What about Rothbury and Thrunton woods. The loop at Rothbury is well known and Thrunton has lots of natural trails . Kielder is a bit of a trek from the coast. What about the trails around Berwick?

Schwalbe land cruisers. Nothing else comes close for what you describe. 14 quid each from Wiggle. Watch your mates squirm as they try to keep up on their small block 8’s.

Any of the retriever type will excel with kids and family. Had labs in the past and now have a golden retriever. Bullet proof with kids, intelligent and easy to train. That Ridgeback looks smart though!

Camp Coffee or anything with Chickory!

Damn, dogs are great aren’t they!

Ha here’s Gandalf to show Bellamy how it’s done! Muse FF’S do me a favour.

Suzuki SX4 2.0 D with Fiats 2.0 JTD engine with Suzuki’s excellent four wheel drive and handy roof bars for bikes.

Don’t fry me for this but its not the clutch return spring in the pedal box is it?

Riding the back end of Kildale moor, to rough for me with SPD’s , couldn’t unclip in time, cracked two ribs on the end of the bar. How do people sleep with cracked ribs?

If you want a comfy steel hard tail, I wouldn’t go for a inbred, great bikes for a long travel hard tail but I wouldn’t say they are comfy. That back end is quite stiff. I’ve gone for a Saracen kili flyer. Much more XC than the inbred but far more comfy and actually feels springy. Remember tyres and seat post can add a lot of comfort. Genesis, Charge and Rock Lobster also make some good frames.

What about a malt one 13 incher. Thought about one of those for my young un, went 24 inch wheel in the end. Thinking about 26 next time round.

I started riding again when I taught our little boy to ride and caught the bug again. Now I ride mainly with my boy and with buddies when time allows, not often enough sadly. As for the bikes it’s just a stage I’ll grow out of so I’m told.

Won’t the school already have Windows under a license through the LEA. I would nuke the hard drive and let them put on their own version.

If the cam lift sensor fails or is playing up your engine light will come on when the engine cuts out. One of our company cars had this fault, turn off ignition then it would clear. Start car everything fine until it decided to cut out again. I think the sensor moves in its holder or comes lose and miss reads the cam position and cuts the engine to stop any damage. 20 mins to diagnose and change plus cost of sensor. That was 3 yrs ago. If of course it is that. As said in previous posts these engines live and die by using good fuel and having regular fuel filter changes.

First port of call would be to change the fuel filter, this should be done at least every second service at 25k and is cheap enough to do at every service. Your engine is the later euro 4 pug /Citroen unit. A common failure point on these is a cam lift sensor this tells the engine where abouts all the bits are in the firing cycle, if the sensor miss reads it tells the engine to cut. Not to pricy to fix as it’s a well known prob. Good luck.

Funny isn’t it, Britain leads the world at sitty down sports! Put us on a seat and we are unstoppable.

Got it out. Looks like it has reach adjustment built in compared to the deore lx ones that are fixed. Seen a pair of hydraulic lx ones for £20 on eBay. Maybe look for some of the later servo wave items if I can’t find an lx lever. Thanks for the input.

Cheers will try that now. Don’t suppose you can buy the levers on their own?

Is the lever replaceable? There is a grub screw that holds the pin in place. How is the lever connected to the brake cylinder? I can see a clip inside the housing. Does the lever just unscrew off the rod? The housing is fine it’s just the lever that is mullered.

Cheers, thought so just wanted to check. Hard to come by those old xt brakes. Will look and see who has any newer levers.

Get an ex racer greyhound. They are kept in pens for hours at a time during race day and can sleep for England. Believe me what you can offer them is heaven compared to what they are used to. Did I mention they are the most bone idle dogs at times. Great dogs though.

I’ll raise a we dram of Lagavulin to your Grandad and to anyone who has lost a loved one recently.

They generally don’t do high protein foods, that is the main thing. Our greyhound was as greedy as our lab so we gave him two smaller meals a day. Any greyhound specific food will have a lower protein level. Don’t forget to let their food digest before you exercise them, they are very prone to twisted gut. Do miss our Deerhound what a dog he was.

Why not just go for the GTI. Faster, handles better, holds its value better. You may even get an early S3 for your type of money.

Pre 2005 2.0 TDCI’s are the Ford Puma unit( not the 1.7 puma.) Chain driven camshafts and no DPF’s. I have a 2004 2.0 130 TDCI mondeo. Av MPG 45ish real world figure. For driving pleasure ie road holding and handling, it wipes the floor with any of the VAG group cars. A sailing boat changes direction better than a Passat or A4. The fuel economy isn’t as good though and I would say the interiors are better in the VAG cars. Depends what is more important to you. I would say that the 1.9 TDI engine is one of the all time great diesel engines and if you change the water pump and belt regularly they are bombproof. If a Skoda Octavia 4×4 1.9 TDI came up I would trade the Mondeo in without a thought because of that engine, it’s just so reliable.

Isla Bikes 29er? Good upgrade potential as and when money allows.

I was once told by an old guy at work that a person who has never made any mistakes has never done anything. Been good advice that. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Learn from it and don’t do the same thing again. You will make more mistakes that’s life, that’s how we learn.

Unfortunately having owned cats for 20 plus yrs the only thing that works is to treat the cat with frontline every 4 to 5 weeks. Yes its not cheap but there is no alternative. Frontline works by rendering the eggs infertile. Any fertile eggs will hatch feed on said cat and then lay infertile eggs thus breaking the cycle.

Done, good luck on Saturday and don’t forget the Jelly Babies :-)

We had a Doberman bitch when I was 8 to 12. It was a highly strung barn pot of a dog. I loved her to bits and we went everywhere together. My dad on the other hand would have gladly taken her behind the shed and brained her with a shovel then buried her 6ft under. It was a constant battle of wills. I would have one tomorrow but my other half says no way. Very protective towards children as well. Talk to a breeder first and make sure you make an informed decision.

Taylor’s Landlord here.

Leku did you face the BB ? Does anyone do this anymore? Does Saracen do this already?

Comes with a headset and a quick release, it’s a win win! Hoping the back end is a bit kinder than the 456. Can’t wait to get it on some North Yorkshire moorland singletrack.

Leku what headset are you running. Do you have to run a specific headset, Saracen say a FSA orbit 36. I’ve been running a FSA the Pig on the 456 and quite liked it. Not really bothered. What do people think of the orbit headset?

Well damn you all! You have just gone and made me buy a 21″ kili in aqua for 334 English pounds. I’m afraid the 20″ inch inbred 456 frame has just been retired for now. Can’t wait to build it up. My experiment with slack angled long travel hard tails is over for now. Guess I’m just an XC boy after all!

A tennis court takes up a lot of room for two to four players to play on and costs a lot to maintain nets and lines etc. 7 to 15 pounds per hour to hire the court. Same price to hire a five aside pitch shared between 10 people. One hours coaching approaching 30 pounds. Hitting squads 15 pounds for 2hrs approx 4 kids to one coach ratio. To get a child up to a decent county standard they will be playing 7 to 10 hrs a week minimum with maybe two of those hrs one to one with a coach ( 50 to 60 pounds). It’s cheaper to buy a house! It’s simply to expensive. The major tennis developmental period is when the children sit their GCSE’s 13 to 16yrs. How many parents will risk their child’s education for a minute chance that they will have a competitive tennis career that will be able to support them in later life. Small example my son 9yrs old needs tennis trainers every 8 to 10 wks at 40 pounds a pop because he wears through the soles, he doesn’t outgrow them, it breaks my heart and my wallet. If your child wants to be a tennis player persuade them to do something else or you’ll never get that full suss 29er you’ve lusted after or anything else!

If the food is proper food and not that pre-prepared microwave bag 5hite. Doesn’t have to be Michelin star just good homemade fare. Is b&b a possibility? If you could do b&b I would say go for it.

Allenheads up and over the common and back, plenty of routes around that way. Lots of routes around Alwinton. Derek Purdy’s book is great for a mixture of trails around Northumberland and Durham.

What width tyres? 717’s quite narrow rims. My conti verts 2.3’s would squirm all over the place on my 717’s. Movement in the front hub / quick release / maxle?

Wife is a speech therapist. Our little un did this at that age. Advice was to ignore it, do not make an issue of it in anyway. Didn’t even realise it had gone. Leave well alone.