Willjones – I’ve had more luck phoning up customer services than writing letters so far.
Called Barclays and Nationwide, both with scant details of pretty old (20+ years for Barclays) products – both traced PPI policies and initiated the complaint process.
I wrote to a third bank (forgotten which) who I had my first mortgage with & got a stock ‘no record if your account’ reply..

No cheques yet though, sadly!

Mule and EVOC one’s look good – any deals about?
Hydrapak prices are very tempting – looking favourite right now, thanks Ecky

Found me a nice little Spesh Hotrock last time I visited one.
£25 secured it and 30 minutes tinkering got it fully operational.

Sold for £107 on eBay the following week. Not quite in the same league as the Leice, but it made me happy!

Also got a very useful Chain Reaction wheel bag for £3 on the same day

+1 for Stopoverconnections. Used them several times to find nice out-of-the-way stop overs.

We regularly use Novotels, I always take the bikes into the rooms & never had a problem doing this but You’ll be amazed at the quantity (and quality) of bikes people leave on car racks overnight

the current ones aren’t too bad either off road.

Except for the minor detail that most break down before they reach the farm gate

I like the design, but as an fairly recent ex-Disco owner, I’d take a lot of convincing about their build quality to buy back into their brand

EDIT – just saw it’s got lasers!!! WHERE DO I SIGN..?

They’re a thistle, not a daffodil ffs.

Unless it’s a Jerusalem artichoke, which is a tuber (like a potato)

You’re right Countzero but this was a few years ago so I didn’t know that at the time.
Thanks again to the DVLA for raising my blood pressure unnecessarily!

Congratulations mate – crack open the bubbly, you deserve it!
Good advice too.

I fought them for 2 years to prove my Fiat 500 (registered in 1973 but built in 1972) should qualify for free tax.
They employ such a bunch of (insert your own derogatory expletive) that you never get the same story twice when you call them.

They even issued me with a free tax disc (historic vehicle classification) then started writing to me saying the vehicle didn’t qualify and could I now pay for it. WHY DID YOU ISSUE IT THEN!!!!

Anyway, I won in the end, but life is too short to be wasting it on these ****

Ok, so I managed a circuit of the red on Sunday morning.
I left with mixed feelings – I really enjoyed a few sections but a lot of the steeper descents were badly cut up. It did seem like a bit of a slog towards the end, but that’s no bad thing if you’re looking for a good workout.

I don’t ride a lot of trail centres so my only real point of reference is Swinley, I’d say the Swinley guys have made much better use of terrain which has much less potential – they’ve got far less altitude to play with but you always feel like there’s a fun bit just around the next corner. At Dalby some of the fire road links seemed endless.
Also £7 to park is taking the piss a bit when I can ride 4 hours at Swinley for £2.

I was there early and crossed over with the same 2 or 3 groups/ riders at various points – all were friendly & they were mostly locals who rode there frequently. The only guy I met who was a Dalby virgin like me, also commented how rough some sections were.

Overall, glad I went and I’ll probably go back if the opportunity arises but I wouldn’t go too far out my way for it.

One wierd thing – when I synced my strava time at the end of the run it showed a total elevation gain of 4,250-ish feet. Looking at it now, it shows just over 2,000 ft. What’s happened there then??

Ok, sounds like it might be a bit of a disappointment , but I’m here now (visiting family nearby) and the bike’s in the car is might as well give it a go.

Please tell me at least it’s clearly marked! I won’t be a happy bunny if it’s dull AND I get lost!

Cheers guys

Kingofbiscuits – why do you hate it so much?

Got my wife a nice (used) women’s Stumpjumper FS a few years ago.
We go off on a nice ride around Dartmouth – a nice leisurely ride with pub lunch planned, mainly a mixture of roads, bridle ways etc but there was a shortish good bit of Singletrack through some woods – best bit by far & I’m telling her how great it is and this is what it’s all about etc.

We exit the woods and she decides she doesn’t like the mud and can we stick to the road.

To say I was crestfallen……….

See, what I don’t understand is why would I enter into a credit agreement (even a very favourable one) to buy a bike, with no guarantee that I’ll get to keep the bike at the end of it.

All the info on the C2W website (see the link posted on first page of this thread) – says that either C2W or the employer ‘may’ offer the bike to the employee. May Offer? Why the ambiguity?

I asked my employer what happens at the end of the scheme – they had no idea.

For that reason, I’m out.

I had this very conversation with a neighbour last summer – he’s a nice bloke & I know him reasonably well.
Started off by asking him if he had problems with the front wheel hitting his feet.. ‘yeah, I do actually’

It had been that way since he got it from Halfords & I’m not sure he was totally convinced I was right.

Really looking forward to an all day pootle around the Chilterns tomorrow.
Hardly managed to get any riding time in this year and I’ll be out with an old school mate I probably only see once a year.

Can’t wait!

I’ve been to Bourg a couple of times and always with the family, so riding time was at a premium. My only advise would be don’t go looking for off-piste trails if you’re short of time – unless you’ve got a guide you’ll waste most of your prescious riding time looking for trails.

+1 for Red 7 down from Arc 1800. Great fun and anyone could do – just make sure you’ve got plenty of meat on your brake pads!

Just out of interest – what do you think your landlord will say if he turns up and finds a ZZR600 in the hall?

(although at 9/11 the appropriate response is probably ‘a break’)

Toby1 has it – spot on!!

Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming

Having camped in France for the last 5 or 6 years, including the Vendee area, our rule of thumb when looking for a new site is to avoid those directly on (or very near) the coast. You’ll get much bigger pitches, with more space for kids to run around, if you come inland a few miles.

Some of the bigger coastal sites look like massive refugee camps & they’re so busy you daren’t let the kids out of your sight.

3 years ago, left Bourg St Maurice in a convoy of 3 cars.
Blasted through France for 500- odd miles, not a single hold up or problem.
Finally arrive at M25 – knackered but only half an hour from home to be confronted by miles of stationary traffic. At bloody midnight. Only 1 lane open due to road works.

I hate that road.

Not thought of Decathlon – will check them out online.

Aldi/Lidl stuff’s a bit hit & miss IME. I know some people swear by it but I’ve had good stuff and some total rubbish.

Was wondering if any of the mainstream bike gear manufacturers did stuff for small people

Smileys and any form of text speak. Only OK if you are a teenage girl.

Thanks for the heads up

(Ps ignore the Paypal gift haters)

+1 for Ringwood Old Thumper. Easy to get as most Supermarkets sell it and a bit more ‘approachable’ since they dropped the ABV from 5.6 to 5.1

Anyone had success with First Direct? They’re next on my list to call

2x head-smashers have already been deployed. Will be checking them when I get home in an hour.

Those humane tunnel-trap thingys look good on paper, but they’re only humane if you check them every couple of hours – otherwise mousey dies a longer & less humane death than the old fashioned head-smasher type.

On the up side, they do work – caught 6 or 7 in my loft last year. Unfortunately I think they’re back – wonder if I didn’t release them far enough away?

What’s going on here?
Do I need to leave all my bikes on the kerbside so the local scrap-pikey can do me a favour and dispose of my obsolete 26 inch scrap?

And why did the OP say ‘waist’……..?

Portobello House[/url]
This place was lovely and less expensive than centre of town.
Close to Portobello road/market, Notting Hill etc

Nice bar and good food too.

Spacemonkey – exactly what I thought.
However, I actually rang Barclays to ask if my credit cards had PPI on them (turns out they didn’t), but it was them that mentioned the overdrafts and she then gave me the PPI policy numbers and transferred me to the claims department to make the complaint.

I guess they might not all be as forthcoming, but I intend to find out over the next week or so!

Well, one (not so quick) phone call to Barclays last night established that I had 2 PPI policies related to overdrafts in the late 90’s!
I had no idea that you could even get PPI on overdrafts, so clearly I wasn’t aware the policies had been ‘sold’ to me.

They’re investigating the complaint & will respond within 8 weeks.

Now to trawl through the rest of my financial history and see who else might have ripped me off in the past!

Any tips on finding details of historical (I’m talking 20 years ago) ccounts/loans etc gratefully received…..

Yep, I’ve had to pay it when my buy-to-let has been empty between tenants.
Didn’t realise it was at the local authorities discretion though – assumed they all did it (County Durham certainly do)

Is The Ship still the alternative pub of choice?

The Oval Tavern was my favourite. Nice little local boozer and I lived within sight of it!

I lived in Croydon for a few years so feel qualified to comment.
Don’t go there. Go anywhere else but there. Anywhere.

sc-xc that’s the kind of advice I was looking for, I’ve had loads of financial products over the years but never knowingly taken out PPI and can’t remember who half of them were with.

In the ‘good old days’ did PPI automatically added to loans, credit cards etc or would you know if you’d bought it?

Well done for resurrecting this Righog – great thread.

Here’s mine, not bought, but inherited from my Gran who bought it when it was a year old.
Full body restoration about 3 years ago, everything else original. Still smells the same inside as it did when we were kids!
[/URL]]Bambino

Not fast, not loud, no good for transporting bikes, but it makes people smile & my kids love it!

I’ve got a Honda (HRH536 I think) and whilst I’d happily recommend it, I’ve had a couple of issues.
Have to admit I do zero maintainance on it and it normally starts OK but when I pulled it out of hibernation last year it wasn’t interested. Took it to our local repair guy…. first problem – he was booked solid for about 4 weeks (peak season, so not unexpected). So by the time I got the mower back there were antelope grazing amongst the tall lush grass.
2nd problem – the bill. It was about £100 for new coil, new pull cord & service. Probably all stuff I could have done myself, but there’s only so many hours in the day. We had a similar bill a few years ago when it threw the blade, so it’s cost a few quid in maintainance over the years.

I guess the moral is you need a slighlty different mindset if you’ve been use to electric mowers in the past. Petrol will need some maintainance/repair over time, but you can minimise this by buying a quality brand like Honda. And as said above, for modest domestic use, a decend Honda should last a lifetime.

What the **** does Qashqai even mean??
I can only assume it’s Japanese for beige.

Coatsey – I’ll check, it was working fine when last used so I don’t think anything could have happened to physically move the shifter, but worth a look to rule it out.
Cheers.