Have a look at the NY cycle club website (nycc.org). They’ve got a rides library, linked to ridewithgps, that might have something suitable or at least point you in the right direction.
I’ve used one of their routes in the past (Delaware Water Gap to the George Washington Bridge) and it was fine.

Picnic table was Gen1&2 (1996-2006) which was much more of an off-roader, with handling to match

We’re currently at Gen5, which is definitely a soft-roader and handles like a regular car. Boot space is also much improved.

I’ve had 20+ CRV’s, starting with Gen2’s

Good grief, surely that’s more than 1 a year!

Yep. Fortunate to be on their Friends and Family scheme, so get to change it every ~9k miles.

I’ve only ever had to go through the DPF regen cycle once, which just involved a 35 mile blast on the motorway at 60mph.

embarrassing ‘haven’t read the manual’ question: How did you know when you had to do this?

I’ve done a couple of blasts along the motorway at 2500RPM as I’d heard this helped the DPF, wasn’t sure if the car told you when it was going through a regen?

Warning light on the dash and then read the manual, which describes the procedure for the regen.
Shouldn’t normally be necessary, but I suspect I’d done a lot of stop start commutes, without a long run in between.

I’d also echo Bianchi-Boys warning about watching out for the Chasse, with or without dogs. French hunters have a terrible record of shooting dead each other and innocent bystanders (avg of 21/year).

We wandered into one a few years ago whilst walking in the Alps; no warning notices posted on the local roads/trails and the first thing we knew about it was the gunfire (rifles not shotguns). It’s really not a good place to be.

“FRENCH NATIONAL PARKS DO NOT ALLOW DOGS
There are six national parks in France (Cévennes, Écrins, Mercantour, Port-Cros, Pyrénées and Vanoise): all, apart from Cévennes (which allows dogs on leads), have a ban on dogs. However, there are many other mountain regions that are open to dogs, provided that they are kept under control. It would be best to do your research before you visit.”

I’ve had 20+ CRV’s, starting with Gen2’s.

In the past I’ve always prefered diesels over petrol and manuals over autos.

The last two have been 1.6 diesels with the 9-speed (ZF sourced) auto box, which I’ve found to be brilliant. This auto is really smooth and perfect for both urban commutes and longer motorway runs. Also found it a much more relaxed drive in the Alps and even had it off road, although if you’re going to do that properly, you’ll need to swap the fitted road tyres for M+S ones.

In terms of the option, always gone with the EX model, which comes with all the useful toys. Tried the 19″ wheels a couple of times, but didn’t like them.

I’ve only ever had to go through the DPF regen cycle once, which just involved a 35 mile blast on the motorway at 60mph.

Honda are dropping the diesel option for the CRV later this year. The line up will then be a 2.0 hybrid petrol and a 1.5 turbo petrol.

Regularly take out two to France.

For self catering accommodation, I’d recommend looking at Gites de France. Used them loads and never had an issue.

Site is in English and about 50% now accept online payments. When you book, they email you the contract for signature. If you then just pay the deposit, you don’t need to return the signed contract as they accept payment in lieu of signature

On the website one of their search options is “pets for free”, the other is “enclosed gardens”, which is good if you’ve got escape artists like out two.

French vets bill is usually ~€35 for the two. You can try to keep the costs down a bit by avoiding weekend appointments. The other way is to find a proper farm vet, rather than a small animal practice. Where we’ve been able to do this, the bills been <€10, but you do need to double check the paperwork.

I’ve driven a Merc Sprinter (LWB + high top) whilst doing support for a group of roadies riding the Raid Pyrenean, along the length of the Pyrenees from West to East.

No major issues, but the hairpins on the descent of the Col de Pailhères (East side) were interesting!

It was out of season, so not too much traffic and only had one instance of having to reverse uphill.

Had a co-driver, so no issues with tolls, but would have been easy enough to slide across if I’d done it solo.

If anything, the van was too big for just 8 bikes, plus luggage and supplies for a week.

£23.50 in my local Tesco’s. None left now :-)

My preference is Wurth Industry Cleaner.

I also first wrap the bars completely with electrical tape before applying the bar tape. This was a tip from an old pro-team mechanic and it makes it much quicker to remove the bar tape next time around.

Guido,
A quick Google suggest that the Central Hotel was temperance.

Also that Great Malvern Hotel was originally the Beauchamp Hotel, but that doesn’t seem to throw up any temperance links.

I’d put (a small amount) of money on it being Temperance related.

Was it the Central Hotel in Malvern?

Possibly “British R(?) Temperance Association”, where R could be Rail/Railways based on the spoked wheel at the centre?

Fairly sure the TA is Temperance Association, given the sign’s on a hotel.

There was a BWTA (British Womens Temperance Association).

I’ve used Doble https://www.doblebathroomsdirect.com/about-us.aspx

Prices (on the stuff I got) were competitive, delivery was prompt and there was always someone who knew what they were talking about when it came to any queries.

Circlip is a pig to get out. Tried with “proper” circlip pliers and failed.
Resorted to a set like this http://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/product_detail.php?products_id=780027 and whilst access/clearance is a pain, they did the job.

Definitely not a job worth doing if the freehub is under warranty, but a very nice money saver on older freehubs.

If this is the freehub I think it is then it’s not supposed to be user serviceable. That said, I have replaced the bearings on one recently.

Process was to push slightly to one side the spacer sleeve that sits between the outer and inner bearing.
Pull out the outer bearing using a specialist expanding collet type bearing puller.
Remove the circlip using a fine nosed interior circlip pliers (this was the bit that took the most time).
Pull out the inner bearing (towards the outside) the using the bearing puller. With a suitable collet you can just get a bit of purchase on the edge of the outer edge of the inner face of the inner bearing (if that makes sense) where it buts up against the freehub shell.
Without a suitable puller, you can drift out the outer bearing, but no idea how you’d get out the inner bearing.

Auchentoshan American Oak now £19 at Morissons.

I’ve a Chair One. Light, compact, robust, quick/easy to put up and reasonable seat height. Only failing are the feet which tend to sink into anything other than hard/compacted soil. I use some Kampa Bigfoot load spreaders to stop this. Only problem with these is that base and top are just clipped together and tend to separate under loaded, so best araldited together before use.

The 6pm thing with parking at Imperial is I think Monday to Friday only.

Imperial College Car park (between Albert Hall and Science Museum) is open to the public at the weekends @ £3/hr.

It’s an option if you can’t find anything free/on-street.

Details here: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/estatesfacilities/services/parking/who/public

Beaten to it by fadda :)
I found Indorex was cheapest buying it on-line.

As well as treating the cats as you are, try Indorex Flea Spray by Virbac.

http://www.virbac.co.uk/files/live/sites/gb-public/files/Virbac%20UK/Indorex/Indorex%20Pet%20Owner%20Leaflet.pdf

Certainly worked for us when the Borders picked up some undesirable hangers-on and the usual on-dog stuff wasn’t working.

As others have mentioned traffic to get in and out of the park can be horrendous at busy times. If you’re approaching the park on the M4 from the East, try coming off at J5 and head towards Datchet / Old Windsor, go out through the Great Park on the A332 and loop back to Legoland on the B3022 (currently closed). Likewise M4 from the West, off at J8/9 and head towards Bracknell on the A330 and then left onto the Drift Road and left onto the B3022.

As for the current road works on the B3023 approaching the park from the South West, this is to fix a failing culvert, nothing to improve traffic approaching the park.

Rode out there a few years back. Didn’t do the Gavia or Mortirolo though.

We stayed in Hotel Stelvio in Santa Maria, Switzerland (hotel-stelvio.ch). Was OK for a couple of nights stay. Recent Tripadvisor reviews seem a bit mixed.

We rode down the Mustair valley then onto Prato and up the Stelvio from the North East (the classic way you see in most of the pics). Then down to the Umbrail Pass and over that back to Santa Maria. The Umbrail is unpaved for about 3km towards the top, but it’s well graded and easily do’able on a road bike.

From Santa Anna you can also ride up the Umbrail and down the Stelvio into Bormio or continue up to the top of the Stelvio.
There’s also a loop that goes Santa Anna > Umbrail > Stelvio > Bormio > Liviginio > along the lake > through the Munt la Schera tunnel (there’s a bike shuttle bus in the Summer) > Fuorn Pass (Ofenpass) > Santa Anna.

Since Mr Morningstars unfortunate demise, that tool has become virtually impossible to find.

Some alternative suggestions here: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/straightening-dinged-rims-does-anyone-make-a-specific-tool

Don’t know about the SANEF UK charges, but I use the APRR motorway concession (www.telepeagepourtous.fr/fr/particulier/souscrire) and the “formule balade” tariff (http://www.telepeagepourtous.fr/fr/particulier/toutes_nos_offres/formule_balade).

APRR seem to be the only concession that now accept English credit cards and an English billing address. There was some talk in the past about all concessions only accepting payment by direct debit from French bank accounts, but I’ve not seen anything more about this recently.

With the “formule balade” tariff, the monthly fee (1.70€ if you opt for electronic billing) is only charged for those months you actually use the gadget. In addition you pay a €11 deposit for the badge, plus a delivery charge of 10€ (this was 3€ when I subscribed a few years ago). The toll fees themselves are the same as if you paid them normally at the peage.

Wouldn’t be without one myself.

I’ve recently used these folks for Ideal Standard bathroom stuff.

http://www.doblebathroomsdirect.com/

Prices are keen, delivery prompt and you can speak to real people who know what they are talking about. Also happy with the quality of Ideal Standard.

Lunge, Hope that works for you. Tends to be the five smaller cogs that dig in, as the bigger ones are typically on a carrier which spreads the load.

If that fails, you might want to try one of these: http://www.lislecorp.com/divisions/products/?product=325

Serviced a road bike recently with a regular click from the bottom bracket area when the cranks were under load at the 3 o’clock position. After stripping the whole drive train down, I eventually traced the issue to the five smallest cogs on the cassette digging in to the raised portions of the aluminium (DT Swiss) freehub body. Under load the cog moved a fraction of a degree into the resulting tiny slot and burr, causing a click which travelled along the chain and resonated from the bottom bracket area. Having filed off the burr, the clicking stopped.

Do as others have said above.

If that fails, try:

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/tools-maintenance/tools/unior-taper-thread-crank-puller

If that fails then try:

http://www.halfords.com/motoring-travel/tools-diy/tools-tool-kits/laser-ball-joint-separate-fork

I did my training and accreditation with http://www.kingston.gov.uk/info/200316/cycling/946/cycling_training/3

The course was done at a sensible pace with a good mix of theory and practical. At the time I did it there were bursaries available that paid a big chunk of the course fees.

Worth noting that the training gives you National Standards provisional accreditation only. If you want to offer Bikeability branded training then you either need to work for a registered Bikeability scheme provider or get registration yourself. The later isn’t particularly difficult or expensive, but does involve a fair amount of paperwork (although there are templates for much of it). You also need to factor in at least 3 hours a year continuing professional development and specific instructor insurance from BC or CTC (£50~75/year)

In terms of post course work, you can instruct and get paid as a provisionally accredited instructor, but only if you’re working with a fully accredited instructor.

Local authorities seem to cover school Bikeability training in a number of ways:
1) They do all the training themselves and directly employ their own instructors (often on bank worker contracts).
2) They sub out the training to a training provider such as Cycleexperience.
3) They sub out the work to individual Bikeability instructors.

As a new instructor you’re likely to have to go with 1) or 2) to get the experience at least until you get fully accredited. They also have the advantage that you don’t have to deal with the whole admin and scheduling side of the work which can be very time consuming. Whilst 3) can seem to be the most lucrative, you’ve got to factor in the admin time and the fact that Local Authorities often only want to work with a small number of training providers to minimise their own admin overheads, so it’s harder for individuals to pick up this work.

As you’d imagine the work can be quite seasonal. Most schools want Level 2 done in year 6, which is the last year of junior school. They also typically want it done in the summer term (May/June/July) as by then all the tests, entrance exams, etc. will have been done and it can be seen as dead time by the schools.

As others have said, as a secondary job it’s OK, but it’s not going to pay the mortgage on its own. Typically if you’re doing 1) or 2) above, you might expect to be paid between £8 and £15/hour.

I’ve used these folks a few time for basic bearings…

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/xtremesportandleisureukonline/

They do 5 or 10 pack options if you want to stock up.

If it’s a Bikeability session, then yes. Most kids find it much easier to ride when the forks are on the right way and it really helps to reduce toe overlap. :-)

Tesco – Ardmore Legacy – £20 – until 12/4

Frame is OK, internal routing of the gear cables can be an issue over time.

Just serviced a carbon fibre one with a SRAM groupset and it came with coated cable inners, which had frayed with wear and ended up gumming up the sleeve that it runs in.

Front mech cable routes out of the down-tube just ahead of the bottom bracket, via a sleeve and a metal ferrule that is bonded into the down-tube. This ferrule had corroded and expanded such that it had “burst” the carbon fibre surrounding it, as well as crushing the sleeve that the inner cable was running in. I ended up having to cut out the ferrule to access the cable sleeve and replace the inner.

Rear mech cable routes through the down-tube and drive side chain-stay and doesn’t appear to run in a sleeve, as well as the frame having a bottom bracket shell with no cut-outs to simplify cable access. To replace the rear mech inner, I would usually fit a sleeve over the existing inner, pull out the old inner and then fit the new one through the sleeve. In this case, irrespective of whether I tried to feed the sleeve from either the chain-stay or the down-tube, the sleeve fouled when trying to pass it around the bottom bracket shell. I ended up having to feed the new cable “blind” and after a considerable time I managed to get it past the bottom bracket shell. Whilst the new cable works, it’s got more drag than I’d like.

Got to be this one, for the travelling bike mechanic!

http://cycleworx.co.uk/collections/abbey-bike-tools/products/team-issue-ti-hammer

Fasthaggis, can’t do a DXF/CAD and dimensions are a bit tricky because of the shape, but would a pdf containing a to scale scanned “copy”, with a couple of rulers beside it to confirm the scale, be of any use?

Fasthaggis, I may be able to help.

Is your e-mail still the one in your profile?