Mileage means very little on a VW, they’re as likely to crap out at 30k as they are at 300k.

If you get a good one that wasn’t assembled on a Friday afternoon you can get a long time out of them.

What’s the executive summary of that video so I don’t have to watch it?

No advice as such but a few years ago I kept getting a damp hand using my work mouse and put it down to sweating on my palm so kept looking for a replacement that had a more breathable finish. Turns out the batteries were leaking and I had been getting the acid on my hand for weeks.

Anyway sorry I can’t be of much more help.

Yep. Can’t really think of anything to do with them because the weather is so uninspiring.

It’d be interesting to see how well a contactless “honesty box” pay station mounted at the trailhead would do if it was ringfenced for trailbuilding and maintenance.

Not many would truly believe it would be ring fenced or spent appropriately. Honesty has to work both ways.

That’s just a Catch-22 argument.

“Oh the trails are shit, I’m not paying to park and ride.”

Next trail centre management meeting:
“revenue from our car parking is down 20% even though usage remains constant, we need to put the prices up and we also have insufficient funds this quarter to drain / resurface The Gnarpoon Trail”.

Repeat ad infinitum.

It’s also how any business works, people won’t pay if the product doesn’t feel worth it. If you link parking revenue to trail maintenance, then it is a business and a product.

If you don’t link them, then the argument over people not paying it becomes invalid anyway.

The amount of very expensive cars with racks, parked in any nearby layby of any popular MTB trail head is shameful

Maybe, although i think it is fairly well known or at least the impression is that you’re paying for parking but that revenue isn’t put back into trail creation or maintenance anyway so is it really that shameful?

It can sometimes feel like you’re paying to use dilapidated trails and subsidising the building of new Zog trails or Gruffalo sculptures which just feels like you’re having the piss taken out of you.

Just go back to flats again if it worked for so many years.

I don’t think we have enough personally but I like riding my bike and I like new places so why wouldn’t I think that?

The issue isn’t too many new trails it’s too little funding.

Does the AP have form for pulling photos that have been photoshoppped

News agencies like Reuters and AP won’t publish altered photographs as it undermines the validity of the source and story. I’m surprised this photo went as long as it did before being pulled given how bad it is.

Loan to value ratios are typically a lot lower on commercial mortgages so value would need to drop substantially to put them in the sub-prime category.

Exit: not sub prime, negative equity.

There is no good quality research confirming any positive effects.

I just leave them on the car (aero bars). Doesn’t cost much in fuel or sound that intrusive.

They are a bit ‘instant gratification’ for me as most people can achieve a level of fitness on a leg bike that allows them to do more laps, climb quicker and go farther in their normal riding locations.

But I so appreciate I am far from the norm as I am in a position where I’ve purposely built my life around removing as many restrictions on my time as possible like choosing not to have children and a job that allows me to get out riding multiple times a week every week.

Yeah I have a lot less positivity for the future coated to a few years ago. That then impacts on the present because I often feel it’s pointless trying to work towards far off goals.

It’s probably baseless but it’s hard to push away from that kind of thinking and I reckon it’s more prevalent in our society at the minute so it feeds on itself amount groups.

Separate room

Maybe wait until April or May – it’s that time of year where public bodies have to spend their money or lose it so surfacing is an easy win. Most tarmac contractors I know are busy now but I reckon if you went back out and got quotes in a month’s time you’d get better prices.

“Google Authenticator would be way to technical for them”

That’s just laziness/ignorance frankly, 5 minutes showing how to would be more than enough for intelligent people to grasp it.

That sounds positive, I bet it depends on the operative who turns up and how reasonable they are.

Yes, that thread. Sadly I can’t get at any of the belts without taking the cover off which is locked in by the fuel filter housing and coolant tank, both of which need to be removed to access it!

Found too many threads online explaining a similar noise that resulted in the aux belt or timing belt going due to a known issue with the tensioners that I can’t feel comfortable with continuing to use the car and risking valves starting to hit pistons! It did also come up with a cam sensor error so something isn’t working right even if the noise is nothing.

Fair enough, i will ring them and ask anyway but the garage is only ten miles away so if 50-75 quid is more likely the cost of a local recovery company that isn’t as bad as i expected.

Boring

That’s not the case, you can import any gpx file to Garmin connect quite easily.

It is handled better in other countries where teams of crack repairers are constantly out filling cracks with sealer as they appear. It’s a relatively cheap and easy/fast process as it’s just a liquid sealer that gets poured and it prevents freeze thaw action in the cracks causing them to develop further into potholes.

Local authorities need to have teams constantly on rounds like bin collections and litter picking to carry this out.

In terms of actually repairing what’s there, you can’t really do much better than they are now even with huge amounts of money. As has been stated there just isn’t the availability of surfacing plant, planing equipment, operatives and aggregate quarries to fix what’s there in a quick fashion, and closing that many roads in a condensed period causes absolute chaos for motorists.

Yes, B8 estate.

Bugger. Tried a few independent VW garages around here and all booked up for at least two weeks and suggested I probably shouldn’t be driving it in the mean time.

Given it has some other annoyances and recent repairs I’ve already shelled out for I’m extremely tempted to just cut my losses and trade it in…

I hate the stuff that comes on new chains, it’s really sticky and you end up attracting a mess of dirt and grit really fast. I also find it to be noisy in use. I always remove it from the surface as best I can and add my own lube.

It looks a bit frustrating to get the cover off to inspect the belts as there’s a lot of hoses and pipes going past it. Knowing my luck I’d break a connection trying to move them and cause a bigger problem!

No idea if the tensioner was done along with the belt – it seems to come as part of the timing belt kit so you’d assume so but you never know.

Timing belt and water pump were changed one year ago but doesn’t mean they were installed properly I suppose.

Came for the advice, stayed for the puns.

It’s due a full service soon so I’ll bring that forward and ask them to check the noise out while they’re on.

Since it’s a VW I’ll preemptively phone the bank manager to let them know they won’t be needing to look after my cash anymore for a while.

Gravel bike, no kids, and a very accommodating fiancée helps.

Brighton etc parts of the Kent coast etc would have nuclear devices buried in the earth to surprise any landing parties.

What would that supposedly achieve? Kill the first landing party plus all of your own defenses then leave it wide open for all the subsequent waves of amphibious landings?

Have been on and off them for years. They keep me regulated at a sensible baseline that I can use to work in other therapeutic practices on top of without letting things get too low.

Some people benefit from talking therapies, CBT etc but I never did.

I ride everything on it from full reds, xc, and long 240 mile one hit gravel and road routes. It will take just about anything. I also bike pack on it.

That sounds great to be fair. Does it feel ‘sluggish’ at all or is it fairly spritely?

Thanks, that does sound close to the balance I’m looking for. I’ll keep an eye on the weight on the stock builds, not a weight weenie though as I’d be loading it up with frame bags a lot of the time anyway.

More money gives more flexibility to a point. You can make more secure long term financial decisions which can sometimes be more cost efficient in the long run, you’re given access to more and cheaper credit, can contribute to a better pension and/or retire earlier, can afford more durable long lasting goods etc.

It’s expensive being poor is an often used phrase.

That being said of course there is a balance and working 25 hours a day and spending it all on coping purchases is pointless.

If you already have it try it out and see? It’s not like you’re buying it.

Pretty normal I think, unfortunately. You might be able to find specialist cover for the duration of the work though.

Something doesn’t look right, it looks like you’d need very short legs to fit on that.

I think being a nomad means that none of them fit?

I thought it meant wandering from one party to the next, like a nomad wandering the land? Not necessarily that none of them fit, just that at different times, difference parties are the best fit.