Wow! Thank you all – at least now I certainly feel more comfortable with my own decisions and cynicism. I wonder how it will all pan out?
(I’ve set a calendar reminder for a year’s time to re-read this post).

Thank you for all your replies – interesting reading and good to hear I’m not the only one.

At first sight I’d seem to be an ideal EV candidate – c.18,000 miles per year household split between two cars, living 20 miles from the nearest motorways, working 80% from home and have offroad parking to make charging setup straight forward.
We could sell our ageing diesel, replace with a small-ish EV. Keep the newer, large diesel for long journeys, large loads etc and use the EV by default for most journeys day-to-day.

The most either me or my wife have spent on a car has been ~£17,000 for a 3-year old large premium brand diesel car that we expected to last us at least 8 years.
But EV entry seems to be ~£30,000 either as a new / very nearly new small car or equivalent for leasing approach. And the obsolescence on those feels like a lot less than 8 years at the moment.
After a couple of test drives, a lot of soul-seaching and maths, I grudgingly convinced myself that a work lease scheme was worth doing, only to find that the only cars with a lead time of less than 6 months was Peugeot’s e-208 and e-2008. Might yet go for one of those but for now I’m going to try to eek another year out of my older car – buy it the pair of new tyres it’s going to need, perhaps some brake pads etc.

Thanks for all the suggestions, Plasfloor looking most likely for me. Just need to clear some space out of the garage first!

Anyone got any particular brand recommendations for floor tiles?

Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll follow up.

“Mini” pedals sound like they are for children’s shoe sizes.
Ladies – any suggestions perhaps?

Yes, expect both wheel and fork to need replacing around the same time. Not in the market for a whole new bike and wondered whether the combo might work well for my stature in a 69-er ‘lite’ kind of way whilst also saving me from investing in old 26″ technology.

Thanks all for your suggestions – if I can get a 2012 or 2013 CAAD 10 when my voucher comes through that would work well. I’d probably try the wheels through the winter, if they let the bike down I could transfer them to my crumby old to-be-commuter bike because they are still probably better than the ones there and buy new ones next summer.

Combined weight of him and bike is 71kg!

With his bike, I’d be 65kg :P

Bike4Work will free-up said old bike for commuting I.e. the scheme values still apply. The commute is quite hilly at my end so would need to compare both bikes once bought but primary aim is to get something better for local hills.

Ah, the old man-up response!
For the past 9 years I’ve been running 52/39 with 13/26 cassette on a heavy xenon-spec road bike I think I was sold a dud at the time. Nevertheless, there are 7 exits from my valley – one is downhill, the other six have me out of the saddle and always have done (all single or double-chevroned on OS maps) so I have accepted my limitations and would like to embrace a more professional higher cadence approach even if that does sink me into compacts or even triples (would the brown paper bag over my head impede my breathing much?!)

Going off this size chart it might be a little small for you.
If you have a pump track nearby, got kids or are just thick skinned enough to take the ridicule then definitely buy one, they’re great fun.

Bump.
(Now that young children are asleep, spouses are stuck into Strictly and the bike-obsessed has-beens / never-wases like me who wear body armour as a skills compensator are trawling Singletrack for escapism…)

A few points:
1. I was worried that the instability of a seatpost mount (compared to a rack mount) would forever annoy me but in practice it I haven’t found it a problem at all on a wide-barred mountain bike. In fact it is considerably more stable with a fidgety 5-year old than my wife’s bike with a 2-year old in a rack-mounted bike seat.
2. An old spare seatpost and saddle fixed permanently to the tagalong saves faffing when linking up to a regular bike.
3. They are just a great safe way of teaching gear shifting (where fitted) and road sense because it is so easy to maintain a running conversation with your child whilst riding.

Consider going to your GP and getting it properly dressed by a nurse. If it’s a decent gash they will do a really good job with special dressings that are designed to stay on for several days.

Thanks all.
Turning out to be an expensive wheel replacement!

Yes.
39 with 4 and 2 year old. All three of us enjoyed the local pump track on Sunday.

Obvious but you need to work out your snake-bite threshold for your tyres – body weight, riding style etc by actually puncturing a few times. Then decide on the day how lucky you are feeling…
For me, on my local riding I run 20psi front, 22 psi back – 2.4 tyres, 57kg rider, baby-head rocky terrain. That seems to leave me with around a 1-in-10 chance of a puncture on lines that I know well.

Okay, points taken but is anyone reading this running Smartphone + Bluetooth Cadence Meter + HRM for an objective view?

Cool, I’ve got a decent one. Thanks.

Hopefully final question, will a cassette lockring tool fit a Centre Lock rotor lockring as well? I think so but remarkably hard to find a high confidence definitive answer through Google!

Thanks all.
IainC – I have followed up.

Thanks.

Anyone?

Some advice for Kyle Strait newbies – fasten the bottom Velcro but don’t fasten the top Velcro. They will stay in place but rub far less. I find third consecutive day riding and the rubbing becomes unpleasant but for one day or weekend riding, no problems.
I have worn mine on ever ride since a crash three years ago and they are getting very tatty now!
For anyone ordering and not so handy with a tape measure, just decide whether your calves are S, M or L – that is the crucial dimension.

Since you say 140-150 is what you would normally feel as fairly arduous, your high HR road ride may have been just a glitch. This DC Rainmaker article describes.

Also though some people do just run much higher heart rates – my wife for one and one of my riding friends another. Both tend to be around 30bpm higher than me for similar levels of exertion.

I’ve had that recently too – start by giving pads and discs a good clean before replacing parts.

Thanks all – that gives me plenty to go on.

eukhost are a UK-based company that I have used in the past and that I would happily recommend. The link here is my affiliate link so if you did opt for one of their packages, I potentially earn a nominal commission.

I have a Buzzrack Quattro which is a great rack though I do need to let a little air out of each 2.4 tyre.

There’s a small version at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for anyone who fancies sneaking a go!

Isn’t “Macclesfield Cycles” the name of the very dour roadie shop on Chester Road?

Thanks for the suggestions. The AM41s sound a good option that I hadn’t previously considered despite a couple of friends riding the equivalent SPD shoes.

The sole on the AM41s is getting referred to as the “R sole” (nice name!) on the shop websites but it appears to be Vibram’s Freeride sole using their Idrogrip rubber.

No such thing as a “boring” bike build question!

From Cove’s website:

For those who aren’t afraid of the nasty, we introduce Sanchez, our dirt jump/street weapon

So nothing wrong with a bit of weight for dirt jumping or street riding.

wwaswas – that Roofbox site has lots of choice and that one of yours is definitely a contender – thanks!

From a bit of forum stalking I see that the OP has gone for a roof mount instead!

Does anyone here have a Halfords Advanced Foldable 4 Bike Tow Bar Cycle Carrier? It is similar to the “Halfords 4 Bike Tow Bar Cycle Carrier” mentioned above but it can tilt to allow boot access. However, it has a few negative reviews on the Halfords site so I would be interested to hear from anyone with first-hand experience of using it.

To the OP – what combination did you decide upon? I also have a Passat and need the tow bar fitting too.

I am considering Halfords 4 Bike Tow Bar Cycle Carrier – would anyone recommend anything different in a similar price range?
What about security? Is there anything I should ask for when getting the towbar installed? Are there any good strongly lockable racks around £200 etc?

petrieboy – that’s the swan analogy!

Thanks all.

Internal routing
Even with Powerlines or wireless you still need to run a length of cable from the master socket to the router. If you have nice set up this might just be a few inches but you still need a power socket near enough to the master plug. I’ll look into whether I could buy an extension cable for the thin router power cable.

External routing
The house had this before but the cable had deteriorated over time. Because the house is old and has had several stages of extension, the ideal location would still require drilling right through two thick external walls to position it – a bit more of a job than I’d like.

I’ll see what I can do with the indoor wireless options but I’m still limited by those external walls for impairing the signal. Oh, and it needs to be small child proof – why do they like tugging at cables so much???

Bigger one & a shim ?

That’s a good idea – I’ll investigate / experiment.