My 7 year old Play 5 started playing up – lost the connection to the bass speaker and sounded awful.

I emailed Sonos support any they sent me a new one – ( may have been reconditioned ) for £129. Not bad for a £400 odd speaker that was 6 years out of warranty,

I’ve now got an original Play 5 and a new model Play 5 – the new one has much more punch soundwise.

We got this for half your budget earlier this year … 2012 Merc E500 Cab, only 13,000 miles on it. Full 4 seater. Twin turbo 4.7litre V8, 410 bhp. Loads of options ticked – cost the previous owner £68k.

Not a real sports car but very comfortable, quiet and relaxing to drive in normal mode – and very silly with a more noticeable V8 rumble in Sport mode. You can chip ’em up to 550+bhp for not much money if you’re that way inclined.

The E500 bi-turbo Cab is quite hard to find though as only about a dozen of this particular model were ever sold in the UK.

Relative cheap to run. Lower tax bracket (£295 pa rather than £535) coz its a low emission v8 – don’t know how that figures!. Does 25 mpg easily pootling about and does 35 mpg on a steady run. Normal price servicing – main dealer fixed plan at £35 per month, as it’s not an AMG or exotica.

We had one before (but with the 3 litre diesel engine) with a removable tow-bar for the bike rack so they are quite practical bike carriers as well.

Or bike bag on the back seat and wheels in the boot.

We run it as a 3rd car alongside a 1.2 litre petrol Polo and an old E Class Estate. Despite having two nice Mercs in the household the Polo is the ‘go to’ car for most of our journeys!

My 11 year old E Class Estate has 200,000 on it – owned it from new. At 5 years old with a 100,000 miles on it it still drove like a new car but felt just about run in.

Very relaxing to drive – Swallows stuff, takes a complete XL 29er easily.

Cheers – £35 is it then!

Now sadly gone – my last motorised steed before the pedal powered bikes took over…

Husaberg 450 up a mountain in the Pyrenees….. It was a very close shave with what could have have been a very serious accident up in the mountains on this trip that caused me to reconsider my dirt biking hobby.

MTB’s were the only way forward.

Don’t know about the airshot but I’ve got the Bontrager flash charger. I bought it when it was on sale for £70 irc – seemed a lot but, …. it just works.

Also its way better track pump than I had before so it feels like a massive upgrade to me. I think its £80 at Triton Cycles atm.

I actually look forward to mounting a tubeless nowadays.

Tax in France guide here:

https://www.french-property.com/guides/france/finance-taxation/taxation/

Explains re tax on your UK income – e.g Rent and how they tax you on your French income.

hth

UKGSER forum – ukgser.com – They know everything! I used to have a 650 Dakar and found that forum to be the Singletrack equivalent.

Ton – mail me for a 10% discount code if its Brittany Ferries.

Nice journey ..enjoy ! I’m eyeing up La Vélo Francette – Cean to La Rochelle for sometime this year.

French trains are pretty good with bikes.

Howabout Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth – Caen.

Then train down to La Rochelle or Bordeaux (have to change in Paris but looks easy enough) and then a pleasant bimble down the La Vélodyssée – https://www.velodyssey.com to Bayonne.

Sorted !

Done – was eyeing that area up on the map the other day.

Cheers – I’ll take a look.

6’3″ on an XL – 58cm. Normally I would ride 60cm but the Grade felt right at 58cm.

I’ve had a DuffBag Monster for about 4 years – really useful, good pice of kit.

It will just about take my 29er Trek Rumblefish with the front wheel off and the saddle right down. (Frame 21″ Wheelbase 1180mm) Now I’ve put 800mm bars on they poke out the bag a little.

Valencia is friendly and an easy walking city – or hire a city bike – great cycle path network round the town and along the old river bed.

Metro from airport to centre is about 20 mins. .

Lovely old town, good beach, tons of excellent restaurants. About 2/3rds the price of Barcelona for eating out, transport, hotels etc.

Maybe a day out here …http://mountainbikingvalencia.com !

I like Valencia – proper Spanish.

More stuff here:

http://www.visitvalencia.com/en/home

I’ve got four of these – BlueCube cxcl-650[/url], in my kitchen ceiling – room is probably 3.5m * 7m * 3.5m tall. Powered by a SONOS CONNECT:AMP .

It sounds ace – really kicks out the tunes. Quite a stealthy installation – you don’t really notice them against the ceiling. We did use quite a bit of lambswool insulation in the ceiling void in the area around where the speakers are to stop echo and vibes.

The only thing I would do in hindsight and was blocked from doing at the time we refurbed the kitchen, would have been to add a stealthy sub woofer but apparently …. the kitchen cupboards are for kitchen stuff not for stuffing huge speaker boxes into the back of…..

Probably the most used bit of audio equipment in our house.

There’s nothing quite like doing some serious cooking to some serious tunes.

It’s a must have.

Bizarrely I was researching this exact question this very afternoon.

I took an XR4 Team Issue off my Rumblefish – it had only done 200 miles or so as I put some Big Apples on for a family summer holiday. Anyway I came to put the XR4 back on and I now have a bulging sidewall … I think due to careless storage of the tyre.

The specs that I found were:

XR4 Team Issue
FT/RR/PR: Dual
TPI: 120
Durometer: 62a/60a
Bead: Aramid
26″ x 2.20 – 680g
26″ x 2.35 – 760g
27.5″ x 2.20 – 710g
27.5″ x 2.35 – 780g
29″ x 2.30 – 790g

XR4 Expert
FT/RR/PR: Dual
TPI: 60
Durometer: 62a/60a
Bead: Aramid
Weight: 26″ – 790g, 27.5″ – 820g, 29″ – 820g
hth

Go on then .. Two donations sent – one from me and one from MrsPaulX

Seeing as its December 1st …

We watch this every year as part of the Christmas celebrations in this household.

Holy Sprog Christmas Nativity – Fast Show’s Chanel 9

Oh-whoaah-oh! Oh, heth-eth-eth Beth-etheth-ethlehem.

Mate of mine was offered a van on exactly the same basis – he nearly went for it but decided it sound too much like a scam.

What do we think to AGA

http://www.firesonline.co.uk/acatalog/Aga_Much_Wenlock_Classic_Multi-fuel_Stove.html#aagamwc

I’ve got one in my home-office which is probably 12′ * 11′ with a high ceiling. Its more than plenty heat wise. Burns nicely and has a cool-touch handle which could be a consideration for your guests if they are not used to using a burner. Nice quality piece of kit.

Yep, time to dig out my Delamere Winter ride.

Just reading that line was all it took for me to stuff work and go to Delamere this afternoon – it’s a good crack working from home! :D

Anyway the forecast just said cloudy but turns out it was chucking it down and I’d forgotten my jacket and I got drenched.

It was slippy, muddy, filthy absolute brilliantness.

I kinda like the trails like that.

We used Joineryworkshop.com – similar job. They are based in S. Manchester but cover a large part of the UK.

We had some sashes refurbished with slimline double glazed units grafted in and some remanufactured windows to match. Looking at the house from outside it looks original but so much warmer and quieter inside. I think it averaged about £1000 per window.

Bit gutting in some ways – loads of money spent and the house looks exactly the same …. its not like buying a new kitchen where you can really see where the money went.

fastback style estates might be an option

I’ve got a CLS Mercedes Shooting Break at the moment – no where near as practical as an E Class Estate but kinda blurs the lines between a Coupe/Saloon/Estate. With the rear seats down I can put my XL 29ER in with the front wheel off or my GT Grade in complete.

Plush, fast, economical and S/H prices starting to come in quite reasonable. Way more useful than an saloon IMHO.

Can’t answer on the cost but I was referred for an MRI scan for a similar condition.

From referral to scan – 2 weeks – 2 weeks later saw specialist to diagnosis – 2 weeks later went to physio – 4 weeks later all much better.

This was on the NHS in Macclesfield – absolutely top service.

Could decide which bike to take on the family holiday so ended up putting some Big Apples on the Rumble. So wrong but it rolls really easily.

Yesterday saw an flyer for the Rando de Huitres (The Oster Rally) – 6€ entry including refreshment before and after and as many oysters as you can eat!

25km of flowing singletracjk through the woods and then a bimble around the oyster beds over near Royan in Western France. A proper French family day out.!

+ 1 for Bollington – Macclesfield area. I live just over the hill in the overpriced shiny bit… but spend a lot of time around Macclesfield – on school run and general taxi service …

Also has very regular fast train to London – about an hour 50 mins I think.

Good access to pretty much everywhere from East Cheshire. Its not really up north – its kinda like the north Midlands.

Macc Forest, Wales, Cannock, Peaks, Lakes, Delamere – it’s got it going on.

Manchester Airport long or mid stay and take the train or tram in. – About 30 mins. Way safer than leaving it on the street or an unmanned car park.

We have a Sonos Play 5 – the original one and its brilliant, however the new Play 5 is really much better at kicking out some serious bass for the size of the thing.

We also have a Connect 100 amp connected to 4 speakers in the kitchen ceiling and another Connect ZP80 connected to my old Arcam HiFi amp running thru my old monitor audio speakers in the office.

I’d start with the Play 5 and add to it from from there. The Play 5 is portable so you can stick it anywhere in the house – if you start with the sound bar it will just end up under the TV.

To make it more versatile we have a Chromcast Audio thingy – (£14 from Currys) plugged into the Play 5 – that way you can cast / stream YouTube, iTunes etc off any device into the Sonos and select which Sonos player (or all of them) you want to hear it from.

The Chromcast audio really has added to the versatility of the Sonos setup.

I always use HolidayAutos.com – I think RyanAir use them as well but badged as themselves.

I picked up one of the £25 quid stands in Macclesfield this morning – they had loads at 9am. I see try are sold out online.

Its from one of them Cheshire villages with expensive charity shops. They rushed me £40 for it – Had a quick look on Ebay and that seemed an alright price.

I’ve got 4 BluCube-CXCL-650-Speakers – in my kitchen ceiling running off a Sonos ZP120.

Decent speaker cable running from each speaker back to the Sonos.

Room is 11ft by 20 with 10ft high ceiling – its enough to get the room seriously rockin while you’re cooking!

Oh yeah – lambswool insulation in the ceiling void as well makes it sound better.

Over on the UKSSER forum members are known as ‘tossers’

So if you are out and about on your BMW GS motorcycle and you happen upon another rider on a similar steed you break the ice with the greeting “Hello, are you a tosser?”

Can’t say I’ve tried it though.

Failing that, does anyone have an old remote?

I’ve got a bust one in my spares box you can have. The lever snapped off it but it might be a suitable basis for a frankenstein bodge.

If you want it email me – in profile and I’ll post it to you if you drop some postage pennies into the next charity box you see.

Eastpak Delegate Authentic Messenger Bag £45 from John Lewis.

We got junior one at age 11 because it came with a 30 year manufactures guarantee and we knew he’d break it.

It lasted three years – we then took it back to John Lewis who said that the particular damage wasn’t covered under the guarantee but they gave us a 50% off a new one as goodwill.

So far £67 on school bags for nearly 4 years at high school – the replacement bag is still going strong it may last till he leaves.

New Mud Hugger and Crud catcher combo on the Rumble.

Kept most of the Delamere Mud off me on Sunday.

I’ve got the little extender flap on the front – without I reckon it would spray at ya a bit.

I found three bottles of Champagne the other day in the back of one of our Mercedes, that I guess I had bought and forgotten about.

Another vote for the E class Estate …

I have a 2006 E320 cdi – 3 litre diesel – had it from new. Do 20k per year in it – now at 180k. Had a recon turbo at 165k apart from that 2 ball joints and a brake pipe. Have serviced at an Indepedant rather than main dealer.

Regularly do 600 miles in a day in it. Takes my XL 29er in the back with the seats down and both wheels on. 35mpg all day long will do 40 odd if you go easy. It’s quick and handles and stops well.

With a full length roof box and tow bar mounted bike carrier its a massive load lugging family holiday road trip mobile.

If this one ever dies and its showing no signs of at the moment I’d get another. I reckon it should be good for about 400K miles before it becomes a tad worn feeling.