It's autumn, they're clearly building a nest for a winter's hibernation.

Regarding the spare wheel, on the new shape ones you need to get inside the boot to undo a bolt to get the spare out (though the bolt is somewhere you can get at even when it's full). Presumably an improvement to stop folk thieving it.

As well as the curry hook, above the windscreen you also get a very handy baguette shelf, and a couple of handy scotch-egg silos below the central air vents. And the driver getting a glove box too is ace.

Which reminds me of a downside – the regular glove box on a RHD is crap, cos the fuse box is in the same place as it would be on a LHD one, so therefore takes up half the glovebox. But it's a minor niggle, it's not like there's not enough other places to stash your crap in berlingo!

Doblo is also crap for safety, if that matters to you. (new) Berlingo is one of the safest cars made for child safety, if that matters.

New shape berlingos will be on 08 plate onward, but they changed the trim levels for 09.

I have an 09 VTR with the 90hp (middle range) HDI engine, and optional safety pack (stability control, more airbags etc.) Yeah I'm pleased with it, subjectively, performance is better than my old 1.8 (petrol) mondeo. Bit more roll round corners, but it doesn't make me drive any slower or anything. And I'm packed up and ready to leave the carpark 15 mins earlier, which counts. Laden it's LOADS better than the mondeo ever was, probably because it's built to carry 800kgs, so it drives so much better when full of crap.

DD – well pleased with it, wish I had one years ago. (though the old shape ones aren't anywhere near as nice). Any more questions fire away.

3 folk and 3 bikes all the wheels stay on, 4 + 4 you need to take the wheels off, then keep the seatposts in the bikes, put them upside down in the boot across the way (so the wide part of the bikes is up by the windows where it's wider) then i rack the wheels up in the space where the single seat's removed.

New shape berlingos, ace (i have one). So much better than the old ones. I could go on forever about them, so any specific questions fire away.

Bikes fit in longways with some of the seats out (easy to do). E.g. here's my XL trance in:

http://lobster.selfip.org/stuff/17072009705.jpg

3 bikes (including DH bikes) go in like that easily, leaving 3 seats in. Whoever said leg room in berlingos is poor – rubbish – at least for new shape ones. I'm 6'4" and no-one's ever complained about lack of leg room sitting behind me, there's more room there than my old mondeo, cos you sit more upright.

If I slide one of the front seats right forward, an airbed fits in the boot, enough space for me to sleep (and i'm tall!)

150 sounds very low for 16 stone, you must have a very low leverage rate bike? (or be running it very soft).

I run my trance at 200psi (12.5 stone) and cane that without worrying about it too much.

500 is a fair chunk, especially if like me, most of the time you're in an area with free (to you) wifi which the phone (if it's decent) will use automatically.

Yes.

A pair of juicy threes?

(seriously!)

Or if you must try make the hayes work, I assume they've over a year or so old? In which case, probably need new seals. New pistons too while you're at it will be worthwhile.

Actually, bugger the decals. Leave it plain gloss white and get yourself a couple of white board markers. Then just do the decals before each ride according to what you feel like.

Fancy riding a Cove? No bother. Want an intense today? But a moments work. Want to display abusive messages at your mates? Easy.

Get the frame powder-coated white.

Seriously, I reckon that'd work well. Then the red bits will "go". And it'll just cost you £40 odd, a little bit of effort and ideally new decals.

I've a new shape berlingo and it's ace. 3 bikes wheels all on, and 3 people, no bother. Do it all the time.

Start up and shut down times? Who cares.

I think I reboot my macs bi-monthly at best. The great sleep implementation is one of the main reasons I use macs.

Safari cover flow – it was there in leopard too….

I am looking forward to being able to sort in column view though.

(also not upgrading till it settles down, need my macs to work)

I think the issue here is, does the OP mean "DH race bike" or "some long travel bike". It's like saying all 4" bikes are XC race bikes. They're not, some are 4X bikes, some are dirt jump hardtails etc. I'd not want to DJ on a XC race bike, or vice-versa!

However, I would suggest if you can afford a hammerschmidt and decent DH bike, you could probably afford a DH bike and an XC/whatever bike. And then not have a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none bike.

You mean a DH race bike? On most the angles will make it impractical.

It's not because of the weight that riding my DH bike uphill is awkward – I've had heavier XC bikes before!

Pfft, some amateurs on here, I've managed a £2.3k crash before, ended up in a neck brace taped to a hospital bed. Though I can joke about it now, that was no fun at all – in a neck brace staring at the ceiling waiting for a CT scan in the morning to see if it's properly buggered was probably the worst 27 hours of my life.

Top tip – don't ride into the ground really hard!

I was looking for pictures of a Jellograph (early form of photcopier) at work (on a secure site where everything's monitored), and thought "ah hah, a museum's site might have pictures". So I googled "museum jellograph". That was a mistake. For some reason the first 5 hits were tentacle rape. :-S

LOL, an n97 is only slightly less than an 32gb iphone. Might get a better deal on one on contract, but I doubt it.

I do like my N97 though, but it's really a geek's phone, you need to know what you're up to with it.

What do you want from a phone, surely that's the driving factor?

Hey, but I am that tiny minority, and so I was expressing my opinion. I wasn't knocking iphones, they're an impressive bit of kit. Just not for me. Very nearly for me, but not quite there. I can see why they're attractive for a lot of people. And I have several macs, no PCs – I wish the iphone was right for me, the integration is excellent (the price less so).

Bad analogy, apple's more a pleasure to look at, nice to use the bits you can, but there's a lot there they won't let you touch.

I've got some AM30s, great shoe. The mesh does let the wind and rain in a bit, but I just tape the mesh up from the inside with gaffer over winter, makes a big difference. And wear sealskinz too.

You got the right dictionary set, and language?

If all else fails, a backup with pc suite, soft reset (google the code to do it), and restore would probably sort it. You'd maybe have to re-install any apps you have though. But if you're not already on v30 firmware you could upgrade whilst you're at it.

FASIC (for non students too) at the CSE at the pleasance are good sports physios.
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/sport-exercise/fasic/about-us/introduction

Looking at a map will be more accurate than a gps anyhow. GPS is a poor system to measure altitude with any accuracy.

If you're only 50:50, then I'd say don't do it. Unless you decide you're 100% for it, it's a lot of hardwork and you DO get sick of your topic at times.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Get-PhD-Handbook-Supervisors/dp/0335216846 is worth a read.

About 15k tax free here, plus about 1-1.5 on top from teaching. Depends on subject though, some starting at about 18k these days. If the money matters, you're probably doing it for the wrong reasons.

110mm stem here. But it is on an XC bike, and I am proper tall.

60mm on the DH bike, which is pretty long for that (decent DH stems that length hard to come by).

How much space do you need in the MBP? I put a 500gig drive in mine for £55 recently, and unless you're already filling that much space (which i guess you could be?) then if you can afford Drobo + drives money, you can afford a nice big drive in the MBP too surely.

Not sure that's how a drobo's meant to be used. If the photo collection matters to you, then a *proper* backup should be kept somewhere else too.

If you have a break-in, chances are they'd grab laptop + everything else? Or what about fire etc etc.

Thing is, as storage is cheap, why *wouldn't* you keep the photos on the MBP too?

If it's for speed, then you'll need the drobo to be fast, and it won't be over USB or firewire, compared to an internal drive.

It's the bottom of the DH track then the side on shot is the rocky chute bit on the 10 under course near the far end of the carpark, no?

Looks too small.

Or more accurately short. DH bikes in larger sizes don't actually get less chuckable really, just longer. Lots of people seem to think they become XC bikes in large sizes, the companies might have thought of that….

Having said that, it's a DH bike, you won't develop knee/back/whatever problems riding one that's too small. So if it's fun to ride, then keep it? What do you expect to gain from a bigger one? Will it make you faster? Does this matter?

Unless you're replacing it anyway, in which case why not try some for size first?

(at a tall 6'4" when I finally got a properly big sized DH bike it was ace, more stretched out and in the bike. Less chuckable? Maybe, but compared to what? Compared to a short person on a smaller bike? No.)

140psi is pretty low. As above, they do up to about 300psi. I run mine at about 200.

Heh, they did that to my GF too, and then were fairly rude and unhelpful sorting it out. Took 2 or 3 weeks to get a pair of brakes!

Not to mention the issues I've had with parcelforce for my last CRC orders, but CRC are only slightly to blame there (they could offer a different courier).

I do think there's a downward trend in CRC service from my view in recent months.

It's where you think it couldn't possibly be.

Alternatively you need your wife/gf/mum to look. They'll find it in about 30 seconds, sat somewhere obvious, amidst your protests that there's no way it could have got there/you looked there already.

The DH tracks will be way more technical than those red routes. The GT red is pretty tame tech-wise compared to even most other XC reds.

Dead easy. If they're 09s, make sure you've a long and thin enough socket to fit the footnuts.

It's simple. The big ring has 37.5% more win than the middle ring.

"We found the new Berlingo had too much trim in the back that robbed loadspace (loadspace width is everything if you want to carry 4 people and bikes)."

This is a valid point. To do 4 + 4 in a new berlingo, you need to leave the seatposts IN the bikes, and put them across the boot upside down. This means the longest part of the bike (dropouts to mech) is at the widest part of the vehicle (by the windows).

I looked into connects too, seem a good option, bit bigger than a berlingo, caddy maxi size. Downsides are cost, and a bit thirsty apparently. More van than car too, if it matters.

TBH most outprices a berlingo. You can get a brand new base spec petrol one for £8k. And that's pretty damn cheap.

On long rides, just lycra will give you a lot less chafing than with baggies on too.

Also when it's wet, or wet ground conditions, a rear mudguard or waterproof shorts to prevent a soggy arse will cut down a lot of chafing.

I looked at dispatches too, but you get good discounts on berlingos too, something like ~25% off mine with scrappage/bit of a haggle. So dispatches etc. are still a fair bit more. And at the end of the day, I can easily wheel 2 bikes into my berlingo, plus a ton of stuff, and more space would be overkill.

Caddy's were out my price range (by quite a way), though the caddy maxi life (car like version) is about a foot longer than a berlingo, so a fair bit more space. Not seen a caddy with a tailgate either, which is great for hiding from the rain loading/changing.

Vauxhall combo crew cabs are also similar, but a bit more van, less car. And no euro ncap tests for them, which is a bit off putting.

Taking the seat out gives a fair bit extra length, though the car is a bit longer and wider than an old one anyhow. The middle bike has the front wheel poking in the gap in the front seats a bit. If you don't take the seats out then the bikes have to wedge at an angle.

From your carron valley link, you're in scotland somewhere? I'm in Edinburgh and often to be found at various scottish MTB locations/events, so if you see a lanky fella with a red berlingo anywhere you're welcome to come and say hello and have a look at it, and any questions fire away.

"I suspect a T5-sized van is probably a bit too big for my day-to-day vehicle"
This was exactly my problem. My criteria were: smaller externally than my old mondeo (better round town), better engine/handling when loaded up, 2 + 2 bikes wheels on, 3+ 3 bikes front wheels off, 4+4 both wheels off. The berlingo met all these, and to my suprise did 3+3 wheels on easily (i only tried 2 bikes in it in the showroom :-) )