Is her name Louise?

Do you man the side window?
clean and lube with gummi-pfledge

all I do and never had a problem with them in 10 years , aside from they get a bit stuck when I’ve not done that for a while.
go easy on the handles when you do free them up.

How old?
Default answer for ice is speak to Jason at absolut5 , he will do you a complete kit for everything you need.

If you’re midlands based have a word with professional retrofits in higham on the hill for your cruise and msfw.

Used bars and bottles and a few other bits, always been decent kit.

do these AXS mech/shifters play nicely with shimano 12 speed cassettes / chains / chainrings?

Idle curiosity – I too *DO NOT NEED AXS*

yes, if a little bit noisy either end of the block and took a bit of fiddling to set up. But the micro adjust on the button makes fiddling a breeze. Shifts are pretty perfect.

I couldn’t believe how bad the new xt 12 speed stuff is after many years on sram, soon to be on the classifieds!

Thanks for this👍. I literally just did the same thing. Took 2 minutes and now paying £3.50/ month less then I would have been paying for the next 6 months of my contract. Unfortunately where I live the option is either 120+mb Virgin or 4mb super slow. There’s nothing in between, so I’m stuck with Virgin – at least until the Non-Virgin super super fast system gets rolled out (if ever).

should have stayed on the line – they will discount by the amount of the price increase if you got to a person.

They applied mine from the phone call, so when i called up to cancel not only did the £9 price increase go away but i have a cheaper couple of months in the meantime.

Same thing every year, but i think since the o2 merger they are now allowing for price increases in the contract annoyingly.

Agm battery will work with your system but your charger may not cope with it and you could kill it quite quickly if it just float charges as it won’t give it the higher voltage it needs.

See what model of charger you have and how old it is. Mine could do an agm profile but after years of just float charging it refused to charge an agm battery.

As above, race king rear x king front on race bike – used them for years no problems. Definitely not a front tyre though, but ive never had any issues, and im not a light or careful rider.

It depends on your charger, but i would assume you’ve got a basic float charger that won’t cope with a lithium charge profile. You need to give some info still. Without knowing what your charger is you could easily destroy a lithium battery or worse. Lithium batteries are only really worth the extra if you need more amperage with limited space or you need big charge/discharge capability.

A 110ah basic deep cycle battery should give the average campervan 2-3 days general use with fridge etc in regular uk weather, a 140ah regular deep cycle battery and solar will give 3-4 days in average uk use and unlimited once the sun comes out assuming a decent amount of solar and you wont need to change anything else.

For a straight swap i would fit an exide er550 115ah or exide er650 140ah if space allows. Both available from alpha batteries, both ncc class A. £150, £180 respectively. 50% ideal depth of discharge on those, both would be an upgrade on what you have now even when it was new. Look to fit a victron smart shunt for £125 so you can monitor the system and avoid killing another battery and see how you use the battery.

You could upgrade then in stages, upgrade first maybe to a victron blue smart 20/30a charger (£150-200) which would enable you to move to lithium or other battery tech later, you could add solar if you need it, but if you start simple and add monitoring you can see exactly what you would benefit from to suit you. Also of benefit is looking at your wiring, so many conversions are a mess of wire and causes all kinds of problems with volt drop etc. Adding something like a decent 150ah agm battery would cost another £250 or so and you would get a good 80% depth of discharge.

I can get a week out of a 140ah agm battery using fridge, lights, heater etc everywhere apart from height of summer when the fridge is on constantly, and i can do a weekend away in winter or summer including a full ebike charge, i have a solar panel to fit but realistically for most british campervanners who do weekends away and a week here and there solar or lithium setups aren’t worth the spend.

Class A is just a NCC rating, don’t worry about it too much.

The best battery is one that matches your space and usage, like for like will go straight in. What was your old battery? What do you use it for? It’s an ideal time to upgrade if you had limitations on the old one but it depends on your current setup and architecture etc and solar etc going forwards.

If you have an old charger that just float charges replace it with a deep cycle lead acid battery, something from exide or the better yuasa range is ideal. If it’s not under the seat the exide er650 has a similar footprint to a regular 110ah but is a bit taller so gets you a bit more ah at 142.

Agm/lithium batteries can be an improvement depending on your usage but if it’s an old charger then you might have to replace that, wiring etc and then it can get expensive.

Give a bit more info and I’ll recommend what I think, been through a few batteries and done plenty of research and upgraded most bits in mine over time.

TT coupe if kids are small enough to fit in the back.
Youll have plenty of change on a 5k budget, 2001 plus 1.8t will give you plenty of go and ulez compliant.

Camping Le Freine above les gets is the best, ride down in the morning and either lift up at night or ride up if you want to have a beer in town and miss the last lift.

It’s a lovely site but gets expensive solo in a van as it’s priced per pitch , better with a group .

The morzine campsite is similar price but not good location and not as nice imo.

I just park in the aire at the bottom of les gets or if you want to stay in morzine the big aire just down the road from the centre. There is a proper paid aire next to it if you need electric and toilet waste etc, the free one is fine.

You can do a lot more with a swb than people think. 2 people is tight but ok, dog makes it a bit trickier depending on size. Dog can sleep under the front of the bed on a proper conversion but you need to be creative if you want a diesel heater, the traditional low position would probably kill a dog under the bed.

Ive got a proper conversion in a t5 and its totally self sufficient apart from a shower which is the last job. Dont get too hung up on bike inside, ive been all over europe for years in mine with bikes on the back and never had a problem, good quality lock, chain and insurance – i dont even worry about it.

Fit a poptop to yours and a proper bed, side unit conversion and assuming youve already done the basics insulation etc you could do it to a good standard for 7k and you know the van. If you convert to a single front seat you can still get a bike in with front wheel off back wheel between the seats.

You don’t get a lot of van these days for 10k, you could easily buy a moneypit. Even converted 20 k doesnt buy you a lot, id stick with what you know, if you can do it yourself you can do it in budget and transfer it to a new van if yours does ever die.

Campervans are always small, stepping up to a crafter sized bus gains you a garage below the bed and proper sleeping/living areas but then you have compromises elsewhere. You’ll still run out of space! Swivel front single seat at least gives you somewhere to sit if the other person is in bed etc.

Im liking the r30’s on my m10, you do see them for sale straight off new bikes for reasonable money on the likes of emtbforums. 1850gr I think and quite stiff.

Id be wary of cheaper wheels around 1800g in ally, i think they might end up a bit flexy and the back end of the rise isnt that stiff. Ex1501’s would be my choice, but id save a bit more and get the carbon ones. Not that easy to get atm though.

Ive run a couple of pairs of that series wheel now and they’ve been utterly bombproof.

The mavic crossmax xl comes stock on some to replace the r30’s now and there doesn’t seem to be any problems with them on the forums, its only really the wheels you’ve got that you hear about and its mainly the hubs that lunch themselves. If they can be had for good money i think you’d be ok.

Also don’t be too hung up on centrelock, a pair of the £30 bargain 203 xt rotors from wiggle and a bolt on magnet and adapters would probably cost £50-60 all in and be a very good value upgrade.

Id also forget the microspline and throw some sram kit on it personally – i detest the new xt.

Hit post while typing..
also bear In mind battery capacity , you’re average 600wh ebike battery is going to need 60a of battery so you end up needing quite a big battery to get even one charge at 50% depth of discharge.

Depends how much juice you need.
The small anker power stations offer best bang for buck imo and can be used for a variety of things.
By the time you’ve got a battery, charger and inverter it soon mounts up cost wise and it’s a one trick pony bolted into a car.

I use revolut off that list for exactly that reason.
Also use starling and can recommend but as that is a current account i would say revolut would be better for you – you just top it up as you want to. Also brilliant for all other stuff like foreign money etc or as a general insulated account.

Theres no point trying to establish any standard pattern, it has no relevance to you. The 2 will be wildly different at most places with a hr dept. If its between you and the manager then you just look at all the costings etc together and work out what suits best. I would say a £600 car allowance would translate to a £300/350+ vat a month company car to be cost neutral given you are transferring all the problems, liabilities, costs etc back to the company. There is a reason car allowance payments have become more common.

Bear in mind with a ev there are a load of other cost factors that come into play. If you purchase a vehicle then there are very good capital allowances, but then you cant reclaim the vat, if you lease you can reclaim half vat, so on so forth.

My last lease was £330 a month plus vat, i would have needed £600 a month company car allowance to be cost neutral on the lease, insurance and maintenance. Translating a £600 a month car allowance to £600 a month even including vat would be a big increase in effective pay – assuming of course its also a personal vehicle.

I would go for the eufy wired.
Not too big a unit unlike all the battery ones, powered from the existing wiring or a plug socket easily, no ongoing fees for storage etc unlike ring.
Had mine a couple of years now and been brilliant.
You can then quite easily add cameras etc onto the system if you go for the hub, but standalone as a doorbell/front camera it does everything you’d need.

Gaiters. Recently treated myself to a pair of northwave winter goretex boots which i use with grip grab merino socks and gaiters – total gamechanger and wish i’d done it sooner now.

Totally toasty and warm and even after full immersion up to my knees in a river stayed bone dry. Used to suffer the same problem as you with water getting in the top of sealskin socks.

I’m planning to give my usual 2 weeks in summer up this year to check out the September mtb festival that is currently being planned to coincide with wc etc in the portes du soleil region.

I’m not big on more than a few days in one place but pds has plenty of riding and hopefully better weather than July august.

Otherwise I’m September I’d be looking at switzerland, verbier runs late and there’s so much natural stuff to explore.

You will draw 30ah from your battery, (320w / 12) x 1.15 = 30.66ah

You need (48v x 4a) x 1.15 = 220.8w of power from your inverter , allowing for redundancy I would say minimum 500w inverter and it needs to be a good quality pure sine wave inverter.

Power is more important. Rise is 250w max – full fat can do 500-700w depending on motor.

To get 500w avg up a climb on a rise you are putting out 250w, whereas on a full fat you only need say 100w. Then the weight difference doesn’t matter that much. Put out 150w on the full fat and with 650w of power it will sail past somebody turning themselves inside out on a rise without much effort.

To ride a rise with a ff you need to be able to make up the power difference yourself. Using modes to alter the assist affects the range so its not an equal comparison. Couple of hour rides the ff will win because boost everywhere.

Longer rides when you use eco/trail/off more the light ebike comes into its own, your legs can make the difference up much easier. Consider range to be the same either way, i.e. a rise with extender will be there or thereabouts the same range as a 630wh ff. Its not, but thats how it ends up.

Fit person on 900wh ebike will lunch anybody on a half ebike with no problem and have battery left over.

Theyre all just bikes, buy the bike that suits the riding you want to do. Mixing groups up is just like any ride, naturally it will all come together.

According to facebook the lease has already been agreed on the land – anybody getting into bed with her needs to be careful.

I cant see it getting funding myself, the locals will be massively against it, and i don’t really see the appeal of an uplift. They do manage the land proactively to generate as much income as possible so never say never.

A well managed trail centre would be a good addition though, but id be riding there and taking my own lunch!

Can I ask a sizing question on here?
At just shy of 6’2 and 32’ inseam I seem to be very much in between l & xl. Anybody else my size on a large?

I think ideally I’d like about a 630 tt and 485 reach and it looks a lil bit short in large flavour, but the xl is approaching gate territory and I hate feeling perched above a bike.

My local stockist want 3 weeks to get one in to try despite having them in stock at the warehouse so I’d rather buy online (from them )

Cheers

Fit a pyronix – if current alarm is wired go with a euro 42 and use existing wiring but change control box and sensors, can probably keep some existing stuff like bell boxes and door contacts etc. The enforcer wireless system is good but wired better imo.

Use a wireless add on to expand – can be set up quite easily to allow access through certain doors etc and you have the app to control the system anyway.

When it goes off also goes off on your phone and works very well. Setup is fairly easy. Cloud access is £36 a year plus around £500 ish for the hardware depending on what you go for and how much needs changing etc.

^id be buying a Samsung S95b at that kind of money personally, i wish id waited a bit longer before buying the awful LG thing i ended up with 12 months ago.

I annoyingly missed out on a £125 exposure race just before bf, now i cant bring myself to pay the ‘cheap’ £175 the black friday deals currently want 😂

Bought some winter mtb boots though.. toasty feet for me!

I’m also looking at one to replace a couple of hard tails, I want something light and quick enough for marathon racing and long rides but capable enough for the descents on big days out.

They look quite short in the top tube to me – how do people find? I’m 6’2 and like a longer bike but trying to avoid sizing up. End up just perched over an xl frame normally, long arms and short legs here. The trend for longer bikes suits me much better.

Ive got a set of 26 recon silvers (white, qr, 100mm, disc brake) you can have for nothing if you’re anywhere close to east Leicestershire. Can chuck in some tyres too, can you tell I’m having a clearout?!

Do these things exist?

What, kettles?

Assuming you’re just on lowering springs, i cant see how that 19” tyre size with that driving could be anything other than painfully crashy – devonports and sensible tyres should be quite an improvement over anything other than a perfect road surface. What tyres are they – vancontacts? What suspension?

Michelin cross climates for me, 255/45/18 summer and 215/65/16 commercial agilis for winter – wet grass and mud is a nightmare on anything other than proper off road tyres but the cross climates to a pretty good job. The 16’s get a little bit wandery at speed, especially in the wet.

If you’re not after looks the commercial ones are much more aggressive on tread for getting off muddy campsites, surprisingly more so than a regular van tyre. They do a 215/60/17c which would work with your wheels, personally for a camper i think its about the best wheel and tyre combo you can get if you want usability.

Tried Europe?
Looks like bike inn have stock

Just had to get some level pistons imported from the eu, a painful £32 plus postage for a piston. Guides are the same money for a six pack!

@the-muffin-man

Nord here too. No issues though you need a credit card of the country you go for.

(Or Apple Pay 😉)

Tbh I paid for nowtv last year, it was shite but it was a brilliant second half of the season. F1tv’s coverage is superior in every way apart from missing out on brundle’s grid walk – it’s just ridiculous how bad sky coverage is for the money and how licensing restrictions force us into paying through the nose for sub par content.

They don’t, hence why its called now tv.
C4 for the replay.

Which is why the better and cheaper option is f1tv & vpn, £8 a month for awesome coverage that puts sky to shame. Its a real shame how much sky have ruined it with their greed. £35 a month for live only or £60 odd to get f1 channels, no thanks.

Window van just describes what you’ve got, nothing at all to do with speed limits.

As above, if you fit dual purpose vehicle criteria then you have an argument out of speeding fines but you have to argue it each time. That’s going to get very old very quickly if the same automated camera is zapping you on the a9 every day.

Just do what the rest of us do and stick to the speed limits through the controlled sections and make the time up where there aren’t any 🤣

Horizons.
Been running them for years now and they are a brilliant pedal.

My oldest pair just crapped itself in the alps as the screws holding the cleat in place worked loose having never been looked at in several years of smashing them off everything – £15 for a rebuild kit from crc. Great when things are serviceable like that.

I could sell you a pair of bronze look enduro pedals that I had to buy in an emergency… the one year i don’t take a spare pair of pedals 🤣

Ferry is something like 10pm sat night, so I usually hit Paris area and jump in an aire for a few hours Kip before the long haul down to the alps. This obviously all depends on me making the crossing… it’s been moved once and apparently there are only 3 sailings that night now – so I’m not going to book anything!

Rue du Rivoli seems the best bet doing some online research, cba with jostling for postition on the champs, I’d rather get a bit closer to the action further out. I just don’t want to waste a day going in half cocked and not seeing any of the action!

Assuming the guides aren’t rsc’s then just by a 6 pack of pistons for £35, do both brakes and you’ll have spares. Its a dead easy fix, just done my levels which i cant get the 6 pack for… £32 for a bit of bloody plastic.

If youve not actually had an issue with those guides then chances are they are already the newer piston and your fine. Its a 10 minute job to check the piston as part of a bleed.

Have a word with Steve at CRS performance in cannock, hes mainly VAG world but there isnt much about suspension he doesnt know. Really helpful chap even if hes not going to sell you anything, does the bilstein/koni etc debate on a daily basis.

Had a merc in there when i had my van fettled so would guess likely he could advise.

I have an edale route I tend to use for a full day ride, out of edale, up jacobs, round to rushup, across to cavedale, up hollins and back to edale, then up jaggers, down potato and up the other side, drop down to fairholmes and up wlt, back round to jaggers via thornhill.

Approx 70k, 6-7 hours

You could add some easier road miles climbing up the mam tor road from edale to split the cavedale section into its own loop if you descend from rushup down hollins back into edale i reckon around. 85k total that way?

I like that for a big peak ride as i tend to ride solo so it keeps the car not too far away if you have problems.

Doesnt feel quite as ‘epic’ as some of the big rides like lord of the loops as its kinda 2/3 rides bolted together.