We’re new to this campervan malarkey and had the same issue. Two of the cheapest Emma mattresses sorted it. I now get a better nights sleep than in our house bed. Superb

“For riding green lanes? 🤔 ”

Ooops…I missed that bit and seemed to focus on the Bonneville/CB1000 aspect.
Back to a nicely done R80/100 GS that’s been ‘sorted’

If you really fancy an old GS as a forever bike….have a chat to Mike at Overland and Classic. He brings back to life some old stuff and does an amazing job. Yes, it’ll be £10k plus but will be stunning (I’d love one but can’t afford or fit it in the garage) I can’t find a website and don’t use instagram but this pops up with a search.

https://www.instagram.com/overland.and.classic/

For me, I’d be looking at a Z900RS

I expect many food stuff prices will rise in the coming months with the dire weather a fair chunk of Europe has had. Poor crop yields etc

There seems to be no rhyme or reason for some of the pricing, you just have to do the ring around of all the brokers/online sites…Bennetts, Carole Nash, Devitts etc etc

I’ll expect a gallic shrug (I live in France) and anything above that will be a bonus.

Cheers for that. As the 2nd owner, it looks like I’ll get 50% off any ‘turbo’ repairs. I’ll live with that (and hope nothing goes wrong) but thankfully the nearest Specialized Service centre is pretty close by.

Thanks for that. The one I am looking at is a 2021 model, bought new last September and being sold having been ridden 132 miles. It is a bit of a bargain.

I wouldn’t set everything by one diagram showing a premium small car (here is where I presume it came from https://www.webuyanycar.com/how-to-beat-depreciation/ )
We are talking about an SUV here that may have cost £70k new? (OP, tell us all what it actually is) And don’t forget the extra £410 a year for RFL for it being over £40k new.

You seem pretty set on buying it so just crack on. The majority of responses are against doing so for very good reason. I think you’re deluded if you think a 4 yr old car will likely lose so little in the next 6-9mths. What was it’s list price 4 years ago? What did matey buy it for? What sort of vehicle is it ? (I’d sort of get your reasoning if it’s a Macan)

The ship appears to lose power prior to the collision, and then regain it. Several hundred thousand tonnes of ship takes some stopping/alter course.

Exactly as Mr Salmon (and a few others) says. It, linked with a HRM, also helped enormously when I was recovering from an op and subsequent ups and downs.

We did this, but in France starting 21 years ago by buying a 200 yr old barn (That had been struck by a storm and had been rebuilt 5 years previously…so solid walls and new roof)
We have all but finished it now and live here. Hindsight being what it is, we would have been better all round buying a plot of land for €10k and having a new build to 2020 spec built…it would have been cheaper to do and cheaper to run…but wouldn’t have had the ‘character’ the barn has. Windows, doors etc…nothing off the shelf fitted so all had to be made to measure. Forgetting the language barrier, the nearest big DIY place is 30 miles away. A trip there for stuff is half a day, not half an hour.
We did all the work to come and live here, not to do 6 mths then sell it and move on….a good job too as we would just about get back what we have put into it if we did sell up. No idea whether Ireland would be the same but perhaps think about who is likely to want to buy it come sale time…location/services/price etc If there was going to be some money to be made with all these derelict/unused properties, I suspect local builders would snap them up and do the work in and amongst customers work and have a nice sideline.

Sorry to hijack the thread….Oceanskipper, which road e-bike did you buy ? (It sounds perfect for me….price dependent)

56…April 10th 2022….when I was hit with pancreatitis (I hasten to add I had half my pancreas removed due to cancer in 2020) After 2 weeks in hospital and after the consultant had told me that 85% of pancreatitis is caused by alcohol…I quit…dry January is a doddle now

Which town…which stage ?
It sometimes seems obvious where to go to spectate but someone may have local knowledge and give a better location.

How long are you there for ? Just picking one ‘campaign’ would give you weeks of places to visit. Cemeteries, museums, battle field sites etc.
For the Western Front, there is the Menin Gate in Ypres, the 8pm last post ceremony is a must (they have the gate covered for renovation so perform the ceremony just outside it at the moment …well, they did last September) Also in Ypres is the Flanders Fields Museum in the old cloth house. Dozens of cemetaries within 10 miles of.
Close by…8 miles, is Poperinge with Talbot House (you can stay there and I heartily recommend it). Also in Poperinge is the site of the execution post for deserters. Tyne Cot cemetary is huge, others close by are tiny, just plots in the middle of worked fields.
For the Somme, Thiepval Memorial, Vimy Ridge (Canadian and with Canadian students doing tours of the trenches and tunnels) and obviously loads of tiny cemeteries…often at or close to the site of casualty clearing stations rather than where they fell. In nearby Arras are the tunnels at Carriere Wellington.
I’ve been a fair few times and will no doubt go again at some point.

I live East of your route halfway down France and whilst there is some half decent XC trail around us (one round of the French MTB Cup was held locally)…I’d not bother, just blat on and get to Ainsa in a day.

Some great photos in this thread, thanks for taking the time to take them while in the mountains and also for posting them on here.
I’ve done a fair bit of good weather walking/hillwalking but only once in Winter, 1992. Went with 3 ‘experts’ and we started on Ben Nevis. No issues. The next was to do Buchaille Etive Mor. We pakred and walked in and I knew then it wouldn’t be plain sailing, 2 of the 3 ‘experts’ were arguing over who should carry both the map and the guidebook…they didn’t resolve it so we ended up going up the wrong part of the mountain and hit a bit of a snag that they couldn’t get past. A feller climbing behind stopped and we had a quick chat. He laughed when I told him I’d made the mistake of doing my first proper winter climbing trip with 3 ####### idiots. He carried on passed us and pretty much skipped over the icy slab the 3 stooges couldn’t get over. Apparently, it was a chap called Alan Hinkes…meant nothing to me at the time. Bottom line was that we had to abseil off into a gully. I’d never abseiled before. Then they got that rope stuck and used their ‘old rope’ that really should have been cut into 100 parts and binned….we got back to the car at 2130hrs….5 hrs of darkness. I didn’t go with them again for the week but on the Friday, after having been out cycling, got back to find them already back and half cut. They were celebrating getting off a mountain in daylight…a first apparently. I stuck to mountainbiking after that.

My daughter and I did this 10 years ago. My wife dropped us off at Pen y Pas car Park and we left the bikes locked there while we walked Snowdon. We obviously did it slower than you’re likely to and out stops were
Night 1…Colwyn Bay
Night 2…Nr Ormskirk
Night 3…Keswick
Night 4… Carlisle
Night 5…New Cumnock
Night 6…Tarbert
Night 7…Oban
Night 8…Fort William
Day 1 …Snowdon and riding to CB wasn’t bad at all
Day 2 started OK, along the coast, but riding up the Wirral was on a busy main road A550/A41. Across the Mersey, western side of Liverpool and then back lanes to a hotel a mile or 2 outside Ormskirk.
Day 3 was OK for starters (Sunday) but we had a long ride and had to do a few mile section of A591 or face miles more (on a near 100 mile day)
Day 5 was horrible….riding the A76 from Dumfries to New Cumnock. A busy single carriageway road with loads of heavies (We decided a nicer route was via Arran and Oban rather than between Glasgow and Edinburgh.)
Day 6 was brilliant….ride to Ardrossan, a break and food on the ferry to Arran, ride across to the small ferry across to Claonaig and a stay in the wonderful Tarbert.
Day 7 was awesome….quieter undulating roads to Oban
Day 8 was mainly OK apart from the last 10 miles from Ballachulish to Fort Bill.
Wife picked us up the next day.

Overall, we really enjoyed it. Daughter wanted a big challenge to raise money for a charity of a friend who had died earlier that year in her late teens. The trip cost me nearly as much as she raised but that wasn’t the point. It was a wonderful trip.

Here’s one with 28mm timber in the walls….

https://www.shedstore.co.uk/palmako-valentine-3-4m-x-2-8m-premium-log-cabin-shed-28mm

Decent cafe run by an English couple at Nevers (he has accom upstairs too)
https://en.cafevelonevers.fr/

Hilarious how someone mentions getting an SUV and is lambasted…despite not actually telling us whether it was a 1087kg Seat Arona or a 3 tonne Range Rover.

As some have already mentioned…fix them properly in the first place. An article on the news the other day showed a team from Lincs council filling in potholes. The chap stated ‘They’re permanent repairs and we expect them to last at least 12 months…’ ! (They seldom seem to seal the edge of new tarmac these days, with hot tar.)

4 on a decent bike rack and the smallest with wheels off in the boot with luggage around it ?

I wouldn’t fanny about with a 35-40 yr old bike as a commuter (will that be all it is used for?…in which case, buy a £2k biggish scooter). I’d add a few hundred more and get something like this…..70mpg, belt drive, heated grips etc

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-details/202401085352898?sort=price-asc&advertising-location=at_bikes&make=BMW&model=F800GT&postcode=ab101ab&fromsra

Can’t really blame the French Police when he fell off a cliff in Italy and his body was recovered and lay in an Italian Mortuary. Very sad ending for the poor chap.

2 weeks later police have decided not to prosecute driver (middle-aged woman) , stating no previous and/or criminal convictions, courts no capacity etc..

will this record remain on her file/name/address as she is not getting points, she has been refered to National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme

Effectively, the Police have dealt with it. The injuries, damage are another issue.

Do you need a new car or will a nearly new one be acceptable ? What equity do you have in your Seat, I know you’ve mentioned what you owe and what they sell for….but what have you been offered? I know you’re not in the UK but whereabouts in Europe? What annual mileage do you do?
I presume there’s a deposit to pay with the Born, plus the €299 a month…what happens at the 3 yr point? You may have paid €15k by then, hand it back?

I ask all this as I am in a similar position (minus the working bit). I live in France, Seat Ateca petrol and looking at a nearly new EV simply as we are getting solar installed and don’t long journeys in the car so an EV with free charging seems perfect. But I’d rather sink c€20k into an 18mth old Leaf than €40k in a new Born

Do Luxembourg to Koblenz along the Mosel, and back. No, it’s not a loop but you’ll see a totally different view on the return leg.

https://www.germany.travel/en/nature-outdoor-activities/moselle-cycle-route.html

I found Iohan Gueorguiev superb….

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqiYX6cqxQI9CqhH_kvHeOw

A bit of a business already up and running…although it is about 8 miles from me (don’t have the +/- 5 mile filter on ‘forrin’ property

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/142963802?currencyCode=GBP#/?channel=OVERSEAS

Get a couple of old KH250 triples and make a 500cc four out of em…..may involve some seriouse engineering skills tho….(18 mins for the noisy bit)

Brilliant photos, what a day to be up high.

(Rochdale rather than Rotherham.)

The usual half finished monstrosity. There was one a few years ago that was repeated on more 4 yesterday. Young chap and his partner bought a 9 x 4m plot in East London, dug down (had issues with the first basement building firm) and ended up with a very nice 2 bed , 2 bath quirky house and a proper community feel as they worked with their very close neighbours. Went way over their anticipated budget of £160k, at £250k but a superb end result and he embodied all that is good about self builders.

https://www.standard.co.uk/homesandproperty/interiors/grand-designs-couples-dream-of-escaping-rent-trap-by-building-londons-smallest-twobedroom-house-turns-into-a-nightmare-a114956.html

My wife got a Lapierre Overvolt 5.4 last year. Yamaha motor and 400 wh battery. It has been superb for her. No radical off road stuff but forest tracks on Eco setting and she keeps up with me fine. It does c 65 miles and 5k feet of climbing per charge (with some left in the battery) They seem to have moved over to bosch now. (My wifes isn’t the step thru version)

https://www.paulscycles.co.uk/bikes/electric-bikes/lapierre-overvolt-ht-54-mix-step-through-electric-mountain-bike-greyraspberry__11070

I’d go with james-rennie above….stick with the tyres you have (my daily ride is a GT Grade with 40mm tyres, no issue doing regular 30 and 40 mile road rides…and one in the mid 70s a couple of months back)

I’d try and find a shop where you can go and try one for an hour or two. If it gives you a real buzz, maybe a new bike is what you need. If it is all a bit ‘meh’, spend the money elsewhere

I must have misheard the really poor interview then, I thought he had said he wouldn’t reverse the existing 20s but they wouldn’t be pushing for any sort of blanket 20 zones. With the dire interview skills of Charlie Stayt, the time delay and a tory minister on the end of said time delay….it was poor to say the least.

Bugger, due to one thing and another, I missed out on the L versions of the YT bike and after some research, it seems an XL will be way too big, although they are even further reduced, almost 50% off now (someone at 6ft stated that a L was upper end of his ‘fit) Canyon Neuron looks similar, anyone had a Rose bike as they do decent specced bike for reasonable money ? (Obviously EU suppliers are open for me to buy from without issue)