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After hi-jacking the touring equipment thread http://www.lfgss.com/thread31811-39.html I thought it would be a better idea if I started a new thread.

This thread is in no way a method to solicite donations, our Just Giving page is already closed sadly. What it is however, is a request for participants, for ideas and for charitable causes for MH2YH 2014.

By way of a quick intro let me re-hash what 9 mates and I did in early July:

Starting at one friends house (a houseboat under the Albert Bridge) we rode from London to Dover. We then relay swam across the English Channel. Then we got back on the bikes and rode to Rotterdam (via the Flushing estuary which we rowed across) and finally we ran the last 70km from Rotterdam to Amsterdam where we finished at another friends house - hence My House to Your House (MH2YH).

In all we raised around 75k for Parkinson's UK, it was a staggering amount, I was blown away. Mainly it was down to a couple of the WAGs driving a relentless PR machine that got us some decent coverage. You can see the website and videos here:

http://mh2yh.com/
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K9aoCDmBsOc

There are four 2min videos - Ride, Swim, Row and Run. Worth a peek!

We are planning on getting the MH2YH theme out to anybody that's interested, we want to make it the type of event that anyone can get involved with, be it your kids riding from one of their friends house to another friend in the next town or be it something on a much grander scale. It just has to be by man power alone.

My personal favourite is for MH2YH to go around the world over the course of a few years, alwadys starting off from where the last adventure finished, eventually winding its way back to that house boat on the Albert Bridge.

If anyone is interested to get involved, if anyone has any ideas, if anyone wants to participate on a more operational level - Please. Let. Me. know.

I want to make this BIG!

Any charity is the perfect charity, any event is the perfect event and every idea could be that perfect adventure so please don't hold back. We already have the PR machine so if you have an idea bring it to the table and let's get things going!

My super cheap winter bike project, every fall same problem, i dont have a functional winter bike (who can take 35's and fenders) :).

paint time..

and a little frontrack, looks nice with fenders and dropbars.
built from old backracks..

Atm i just wait for brakes and some small stuff to drop in..

Feck I wish I could just knock something up like this! Awesome work. Looking forward to more/better pics

Cheapest I can find is Royal mail £12.85.

Sounds reasonable. PM-ing address, let me know your details. Will square payment etc over W/E.

Of course Gandalf but it would have to be at your cost.

Want me to get a price? Where abouts are you in the world.

My cost no dramas (don't need anything fancy just snail mail!).
Singapore. 2 pieces please but need to come back to you ref size and I wont be home till the weekend... Sorry!

Interested
Can post overseas?

Cheers guys! I really just felt like I participated, the organisation from the other guys was truly epic. I would LOVE to do Alpe d'Huez, that's very much on my bucket list!

One of the stronger ideas for next year is that a new crew take over the My House To Your House Challenge from Amsterdam and end in 'x.' Then it gets taken over again and again and again... Slowly winding its way around the world, picking up hundreds of people on route and eventually, perhaps 2, 3 or maybe 5 years down the line it ends up once again at that river boat under Albert Bridge.... A nice thought, I would love to get enough support going for that....

I'm in danger of ruining a decent thread, perhaps time for a split... Mods?

We were raising money for Parkinon's UK. The idea started back during the Olympics when a couple of mates were just about to watch the beach volleyball or something. One mate - Coops - was discussing his Dad's Parkinson's and less than average care. The other mate - Oly - was disproportionately pissed off (and he does like a high horse) and was 'fuck that shit we're doing something.'

It started with the London - Paris brevet idea but morphed rapidly in to an epic Triathlon style jaunt from one mate's house (on a house boat under Albert Bridge to Oly's house in Amsterdam... My House to Your House was born. www.MH2YH.com

8 more of us were roped in and, after 9 months or so of training, we left London on the 28th June.

Ride London to Dover.
24 hours waiting in Dover for the weather window.
Split in to 2 boats, 5 on each, and relay swim across the Channel. 40km, 16hrs 37 mins and 32 seconds of swimming in 11-12.5 degree water, sans wet suits, and we arrived near Calais. It was brutally cold, jelly fish infested misery. I can quite happily say that I was nowhere near prepared but we all stuck at it, no whinning or moaning form anyone despite the best efforts of the freezing cold and sea sickness. Ultimately it was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.
Then, as I said above, we rode over to Breskens, rowed in an old fashioned wooden lifeboat across the estuary.
Back on the bikes and rode to Rotterdam...
... and then ran the final 70km in to Amsterdam. Hot day, flat but hard after the previous 3 days.

The best bit was that we raised a fuck load of money - nearly 70 grand, I was stunned, completely jaw dropping figure, all thanks to some amazing PR from a couple of the WAGs who got involved.

We are turning it to an annual event. The aim is to bring in as many people from all walks of life together for a charitable cause. You just have to get from one mates house to another mates house via manpower alone. And raise money.

Thread well and truly hi-jacked, apologies! If anyone is interested please do PM and check out the link to see the vids and stuff: http://mh2yh.com/

A couple of hours ago when I looked outside the window in uni I was eager to ditch a class and go out for a sunny ride. Five minutes later I was glad to stay in school due to a sickening downpour.

Anyway if you are taking the ferry to either Calais or Duinkerke and plan to go through the city of Vlissingen (I think its Flushing in English) dont hesitate to drop by for a cup of whatever or a place to stay for the night.

The route from the port in France through Belgium is quite nice and gives you the opportunity to visit Brugge as well. Then go north to Breskens where you can take a 20 minute ferry (very cheap) to Vlissingen, where I study.

http://goo.gl/maps/eOaiI

I did this exact route at the the end of July! I was part of a charity team, when we got to Breskens we actually rowed across the estuary.
All part of a ride from London to Dover, swim Dover to Calais (brutal) ride Calais to Rotterdam (via Flushing estuary row) then run from Rotterdam to Amsterdam. Great times.

I've missed this thread.

Build more!

Nice fondue set

^ considering the age and the fat it's been ignored I'd say that is in pretty good nick. Have you checked to see how deep the rust goes?

Yes, yes YES!

Apart from the rotor. May e if it wasn't compact it would fit better..?

Otherwise she's a beaut!

^ What's Enve in Chinese?

You know when you get your heart set on something and you become completely blind to everything else...? That seems to have happened to me with regards to the brakes.
I hadn't even considered the TRPs cos I was so busy researching the Avids that I didn't even realise they existed!

Setback post is a copy and paste job from Toms email, thanks for pointing out... I shall check.

Thomson kit... Honestly I'm at a bit of a loss here. I've got everything from IRD to One-One Midge to Bontrager to Thomson. I've never had any issues with any of it really so I am going for aesthetics over a total lack of functional knowledge....

Spec confirmed as follows:

Frame will have full touring stainless braze ons for a few years from now when I'm sensible. 44mm HT, stainless chain stays, stainless braze ons for cages and FD, external routing which I hope will mean that hydro brakes will be easy to spec in in the future and custom paint.

Fork Enve RD Disc
Hubs Chris King R45
Front Rim H+Son Archtype (black, 32)
Rear Rim H+Son Archtype (black, 32)
Spokes DT Swiss (black)
Tyres Continental 4 Seasons (25c)
Headset Chris King (Pewter sotto voce)
Stem Thomson (black) 110mm
Bars 3T Ergonova Pro (44cm)
Grips/tape Lizard Skin (black)
Shifters Athena carbon (black)
Front Mech Athena (black)
Rear Mech Athena (black)
Cranks Athena carbon
Front Brake Avid BB7 Road SL
Rear Brake Avid BB7 Road SL
Saddle TBC
Seat post Thomson elite set back (black)

I'm outside EU so negotiating VAT issues. Any massive no-nos above? I'm all ears and have time for changes...

Cheers Snicks - good find but I'll be going through Tom. His policy is to try and get the customer to get the build kit through him - yes he probably makes a small margin but considering the amount of bikes he has to sell to make a living I think that's fair enough.

Here's the build pic with the ENVE forks:

^ Agree.

So I got the first mock up from Tom yesterday.. ignore the Sram, I will be having Campagnolo to keep with current system.

Athena group
Avid BB7 SL
H+ Son Archetypes
CK road hubs
Thompson finishing kit

Should've mentioned that the 44mm HT is out the window too... Out with the new in with the old.

(And thanks for letting me use y'all as a sounding board)

Cheers Rogan. I think those pictures might have done it for me. A much as I love the Enve road fork I'm a lanky and the extended head tube with a road fork is going to look - in my opinion - unbalanced. So, CX fork it is, the shorter HT should look better and I get the option of wider tyres and guards. Looks like I've come full circle and I'm back to the Wound Up...

Rogan those Jack Brown's on your build look awesome and tempting.

Shite. Wrong attachment. The one above is my mock up (non paint mock up) any comments apart from the fact I'm a TRex.

The attachment on this post is the Donhou frame with the 44mm HT and Enve road disc fork.

Ok, so after the comments above I think I'm going to go for the 44mm Head Tube and road forks.

I'm still not totally anti the Wound Ups but what I do not want is the 'gappy' look of having a narrower road tyre in a CX fork. So looks like 44mm and road fork it is. Attached and here (http://www.donhoubicycles.com/lukes-commuter/) are a couple of Donhou examples. The attachment is a 44mm HT with the enve fork and the link is a CX fork with guards. This link is Toms Continental build with CX Wound Up forks for comparison: http://www.donhoubicycles.com/sams-continental/

So now I need to decide if I need guards or not... Aesthetically I prefer the no guards look but I want the option to add them, especially as this is essentially an Audax bike. Aftermarket eyelet additions to the Enve fork seems quite above and beyond, I have not even mentioned to Tom that others are doing it. So do I go Lynskey or Whisky... The Enve will always be an option with the 44mm HT... right...?

Chain stays will now be Stainless on the drive side. Polished or brushed... Thinking brushed.

Fork options from Tom:

Kinesis DC37 or CXD
Wound Up (various)
Enve Disc Road or CX
Lynskey Road Disc (but can be thought of as a CX fork length wise)
Whisky No.7 or No.9

^^ also a good plan...

DAMMIT Dammit!!

Hinius that's the same angel in the same guise! Still you are completely right. No point in fucking around... I've come this far.

I shall report back with news.

Micenetic that Lynksey looks like it could be the one.
I Hinius's kinesis too.

Problem is I then read the last part of Hinius' post and see the weight differences and this shitty little Weight Weenie angel pops up on my shoulder saying 'buy the Enve or this bike will be shit forever.' Bastard. I need to take stock.

Tester thanks again for that little gem, gonna email Tom now.

1. I think Wound-Ups are hideous myself, if you don't want mudguards, the Enve disc road/cyclocross fork is your solution. And even if you do want them, there are ways to bond eyelets onto Enves. Dammit is doing it with his Oak (http://www.lfgss.com/thread100699.html) and Firefly do it on their builds (e.g. http://bespokecycling.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/dream-winter-bikes.html). The other question you really want to ask is about tyre clearance (and thus, Enve disc road versus disc CX fork). My Donhou road only has clearance for 25mm tyres without guards and if I had my time again personally I would like the luxury of at least 28mms.

2. Tom's preferences are for Thomson kit. If you want matching everything, Ritchey, 3T, Enve... lots of options. Having gone through all of this several time, bar choice is very personal and barring seatpost adjustability, everything else is cosmetic ;)

3. Show us a mock up, it sounds non-tacky so that's a plus

4. Definitely recommend: wish I had done this for my Donhou road.

Weight wise: I'm 6' and 75 kg with a 56/57cm frame. Probably a very close bike design to yours with 853 pro team, Ultegra Di2 with internal battery (so quite heavy), Dura Ace SPD-SL pedals, Ritchey WCS Evocurve bars, Thomson X2 stem, Fizik Cyrano Carbon seatpost, San Marco Regal-E carbon railed saddle, Chris King R45 laced to Hed Belgium rims, 24 front 28 rear Sapim CXRay = 18 pounds.

So given your brakes, fork and bigger frame, maybe 1-1.5 pounds extra? Going by this list of groupset weights (http://fairwheelbikes.com/c/forums/topic/complete-group-weights/) you could claw some of that back if you were partial/amenable to SRAM Red . You'll probably feel the weight difference mainly in your head, but regardless from my experience I can pretty much guarantee you a really smooth and fast ride.

1. The ability to take 28mm would be a pref. Will look at bonding eyelets but whatever happens this has to look good. I do not want some Blue Peter badge effort, with egg cartons and glue everywhere.

2. As you say, it's cosmetic... Yet it's also ridiculously time consuming! I think I'll end up going Thompson, we'll see...

3. Mock up on its way as soon as I have.

4. Confirmed what I was thinking. Done.

Weight wise if I can keep it below 10kg I'll be very happy. As you said, it's in the head.

Great info, many thanks!