I have a Defy advanced and prior to that had an aluminium Trek.
There is certainly a more damped quality to the ride of the carbon Defy which removes some of the road buzz and they ride very nicely indeed. Whilst designed for comfort the Defy is still an agile and lively bike.
I’ve only had a very brief ride on an aluminium Defy.Initial impressions were good but you’d have to ride them back to back to.decide if the composite was worth the extra.

Given her size is more that of a larger kid have you considered one of the larger sized Islabikes ? The Beinn looks to tick a lot.of boxes.Simple gearing,rigid forks,light and adaptable.

Sika also do epoxy and polyurethane floors.
I was going to recommend them too, but beaten to it.

I picked up a rental car from Munich airport on a tour of Switzerland,Austria and Germany.No issues.Only additionAl cost was,purchase of vignette for Austria .

If you like beaches try the silver coast in Portugal.There are fantastic beaches, it’s a lot less touristy than the Algarve and restaurants seem to be very reasonably priced. Fly to Lisbon and it will be approx an hour transfer.

My 9year old recently acquired a trek mt220.its a great little bike and can often be found on eBay for around £70-80on eBay.

They all seem to be inaccurate.
I have a BMW 320 ED.
Overall the computer claims 61.9 and my current journey suggests 63. The reality when calculated by miles travelled on a tank and litres put in at the pump suggest an average of between 57 and 58 over the 6 months I’ve had it.

Toyota verso.

As above! 3 children aged 11,9 and 7 and all obsessed.
However it does seem.to have brought them together as my oldest shares his knowledge with his younger sisters and it’s a constant source of conversation between them.

Stamp bloody long nose is very annoying though.

Toyota verso.

I used a cheap removal tool from eBay and the new one pushed in by hand.Too early to comment on durability.

Jonathan, thats possibly the nicest kid’s bike ever.Tell us more!

What’s a good place to buy the Schealbes or Small block 8s?
Not finding any places online with stock of 24s.

Not necessarily bothered by the wire bead but some kids tyres seem uneccessarily heavy and I reckon it’s the easiest way of removing some excess weight.

Good suggestions.Thanks all.

Make pub you ride to your
local.Leave big chain and lock there.Sorted!

I picked up a Merc E class convertible from Sixt car rental at Munich airport a couple of years ago for a road trip through Austria, Switzerland and via the Dolomites.
It was meant to be a VW Eos but we got a free upgrade.
Ok an E class isn’t a sports car but is was great for roof down cruising and got us there in ample comfort.Not sure what else they have on their fleet.

Cost was approx £300 for the week.

I free cycled some unwanted topsoil and old concrete slabs as hardcore from a redundant flower bed once. Saved a fortune on skips.

I recently picked up a kit sound hive in sainsburys.They were selling them off after Christmas for £35.It was an impulse buy but has a surprisingly big sound. Not the last word in hi fidelity but plenty good for background music in tbe shed.

My experience of the bathroom suite I bought was that the bath was good quality, the wc, taps and fittings less so.

Sold my last car via the classifieds here!

Thats a very good price. I sold my 1.6 petrol 57 plate Focus with 50k on the clock to a forumite for not much less.

My girlfriend’s 02 1.8tdci is on 150k miles now,which is amazing given it never gets serviced.

Seem to be less problems with the 1.8 than the later 1.6 tdci.

I drove to our office in Barnet, then took the northern line in to go to a meeting just off of Holborn. Had to get off at Tottenham Court Road, but it was no worse a journey than normal. Unfortunately the guy I was meeting was an hour late…….

Fortunately mine’s grey…….

Good car if you don’t spec m sport suspension..

The oem stuff on my Defy had a gel backing which felt nice but caused the tape to move around when your hands got warm, or in summer.
The SLR tape doesn’t do this as it isn’t gel backed, but is still comfortable.

Have always liked Fizik, but recently used Giant SLR tape, which does the job just as well but is cheaper, and is more pliable making it easier to apply. Looks similar to the Fizik tape too.

Ksyrium Equipes have proved tough for me.
Would still like some nice handbuilts, particularly like the sound of the architype rims, but I got an excellent deal on the Ksyriums.

High pressure water jet or grit blast is going to be the only way. Possibly careful use if a needle gun, but danger of removing too much of the brick face particularly if it’s sandfaced.

Yes. I can via sky freesat and BT standard broadband.
So I have bbc HD and itv1 HD via the satellite dish, but also BT sports channel via broadband.

I had a similar problem once on my Alfa Spiders New bushes and properly set up wheel alignment transformed it.

The Grosvenor hotel at Pulford, not far from Chester is very good. It has a spa which the Mrs might appreciate, and it has a decent restaurant.
It was my hotel of choice when I was near Chester for work. Not too expensive either.

I’ve used Fizik in the past but I recently retaped my bars in Giants SLR tape which seems as good but cheaper and a little easier to wrap.

Shop around for prices from local car tyre specialists. Sometimes the quality brands need not be much more than budget.

Full suss, Fizik Tundra 2,Hardtail,Fizik Gobi, Road bike, Fizik Arione.

I used to love reading Car in the eighties, when it featured the eccentric LJKS, Russell Bulgin and Gavin Green.

Phil and Teds worked well when mine were littl. Good resale too!

I had this problem with my Galaxy s3.With the phone connected by USB to my laptop it was possible to drag and drop my music and photos that were clogging up the internal memory, from phone to the sd card.

Nice car. Good blend of practicality v fun.
Enjoy it!

Recently become the owner of a BMW 320d efficient dynamics. Over my first 5k miles, the worst I’ve achieved is 50mpg which was on my first tankful, with running in and town driving. Since then I’m regularly getting 60mpg on mixed town and motorway driving.
This is actual mpg calculated from brimming the tank rather than the trip meter figure which is normally between 5 and 10% higher.
By comparison I previously had a 2.0 ctdi 160 Insignia. That gave a best of 50mpg,but typically returned 45mpg.