Good tip on Skype, thanks, use that at the moment to call international from home computer.

Wife will be using my mob to call home too so definitely looks like the vodafone £5 deal is the way to go. I guess I shouldn’t be so tight, will no doubt end up spending like a drunken sailor on this trip anyway.

Many thanks for the help!

Great, sounds worth a go. I’ve got a box of o rings that might do the job if that one breaks. Many thanks for your help with this one!

Thanks for that guys, I think I’ll give the caliper swap idea a try and then we can change the pistons and seals on the original caliper if that doesn’t work out. Have looked for an exploded diagram that shows if there’s a seal on that hose fitting but no luck.

Can you just unscrew one caliper and then screw the other one on? Never taken a hose off at that junction before, always been at the handlebar end with olives etc.

And yes, fluid is leaking past one of the pistons in the rear caliper. Brake still works ok-ish but not for long I don’t think.

Too tight to get rid of them (yet) :-) but Shimano might be an option in future. I got some nearly new Elixir 9s very cheap for my SJ recently and they work pretty well I have to say.

Mrbelowski, thanks for the link, that’s a very low price for the service kit. I did look at the manual to see how hard it was to pop the pistons out and change the seals but the need to use compressed air put me off. Is there a simple way to do that with a foot pump or similar?

Rivendale down towards Ashbourne isn’t exactly a hidden gem (it’s huge) but it has all the family facilities, playpark etc plus off-road cycle and walking trails close by.

Was looking at the Experia M myself but the new SD card version of the Moto G sounds perfect, what do you reckon to using that as a GPS on the bike? Any downsides? Only one I can think of is battery life might be a bit short.

Thanks for that too, will have a think and do some trawling. Matt also kindly emailed me to say that M570 crankset will do the job and should be 8-speed compatible. They do look pretty similar to the old ones and also a good price.
Ebay link

Nice one, that looks just the job. Any other suggestions very welcome – maybe something lighter I guess – but the 7/8 speed compatibility, same gearing and low price look pretty good to me.

Many thanks!

Was dodgy in 1995, must be shocking now. Girlfriend at the time didn’t enjoy the trip much.

Fair point on virtual machine – I guess what I meant to say was – a Mac mapping app that can open .qct files.

Thanks for all that folks, will have a look at Route Buddy and maybe persevere with the OS site as it does what I want it to do without having to pay a packet for new mapping – tho being able to run it all locally at a decent clip would attractive.

I’m another one using an ancient version of Memory Map on an equally ancient PC, dream solution would be some way to use all those UK 1:25k maps from MM over on the Mac…

Thanks, have installed and had a go as a trial. So far, the site is extremely slow to redraw after zooming and panning, not something I could use as it stands. Maybe it speeds up if you have a paid service!

Another 5p worth. The 2.0 petrol engine is beautiful but it wants to/needs to rev and isn’t great for pulling a tank like the FRV. Diesel for sure the nicer engine in the FRV, loads of low down grunt and better economy – made my choice as soon as I drove one. **But** they are flawed engines – Honda’s first diesel – have a google around on iCTDi problems.

Our clutch went at 30k and the friction plate was changed under warranty (in last month of cover thankfully). But then started slipping again 15k later and Honda didn’t want to know. Definitely helps with fuel economy tho :-) Turbo been whining for a while too, been reading the manual lately…

Mind you, I do know of one that is up to 90k on original clutch and trouble free.

Great on the motorway and for filling with bikes and camping kit – we’ve had some fine trips in it.
But the width makes driving on narrow streets a pain, plus the rear view is very restricted. We’ve had two reversing, er, incidents in ours. Voted UK’s most accident-prone car in 2011.
Survey
The handling is ok for a family box though it’s a heavy beast. Our diesel ok-ish on fuel but friends’ 1.7 and 2.0 petrol versions drink it – low 30s round town if you’re careful.
Reliability dodgy on the diesel (badly designed clutch slips and wears out double quick and other issues like breaking camchains and blown turbos). The rest of our car has been ok bar an intermittent earth fault.
Would prob go for a Toyota Verso if could make the choice again.

+1 for Zen, been with them for 10 years. Happens very rarely but when I have to pick up the phone to them, service is best I’ve ever had from any company. Two of us working from home, got to have broadband up and running. So I can comment on threads like this at 11.20am when I should be working :-)

Was with BT for a year or two at the start of broadband roll-out – never again.

Or you can buy zip pullers in places like Tiso or Nevisport, not sure about other chains

That last photo has sold it to me, time for a skive and a ride down Cut Gate from the north I think, forecast is ok too.

Was out there yesterday and the trails are great, even though I was probably riding in the wrong direction. Still a fair bit of work to do by the opening date, will be superb when finished. The skills section is completely done, looks spot on and was being well used already, though I didn’t have the desire to go round it on my narrow-tyred commuter boneshaker.

And thanks to STW reader Chris – we had a word while rambling round the new tracks and he pointed me in the direction of some other interesting trails nearer to me – nice one!

Hope Clayton Vale turns out as good as that Sheffield track looks

Just to echo the thanks for the warning – and has anyone had a look at how the other trail in Clayton Vale are coming along? Mid-may opening apparently. Mancs is becoming the capital of inner city MTB.

Will try carrying both ways round, think I’ve been using the top tube method on the few occasions I’ve done this so far. Funny that I’ve had the bike for a year and half but never carried it for more than a minute, I need to do more XC routes in the Lakes and Scotland.

Am still thinking about a strap between headstock and seat post/top of rear triangle that would let me carry it over my shoulder though. Bit of elastic sewn into the strap would stop it flapping about too much. Got an old bag strap that would do.

Though I did see a few posts on cyclocross forums deriding this idea. Someone used to sell “cyclocross carrying slings” on ebay, now unavailable – what does that tell us?

Cheers for the advice, old woman-style it is!

Looks like we won’t be doing Conic Hill then. I’ll go back and do it another time. Or maybe not.

Thanks for those, some way to keep one hand free is what I’m looking for as we’ve got the dreaded N end of Loch Lomond to contend with, some rocky messing about for some miles.

Ta for heads up on Conic Hill, hadn’t checked route status yet – going at Easter weekend, not a great time to do it perhaps.

Another snow question – any around Greenfield? Is a great sledging run near there.

Anywhere near Manchester?

EKGZVUGX and Z2SATCY2 for a tenner off min spend of £75, fresh and unused

Liked both books. Bring up the Bodies def easier to read than Wolf Hall which did take a fair bit of concentration – so recommend OP has a go at the sequel.

Last two: Death of a Penguin, which was great and currently The Book of Daniel which is taking a lot more concentration but top quality so far.

Also in South Mancs and there’s a lot of bike nicking going on at the moment. A ground anchor thru the shed floor, best chain you can afford and some kind of loud alarm like agentd recommends seems like the way to go. I’ve got 2 out of those three…

Some cracking bikes lurking on here.

Had this old VTR for 10 years, fitted the later (big) tank, fuel pump, Maxton shock, rebuilt forks and got rid of the horrible red screen. Bar the twice-yearly Scotland tour, am struggling to find a reason to use it these days.

This one went to fund a new MTB last year, lots of fun while it was here.

Good post, not a lot of room for anything to go wrong on that track, you’d be feeling like a ball in a pinball machine if you came off.

on a trip to Rome back in the late 90s, we were running late for the train to the clubs out on the coast about 20km away. As we walked out onto the platform, the train started moving and we started running. I belted down the platform and just managed to jump onto the step of the last door, then looked back down the platform to see my mates gawping at me – they’d given up long since. Then I tried the door – locked – shit! and then looked forward to see the front of the train disappearing into a tunnel at the end of the long platform. As i started to panic and tried to make myself one with the door, the guard thankfully pulled the cord and the train stopped with just the last couple of carriages on the platform.

had to take a bollocking from the guard, well worth it, was glad he’d seen me…

Islabikes way too expensive secondhand — our girl’s Spesh Hot Rock 20″ – £105 for an immaculate secondhand one off Gumtree.

That very first pic of the BM carrying the MTB – are there any pix from the other side where you can see the mounting rack?

Been wanting to carry a MTB on my old Firestorm for years, despite the hassle involved. Motorbike acts as family spare car (at least that’s my excuse) so acting as bicycle transport could make it a bit more relevant – it hardly leaves the garage these days since i started working from home.

Just to echo the warnings above, we have the 2.2 CTDi engine in our 07 FR-V: new clutch under warranty at 42k and 25k later it’s slipping badly again – but now well out of warranty… Turbo whining and getting louder too. It’s a lovely engine to drive but it sure does have a few weak points.

The bogs are full for sure but the rest was glorious, nice to have enough energy to ride most of the, er, cyclable bits. Did it before as part of the big loop round via Glossop and was too knackered to clean all those rocky bits on the way back over from N America.

Looking dry on Friday…