Great vid. Just booked to go mid feb – fingers crossed for a dry spell!

Thanks guys – sounds like it’ll be a fun trip if the snow’s good!

Am off to Mayrhofen at the end of the month for 5 days boarding with a few mates. Never been anywhere apart from France before so am unsure what to expect.

Love Tignes/Val and Morzine but didn’t like Les Arcs – think I’ll enjoy it?

Santa Cruz Bronson C

Frame: Bronson C
Fork: 2014 Talas 34 CTD Kashima – A2C – 544.4
Head Angle: 67
Seat Angle: 73
Wheelbase: 1164
BB Height: 346

mrchrispy – Member
Anyone know where the reception was filmed?

Goldney House in Bristol I believe.

Brighton Big Dog is 6 hours and great fun.

Yes it is one of the newer hope ones with the sealed cartridge bearings. It has lasted well considering it’s on my winter bike and gets an aggressive lazy hosing after most muddy rides, so I’m happy with the Hope ones but just though there may be a better option out there.

I return to this thread in shame…despite my earlier posts i have since ordered an M135i

I drove it and pretty much instantly forgot the looks. As a drivers car the golf simply cannot compete. The M135i is as good as the reviews say, combine that with the best part of £5k discount (as a cash buyer) it worked out almost £2k cheaper than the Golf which will go a fair distance to off setting the higher running costs….arrives September cannot wait!

I won’t say I told you so!! What spec did you go for in the end? I was *this* close to ordering a white 5 door M135i with media pack and auto box but was offered a stonking deal on a new M5 which is just an absolute beast and I can still get my bike in the back if I remove the front wheel. The Sunday morning drive over to Swinley through Windsor Great Park is an event every week now!

Bet you can’t wait until September!

Ooh, there’s an idea. I have a Bronson coming next month but could always keep my 36s and DH wheels to turn it into a dual purpose machine!

I would drive everything else and then put your irrational dislikes aside for one hour and drive the M135i. It’s a fantastic machine and there’s some mega deals to be had on them – 15% off and 3.9% APR. It’s no looker, but the drive and noise is just epic.

I went out to get one recently but ended up with a new M5, but that’s another stpry..!

http://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/ have always been good.

I spent a day on a Bronson C at an FOD uplift day recently and came away in love! To be honest, I am unsure how it would compare with a 26″ equivalent like a Blur TRC but compared with my 165mm but shorter and steeper Maverick ML8 it felt amazing. Very light, but never felt short on travel and on the smoother faster stuff like Verderers descent, it almost felt like I was cheating such was the way I could pull away from all of my group (and I’m relativelty unfit at present).

Regardless of cost or wheelsize debates, it’s a fantastic piece of kit although I have been advised to get the 2014 model Fox 34s as the ones on this bike did dive through their mid travel rather readily when in descend mode.

Mine should be coming in a month or so – am very closely to saying f*ck it and going for XX1 and Enve spec as I have been working very bloody hard and haven’t bought a new bike for 3-4 years!

I had a 2007 325i Coupe and think that 30mpg is a realistic average if you drive it in a spirited fashion. It will creep up to 35mpg+ on a steady m-way cruise and drop to 25 mpg around town.

The best improvement you can make is to ditch the runflats – I found that they would throw the car off line quite badly if you hit a bid bend ridge in the road with them.

Here’s a Beinn 20 small next to a Cnoc 16 (and my Epic) which should give you some idea – the 20 is quite a lot bigger than the 16 – my son has the 16 saddle all the way up and looks quite big on the bike, but needs the saddle fully down on the 20 and struggles a little with it (he’s a tall 5 year old).

Can you buy the bar clamp separately if you don’t have sram brakes as they only seem to have the MMX ones in stock?

iamsporticus – Member
Could you get 2 road bikes safely inside an E90 saloon assuming wheels off as a minimum?
If anyone has first hand info then what else would you need to strip down? Bars,stem, assumed seatpost etc etc

If it’s an E90 saloon then it’s unlikely to have folding rear seats as bizarrely they are on optional extra and rare on the saloon but standard fit on the coupe (and estate). Wheels off and frames on the back seat will be the best option as said above.

randomjeremy – Member

@hughjayteens I just picked up a 130i LE for a song, it’s fantastic. Can’t wait to get shot of the RFTs though. Looking at the tire sizes there doesn’t seem to be much out there in the way of replacements ( rear 225/40W18 and front 205/45W18) – do most owners choose slightly different tires?

Nice! I very nearly bought a 130i LE (loved the interior) but spotted the silver one above which had been a ‘BMW Performance’ demo car so had about £10ks worth of options on it. When it was 18 months old I paid £17k for the car so £21k off the new price with only 14k miles on the clock. Mine had the BMW Performance wheels which I think are the same size as the LE wheels and it had 215/40R18Y on the front and 245/35R18Y – Continental Sport Contact 3s initially and then Michelin Pilot Sport 2. Someone then decided to relieve me of my wheels one night and BMW put RFTs back on it despite my protest and it was just awful. Sold the car soon after (not because of the RFTs!) but I would never have them again.

Haven’t checked but am assuming the M5 won’t be coming with RFTs!

My rich auntie has a nice penthouse apartment in Alum Chine (near sandbanks) which we use a lot as she lives in Dubai. Although not the same as living down there, I always love time down there and some friends who love and work there are really happy there.

The whole of Dorset has a nice vibe to it although I’d agree that property prices in the nicer parts have been skewed by people like my auntie!!

Good work – I think jumping one after another like that is much tricker than just doing a one off jump and you made the first two look easy.

Giraffe is usually a good place to eat with the kids. Few of them dotted around.

I took my kids to the Tower of London a few weeks ago and they loved it. Plenty of history and the guides/talks are very entertaining.

We also did the Aquarium using Tesco vouchers – good but a complete con if you’d paid usual prices. London Eye much the same. Plenty of nice places to eat along the South Bank and always busy at the weekends.

Natural History/Science museums are great and free.

Phil and Teds here too – has done sterling service but due for retirement very soon so could be worth a look if you’re local. Have the double kit etc.

Always thought these things to be awesome and terrifying in equal measure!

One of my biking group is a very experienced implant consultant who’s told me some horror stories about bad implants so make sure you check out the dentist you are speaking to. He’s based Slough so not local but he may be able to offer some advice if you wish. Email in profile if needed.

cr500dom – Member

The car is effectively 90% of an M3 with 50% of the running costs

Well, maybe 75% of the M3 with 50% of the running costs. Fantastic car but it’s not an M. I thrashed mine around the Nurburgring and had a ball in it!

Have just gone a little silly and ordered a new M5.. Roll on March!! 8)

Great cars but not very frugal for day to day driving so unless you do lots of motorway miles, I’d be tempted to look for a 330i which will give you 30mpg and sound glorious!

I’ve been running a diesel for the last 3 year after years of fairly sporty petrol cars (TVR, 2 x M3s and most recently a 130i) and I can’t wait for my next car to come. Diesel engines suits big heavy cars and obviously make sense for big miles, but they do lack that sparkle you get from a nice petrol engine, of which the BMW straight six is one of the finest.

There’s a shoe shop owned by an ‘R Sole’..

If you have to ask…

Les Arcs has lots of nice marked trails – one of my favourites is the black run under the Funicular back to Bourg. The Funic runs every 30 mins and takes about 10 mins to get to the top so you can try and race it down. It’s doable if you don’t stop and is massive fun.

We booked a day’s guided tour with coolbus.co.uk and the guide, Bri, was fresh from the Mega a few weeks before. We were driven up to Col du petit St Bernard and then spent the day dropping down into La Thuile. We did some mind blowning off piste stuff and then finished off with an epic ride down into Bourg. We did the best part of 75k I think (my phone died after 60k) but it was the best day’s biking I’ve ever experienced. He was just that much quicker than us that he pushed me right to my limits. Can’t remember exact costs but there was 6 of us and from memory it was circa €70 each for the minibus and guide – an absoloute bargain!

Think x-fusion hired Paul Turner (Rock Shox and Maverick founder) so maybe he’s carrying on the Maverick usd fork development with a decent budget now. Should be interesting if the flex can be addressed.

Hand and Flowers is fantastic but make sure you book. Often does set price lunches which are great value and we hadn’t booked last time I went but they let us sit at the bar which was nice bit don’t think they usually do that.

Suspect it will be even busier following the Masterchef publicity.

I know Dave (PetrolTed) who founded Pistonheads and did very well when he sold that to Haymarket although he was doing pretty well from it before it sold.

Sounds fun and painful in equal measures!!

What’s a lineup?

I once asked a vaguely similar question on here before quickly realising it was the wrong place to ask about such things!

Been doing Shotokan for 9 months – started with my 4 year old son and my 7 year old daughter started a month ago. We’re grading tomorrow for our orange belts and my daughter for her blue.

Really enjoying it and fully intend to keep it up long term. My son wants to get his black belt by the time he’s 10 which is a good thing for him to be aiming for I think.

It’s been easy enough for him up until now but at just 5 his concentration span is still quite short so I think the gap between belts will start getting much longer from now on.

How long had you lot been at it before you got whatever the equivalent of first dan is?

I’m very tempted by the Strive AL Race with XX1 – was unsure why the ‘lesser’ XTR equipped SL has Crossmax SX wheels, but am guessing it’s because the DT 240s on the Race will accept XX1 cassette.

A little apprehensive about the cost of a replacement XX1 cassette though so maybe would need to change the chain every month!

My season’s looking even better now as a supplier has just invited me to a 3 day freebie in Morzine at the beginning of Feb, tagged on to the back of our annual Amsterdam trade fare!

Don’t mind if I do…

I think it looks great – very tempted by a Dune XR myself with Talas 180s for an Alps bike.

Pity you’re so far away as I’d be asking for a quick spin!

I went from Tech M4s on one bike and Tech X2s on another and was blown away by the improved performance. All were very powerful, but the XTs needed much less effort to get big power from giving me much less arm pump in the alps.

Love many, trust few
Always paddle your own canoe.