I have some of the new fiberax ones (with the red backing plate) and they are lasting well but are also good at stopping.

if you cycle on the roads when its dark and you dont wear a hi viz vest or similar IMO your a bell end. If you dont wear a helmet at all, again your a bell end.

I don’t wear a high viz vest when commuting in the dark. What would be the point? It wouldn’t show up unless some lights were on it at which point the reflective bits on my jackets/gloves/bike/overshoes light up. 99% of my route is on unlit roads and the little that is lite is done very well plus its not london or any other major city.
I use lights if it before dawn or after sunset or if its poor visability.

I don’t know about others but i seem to find more holes in the road when riding in the dark (commuting so same roads) and they jar more if you can’t seem them.

You will need more light than you think to ride at speed, unless you have good roads. If your on roads with street lighting then you can get away with less but i find on unlit roads with tree cover that a low power only light just makes things visable and you end up straining to see pothole, drain covers etc..
FOr rear ligths i use 2, one staed and one flashing i also use a tesco 1w touch on my head.

I had my last chainset do that whilst riding it but lost the preload cap and ended up riding one legged back to the car. One new preload cap later and all was fine with it and I used it for a couple of years after that until the axel got damaged by sized bearings.

My Volvo V50 had a pin holding the headlight units in, slide out, headlamp comes out and easy bulb change –

Same on my xc90 unlike the laguna i had which claimed the bumeper need to come off to replace the bulbs as you neede to take the head light out (you could just get your hand down the bcak and undo the cover)
Some things are desgined to make the delaers money where as others it just to fit them in to the space avaliable.
Haven taken the interiour out of my xc90 it was a joy to remove (if a little heavy)as it was well engineered. Most people don’t want to look after there cars they just want them to work like the tv, dishwasher etc.

Intreasting that warrenty direct score the xc90 low where as the owners score it as high. I know that the older ones have an issue with the AWD but not that much goes wrong with them.

andyl – Member
engine out for a fuel pump?

If you have the v6 petrol its engine out for spark plugs or so i was told.
I also belive its engine out for the cam belt on it as well.
This is one of the reason why we ended up with a Volvo xc90 as a family car.

mastiles_fanylion – Member

Cold water remains cold water if the little arrow is red too. Yes?

TJ? Keep up will you…

Depends? does your boiler work? :wink:

TandemJeremy – Member
stumpy – that is a blue bit on a tap or a blue bit on a car heater. yes that has meaning. But the thing that has meaning is the “blue bit on heater control” Blue as a colour seen in isolation has no meaning

Without it being on the heater control it has no meaning. that little bit of blue plastic on a wall on its own with no control has no meaning

You are associating the colour blue with cold and the colour red with hot.
You said colour has no maeaning to you but it must do for you to make this assumption.

TandemJeremy – Member
they have no meaning at all to me. a colour is a colour

In isollation from anything then yes its a colour or even a word but since when have you ever see a colour in complet isolation from anything.
why do you think danger sings are red not just in the human world but accross the animal kingdom.

ANy one know wheres a good place to sell to in the southampton area?

TJ
Branding does work on you. You have said you will buy red bull as you know that you quite like it. You can spot it in the shop because of the branding which is what branding is all about. its ment to make your company/product reconisable from others and at a distance. not all brands are trying to sell you stuff there are many charities who use branding and go to great lenghts to protect this such as WWF.

In our semi you can hear the neiboughs and they can hear us but thats because its a 1901 semi and the wall between us is a single brick thick and the floor joist from both houses are conected to each other. Its not a problem as we both have kids and talk often as well as givin advaced warning of any unsual noise. Kids cry/scream espicially when very small as you can’t reason with them to get them to stop. WIth our eldest (now 8) we had to do controlled drying as she didn’t like going to bed and would have screaming fits and would sit and shake the stair gate. We knew that she was safe and all that would happen is that she would fall asleep eventually at which point it was easy to put her to bed. this only lasted for around 4-6 weeks but sometimes its the only way you can teach them that you mean what you say. Its not easy to sit and listen to you kid cry/scream so its not a lazy way to pearent.

The only things I will need to slow for are the ponies or cows if the cross as the road is straight and there are no junctions. With out a head wind I normal sit at around 20 mph (30 is possible with a tail wind) where as I have been as slow as 12 with a really strong one and it starts to grind day after day as it’s completely exposed.

There are 4 levels of write off and only 2 of these are aloud back on the road after repairs, which a cat D and C. If its a cat B then it can be striped for parts but he chasse has to be crushed a cat a has to be cruashed completely.
As the insurance company which cat they have placed it in cause a cat d is the esaist to put back on the road where as with a cat c you have to gat a VIC test done and then reaply for the V5c and get a new MOT done.

tron – Member
The other major daft thing that will keep your car off the road is if the tailgate isn’t sealing properly. Apparently exhaust fumes can get back into the car – sounds very unlikely to me, but that was the line taken.

This is true. The air at the back of a car circulates (hence spray going on the back window) aand most manuals state what to do if you need to drive for short distances with the tailgate/boot open.

sharkbait – Member

Email back from Merc’s EU tech department and it does need uprating! FFS!

Did you actually expect them to say something different? Once again, does it say anything about it in the towing section of the owners handbook?
Maybe they put rubbish cooling fans on them when new to save money. Now if you’d bought an Volvo, Audi, etc you wouldn’t have this issue.
I’d still try towing without the upgrade first – it’s not like you’re daft enought to actually let the car overheat.

Thats not true. I have an xc90 and in the owners manual it states that if you are towing and have the 2.9 petrol then you need to fit an extra oil cooler for the transmission (which is what i expect the merc one is for).
The extra cooling for when towing up long hills and the speed dropped but the engine is working hard, not htat we have many of these types in the uk. My manual also advise using the manual over ride when going down these hills to stop the brakes from over heating.

Normally the waste pipe is flexible just like the washing machine. They are pumped but not at that high a pressure.

When I did it I used an FS as the chalk can end up very hard in the current weather and it takes the sting out of the trail. I would also recommend sun cream and if it’s a nice sunny day then I would consider something to cover my neck as it ends up nice and exposed. I also walked a couple of the last hills as I was only riding at walking pace by then anyway I also took my helmet off when doing this. I just took normal food with me to eat and picked up a couple of ice creams on the way. I run tubeless as well and I have suffered a couple of times on the south downs from Flint cuts but is nothing a tube won’t fix.

I have rolled ours after getting a bit enthusistic when going round a aroundabout. All i can say is the staps work great and my daughter thought it was funny. The trailer lives on thanks to duct tape.

molgrips – Member
Now that looks risky! Is there anyone in it?

Yes my daughter. Don’t covet the camera was as far outboard as it could go. I got plenty of footage off cars closer than any on there when I didn’t have the trailer on. Fortunatley I now ride some where different and the roads are so quite that in the morning I can often count the number that pass me on one hand.
But I do know I used to get less stressed by the traffic with the trailer than with out. In factthe hard part was when cars let you go up hill as it’s hard to accelerate with it behind you.

This is a video I shot of my ride home with the trailer.

The camera is mounted just in front of and to the outside of the wheel at axel hight.

molgrips – Member
My trailer is the same hight as my saddle.
Mine is much lower down than my brightly/lightly coloured torso. Around car bumper/lorry wheel height.

But you are still there. Is not like you are hiding behind the trailer. You are more visible with it.
Car bumpers are a lot lower then lorry wheel hight.
By the time you can’t be seen as it’s to low then it’s to late any way.
Does this mean that cars like a lotus is dangerous to be in as it’s lower than the bottom of the windows on my car.

I’m not convinced that is right. Something wider is much easier to see than something narrow, something out of the ordinary (and bright green and covered in reflective gubbins) is much easier to see than something normal like a bike, plus the bright pink flag at higher than head level probably helps too.
In my experience (hundreds of miles now) of riding on the road with a bike trailer, it is absolutely completely blindingly obvious that you are much more likely to be seen and people will be much more careful around you if you are a bike + child trailer, than if you are just a person on a bike.
Joe

+1

My trailer is the same hight as my saddle. It’s not that much wider then a bike taken as a whole it certainly fits through gaps that the bars on my mtb do.
If a driver can’t spot the trailer they aren’t going to see me that’s for sure as my rear silhouette is pretty small.
I have managed to tip mine over once (forgot it was there as I went round a roundabout). The roll cage did it’s job along with the seat belts/straps.

randomjeremy – Member
Do you people ride on the roads with your babies in tow?

Often and cars tend to give you much more room than normal though you can’t nip down the outside of traffic but i tended to use that as a rest as atrailer deffinatly makes its presance felt.

we have had an ikea sofa for a few years and its doing fine. If it’s mainly for the kids then get a clipan (or how ever its spelt)one as they have removable covers that are machine washable with lots of choice on colour.

My middle daughter has been going in a trailer from around 2 months. Original she went in her car seat but by 6 months she was sitting in the normal seat. I used it regulary to take her to nusary 2-3 times a week . She often fell a sleep in it and would often tell me to speed up. She also liked going over the speed bumps as well as having the cover off all together. She is now coming up to 5 and still like to go in it. If you ever sit in the back of a car or have a baby in the front seat beside you (no air bag) you will see how much they are shaken around by the movement agin look in the buggy as well.
The dirt thing can be a problem off road along with general dust but i foun the road bike with its full lenght mudguards not bad.

With the middle seats down you can get 2 bikes in with the wheels on in my XC90 in fact volvo sell a carrier that fits in side the car.
With the two bar rack i can and have carry 2 bikes plus luggage in the boot and 2 on the rack. It is expensive car mind so i would go for a v70 estate instead.

Cheers

I ran wheels with a simillar spoke pattern for a few years and never had that issue with the front wheel in fact the only time I have had a stick wheel interface was with a convetional 32 spoked rear wheel one.

I am currently part way through renovating one of these

I also have just picked up this which is to ultimately take and leave at my mother in laws place in the med.

I have yet to take her but she’s ment to be fun and fast for her size.

I use a back pack as there is no where to put any thing on my bike and not only that I’ve had a pump that wore out prematurly from bei g covered in crap as well as not wanting to use a bottle cover in it. I carry enough emergency tools as you don’t know when things are going to break no matter how well you look after them. A also carry at least 2 spare tubes as I run tubeless and if I damage the tyres I’m going to need the inner tubes for each wheel.
And stated above just because I have a 3l bladder I only ever fill it right up when out for long summer rides in fact on short winter rides I leave a thermos with tea in it in the car and don’t fill the bladder at all.

Your diesel might do 120 in 5th, but you’ll probably already be in 5th at 30…

No not really 4th at most and at 30 if holding the gears and accelerating then 2nd before changing to 3rd at 40. Unless you regulary like to thrash you cars then you wouldn’t be in second at 60 more like 20 and then changing up to 3rd shortly after that.

Diesels allow you to drive along feisty roads with only a few gear changes where as in a petrol you will be using a simillar amount of revs just a lot higher up.

No way would I buy a diesel ‘sports car’ or diesel convertible though just as you’d be silly to buy a V6 2.5 Cmax.

Wrong its a straight 5 as in the Focus ST taken from volvo as in the T5 engine.

Probably where I am at 3rd gear in a petrol I’d already be upto 5th in a diesel in the same scenario.

Thats funny my last manual diesel would do well over 100 in 5th where as the fast petrol megane we have wont go any faster than 80 in third.

You have to drive the cars in very different ways and while all the diesels i have driven have short gears for 1st and 2nd they get much longer after that, longer than any of the petrols i have driven.

As already stated you can drive to from a pre booked mot while the car is SORN as you need a valid MOT to get the disc. What you can’t do is have no insurance as you don’t need an MOT or disc to get that.

5thElefant – Member
If only you could get bicycles with fat tyres and suspension that could cope with the odd bump in the road.

The problem with potholes are the hard normaly sharp edges unlike the stuff you encounter offroad. This is why it can do such damage to cars let alone a bike.

They do look bad, at least southamptons not that bad and they are good at filling them if you report near accidents to them.

Have you thought about a Volvo xc70 or xc90 if you need more ground cleance. They work offroad but are nice to drive on the tarmac. If you need more offroad capabilities than this then you will need a proper offroader such as the landcruiser. I have the xc90 and have been impressed with it offroad so far and im planning on taking it for a play at a place this weekend to try and find its limits safley.

the 93 hatch wasn’t based on the vectra thats the saloon version, They are an updated 900 just as the older 95 are an updated 9000.

Cougar – Member
How does one ‘wear out’ a heater matrix, exactly?

At just over 8 years old the only way for it to have “worn out” is if its not had coolant in it which inhibts rust. Our second car is just coming up to 13 years old and still on its original rad and heater matrix. The millage wont have a huge effect on the matrix as the fluid will be sitting in it since it was first filled. I would expect the heater matrix to last the life of the car as its not in a possition to get damaged unlike the rad.

Try doing it in the dark and rain. oh and add some mud in that as well and you will have at least 70% of what my commute is like at this time of year. :-)