Luke Rainbird

In other Rampage news, not like Gee to f**k himself up in Utah 🙄

Looks to be pretty tidy, too. Nice work! I'd love an Elise to drop a 20vt into. Nearly bought a chassis last year but it wasn't fit for road use which stopped play, sadly. The seller of the chassis also produced wide clamshells for them, which would have been rather convenient.

Cheers for the heads up, Ben. Pinned the post to try and keep it clear for people. Of course it's bloody Birmingham...

Nice one Alex. From what I see on your socials you're smashing it out the park, really cool to see

Ah man, that's shit. If you move you might lose your internet connection and we won't be able to send each other stupid videos. House is a lovely place, I don't expect you'll struggle to sell it though with the current market might be a little more interesting than 12 months back. Welcome down this way any time mate, or we can get out on the bikes at some point for a distraction 😘

Your 20" was a lovely bit of kit 👌 (*InB4ThatsWhatSheSaid)

We're currently fixed at 1.35% until mid 2025 so we've dodged the pain of it, at least for now. I'm going to be shuffling a few things about when we move into the new place (currently a building site, though starting to put it back together!) so some extra borrowing likely unavoidable for us however the figure will be (relatively) small and by my numbers, even if rates remain high for a considerable period we should come out ok. Can't help but feel for people who are tied in at nasty rates, or having to try and toss up refixing at current levels vs the added volatility of SVRs etc.

I enjoyed my Boxx. Picked it up for almost nothing as it had a hairline crack in the BB yoke. @Alex Dark very kindly welded it over for me (I think his invoice was a 4 pack of Rekorderlig cider, from memory, what a hero) and it lasted a while with me riding it before I went back to 24" stuff. The bike felt great, but the front end always seemed a touch long for me, hence my "bike you wish you owned but never did" being a Hydroxx. The option of dual disc goodness and broadly similar geo to the Boxx but around 20mm shorter up front, from memory. I wanted one before I had the Boxx, but when the latter popped up so cheap I couldn't turn it down! I forget what changes were made between the first and second version, but the hydroformed DT etc made it a great looking bike for the time.

I'd echo the comments above - bigger wheels will likely feel less alien (I never got on with 20" even when I was riding regularly) but if you can get yourself to a local group ride I'm sure a few people would let you have a little roll about to get an initial feel for things. I just looked up "understatement" in the dictionary to check, and Adam's photo was looking back at me...

Nice one Dave, big effort that!

Great stuff mate, stoked for you.

Looking good man, nicely done. Geo looks in a similar ballpark to an early Hex, so will no doubt ride as well as it looks My old Marino was arguably the most fun bike I ever built. Sure as shit wasn't the "best" in any other respect but that's largely irrelevant if you're enjoying yourself. It got used and abused and was genuinely missed once it move on to pastures new (Paging Adam Whittingham...)

Sounds great Ads, nice one.

It's just an additional gear multiplier, surely? No different from running an enormous chainring and tiny rear sprocket, just without the packaging constraint. Fine on the flat, but ask him to get started up a steep hill and see how little pedaling effort it really is when you need torque.

Such a tease.

The timing has worked out well in terms of last year's (and still ongoing) rate rises too, presumably? Not sure if you've been on a fixed rate recently or moved onto the SVR at the end, but regardless, overpaying early not only saves interest along the way but also protects against the worst impact of the current scenario We don't overpay by as much as we probably should, in fact I've just stopped the overpayments at 1.35% to help fund the work on the new place, though we'll recommence once that's done. I hedge our bets by investing elsewhere which has worked in our favour so far, but whether it's overpaying, investing, hell even saving cash (moreso recently!) - doing something is nearly always better than doing nothing, if you are in a position to do so.

Not long now, Dave! Offer to completion in 31 days, now the hard work starts. I've spent the last couple of days doing the structural calcs to remove a wall and fit a steel, then we need to fit some form of central heating and replace a kitchen. Once that lot's done we can think about moving in and selling our current place. Neighbours seem nice. Chap next to our garage (~70) has an old Sprite as a project, a nice BMW on the drive and 3 motorbikes in the garage. Guy over the road (~75) has an old classic MG T series and a TVR Chimaera. With that in mind, they're unliklely to take issue to me tinkering - although my ratty old Golf brings down the average somewhat...

I'd echo thoughts about keeping a genuine cable, rather than the knock off ones which can be a faff. Fine if you need it once in a blue moon on a project, but not really worth the aggro for more general family use IMO. They pop up occasionally on the FB groups, and from memory there's a VCDS Users group (not sure what it's called, but something along those lines) where genuine versions are traded semi frequently for good value. They seem to depreciate to a point then hold their value, particularly the unlimited VIN version for obvious reasons. Think I paid £180 for mine (unlimited) many moons ago, then sold it for £200 a couple of years later when I didn't really need it any longer. They've also updated versions a few times over the years to cater for more modern cars. Without looking I'm not sure which generation you need, but if it's not the most recent version you may be able to save a few quid too

Better rates for lower LTV is largely just a risk thing. If you're "only" borrowing 50% of the property value then should the worst happen and the bank reposses it, they're not particularly likely to lose out even if they flog it at auction for less than it's worth to get a quick sale. If you've borrowed 95% then there's a much greater risk to them, so you pay for the privilege. Cool to hear you're almost clear and still planning to stay put, Dave. Rate fixes aside, your plans have worked out as intended from what I can remember We've been in our current place for 7.5 years now, and in a similar ilk stretched a bit to "skip a few rungs" with a 4 bed place as our first house. It's gone up in value in that time by a fair amount, which is reassuring, and we have an LTV comfortably under 50% with a 1.35% fix for a few more years so we could stay here as long as we need really. Naturally, then, we're in the process of buying somewhere else

Auto Reply Dont Spam.

Sorry, Mike can't come to the forum right now, he was having a bath and is still encased in ice.

Damnation, er, 2837 or whatever we're at now? Woo! Cheers for sharing man.

Without the spec, condition, and a handful of photos you're going to struggle to get anyone to help you, let alone to give an accurate ballpark. Pop those up and you'll likely get some useful opinions (and maybe a few less useful too!)

...and like that, the banhammer rears its ugly head and you two are gone.

Great stuff Ads, well done on the top step!