Front boot has all the important stuff (spare wheel, jack, booster cables, rope, etc…)

Rear boot gets emptied and hoovered every Sunday after biking so currently nothing.

Same basic design but the Thule seems much more solid.

With the Halfords one, the tyres sit on a single beam (which allows the front wheel to wobble about) whereas with the Thule, there’s 2 rails that the tyre sits in between.

My Halford one also seemed to have a lot of play in the downtube support so the whole bike would lean from side to side.

I’ve had it a long time and nothing’s ever actually fallen off but it’s not great for confidence looking up and seeing so much movement!

I should probably have mentioned that before!

DIY job it is.

That looks good but i can’t see it working with my rack which is a Toyota one just for the MR2;

Thanks anyway

Thanks andyl, its a mk2 Toyota MR2 Turbo.

I’m more worried about weight distribution (glass roof) than support for the actual carrier. I need to get the whole thing to sit centraly on the bars like my old Halfords ones did.

Was there yesterday and all the trails with tree cover were perfectly rideable. Probably best staying clear of the moors, transmission & section 13 though…

Some dodgy sections of fireroad around but of the 10 of us riding only 2 had ice related dismounts.

Yeah i’m going to try to restrict myself to only riding the Common at night in dry or frozen conditions. Don’t want to be acused of ruining a good footpath!

Really enjoyed DD but it felt like a loooonnnng way back up to the top of Transmission when my camelbak had frozen solid and the fireroad was covered in a nice mixture of sheet ice and snow!!!

Sorry Crispy but it was up on a public forum 😉

Thanks BTW, the Hamsterley Common and Dangerous Descent are both brilliant trails i’ve only just found in the last couple of weeks thanks to your map!

I took me a while to work out which bits were where but that’s always going to be the case with unofficial trails!!

I think its about 30 miles or so in total. Tbh you could leave out the big loop to the west without missing too much interesting stuff.

If you zoom right in on the map you can just about make out some arrows so you can tell which direction to go. If in doubt, most of the fireroads should be a climb or flatish.

I haven’t got a GPS route but here’s a good place to start;

http://mtbnortheast.ning.com/forum/topics/hamsterley-mammoth

Obviously you don’t have to include all of that, but there’s plenty of extra little loops you can add in to make an ‘extended black’.

I’ll be there on Sunday with some mates if you’d like pointing in the right direction.

Yep, always take my MR2 to the nearest empty carpark after some snow. I sometimes even treat the girlfriend to a demonstration of my drifting skills!!

Who says romance is dead?

Ask him to wait while you go to the toilet.

Take ages.

Heading to Hammers tomorrow night. I’ll keep an eye out for any ‘new features’.

Shocking behaviour.

Question sent.

I’ve been there!

I’ve wondered this myself but reckon it’s probably just that bad riding stands out more when it’s done on a bling bike.

Interesting and sensible don’t often come together.

Golf TDi’s and A3’s are definitely not interesting…

If you’re not too fussed about handling ‘at the ragged edge’, the rx-8 probably makes more sense then.

The mx-5 is a better sports car but the interior of the rx-8 is undoubtedly a nicer place to be.

Yep

This is how you carry bikes on an MR2

What Rogg said.

You’ll never regret having interesting bikes/cars/etc. You may regret not doing it while you had the chance.

MR2/MX5/Boxter can all be made to work with bikes.

Have also had sidewall problems with non UST.

UST ones have been great.

Always nice to get good feedback!

Looking forward to getting it up and running.

What sort of kit did you have on it and did you always stick to the recommended 100mm forks? I’m tempted to put some 120/130mm travel ones on…

Are you the same irnbrucove who’s just sold me a Handjob frame?

Best i’ve heard recently is;

“I’d need to put my seatpost down to ride that and i don’t want to cos it’s carbon fibre and i don’t want to scratch it”

I did the Ullock Pike, Back o’ Skiddaw combo last month starting from Threlkeld.

Brilliant day out!!

You could save yourself a load of money and buy an MR2 Turbo.

£4k will get you a low mileage, fresly imported example.

242 bhp, mid-engined, lsd, Toyota reliability and it’ll take a roof rack with 2 bikes!

Then spend the rest on what Yunki said.

Turnerguy – I don’t think you should be able to sit on the saddle with feet on the ground on a full suss or a hardtail.

If you can then you won’t be getting anywhere near full extension on your legs during the pedal stoke, so you’ll be riding very inefficiently.

+1 Ullock Pike

Did it a few weeks ago for the first time. I’ll be back soon…

I saw it and found it very interesting. Lots of thing there i hadn’t heard on the news.

If i understood it correctly (which i probably didn’t) we’re going through the same financial pattern as happened in the Depression, which means we’ve got years of steady improvement to look forward to???

Recently got some of the Halfords +120 on BOGOF and have been very impressed.

I became addicted to Radio 4 when i worked part time as a white van man while i was at uni.

Never looked back.

I thought that F1 bloke (ex Benetton) designed the Preston?

Thanks Excitable.

64k might be a bit much for a couple of lads in the group, but there’s definitely some bits we could use.

I’ll be using a mixture of OS map and ‘The Force’ so i’ll make sure i spend some time on Google Earth before we get there.

I think it was shown that the ‘white roof’ theory would make bugger all difference as the vast, vast majority of the Earth’s surface is ‘non-roof’.

+1 Horse & Farrier.

Was in the area last Sunday and rather than the standard lap around Skiddaw, we went staight up the bridleway to the top but came down via Ullock Pike.

My new favorite (but cheeky) Lakes downhill !!!

Toyota MR2 Turbo 240 bhp. Around 28 mpg measured with rack + bike on the roof.

Only if you can’t be bothered cleaning/maintaining your bike.

My Enduro gets used all year around. I just make a point of cleaning it straight after a ride, and re-greasing the bearings and shock sleeve every 2-3 of months.

Still using the same bearings that got used all last winter 1-2 times a week and there’s no play in them yet.

Maybe its angry motorists fed up of their cars being prematurely corroded by excessive road salt?

There’s a few of us meet every Sunday morning near Great Ayton if you want showing around.

Otherwise, loads of local information and a few videos to give you an idea of what to expect here;

http://mtbguisborough.ning.com/

I think you’ll enjoy it more on a MTB but then i don’t understand CX anyway…