@mick_r
Yeah, basically that, think his had been used for a heavy machine gun though. And it was in no way shape or form in that good condition!

He got about 20k for it from memory (it was a few years ago.)

A mate is on his second Valp, first one was one of the (relatively) rare gun platform ones with flip down windows and bolt on stabilisers. Obviously the only features his retained were the mounts for the stabilisers and the flip down windows… no gun.

He’s got what is laughingly called a hard top convertible now. Top speed of about 50 mph with a redblock engine, and about 180bhp.

I suggested mounting the D5 unit longitudinally, but noted an adapter plate may be required as, to my knowledge, the d5 only was ever transverse.

Yes, the I5 modular engines were all transverse, started in the 850/P80 platform IIRC.
It’s fairly easy to mount it longitudinally in one of the older platforms, as i’ve seen a few older cars with the modular I5 in. (Usually petrol and tuned to 300+ bhp though!)

Based on a very short journey yeah that’s about all it’ll do. My town driving Will literally be going into town to collect something and back. Be around 1.5 miles max.

a) Unless you have something actually wrong with you that precludes walking (or a large package to collect), it’s probably quicker to walk!

b) that’ll be the monster AC system trying to heat up the car interior and driveline systems. The longer the journey, the less impact the AC start up cycle has, on a short, slow journey it might be 50% of your consumption. (As a ball park figure a large estate will require around 35 kW to cruise at 90-100kph so a slow drive (under 50kph) might average about 10-15 with all the acceleration and deceleration. Depending what the start conditions are (damp/cold/hot/humid etc) the AC could be pulling 7-9 kW at the same time…)

if I run cleats perfectly straight then it gives me knee pain in my left leg although it takes a few hours of riding to come on.

This is the issue with twisting your foot. It might take minutes to notice (me), or hours, or months (or for some lucky buggers, never.)

A guy in our club has recently had a partial knee replacement in his late 20’s, directly attributed to running his cleats how his (completely unqualified) coach told him to. “Both feet should be straight! It’s what perfect pedaling style looks like!!”.
Started very young and trained very hard, so thought the pain was normal. Now rides one foot straight (after surgery, so it’s not even all his knee anymore) and the other one about 5 deg toe out, where it should have been to start with.

Yeah, just tilting the cleat, it’s an easy and cheap alternative to canted footbeds/orthotics.

Especially as it’s only needed on two or three pairs of road shoes. The wider stance on my MTBs means they aren’t required.

And if you’re going to force your feet to be less twisted (as that’s what it is) you have to be very very careful.

I am also duck footed (not 20 degrees though, more like 10 or so.) and have spent a fortune on physio/bike fitting and such like. And spent a lot of time studying bike fitting and biomechanics/physiology type stuff. Forcing your feet straight(er) is not really a good idea, the more you do it, the worse problems you are potentially saving up for later (though that depends hugely on why your feet turn out, mine is a combination of musculature and skeletal, so some straightening is done by physio/massage and stretching, some by changing the bike/fit points).

Using road pedals will gain you a few degrees of flexibility to start with, the cleats are far more adjustable than 2 bolt SPDs, and also give a far more locked in ride/stable platform, i find trying to get a 2 bolt SPD system set up properly leaves you with your feet hanging off the end of the pedal and a lot of instability. With 3 bolt, you can twist the cleat and push it inboard on the shoe (so your foot goes out) you can actually get some combinations of shoe, cleat and pedal to be completely unusable, as the heel of the shoe needs to pass through the crank to allow pedaling!

The other big change that makes massive difference is using shims on the cleat, i’ve got 3 degrees of shimming, and that allows my knee to track properly (up/down not in an arc) and takes about 5 degrees of duck footedness away at the same time. So that might be worth looking at as well.

Another thing to bear in mind is trying to copy your foot angles when you’re stood up is going to lead to a world of pain, pedaling is not the same action (or loading) as standing or walking.

FWIW, the Climate systems in most cars are rated between about 5 and 9kW. Not 2kW.
There’s a set of defrosting/deicing legal requirements that drives the dimensioning.
That’s one reason why very short/local journeys are so bad. The climate system uses a shed load of energy to heat the car up/dry out the air/cool the car before there is any useable spare heat from the motor/battery/engine.
Then you park up and walk round Aldi and the car goes to ambient temp again.
Heat pumps are better, but only marginally.

Once you’re up to temp, and everything is warm, the AC is essentially only using the energy needed to dry the intake air out. So a couple of kW, plus whatever extra heating/cooling is needed.

We had a midsummer a few years ago that was colder than NYE…

And there’s definitely a lot of diminishing returns once you get either too far inland or much past Göteborg in the West of Stockholm in the East.

Unless you like a lot of nothing.

No, not allowing anything other than commercial freight these days.

It’s 24 or 25 SEK in most places today.
It peaked at about 28 a couple of weeks ago, if he’s still paying 30 he’s being robbed blind.

It’s around 20,75 SEK at the moment, so about 1.70 a litre.

Heard a story (from an interviewer) of a candidate who’d put something on their CV about some extreme sport or other which was suitably niche. All went pear-shaped when the interviewer said “I see you’re into [sport], the best man at my wedding was [name], you must know him?”

“err…no”

“Oh, that’s unusual cos he’s [sport champion] and is very well known…”

And the lies quickly unravelled.

I resemble this remark…
Done almost exactly the same with the CV, except it wasn’t a lie (obviously).
Interviewer asks if i know Mr X

“Errr, yeah, know him for years. I’m going to his 50th at the end of the month.”

“Oh, small world, so am I.”

“i’ll see you there then.”

Was a bit embarrassing in the end, as i turned the job down…

I’ve always done the formal thing very short and to the point, then avoided the exit interview as best i can.

Except for one employer who got both barrels. I had no intention of ever working in the field again and actively tried to get my manager sacked for gross misconduct (he’d regularly break the law).

They also underpay and have fairly poor conditions, though they keep up the lie that pay and conditions are in line with the industry, i’m pretty sure they’ve never even checked. I know that most of my colleagues never checked… Except the ones who’ve left.

It’s the single thing i spend most of my time on, other than sleep. Well, trying to sleep.

I wish it wasn’t, but these things do happen.

I’ve done it a lot, my record is about 12 hours, Göteborg to Hook of Holland. Left at 7 pm, got to the ferry at 7am _NO_ traffic anywhere, at all. No roadworks either, never managed before or since. Usually takes 14-15 hours.

Have a look for deals on the bridges, i usually pay about €80-100 return for the Öresundsbron.
You could also look at using the ferries as well, they are a good way to break up the journey, especially with kids, Puttgarden/Rodby to get from Denmark to (almost) Copenhagen, cuts out one of the bridges. Then Helsingborg/Helsingor (depending on how far north you decide to go in Sweden) cuts out the other bridge…

Yeah, i like having a couple of proper tracks in easy reach. If i didn’t i certainly wouldn’t have got back into it in the way i have, crawlers would have been more likely!

The 8th electric buggies i have will hit about 80 kph in race trim, and you need a proper bit of space to do that safely, 3 and a half kilos of buggy at that speed can do some serious damage. The TCs (10th electric) i’ve had through timing gates at somewhat over 100kph on track and geared up on a closed road at about 135, with everything turned up to 11, two runs and the whole thing shut itself down, low voltage warning, over heated ESC and motor :D

Also destroyed a set of tyres and a drive belt. :(

Can’t do that in the garden or on the road outside your house.

Yeah, i’m a massive fan of the Elite Ciussi cages, been using them for a couple of decades, at least. Can count the bottles i’ve lost on the fingers of one hand.
The extremely expensive and secure cages that my ex got (because shiny carbon fibre) used to lose a bottle once every half dozen rides, even the bottles they were actually designed to pair with.

So, she’s back on Ciussi now.

Ask for the payslip showing hours worked, payrate etc.
Think it’s illegal not to provide you with one (either digitally or paper copy). It certainly used to be. Then at least you can see their working out…

Then, i suspect, you’ll need to pay them back.

Which one?
The PMP L shaped cranks have been around since the 80’s.
The j shaped ones about 6 or 7 years (i’d have to check, but i can’t be bothered).
The wobbly crank things i’ve seen several times, usually for people with mobility problems.

Looks like the company that made them has gone under, they spent a while spamming forums about 6-7 years ago, with lots of scientific data to back it up.

Yes, I’m pretty sure that is how it works

Audi have had it in certain markets for nearly 3 years, BMW and Merc for 2, Volvo for 1. Think KIA, VW, Hyundai, Renault and a couple of others will have it or have already launched in the last year.

The tech has been around for about 10 years using 12V batteries, but the number of stops you could safely have is relatively small (2 or 3, then a loooooong wait to recharge the battery), so no one has done it outside of a few test cars. Adding 48V mild hybrid batteries into the mix means it’s now easy to do multiple stops (dozens) safely.

All the key systems are supported by the 48V power supply, and as soon as there is the slightest interruption to smooth rolling (braking, aggressive steering, accelerator input), you can restart the engine in a fraction of a second.

Certainly hope not…

Errr, do you really think an auto manufacturer would put an engine shutdown while driving into a strategy if you were going to lose power to everything?

Really?

I’ve been working on this for getting on 10 years, getting cars to hypermile automatically.

It’s really really hard and gives me a headache.

Do we go to neutral on this hill? Or do we switch the engine off as well. Or do we just roll down in gear with fuel cut? Or do we use the energy to recharge the battery (12/48/400V). Or do we leave the engine running to charge the batteries?
How long is the hill, how fast is the car going, how much does it accelerate (or decelerate) when we activate each mode? How charged are all the batteries, how much charge can the batteries take right now, how much vacuum capacity do we have right now for braking? What’s the status of the climate and cooling systems? Do we have any corners or traffic nearby that might interfere?

I used to do the odd driving assessment at my old job
A vast amount of drivers would fail even a basic assessment.

Yup. i used to do the assessments for access to certain classes of company cars, quite a simple checklist of competencies. Far easier to pass than an EU/UK driving test, probably as it was derived from a US checklist.
Used to fail about 30%. They’d then get in their own cars and drive back to the office and complain to their manager about being failed for something “that really didn’t matter”.

Had one guy who actually managed to persuade his manager to sign off anyway (at the time, it was ultimately the managers responsibility, not mine), he then promptly lost his license, while in a company car.
These days you have to go and do a proper test, with someone trained to do it. Rather than driving around with a senior engineer who has been told it’s his job to make sure they’re safe. Then they update your passcard, manager never gets involved. Or me, thankfully.

Used to be a pain, i drive a lot of stupid cars for work.
Someone with a cooking BMW trying to goad you into a race while you’re driving something thats best suited to the track or covering the entirety of europe in a day (and 9 fuel stops).
The only way that ends is with a crash, a death or losing your license for a couple of years. Especially as at legal speeds, the difference is minimal.

One benefit of them all moving to electric (Plaid, Taycan, PS2, E-Tron etc) is that if the urge takes you (not really) you can get reality altering acceleration which disabuses them of any notion of “racing” without even breaking the speed limit.

Not sure what the latest status is, but all those cars playing external racecar noises, or with programmable exterior sounds will probably have their wings clipped soon. New legislation in many markets is going to start controlling exterior noises…

If I had a dodgy socket as you describe, I’d change it.

It’s a newish socket (2016 or 17 i think), just been hammered by pulling ~3kW through it regularly. IIRC CANalyser usually reported 2,7kW into the onboard charger.
Apparently most domestic sockets aren’t *really* rated for that sort of continuous loading/duty cycle. Most devices either cycle once they are up to operating range, or aren’t used continually at full load for 16-18 hours several times a week. Anyway, it’s not going to overload the house electrics, so i’ll get a wallbox if the car is ordered, everythings fused and earthed properly, and i have a few spare slots on the garage fusebox, even space for a three phase supply. Until that happens i’ll just use one of the other sockets if i need to.

Also- is there any real issue with charging of a 3 pin plug long term.

We’ve had some issues with charging from mains in very very hot climates and very very cold climates (far worse in hot temps), don’t have enough grunt to cool/heat the battery properly AND charge it at any appreciable rate. So the car takes a decision to charge at a “non-optimal” battery temperature. Depends on the battery chemistry and charging strategy to determine exactly how much damage it’ll do. It can be optimised out, but leads to much longer charging times. Overnight charging in the UK should be fine for 51 weeks of the year, daytime charging, probably 48 weeks. ;)

Make sure your electrics are up to it. Wall sockets and wiring generally aren’t up to pulling full load continually for several hours. And it’s only the charge cable that’ll have any sort of inbuilt monitoring. Have had an issue with this before, the socket outside the garage buzzes horrifically and gets warm when i plug a PHEV in, the one inside does nothing, just charges.

I’ll be getting a proper wall box when/if i get a PHEV.

I came to that realisation last year.
Every autumn i start looking at training for my big come back, it never happens.
So last autumn i had a bit of an epiphany, I’ve finally accepted i’m never going to race competitively again. I don’t have the time, the mental fortitude or the inner drive to push myself that hard. Or the money to keep myself in kit and entry fees!

So last autumn i made a few tweaks to both my XCO bikes, more comfort, more grip, more travel, sold a handful of bits and pieces, and bought an endurance bike. It’s been a massive struggle to pay for it, but i can just push off and ride where i want, at the speed i want, dirt tracks, back roads etc.
I’ve even dug out a bar bag and some of my old bike packing kit so i might do so cheap weekends, ride over to the next city on saturday, stop in an AirBnB and ride back with a hangover.
Or maybe just the 30km round trip to town and get an ice cream and watch the world go by.

And yes, i was pretty good BITD, i know how to train, how to push myself, i have been given kit/”paid” to race, i’ve got 7 or 8 years of middling to good results. Probably 60 odd podium finishes across disciplines and classes (got an utter kicking at elite level though, i wasn’t that good!)
And, in the long run, if just riding my bike for a couple of years gives me the fitness and the urge to race again, i will. If it doesn’t, i don’t care.

I mean, i started out “just riding my bike” (CTC/Audax/RSF) in the 80’s and 90’s, no reason that it couldn’t happen again.

I’ve had a leyzne zecto on the back of my road bike for 5 or 6 years, no mudguards, still works fine.
Shame they don’t make the old cateye TL-LD1000 and 1100 anymore, i’ve had one of them since they came out. Still in regular use!

@funkmasterp

Piss taking annoys me but so do people who come in to work when they are ill. Well done trooper! Thanks to you and the air-con ten people will be off in the next week or so. Just so you can pull the “I’ve never had a day off sick” card.

My old manager, used to do TTs at quite a high level (solid sub 20/50 minute rider) and if he spotted sick people in his team, he’d send them home (via telephone). Even used to get other managers at his level to send sick people home…

Makes Tarantino films look straight forward…

yeah quite possibly, i started rough stuffing in the early/mid 80s. I recall one event up on the north yorks moors was on some sort of anniversary, 30th or 40th consecutive running or something.

Oooooo.
I got back into this about 10 years ago after 20 years off.
Currently running a couple of 10th Scale EP touring cars (indoor/outdoor) will probably convert them both back to outdoor spec as we have a nice long tarmac circuit now, a couple of 8th buggies (electric), and still have my 10th buggies, but they rarely get run as the local offroad track isn’t really 10th friendly. Flat out down the back straight and the bumps in the track are enough to break suspension arms! There’s a new indoor 10th buggy track about an hour away that’s now open all year round, so might dig out my slicks and have a play.

Planning to start racing again this year as well, as the last couple of years i’ve been a) far too busy and b) far too skint.

Just need to check everything still works after a couple of years in storage…

@kelvin

but it has never been the case that the bike industry made just one bike and said… “that’ll do ya, take it or leave it”

Nope, they’ve made 47 different categories of bike and told you “there’s 47 different categories of bike, now choose just one for arsing about on with no rhyme or reason”.

Now they’ve reinvented what we had 30-40 years ago, which was a bike for just arsing about on.
Except it’s got modern geo, modern gears, modern materials, modern brakes.

Extensively marketing driven, but still, they are sufficiently flexible that they could fit into multiple niches, and fill them well.

@dannybgoode

Every work contract I’ve signed in the last 25 years has included a clause giving the employer the right to see my medical records

Not one single contract i’ve signed has given them the right to see my medical records, a couple have a clause that stipulates that they may *ask* to contact whichever medical professional is treating you in the event of long term or regular/ongoing illnesses if they feel that the information given (by you/doctors note) is not adequate.

@Kelvin

Evil bike industry making bikes for riding around on. How very dare they.

Probably a bit of push back against all those years they’ve spent dividing and subdividing “just riding around” and made it so difficult to find a bike for doing it!

@chew

General rule is 3 instances within a 12 month period.

That’s a terrible rule.

The rule here is “when you extract the urine”.

Do they have kids?

Anyone with kids can expect to be out for at least one full week in Q1 of any year from the point at which the kids start nursery until they get to 8 or 9.

I’m just coming off the back of a cold brought into the house by my girlfriends daughter.
I had a few days last month from illness brought home by one of my kids.

Also, dunno if you’ve noticed, but global pandemic is making everyone twitchy. A lot of minor sniffles that 3 years ago i’d have gone to the office and done a full day, i now stay at home (but i can do 100% of my job from home).

@chakaping

I’m not being an argumentative prick (honest), but most mid-range and high-end road bikes now come with comfy 28mm tyres and compact gearing is commonplace. Making them much more pleasant to ride than five years ago.

Oh, i absolutely agree, i think a lot of that is a combination of the influence of the gravel scene and a better understanding of what actually makes bikes fast AND and understanding of that by the customers (and those selling bikes). And rather than most, i’d say “many”.

People who still think narrow tyres pumped up rock hard, slammed bars and massive gears are the way to go for ultimate speed in the real world for real people are finally a dying breed.

But, on the flip side there are still a good number of cyclists, who only want to do their clubs medium pace saturday ride turning up on brand new Di2 equipped cervelos that wouldn’t look out of place on the pro-tour though. They’d be just as fast, and more comfy on an endurance geo bike with 28s, plus they’d have more cash for cake.