Pete, have just mailed you re seatpost – send me one back and we'll get this sorted for you.

There was mention of re-homing a dog earlier in the thread.
No way will a RSPCA re-homing volunteer allow you to take one of their dogs.
I know, a lady with whom I walk every morning was very dismissive of you & your wives work schedule

Yep, came across this incredibly closed-minded attitude. Unless you fit theie hugely exacting standards (have to have someone at home pretty much all of the time, no children, must have previous experience of the breed) they turn you away.

Yet somehow we've managed to adopt not one but two dogs, both of whom would otherwise likely have been destroyed (that's what used to happen to all trailhounds at the end of their racing career).

By the way, Dogs Trust DOES NOT destroy healthy dogs. Other charities do.

For all the naysayers, I’d say this: getting the dogs was the best thing that we, as a family, could have done. That said, a puppy would be a no-no in your current circumstances. Rehoming an adult dog may well be the right choice for you, but beware the fact that many are in rehoming centres because they have behavioural difficulties, so they may well have problems settling in.

The rehoming people are a mixed bag: the RSPCA simply didn’t want to know (children under 10, both adults working, no previous dog experience), but the Dogs Trust couldn’t have been more different. Their view was that there was definitely a dog for us, but we had to be sensible about the breed. Getting a dog that needs constant attention would clearly be a bad idea, so they recommended a trailhound, which is a very independent and self-reliant breed, and which would be fine being left for much of the day. Ours were being rehomed because they were retired racers, so no behavioural problems there, thank goodness.

I’d say do it IF you’ve thought about all of the downsides and are prepared for the teething troubles. There’s no point blaming the dog for having a dump on the carpet if you’re not prepared to get up and walk it, and if you don’t train it properly (training classes are essential, I’d say, as much for you as for the dog) you’ll have a hard time. You’ll be taking on a big commitment for a long time.

The only real downside (apart from the cost, but I can afford that so it’s not really an issue) is that I’m really tired by the end of the week. Getting up at 5am every day when you also work a 60 hour week is not that easy, and when it’s blowing a gale outside in a wet November, you do question your sanity from time to time.

Surf-Mat

£400 is a lot, sure, but £300 of that is for dog-walking. It's unfortunate, but it's the only way I could have the dogs and treat them fairly.

I’ve got two dogs, both from the Dogs Trust, the youngest of whom was 14 months when we got her. Dogs Trust were great in trying to find dogs that fitted our family’s lifestyle. They recommended us a trailhound, a breed that’s great with kids & cats, hugely friendly, and happy to snooze for large chunks of the day.

I leave for work at 7am, usually get back c.7.30pm, though my daughter is home from about 5pm. We could leave the dogs all day, but it seemed unfair, so we have a dogwalker, who costs £15/day for the two, though they get a 2 hour walk for that. That still means that I have to be up at 5am to walk them. That’s EVERY morning, not just when the weather’s nice. Pissing down rain, sub-zero temperatures? Still have to get up. When I get home they get an hour’s walk as well. This is a serious commitment of time, and you have to accept that some things need to give; if you have a lot of extra-curricular activities, maybe now is not the right time to get a dog.

Then there are the bills. You need insurance (about £15/month, with usually a £70 excess), and the annual vaccinations etc aren’t cheap. If you want to take your dogs abroad, there’s a not inconsiderable cost of the pet passport, and if you leave them when you’re away, think of kennelling fees. There’s also food; not massively pricy, but reckon on £20/month.

There’s the mess to consider; we have to vacuum all the time, as our dogs, though short-haired, do drop a lot of hair. There’s the occasional unfortunate mess to clear up from the younger dog (she wasn’t house-trained when we got here), but that’s thankfully a rarity. You also need to recognise that from time to time your dog will tip the bin over and forage for scraps, or will eat a favourite pair of slippers.

Overall, it works for us; we have two very happy, healthy and well-exercised dogs, but the monthly cost is something like £400. That’s a horrific amount, but if I waited until I had a less stressed lifestyle that’d be another decade and I was not prepared to wait until I was in my mid-50s before I got a dog.

Likewaise, there are a fair number of nice-but-tatty seatposts in the garage. Let me know what size you need and I'll bung one in the post.

We've always found that driving through the night is far better with small kids. Parents are exhausted, but little 'un doesn't get bored and fractious in the car.

Failing that, Formule 1

Forget it, just keep on driving and get there.

If you really feel the need to stop, Macon is nice.

Second the Citroen ZX diesel – have had a succession of these and although things like central locking can fail, the basic car is fine. Find something that's got some sort of a service history and most of an MOT and you're laughing for £750 or so. Things that tended to go wrong at MOT time were the usual – blowing exhaust, split CV boots, balljoints, that sort of stuff, which you'll get with any cheap, old, high-mileage car.

Not fast, not pretty, but they run and go OK, there's a reasonably decent ride quality, and at 45-50mpg you'll not spend a huge amount on fuel. Make sure you have AA cover though, as you'll be putting a lot of miles on it very quickly.

I just got the very last 14" Summer Season 456 for my son, who thinks it's ace, if a bit orange.

Ask them, they may have one more knocking around the warehouse.

Other insurers take the view that unless you're taking part in a race, and are on terrain that's accessible to all (i.e not a specific race track), then that's not classed as DH as such. I was very clear to decribe to them the Passportes du Soleil routs to them, but they were fine.

I used Snowcard, btw.

Started appallingly for me – left a very well-paid and secure job in mid 2008, had to do contract jobs (well-paying but hugely unsatisfying) to keep things going, and there was a point when I genuinely despaired. Nothing coming in, plenty going out, the usual stuff. It took 18 months to get the right permanent role, but now that I’ve landed it I’m far better off than I’ve ever been.

Overall 1/10 for the outcome, but 7/10 for the journey.

Unsurprisingly, it all depends on what you want the car for.

I had a Discovery 3 and loved it for its space and general abilities. It was a great cruiser, and even handled far better than you’d expect for a near 3-tonne vehicle. It’s slooooow though, particularly the 2.7 diesel; the new 3.0 version is a load better. The RRS is marginally lighter, and definitely a better handler, though to my eyes it looks terrible. It does have pace, however, particularly the supercharged version, though assume 15mpg as an average with one of those and budget accordingly. Even the diesels will struggle to better 25mpg.

If you can cope with the image and the lack of space (and I can’t), then the RRS is a really good car. It just seems to me to be trying way too hard to look cool, which to my eyes it fails at. Ironically, the Range Rover achieves epic levels of coolness by being an icon, and the Discovery 3-4 manages this through it’s no-messing abilities and air of utilitarianism.

They’re all far better off-road than 99% of the drivers will ever be, and I’d not differentiate on that basis.

Adrian Flux said no as well

£760 for a 1982 vehicle with 10 years no claims? That's just stupid.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. Camper vans are pretty easy to get cover for, and the VW Kombi is fine, too, as it has a lower number of seats.

Direct Line – said no

NFU – said no

Will try Brentacre, A-Plan, Adrian Flux.

Just to add – as well as the car insureres being sniffy, a lot of the van insurers also won't touch a VW, as it's got 9 seats. Seems to be neither flesh nor fish, but I see enough of the things about, so clearly someone's insuring them.

Blower, I'm 44.

I should add that the ability to seat 7 is another need; we've got away with the XC90 for the last few years but the rear seats are too small for the kids now, other than for short hops.

The other option I'm looking at is the Discovery 3. I had one of these before, and they're great bits of kit. A lot smaller than the VW internally, but much nicer to drive, and, strangely, only £350/years for me to insure. Bizarre.

Absolutely fine, though the bigger rotors are definitely a good idea.

Am there, part of a party of 6 from Summit MTB

Honestly? Unless you need a Defender (and very few do), a Discovery is a lot better as an all-round vehicle that's still hugely capable off-road.

A good Disco II (and there are some VERY bad ones out there) will cost a good deal less than a similar-age Defender, will be a lot more car0-like, and will still cimb any mountain, ford any stream etc etc

Entwistle and Hooky are excellent, with the latter being genre-defining.

I'd add Steve Harris, whose galloping bass lines define an awful lot of the Iron Maiden sound.

And a favourite (though not very good) bass player: Roger Waters. What he lacks in musical ability is more than made up for in megolamania and general grumpiness.

Passat TDI estate works well for me; I got a 3 year old 140hp model for around £7k and it's since covered 30000 troubletree miles at an average of 45mpg. It's now got 105k on it and doesn't feel in the least tired, though I've replaced the front shocks as a precautionary measure (pretty standard for any car at this mileage).

Has cruise, leather, climate control, decent enough sound system, handles acceptably, but is remarkably boring. Loads of space and an ability to gobble up the miles without complaint make up for that.

Rohloff hubs. Silly expensive, look dull as ditchwater, but keep on working forever.

The other problem is emissions. The sorts of standards the manufacturers need to meet for new cars (over the whole life, like at 200k+ miles) are not the same standards as you have to met when you go to get an MOT. That means that the chip tuner has a lot more flexibility and can liberate mire horsepower. There's a definite environmental impact though.

How could I have forgotten Baba O'Reilly by The Who?

I'd forgotten I was riding a silly, heavy 8" travel big hit so even some of the descents were pedally for me!

So a bit like my Kona Stab…OTT for much of it, but everything else I ride out there seems to get broken or worn out very quickly.

I'd say yes you do want one if you're going to be riding the DH runs rather than just XC.

I wouldn't bother with it for the PPdS though, it's mostly XC terrain and there's a fair bit of pedalling/climbing.

Unless you know something I don't, then I suggest any event with 7000m of descent and 1000 metres of climbing can't really be thought of as (a) particularly pedally (b) typical XC terrain.

I'm doing PdS, and will be wearing a full-facer, accepting the fact that yes, I'll probably sweat like a pig.

'Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love – Van Halen
Song 2 – Blur
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana

My advice is simple. Work out what you need for the month and leave that in your account, transferring EVERYTHING else to a savings account. I do this, and know that whatever’s left in the account is left for me to spend should I wish to. In the meantime the savings pot grows and because I never see it, I don’t spend it. It’s helpful to put in a building society account which is a right pain to get to (only open the 3rd Thursday of the month etc) so that if you really need the money you can get it, but there’s no chance at all of you spending it on a whim.

Additionally, I have just one credit card (mainly for buying plane tickets and like when you want that additional protection) which is automatically swept out of my account each month. I have no debt other than mortgages, and pay for cars etc in cash.

As well as all of the above, 25% of what I earn goes into 'one-way' savings (essentially pension fund) which I couldn't get at even if I wanted to. That money's gone before I ever see it; I only ever look at what I get as a take-home on the payslip.

I have only ever bought a new car once (and that was when I worked for a manuafacturer, so an appropriately huge discount), I don't smoke, I rarely eat out, and I've not bought myself anything shiny and bike-like in the last year. Both the family cars have well over 100k on them, but they're well looked-after and will last a good couple of years yet.

I've never had Sky, don't have a mobile in my own name (a work one seems to cover me perfectly well), and I tend to buy stuff like iPods only when the previous one has died.

This probably makes me sound like a pious penny-pinching miser, but the reality is that I don't want to work past 60, and in order to have the sort of retired life I want then I'll have to work hard for the next 15 years to achieve this.

I've been off STW for the best part of a year, so I've just seen this today, and have spent the last 2 hours reading this from the beginning.

It's rare that I'm stuck for words, but this is one of those times. I can only say that the way you (and by this I mean you and your wife) have dealt with this is magnificant.

I've never met you, probably never will, but I'm more than happy to contribute. Have a good ride, and keep on fighting.

I love bikes, but not enough to make up for a roughly 60 times increased risk of death when compared to driving cars. I stopped riding on the road, and took up track days, but seeing someone (a family guy, just like me) get killed at Cadwell Park was enough for me to completely give up riding.

If you ride a bike you just have to accept the odds that say you're more likely to have an accident (people don't see you, diesel on the road surface means a crash for a bike versus a slide for a car etc etc), and that once off the bike your chances of survival are much lower.

Good luck to those who ride. But no matter how much I love bikes, I'll not have another one.

819 – I've yet to damage one. Well, apart from hitting a tree, but I can't really blame the rim for that one.

I hate all the niche-chasing ("ooh, we were excited by a bloke with a beard and a welding torch, who was showing a 650B tricycle with a 29er front, made of solid birch and a chain on the left not the right") but then every so often I'll see a Nicolai or the like and suddenly I get interested.

So I guess I'm not totally anti, but perhaps the number of pages devoted to the really geeky bike-show specials is a bit much.

Without doubt it has to be Espedair Street. I've worn out three copies with re-reading.

130mm Fox on mine. Works a treat, never had wandering-wheel-itis

I've had several pairs of Eggbeaters fail over the years, but to be fair, 2Pure have been excellent when I've wandered over to see them at Mayhem, 24/12 etc, clutching assorted bits of pedal.

And I've got some more going off to them today to hopefully be rescued.

I've never really got on with SPDs, and although the Eggs are high maintenance (and probably not really good enough in their basic design when it comes to mud ingress), the fact that 2Pure are the importers makes a real difference. If they weren't, I'd probably junk mine, grit my teeth and go with the Shimano option.

(BTW, I have no connection with 2Pure at all, other than as a customer. Just feel it's fair to give credit where it's due.)

The entries open in February, but it fills up really quickly. They've not put a date up yet.

And yes, it's a tremendous blast.

Passat works well for me. Averages 50+ mpg (measured brim-to-brim, though the on-board computer is pretty accurate), has cruise/aircon/leather seats, a decent enough stereo, and is hugely comfortable.

It cost me £7k for an 06 plate estate 140 Tdi. Servicing is actually prety cheap, if you avoid VW main dealers. Basic service at my local (ex-VW technician) indy is about £100, cambelt/waterpump change was £200.

Cheap insurance too.