A couple of these look just the ticket in terms of size and shape, and they’re waterproof:

https://www.planetdivestore.com/articoli.php?MODE=SCHEDA_ARTICOLO&articoli_ID=11913&src=g&nazioniID=194&varianti_ID=45463&LANGUAGE=EN&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8Kzq4dHi2wIVhJ8bCh1sSQ-NEAQYAiABEgIeevD_BwE#trustpilot-reviews

As ever I seemed to have overthinked this.. Thanks for the idea Rob!

Cheers

Nick

Aye – couple of mahoosive kit bags might be the most cost effective and simple solution. That buzzrack pro looks canny but it doesn’t have a light board on it and I want to try and utilise the current rack.

Thanks

Also – there are more sufferers than you think. In my close circle of family and friends there are at least 5 of us.. lighting designer, builder (x2), heavy manufacturing. etc. Talk to people who also suffer – it really does help.

As above it depends on what context/environment you’re wanting protection within. For power tools and petrol mower etc. I personally prefer the convenience of proper over the ear muffs – I have some aviation grade ones (Peltor black and red) that I just pop on.

For discreet (and effective) protection I don’t think you can beat the custom moulded ones. I have some clear ones from days of building tanks and you can’t really see them unless specifically looking for them. My neighbour was screaming at me over the fence one day trying to give me some plants and I was none the wiser.. clearly she thought I was being extremely rude as she didn’t spot the plugs!

I feel your pain though. I’ve had chronic tinnitus since age 23 ish (32 now) and it is a right pain in the arse. I was really depressed about it for a couple of years but I’m somehow managed to zone out to it. Try and keep busy and not focus on it (hard I know). It depends on the nature of it too. Mine is quite high pitched and louder in my left ear.

Hope that helps.

Nick

That was absolutely dreadful. Apart from a smash on Lap 1, nothing happened.. sweet FA.

I was really looking forward to the race with the mixed up grid but it was crap.

Just be prepared for the tyre kickers – try to sound them out on the phone. Ultimately I was grateful when someone called and just told me their top price over the phone.. I ended up spending over an hour with several people in person, doing test drives etc. for them to offer me £4,000 when it was advertised at £4,900. One particular bloke got both barrels after I washed the car especially for him with a raging hangover!

I would just get the local indie to do a basic oil/filter service so you have some evidence of service history. Might cost £100 and you may not get it all back but it will certainly make it easier to sell.

We sold our Mini a few weeks ago and even with FSH (main dealer then local Mini/BMW specialist) people were still haggling and offering daft low prices..

I can’t comment directly on the Luxury spec but we’ve just got an F30 3 series M Sport + on 19″s and the ride is no worse than my E90 on 17″‘s in SE spec.. (but with the M-Sport seats). Both on Bridgestone Potenza RFT’s.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Just realised that’s not very helpful at all.. I would go and test drive one locally at a dealer. The benefit of the Luxury spec seems to be that they have more options on them (2nd hand market) than the M-sports. E.g. posh headlights are like hens teeth on M Sports but a lot of the luxury’s seem to have them.</span>

My mate has a 535i that I think is a luxury spec.. I shall ask him for you.

Aye, I devised a route that was mainly towpaths etc. but working in Newcastle city centre the end of my commute was always on busy roads.. the tipping point was a chap who was revving, beeping swerving etc. at me for “holding him up..” 20 seconds before he hit a wall of traffic and I had a word..

Not my finest moment going absolute bezerk and offering some bloke his gans not 50m from where I work.. and about 100m from the main police station. For completeness, he declined the offer and instead locked his gaze on the bumper of the car on front while I well and truly lost my shit.

I’ve a similar setup on my commute* home and agree with the above comments that say it’s about 50-75% of drivers that just plough straight on. Even worse are the 4-5 drivers that just start playing follow the leader! Mind you this happens in the car also which is worrying.. Nonetheless nobody came out of that well – I think I’d have just jumped on the pavement and screamed a heartfelt **** OFF at the driver as I passed.

* I say commute but I’ve pretty much given up on riding to work as I just can’t be arsed with the aggro. Far too many altercations with other road users to the point where I was either going to get locked up or knocked out. Probably the latter. I can’t seem to back down to being bullied on the road so I’ve just joined the other lemmings in my metal box. Generally I think people just don’t give a shit and there’s still far too many people on their phones. Mountain bikes FTW.

Thanks 5lab. Just had an interesting conversation with the indie saying that he is not convinced the car even has a CDV as he can’t find it on the official diagram or the parts list and the price of the slave unit is so low from BMW he suspects it may not be in there either.. He even said he had people with E90’s come in (where the CDV is visibly in the line between the two cylinders in the American market and the cars don’t have it!

Maybe I just suck at driving!

It’s absolutely crazy! I’m having to re-learn driving a manual… despite having driven one for 15 years. Aside from the moving target of a bite point it also feels like the natural rev drop as you dip the clutch for an upshift isn’t matching revs for a quick shift.. i.e. I have to wait a bit longer for the revs to drop before fully releasing.

Thanks Michael – I’m seriously considering getting something like that done! Hopefully it’s something my local BMW independent can do.. It makes me wonder about the worth of a manual ‘box at all these days but our other car is an auto and I don’t want me or the wife to get out of practice driving a stick.. hey ho.

Pretty thick I’d say. I seen a bloke yesterday on the M1 in the outside lane doing at least 85 mph in his new Rangey pulling a mahoosive caravan.. I’d say at least as thick as that then some.

Aye that’s another howling design flaw.. and one that I must admit my car has if you leave the lights in the “0” position – front DRL’s and nothing at the back (this is on a 1-series where a previous 3-series used to light the back up for the same dial switch).

However the switch is always in “Auto” or “On” to avoid this scenario.. hopefully..

Ahh the old fog coloured car flying about in fog with no lights on. What a tit.

That’s a nightmare Flaperon. There are far too many people still on their phones whilst driving. People can barely walk and text never mind pilot a couple of tonnes of metal and text.

Today’s bellend was actually a grey petrol Audi. Still an Audi like.. Tailgated me for 4 miles then overtook as soon as we hit a dual carriageway, jumped back in front then slammed his brakes on for a wall of traffic. Nice one mate.

Who?!

Who?

The force is pretty strong with white diesel evoques as well.

I don’t believe you.. it’s always a white diesel Audi (or in this case a black one)

Yep – that’s a lovely spec in that link. We’re looking at one (to replace wife’s ageing Mini Cooper) with a manual box but slightly older/more miles and £16-17K gets you a nice one on a 64ish plate.

On a serious note what about a 320i Xdrive touring if you’re coming to the end of a PCP with BMW and it’s easier to stick with then? A friend has one (saloon) and said it was excellent in the recent snow on normal tyres. Just stick some XL normal tyres on if you like and the suspension setup should be fine.

You forgot average 26 mpg..

You should just get an M140i Kryton and be done with it. Auto, non RFT’s… oh and lovely blown inline 6 up front sending drive to the rear.

I can’t quite believe how much oil was getting sprayed out the rear of the Ferraris! Visibly pissing out for the whole race. How can that be legal or safe? Surprised they haven’t had their collar felt for that TBH.

Agree on Raikonnen being a nobhead. He should have went and seen the mechanic with the broken leg. Poor form.

I’m up in Newcastle. Table hasn’t got huge sentimental value TBH so I’ll happily have a pop at it. We use them pretty regular so they’ve got a few scars anyway.. just none as big as this one!

Thank you for the responses all. I think my wife would definitely agree with your suggestion Rachel!

Its definitely solid oak and in terms of size it’s 600 x 400mm so not huge. Good shout in using more acetone, hadn’t thought of that.

In terms of tooling I don’t really have anything other than the usual sandpaper/teek oil/linseed oil kicking round in the garage. I hadn’t considered chemical removal actually but it sounds preferable to mechanical.

This is going to be trickier than I thought..

As above, not designed for the clamps and would look shit. I have 598’s on wingbars (edge) and it was no hassle at all using the tracks and cutting the rubber to size was a doddle too (as long as you’re leaving the bike carriers on there long-term otherwise it could be a hassle to switch them i.e. to carry ladders).

I just hadn’t realised there was range of tyre widths for a given rim width. I (wrongly) assumed a 235mm tyre would go on a 235mm rim

I stand corrected, please ignore the first half of my post benz! Everyday is a school day and all that.

The tyre will be 10mm shy of the width of the rim hence will be “stretched” (this is actually a thing on the VW scene…) but I think it would be ill-advised and potentially an MOT failure.

Also the tyre will be lower profile (55% of 225mm not 235mm) so will ride harder on a bigger wheel.. so probs be pretty hard!

IANAM

That is a damn shame. I normally have a couple of trips up there each summer from Newcastle just for the roads and to check out all the bikes/cars. They do a nice Mars bar cake and cup of coffee for a pit stop! I really do hope they get back up and running.

The main type round here is the 4×4 hero.. Just seen two (Macan and then an XC90) fly past the house at about 40mph (it’s a blanket 20mph in the town we live in and there is a generous amount of the white stuff up in the NE). Both of them inches away from the poor chap walking along the road in the opposite direction. Complete and utter tosspots the pair of them. I can only hope that when they inevitably crash they don’t take any unsuspecting poor souls with them.

Few people in M-Sport beemers with low profile tyres generally getting stuck.. Best I seen was a 640d auto clearly on summer tyres. I cannot think of a much more unsuitable car. Idiot. These people want a good **** knockin oot.

Nice one – thanks plyphon! The Klunkerkranich sounds quality – will have to make sure we at least try to get in there. The best man is still adamant he’s going to Berghain like.. think he’ll be on his own!

Thank you for the responses everyone. Some real polarised views up there ^^^!

As with any group of lads over a certain critical mass there are some reet dickheads (myself included at times..) but in the round we’re not too bad..

I’m looking forward to experiencing some proper dance/techno music in some good clubs but take the point on arriving separately in 2’s.

Flights and digs all booked so we’re definitely going! Best man has just informed us all we’re paying for a guided bar crawl on night 1 which should prove useful for getting the lay of the land for night 2..

Cheers

Cheers for the info Aldo – just read up on Berghain.. we’ve got nee chance whatsoever of getting in there!

Ha – Aye plyphon something like that.. In the absence of an “activity” I want to go on the hoy properly and not spend 2 days walking about the place I guess.

I do tend to use the one key so I don’t think this is impacting it. Maybe I just need to get with the times and use auto + windscreen button when required.

Thanks for the tip on the blue/red dial too – I hadn’t realised this was just for temps coming out of the central fascia vent. Cheers!

I don’t really use the Auto button… it just makes a lot of noise and seems to set everything to max attack.. Was much easier in my shitty little fiesta with it’s big manual plastic dials.. was also pretty handy in the snow with its skinny tyres.. hmmmmm

I’m not aware of it changing the air distribution depending on what I’m trying to do, as above it’s pretty manual. Apologies – the 16 and red thing is two separate dials, you could have both “bottom” digital dials on 16 and the “top” coloured dial on red even if the ambient temp was higher than 16… dear me, I’ve confused myself just writing that.

In terms of why I always have it on the windscreen.. habit mainly, I alway just have it on a low power setting against the screen (it also blows through little vents toward the front windows).. it’ll heat up the cabin one way or another.

Interesting point about not blowing stagnant moist air on the screen – hadn’t heard of or considered that.

Cheers for the replies

Looks like someone has put a sizeable notch in a joist for a waste pipe there! I would be wanting to put a brace on that while the floor was up.

Is there somewhere upstream you can put an isolation in? I.e. that would isolate shower, sink and toilet? I’m struggling to think of a scenario (other than replacing the shower) where the proposed isolation valves would be useful.