We have a vauxhall zafira, quite high and great visability (yep, its just a box really). Sadly the newer ones are fiat engines (I believe, maybe only the diesels) and nothing but trouble (well even more so than the older vauxhalls, bless em, great cars but sometimes the dash will light up like a christmas tree!).

So I would not get one of the newer ones, even thought we love our 04 one.

My friend has the toyota urban cruiser, really lovely car and its a toyota so will be fine…

Good luck
Simone

great! I do like the old rovals….. even though the white mavic rims with blue hope hubs do look great…..

Thanks very much!
Simone

as above, yep you can. I sometimes put all my pads, camelback etc in the machine for a rinse after a ride. Removes all the mud…. A full wash every so often.

Also keep the bladder in the freezer, I only put water in mine and have never had to clean it (had it years).

Simone

go for the touch. Nano just plays mosic. My 10 year old has a touch and loves it, lots of free apps and most games only 69p etc. does have internet access…

His old one had a plastic screen and with a decent case survived several drops from a top bunk bed. his new one has a glass screen so we got him a military survival case to go with it (£17 ish on ebay). Well worth it, still in tact and small enough to still fit in his pocket. The kids next door did not have a case and broke the glass pretty soon.

HTH
Simone

I am not sure how careful your son is with his stuff, but if he drops things, make sure you get him a good case. My oldest has had a 2nd g ipod touch for 2 years, the screens are plastic. It has a good case and is still ok eventhough it has been dropped often, even from a top bunk bed.

The new i pod touches have a glass screen. My oldest now has one of these (and our youngest has the 2nd g one), but we got him a special army case to go with it to protect it. The kids next door broke the screen on theirs in no time. With the new case it seems good.

Simone

I paid £200 about 12 years ago for a even then old Quad 405 power and Quad 33 pre amp (and tuner, which is in a box up the loft). All from the original owner.

I have now had it serviced, connected up to a lovely marantz cd player (£15 for a boot sale, and £15 to fix one of the channels) and it sounds gorgeous! New stuff wont come near it, unless you spend a fortune.

Old is best for hifi…… I think my amps are over 30 years old.

Also, I think my Quad is bomb proof! Not much to go wrong and def child proof which is a bonus…

Simone

I just built my 8 year old his first 26″ wheeled bike (he is tall). Cost £350 in all and is build around a tiny rockhopper frame. It has shimano slx disc brakes, rock shock duke air forks and dt swiss wheels. Finished off with deore drivetrain and some new schwalbe tyres from on one. All stuff bought used, mostly from here.

For a 14 year old you will have more choice in frames and forks as he will be taller and heavier than my son (we needed short travel light air ones for my son).

Build one with him i’d say, my son loved collecting all the bits (which I of course colour coordinated, being a girl), and he helped building it. I did most of it and took it to the bike shop to finish tuning the gears.

His bike rides lovely and is much better than anything else you can get for that money.

Simone

I dont think it will ever happen. I am dutch and have been living in the uk since 1997. In holland the bike is transport, everyone has one. No special clothes and everyone poodles about. Here cycling id too complicated and involves getting too much ‘stuff’. Only “sport” cyclists wear helmets and special clothes in Holland.

Most bikes are old and have suffered years of abuse, creaking and wobbling all over the place. We used to go swimming in primary school and the whole class used their bike 8O….I dont think it would pass risk assessment here somehow.

it is a different attitude, and many, many cycle paths. My friends 90 year old grandad still gets around on his bike!

And the dutch carry just about everything on their bikes, shopping on handle bars, unbrella in one hand, mate on the back.

Feeling home sich now… 😉

Apart from all the bike thefts there, its a pain! the amount of times i’d come back looking for my bike and ended up having to walk…

Zafira? Great for space, we fitted 5 people and snowboard ski gear ( small Roofbox ) for hols. In summer we bring everything incl the kitchen sink and it always goes in! Not quite as long and wide as our old omega, but higher.

Don’t get one of the new shapes though ( you prob won’t on your budget ) as engines made by Renault….

I stared of with a really small hardrock and soon bought a cove hustler 2nd hand. Lovely bike and I’ve been riding it since 2007. Now considering changing to a 5 as that will also take 160 forks for our alps trip….not sure though, love the hustler. I have a 15.5″ and am 5’4″tall (or “short”as they used to say in holland).

I have ridden a orange 5 ladies, but that was just too small (I tried the long top tube version). The saddle was waaay up there…..

I have now just built 2 small ht’s for both my kids and they did not cost that much. Nice light frame, air forks, short stem…. You could probably build a FS easily within budget buying of here.

Good luck
Simone

I agree, great wheels, I’ve had them years and never needed truing (I did have a spoke fall out once though). Feel light and fast too…

……interested in this too, as my sadlle is always right back and the next size up frame feels too big (I use race face seatpost, got quite a bit of offset, more than thomson I think).

Only 5’5″, but longinsh inside leg being a girl…

Anyone?

Mmm, our zafira 04 diesel just ad the same problem. Not going into gear, but only sometimes. Got worse over time and then got the knocking noise. Just parts include vat for dmf and clutch are about 550 ish ( trade ), dealer quoted about 1600 to fix it! 8O. Brother in law did it for price of the parts, about a a labour.

And yes, get starter motor checked, magnet in there will collect all shattered bits of dmf I have been told.

Good luck!

Clas Ohlson do some, I think £20 and is expandable. We only paid £15 ish including the bladder though in the shop. Great pack with lots of usefull features.

http://www.clasohlson.co.uk/Product/Product.aspx?id=165976367

Also if you only use water in your camelback and store the bladder in the freezer there will be no need for disinfecting it. I’ve had mine for years and still fresh!

Simone

My boys both have a GRIT scooter. Looked much better made than the MGP ones we looked at. They have had it since just before the holiday and they are great, I am very impressed with them. My boys are 8 and 10 and use them nearly every day, in the skate park and just out and about instead of walking.

They sold their wii to pay for it and saved pocket money for a long time, these are about £120 a pop! I think their cheaper models start from £80 ish now…

I would recommend them though…

Not sure, but I run a 24/36 double with standard xt 3 spd mech, seems to work ok.

hth
simone

Accountant! We LOVE ours….. But get one recommended. My husband used to use a accountancy firm ( he is a self employed driving instructor ) which charged him about £500 per year and they were rubbish. He now has an independent one thet costs about £250 per year and is great. He does the accounts, tax return and tax credit form.

I was self employed one year as well and he put through my tax return for £50 as it was no much, well worth it.

Simone

Tried that, not much info on this specific geo problem though……. Sadly for me it could possbly make a bike unridable for me.

And hoping other people owned both.

Thanks anyway.
Simone

We run winter Tyres from about now till Easter now as we drive to Switzerland each winter. They were great here as well though last year!

My husband got 2 on the front for his driving instructor car and was very happy with them, they should still be a good price online at the moment (last year they went up a LOT as soon as the snow came). I think he swapped them to the back for summer.

As far as I know it is better to run a winter tyre if you are only going to run one kind of tyre all year around. They say a winter tyre wears less in summer then a summer tyre in winter……

Go for it, and if you can change them to the back in summer or just leave them…

Simone

😯

Does not sound good, back to the docs I think.

Anyway, I came off in the alps and my shoulder hurt…. The pain in my neck came after a few days. I had hit my head and was suffering from whiplash type injury, this always takes a few days to appear. Also had headaches and tingling/”dead” arm. Dd not sleep much because of my neck.

I am getting better now, I did have some osteopath treatment from my sister in law which helped.

I would still see the docs again, sound like head and neck/ whiplash injury.

Get well soon!

Simone

Same here, used some ryde’s on my sons bike and they were rubbish. Got some trails myself and they are great.
Had them years and no trouble at all. Also used them in the alps.

cove hustler? Great bikes!

The problem with jump frames is the weight, there really are heavy. I have both a small on one scandal and a small spesh rockhopper frame for my two boys. Both are pretty light and seem a good fit.

The fully built spesh hardrocks really do have poor forks that do not work on 4-5st kids. Go for an old air fork..

I have some pics of my sons on one, but seem to have trouble posting them. I have not tried putting on 24″ wheels as my son both had a 24″ hotrocks. TBH they grow so quick my youngest has now grown out if that in 1 year… If you have discs I suppose you could run smaller wheels to start with but I found they were ok with the 26″ wheels and really liked it.

Simone

Not sure about sites listing all, I know there are some in Germany and we went to this one in belgium:

http://www.filthytrails.be

Also loads of bike parks in the alps…

Simone

i had the same problem finding 2009 rev stickers. found some on a belgian site and received pretty quick. both white and red in the envelope.

This was the site, it was last year i ordered mind you…

http://www.forksparts.com/

HTH
Simone

I do body pump classes. Really noticed the difference in core strength when running and riding. Or ride single speed?
Simone

My son uses race face junior pads for elbows (these are really nice, better than 661 and fox). Also you could look for adult elbow pads to put on the kids knees, that works well. Maybe go for used? My 8 year old will take large adult elbow pads on his knees, maybe look for small ones for your kids?

Also the ONLY good wrist guards I have found for kids are the Dakine ones in size XS, these are not cheap but really good. My son uses these for snowboarding.

HTH
Simone

……….

Rik

……….

My son was the first one in his class to be able to spell his name :D.

He has no other (middle) names or anything, just Rik. No need to over complicate things I think.

Also I am dutch, so his name has to work in both languages.

Simone

No one then? We’ll have the trails to ourselves?

Just got some loaka ones from CRC, and they have a 20.000mm waterproofing (does not mention this on the site, but was on the label) and seems well made and a great fit.

these ones:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=49404

I bought black and they are lovely. A small for a size 10.

HTH
Simone

Anyone?

standard ones are lovely, I have them in white, paint stays on ok too.
Simone

Try them on, honestly. Me, my husband and my son all have one, but 1 is actually smaller ‘on paper’ then the other, but comes up miles bigger!

I love the Bell bellistic (although I think they don’t make it anymore) for small heads, comes up very small and fits well, my son has this one>

I have a small spesh deviant, nice and light, but rear adjuster not that good.

My husband has just bought a IXS helmet (about £60), nice finish and not too heavy, not many air vents though.

HTH
Simone

I am Dutch, but live over here and years ago I bought a dutch Mothersbike from a warehouse type bike shop. Was really cheap, my mum picked it up and I brought it to the uk. I seem to remember it being near the ferry in Hook of Holland as well (that side of the country). I could see if my mum remembers what is was called…?

Email is in profile if you need help.

Or just look second hand on “marktplaats” (the dutch dont really use ebay as much).

Cheers
Simone

…Woudn’t shorter cranks help….a little?

I am 5″4 and ride a small cove hustler and it’s lovely. Not really sure about stand over height, been riding it for years though…

I am 29 inside leg if that helps.

My son did have a little trouble when he rode it, and he hit his bits on the top tube, he is however only 10 and about 4″7… You should be fine.

Cheers
Simone

Cheers neil, Simone

no one??

Anyone heard of “gregg67”, I sent him money for some avids on the 22nd and no brakes ok replies to emails. . . . Not good as my son now as no brakes on his downhill bike and we will be of to switseland on the 12th 😥

I normally check people out and have never ad a problem, but failed to do it this time. Guy sounded genuine, pics and emails all good, did not check forum history, doh!

May need some others, shame as money is tight.

So anyone bought his forks on the other for sale ad?

Simone

Anyone out there between the 20th and the 27th?……….

It would be nice to meet up.

Cheers Simone