OP, Japanese company stuff – Someone mentionned Honda CR-V above, great cars with loads of space but a bit thirsty, I had a 52 reg one a while back paid £1200 ran for thousands of miles and sold for a tad more when it went, nothing went wrong.
Latest one used for a local runabout and by kids when they come home is a 96 Toyota Corolla, cost £200 off an old lady nearby who was giving up driving. Covered in dents and now with a growing interesting paint job but again drives great, really smooth and everything still works. It came with service history and a years MOT which is coming up again next month, hope it passes…

Everyone likes coffee

Must be the exception I hate the stuff

Big Bike Bash has been a great thing that came out of STW

Yes DIY job, changed one of ours a few weeks ago with one of these Fluidmasters for £12:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/fluidmaster-push-button-cable-dual-flush-valve/51173
Works much better and doesn’t leak and continuously try and fill itself as it did before.
Not 10 mins, more like 30 mins as bog is close coupled and had to take apart for the new doughnut and screw in bit.

Those Pendle slot in arm towbar bike racks are good, really stable, and just take arms off to store etc. Use on my (barn door) van occasionally when needed i.e. when full of other stuff/people inside that can’t get bikes in. Expensive new but come up on gumtree/ebay locally often for about £30 with the socket bracket. You can still use the towbar with these.
http://www.pendle-bike.co.uk/shopping/hang-on-tb-rack.php

Jumping with joy etc, eyesore now gone, cheers

When I bought my van from a main dealer last year they offered a better price if financed, which I then paid off completely a week later, the salesman actually suggested it, didn’t seem any problem doing this.

Pint to Pint race at http://www.bigbikebash.org.uk event

I’d replaced spokes and trued wheels for donkeys years and then via a cytech course learnt how to build completely. Love doing it and not had any issues on ones I’ve done. The books and links above are handy when starting off to learn lacing patterns, working out spoke length, tensions and dishing etc It does then obviously become easier with practice/experience so go for it, it’s rewarding and I find a good thing to tackle SAD on dark winter evenings.

+ 1 for Exal LX17 rims from Spa Cycles, only about £18, well made, been using with 28c tyres for ages.

Thanks for lead orangeboy – found one here https://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/components-c9/disc-brakes-c58/trek-fisher-01-new-intl-disc-mount-p12568

cheers!

well I thought mine was awesome at the time…

Seems to have a big leak of coolant or diesel already

A lot of the crusties aka new age travellers I knew back in the day had them in their buses, but they were usually parked up for ages (probably broken down), and probably too stoned to care about things like fumes and safety. I wouldn’t do it, if a good duvet and hot water bottle doesn’t do the job, as other say get a proper gas/diesel powered heater.

The cheque will bounce as there’s a spelling mistake on it….

Me too for many years. Toyota hiace for most, latterly T6 Kombi swb, wouldn’t/ couldn’t go back to car now, too handy for work/general use

That’s great, well done! Nice that Jeremy Corbyn attended too

Maybe sell to a beardy East London hipster for a fortune, keeping the authentic patina?

Another bike recycling project down south http://www.newforestbikeproject.org , take stuff there, you may think it’s clapped out but some bits might be handy still.

Last time this topic came up it had similar reactions both ways unsurprisingly. At the time I had a T5 2.5 van for work which had been changed from 130 to 174 power. The query I had was that VW made both variants already with the same engine, mine was changed from one to the other, it was regularly serviced and run on posh diesel to maintain efficiency, don’t drive like a nutter. The extra torque/grunt was handy for load lugging and mpg improved slightly too. Engine working less hard? Would emmissions be worse? Not sure. So it seemed a much better van to me overall but some views here did make me question whether it was the right thing to have had done and perhaps think of the bigger picture if the emmissions were in fact now worse (still don’t know).

Latterly replaced that T5 with a T6 work van which is in as supplied power (150) with start/stop bluemotion technology (?), will continue with regular pattern of servicing/posh diesel and style of driving. Basically will leave this one as is, seems fine.

Counselling (once trained/accredited of course)

I was one for a few years after doing various courses at Sparsholt and Newton Rigg, hard work in all weathers, money not great for the outlay and effort but didn’t have many responsibilities then. Young man’s game as others have said. But it did lead into rural estate management so still plenty of outside work but without the risk and better money as I got older, less fit and did have more responsibilities. Mind you a couple of my counterparts who trained when I did are still doing it 25 years later somehow, fair play to them, crosscutting and stacking logs for the fire is enough for me now.

Thanks, good to know

Someone recommended these new frames with carbon forks and fsa headset a couple of weeks ago, all for £100:
https://www.radialcycles.co.uk/bikes/framesets/revere-1-1-radial-alloy-frame.html
Seems pretty good value

Yep I have same settings, still get those that go silent/non payers though after winning

Ditto, interested on how to tighten up to weed out timewasters. I’ll have a look at that neg feedback for buyers, you could years ago but I thought you couldn’t anymore

^ you can’t leave neg feedback for a buyer, although you can add them to your blocked buyers list and report them for timewasting.

Definitely the beer, he’s still a nob. Always quickly try to mute every time I hear his whining. Each to their own tho’

Lings and Jarrows of outrageous fortune

As above what kerley said. One thing to watch these days is that ebay are much tougher about a seller giving contact details out on messages or listings before the auction end when you get prospective buyers who ask about seeing the item first or buy it now prices, I guess to try and stop deals outside of the site as they’ll get no fees. They’ll temporarily ban you if they spot a phone number or scrambled email in messages/listings as I found out, and make it permanent if caught again. Annoying as for an expensive thing like a car or some bikes, you’d want to see it first surely etc but I suppose it’s just about (lost) revenue for them.

Recently stayed at the Hotel the Bird via booking.com for a long weekend there, nice, central too for everything it has to offer. Had a great time doing all the usual touristy things. Only weird thing was seeing 2 dead bodies being carted off, one dragged out of a canal and one where someone had fallen out of high up window…

Ikea it is then, cheers

I do itt now, trying for a year and seeing how it goes for £120. Had two tenners so far 6 months in, so looks likely I’ll be down overall at this rate. That said, the community project I’m involved with has had quite a few grand in grants off it which really helped.

Update – managed to find a local highly recommended bloke who does valets/detailing etc on vehicles, was told he’s very fastidious and a bit OCD about it. He came today and confirmed it as a poor rush job by the dealer using ‘fillers’. Took a good days work to clean, polish and finish properly but now looks billiant. £200 lighter though. And it’s bound to pee down and get filthy tomorrow. Pics, excuse the reflections,

Harry Rowland down in Ramsgate is really good and @stevegeall good as well in Bournemouth, can post stuff. I did the Cytech wheel building course and really enjoyed it, do my own stuff now, but previously always used 2 above.

In the nineties and noughties I had various Honda trailies I used to buy for a few hundred quid, just seen one I had on eBay – http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1983-HONDA-XLV-750-R-Limited-Edition-Only-19-560-Miles-Ultra-Rare-Classic-/132346182535?hash=item1ed0727b87:g:zeIAAOSwwCtZz0P5
Can’t believe the price, my one of these (in great nick) cost £900…….

I had the same problem with an xt 10spd mech and a new sunrace 11-40 cassette, maybe the mech hangers are slightly different drop heights. I ended up getting one of those goatlink things for £20 which drops the mech down and back a bit more so clears the cassette now.

Thanks for tips, not much time for bike rides sadly unless evening

Were the Fat White Family still in there?

Cheese and piccalilli sarnies