si77 – Member
Howz about ‘your favourite stretch of toll road’?

That easy, the Raiders Road in the Galloway Forest.

Inbred456 speaks sense.

I’m in the process of changing from DERV to petrol, I do approx 18k miles per year, mostly on motorways, and recon that a petrol car will cost me about £20 a month more in fuel (based on Honest John’s real mpg figures).

Having test driven the Golf, Focus, Leon, V40 and a Mazda 3 I decided to get a Mazda 3 2.0 petrol, no turbo, no intercooler.

The insurance and VED are £50 a year less each than my current car (2010 Skoda Superb, 2.0d DSG).

I would (and if necessary do) lock the bikes to a suitably solid part of the car and cover them up with a dark coloured sheet held taught(ish) from the back of the front seats to over the parcel shelf so it’s not obvious what’s underneath.

Sutton Bank area are my local (ish) trails.

TBH it’s fairly tame and not massively technical but nice enough for an evening spin out.

It’s mostly waymarked trails that were already there when the bike shop opened but have been formalised a bit.

We tend to ride bits of it as parts of various loops in the area but this is out of convenience rather than design.

There’s more variety at Dalby but Sutton Bank feels more natural IMO.

+1 for Carwow
I used it recently to decide if the “fantastic offer” a dealer was proposing was actually any good.

Close Encounters of the Turd Kind

Whenever I ask salespeople into the house to quote for home improvements I always make it very clear (in a nice way) that I’m after a written quotation that is good for at least 30 days and that there is absolutely no way I will be buying anything from them at that visit.

If they try the “if you buy now then we’ll give you a discount” routine I remind them what I asked for.

If they persist I tell them to leave and that I’ll not be using them.

Any decent company will be happy to give a proper quotation. IME only shysters do the one day only discount thing.

A few years ago one double glazing salesman asked me what he could do to get me to sign up on the spot for new windows and doors. I told him that if he’d do the lot for £1 then he had a deal, anything more than that wasn’t acceptable.

Stick a couple of small(ish) pork pies in a Nutri-Bullet, top up with gravy until you have a bottle full, blend until it’s runny.
Ride like a beast, drink your special drink, ride like a beast again.
Job jobbed.

HTH

The vast majority of my riding is on the North Yorkshire Moors so there is a fair few sections of squelchy mud with hardpack in between.

I have 2.25 Maxxis Ardents on both ends of my 29er hardtail, they work well for me but am conscious that the wider tyres don’t cut through the soft stuff and tend to float over it.

Unanimity :D
Thanks folks, sounds as though a Dirt Wizard is worth a look.

Thanks Davosaurusrex, I was going to ask a very similar question.

Bookmarked for thread-stalking purposes

Round here the word on the street is Slow.

I’ve recently bought a Hiplok Lite to use when touring/shopping/off to the pub. Am impressed.

Was a bit skeptical at first about how comfortable it would be when riding but in genuinely can’t tell I have it on.

This is with normal/MTB clothing and a normally upholstered person (6’2″ and 13 stones) might be less comfy if you’re a racing snake in lycra but as the chain rests just below the hip bones I think it should be fine.

I was wearing it off the bike for over an hour yesterday once I’d got home, completely forgot I had it on, only noticed it when I got in the car and wondered why the driver’s seat was suddenly all lumpy in the hip area :D

How about a Camberwell Carrot?

After that you’ll not be all that worried about whether it’s going to collapse or not.

They’re called Grollings.

HTH

I got the letter last week calling in my 2.0 140tdi Superb in for the software fix.

I shan’t be getting it done, it runs absolutely fine and as I’m selling it in the next few weeks of rather leave it up to the next owner to decide if they want it done.

Another firmly in the “if it ain’t broke…” camp

You can have my Skoda Superb for £6k it has a towbar and everything (almost) :wink:

Edit – Posted simultaneously with Parksie 8)

@nickewen, pretty much yes.

In my current car I think the range is calculated based on average consumption over the previous 2k miles (or something).

I’ve also (to my shame :oops: ) been tracking my MPG using Fuelly and have averaged 49.7 Mpg over the last 40k ish miles and the on-board computer is always between 53 and 55 mpg

That depends on whether you’re working in metric or imperial

CaptainFlashheart – Member
No, I’m German. But how did you know my name was Walter?

The tobogganist?

True, but you don’t use rackets in hammer throwing :wink:

A skilled operator could probably install a nail from about 70m away based on this evening’s performances

Cougar – Moderator

Car Speedos over read by 5 or 10 percent. If the odometer does likewise then that accounts for most of the difference.

See, I thought this at first. I actually started typing a reply then deleted it because I realised – if the odometer is throwing out the computer’s calculations, it’ll be throwing out the OP’s manual calculations also.

I went through this thought process before I started the thread.

My thinking is that the odometer will give a consistent figure to both computer and driver calcs so won’t affect the result either way.

The maths to work out MPG is very straightforward and the same for both calculations so on this basis the only figure that can be variable (in this case) is the actual amount of fuel used over a given period/mileage.

As forecourt fuel pumps are calibrated and checked by trading standards/weights and measures people it must be the fuel useage sensor thing in the vehicle that is potentially inaccurate.

Osprey Flapjack (or Flapjill).

Its about 15l in total so plenty big enough for laptop, change of clothes, lunch and the like and it has a waist strap to keep it in place when on the bike (I’ve only cycled a couple of limes at a time with it but I’d be happy to ride further with it (although for longer journeys I tend to use panniers :wink: ))

I have the former and have abused it as briefcase/overnight bag/commuter bag for 3 years. Still looks virtually new.

EDIT

I have the same model as Cletus, not tried the new, single buckle model.

cloudnine – Member
Yes.. three breasts is just greedy and a waste

Ok, you go tell Eccentrica Galumbits that and see how you get on…

Thought I’d just do a (very) quick ride report…

We rode the solar system yesterday, navigation was very easy, thanks for the guidance on getting out of Selby.

The route is, as mrjmt said, about as flat as a ride can be, easy to navigate and we had a thoroughly pleasant day out (with the added bonus that humorous pictures can be taken of Uranus :lol: ).

Might do it again sometime solo (or with other adults) and continue through York to home (about another 40 miles) for a bit more of a ride

Thanks for all the info and also to Mrjmt for the offer of refreshments (we’re only in Northallerton so will hop on the train home when we get back to York).

We’re going to do it tomorrow, so here’s hoping the weather forecast is reasonably accurate

Thanks for the swift replies folks, the STW view is very much what I was expecting. I shall act accordingly… :D

Pogs?

Decide what size boxes/plastic crates you’re typically going to use to store stuff in and make sure they’ll fit on the shelves.

IMO I’d not use anything much bigger than an archive box as this will help prevent overloading the shelves and your back :-)

Another vote for Miele here.
Came with a 10 year warranty about about 15 years ago and has never missed a beat.
It’s quiet even in full spin and is almost heavy enough to generate it’s own gravitational field.
Completely agree with it being a 2 man job to shift it, when we moved house 13 years ago the removal man who was dealing with the kitchen stuff took one look and shouted to his mate “Give us a hand in here John, they’ve got a Meile” :D
It’s dealt with (at a conservative estimate) about 10 washes a week including frequent lots of muddy biking/football/running/general outdoors kit.
We’d get another one without hesitation.

Thanks folks, it would appear that my fears are unfounded :-)

*Stealthily edited :wink:

Thanks Russell96

Do they tend to clean up ok apart from the jeans issue?

Time to deploy the Arse Abacus (TM)?

Yes, natch :wink:

I was reversing (in my car) into a parking space yesterday, person tries to steal the space by driving into the same space forwards.

I keep going (slowly) on the basis that the towbar attached to my somewhat scruffy 7 year old Skoda will come off better than the front of his nearly new A3 if there is any actual contact.

He winds down his window and shouts “****ing cyclist” at me before driving off.

I assume he must have seen the Tour de Yorkshire in my rear window.

@monkeyboyjc

Does the post have adjustable saddle angle?

The Ebay link suggests not but the pictures on the bikediscount.de site appears to show it as being adjustable.

Bookmarked for later

My money’s on Eddie Izzard

Time to deploy the Cone of Shame*

*Available from all good veterinarians (and probably most crap ones).