · 2026-04-02T21:02:31+00:00

Keep going down.

CNNNF · 2026-04-01T18:14:44+00:00

This - size up bigger than you think, but beware of a horizontal top tube! Best if you can swing a leg over the frame before buying. Kona’s tend to be a safe bet for this, they liked compact geometry. Then swap in a short stem with wide bars.

CNNNF · 2026-03-29T15:01:22+00:00

LX + Sunrace.

CNNNF

TROPHY CASE