25mpg in (cheaper) petrol vs the 35-40mpg most vans seem to get. Not a lot if you’re not running it as an everyday car.

Any ULEZ compliant diesel van will have loads of pollution control stuff (EGR, DPFs, adblue, etc) and a problem with any of those can wipe out any fuel saving.

Been pondering a bigger van to convert to a camper but we live in the ULEZ zone and anything euro6 compliant seems bonkers money for high mileage shagged out vans plus all the problems people seem to have with them. Our Honda has a K20 which is about as reliable as engines get so I think we’ll be keeping it at least until ULEZ rules tighten further.

This video gives a better idea of space and how the Elgrand can work for bikes and sleeping:

I’ve got a Honda Stepwgn but have looked at these before. You get quite a bit of variety in seat layouts even in the same models. For Alphards the older (ANH10 – or 2002-2008) model has some more flexibility as the middle row will turn and fold or make up into a flat-ish bed.

The later Alphards tend to have a middle row that can move forward, with the bases tipped up for a bit more room – or some have the two separate luxury chairs that gives even less room for bikes.

E51 Elgrands tend to have that middle seat/armrest thing that is on its own rails and can slide right out of the way so you can get a bike in easily in between.

My Stepwgn can get a full-size bike in diagonally with one of the rear seats tumbled forwards, then can get a couple more in with front wheels out and we pack the other stuff in between. I unbolted my rearmost seats (two bolts each side) and they live under the stairs unless we need to carry more people. Mine is smaller (class below Elgrand/Alphard) but there’s a good 2m between rear of front seats and tailgate, when I get round to it I’ll be building a bootjump-style platform that can go over the folded middle seat for camping in.

And they seem to be more pricey than vans anyway, for a given year?

A 15 year old petrol import will be ULEZ/CAZ compliant, be quicker, comfier and in much better shape than the typical van. Plus in VW terms, far more like a Caravelle than a basic Kombi or Shuttle.

SE if you just want more of the same – home button, Touch ID, etc. Backmarket have the 2022 SE for under £200, it’s a very modern processor, will be quick and supported for ages.

FaceID and the swipey full screen is just better though IMO and why everything else has gone to it (current SE will be the last with a home button). If you don’t mind a bit of change then an 11 or 12 should be doable.

Retevis if you don’t have the money for the pro Motorolas. We’ve got a few for camping and they’ve done well, many come with charging bases too.

Noticed the Merthyr Premier Inn (default choice for BPW trips) has a Geniepoint rapid now according to zapmap.

I’d still love to see the carpark flooded with slow overnight chargers but I do see the logic of what Whitbread are doing given the all-day restaurant/pubs on site too. Geniepoint charge overstay fees so hopefully anyone who needs it can get on during their stay.

Yep, most aires are Ionity or Total. Ionity was 30p/kwh via Octopus (I think the lower power triple head charger I used is cheaper than high power CCS).  Powerdot at the supermarket and even the village 22kw AC post work with it.

The whole roaming charge card thing seems far more joined up in France.

Did 430 miles on Saturday, Bromley to near Poitiers in a 62kwh Leaf. Easy run except for Chargemap recommending a single unit just off the autoroute that was already in use but we pushed on to the next. Last rapid was a bit slow as the battery was hot, so an extra 30 mins waiting on the car rather than the other way around so we could do the last leg in one go.

Octopus Electroverse card has worked on everything I’ve tried so far in France, makes it so easy.

Kind of, it’s certainly easier these days but you can improve the experience by aiming for the better spots, there’s still some motorway services with just a couple of older, slower ones.

If you can hit Cribbs Causeway by Bristol then there’s loads of different ones around there (and options for eating). Exeter services has loads now. If you’re going Plymouth way then there’s a 10-bay MFG site by Saltash.

Pretty much all take contactless card these days.

@stingmered Ionity are app/web but your Hyundai card should work. Total have rolled out lots in the autoroute aires, they take card although generally in France most seem to take the roaming cards (Shell/Newmotion, Electroverse, and ones like the Hyundai card). Getting the Tesla app set up just for another option isn’t a bad idea.

@wheelsonfire1 it’s fair to say that CCS has “won” in Europe but there’s absolutely loads of Leafs and other CHAdeMO cars out there, and thus chargers that support it are still being rolled out and maintained. There are a few sites around that are CCS-only but almost all have some CHAdeMO, and a majority have it on each charger still. I’ve had no issues travelling around the country and we’re driving from London down to near Poitiers this weekend for holiday.

Easy to get a 59/62kwh Leaf for that money, assuming you charge at home you don’t need to worry about chargers for any <180 mile round trip and you have the flexibility with range to plan around better sites with lots of chargers. The bigger battery seems to be lasting really well, and isn’t as prone to overheating like the 40kwh ones do. It’s a robust and well understood platform, the simplicity of an air cooled battery means it’s reliable, not much ever goes wrong with them.

I like mine, now that there’s a viable CHAdeMO to CCS converter (it’s about £1000) there’s less need to worry about public charging in the longer term.

Cut to 760, so 770ish with grips. I’ve got some old open-ended lock-on grips so moved back and forth over a few rides to settle on that. Hardtail I think is 740.

Chademo isn’t a problem today – there’s very few places that are CCS-only and most have a good alternative close by. Lots of new sites being deployed with chademo too, many still with it on every charger. Plus there’s a viable adaptor now for CCS (it costs about a grand) if it does start being a problem in years to come. You’re not going to be crossing continents but a 200ish mile day trip with a quick charge is no problem.

A new 39kwh N-Connecta at £15k is bonkers value, the Leaf is one of the few EVs I’d be comfortable owning privately for 10+ years (it’s a simple, well-known, reliable platform), the spec is good with heated seats/wheel, 360 cameras, adaptive cruise, CarPlay etc. It’s a nice size for family use, not too big but a massive boot. Battery is warranted for 8 years / 100k miles, if you want a warranty on the rest after 3 years then Nissan do a package of warranty, service, MOT and full Euro breakdown for £34 a month or £400 a year.

Halfords advanced / Exodus are made by Thule, just previous generation designs. Ours has been great.

Had a Golf GTE too with that powertrain. Absolute worst case, start with near-empty battery and long motorway trip I saw 43mpg. It’ll still regen on braking and assist where it can.

Plug in as often as possible at home and it sounds like a good chunk of your miles would be electric. I found it didn’t make much difference how I used the battery as long as you arrive back home with it empty. Used to do Bromley to St Albans (100ish mile round trip, mix of traffic and motorway) on a battery plus 65+mpg on petrol. Even with the charging cost it was better than a diesel, and far more relaxing in the slow traffic than an engine switching on and off all the time.

Have a BEV now (egolf then Leaf e+) but if I needed towing the Passat GTE would be it. They work great as a short range EV that can go far when you need it.

Ulys worked fine for our trip, but while it’s a friendly English site to order one the rest is very much French only. Also while they do card for paying initially they want a SEPA (like a direct debit) setting up. First direct didn’t work, Starling appeared to work but then Ulys didn’t like it a month later. Couldn’t get it resolved, was eventually charged €30 which was refunded when I returned the tag to them.

Interested in the alternative for one or two trips a year, it was great to just roll through the tag lanes rather than queue.

I’ve used those Balcas Brites before when I had a pellet oven. Some cat litters are 100% wood pellets too and work fine.

When I went for coaching with Tony / ukbikeskills, he had a great setup with a gap jump next to a tabletop, identical profiles except for the middle. Hill before them with stones to mark along the side. Start at the bottom, roll with brakes off at the tabletop. Keep going further up until you’re comfortably clearing the table then switch to the gap jump.

It reminds me, I must book again because I’ve lost a lot of that confidence from last time.

E-bikes and e-scooters aren’t allowed on either train company that operates from Sutton, or their stations.

However, the likelihood of seeing any staff at a station is very low and them bothering to challenge someone is even lower.

Current SE is has the A15 chip that’s in the iPhone 13 and 14 so will be supported for ages. 5G too.

About the only thing against it is TouchID / home button rather than FaceID and swiping. You might prefer that but everything else iPhone has moved on now.

I’ve got one of those mech disc braked Carreras, it’s no Brompton (which I’ve owned in the past) for folding but rides fine, good for following the kids about on their bikes/scooters/skateboards.

I’m pretty sure they’re an old Dahon/Tern design.

Amaranthe and DragonForce last night. Both amazing 🤘🏻

https://leasing.com/

https://www.leaseloco.com/

are the good comparison these days IME.

Yes, Windows Backup https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/back-up-your-windows-pc-87a81f8a-78fa-456e-b521-ac0560e32338

Google Maps has a “prefer fuel efficient routes” setting and turning that off helps a bit.

Otherwise I still have Copilot (from back before others did offline mapping) and that lets you manually set 1-5 preference for all the different road types. It also has a routing type called “practical” that mostly does what I want.

Else it might be worth looking at one of the commercial or RV ones where you can say you’re in a bigger vehicle and it’ll keep you off the smaller roads unless it absolutely has to.

HMRC advisory fuel rates are 9p a mile for electric at the moment, so a typical efficiency car (about 3.4 mi/kwh) would be covered at 30p/kWh. If he’s doing big enough days that he needs to do much rapid charging that can tip it past that though. If he’s bringing it home then it’s a company car not a pool car so would be subject to BIK, although that’s still very low on EVs.

The eshop always seems to have a sale on. Portal companion collection (1 & 2) is well worth £4.58 if you’ve never played them. Same for Inside at £1.69, in fact lots of good indies. The first party stuff like Mario, Zelda etc hardly ever gets discounted but if you buy physical you can sell on for most of what you paid once you’re done.

I’ve probably put the most time into Tetris 99 though, which you get as part of the annual online sub. Games only last a few minutes but easy to just do another, and another, and another.

There’s a reasonable market for this with the minted London / Surrey roadies, but there’s already folks serving it. Very much a minimal hassle service, pick up the bike, return it later all perfectly clean, lubed ready for the next weekend run.

I wouldn’t for MTBs, although I do like to do a full strip down and clean at some point over the winter, I’d consider it as an add-on to a full service / bearings swap sort of work.

The LG OLEDs have OK sound because they’re super thin up in the top corners but rather chunky further down. I love ours but if it was wall mounted close to the wall it’s far from flush.

Soundbar improved the sound massively. Pick the £300 TV you like the picture on and spend the rest on a soundbar.

We buy Ecover zero liquid, 5l at a time. Not found anywhere local that does refills yet.

Mostly wash at 30, do hand towels and kitchen cloths etc at 60 which should help the machine clean out. No need for fabric softener.

Always had a soft spot for them after spending my first proper wages on a C16R. Although clearly not that soft as I’ve never bought another, the Five era passed me by (either not riding or couldn’t afford) and it’s just not appealed much since.

There’s a couple of recent-ish Orange hardtails in our local riding group, I sometimes pondered getting a modern P7 frame but I can’t think when I last saw a FS out and about.

It’s very similar to the foam floor tiles – tricky to just buy a single tile though, tends to be in packs.

Have had a newgen 2-slot for 12 years or so. They win for simplicity, repairability and snob value but aren’t the best at making toast, which given the price you’d hope they would be. Treated it to a full strip down, clean/polish and new elements a few months back and it’s all shiny again but still toasts darker on one side than the other.

The lite/studio/architect isn’t the same at all, as far as I know all made in China.

I use Osmo Polyx on anything interior that’ll see water, although even then with a sink you need to be pretty good about wiping any that’s sitting there. Omso is quick and easy to reapply though when needed.

Used screwfix yacht varnish on an exposed outdoor bench, not sure if a more expensive version would have fared better but it was flaking away within 2 years. Needed a full sand back before I could redo.

Pure Siesta are good. Current model is around £100 RRP but often discounted or there are still older models around.

linky

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pure-Bluetooth-Wireless-Charging-Smartphones/dp/B07JGQMH6F?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A1GOJ355D0AVLQ

The top fixed term savings accounts are over 5% at the moment but interest rates expected to go down over the next year. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/#fixedsavings

As they’ve already got a good amount in low risk for uni and this may be even longer term I’d be looking at a S&S ISA.

Premium bonds are fun and there’s a chance of winning, but very unlikely to do better than inflation.

I had the older version of this, the new one supports fire stick: https://www.oneforall.com/en-gb/universal-remotes/urc7945-smart-streamer-remote

At the time I used an old hifi for speakers so it could control volume for that and also do the Roku and all the other stuff.

Firestick support HDMI-CEC, ie controls over HDMI so if the TV has direction/select/etc buttons on the remote it may be able to do the firestick bit. If the TV and soundbar support HDMI-ARC then that’s a far better way to connect – for the most part it just works, TV knows it’s connected, TV volume controls work the soundbar, no chance of having TV and soundbar doing sound at the same time.

My parents have Sky Q, it’s a much easier experience for people used to the Sky interface who also want the catch-up and streaming services. They just use the Sky remote 99% of the time.

It could be a tough ask this, my connect has heated seats, heated screen, reverse camera etc. Struggling to find these kind of specs in anything bigger that isn’t a huge amount of cash.

If you don’t mind yellow then ex-AA Transit Custom could work. They all seem to have 3 seats up front, heated seats/screen, tailgate rather than barn doors, towbar. No reverse camera but easy to fit, I’d swap the stereo for a modern CarPlay one so add it then. Good value because yellow.

The Japanese import MPVs are worth a look if you don’t mind petrol, auto and fairly low mpg. No worries about DPFs, adblue and all that though. Any 2007 on are compliant for ULEZ and other cities too.

Nintendo Switch Sports came out last year and is basically some of the old Wii Sports ones (tennis, bowling) plus some new.

2 beds, chicken shop next door, £275k