Boot is too small on the 5 series. Considered and dimissed, same as a Audi A6 avant.

Driving enjoyment is subjective, i tend to get in the car, listen to some tunes and get to where im going. I get my thrills from riding, not from driving.

Here what your saying trekster (i believe it was yourself that posted a pic of a bike in the boot of a touran, was it not?) but i lost a bit of confidence in VW after having a couple of them.

In three years time the peugeot will be worth around 7k, id have thought, based on the used prices of 3 year old cars at present. Not entirely worthless.

Cheers fellas, all good info.

Interested to hear more or your experiences Barbus,when i had a poke around the 308 it seemed to be of similar build quality to my current car (Audi A2). I’m very sad to have replace the A2, with one child it was managable to use, but with two it will be a bit of a problem (certainly for what i use a car for anyway).

We found that getting them involved with chosing the potty when you buy it helped. Keeping it around the house for a while helped too. Let them play with it for a while before you attempt to use it in anger. It might help to have your child play with other children that are potty trained, at least it seemed to help our daughter. We pretty much let our daughter decide when she was ready, just after her second birthday, she was runing around the garden “bumfree” and ran up to teh potty, did her thing and walked of. Made a big fuss of it, lots of cheering and such like, she been fine eversince. The poos can be a bike more work, it freaked our daughter out a bit, which is not uncommon.

I’ve got a rear Exilir brake that has been used on a friends commuter and im buggered if i can get the pads to fit. It looks like the pistons aren’t retracted enough, but they wont go any further in. The actual faces of the pistons look mullered though, almost corroded in fact. Not the first time ive had issues with avid hydro’s.

I fell down the stairs when i was about 14 months and fractured my skull. Go me.

We only had one at the top of the stairs, simply because the daughters room is opposite the stairs. She’s been able to use stairs from about 18 months, only accident she had was when carrying her potty upstairs. As others have said, go with when you feel its right. For instance, we have never bothered with keeping her out of the kitchen, since she only played with the saucepans or helped her self to ceral. Her cousin on the other hand, i wanted to put him in the chiken run after about 2 minutes.

Aye, if its the same funny connector that used on the K800, then the connector probably needs a good clean. I guess the pins can get so gummed up with filth that it confuses things. It was a regular occurence when my daughter kept chewing the phone, eventually the pins corroded through.

Having just read the thread about high rollers and you not noticing your brakes being swapped over, your not putting the elbow pads on your knees and your knee pads on your elbows are you?

Yunki = TJ wannabe

Thing i find amusing, contrary to TJ’s personal belief that he is immune to the effects of branding and marketing, he’s given a couple of examples where he has been influenced by both.

Ad also like to ask why TJ uses bold to highlight certain text? It couldn’t possibly be to make it stand out amoungst other letters, because its just letters after all, isn’t it TJ?

This a bit like watching a boxing match between a high ranked fighter and an unknown fighter. At first, your rooting for the underdog, but as the fight progresses, the underdog gets beaten to a pulp. Yet he still keeps getting up. Eventually the crowd starts to call for the fight to end, not because they are rooting for the underdog, but because they dont want to see someone killed.

This is the point we have reached. TJ, you’ve have been KO’d by the likes of jacketdog on at least 3 occasions, yet you still keep chugging away.

To be fair to TJ, given that he forgot about an incident where a airline damaged his bike and was preparing to defend them untill another forum member reminded him of the incident, he probably can’t remember when he was influenced by marketting gumpf, therefore in his own mind he is right.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7152054.stm

No idea if that works or not, but thats just one reference to the origins of the red santa. Red was the most poplular colour to represent the character, from about the 4th century it appears. Looks like you cant credit CC with making the other colours redundent, it was aleady the most popular colour. CC just made it so sooner.

Aye, i did molgrip and i wasn’t questioning that CC made red santa more popular, i was challenging the belief that CC came up with the idea.

Then QI need to do a bit more research, CC did not make santa red. They promoted it, for sure, but he was dipicted as wearing red long before CC adopted the figure. I’d post links an’ stuff, but ive no idea how. Google it if you can be bothered.

You do relaize that cola did not invent the red santa, dont you? The red santa pre-dates the cola product by some 30 years or so.

I find it weird how some vegitarians claim to be vegetarians, but eat fish/chicken/bacon on occasions.

I was under the impression that vegitarians abstain from all meat. If not, then your not vegetarian IMO. Apprecaite that there might be the the occasional lapse via accident/nessecity, but to voluntarily eat meat on an infrequent basis, means your a meat eater, i think.

Mmmm, i ride from Winchester area and can get 650 metres of ascent in about 19 miles. Head a bit further East into the heart of the South Downs and i can get over 1000m of ascent in a similar distance, no problem. This is going by a Garmin 705/800 data, mind.

I think the terrain makes a big difference though, riding in the peaks was a bit more demanding than the South Downs with respect to the terrain.

Unless you are talkig about road riding, which makes that comment irelevent.

Got to say there’s a serious breach of ettiquette here, threads involving TJ should go along the lines:

1)Dis-agreement between TJ and another person or persons develops.
2)TJ backs up his side with interntery based facts.
3)TJ shoehorns a reference to how Scotland is better than England in order to support his argument.
4)Person or person(s) start throwing insults at TJ.

Could we try and get this thread back on to the correct format please?

So everytime a dog is let off the lead there is a victim? Come on, thats being a bit OTT, dont you think?

Got to log off in a mo so, time to go home and ride (Yay). Not trying to wind you up TJ, end of the day we all break laws every single day and we can all justify them somehow or another. We just apply a bit of reason to the situation, balance the risks v the outcome and generally do what we want based on our morals. I suspect the legallity of the action has little bearing on a majority of our minor transgressions.

So presumably, if richc (and other dog owners) admits to the legalty of letting his dog loose, but continues to do it thats okay then?

I notice from a prevoius post TJ that you state that you legally ride off road, and yet you can dimiss your “legal obligation” to obey the rules of the road when it comes to the red light debate. Whilst it may be different context, you chose to break the law because it suits you, however you cut it.

Can some-one hnd me a spoon?

Ahh yes spoon, migets start out lightweight but after you’ve have had to weld the sills/wheel arches/etc for the nth time, your carrying an extra few hundred kg of metal anyway 🙂

Dont think the miget will work out to well on the dog/canoe transport thing either. Of those failiure you mentioned, only one applies to the 206 and on all the diesel cars ive had, i have yet to change a single injector.

My wife has a diesel 206 SW and its a great car. Its 2002 car, in 6 years of ownership the only problem its had has neen a anti-roll bar drop link needed replacing. All of £10 and 30 mins work to replace. Does very good MPG, usually around 55 mpg, although computer usually states less than the actual for some reason. Journeys are around 20miles, during maternity leave the journeys were shorter at around 5 miles, mainly for just pottering around and the MPG average dropped to 49mpg. Its a good engine, far smoother than the diesel in my audi. It’s not a particulery big car, despite the estate looks, but the missus loves it and is on the midget scale too.

Servicing wise, change the oil/filter once a year. No different to a petrol. Cam belt, anywhere from 60,000 upto 90,000 depending on the type of driving done. The only oddity with the cambelt is that the manual states to use a device to measure the precise tension. Talking to people in the trade, its rarely if ever used. Often recomended to change the water pump at the same time.

No DPF on the 206 to worry about, no Dual mass Flywheel either. Mechanically, the 206 diesel lump seems to be sound. I have my doubts about the electrics, but they have proved sound so far. Overall the car is a bit “baggier” than a simliar aged German car. I.E the gear change is a bit loose, but thats about the only fault i can level at it.

As for the diesel v petrol thing, i sat down and worked it out for the my car, the diesel was about £500 more to buy over the same spec petrol (im talking second hand btw). The annual running costs of the diesel was about £400 less, based on 10,000 miles a year. That was based on 50 mpg for the diesel and 40mpg for the petrol. I usually average 55mpg in the Audi, but i have got 75mpg on a couple of occasions, so the actual figure is a bit less.

Cant say ive noticed that feeling, if anything id say the mid range was too soft. As stated above i dont find the backend the limiting factor, its very plush whatever i seem to do. Im still runing the RP23 mind, which by all accounts does tend to give up its mid range travel quite readily.

I’d contant a local bee keeper, who’d would be more than happy to relocate them for you. If its a trully wild colony, then its a rare thing to come across.

Simpsons quote pretty much sums my feelings on the matter, going back to the Naar example, did he communicate with the dying man at all?

Not sure but i think the David Sharp fella was a from New forest area. Sure my hairdresser knew him.

Even poorer taste…..

What you lost your food on the way up, and your pass one of the fallen climbers. Your climbing buddy says to you “I saw this film once, called Alive…..”

Thats why im asking Coffeking, i have visions of this Naar fella sitting in his tent, cup of brew in his hand all snug in his sleeping bag like when he made the comment. I fully appreciate that is far from the truth, but on the face of it the decision to just let the guy get on die with no attempt to offer comfort seems a bit callous.

I’d like to know a little bit more about the situations where people have heard other climbers calling out for out for help and just left them. Any one care to enlightem me? The situation must have been dire for them to leave, as had been said thats going to play with your head somewhat.

I here what your saying northwind, I only really looked at the fatalaties when I quoted that figure. Reading around the subject shows that long term illness raises the cost of health care tremendously. My father has diabetes, among other things, and I get the feeling that he would long been out on the scrap heap had he been in the states. I do get the impression the Americans have an “I’m alright jack” attitude. Present company excluded, busydog. Thanks for contributing to the thread btw, interesting to have your views here.

And again LHS, this doesn’t happen in the US system then?

I dont think the argument is about whether medical treatment is free under the NHS, we all know its not. Its about whether an induvidual has the right to adequate health care, whether they can afford it or not.

The figure i read is quoted as 44’000 amercain people dying anually beacuse they don’t have medical cover. They died because they didnt have the coin. That is shameful for a developed country.

Should add that figure come from wikipedia, so could be way off. Its under teh entry for “health care in the United States” under teh heading “death”. 40% chance of dying because you can’t afford to recieve timely health care. Nice.

29 million people manage to avoid paying tax altogether in the uk? Wow….what about VAT, Fuel tax, council tax, etc?

Can you count the people over 65 that have retired? Surely they have contributed to the NHS at some point have they not? Do you pay tax on your pension? I thought you did, but may be wrong.

Cheers trekster, should of asked at the time how big the frame was in that picture, reckon the biggest bike i have will fit in there, if i dont mind the odd oily mark on the pillars.

PJM1974, pretty much what i was afraid of with the big citreon. Not convinced that the grand picasso is as good as honest johns website says it is.

Not sure, but the mondeos boot is around 550 litres. Smax is around 750 litres, for comparison (rear seats folded). Touran is around 700. Volvo V70 is 815 litres. Im guessing thats the measuremnt to the windowline. I often heard that estates have bigger boots, but i think they mean longer. The MPV gain a lot in height i guess, which is not always useful admittedly. As far as bikes are concerned though, i think bikes standing up are the way forward so height is a good thing.

I may be talking a load of tosh, but if you do happen to try out a S-max, let me know how it goes.

For truly big MPV, i think the Chrysler grand voyager has a 700 litre boot, with seven seats up.

I hate bikes being outside the car for some reason. Partiulary on the back, where i feel their extremly vunerable.

I asked a similar question a week or so ago, and some-one posted a picture of their VW Touran with their bike in the back with just the wheels off. Smax would do it too i reckon, although may struggle on that budget. Im looking for a similar vehicle myself, the 5 was in consideration, but not anymore!!!! At teh time i didnt ask what size frame it is, which might have been an oversight.

I know what your saying mucking about with the car seats, i can do it but than i have faff around with child seats too. When i do take the seat out, when i go to put it back in the cat has invaribly has been sick on it.

C4 Grans picasso? not sure if its bigger than the 5 though. When you say the 5 is not big enough, can you exapnd on that? Id have thought that you can get a bike or two in the back of the mazda without putting the middle seats down

MRSA and poor service don’t exsist in US hospitals?

Cant be that hard to do a comparsion though, the NHS system doesn’t seem to exclude anyone or anything for treatment (stand to be corrected on that though). What would a policy cost with a similar level of cover cost?

But what does that £250 cover LHS? In my freinds case his insurance didnt cover him for childbirth (didnt cover his wife more to the point). What about long time care?

Does that £250 equate to the level of cover provided by the NHS?

I seem to recall that, somethig like 40,000+ US people die anually due to lack of health insurance. That seems a bit high to me, so there probably a bit of “figure massage” going on. If that is to be believed, that’s pretty harsh. Not sure how the NHS would compare to it though.

Rob Colliver started out early, he’s doing the individual Time Trail.