monkeyseemonkeydo

And what a beautiful couple they make!

Looking good @Ali C

Our 10% overpaymnent limit is £13,500 (mortgage renewal after an initial 5 years (at over 5%!) with Northern Rock ) so we've whacked on £8k this month and then I'm adding £500 per month over the next 11 months to use up the limit and that should leave us with something like 8-10 months left in a similar way from next December... Very much looking forward to the final payment!

We're getting close to the other end of the journey... I'm now counting down the months to paying the mortgage off. With (savings) interest rates so crappy we're looking to max out the overpayments to knock it on the head as soon as possible. Playing that game a little late in the day to be fair- we've overpaid a bit for a good few years but kind of wish we'd done more earlier on when it would've made a bigger difference. All things being well we should have paid it off by mid-late 2023.

Just to add a bit of info, I've been running SRAM GXP BB's on my mountainbike for a few years and am lucky if they last 6 months of fairly light use. I've been thoroughly unimpressed by them. My most recent one is a Wheels Manufacturing one with Enduro bearings which hopefully will do a bit better but worth keeping in mind.

No worries, cheers @Danny.

I reckon it will definitely make me fitter! I'm normally a fairly 'lazy' biker, sticking it in a low gear and not really trying very hard, preferring to pop a wheelie and mess around. I've been out a couple of times and I'm definitely riding faster on it because I feel I need to maintain the momentum and keep a sensible (higher than normal) cadence. It's lovely and quiet and smooth though and I've only gone for a phantom shift a couple of times!

Does anyone else have the search options permanently visible in the top right since the update?

What are your thoughts on oval rings @Adam@TartyBikes? I've been running one on the geared Whyte for a while (though never noticed much difference) and now I'm not sure whether it will help or hinder on the bike now it's singlespeed... Gearing-wise as well I'm a bit unsure- it's a 32T oval ring which seems to mean itis almost like having a 30T off power and 34T on power so maybe I need to consider dropping to a 30T oval (or 32T round of course).

This makes me angry... As someone who doesn't do football I think this dude should be banned for life and publicly shamed daily.

And we're officially singlespeed! Got the bits waterjet cut this morning and all seems good. Turned the lockring on the lathe briefly just to tidy up the Dremelling but works perfectly . Chainline seems about right too which is good!

I'm shocked you're not 'friends' with him!

Looks awesome Ads! Love that colour- reminds me of my 'Atomic Rust' GT Backwoods from way back when!

Here we go! 3D printed test run. I bought a knackered XD cassette on eBay and whipped the lockring out of it (a bit more dremelling required than I anticipated but got there in the end). One 5mm thick HG spline spacer that the lockring clamps on plus three 5mm spacers with relevant sized bores gives the correct chainline and we're looking good. Will get the bits waterjet cut at the start of this week hopefully and get it together properly soon .

I got a set of secondhand XCTs which are very basic but do the job .

Looks sweet . I've struggled to get replacement tyres along the same lines but have just run some replacement chunky ones instead and it's all good. I also added a set of suspension forks just because! Enjoy!

Just go with the lowest variable rate with £0 early fees and you can change whenever you like and jump to a fixed tariff if they ever look tempting.

I was with PFP until they went under. Currently with BG and have been officially for a couple of months now I guess. Still no bill and they've yet to accept an electricity initial reading or any reading since so f**k knows what's going on. Going to get a nice big bill eventually I guess...

Thanks @Adam@TartyBikes but I've already ordered an 18T to get me started (only £11 so not going to break the bank!). Hopefully that will get me started!

May end up with something in here in the end! Have decided that I don't really like the Gusset design as it puts the torque from the rider through the M32 x 1.0 thread that the XD 'lockring' sits on- something it's really not designed to do and there's only about 6mm of thread there (I've stripped trials sprockets before and I sure as buggery don't want to do that to a Chris King driveshell). Soooo... my plan is to make my own version of the Problem Solvers Zinger setup. I'm going to get a little HG sprocket carrier waterjet cut at work along with a few spacers to fiddle with the chainline and I've bought a dead XD cassette on eBay that I'm going to rip apart to pull out the 'lockring' thing from inside it. In theory the lockring will keep the carrier in place (and the carrier and HG spline then carries the torque) with an 18T Gusset sprocket bolted to it to give me a single speed setup. In combination with a dual wheel Acor tensioner I think we should be good. I was surprised that the XD standard still used the HG spline for the end drive part but I guess if it ain't broke... Just waiting for the parts to arrive now to trial fit some 3D printed mockups of the carrier and spacers as I think the lockring will need to be modified slightly (or possibly one of the spacers) to work right but we'll see.

Mrs was feeling rough last week but tested negative all the way until Saturday- negative test in the morning then positive at lunchtime. The boys and I are still testing negative (all had a PCR as well as her (in different cars) on Saturday) and I'm keeping clear of work for this week to minimise the chance of spreading anything (even though legallay I could go in). One of my workmates 67 year old mum had a bad BMX accident (!) the other day and has been in hospital and another is about to head back to Brazil to visit his family for the first time in over two years so I feel like it's not worth risking it for a few days at least. Mel seems to be over the worst and we're just being sensible, staying away from each other in essence!

Not sure if you've sorted anything out yet but GoOutdoors are selling the Polygon Relic for £200 in their Black friday Deals. In typical GO fashion they say it's the Relic 24" but all the pictures show the Relic 20" so who knows... Edit: It's also showing as out of stock online and even though pretty much every other item you can check stock in your local store for this you can't. Jeez I hate GoOutdoors.

Awesome cheers Ads! That looks wicked- lovely welds too! I think I'll give it a go (when Gusset get their delivery next month!) and see how it goes.

Bump! @Adam@TartyBikes what gearing are you using and how are you finding it? I've got a strange urge to turn my Whyte FS into a singlespeed for shits and giggles (it's 650B) but can't decide whether a light enough gear for hills will make it utterly horrible for literally everything else! Annoyingly the hub is XD and there are apparently precisely zero XD singlespeed speed kits (which come with a 16T) available in the UK until Gusset restock in a month...

Sorry, I needed a Ron Burgundy picture to go with that first sentence!