The best Saabs are those from before GM got their grubby mits on them – ‘classic’ 900s and 9000s. Totally robust and would go on for ever. I drove 2 to over 200K, and sold them running well. Gearboxes have been their only weakness. Their amazing engineering and build quality is why you still see so many around now.

Saabs decreased in quality the longer GM owned them. GM were basically asset strippers – they bought into Saab during the 90s, to compete with Ford buying Volvo and Jaguar – but whereas Volvos became better under Ford, Saabs became worse and worse under GM. GM wanted to plunder some of Saab’s innovations and improve GM build quality, but in return they made Saab dip into their dodgy common parts bin. Thus you had engines which would blow up after 50K, and suspension which would need total replacement by 7oK – not to mention a host of electrical gremlins.

So newer Saabs are by no means as good and as long-lived as their forebears, and they will therefore cost you more to run. However, when everything works, they can still feel very good (and Saab kept some control on things like the driver ergonomics and the seat comfort.) I’ve currently got a 55 reg 9-3 TiD sportswagon, and I’ve had to replace most of the usual weak points identified by others, but at 167K it still drives well and handles beautifully, and I am determined to take it up to 200K at least (which at my rate of mileage will be by Christmas of this year!)

Matt – go for it – 9-3s are worth it if you can buy them cheaply enough, and I believe the later ones are better screwed together than the earlier ones. 9-5s are also lovely and cavernous in terms of interior space (loadsa bikes!) but less economical – and they are more dated.

However, the truth is, I still find most other cars boring to drive….I think only the Octavia VRS estate floats my boat (substitute appropriate Mr Toad metaphor) in terms of VFM loadcarrying rocket potential.

Thought you meant the excellent Gary Fisher bike of the same name, which is now of course no more, given that Trek have swallowed GF products whole. So if anbody does have an ancient or not so ancient Hi-Fi, don’t replace it, ride it. It’s a wonderful ride and will soon be a collectors’ item!

Simon Burns was a rubbish Health minister, is a rubbish Transport minister, and has an excess of arrogance (have you heard him speak?)He’s a social climber amongst a government of those who have been described by one of their own as ‘arrogant posh boys’…….where’s the surprise in all of this?

I ride on footpaths as well as BWs locally. I’m friendly polite and respectful to walkers, indicate that they have right of way etc. Try to make them smile if poss. Even make a fuss of their dog if they have one. It works 99 times out of 100. Local farmer (landowner) was initially hostile when he caught me a few years ago. However even he has mellowed – last time he smiled and said I was fine. The battle of hearts and minds etc…

Some great soul voices (not from AdamAnt) and Jools’ band don’t half rock/groove/skank. I thought with this lineup it would be crap, but not so.

Probably off up to the village shop to get some yoghourt and bog rolls (!) via some very gloopy local trails……oh the joy.

In answer to the question – no!
Sad consumer that I am, there’s always another twist to discover……

Black Mtns +++, and also just above you: Hay Bluff, not to mention Lord Hereford’s Knob (really!)

Cannot comment on 5 Spots or Litevilles (though the latter sound pretty amazing) but I would suggest Blur LT2 (in alloy if you really won’t touch carbon, and can easily be built up to 26-27lb) or Ibis Mojo if you’re prepared to be convinced that carbon can work. Both bulletproof and huge fun to ride.

2 projects for 2013 – build up a SC Nickel frame, and also build a Tomac Carbide frame. Then sell something (but I love em all…….!)

As the guys say – you can go as low as 25lb on carbon superbikes, but 27-28lb sounds a rideable compromise without breaking the bank.

Setavento Ti hardtail – I’ve never seen another.
Bloody lovely to ride though.

Forest N of Llanwrtyd Wells…….

SJ Evo – as others say, a brilliant do-everything bike.

Very happy where I am just now – Suffolk, prettily undulating countryside, trails from my door, forests nearby, coasts ditto – great local food, and Adnams beer……..or in another life, Bishops Castle or Montgomery on the Shropshire/Powys border (so much good riding nearby, and again cracking beer and food, plus prehistoric hill forts)…..or Northumberland……or the Gower.

PS – or maybe that should read, inbred456, I’ve TRIED to email you re the Saab, but it’s bounced back. Please contact me (email in profile). Thanks.

250K on anything other than a French car or a Rover.
inbred456, I’ve emailed you about your Saab!

Best band/performer and gigs – every time I’ve ever seen Talking Heads and more recently David Byrne on his own.

Best gig of last 12 months – amazingly the octogenerian Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club at WOMAD this summer – amazing because at this late stage in their lives, and with so much behind them, you’d never have guessed they could still have such edge.

Single (ever) – oh my god, tomorrow it might be different, but tonight it’s ‘Ain’t Nobody’ by Rufus and Chakka Khan.

Album (ever) – the same applies, but tonight it’s ‘Kind of Blue’ by Miles Davis.

What was that about not being in a union?

Phooee! Out of date? Only if classic form/function design icons ever become out of date. Timeless, more like. But as well as the looks there’s the ride – stiff as Stiff Records (1977 reference) when you hit the big stuff. Nothing seems to knock my old Mojo (08/09?) off course.

Reading all this a few days later – Zulu 11, are you for real, or just the twinkle in Georgie Boy Osborne’s eye?

Wherever David Cameron isn’t.

Dunno about ‘strangest’, but 3 days ago we had a very close encounter with a buzzard so busy eating a dead sheep that it didn’t hear us come….and that was on the bridleway bit of the Offas Dyke path just off the Kerry Ridgeway.

2 or 3 years ago I had a race with a muntjack deer in the snow and ice – he won!

Skoda Octavia VRS diesel

Hendrix of course
Jaco Pastorius
Ian Dury, Miles Davis and John Martyn again (and again)
Syd era Floyd
Davy Graham
John Coltrane
Michel Petrucciani again

druidh – the British press has ALWAYS been right wing!
Guess it’s a reflection on the balance of power in society, and shows that those in control have always known that knowledge is power.

Just popped in rather late in the day – and BLIMEY! What have I missed?
Blood and gore (or maybe gorehound) all over the place. Some completely bonkers formulations here – what HAVE some of you guys been smoking?

Please someone explain fascism and nazism to the hound, and remind him that there are plenty of dictators who use the language of democracy – so does that mean that democracy and dictatorship are one and the same thing?

And coming back to the original post by project – I guess you were trying to get everyone going for a bit of sport, but what other press is there but right wing, to a greater or lesser degree? The general rightist bias of the vast majority makes old-style liberals like the Grauniad stand out like Bolshevik pamphlets.

Agreed with all the comments about Mr D being a low down dirty scumbag etc (in all the posts of his that I can remember he’s always very brusque and ‘man in a hurry’ish), but I also think half the Cannondale carbon frames knocking aroung have similar hairline cracks, and most of them are more cosmetic than structural. But to put your mind at rest, there’s a really good carbon frame repairers near Derby (CBS, I think) who will give you an opinion and repair expertly if necessary. Prices look good too. Haven’t used them yet myself, but a friend has recommended them.

Worth a try?

…….no tubes!

I think montylikesbeer sums up the case for – ‘well why wouldn’t you?’ – and idiotdogbrain summarises the case against – ‘freedom of choice’ and ‘I’m a rational adult’………….sorry idb, your chosen name kind of speaks for itself, because in a complex world where you are not alone, and where not only your rational choices may have flaws, you do indeed stand the chance of becoming idiotdogbraininjured.

I have to say prattling on about one’s civil right to do something daft does seem to me to be unevolved behaviour. We are not alone, and what we do does have consequences, especially in a small island of nearly 70m people. So – adapt! Be reasonable in a world where if it can happen, it sooner or later will happen. Again to quote the great sage montylb – ‘why wouldn’t you?’

rudebwoy, I’d vote for you – you talk much sense.

The problem is not so much Tories (who will always do what Tories do) but ideologies which reduce every social relation to market relations – and hasn’t the dear old Labour Party been guilty of that?

Another aspect of this ‘marketised cleansing’ is that one of the groups it is likely to particularly effect are people with complex disabilities, who will need more space for access reasons, equipment, live-in carers, etc.

And taking the North Westminster/ North Kensington examples, not to mention many parts of Camden, Islington but not sadly Wandsworth any more, one of the real joys of living in London has been the mixed and diverse communities, often cheek-by-jowl with each other, with huge cultural ranges of expression – food, music, streetlife. Do we really want inner-city wealthy suburbs and condo-ghettos with armed guards – do we want episodes like the poor black kid who got popped by some vigilante nutter in the wealthy bit of a Southern US city recently?

6′ and 33″ inside leg – mainly large frames, though in the case of older Santa Cruz, Scott or Ibis this might be XL, because all of these companies until quite recently made frames that were ‘small’ (as in ‘short’) for their stated size. They’ve all improved in the last 3 years or so, though.

However, I ride a medium 2011 Epic, because the top tube on these is so long, and I feel too stretched on a large.

I also prefer stems of 60-80mm.

+1 to uselesshippy and olddog
and in addition, my 2011 Evo Expert manoevres and turns exceptionally well and seems to be able to power through most big obstacles. Nice active suspension too. 2X10 setup works well. Get one, and then something hardtail and lightweight (ti or carbon?) for XC race.

Come on guys……..there are very few places in the world where at least some decent off-road cycling is impossible. I don’t live in Norfolk (Suffolk me, where there are plenty of short sharp hills in many parts of the county, as well as forests and heaths like Rendlesham, Tunstall and Dunwich), but as well as Thetford, which is vast and has masses of unmarked trails in addition to the more well known ones, and is VAST (look at a map), I have also had fun in:
– Wells Next the Sea – took a bike when I stayed a couple of nights last summer and found a maze of trails tracks and jumps in the pine woods just behind the sand dunes;
– Parts of the Peddars Way going up into Norfolk from Knettishall have some great twisty singletrack;
– The woods above Sheringham………..
etc etc. I’m sure locals can tell you more. The moral of the story is use your wits and follow your nose and see where trails and bridleways lead. Some will be crap, but some won’t be. Life is not one big trail centre.

JEEEZ………..!

How difficult can it be to use common sense and minimise, minimise, minimise?

Your work mate’s not missing too much – ZX24s are heavy old beasts!

Hergest Ridge on the Herefordshire/Powys border – and marvel at the monkeypuzzle trees right up near the ridgetop.

Rhosilli Down at the end of the Gower.

Sorry no pics!

Decathlon pop-up tents are great – such a synch to erect, and not too hard to put away. I’ve had mine for 4 years. No probs with the weather. It’ll be getting its WOMAD outing in 10 days time.

Yes, clearly privatised services work like a dream….(these ideological free market zealots seem incapable of learning anything.)

Ps Grantway – what’s the problem with bus drivers?

2 other efficient options in my book – Blur XC carbon and Gary Fisher (RIP) HiFi Pro. Neither need Propedal at all most of the time.