BigDL

I've ordered one for delivery 23 September. I have the benefit of staff discount so thought it was worth a try. Looks like a massive step into the serious sports watch market and I am looking forward to trying it out. I do have the benefit of staff discount so am not paying full price, but I'm keen to try it out. Compared to the Fenix 7, it's financially a no brainer, although doesn't have the same battery life.

The saw is a Dewalt - Doesn't cut all the way through the slab, but deep enough (maybe 80%) for me to finish off with a handheld saw. That benchdogs site is a treasure trove. Need to finish this project though before I start thinking about what else I can do. Having some challenges with the Belt sander with a 120 grain belt, jumping a bit. Have moved to my small Makita sander to see if that's better

Good video - thanks

In theory, yes, but my mates use my trailers regularly and nobody changes plates. Cops don't seem to care at all ref trailers

Trailers here are unregulated so don’t need to be registered. You’re supposed to use your car details on your trailer for traffic cameras and stuff. I’ve got three trailers, all with my car reg on (actually my wife’s car 😂).

Them and their ilk are truly the Antichrist of lending. They prey on desperate people and tie them into such massive interest amounts that they basically force them to keep taking loans every month and paying more massive interest.

😂 that's a full length box - bad angle and bad photographer. Was some fun getting that piece out of the trailer when I got it home. Involved a tractor with a fork attachment, chains and a "creative" approach to Health and Safety.

I got one from a guy on FB marketplace - still in the box, maybe 50% of retail. Still had to halve the price if anyone at home asked what it cost.

Started a project to build an outdoor counter a while back and finally decided to use a big hunk of live edge wood as the counter top. So, went last week and bought a 4 metre length of Cyprus to start working on. My mate turned up on the weekend with some tools for me to use, one of which was a track saw. Never used one before, but they are amazing. Was going to use the chainsaw but the track saw was precise and super neat. Now I can't stop thinking about why I need one.

Battery - Can't go wrong. My Makita is the business

Lol - Was cutting back some (very thick and invasive) ivy with mine on the weekend. My wife asked why I wasn't using the hedge cutter - first answer was "because I have a chainsaw".

I entered a 5 day mtb event in Italy in 2020, which was cancelled due to covid. Cost per person, including mechanical support, bike cleaning, hotel accommodation (not sharing) , pasta party each night and hotel breakfast / food stops etc, was around 400 Euros. Medal and a t-shirt at the end. Edited to correct price. Was less that I had remembered.

Not really comparing Apples with Apples though - Sani is mostly single track that is purpose built. Local communities are paid to man feed stops and cater the overnight stops, which, when I last did it, were exceptional food. Local Schools and community groups are financially supported as well. Munga, which is an awesome concept imo, is on existing roads / tracks and requires far less infrastructure than Sani

I have a massive barn / Farm shed, but have managed to fill it with trailers and ***. Have a small gym area for the turbo trainer and the rower, a workshop area and about 4 million tons of wood that Ive cut and stored, which seems to grow every time a tree goes down, which seems to be happening quite often due to Ash dieback disease. My biggest issue is getting time and weather to organise the space, but that hasn't stopped me continuing to fill it

Decided to do something I never thought that I could and build the counters and cupboards for my outdoor kitchen. Watched a lot of YouTube last week and built the frame for the main piece on the weekend. started off using a handsaw and then my jigsaw, but couldn't get consistency or straight edge (with the jigsaw). So took the plunge and bought a Mitre Saw. So useful and suddenly more projects seem possible to me. 54FF2E98-4784-445E-9534-73992B30CE02.heic54FF2E98-4784-445E-9534-73992B30CE02.heic

Stunning

They probably needed to ups the price in order to be able to replace the item. Presumably the wholesale price has jumped.

Similar - I'll pack the boot full of loose items rather than keep buying bags. They're awful things

This debate about same factory, same quality, is one that has always frustrated me. I spent some years in the UK and Ireland setting up recycling strategies and programs for various manufacturers and, as a result, spent days at time on factory floors, following the production processes from beginning to end. Without exception, in food facilities, the no name discount brand and the Marks & Spencer stuff, followed very different processes and had different ingredients. I also spent some years buying fitness equipment at scale for health club chains in the UK and in South Africa, where balancing price, quality and longevity is critical. I visited lots of factories in China where big brand names were produced in the same factory as lesser known or budget brands. There was a massive difference, in most cases, in everything from quality of materials through to quality control. Thus, when I'm in a shop and the salesman says to me "Brand X comes out of the same factory as Brand Y, but you are paying for the name", I am dubious

Those look brilliant

I would amend that to - Buying a new car with a massive balloon payment at the end of 5 years which forces people to either give the car back and buy another or to take out another finance agreement to pay the balance makes a new car just about affordable for most people in lots of countries, if you want a medium sized car anyway.

Sharing- Not paying a fortune extra to have my own tent , especially as I am doing the event with my son.

To be fair, I'm paying R19k for 2 for three days of Sani2C next year. Extrapolating that to 7 days gets me to R45k, so it's not that different per day to Sani. I personally wouldn't pay that to ride my bike for 7 days, but it is within a few hundred rand a day of the price of Sani

Good point - wrong bike, sell it in a year or two and try something else.

Thank you so much for the thoughts. Makes a lot of sense. Think the "what do you want to do with it" question is the biggest for me as well and I'm quite stuck. We're in a position from next year where the kids will probably be doing their own thing in the summer, so we will be having a holiday as a just a couple for the first time in 21 years, so I'm really keen to get a bike that's comfy for two, pack the panniers, chuck on a tent and head to Europe for 3 weeks next June, with no real agenda other than to explore some remote places. At the same time, I want the capability to go and ride trails here on the weekends and ride to work occasionally as I don't have a car. That's the thinking anyway. In reality, riding much in Winter is unlikely as the weather is so *** here, so the bike is likely to sit in my barn for most of Winter. Trying to maintain and manage a smallholding and a cycling habit and a job in Summer is fairly hectic, so I am unsure of how much time I would have to galavant about on a bike during the good months. What I'd hate to do is buy an all singing all dancing bike and then not use it for much other than commuting, so I need to decide before I cough up £12-14k.