monkeyseemonkeydo

Yeah I know! Just a bit of a whim/ experiment for shits and giggles. It's also one of those 'make a change rather than buy a new bike' things...

I swapped to a 3/32" chain I think from what was an 11 speed.

Not sure I can really help much but just to piss you off I recently went single speed on my Whyte T130 with an Acor two wheel tensioner and I've been surprised how much quieter it is! I didn't expect it to make any difference on noise but it's basically silent which I'm digging so I can understand where you're cocming from!

It might be worth stripping the caliper down and greasing what moving parts you can get to in order to stop water getting in or sitting there. I reckon at the temperatures you're talking about the water will be the issue.

Or any moisture in the system freezing completely? Will it be getting wet at all?

I feel like there's a Spongebob meme for things like this... (Reported).

Just to go a little further on that from a quick glance at the link Adam posted it doesn't seem that the GP personally is remunerated for giving a jab but the surgery/practice. Whether they then just divvy it up and take it home I don't know but chances are some of them will invest that back into the surgery to buy new equipment, carry out renovations, buy better PPE for their staff etc. It doesn't seem to be quite as clear cut as GPs running round singing 'We're in the money'...

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.