I’ve been using a Citizen Eco Drive for a few years now and have been very happy with it. If you scour around you should get one of the stainless ones for around the £70 mark.

I’m not particularly heavy with the muscles, though, and like to be able to chuck my bikes at times.

The Surly is certainly no lightweight, but rides a lot lighter than you’d think. They’re actually pretty nimble once you get them up to speed and anything you can’t ride around just gets steamrollered anyway!

I love mine, and as pointed out, they are massively versatile.

I like the On One Fleegles, personally. Look a bit odd initially but work really well.

Personally I’d go for a Surly Long Haul Trucker or Disc Trucker which would come in at just over a grand for a complete bike.

I’ve got a Surly 1×1 and a Karate Monkey. Both excellent bikes and most people who ride the LHT seem to really rate them too. People have done some seriously epic rides on them too

Or what about a Genesis Croix De Fer for similar money? Not strictly a tourer but again people seem to have done some mad rides on them. Vin Cox rode his around the world.

I’d agree with Trail Rat.

I bought a disc compatible rack of Wiggle a few years back (Lifeline I think?) for a tour of the Western Isles. The disc compatible part was just some longer bolts and a couple of tubular spaces. It’s carried some huge loads since without any problems.

Those WDs are quite popular so would take the reviews with a pinch of salt.

I use a Buffalo Terastation Duo in work which has been pretty good. I did have to contend with a couple of flaky firmware upgrades to begin with which were sorted out with support, but since then it’s been really reliable – to the extent that I was actually thinking of getting another.

Not sure what their more home oriented stuff is line but this seems to have reasonable reviews if you search online:

3

Geared steel rigid 29er – my main “trail” bike
Rigid steel singlespeed – winter offroader and year round commuter
Oldish alu hardtail -currently built up as geared rigid 26er with slicks – mainly used for child seat duties and v. occasional longer road rides

Third one is a bit redundant really. Would ideally like to replace it with a steel cross bike.

Don’t really see the point of more as I barely have time to ride the ones I’ve got.

South Devon or Pembrokeshire. Could stay in either for the rest of my days, but not so many datacenters there so it’s unlikely at present :-

Is there an echo in here? :-)

Don’t discount it completely. I was lucky enough to find an IT job here. A lot more “generalist” than what I did previously but lots more varied and I’ve learnt a lot.

If you’re in that line of work, there are a few firms around the Exeter area who you could contact – South West Comms have a smallish datacenter for example.

I’ve lived in Devon for just over a year. I really don’t want to move anywhere else – it’s lovely, folk are friendly, great place to raise a family and has pretty much everything you want if you’re into outdoorsy stuff apart from proper mountains (although Dartmoor is a pretty good substitute).

If you twisted my arm then I’d happily live in Northern Pembrokeshire for similar reasons with the added bonus that it’s less touristy.

I’d also disagree about the district midwives and health visitors – both were excellent in our area – well informed, supportive and non judgemental.

Sounds like experiences of both NCT and NHS advice vary a lot depending on where you live.

We did NCT. I wouldn’t do it again.

On the positive side we didn’t know that many people in the area and it meant that my wife had a support group of other mums on the run-up and following the birth of our son.

The dad’s weren’t all that sociable though, and the group as a whole was (predictably for where we lived at the time) a bit monocultural. Lots of bankers and the like with big 4x4s… we got some funny looks turning up in our VW van.

There was some useful stuff in the classes themselves but as others have pointed out, it’s all a bit earth motherish. Militantly pro breastfeeding and natural childbirth…. that’s fair enough, and certainly something which we were hoping for but at one one point our instructor told us in all seriousness that 90% of emergency caesareans weren’t needed, which I actually thought was a pretty dangerous thing to say.

The result of this was that my wife felt under unreasonable pressure to have both a natural birth and to breast feed. As it turned out she had a really difficult labour, our son having moved into a breech position towards the end. She required an epidural and eventually an emergency caesarean which was just terrifying – it all came good in the end, but required a long time for both here and the baby to recover. We had some problems with breastfeeding initially, but stuck with it – although my wife (largely as a result of the NCT advice) felt really terrible guilt at the fact that we had to use formula top-ups. This, and the whole “competitive parenting” thing which developed in the group amongst some of the mums (some of the babies apparently slept through the night at 8 weeks!) probably contributed to a serious bout of postnatal depression.

If you do decide to go to NCT, my advice would be to speak to people who’ve been to the same group and see what their opinion of the instructor and the group was, and to take any advice with a liberal sprinkling of salt. It’s your child and you who need to make the decisions about what is best for them and you.

My n+1 bike would be a ‘cross bike with discs and I really regret selling the Cotic Roadrat I used to have, but can’t ever see myself getting a pure road bike.

I commute on the road but on an MTB which is a much better tool for the job as the route is muddy, singletrack Devon lanes with potholes that could swallow a cow. I don’t think a road bike (or I) would put up with the punishment

Like others have said, I just find riding offroad, and MTBs in general much more fun, and I’m lucky enough to have great trails which are ridable from my front door.

About once a year when the Dartmoor classic crosses the end of my road I’m briefly tempted but really can’t see I’d get my moneys worth.

Sleat peninsula in the South of the island is really scenic, nice beaches and good views of the Cuillin.

Boat trip from Portree with Squirrel on MV Stardust to see the sea eagles and dolphins (I took pics below from the boat). Cafe Arriba is good for lunch afterwards.

Old Man of Storr

The minor road over the pass from Staffin to Uig is pretty spectacular.

All good!

Been a bit wet here this summer:

Same bike with alt bars and slightly fatter front:

Like this one, you mean :-)

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/rigid-evangelists-indulge-me

Going 29er definitely makes a difference when riding rigid. I find it a bit trickier climbing slo-mo techy stuff with big wheels. But so much smoother and faster over more flowing trails due to the bigger tyre footprint.

Heck. I’m going to do it. just to see how wrong I can make the bike look. I’ve got a set of really alt Bonty Crivitz bars I can stick on it for added nicheness!

I’ve just discovered the F8s will take a 29er wheel with a fat tyre. I can feel a bodged 69er coming on…

At the moment, i’m riding 100% rigid, but it’s what I grew up with so probably not too much of an adjustment. Line choice becomes a bit more important. You need to keep it a bit loose and let your legs and arms act as suspension rather than gripping on for grim life. With a bit of practice you can nail stuff (admittedly a bit more slowly) which people will tell you in all seriousness you can’t ride without 4″ of travel. If and when you go back to suspension it will benefit your riding style hugely.

Go for it!

The Orange forks are F8s. Recently fitted a pair to an old hardtail frame for a charity road ride I did recently, and have kept them on as they ride so well. They’re great…light, stiff but with enough suppleness not to rattle your fillings out. Really recommend them.

http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/product/125995.html

I’ve got a set of On Ones which I bought off ebay before getting the F8s but had too short a steerer for the frame. Was going to stick them in the classifieds shortly.

Can anyone give an idea how much harder life would be with a LWB rather than a SWB, in the real world?

I reckon you’d be fine – probably not much difference in length than one of the bigger Volvo or Merc estates. A hi-top would be more of an inconvenience than an LWB due to height restrictions.

Another fan here.

I’ve got a ’95 T4 California. Used as daily driver by me. Few rattles from the back when stuff isn’t stowed properly, but you soon get used to it. T5 is more refined so you should have no problems.

I actually prefer driving the van to a car most of the time. Visibility is great, it’s really comfy and like others have said you can park it anywhere you could part a normal sized car. Plus I can load it up with gear on a Thursday night and be ready to get away straight from work on a Friday.

Another late post…

1×1

KM

GF

Did a Three Peaks charity challenge a few years back by rail- Snowdon was first up, which we did in the dark. Had eaten n manky pasty on the journey North and started with shocking case of the squits on the way down off the hill. Was forced to carry out no less than 5 tactical bowel movements on the descent. The rest of the team were in stitches seeing me hare off behind boulders every 20 mins.

Really horrible. Immodium was my friend for the rest of the weekend…

Ours did take a bit of searching to be fair…. we were prepared to travel a long way to get one, but as luck would have it one turned up at the local dealers.

They are definitely getting more popular though – down here in the South West (Dartmoor) there’s quite a few about now, and they also seem to be pretty popular in Scotland.

+1 for the Skoda Octavia. We get up to 50mpg out of our 2.0 TDI Scout – it’s nice to drive, reasonably quick and the Haldex 4×4 system works really well, only kicking in when you need it. Not had much call for it this year as its been so mild, but the year before last it got us out of some sticky situations in the ice and snow which we really wouldn’t have managed in a 2WD car.

We were snowed in in Dulverton on Exmoor over Christmas for a few days, all the cars on the high street completely iced in. The Scout was the only car on the street (including some “proper” 4x4s) which managed to get out!

The Scout has from memory an additional 2″ ground clearance over the and a few more gizmos over the standard 4×4, but they’re equally capable.

+1 for Horner Woods.

Selworthy to Bossington also well worth it but bit sketchy in wet.

Drop bar Cotic Roadrat. Did most things really well, fantastic fun to ride and just felt right – a proper “Swiss Army” bike.

Sold it to buy my Karate Monkey, which I love dearly, but wish I’d had the funds to keep both.

That’s a relief…. I was starting to worry I was different from the other children.

Just noticed the rigid forks. So I’m not the only one loopy enough to ride around here without suspension.

Lovely…

Only got back a couple of hours ago. Had fantastic ride. On rigid 29er so knives and gunfights sprung to mind on some of the descents – had a couple of carries (the really steep bit of the Nutcracker mainly) but great fun.

Pic taken at top of Hunter’s Tor… I love Dartmoor.

You were all lucky to have a 64.

I had a second hand ZX81… with the rubbish touch sensitive keypad and optional 16K wobbly ram pack that kept on falling off. I later upgraded to the dizzy heights of the Vic20 which had a proper keyboard, and joy of joys took game cartridges.

Couldn’t afford games though so mainly used to tape them off mates on dodgy C90s or spend hours, no days typing in reams and reams of machine code copied from dog-eared copies of Sinclair and Commodore User which had already done the rounds of most of the school. Miss a bit of code and you’d have to go through it all line by line.

But you try and tell the young people today that… and they won’t believe you.

Yeah, tell me about it :oops:

Been a bit rubbish lately and busy with family stuff yada yada. Have been riding to work but not much offroad. Wife and little one are on hols so got rare chance for an evening blast.

Thanks for that – we’ve had a bit of rain over the last couple of days but nothing major so will have a wander up there later. It’s ridable from my front door so no excuses really!

I think I did a ride the day before our boy came along, but only a quick local loop with the mobile on and strict instructions to head back as soon as there was any “movement”.
On the whole I reckon I did far more riding in the first 6 months of my son’s life than I do now he’s three. Not that I didn’t help out or anything but he slept loads so I scheduled rides around nap times. Now he’s so much more active we’re loads busier so it’s a bit more difficult but he loves to come along too on the bike seat now.

Hope all goes well…. you’re gonna love it. Big responsibilities but so much joy.

Spando – Exclusive for sale here: http://www.campervans4u.com/vwwestfaliahightops.html

That’s lovely. Perhaps we should start an STW Westfalia owners club?

Anyone on here got a Westfalia Syncro I wonder?

We looked at a couple of Exclusives before we bought our SWB van. They’re obviously bigger, and I really like the rear kitchen / shower layout, but we wanted a van which could be used as a second car too and I wasn’t that comfortable with an LWB hi-top for that reason (height restrictions etc). Great vans though and like someone else mentioned, like all Westys, they hold value really well. We could probably get back what we paid on ours 4 years ago if we sold at the right point in the season. In terms of engines on the Westys, mine is a 1.9TD which is v reliable and simple to work on and quite nippy through the gears, will cruise all day at 75 but runs out of puff on steep hills without a decent run-up (bit like its driver). You’ll pay quite a bit more for a 2.5 TDi – quicker, but more prone to problems. 2.4D is OK, but a bit lumpy to drive. Don’t even consider the non-turbo 1.9D. Cost of vans varies HUGELY through the season. Just after Christmas is probably an ideal time to buy.

My ’95 T4 Westfalia California Coach. Love it.