I have a Hope one, but I probably wouldn’t bother again. I’ve found the bearing life better than the SRAM plastic BBs, but not massively so, which is disappointing considering the bearings cost more than the entire SRAM BB and you need to pay for extra tools on top (I bought a cheaper tool from ebay – but still wasn’t free). I find changing a standard pressfit BB to be way faster and easier too, plus no worries about whether any given bikeshop will have the tool or not.

On refunds, I think it’s hard to say.

I decided to bite the bullet and send my outstanding returns back on Weds via next day courier. Arrived with Wiggle yesterday and was refunded at 10am this morning. How long that continues for is anyone’s guess.

I used to run 2.1 Maxxis Advantage and Crossmark on the back of mine on 717 (ie fairly narrow) rims.

I’d go for the Purgatory, everyone’s different, but I haven’t found a need for something stronger myself.

I just use them for normal trail use (and a few trips to Morzine) rather than racing Enduro and I’ve had no issues. Last one was a Gripton Grid from the sale.

@paulneenan76 I’m a Rushmere / Woburn local too and I think you’ll be happy with that. I run something similar:

Hardtail – Ground Control front, Fast Trak rear. Ran 2 Fast Traks over the summer which also worked pretty well.
FS – Butcher 2.3 up front and Slaughter or Purgatory on the back depending on weather.

We’re really pleased with our 2011 Vito Dualiner. We’ve got the mid-sized one, which is referred to as the ‘Long’ in MB parlance.

Pro points:
– Easily takes 4 people and 4 bikes (I’m confident you could get 5 people + bikes in)
– Lots of kit as standard – eg. cruise control, electric windows, blacked out windows
– Tailgate and dual-sliding doors are standard fit.
– Available with windows all round if you want to avoid the builders van look.
– Clever rear seat design which allows them to fold and roll forwards if you want to get them out the way.
– The Dualiner is nicely finished inside, including full headlining and plastic trim in the back. Compare and contrast with a VW combi van.
– A good choice of engines, especially if you want an auto like us. VW 180bhp bitdi engines have some pretty serious issues and we found the 140bhp not quick enough for our tastes. We have the 3.0 V6, which is definitely quick enough :), but the 163bhp version was nippy enough as well.

Minus:
– Rear wheel drive, so you’re potentially more likely to get it stuck in a field. That said we haven’t had a problem yet.

this is normal for every online shopping.

That’s only true for the chains which pick your shopping in stores — they’re generally limited by what they can ring through the till.

Ocado and Morrisons, which is mostly powered by Ocado, don’t have this problem because they fulfil orders from dedicated fulfilment centres. One of the benefits being that they’re able to honour the price you were quoted at checkout including the promotions which were active at the time (adjusted for substitutions and catchweight items).

Live and let live I say.

I would imagine there are one or two people out there who consider spending thousands to ride a bike in circles around the woods a strange use of money.

Depends why you want a smaller van, but some of these small vans aren’t actually that small. Eg a caddy maxi is obviously lower, but it’s actually about 10cm longer than a Vivaro!

If you’re after mellow and flowy, I’d take a look at the greens and blues around the Serrausaix lift towards Avoriaz. There’s also a new green starting near the cafe on the Col de Joux Vert which is worth a shot too.

But being a Ford, they don’t stay new for very long. I’d avoid.

I call shenanigans.

Likewise, I’m not sure what this is based on. I had a Focus for 7 years and 75k miles. For me it was a case of ‘just add fuel’. Great car and 100% reliable.

Which model of 2012 MacBook Pro is it? If it’s retina you’ll need a specific SSD, the crucial one won’t fit.

Brilliant – will look you up if we make it over!

cheers.

It’s winging its way to Mr Lister as we speak…

cheers everyone.

Currently have a 3-series and pondering what to get next too.

I qualify for employee discount on JLR vehicles, so an XE seems like it would be an obvious choice, so I took one for a test drive.

Pros:

– I thought the fundamentals of the driving experience felt great (steering, gearbox, engine). On par with my 3 series.

– I think there was a little less road-noise than the 3-series, possibly down to lack of run-flat tyres (which are a pro for the BMW in my view).

Negatives:

– Armrest on the door seems to be nowhere near my arm – for me this would be an issue on longer journeys. Carwow review also mentioned the same.
– Entertainment / sat-nav is a long way behind my 2015 3-series, let alone a 2018 one. Slow, no Carplay and touch-screen only.
– Niggling concerns about build quality / reliability. Compare and contrast a couple of BMW and JLR forums. Seems to be far more people talking about niggles with their cars which don’t get resolved and ‘rejecting’ new vehicles on the Jaguar side.

Would’ve been nice to support the ‘home team’, but stupid as it might sound, the armrest is a deal-breaker for me, as it will stop me being comfortable in the vehicle, but the tech is also a big factor in why I’ll probably rule out the XE. Shame really.

I’m tempted by the professional ones.

Seems like people stack them, do they bolt together or are they just held by their own weight?

We’re really pleased with our 2011 Vito Dualiner. We’ve got the mid-sized one, which is referred to as the ‘Long’ in MB parlance.

Pro points:
– Easily takes 4 people and 4 bikes (I’m confident you could get 5 people + bikes in)
– Lots of kit as standard – eg. cruise control, electric windows, blacked out windows
– Tailgate and dual-sliding doors are standard fit.
– Available with windows all round if you want to avoid the builders van look.
– Clever rear seat design which allows them to fold and roll forwards if you want to get them out the way.
– The Dualiner is nicely finished inside, including full headlining and plastic trim in the back. Compare and contrast with a VW combi van.
– Significantly cheaper than a VW
– A good choice of engines, especially if you want an auto like us. VW 180bhp bitdi engines have some pretty serious issues and we found the 140bhp not quick enough for our tastes. We have the 3.0 V6, which is definitely quick enough :), but the 163bhp version was nippy enough as well.

Minus:
– Rear wheel drive, so you’re potentially more likely to get it stuck in a field. That said we haven’t had a problem yet.

How are the bikes packed?

In short, it’s not easy if they’re in bulky bike bags. We’ve done this as a couple of times as a couple, 2 bikes in bike bags and some other luggage.

We rented SUVs and ended up with a Nissan Xterra once and a Ford Explorer another time, which are both 7 seaters. We got everything in with all the seats down, but I wouldn’t say there was masses of space left over. That said, I’m fussy about being able to see out the back/sides, if you’re not, then you might be able to get the bikes bags in vertically. Regardless, I’m pretty sure our bike bags were too long to fit in with the rear seats up.

It’s worth saying the bigger is not always better. Seeing that we had some bulky kit, the agent suggested a Tahoe, which is vast on the outside, but the rear row of seats didn’t fold flat, so it wasn’t any more usable. We stuck with the Explorer which was great for our purposes.

I’ve got a brand new Team Issue 26×2.20 XR4 which I’ll do for the same price and include the postage.

Let me know…

Parking is a nightmare in SF. Avoid it if you possibly can.

That said, if you do want to hang onto the car try this place: http://sfmotelcapri.com
Parking is included and on the premises (unlike a lot of parking in SF). I’ve stayed there before and it’s been fine.

Short answer: yes.

Totally agree on Soquel Demo Forest. You may want to check on the Norcal forum on MTBR to see what the state of the trails are though – they’ve had some serious floods recently. Last time I checked the road in was washed away in places and the trails were firmly closed by Calfire.

I’ve got a ’16 Stumpy 29 Expert which I absolutely love. Sounds like it would be a good match for the riding you’re describing too.

Ride the 650b and 29 if you can. I rode the 29 back to back with the 650b version, expecting to prefer the 650b, and was pretty surprised to find I preferred the 29 in every way.

I’m no expert on trains, but Google’s cars don’t require any infrastructure changes – they drive on regular roads surrounded by regular drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

Anyway, just my thought on the matter. I’m sure automation will happen one day, it’s just a question of when, and 38 years is a long time.

Might also be worth considering the long-term future of train drivers.

At 27, he’s got 38 years ahead of him before retirement….

Google driverless cars have already driven 1 million miles on public roads and they expect to release them as a product you can buy within the next 5 years.

Nothing’s definite when it comes to predicting the future, but I wouldn’t bet against the majority of trains being automated within the next 20 years and probably much sooner than that, given that automating a train seems like a much simpler proposition than a car (the DLR is already automated).

If he’s already having doubts, it’s probably not the best career to get into.

Marry her, spousal visa should allow you to work there. My other half might get a J1 visa soon so I might be going over on a J2.

It’s not as simple as that — the J1 is relatively unusual in that regard. Most of the common visas (e.g. H1B) will let your spouse enter the country, but won’t let them work. This page gives a very good over-view of the different types of visas and their various trade-offs: http://blog.sourcing.io/visa-guide

Are you planning to stay in the US long term? If so make sure you read the bit about ‘dual intent’ — getting the wrong type of visa could make getting a green card impossible. The J2, for example, isn’t dual intent, so you can’t file an application for a green card while you’re on it.

Pop down to Trailhead Cyclery in SJ and see if they can help you out. I used to go riding with the shop guys in the Demo Forest pretty regularly.

BTW the new Ford Escape is just a Ford Kuga with a different badge. so you could go down to your Ford dealership and take a look if you’re unsure.

I’d go the next size up personally.

We had a Nissan Xterra, which is a ‘standard’ a SUV, so should be a bit bigger. We found two bike bags plus luggage was pretty tight. If you’re not bothered about obscuring visibility out the back a smaller one would be ok.

Loco, out of curiosity, what’s up with the CTD Evo? Is it just the lack of compression damping people mention with the CTD FIT or is it something else?

The car was dropped off when I wasn’t around to check.

Anyway, as I mentioned yesterday – they agreed it didn’t sound right and fitted two matching tyres, so everything ended well as far as I’m concerned.

Gave them a ring this morning and they agreed it didn’t sound right, so they’ll be swapping one over. Happy days.

“What I don’t understand is why anyone with even a modicum of intelligence wouldn’t just call them and ask why they done this, and when were they going to make it a matching pair. Not post on an online forum…”

Er… because they’re shut? Mainly though, if they drag their feet when I call I want to know if it’s worth pushing. There’d have been no point hassling them over something which might not matter in the first place.

Thanks all – sounds like I should give them a ring in the morning.

As for price – they’re actually ok. Last time I got the tyres changed their initial quote was the cheapest I could find locally or online. Although not the very cheapest, they were pretty reasonable this time round too.

Thanks all – will give them a shot then.

I bought a new compact camera earlier in the year and spent a while deciding between the LX7 and the RX100. In the end I decided the only real downside to the RX100 was the cost.

One personal drawback to the LX7 was the added depth over the RX100, which makes it a fair bit less pocketable. The RX100 is just about small enough to comfortably fit in my jeans pocket, whereas the LX7 is about a cm deeper and wouldn’t be. I was after a camera to use when I didn’t want to lug my DSLR around, so this was a dealbreaker for me — the last thing I wanted was to have to put my ‘small’ camera in a bag too. The separate lens cap on the LX7 was also faff that I wanted to avoid.

I went with the RX100 and love it – no regrets. In fact it’s so good, I find I use my SLR quite a lot less now.

We did this in 2009 and drove from LA to SF.

We paid a lot less than molgrips mentioned above – it was well under £400 for a one way, 12 day rental, including LDW etc. This was from Hertz, but lots of rental companies use Mustangs as their standard convertible – they’re dirt cheap out there.

Try searching Expedia for convertible rental and check out what cars they offer. The caveat here is that most companies will rent you a Mustang or equivalent, so there’s no guarantee you’ll actually get the exact car of your choice.

Thanks all – sounds promising. We’d probably just get simple barn-style doors, so they’re pretty cheap. The only thing we need to check is that the slope of the drive (slopes down towards the house) doesn’t stop the doors opening.

Are you going to have a car while you’re out there? IMO all the best riding in the area is a little further away in the Santa Cruz area. Tamarancho is a little closer to the city and definitely worth a look – you can get maps/passes in Fairfax.

Oh yeah, and as my namesake says, don’t call it San Fran – I got that one beaten out of me 🙂

Try Cycle Surgery in Holborn or the new (huge) Evans on Mortimer St. You can get 10% off from that Evans if you print out the voucher from here:

http://www.evanscycles.com/uploads/File/west_end_online_discount.pdf

Mastiles – you're quite right about not being able to try things on, of course, and the guaranteed flexibility you get as a result is a nice bonus.

Like I said, I was curious — didn't know what I was actually entitled to. On the odd time I've wanted to take something back, I've always been offered a refund, but I've obviously just been lucky enough to have dealt with people willing to go the extra mile…