Transit connect owner here. When the lease on my Yeti was up and my office location had moved, I needed something that wasnt mileage restricted and cheap.

Bought an 07 plate lwb high roof model in silver (with air con). To us, we wouldnt be without the air con and I specifically looked for vans with it. That alone was a challenge.

Its small, but I’ve insualted it, built a sliding bench / double bed and put a small cupboard in there. Window fitted in the side. Towbar and roof box as well. Cosy for two of us but its fine!

Next week we’re doing the North Coast 500 in it with a cheeky stop off at Fort Bill with the bikes :)

Showers took £1 coins last year. So take change.

Did it myself for the first time a couple of months ago. It’s bloody brilliant. The climb isn’t too bad until you get to the section called ‘lactic ladder’ and then I pushed for a fair bit.

The last section of the climb is a very steep sort of fire road and if it’s windy it’s absolutely horrendous, so just watch out for that.

The descent is amazing. A few tricky bits but they just need commitment.

Nivia Silver Protect anti perspirant spray. Let it dry before getting dressed. I’ve tried loads of different ones and this one is the bees knees.

The caverns are brilliant. We went a few weeks back for the other halfs birthday with a few friends – hired a holiday cottage in Ffestiniog.

Well worth the £60 – as mentioned we were down there for nearly 3 hours. The huge long zipline near the bottom is ace.

We did bounce below afterwards. I also thoroughly enoyed that too – but an hour is definetly enough!

May be overkill but I have a EVOC Fr Team Lite 10l backpack.

To be honest I don’t like it – its still too big. So no I don’t personally reccomend this. :lol:

I think I’ll swap it for a Ergon BE1

It might be worth taking a look at Ikea for a matress for the bed, they’re fairly cheap and will be more comfortable than a piece of foam. They do matresses for kids beds which are surprisingly comfortable.

Did you bother with any sound deadening on the panels before you insualted them? I found that it made a huge difference to my van once it was sound deadened.

I did take a look at the ikea mattresses on the website last night – The cheapest foam one comes in around £88 which I could cut to size. Which is about the same cost as two custom pieces of firm density foam. Do you think the Ikea foam would be better?

I didn’t bother with sound insulation – to be honest even with what I’ve done now is a massive improvement to what it was! I still need to do the rear doors – I don’t want to carpet them as they may get wet if the doors are open in the rain. So need to decide what material to use there.

07 transit connect here – I’m over so it’s van speed limits for me.

Nissan NV200’s require cambelt changes at very early intervals – 60k or every 5 years. So check for, or budget/haggle on this if you choose one.

Going back to my karting days here but I’d suggest a new plug and a carb rebuild. Should sort out most problems. For something that popular there should be loads of videos on Youtube on how to do the carb.

I’ve just recently bought a transit connect. 2007, LWB, silver, FSH, 98k, new conti tyres and excellent condition. Cost – £2100. I’ve spent £400 on cambelt change and a full service. Now good to go.

Like you I looked at lots of different vans, but always ended up coming back to the connect. Its the best small van around this price range.

I spent about a month searching. As you’ve probably realised there’s hundreds out there and most are ropey. My advice….

Dont buy from a dealer – at this age and price point buy private. If its been traded in there’s probably something wrong or waiting to go wrong, and was evident the ones I seen. A private sale is more likely to be a simple upgrade to bigger van etc.

Try Facebook – I found mine on there. Just type ‘transit connect for sale’ at the top, search via ‘Latest’ and look from there. If the person who posted set it to publich you’ll see it.

Grab a couple of 15mm pipe clips from any hardware store. Screw them into the wood so they sit on the inside of each side of the fork. Load bike. Use axle to tighten.

Obviously will only work with bikes that are not QR.

Or put them in upside down. Front wheel off and seat slammed. The handlebars do a good job of stabilising the bike. That’s how I used to load them in my Vectra estate.

May / may not be useful – I have the plastic version and the specialized bottle. Sits perfectly straight and normal. Lets see a photo.

Are you wanting to go 1×10 or stick with the front mech?

If you’re sticking with the front mech then don’t bother with the sunrace cassette.

If you are considering 1×10 then you need to ditch the front mech and swap out your two front rings for a narrow wide one (cheap enough from superstar, uber etc). May as well treat yourself to a new chain too at this point :D

The sunrace cassette will work fine with your mech. I run the 42t one using a normal SLX one. All I needed to do was wind the B screw all the way in. I vary between a 30t and 32t up front depending where Im going.

No, I’ve forgotten what one it is, but its the lower one. I’d have got another but my office is moving so my 4 mile commute is turning into a 20 mile one. In addition to all the weekend mileage going to Wales and Scotland for biking, I couldn’t justify the excess milage charges on another lease.

And really the above gave me the excuse to buy a van. I’m coverting mine into a mini camper. Bike transport and somewhere to sleep.

If ease of bike transport is the number 1 priority and you dont need more than 2 passenger seats, get a van. It’ll come to it at some point.

If however you do still need to use a proper ‘car’ The Yeti is capable. Go down to the dealership, take your bike with you. They’ll let you try getting it in (as long as its clean!). See if it works for you.

Mine is the 1.6 TDI CR SE GreenLine Outdoor. I found it perfectly adaquate. I havent towed with it, I’d expect you to get the 2 litre if you wanted to tow.

Its a 15 plate with 19000 on the clock. Mine is a lease deal – £550 down and £170 p/m fully maintained with 10k per annum. It was such a good deal I couldnt turn it down. The outdoor trim with the silver bumper bits look great. It also sits higher by 20mm. Go for the SE model or above – its pretty much the minimum standard of toys I’d want on a new car these days.

As for value, can’t help there im afraid!

I have a Yeti. With one rear seat out, I can get my Norco Range 27.5 in with front wheel off and seatpost dropped fully, stood up.

For two bikes you’d need to take two seats out – luckily the rear seats in the Yeti are all independant units, and there’s loads of configurations you could do. You’d need to take them out though – folding them up doesn’t really save much space.

As a car the Yeti is brilliant and I can fully reccomend them. Comfortable to drive, handle well and reasonabily quick.

However my Yeti is going in a month or so – just bought a transit connect :lol:

I have it through work – package with Aviva. I’ve used it twice so far – distal bicep re-attachment and a torn rotator cuff repair. Amazing service, and was able to get physio at a place of my choice so got to use Harris and Ross.

The speed in which you can get in, fixed up and in with a decent physio is fantastic. Both my issues would have taken months just to get the MRI scans done. With private it was 4 weeks from first consultation to operating theatre.

Haven’t forgotten about this.
Comms with Taiwan is a bit slow…..

My money is waiting…..if you do get this sorted ill be sure to pass on a little extra ‘donation!’. Bloomin norco frame having 4 different bearing sizes :evil:

Hope Tech Enduro – similar to Mavic EN 521’s – this clumsy sod has never damaged one

On the flipside I have – but this was at downhill centres and not quite ‘enduro’

Second the notion on getting Pro4 hubs – they are superb.

Sounds like you’ll be looking at some sort of fitness band that does HRM, one of the £100+ FibBit bands or equivilent.

I don’t know of any cheap fitness bands that do HRM and bluetooth.

I had the exact same problem as you with some Hope Tech Enduro wheels. Turns out the valve and valve hole was fine – its the tape not sealing properly on the rim.

What tape youn using? Get some gorilla tape if not using already.

Secondly I had to roughen up the inside of my rims slightly in order to get the tape to stick better. After I did this it was perfect.

I’ve just recently setup my uber ghetto budget zwift training area using the following:

Road bike
‘dumb trainer’ Elite Volare Mag Speed (£30 second hand)
Bluetooth speed/candence sensor (£10) https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01EQTR2NI
Bluetooth HRM chest strap from ALDI (£10)
Floor standing fan from Argos (£15?)
Yoga Mat
Zwift running on iPad

The above works just fine. My Zwift workouts get uploaded to Strava, which in turn also sends it to MyFitnessPal (to my delight)

The above will allow you to see speed/cadence and approx wattage based from them two. HRM gives you heart rate obviously.

Its not fancy, and its not going to be super accurate, but it works fine and gets me training!

I think I may have found a supplier.

Watching with interest!

I’ve got a 2r – I find it really comfortable. Whilst its not any harder to breath in, I do remove the chin guard for any long (+30min) climbs. It doesnt take long and easily attaches to my backpack.

FYI – I’ve got seperate lids as well, Fox Flux, and a 661 full face. All depends what im doing and where I’m going!

Are you dead set on a T5?

I’m hoping to buy a high roof transit custom very soon. The plan is to build a fixed raised double bed (widthways) in the rear leaving a garage space underneath for all the bikes. Will also have room for a (small!) kitchen unit etc. I’ve sketched it all up to scale and should work.

I don’t want LWB due to the parking issues, so the next best way is to go up. Plus we’ll be able to stand in it.

Cheers for the neads up on that sensor. Ordering! If it works with Zwift on the ipad then I’ll be happy.

Aldi have some in at the moment –
https://www.aldi.co.uk/p/074162108561200

I picked up a pair the other day. I only wanted a cleap pair for gym and turbo training. They play music and the remote works. Nothing more to add really :D

In for full Sat race – booked our team of three.

Can’t wait.

Training starts on Monday :lol:

I have the 2015 one. Had it over a year now.

As above – great bike but Evans are poor. If you get one, you’re on your own pretty much. What few spares they can get hold of come direct from Norco, take weeks to arrive and cost a lot.

The swingarm bearings near the axle are tiny small and rubbish. They don’t last long at all. I’ve done mine twice this year already. The frame has 10 bearings in total. On the flipside none of the bearings are ‘blind’ so fairly easy to do.

2016 may be different but the paint is thin and marks very easily – I’d suggest getting invisi-framed or similar.

Apart from that its a solid bike. Used it from Llandegla to fort bill WC track and everything inbetween,

Sizing wise on a medium @ 5’9 – if I was any taller I’d want the large. I feel they size up quite small.

Hope this helps

If that was crash damage surely other bits of the bike would also be in a mess.

Well its arrived. Looks like a nice piece of kit. What I do like the most is the decent rubber seals present on both upper and lowers. They are right in the description, it will increase the stack height ever so slightly. No brainer though for keeping the crud out.

Popping off to the LBS to have the cups swapped out. I do most jobs myself but I want this one doing properly with the right tools!

I’ll let you know this week as I ordered one myself yesterday :-)

You will find the adaptors in the box. You need to remove the QR end caps off the hub (they simply pull off, but will be quite stiff) and pop on the 142×12 end caps.

I picked up one of these gravity bike stands from Aldi last year. Was £25. Same as on eBay here

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131401725006

Nice and sturdy, I’ve not attached mine to the wall. I’ve got 3 bikes on mine(!), 1 hardtail and full sus on bottom and a hardtail on top.

I’d recommend cutting up an old inner tube to wrap around the ‘hooks’ as they’re metal.

Rockrider 8.1 – the grey/silver one. I still have mine as a winter bike. Its bomb proof and super easy to maintain. Wheels are heavy but solid. Avid Elixer 3 brakes have gave me no trouble. Others may disagree!

Should come with a rockshox recon tk silver spring 100mm fork. Simple, reliable, easy to rip apart and service when needed.

Matt I’ll try and find you, would love to take a look at your van conversion and ask a few noob questions, as I’m doing my own next year.

I got the MIPS one, I find it super comfy. Can’t compuare to a non-mips one as I haven’t tried one, however itsmuch more comfy than my fox flux helmet.

No issues with lining coming away here.

As a fellow contact lens wearer I also embrace the open face helmet / goggles combo. Its not just the crap going into the eyes, things like wind etc can dry lenses out and cause irritation.

The Bell Super (and Super2R) works great. Takes goggles and I find it really comfy.

10.20am for me…..wanted earlier. Oh well. At least I got a Saturday entry!