Thank you STM. I guess it probably doesn’t take much to restrict a pipe, it’s weird that the issue didn’t appear until a while after the new road though. I haven’t put my hand in my pocket yet.. the installer has been very good about things. I do need to have a conversation though about this power flush work. I guess that’s the same principle as your hosepipe idea? TBH I’ll try most things myself but central heating, gas and electrics are my no-go areas.

Edit – When you say turn up the pump to #3 do you mean isolate the coldest rad and turn the heating on with it maxed out on boiler? (It’s already on 5 out of 6)

Thanks

Haha – It would’ve saved an awful lot of money.. especially as I already have some good running shoes from a few years back.. that don’t get used much these days.. my legs just cannot tolerate pounding the pavement for any duration!

Thanks Weeksy – I’ll have to check that out once I’ve improved beyond my current ‘fat lad’ baseline..

Update. Thank you for all of the input everyone, I ended up with an Elite Direto X and couldn’t be happier with the setup I’ve now got. My original budget went well and truly out the window mind.. but hey ho.

Think I did 1 ride before driving to Screwfix and buying a fan. It’s a bit of a beast so only really need it on setting 1-2 (of 3). After getting really frustrated with the Elite e-trainer app being woefully poor I just skipped that completely and went straight in for Zwift which has been excellent. Cheap ANT+ dongle, laptop, Zwift companion on phone and off I went.

I honestly don’t think you can get better bang for buck in terms of a great workout in your own house, it’s just so convenient. The only thing I didn’t understand was something in the trainer instructions about setting the wheel circumference and then dividing it by 12.1.. I have no idea where I’m meant to do this or why but my stats seem sensible and I’ve been on a couple of rides with my brother and nothing seems amiss.

Pics of the pain cave now it’s all setup:

Thanks again @Superficial. That’s my full susser neatly into a space in the garage I didn’t think was big enough for a bike (well a bike less a wheel..). Next question, is it bad for dropper posts to be in the down position when stored?

OP – here’s some pics of my garage/paincave/office/utility now all the work is complete. We’ve been in the house 6 years now and I finally feel like it’s done.

Thanks Superficial, that’s a really neat solution. As always, I’ve been over-thinking/complicating this and the simple solution is always the best solution!
Cheers

Also – getting the walls painted and flooring sorted for me was great, pretty much sorted the dust issue which is helpful when on the turbo and there’s a bloody great fan wafting the air around!

Ahh right I see. Thank you.

It’s a great solution because bikes are bloody awkward things to store, especially with the uber wide bars on a lot of modern bikes. I might get mine up on the wall in the office.. it’ll force me to keep it clean but it’ll be touch and go whether it would smash me in the head if it come loose while working in there!

I’ve wondered about taking the front wheel out, turning bars sideways and mounting one of those thru axle bracket things on the wall. It would have to be at the perfect place and angle for it to work mind.. with the back wheel on the ground and the bars turned.

Nice solution to getting the bikes out the way. I had something similar in our old house using an old roof carrier. I can’t quite see in the photo – Is there one of those red things under each wheel and then something on the seat post?

As above – it’ll be absolutely brass working in the garage unless you do a proper conversion. We’ve done exactly that recently having had the back half of our garage converted into an office as I’m WFH full time and it could go on a fair bit longer.. and even long term I’m hoping to be WFH 3 days a week.

Our builder, who is a good friend of mine from school, did the work once Boris said the trades could go back and the office is essentially another room in the house, just accessed from the garage via the kitchen. We needed building regs for this (not that the cooncil have sent the certs yet!). I would say be realistic about how much time you’re going to be working from home now and in the future and work out if the investment is worth it. For me, it’s been amazing as I no longer have to move around the house from kitchen, living room, bedroom etc. around my wife and daughter when they’re home. But the best thing about it, is locking the door on a Friday afternoon and not going back in until Monday morning (well, most weeks..).

As someone mentions above though, you’ll sharp use up the space and may not have as much as you want/need. We had a weird long garage which was wider at the back where the office is. After the conversion it left us with a ‘normal’ garage maybe a little bigger than a standard single.. There’s a couple of biggish shelving units, turbo trainer, boiler, MTB, BMX, towbar rack, washer, tumble, jetwasher, shoe rack and some car washing gear and that’s it pretty much full*. Certainly no where to put a decent workbench.

*My idea of ‘full’ may be different to yours.. I like to have space to move around and it needs to be kept neat and tidy so I can get to the office without climbing over stuff.

Ours just sits next to the shed until I need it. It’s a roof box – it’s doesn’t really need protecting as such. They are awkward things to store though because they’re so bloody big! The instructions that came with ours (also Exodus) say it must be stored flat.. and not on it’s side or end.. not sure why that is TBH.

Find out a bit more info. I recently sold my old full susser on eBay with no feedback. I hadn’t been on eBay for so long my account was deactivates and the user name was with someone else now. Plenty of genuine buyers/sellers with no feedback but get some more info to make your own assessment. And aye, don’t be giving your address just for a look.

Very good point MT. I actually drove my E90 325i to test one of those 335d Xdrive’s linked to up there ^^^ and it left me a bit underwhelmed. Hugely fast, and it would have absolutely roasted my 325i in any circumstance you care to name.. but it was just a bit cold. I got back in my car and had a more enjoyable drive home having decided it wasn’t for me. TBH I just don’t get the whole ‘performance diesel’ market. Or ‘performance SUV’ but that’s a whole other thread..

Yeah the 340i is really nice and available in touring as well which is useful for bikes/camping, as is the 540i. I’ve also been looking at more sensible things.. I love the look of the Volvo V90 but they don’t do a proper 5 cylinder T5 anymore.

Thank you for pointing that out Boardman 👍. That’s my next car plan scuppered.. I already have all the kit for atop our 320i but my search will need to continue. I’d probably have changed my mind a 100 times before then anyway.. and AT searches are a hobby of mine.

Some interesting posts in this thread. If the OP wants to spend £40K on a car then it’s their money, they can do as they please.

We probably need a bit more in terms of requirements for the advice to be properly useful but I’ll go ahead and give my two penneth anyway..

If it was me, right now, I’d be looking at an F80 M3 Competition. This one is a little over budget but you get the idea:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202006180261529?make=BMW&year-from=2017&advertising-location=at_cars&model=M3&sort=relevance&postcode=ne165hn&include-delivery-option=on&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&radius=1501&page=1

With the new M3 being an absolute pig to look at, well more beaver than pig actually with that horrific grille, the prices of these are unlikely to drop perhaps as much as they would have. Of course it’s a double edged sword.. you pay more now but may be worth a bit more in the future.

Anyway, I think it is one of the best looking modern BMWs with those broad shoulders at the back, the line that sweeps up from the vent on the front wing and goes all the way to the back of the car, the side profile with the power bulge subtly visible at the front, I think it looks fantastic.

Obviously it goes like stink (unless it’s wet/greasy..) then you’ll need to be careful.. but with a proper LSD it will be better than the M135i I used to have with it’s open diff. This is where we need to know more about your requirements for ‘fun’.. If you’re after all weather performance then look elsewhere as STR says above. When I had my little beemer, an S3 pulled alongside me at some lights before a series of roundabouts on a dual carriageway on a miserable wet day.. He disappeared into the horizon as I watched a little yellow like flicker furiously on my dash and listened to the sound of tyres spinning. Also, if fun means 3 pedals, manual F80 M3s are like hens teeth.

The M3 is practical as well. Split folding rear seats and slots for a roof rack on that carbon fibre roof.. Although I’d be putting a clear wrap on it to catch any crap off dirty mountain bikes! Will seat 4 adults comfortably and they’re not that big, no bigger than my wife’s 320i of the same ilk. The main difference (in my view) between something like an M140 and dare I say it, even the M2, is the quality of everything in the interior (leather lining on the dash, door, etc.) and the feel of the everything you touch.

I’ve currently got a Tesla M3P which is all wheel drive and fun in a completely different way to the BMW. It’s like a cruise missile off the mark and the way it shoots out of corners is ludicrous. It’s a heavy old unit though (1.8T I think) and you can start to feel that if you take liberties with it. Weirdly, I think I’m going to end up going full circle and trying to get something like that M3 ^^^ up there when the Tesla goes back.

Enjoyed that. The wall of death was properly scary and tense to watch. That Maserati sounded absolutely amazing and had a proper turn of pace. Interesting listening to Harris talking about the F40, basically just a massive go kart and his favourite road car ever. A truly special car.

Paddy and the Lambo.. I knew it was coming but couldn’t believe how quickly it happened! Wet slippery road and thick end of 500bhp in a 30 year old Italian super car.. no thanks. Really feel for the owner watching their pride and joy like that.

What Spooky said above – top gear test should tell you all you need to know. I had an old 20v petrol engined Passat bought 2nd hand with a very high bite point.. I was certain it was goosed.. after 12 months or so I bit the bullet and got the clutch and DMF replaced.. it was nearly exactly the same with all the new bits on. It may just be a characteristic of the car.

I’d be more worried about the can of Surstromming that got opened than the knackered door!

The pops and bangs dickhead brigade. Selfish **** arseholes the lot of them. Chief of which lives about 5 doors down from me, the absolute double **** has woke my daughter up on more than one occasion and if it wasn’t for my wife being as level headed as she is, I would probably be doing time for scudding his fat dial of the bonnet of his piece of shit, 15 year old S3. No mate, your 4 banger turbo and Akro exhaust don’t sound good, it sounds **** broken and as for a 45 year old bloke covering his car in stickers, get a life you man bun ****. **** off

I’ve got a Model 3.. in white.. I’m the first to admit it is a curious looking thing especially looking dead on at the front of the car, a bit frog eyed and sad almost.

However, I’d echo the above that they are much easier on the eye in the flesh and as soon as you look away from dead centre at the front they look great IMO. The side profile is fantastic and you can really see the slippery aero body shape. I think the main reason it looks odd is the very low scuttle height and HUGE windscreen that makes the split of body to glass at the front disproportionate. But as above, what it does make for is the best view out of a car I’ve ever known.

Not sure where Paddy was getting his numbers from mind as the LR version certainly hasn’t got 500bhp.. more like 360bhp. Our performance model has 475bhp I think after an over the air update.

But the Tesla is so much more than the way it looks. I’m a total convert. It’s so smooth and easy to drive and 1 pedal driving really is excellent, you only need to bother the brakes if the batteries are very cold and regen is limited. The big touch screen takes a bit of getting used to as pretty much everything is on it but it’s fine. It really is a special car to drive, I had a Model S loaner and it was awful.. 2017 MY and felt decades behind our Model 3.

The M3P will do 0-60 in 3.2 seconds and with the right tariff it’s about 1.5p per mile in fuel. There is nothing else that even comes close to the performance at this price point. I’m extremely fortunate though as I lease mine through work and with BIK @ 0% it is great value for money.

There’s no vroom vroom noises though.. but as much as I loved the sound of my old inline 6 M135, the Tesla is a much much better car and I haven’t looked back since getting it.. even despite a few dodgy panel gaps!

Great fun. Just finished watching it now and I was crying laughing at the Swedish Surstromming bit at the end! 😂

Harris genuinely looked ill. Did I miss something or did they say the Beemer got 1.02.13 on the car park hill climb? Hence beating the Tesla’s 1.05? But then they said it won.

That SF90 lap didn’t look real. Visibly rapid car.. 0-100 in 4.5 seconds.. wild.

Anyway, cracking episode and looking forward to next week already.

Thank you for the detailed information and links everyone. Sounds like the extras could run into nearly £500 on their own.. I guess my question is, how much do I need them to get the best from a smart trainer?

I have space, either in garage or office (which is to the rear of garage) and both have good ventilation so not sure I’ll need a fan? Maybe in summer.. I’ve got a TV that could be reappropriated but ideally I’d just want to use my phone.. as for HRM.. I don’t have one of those either.. or a spare laptop. I do have an old android tablet that could maybe be used.

Thanks, so does that just use the wheel/block/mech on the bike?

Good point re. faff, it really does need to be minimal so I can do quick sessions before/after work and at lunchtimes.

Thank you, that’s really useful. Good point about having stuff ready to go, I’ve been trying to get my stuff organised recently to make getting out the door that bit easier, so CX it is..

I’m off to look on google now but I take it £500 isn’t gonna get me far with a smart trainer??

Thanks for sharing. Thoroughly enjoyed both of those videos.

Absolutely insane the scale of the tricks on a rigid bicycle! As above, the full impact going through their bodies is mad. I often feel like I’ve been through the mill on my 170mm Capra.. I need to toughen up!

That is absolutely useless! Why are the seats at 45 degrees when folded?! There’s more practical space in my Tesla M3.. and that’s a saloon!

Really interesting thread. The bit that particularly resonates with me is about reducing the overall amount of miles that are travelled by car. It’s all of the short journeys in built up areas that really frustrate me in particular. But I understand why it happens.. people want convenience and the incremental cost of that 1 or 2 mile round trip is so small in comparison to the total cost of car ownership it might as well be zero. This incremental cost is even smaller for EVs where with the right electricity tariff you can get down to almost 1ppm for fuel. I’m currently on a tariff not well suited to charging our EV but it’s still only about 3.5ppm. There is absolutely no way on earth people’s behaviour will change until it is hitting them in the pocket big time.. Even though the environmental cost now and for future generations is so blatant.

The behaviour is shocking really when you take a step back. We live in a small town on the outskirts of Newcastle with a lovely high street full of shops, restaurants, pubs, etc. but every single time I walk down there it is littered and I mean LITTERED with cars just dumped wherever the **** people want.. bus stops.. zig zags for crossings.. you name it, if it’s a car sized piece of tarmac (not even always tarmac actually) it will have a car on it. If I walk to the high street I might see 10 people walking but I’ll easily see 300 cars.. obviously some will be travelling further but I’d bet a good deal of them of just driving to the high street and dumping their cars in the places I mentioned up there ^^^.

I absolutely despair, I really do.. There’s a chap round the corner from me puts his dog in the boot of his car and drives less than 1km in a 4 litre V8 motor to the entrance to the woods.. madness. I’d say 75% + of other families we know drive SUVs “because of the kids”. The guy round the corner who goes up and down our road about 10 times a day trying to extract maximum pops and bangs from his Golf GTi just for the craic. I could go on but it’s depressing.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this other than venting (which I’m finding useful) but I just don’t know where we go from here re. personal transport or how we improve things. It really gets me down and I’m by no means an eco-warrior.. I’ve moved from a thirsty petrol engined car to and EV and have significantly reduced the amount of miles I do but it’s baby steps and the majority of people don’t give a single solitary ****.

That is an absolutely tremendous vehicle! Looks very clean 👌

My brother (2 kids) has just swapped the family Octy for an XC90.. as his wife’s car. It is **** massive.. taller, wider and longer than the Skoda by some margin!

For the record, I dislike SUVs very much indeed.. they cost so so much and offer very little (nothing in my view) in return. There is no doubting it is a lovely place to be but it’s size is absolutely ludicrous on our road network and car parks. What I will say though, is that the Volvo is probably the least offensive of these type of vehicles.. Q7s are **** horrible things and Disco’s just seem to litter hard shoulders up and down the country. I reckon 50% of broken down cars I see have an LR badge.

Only other thing to add is not discounting electric. Whilst the Tesla’s are expensive you are (depending on mileage) likely to save an absolute fortune in fuel and tax (VED or BIK depending on circumstance). We have a Model 3 and it is a fantastic car. The X (up until very recently I think) had free supercharging* on them.. Maybe pick up a nearly new one with this? When charging at home the cost is minimal and then supercharging on the road for free. One of the Directors at our place swapped out a RR Sport for a Model X and he is better off every month for it.

*Only drawback is that regular supercharging is not good for the health of the battery.

I can not believe you can pay cheques in on the Lloyds banking app! 🤯

How long has that been about?!

I’m with Welshfarmer on this. Don’t worry about RWD in the snow. As long as you’re on the correct tyres they’re better than FWD. Soon as you’re away from a standing start the weight transfer is rearwards and pushing the back tyres into the deck. We’ve currently got a 320i with a set of Pirelli sottozero RFTs for the colder months and it’s a beast in the snow. Only thing that would stop it is ground clearance but at that point you’ve gotta consider if you should be out in it at all.

Thank you for the suggestions all. I’m going to use my lunch break to have a play around now. It’s mainly just 2D layouts I’m interested in but I might try and sketch what the rear of the house will look like (still in 2D) just to see what window placement looks like and things.
Thanks
Nick

I’ve a 2019 YT Capra CF Pro as my only bike and I love it! I don’t have the money or space for multiple bikes so it was one bike to do it all..

It is a big bike.. but I think it climbs remarkably well given how capable it is smashing through rock gardens or doing really steep stuff. Sure, it’s never going to be as good as the Jeffsy (or new Izzo) when things are pointing up or along but it’s a damn sight better at climbing than the 2013 Nukeproof Mega I came from.

You should see the conversations that happen on the YT owners FB page re. Capra vs Jeffsy.. it’s madness.. you’d think they were all pros the way they carry on. Aye, the Jeffsy is a bit better going up and the Capra going down but they’re both very capable fun mountain bikes. And who can afford a Tues, Capra, Jeffsy and Izzo anyway?!

That’s my bit anyway. Oh, and I ride Hamsterley on my Capra and it’s a lot of fun.

I bought the Noble Chairs Epic for my home office. I like it but the lumbar support is a bit lacking and I have to use the (supplied) extra cushion to get it just so. It actually doesn’t look a million miles away from an RS4 seat! Think it was about £300.

I’ve just been through this.. I have a TLD D2 for uplifts that I’ve had for donkeys years. Great when you don’t have to pedal up (or even along..) but deary me on a warm day it’s like a bucket of fire!

I have a Giro Hex trail lid for normal non-uplift duties but have become increasingly worried of late about coming off and smashing my teeth, jaw, etc. as sometimes ride fast stuff and also some techy/steep descents.

I ended up getting a TLD Stage on sale for £180 (you often find certain colours/sizes are nearly £100 cheaper than others). It is a fantastic helmet. Really light, really well ventilated and the chin bar feels solid if not detachable. TLD and Giro are literally the only 2 brands that fit my massive (62cm) odd shaped dome so that cut down the choices I had to a large extent!

I think you need to refine your requirements a bit and really think hard about what you will value in this car. At the moment it feels like you have a Venn diagram with no intersection. For example will you value the experience of perfecting a heel-toe downshift going into a corner or are you more bothered about the car being a thing of beauty? Obviously the two are not mutually exclusive but I think taking a step back and really being honest with yourself will help. £25K is a lot of money so ideally you want to get this right 1st time around.

If you really value a ‘drivers’ car IMO you need to be focussing on naturally aspirated over forced induction, 3 pedals, RWD and a proper diff. Engine placement not really a constraint but even with the 1st 3 constraints the list is already very small without even thinking about how the thing looks, age, mileage etc. I think the Cayman is a good shout and then depending on if you have a garage something like an Elise.

I don’t think BMWs fit the bill unless you go something a bit older like a really tidy E92 M3 with a manual ‘box, but TBH they’re like hens teeth. The modern BMWs are lovely things but all the current/newish M cars are turbocharged and things like the M135/140 don’t have a proper diff.

I had a facelift M135i with the N55 engine and ZF8HP auto ‘box and whilst it was a great little car it’s not the absolute weapon people make them out to be. Fantastically fast in a straight line and fine in the corners but only up to about 7/10ths.. it’s pretty prickly beyond that and things get out of sorts quite quickly!

Robowns – you really should redline your car! That engine and gearbox combo is sublime. Just make sure everything is up to temp, pop it in sport mode (gearbox and car) and give it some beans (on an appropriate piece of tarmac of course). Leave it in auto if you’re afraid off bouncing off the limiter (easy done 1>2 on the paddles) and it will give you lovely and perfect whip-crack upshifts time and time again. The 4.9s 60 time is easily achievable in the dry on the Pilot Supersports.

I traded my M135 in for a Tesla 3P so agree with the comments above about the performance. It is an absurdly fast car.. the 3.2s 60 time feels conservative and it has 4 doors and 5 proper seats! not to mentioned running costs of approx. 1.5 pence per mile. But a drivers car it is not.. The steering is very direct and it corners very flat but there is no hiding 1.8 tonne of saloon car.

The Alpine A110 is a great shout but £25K won’t cut the mustard. That Boxster Titusrider linked to is very nice indeed, lovely motor and I certainly wouldn’t discount a Boxster over the Cayman suggestion, but as above just need to work out what is important to you. I would absolutely love an Elise but I’ve no where to keep one and don’t have the £17K or so I need to get the one I would want.. it’s in the plan but it is a long term one.

Thank you for the replies both. Quick call to Whinfell Hall Farm and we’re in!

Cheers
Nick

Watching with interest. We live in a 20 zone, albeit on a main road about 5 houses along from a sharp 90 degree bend. The amount of people who come past my house doing 50mph + is staggering, they then have to brake hard for the bend, then I hear them accelerating hard away again. Selfish pricks have woken my daughter up more than once when I’ve been walking her to sleep and also when inside the bloody house!

The pops and bangs dickhead brigade are the worst.. constant acceleration/lift off cycles to get maximum machine gun fire from their 4 banger turbo pieces of shit. Don’t get me wrong, a Ferrari V12, AMG V8, etc etc sound wonderful but there is a time and place. Anyway I’m ranting.. but if you’re reading this Mr S3, stickers on my car, illegal tints, stupid exhaust man – i **** hate you and hope your engine lunches itself at the earliest opportunity.

Thank you both. Really useful. It’s £90 worth of Thule so think I’ll go down the route of arranging courier myself.

Thanks you. Okay, so I’ll make sure it’s not PayPal gift. On the courier front he said parcelforce so if it’s not a big red van I’ll tell them to do one. Plus he wants to send money now so ill already have been paid.