More to give you an idea of what’s available really. Weight is going to be the issue with any tent on a bike and as ever less is more (money).
Marko

I know you can spend any money you want to on a tent. My original post asked if a £80 tent is any good. Recommending a £400 is kinda missing the point.

That Terra Nova tent is £400!!!!! 😯

That North Face one is £200. I ain’t got that sort of cash. Less than £100 really.

I don’t have a sleeping bag and mat either so it’s gonna be a big outlay even at the cheap end. I do like the look of those sleeping blankets, I can’t stand those mummy bags and I’m not a fan of the square ones either, too restrictive.

I’m not going mega lightweight or off-road, using a proper touring bike.

Marko – they are all a bit expensive on there. 🙁

Any more?

I’m 5’7″ so that should make things easier….
I’d like some space in it though.

I quite like the look of this one – are Vango any good nowadays? http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/vango-tempest-200-2-berth-tent-p139965

Like the idea of the porch at the front.

Update: The course my wife booked onto has been cancelled due to lack of take up. Arrrrgghh!!! Got to wait to at least April for another one. Also the woman who is in the business who helped her sell some work last year has moved away from Hudds so will be unable to help her any more.

1 step forwards and 2 steps back. 🙁

Why is it so damn difficult to penetrate this business????

It’s such a shame. Her work has other professionals really impressed but as my wife can’t use (and hasn’t got) the tech needed it seems like her skills are wasted. We can’t afford for her to go back to Uni but that seems like the only option.

£4k a year for a Picasso??? That’s proof the world it utterly bonkers nowadays.

Would it not be financially better to get a personal loan (or maybe a 0% CC – very long interest free periods available at the moment, I got one over 19 months IF) and buy a year or two old one, which you can sell later on??

Hora, I agree with a few things you say normally but you really need to shut up if you’ve never watched it. I’ve seen an episode and while its not something I watch normally, I found it genuinely heartwarming.

I think a lot of the programmes like this one have changed quite a lot recently. I do watch the obese ones occasionally. There was one on last week which was called “shut ins” or similar and the story of the 2 people on that was very good. Didn’t really say what they ate and how much, or even emphasised the weight they are too much. Instead they looked at their emotional state, the relationships with their partners, how it was affected their lives, how the partners were coping and helping them etc. Really interesting.

If I hadn’t been married and have a wife who I wanted to change for I would have been one of these obese people, maybe I can see it from a personal perspective which helps.

Ton – you work in Leeds, same as me yes? I was on the M62 this morning and the traffic was horrific. I was thinking that the wind and rain which were pretty bad made me happy I wasn’t on the bike – so kudos to you doing it!!

Every other car on the M62 in a morning seems to be one so I assume they must be ok. :rolls:
At least you won’t stand out.

DezB – Member
talented musicians playing well written music?

Ooh, wow. I’m sold!

I didn’t react to your post on the gig thread by taking the mick out of your liking of Young Fathers or Underworld. So please keep your snide comments to yourself please.

It’s being repeated a few times on Sky Arts 1 over the weekend.
There is the On Every Street concert on too, as well as a few other docs about Mark Knopfler.

Loads of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler stuff on over this weekend and next week. Sweeeeeeeeet.

For years I have kept my expensive Sony VCR as I spent ages trying to find Alchemy Live on tape and finally getting it in ebay.
I’ve been bought it on Blu-Ray since.

I literally wore out my dads copy of the double tape he had, I am pretty sure if I could keep one album as my desert island disc it would be that one. I know every word and note!

I kinda like it I suppose. 🙂

Do you expect your new house to be built properly? Ha ha ha!! Even less so the fence which will have been erected in minutes using the cheapest possible materials.

If you have a lower fence it won’t blow down as easily.

This is also on my 2015 to do list.
Is there anyway (or point) of missing the bridleway looking parts?

It’s doable on a road bike if you miss the off road parts. The Sustrans map of the route I have gives an alternative route.

I’ve been bought for Xmas the whole Los Las Cymru route, plus 3 route maps which will take me 260 miles from Huddersfield to London!!

Remember to buy the Sustrans map to follow the route. It isn’t essential but it’s really good and you are giving money to the people who worked hard to provide you with a nice way marked route and better access.

I think the maps are really good and have just the right amount of detail, with enough coverage to go off the official route if you fancy a detour.

Same as a late 80’s Cannondale Beast of the East then??

Nothing new round here….

imnotverygood – Member
I did it a couple of years ago & I really enjoyed it. I have done the C2C, Hadrians Wall & the W2W (bit of a coast to coast junkie). IMO the WOTR is the best of the lot.

That’s good to know!! Really looking forward to it now. I did the C2C in 2 days, doing Hartside at the end of the first day nearly finished me off!

A friend of mine at work did it and really enjoyed it. He said it was pretty easy to follow and goes through great scenery. We both live in Yorkshire so know the area well but he said it went down some routes which he would never have found otherwise.
It’s not hilly for Yorkshire. I did the traditional C2C earlier last year, Workington to Tynemouth and that was very hilly in places!

He said the tyres and bike he had were perfect – boardman CX bike (designed for commuting really!) with its original CX tyres on.

The accomodation is plentiful if doing it in 3 days, it’d be a long 2 days in the safdle. Most people do it in 3 days and it’s nice that way.

I am planning on doing it this year too.

I like making my own stuff but I’m not highly skilled in woodworking. I find that if you put thought into making the joints as simple as possible without needing complex woodworking skills it’ll be easier. Why not look at using a different construction method? Scaffolding perhaps?

Don’t scrimp on materials, quality stuff will make the build easier.

I just adapted our double bed, which had rock hard solid slats on it, with the sprung Ikea slats – buy some of those first and base your design around them and a standard mattress. You could also get a chunky wooden bed (not bunk) cheap second hand that needs doing up – change the legs for longer ones to raise it up, sand and paint etc. By doing that you already have all the fixings and a proven solid construction method which you are simply customising.

Type in ikea hack into Google – it’s really satisfying changing some existing furniture into something unique.

Decent ad – I may have removed some of the kids stuff out for the photos (and the wet towel on the radiator! 😉 ) as I can’t see from the pics what I’d use the patio door room for but generally the pics look good – I’d certainly go and have a look if it came up in my searches. One thing that did jump out at me was that the kitchen looks like a cheap one for a £280k house but that wouldn’t stop a viewing.

If that is top price for a house like that in the area then that may be an issue – why visit when there are cheaper in the area?

This is the reason I’m going with House Network to sell my house. Traditional high street estate agents simply do not deserve the money they charge, the sooner as the whole business goes online the better. You’re basically paying their high street rents with most of your fee – who goes round the estate agents nowadays looking for houses?

I went to two recently to enquire about selling my house with them. First one didn’t do viewings outside 9-5 office hours. We both work so couldn’t do that, they were completely unwilling to even stretch this to even 5.30pm. Second one I went to admitted that the listings on the internet showed more info than they have in the showrooms.

I am staying with 26″ and I haven’t seen many bargains around, looking at wheels and forks in particular. Things aren’t selling as people want too much for their stuff!

I have an X-Lite Metal Matrix seatpost (very expensive BITD but I got my 27.2mm one cheap from Winstanleys for £25). Best purchase I’ve made for my road bike, just takes a bit of road buzz out and makes for a more comfortable ride on the bike over a long day out. Silly light too!

I’d pay £125 for a Ti post if it made the same difference.

Conversely Virgin have always been great with me, answered phones quickly, service has been great. I have their fibre BB at 50mb and its rock solid. Tivo has been great and when our box went kaput they came out and fixed it next day on a bank holiday.
I’ve redently negotiated a new 12 months contract which was cheaper and I get more. Win!

New one hands down…..

My dad is an engineer and when I was in my teens he got me some Allen keys from his work in the bike sizes I needed.

That was 25 years ago. I still use those Allen keys (the ones I have left anyway, lost some!), they have outlasted every single other one I’ve had since, as ive had the temptation to buy fancy new sets.

I think he said they would have been about £6 each at the time.

If I ever buy any more I won’t buy any cheap ones, they are a waste of money. The Silverline ones are cheap.

I used to work in a big DIY chain. A story one colleague told me from another store showed what people can be like. An elderly man had slipped near the tills and gashed his head open on a shelf. He was out cold and there was blood everywhere – serious situation. As you can imagine all the staff went to his aid, two people attending to him and others trying to stop people coming near, phoning ambulance. After a short while a woman who wanted to pay started mouthing off that she wasn’t being served. Apparantely one member of staff (probably a manager) promptly took her goods and told her to get out of the store and never come back!

They’ve all got a lot brighter for 2015, so the Race is probably adequate for your needs. The top ones also all have “Reflex technology” so they get brighter/dimmer as you go faster/slower.

It’s £120 cheaper than the Maxx D, although it’s ‘only’ 1200 lumens vs 2400 for the Maxx D

The Race seems like a good option – my chinese “1200 lumen” light was plenty enough for me and I assume the Exposure rating of 1200 is probably a little more honest and also I bet the beam pattern is miles better too!

Seems you can get the new version for around £200 too.

SSS – emailed you.

As part of my work I go to a specialist breakers yard, they specialize in Japanese performance cars, especially S2000 – they had over 30 when I went in last time!
The guy running the place said the mechanicals are bullet proof and a lot of engines are pulled to use in other cars, especially older Brit sports cars. He also said the vast majority of the breakers come in with serious rear quarter damage as novice drivers put their foot down round a corner and don’t realise how much power they actually have, back end comes away which they aren’t used to in this FWD biased world hence quickly backwards into a hard object.

He did say to go for an earlier one with a mechanical throttle cable rather than the later fly by wire ones – he was very insistent on that point.

Sometimes a small off can have a big effect – a well (or badly depending on your view point) placed rock can wreck a frame. Friend of mine did similar damage to a 456 carbon when the bike was just dropped, but onto something sharp and hard.

There are a lot of the Konas of that time that are still around and ridden – not particularly light but well made, tough and handle well. As they tend to have the Marzocchis on that last well too they are a great 2nd hand but I reckon.

I still ride my 1994 Kona and its still my favourite bike.

I like the bike. Looks like it has been loved and ridden for a few years. Nice to see.

Pedals are a bit loud, but who cares? Have fun with them!

If there’s a boggy section I ride through it. Are you riding a road bike or something?

I’m not selfish, I’m the opposite. I care about all the users of the trail. What is a nice jump for one person is a death trap to another rider.