My Sonos works when I take it to France and connect it via France Telecom Orange wifi. I can get all the BBC radio stations on it just fine.

I’ve got some of these: http://www.corgihosiery.co.uk/shop/socks-men/80-4519-lightweight-cotton-socks/

but check out the other groovy socks[/url] they do.

Size XL in these is the way to go.

Thanks for the replies. Think I’m going to start with a beefed up wheel set because I reckon I need that anyway. Then check out the luggage options for my Xmas list … here’s hoping!

I’m 6′ 3″ with 35″ inside leg on a 58cm. Would normally have gone for a 60cm but the 58 feels plenty big enough.

Might be able to help you here .. I’ve got a Brosley Serrano 7 Multi Fuel stove 7Kw about to go on Ebay – Hardly used more less as new, in Cheshire. According to Defra its on their list as approved. Shout if you want some pictures – email in profile.

Paul – that’s exactly what I’m doing. All the money I would have spent on fags is going into a savings account labelled ‘new bike fund’ at the end of the week. I was smoking about 15 a day, so that’s about £40 a week

Do it !! It’s like having a free new bike every year or so. It’s so easy to justify nice toys when the money is essentially free… proper man maths that!

It helps to incentivise … and use man maths.

I was on about 5 packs of 20 a week. I gave up 16 years ago and in that time my hobby / toy fund has bought the following:

Five new motorbikes:
Honda XR650r
Honda XR400r
BMW G650 Dakar
BMW G650 Xchallenge
Husqvarna FE 450

Then moved on to bikes;
Specialized Rockhopper
Specialized Carve
Trek Rumblefish Pro
GT Grade 105 Carbon

OK I’ve traded previous bikes in or sold them on to part fund the next one but I’ve also bought loads of kit, insurances, servicing, dirt bike holidays – and a trip to LaMolina this year on the MTB. Still got the Grade & Rumble.

My hobby / toy fund budget is broadly about what I would have spent on smoking – over the past 16 years that would have been £23000.

Historic fag prices here[/url]:

Tax alone on the fags would have been £17700!!

And of course your hobby / toy budget is index linked so it goes up each in line with the cost of fags!

Next year my budget is £2200.

Its not a perfect calculation but it works for me!

Charente Maritime area of Western France – around La Rochelle – generally warmer than anywhere apart from the south of France great beaches, flat rolling countryside.

Agence de voyage à Poitier

About 300 miles from the ferry at Caen or 225 from St Malo.

Loads of campsites and holiday homes
http://www.homeaway.co.uk/lettings/france/charente-maritime/r180

Here a list from the 11 plus guide[/url]

My family and other animals?

Have either of the other Gt Grade owners had issues with the stock rims?

Yep – spoke pinged bust on the road the other night. Rear wheel not true now .. had to walk home.
GT Grade 105 Carbon

We rent out a house in France using Owners Direct. We’ve probably done 100 or so rental periods over the last 8 years.

Only about 1 in 10 bookings ever thinks to call us and do some sort of background check on us.

It always surprises me that people happily pay up without checking us out first.

You can do some Internet digging on the owners if you have their email address/Facebook/twitter etc. If we have potential renters who want some assurances that we are legit I always tell them that they can contact our accountants or solictors for a reference.

At the very least you should phone the owners and ask them some questions about the house and the area – that will give you a good idea as to whether they are genuine or not.

There have been a few tales in the press this year about fake property ads on sites like OD.

hth

Posted this just in another thread –

Grade 105 Carbon 58cm – 6’4″ with 35in inside leg – I nearly dismissed the Grade as i assumed I’d need a 60cm XXL which they weren’t importing. I paid a refundable £50 deposit to Evans to get a 58 cm to try and it turned out to be just right – had to put a shorter stem on it though.

The only other non MTB that I’ve owned in the last 10 years was a Specialised Sirrus hybrid which was a 61cm – the Grade 58cm feels a bigger bike. I’m generally on 21inch MTB.

Tyres –
Running 35’s Kenda Happy Mediums – no complaints but nothing really to compare them to. I don’t think I’d get anything wider on it – I’ll post a picture later,

6’4″ with 35in inside leg – I nearly dismissed the Grade as i assumed I’d need a 60cm which they weren’t importing. I paid a refundable £50 deposit to Evans to get a 58 cm to try and it turned out to be just right – had to put a shorter stem on it though.

The only other non MTB that I’ve owned in the last 10 years was a Specialised Sirrus hybrid which was a 61cm – the Grade 58cm feels a bigger bike. I’m generally on 21inch MTB.

I’m still driving my LHD motor I bough back from Spain in 2007. Being LHD has never been a hassle in the UK and it was easy to register at the DVLA. I think you have to deregister it at your local Traffico in Spain though.

Otherwise try sites like mobile.de to sell it – or just Ebay it but you’ll need someone with the right Spanish paperwork – NIE number etc to sell it to if it’s still on Spanish plates.

Personally I’d stick it on UK plates and see how you get on with it. If you find it a hassle I reckon there’d be a good market for the Eastern Euro folks living in the UK or people wanting to take it to France where s/hand cars cost much more than in the UK.

You will need the EU cert of conformity to register it in the UK. An Opel dealer should be able to get this for you if you don’t have it.

I’m at the in-laws in the Charente, France. Fortunately I managed to bring the Rumblefish and so tomorrow I’m entering this – ”le Gros Roc”.

50km of slippery wet forest and farm tracks I reckon. Should be fun!

You need one of these – they are far more serious.

We are in France every couple of months so worst case scenario ain’t too bad if if it needs to go back the dealer.

Also means I’ve got a bike I can do some serious miles on when visiting the inlaws……..

I think I’m after one of these – I have tracked down the Diverge Comp Carbon to France – the model between the UK offerings.

http://www.specialized.com/fr/fr/bikes/road/diverge/diverge-comp-carbon

With the current exchange rate they are the same price as the Alloy Smartweld – it seems all Spec bikes are about 25% cheaper in France at the moment.

In fact any bike price in Euros here : http://www.veloderoute.com/gammes2015

Quite handy as:

a) I have a significant birthday coming up and therefore ‘need’ a significant present … and
b) my in-laws live in France so no problem ordering one!

Not sure what the lead time on them is though so off to email the Specialised dealer in LaRochelle in my rusty French.

Mobile.de mostly from Germany but you can select by country,

The River Cottage bread book sourdough receipe got me hooked. It’s a faff, and you have to be organised timewise but I generally ‘work’ from home so I fit it around my day. A decent mixer is worth having to take the grind away form kneading the dough.

Yeah it seems like it costs more per loaf – I’m reckoning about £1.20 a for a big loaf but I only use organic flours. But … if you were to go and buy a proper organic sourdough loaf it’s about £3 a pop.

If I didn’t have the time I’d get a bread machine.

2006 E320 Cdi Mercedes Estate – 3 litre V6 Diesel -167,000 miles on clock owned from new,

33.5mpg – average MPG to date according to the car computer
45 mpg – in “holiday take it easy” mode, 65 – 70 mph on empty French / Spanish motorways
39mpg – 100 miles up the M6 yesterday with a few roadworks at about the speed limit.
30 mpg – on the school run – 5 miles each way on country roads.
20 mpg – fully laden 4 passengers, trailer with 4 motorbikes crossing the Pyrenees.

Bikes on the towbar rack knock about 3 mpg off.
Bikes on the roof knock about 7mpg off

I generally bank on it doing 32 – 36 mpg when I’m do rough calculations of of much a trip might cost.

Banco de Sabadell – they have an English speaking department. Should be able to help.

https://www.bancsabadell.com/cs/Satellite/SabAtl/Welcome/1191360138231/en/

Worked fine for us when we were living down in Barcelona.

Northern Soul on the Edge – every couple of months in Alderley Edge at the Festival Hall.

Might be worth a post on alderleyedge.com – its quite a well read local forum.

Hope you find him.

Ours gets used every other day for bread making duties, it struggles a bit so I don’t think they are as strong as they appear to be. You can get all the parts cheap and there are plenty of how-to-fix videos on YouTube. I’ve replaced the gears, circuit board and switches in ours over the last 15 years, so you can keep them running.

I’ve got one – Quality piece of kit – carries my XL 29er no probs. Well made and easy to hook on and off the car. Tested mine with three bikes at the speed limit (80mph) on the way down through France – steady as rock.

21″ XL on a Trek Rumblefish. At 6’4″ & 35″ inside leg it fits like a glove with a 70mm stem but looks a bit ungainly from some angles me thinks.

I use the cheapest Hozelock ones (like this) .

I used two of them last summer to water the tomatoes while I was away for a month – worked just fine. Good crop when i got back.

6’4″ with 36″ leg on 21″ (XL) Trek Rumblefish 29er.

Looks pretty big but feels just right to ride with a 70mm stem rather than the 90mm standard.

The XXL – 23″ Rumble is a monster. I reckon you’d need to be around 6’7″ to ride that.

You want one of these …serious bits of kit.

Signed up as an outsider as the PDNP is also my playground. Happy to write strongly worded letters and do general lobbying or protesting!

Might be worth keeping your eye out for one of these if you have room – http://www.secure-a-bike.com.

They come up second hand on Ebay on a regular basis – I paid £500 for mine as a temp solution while I was having a a garage built. They are insurance approved for motorbikes and are a proper piece of kit. You’d need some serious tools to break into one.

Mine now lives inside the new garage with the expensive stuff inside it.

Everything you need to know can be found here ….

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?373-F650GS-Dakar-and-G650GS-Sertao-singles

I had the F650GS Dakar a few years back – great bike and surprisingly good off road too. 60 – 70 mpg irc and nothing every went wrong with it.

Pretty much bang on 31lbs – Rumblefish Pro 21″ in ‘as it came out the shop spec’ plus DMVR Vaults.

Thanks Harry – Delamere struck me as soon as I posted. I haven’t ridden there before and my understanding is the trails aren’t marked – will that be a massive problem do you think?

I was out there yesterday for a quick blat around – just follow the main tracks and dive off down any interesting little paths especially if those with tyre tracks. Its a great place for a mess about but it takes a while to learn how to stitch a decent length route. Worth going to the top of the hill – Old Pike – up by the TV mast for the view. And of course its got the bike skills area right over the back of the forest – ask in the shop and they will direct you.

You can’t get that lost coz its not that big an area – you are only ever a couple of miles from the bike hire shop.

Update … Evoc bike bag on Ryanair = no problem as long as under 30kg. I was at 29.5kg with my riding kit, tools and a 21″ Trek Rumblefish in the bag.

Evoc bike bag in back of rental Ford Fiesta with one rear seat passenger – tight but will go in… eventually.

Worked out very well as I got to the in-laws to find that their village was hosting a 77km VTT (Vélo tout terrain) MTB cross country event the following day. Despite being a bit rubbish at French I entered, and now have knowledge of loads of tracks and trails in the area.

I’m actually looking forward to going to the in-laws next time!

Nice work nickjb. The evoc actually tapers at one end so I’m sure it would work.

I’ill take a print of these posts with me with so I can argue my case if need be :-)

Cheers for all the replies – I’m gonna go for it and plead for mercy if they try to hustle me!

Off to the in-laws for the week and the bike if for sanity so its worth it.

Seriously, I see quite a lot of people like this, and think that if I asked them “Are you on STW”, i’d be genuinely surprised if they were not.

I’m on another forum for BMW riders. Forum members go by the name of “tossers” – so it easy for us to identify other forum members. You just up to a likely looking BMW rider and ask them if they are a tosser.

What could possibly go wrong……