Hedging against future inflation rises.

On 25th of March an opportunity to purchase a Fairlight Faran was brought to my attention on the popular "ebay dot com" trading platform.

As you will all know, the Bank of England has increased the base interest rate from 0.5% to 0.75% with the possibility of further rises. Due to continued geopolitical instability, high energy prices as well as the ongoing effects of the novel coronovirus we can expect to see strong headwinds to growth and the risk of a "stagflationary" market.

With this in mind, the 0% "pay in 3" option available from paypal dot com meant that failing to buy a post mount post gravel pdf core tory green "steel is real" big clearance low trail all terrain bicycle frame for the low low price of #650 would actually be financial suicide, so my hand was forced.

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The frame hasn't arrived yet, so my mind turns to where exactly this bike should be placed in my current portfolio which currently consists of:

2015 CDF with hydro 105, 38c all rounds, mudguards "all rounder"
Brother Big bro XC tyres, dynamo set up "bikepacking" "rig" (have been bikepacking once)
Overpriced BMX with disc brakes
And then various commute weapons which probably don't come into the equation.

The main question is, should I try and cannibalise parts from the CDF to go onto the faran (Could take most of them except the brakes) or should I build it up as a new bike somewhere between the CDF and the Big Bro or some third option...650b 2.1 tyres... idk. I'm pondering.

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Overpriced BMX with disc brakes

can always get rid of this

rubs hands

Need to keep multiple wheel sizes on hand to ensure balanced exposure to market forces.

With this in mind it has to be 27.5 surely?

Having both and 29r and 700c

Yes but 27.5 is dead so...it's a hard call to make. Probably easy to find cheap wheelsets for at least.

Faran does at least have good 27.5 clearence up to 2.4 or something so you aren't stuck with 650 x 43mm boutique gravel tyres.

I’d pay to see you trundling down to BA and the coffee shop on 2.4” treaded war rig, in which you confidently inform the staff you might take “the bridal path home”, before ultimately ending up back on the sofa by 3pm

I also have an edelux front light "in a box" so I should really put that on, so I'm going to need a dynamo front wheel.

The bridal path home from BA is pretty savage.

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Seems like the Faran allows you to sell both the CDCF and the Big Bro. That would be my choice as I hate belongings.

A fine opening gambit, but surely easier to admit you've bought a frame you didn't actually need and enjoy it. 'Because i wanted it' is justification enough. You can spend the energy saved on the build ;)

I’d argue self flagellation is actually a green, renewable energy source which can be stored, generated and released at any time.

After the overpriced BMX, I'm interested to see where this goes...

A strong hypothesis, how does it compare to, say, wind power efficiency-wise?

If I sold anything it would be the CDF, the Big Bro is indispensable for the 4 nights a year I "get out there" and do some "serious bike pack ing" aka NCN to the Premier Inn.

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Most amusing thread. Keep this up forum!
Don't underestimate the market creating even more complex 'wants'.
I'd say, Belagerent, that you are only at the starting point of the process.

Yeah i figured it could do just that :)

With its 650b 2.4s or whatever

Sounds like my kind of bike packing. Is that NCN 21?

It's the King Alfred's Way entering Farnham. Great Premier Inn. Highly recommend.

Some people make mood boards some people fire up org-mode.

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Feeling very seen by this comment.

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Premier Inn CTC

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Bike packing bikes in Budget hotels. A new coffee table book from Taschen

Multi day hotelpacking

Hope RX4 has strong fundamentals and a good outlook. (Hope sell the o-rings so I won't have to bin the caliper if it starts leaking, looking at you BRS-785)

There was a buy opportunity earlier today which I capitalised on. The aesthetic of this build is now "eBay", much like my wardrobe

I used the money I saved to buy that stupid £20 + £5 shipping plastic dynamo mount from the Fairlight website:

Has anyone else noticed that middle aged straight men will literally pay anything for a bit of M5 threaded spaff that will hold their dynamo light at the "optimal" position? You literally cannot charge us enough. I don't know why people bother getting into frame building. Buy a 3D printer and a Udemy Sketchup course, start charging suckers 40 bucks per mount. I promise they will pay. When you show one of us a p-clip we start talking like one of the androids from the Westworld reboot and say "Doesn't look like anything to me"

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GRX is trading pretty high right now. Seems like people are looking for any port in a storm, but at the prices they're buying there's basically no room for growth. I can't count the amount of auctions I've had to pull out of because they got too rich for my blood. I'm growing impatient though. At least I'm not targeting a 1x build.

Still need RD and most importantly, shifters.

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