I made two claims for accidental damage in a year, the cat peed on my memory foam matress, ruining it, and then my bike came off my roof rack meaning a claim for that. At renewal time they hied my excess for accidental damage to £1000 for an indeterminate period. After another claim free year they insisted that the excess remained, i complained and complained until i was told "we are an insurance company and we can do what we want", that was enough to get me an apology, my excess returned to £50 and my policy reduced to the priginal price from two years ago. So they may try but keep at them and they may eventually concede and give you what you want (and pay for at the end of the day)

really must say thanks for all the replies, i definately have few more options now, think the carrera looks the best 'fit', if my sore throat and headache had not been diagnosed as swine flu, i'd be on my way to halfords right now….

I could add some rust coloured streaks too 😉

looks good, think i need to go and see how they look in the flesh, doesn't look like its pink or anything, bet it says "womens specific design" on there somewhere though…

this is a bloomin nightmare !!! 🙂

do those decathlon bikes have disc hubs?

yeah, that's exactly what i have been thinking, just trying to convince parents that a 2nd hand bike would be better is hard, need to find that nice shiny hardly used bargain to show them it can be done…

oddly i once had my tax disc on the drivers side of an old beetle i had as i couldn't get it to stick to the windscreen. Police saw it and stopped me stating it had to be displayed "correctly" not sure if they were making it up but i think failure to display a valide disc is an offence, though its on your drive so not breaking any laws…

right then, I have found the dvla website and my local council one, I shall be reporting tonight when i get the details…

it is annoying they ran it around for a while with the tax disc of a renault megane in it (which was abandoned outside their house as well!), the thing with the DVLA instant fines is that it relies on people registering the vehicles in their name at their address. My be is that the mondeo is not registered to them. DDon'y mond normally but just about to put my house on the market and a dented mondeao with flat tyres does not look good in the pictures!!!

as long as you never open the doors with the bikes on then will there be a problem?

If it is, how about a tow bar mounted rack that slides back? Should clear the doors, but added expense of fitting a towbar if you don't have one already

okay not exactly production but 143mph and the ugliest thing you ever did see

d'oh just realised the thema is 4 door…

i give you the lancia thema 8.32

ferrari engined and 145 top speed

that'll explain my inability to shift the cover, i assumed it would come of in an anti clockwise fashion. Can bareley wait to get home and unleash my selection of punches and chisels (left it soaking in plus gas overnight so hopefully that will help).

as for the gozillion bearings, i will barely notice on my shed floor as its covers in various other bits of rubbsih (no time to keep it tidy!)

and yes it is frustrating, how much does this save on a build? a 'normal' one is only £20 so can only be a tenner max….surely…

bigger touch over 100gb???

Have mine set up as a combi, so there is somewhere for the little terror to sit safely. Plan is for me and teh SO to sleep in an awning whilst terror sleepi in travel cot behind seats.

I have a middle row of caravelle seats fitted (easy to do just 8 10 mm holes and some bits from VW) and side windows. On a SWB van you can get bikes in with the fron wheel of behind the seats and a lot of stuff.

Mines a 1.9td with an almighty 68bhp, not fast but cruises okay around 70. I use mine every day as well, always got a bike in the back just in case…..

as for rtfm on volvos…i had a v50 a few years ago with DRL and wanted to turn them off (had xenon lights so had no desire to give all and sundry arc eye during the day). You cannot turn them off yourself, but volvo would do it for an hours labour and as long s you signed a disclaimer!

i didn't bother….

I have stayed their many times. It is basically an old WW2 airfield so there as large swoopy tarmac roads and lots of grassy areas on which to pitch. NO squares and pitches, just pitch where you can, although they do limit numbers so ther is always enough room.

Facilities re good, two toilet blocks and a shop with a take away. Not far from Burley by bike which has pubs etc. Beech wise you are not far from Milford on see, lymington on the river etc. LOts of fireroads that go wherever you want, odd cheeky bit here and there but plenty to see and do. Think you can get a cycle map from the office when you check in that lists the fireroads etc.

just dont expect too much on the riding front…

early ones are not as well rust proofed as the later ones so check for rot and filler round the wheelarches. Drum brakes on the back, different bumpers and dash but at the price you say, worth a punt. 2.4s have a tendency to crack cyclinder heads, ny early one did but it kept going fine for about 30k after that, and was still going strong once i sold it. usual stuff really cambelts are expensive to swap as it is the 5 cylinder engine etc etc

try the http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk for info

I had a truvativ chainset that the non drive side arm would never stay tight on. Eventually it gave up the ghost and the threads stripped. Sent it back to CRC and they offered me a replacement or vouchers to the value of the chainset. I took the latter and bought a Deore HTII as i didn’t really have any faith in the truvativ fixing method, so it can be done.

also register at Quidco and you will get £24 cashback!

ps it was a £500 matress not £5k 🙂

i Had two claims for accidental damagein one year (a bike £2k and a matress £5k) and in fairness, they did not put my premium up the next year. They did however slap a £1000 excess on my policy for a year and then tried to keep it on their this year. After a lot of calls and e-mails i have finally got the excess removed so i would expect some change to your policy. I argued my case because nowhere does it state that several claims in one year will affect subsequent years policy excesses.

The change is in the underwriter. It used to be Norwich Union, now it is AXA. HAd a few issues but as far as i can tell the level of cover remains the same for Bikes.

If you buy the Avid hose then the fittings are included..not easy to find the hose in stock anywhere though…

excellent, top tips chaps thanks for that. Probably doing it on the late may bank holiday if i can get everything sorted and me fit in time….

I hadone for a bit too. Very impressed with build quality and it all worked, Like Marmoset says you have to think about it when loading but once you have done it a couple of times and sorted which bike goes where it becomes easier.

I got mine from the roofbox bargain bucket too and delivery was very prompt.

doenload it onto your pc,use something like sound taxi to remove the drm, then burn it to dvd as a div-x and watch. Bit heavy on the dvds and faff factor but works okay…