Loved Invasion 2000 and always thought it was only a matter of time before the Russians Volgans invaded us 😯

Got a sat nav in my 2013 focus (for sale in the classifieds :D) and my new car will have one as well.

Just works well. No trailing wires or remembering to download maps.

Gets traffic updates and is well integrated.

Just press the ‘home’ button and you’re away when coming home.

‘Map’ button just brings up the local map straight away.

Car also displays the speed limit from the sat nav data all the time.

Don’t want to mess around with a phone. I just keep my phone in my pocket and never take it out when driving.

Years ago I was hit by a car, but it was a low speed tumble and the only damage was a buckled back wheel and a cut on my shin.

Phoned up the driver to give them my quote of £150 for new wheel and the driver’s dad says jog on. They had their chance.

Got British Cycling involved and a year later received over £1000 and the driver was in trouble for not reporting it to their insurance company.

Good shout for BT it turns out.
Got a BT8600 twin pack for £50 from Amazon and very impressed.

As mentioned above, Call Guardian has many options and I chose to direct “with held or unavailable numbers” direct to answer phone. Phone does announce the call but we don’t jump up to answer it.

An important call like a hospital will leave a real message.

Funny thing is we have been plagued by 2 or 3 calls a day for the last few months. But, after a couple of days they have stopped completely now 😀

Planet X sent me a pedal once. I assumed that pedals came in pairs but there was only one in the box. They gave me a refund and told me I could keep it.
Still got a time atac xc6 pedal. Think it’s a left 🙂

I have a Focus 1.6 Ecoboost Titanium X Estate and it has been a really good car. Getting a Focus ST estate next month, so it needs to go before the end of Feb.

180 bhp Turbo Petrol
Part Leather seats
Heated front seats
Sat Nav
Reversing Camera
Front and Rear parking sensors
Auto Parallel Park
Dual climate
Heated windscreen
Xenon Headlights
LED daylight running lights
DAB radio
Bluetooth
Blue metallic
Michelin Cross Climate tyres all round

Easily does 40+ mpg and you can fit a towbar 😉

Excellent condition, only 30,000 miles and will be 4 years old in March. 2013 plate. Looking for £8900

My new car will be arriving at the dealers this week, but they are going to keep it until March 1st, so I can get a 17 plate. Thinking of a few years down the line, as I think it might be worth a little bit more. Anyway, have been waiting since August 😯 so 3 more weeks won’t matter!

I don’t get the Oak Island thing?

Curse of Oak Island is actually on the History channel 😳

Oh no! How will I ever find out what is buried on Oak Island? 🙂
Fast ‘n’ Loud
Wheeler Dealers

Have been with TPS for years and double checked yesterday.
Looking into it, I don’t think the BT ones will work with Sky.

I think the phone still allows a caller to record a message which would allow proper callers to get their message across. The phone just doesn’t ring.

we put them onto the distributor’s warranty department. Customer got a new bike…
Good suggestion.

They should be willing to help educate the insurer, if there’s a strong likelihood of a sale out of it.

I agree that is a good idea. They keep asking for details of the warranty so Specialized can explain it to them.

New frame is £1800 if I can get one. They were selling them off in the Summer for £1200 but they missed the boat on that one.

Right lots of good info here, especially about carbon repair and to think about.

I had an accident a few years ago and British Cycling (I am a member) were not very good and tried to give up but I managed to get a payout in the end with not much help from them.

Cycling UK and BC just use a legal company. Think it’s Slater and Gordon and Leigh Day.

This time, I chose a cycling solicitor that seems to be on ball for the personal injury, but seems a bit slow on the cycle side.

I agree with some of the posts above that the insurance companies has woken up to the fact that a many thousand pound carbon bike could be repaired and save them a fortune. I guess the carbon bike repair companies have been promoting themselves this way. Catching up with car repairs I suppose.

Across the road from where I work is a huge motorbike insurance repair place and apparently they are quick to write off high performance bikes due to cosmetic damage and potential structural problems. Sounds just like my bike!

So, I have got legal representation, but it does seem that they don’t want to pay out until the whole lot is settled.

I have had some money in advance but that went on travel expenses, new cycling kit etc. Even if my frame is repaired I will still need £500 to fix the rest of the bike.

The insurance company name starts with AG 😕

Thanks for the replies. Pretty much agreed, I deserve a new frame 😀

I have a solicitor, and he has have been pretty good at everything apart from the bike.

Maybe I will end up with a repaired frame to get me riding, and then try and negotiate some kind of compensation on top.

OK, not the end of the world but a nice wheelset is one of the first and best upgrades you can make. If you change the dropout it’s a shame you can’t use the supplied wheelset as a spare.

I just bought the galibier barrier IIIs last week and my first ride was Thursday 😯 when it was -1 and heavy snow down South. For most of the ride they were great, but the last 10 minutes were really bad and my hands really suffered. I don’t think it was a fair test. They are nicely made gloves and I think they would be a lot more expensive with a fancy brand name.

I have a Diverge Smartweld and although it’s a pretty good bike, the SCS issue is a real downer.

The stock wheels are Axis 3.0 SCS with a through axle on the front and QR on the back.

There are no wheels in the world that will fit my bike 😈 .The axis ones that Specialized sell, have through axle on the back. Even the Hope ones look to be TA only.

I would like a nicer pair of wheels for the summer and a cheap pair for winter. I will have to buy a non-SCS dropout and buy a normal set of disk wheels, maybe Hunt or Hope 20Five. I cannot use the SCS wheels now, so have to sell them on ebay. I will then have to buy a cheap pair of normal wheels.

Can’t imagine what would happen if I broke the current SCS pair.

https://appuals.com/ethernet-doesnt-have-a-valid-ip-configuration/

First item on list, turn off fast startup

I had same problem and found a quick fix on Google. Had to change power up settings to don’t do fast load or something. Think it was trying to use preloaded settings that were now invalid.

WELCOME10 gives £10 off all phones but KENSMOTO only works on the G4Play 😕

Become a teacher and then work and school are the same 🙂

They’re very good looking, but are they still incredibly thirsty?

The MK2 had a 5 cylinder 2.5 litre and the new one is a 2.0 litre ecoboost turbo.

My current focus has the 1.6 ecoboost and I get low 40’s mpg. Looking on the ST forum, hopefully I will get mid to late 30’s.

I drive about 8000 miles a year and ride my bike to work 3 days a week so I don’t feel too bad. 😐

I ordered the car in August and was told it was going to arrive at end of November. Now been told it’s going to be March 🙁

My problem with leasing is I hate having a deadline. 24 months into the lease and they want their car back now. I have to source another one now, otherwise the family can’t get around. You have to work with the deals that are available at the time as well. Stress.

I bought my car new (with big discount through Drive the Deal) on finance, paid it off early and kept the deposit contribution.

Car is mine and I can change it when I like. Have a new Focus ST on order and it’s taking a while but I don’t have to sweat because no one is banging on the door to take my current one away.

Looking on leasing websites there are lots of good deals on random cars but when you choose the car you want, it ends up quite pricey.

If you just choose whatever car or make is on special offer then that’s fine. Can’t imagine STW readers buying a random bike in the same way!

My MK3 (2013) focus estate has a nice wide and flat opening with no lip.
You can fold the back seats forward and they slope but you also lift the seat bases up and then the backs fold pretty flat.
Had 4 sheets of 1.8m by 0.9m plasterboard and they fitted in nicely:-)

My FS 29er fits in without taking the wheels off but my previous Octavia Mk2 would struggle even with a road bike as the wheel arches intrude.

Stupid car reviews drone on about how many litres of space a car offers but nothing about real world use. Maybe if you’re a tennis ball salesman I suppose.

Focus estate is a nice car and I have ordered a new ST version 😈

Wait until next year. If it’s emissions are above 255 it’ll be £2,000 per year.

Only £2000 for the first year, if it is registered after 1st April 2017
Then either £140 every year or £450 per year if the car cost more than £40,000

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/consumer-news/88361/tax-disc-changes-everything-you-need-to-know-about-uk-road-tax

I have a 2016 DSW Diverge (silver one) and it is QR and SCS on the rear.

See this link from the Specialized website

http://specialized.desk.com/customer/portal/questions/11651218-options-for-road-disc-wheels-with-scs-spacing-

I think you just need the 9890-4227 hanger which is a standard hanger while the SCS is rebated.

I will buy some new wheels in the spring and will try out the hanger.

I had a Skoda 1.4 TSI petrol and that had DSG and while it was pretty smooth there was a few niggles:

Coasting up to a roundabout, then seeing it is clear and accelerating did make it hesitate as the car thought you were slowing down.

A few times while reversing, the car would go really slowly then suddenly go bat shit. Very unsettling.

After a long run sometimes the car would judder in the low gears like something had overheated. Dealer could not find anything. Some people on the Skoda forum had faulty clutch packs replaced.

Changed it to a manual Focus petrol estate and the only time I miss the auto is when I’m crawling along.

Now have a Focus ST petrol estate on order and that has a lovely manual gearbox 8)

You can’t cross a solid white line but you can cross a dashed line. Commissaires are really hot on riders crossing solid lines and regularly hand out DQs.

If you can see the road is clear ahead then you can ride on the other side of the road, normally the only way you can move up the bunch or make an attack. But you have to move in as quickly as possible, just like an overtaking car.

I have road raced for 25 years and most riders are certainly more sensible than the average sportive rider. But riders do take chances.

Closed roads would be great and the ideal scenario for road racing. But I can imagine it would upset the locals. I am pretty sure there is a minimum lap distance so the riders don’t come past too often.

You could probably drive along a road race course and see the marshals but you probably wouldn’t see the actual race as they just whizz through once every 30 minutes or so.

I too got rid of the horrible roubaix tyres on my diverge 👿
Been riding Continental Grand Prix 4 Seasons 28 which are a much nicer ride and pretty good puncture resistance.

I got a wheels manufacturing one to do my hub bearings and it works well. comes with drifts as well.

http://wheelsmfg.com/economy-bearing-press.html

madison sell them in the UK. Can’t remember where I got mine from.

I really enjoyed “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline. Speilberg is making it into a film. Sci-fi, virtual reality, dystopian future, 80s retro 🙂

FS 29er fits nicely in a Focus MK3 Estate still 🙂

Worst episode so far 😕

Vulcan is just a virtual racing car 😯 Like lots of other similar cars.

Any program with cooking\food\chefs is a big turn off for me. Fast forward 😥

Star in a car is far too long as well.

You can get a great discount on new cars. I bought my focus using drive the deal website and it was over £5000 off RRP. You get a bigger finance contribution from Ford on a new rather than 6 month car. Dont forget you can pay off the finance any time and keep the deposit contribution.

My car was meant to be over £25K but I got it for £19.5K. Brand new, first owner with all the options and colour specified by me.

If you don’t want to use drive the deal you can still use their price to beat a local dealer down. My local dealer got down to £20.5K after initially refusing to budge from RRP.

Thinking about buying a Focus ST estate in the spring 😀

Honestly, until today I had no idea how much lighter the S Works was and I haven’t even weighed my own bike 🙂

S Works is 1077 grams on this pic

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=128782

Lots of info about Tarmac Pro on weight weenies as it is a bit of a sleeper hit.
Only about 50g to 70g heavier than the equivalent S Works. I am sure the S Works is a bit better but not £1000 better.

Pedal Heaven team rode Tarmac Pros last year repainted in team colours.

Here is my bike 🙂

I ride a Tarmac Pro frame which is the same as an S Works but normal bearings and slightly heavier carbon which means bugger all difference 🙂

They have them on sale at the moment at quite a few places.

https://www.cyclestore.co.uk/specialized_tarmac_pro_2015_frameset-ID_66865?gclid=Cj0KEQjwyum6BRDQ-9jU4PSVxf8BEiQAu1AHqsWSxtB9TMjpPTiKxVocPQINooGHqVtoPEtQf9u75nQaAsOq8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

Best road bike I have ever had and I’ve had a few 8)

All good positive reports here. Sounds like I got off lightly compared to some. Everyone back to normal eventually which is great to hear.

Doctor at fracture clinic did not recommend physio as he said they can be too aggressive sometimes. I do try and use it as much as possible. I will see how I go and maybe get some exercises to do.

Cheers

No one else with a neck vertebrae injury?
Would be nice to here some positive stories! 🙂

They took two Reliants, chopped the roofs off and repainted them but did not think to fix the engines! Schoolboy error 8)