A panoramic sunroof is simply not a must have in a 3 series BMW in terms of purchasing advice.

Couldn’t agree more, I actively looked for a car without the pan roof as I just don’t like them.

Being an M Sport with black leather were my only 2 criteria after the age/history/condition/mileage boxes were ticked – everything else was just nice to have.

And yes, ditch the run-flats if the car still has them fitted.

Another vote for the touring with whichever 6 cylinder lump fits your needs best.

Late spec lci 335d touring (rwd) here and ticks most the boxes, have a towbar rack for the bikes to keep the filth out and save faff. It manages family camping trips away with 2 kids fine with a roof box.

*Just to add, had an Octavia VRS estate a few years ago – 335d is better in every way apart from a bit less space which hasn’t been an issue.

I’ve tried every possible combination over the years. Needs to fairly smart for work, still enjoy driving have 2 kids & dogs.

Nice van – Most practical but felt bad abusing it with muddy bikes & kit. Don’t need something the size of a van most of the time, slow, not exactly fun to drive.

JDM minivan – Bonkers fun & practical but again felt bad putting muddy bikes in it. Mpg was also abysmal.

4×4 Pickup – Not much space for the size, wheels need to be removed to fit in the back.

Fun estate with towbar rack – best single vehicle compromise for me, muddy bike outside, good for daily use and family trips. Annoying having to change after muddy ride but can live with it. Fit rack and bike on takes seconds.

Car of choice & shitbox van – for me this is the best option but expensive and you need the space to park them. Van to abuse for mtb, get in filthy and not worry about. Enjoyable daily driver for the rest of the time.

Elsworths, all of them.

Fat bikes, all of them.

The Be One dh bikes (and a lot of the 90s/00s Euro stuff) were a special kind of ugly.

Anything with a SuperMonster fitted to it.

Most ebikes, though they’re getting better.

Special mentions…

We’ve done most combinations over the years and think we’ve finally cracked the (car/luxury) camping bed setup. It’s warm, fast to setup, super comfortable and acceptable size once packed away. Not the cheapest but well worth it.

Two Decathlon inflatable bases then a nice thick self inflating double mattress on top. The bases pack down really small and take very little inflating, 2 can be clipped together to make a double bed. 75mm sim is quite bulky but way better than a big plastic airbed.

Bases – https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/inflatable-camping-bed-base-camp-bed-air-70-cm-1-person/_/R-p-309887

Assuming my kind offer above is rejected, anyone car to give their thoughts on this as a starter car (for me)?

I bought the brushed version for my little boy for Christmas, he bloody loves it and has used it pretty much used it every day it hasn’t been pissing down since. Quality is great for the price and touch wood seems pretty indestructible even with a 5 year old at the controls. Size and weight are great for chucking a bag and gets taken out with us quite ofter. It’s plenty fast enough so can only assume the brushless version will be pretty lively!

Only things worth mentioning… the battery that came with it is tiny so quickly bought a higher capacity one (may not be an issue with the brushless version) and the shocks aren’t oil filled so it’s quite bouncy – upgrades are available from FTX for about £10 an end I think (again, not sure if the brushless gets better shocks).

Would deffo recommend.

Ok what I meant was – any sensible sized NA petrol with fuel economy I’d be prepared to accept.

Yeah, that makes sense – that and the tax bracket it’d no doubt be in!

I would hate a NA petrol as it wouldn’t be nice to drive

I’m a big fan of forced induction but that’s just nonsense. Some of the best cars I’ve ever driven (sound/handling/performance) have been NA and petrol – 4, 6 and 8 cylinder.

With regards to the DPF question you don’t need to be doing motorway journeys but you do need to be ticking certain criteria and fairly frequently driving for long enough for the car to get up to temp and run a regen if required. For my current car (335d) you also need over 1/4 tank of diesel and no outstanding fault codes relating to the DPF for it to regen. You can usually feel when it’s doing it, mine seems to prefer steady driving on A roads rather than set speed/rpm on the motorway.

Cat S wouldn’t bother me depending on what the damage was and the damage and repair was well documented.

I found the weather has to be properly grim to make waterproof trousers worth while so went for a full waterproof onesie those conditions.

Game changer when the weather is cold and grim even if you do look like an mtb teletubbie. Great for uplifts etc too too but can be a bit on the warms side for when it’s not cold.

[CO2 cartridges] 50p each

I picked up a couple of boxes of 10 for £4.99 each, could have been from Planet-X but might be wrong.

For on the bike? Tubeless and a couple of C02 carts, faster and smaller than a pump. Think I’ve used 2 or 3 this year so at 50p each much cheaper too.

With those criteria I’d be getting a Panda 100hp, cheap, fairly practical and a bunch of fun. Drive one and see how you get on, I don’t think they’re harsh but depends what you’re used to. I’m very tempted by one as school run/bike transport/winter hack.

You need to find out why it’s coming on and what the issue is. Presume the car has got an OBD port so get a cheap OBD2 code reader and pull the codes – Google will tell you what the codes relate to and hopefully an idea of why the EML has been triggered – you can decide if it’s something you need to worry about/fix/ignore.

Ooof. Didn’t know I needed a new lid but 60% off an A3… cheers for that!

Thought I’d replied to this but can’t see it now. I ran a generic boost adapter kit on on my CK wheels without issue. Only a pain if you frequent swap wheels about or are prone to punctures.

Gloworm is the answer. They have spot, wide honeycomb and flood optics they you can switch out on each led (3 on the XS and 2 on the X2).

I run 2x wides (horizontally) and a spot on the bars and 2x spots on the helmet.

No reason you couldn’t run the wide optics at 90° I guess but don’t really understand why you’d want to.

Finally got around to fitting mine, Argotal 2.6 front and Kryptotal-r 2.4 rear – both enduro/soft. Replacing Michelin Wildenduro racing lines that I’ve been running for years and love.

Sizing wise the 2.6 is tall, had to switch mudguards to a smaller one to clear the tyre. 2.4 is a bit weedy but should be fine at the back. Noticeably lighter and less sticky than than the Michelins – which I expected.

1 muddy ride in, they’re more aggressive than the (well worn) Michelins on turn in and cut through slop better. Slightly less progressive and don’t cling to wet rock/roots as well. Climbing they’re noticeably less draggy.

Overall quite impressed, few like they should last better than the Michelins and suit current conditions well though I’d probably go to Kryptotal front/super soft and rear/soft in the dh casing wheb things dry up and gets a bit faster.

Depends what your “off-road” consists of – for me a 170mm 29er enduro bike (Megatower) does everything I need. Sensible weight and pedals well enough for the weekly xc ride, trundle around with the kids, uplifts and racing enduro and downhill. Not the perfect bike for a few of those but more than capable at everything it’s used for with minimal changes.

Only other bike is a gravel bike.

I had a similar issue with my gravel bike, went with a PNW bar and Stem.

Bars are 520mm and flare out to just over 600mm, no drawbacks for me as o treat the joke like an xc mtb and used to 800mm bars on my proper bikes – these feel spot on.

Just to follow up on this if anyone is interested…

6ft/32in waist and went for the medium.

As above fit is a bit weird, arm and leg length are good but slightly tight around the shoulders when seated on the bike, baggy around the waist. Would have liked the legs a bit more fitted but that’s a minor point, baggy waist with no adjustment also isn’t really an issue due to it being a 1 piece it’s not like they can fall down.

Tried it out, weather was a bit too warm and dry (would have been fine in trousers and a jersey) but was really impressed with it – will be saved for the wet uplifts/filthy weather/cold night rides but should make getting through the winter a whole lot more enjoyable. Would recommend despite if you can get over feeling like an enduro teletubbie.

local FB seller with a pair of Krypotal Fr/Re trail/endurance tires. Said they are stamped made in Germany. I thought these were the chiner rubber? Anyone any wiser?

I thought the 2.4s in soft/supersoft were made in Germany and the 2.6s in China – might be wrong.

Put in an order on Tweeks for the Argotal in 2.4/29/enduro but as they’ve now disappeared off the site and nowhere seems to have stock so I’m not holding out much hope.

How big are the 2.6s? Not a fan of tractor tyres.

Looking for either the enduro soft or dh super soft in a 2.4 I think. Going to get the 2.4 Kryptotal R on and see how that sizes up before deciding.

Tweeks claiming to have stock in a couple of days so will keep an eye on their site.

To be fair they’re pretty good about sorting out errors. I’ve had 3 recently, 1 a meeting over ran, another at FoD parked 1/2 mile up a fire road when a race was on and the 3rd picked the wrong car in the parking app – all 3 appealed, all 3 cancelled. Can’t really complain at that.

I’ve a Kryptotal R coming today, enduro/soft 29×2.4 – going to have a look at that then decide what front to get. Do wonder if I should have got the dh casing though.

Thinking Argtotal for the winter but would be nice if they did super soft in the enduro casing for the front.

Anyone know where’s there is stock of Argotals in 29?

Wow that’s ugly. That’s a shame, was interested to see YT’s taken on a gravel bike but wow that’s ugly. Its like they’re trying to make it look like an ebike or something?

Ahhh, the GT3 Escudo Pikes Peak move.

High Speed Ring lap record.

Thanks for that, really helpful!

Sort of confirms what I thought would be the case from reading a couple of reviews, only thing that put me off the medium was a mate who’s 5ft6 has one and thinks I’d struggle with the height.

Black’s probably the best option, green onesie on a green bike might be a bit much!

It’s Titanium, so I’d sooner not!

First thing I did to my ti frame was to drill it to take an internally routed dropper, no more/less sketchy than drilling a steel or alloy frame if done right.

Also having tried non remote droppers in the early days of dropper posts and then again briefly in the early days of gravel bikes I’d avoid like the plague.

CamelChops

These things are bloody ace, hand made in Scotland. You can pick from their stock, pick your colours/prints or they do custom orders. Quality is spot on and they look amazing, I got their Chip frame bag in purple, pink and zombie print – love it and will be ordering more when I can come up with an excuse for needing them!

Probably the only plastic bike that’d tempt me away from my Megatower. Sure the colours are lovely but I wish the did it in black.

Have done it with mtb shifters before there was much choice in under bar dropper levers. Looked into it on the gravel bike and decided it looked like a faff so bought the PNW drop bar lever.

Works well, tidy enough, bit of a fiddle to wrap – would recommend.

Check out Camel Chops, based on Scotland and will make you anything you need in a huge range of colour, patterns or even supplied fabric. Can’t recommend them highly enough.

Have a look at the Goldrush too, bit more mtb like geo. I rode both and didn’t like the Tempest, it also had bad overlap and the dropouts weren’t as well thought out (though could have been an older model).

I bought the Goldrush, drilled it for a dropper then stuck wider bars and shorter stem on it. Love it. Factor in replacing the original wheels at some point as they’re crap, the Selcof build kit is a bit cheap looking but don’t. The frame and Sram kit is great for the money… when on discount.

I went from Howies to Nukeproof and prefer them. The material is a bit more synthetic feeling but pockets, fit and leg/kneepad grippers are better than the Howies were, they’re also a bit thinner (which I prefer) and cheaper.

Great ride, lovely part of the world to explore. Managed the 100k in just over 5hrs with a few stops to regroup. Glad I was on the gravel bike – few ploughed fields were a bit uncomfortable but overall the right tool for the job.

Soooo lucky with the weather and great to see such a varied range of bikes and rider out enjoying them selves. Big thanks to the organisers, cracking day.

yup, similarly aiming for an early 100k on the gravel bike.

Garmin 6 Pro and 6x Pro are current £315/£330 on Amazon which seems a good price.

Don’t forget they’ll reduce your reach so if the frames on the short side it might be an issue. Also if you’ve got internal lower headset it’ll change this to external so will raise your front end up meaning you might need to drop the travel in the forks to compensate. I’d also recommend Works Components.

Just picked up a 6 Pro and the mapping looks quite usable but very clunky if you want to pan/zoom on the map, currently looking at the options for loading other maps that are better suited to mtb.

Also the the regular 6 pro is pretty hefty, deffo wouldn’t want to go any bigger.

Battery life wasn’t too bad on the vivovactive, charged it once a week maybe more depending on usage – though it did deteriorate over time. Seemed to be mostly down to the watch face (some killed battery) and how much you used GPS.