No, I did get an NIP for one recently, but it was followed by a letter stating that they would take no further action, so no naughty boy’s course for me.

I think we’ve moved past a time when cars reflected the owner’s wealth or importance, now anyone with a reasonable income and a decent credit score can get themselves into something very flash. Not much of a status symbol if they don’t reflect your status.

Not sure I’d want to keep hold of a modern diesel if I wasn’t doing big miles though, too many things to go wrong.

Headlights can cost thousands per side now and are often damaged in crashes or a popular upgrade. Easier to store/hide than a set of wheels too.

It’s a long time to be stuck in a small space with a few people for company and your bosses watching your every move. I think I’d go insane.

It’d just take a jack, an impact driver and a dozen bricks. You can probably do without the bricks as long as just dumping the corner of the car on the deck leaves enough clearance for the next jacking. And it’d probably be safer!

A trolley jack and an impact gun are two of the loudest tools out there. It’s also hard for anyone passing to pretend to themselves that there is a legitimate reason for leaving a car on bricks. It can be done no problem, but I don’t think many would risk it simply for some used mid-size Cross Climates.

Odd, over the last twenty-odd years of having cars with locking wheel nuts, I’ve never, ever had an issue with them, and that includes having to take a wheel off myself and put a spare on.

With my Ford, it’s not so much someone nicking the wheels for the alloys, it’s someone nicking the Continental and Michelin all-climate tyres, somewhere north of £700 worth of rubber. It’s not difficult to have £1000 worth of tyres on a mid-range car, once you get to higher spec or an EV, £2000 becomes an expensive reality, so being blasé about a set of average alloys might need a reality check. Proper performance cars are around £1000/corner, just for starters.

Used tyres don’t sell very well generally unless they are an odd size for a flash car. It takes time, effort and planning to take a set of wheels without replacing them at the same time and the reward just isn’t there. I’ve heard stories of people swapping wheels with hire cars, but I’m pretty sure your tyres are safe even in the rougher parts of the country.

Locking wheel nuts are pretty unnecessary these days unless you have a very fancy set of wheels worth at least a couple of grand on the second hand market and even then if they want them, they will take them.

Kinesis really need to sort out their graphics. They’ve been dreadful for as long as I can remember and really cheapen the look of the frame.

About the time they stuck that offensive numberplate on the Porsche in Argentina.

That was absolutely not the case. They did do stupid and offensive things over the years for which I will not defend them, but that was simply a coincidence.

Putting threads like this on a cycling forum is getting close to trolling why don’t you all go over to a suitable car forum if you are getting this excited about a car tv show.

Yes, because no-one who enjoys one of the largest shows in the World can also enjoy cycling.

It’s almost as if the thread title made it very clear about the contents and yet here you all are chomping at the bit to flex your moral superiority when you could have just stayed away.

Grand Tour hasn’t been great overall, but realising that this is the end is quite emotional. As a car obsessed lad growing up, these 3 were my absolute idols. Adventures, ebing silly and enjoying cars was such a breath of fresh air after the tedium of fact-based motoring programs.

Back where the big adventures all began on the salt flats with Clarkson in a Lancia.

I’d enter us into some kind of economic partnership with mainland Europe that allowed tariff and customs free trading whilst increasing tariffs for goods from China etc. to allow local manufacturing to become more competitive and minimise the amount of ships burning horrendous fuels travelling half way across the globe.

Of course it will get cheaper, but pegging an RRP at over 1100 quid means that before you know it the reviews will be praising the bargain £699 Marzocchi version for being a great affordable option.

I still think a post that goes up and down at the press of a button would be a good thing. Give it that feature and I’ll look at the price again.

With a Doubletap style half press for going halfway and full press for all the way down/up.

I still wouldn’t pay anything like 4  figures though.

It’s also ugly, which surely doesn’t suit the boutique bicycles whose owners it’s surely aimed at. Looks like a seatpost wearing an ankle tag.

£600ish (assuming alu frame). 650b is pretty unpopular at the moment.

Probably worth taking the brakes off and swapping them for some cheap Shimano since it won’t drop the value much but the Hopes will sell well.

JD Vance definitely seems like an awful choice. A grifter without the charm.

Trump’s backers must be desperately looking for dirt on Harris right now.

Whatever you decide on, avoid 2nd hand. Due to the nature of air, it fills the tank with moisture as well and that corrodes the inside, until one day, the tank explodes. With 2nd hand, you dont know if they used a filter, or how long its been in use.

I was recently given an old Airmate compressor that I would guess is 80s. I’ve used it without dying this far, but should I be concerned?

Biden is your typical old man who has only given up the keys after he’s rolled the car. He didn’t wait until now to help the Dems or screw the Republicans, it just became significantly more likely that he was going to lose, so he saves some face by dropping out rather than being the one to hand the presidency to Trump.

Great for little bits that you can’t really go wrong with like shifter clamps/crank boots or small car parts (replacement parking sensors were less than £15 for 4 and work well). Basically if you see it on ebay and it looks like it came straight from China, it’s probably cheaper on Aliexpress.

Can’t say I buy a lot, but never had any issues aside from slightly late deliveries (much quicker than it used to be though)

No chance the lower is steel. Has the caustic soda really not touched it?

I see there’s a constituency where you can vote for Reform but they can’t tell you who the candidate is yet.

Genius. Do you want one of these boring candidates or a mystery candidate who is almost certainly a throbber? Mystery candidate every time.

It seems crazy that Shimano still don’t have a single wireless groupset and Sram just keep pumping out more affordable options. I’m more of a Shimano guy, but must admit that AXS is very nice to use (but not convinced I want £300 worth of mech bashing into rocks)

Some people do seem to want STW to fail. No one is scamming you, you can opt out or not visit the site.

I appreciate the honest approach we’ve seen lately and it has made me aware of the work going on behind the scenes to make the site better and prepare it for the future.

Running a website costs money and people need to make a living. Perhaps some would prefer a large company buying STW out, making big losses and then binning the whole thing.

https://www.merlincycles.com/felt-breed-30-grx-gravel-bike-316151.html

Decent value if you want new, not checked out the geo or reviews though.

I got a lightly used Marin with GRX and a dropper for about £580 which has been great.

Have you tried a wide bar through the seat clamp (lower part removed) for maximum twisting torque? Always worked for me.

I had a nice nap on the sofa and still plenty of evening to enjoy now. Lovely.

Just Stop Oil do seem to be on a mission to make it easy for the general public to hate them and politicians to condemn them by being provocative in all the stupidest ways, but the outrage still manages to be worse.

Not much chat about the Denmark game on here

Are you all worried?

Not arsed here. The hope has finally given way to apathy.

That’s insane. So much effort to go to considering you say they aren’t particularly special bikes. Stealing a car, ram raiding a garage and then beating a bloke with a pipe. They must have no regard for any consequences (legal or physical) whatsoever. I honestly had no idea that this sort of thing happens to regular folk in normal residential properties.

Hopefully you recover quickly, I really feel for you. Such an awful experience.

I’m relieved, I definitely bought a lot of stuff I wasn’t planning to. It has made it easier to resist bargains that aren’t on the same level.

I’ve got a basic Dremel, not sure of the model, but with too many old cars it’s had an absolute kicking for at least a decade and it still works well.

I highly recommend the Dremel Speedclic cutting discs regardless of which brand tool you go for. You need the little speedclic adapter and the discs are pricey, but nothing else I’ve used gets close in terms of cutting and durability.

It most likely won’t cause catastrophic damage and will probably work ok for a while, but I’d rather an old chain than a fake. Chains can be had cheaply from legitimate sources so it’s such a false economy. Decathlon sell re-boxed KMCs at good prices.

The rise in the number of superficially passable fake bike components feels like it’s been massive recently.

Just bought a Greggs iced latte in a can. I was expecting it to be sickly sweet, but it tasted utterly awful and nothing at all like coffee. Down the sink.

Basically a caravanner

I wish. Never met a caravanner who spends more time working on their caravan than using it.

Honda Jazz. They are much more spacious than you’d expect and very reliable. They’ve also usually been owned by older people who care about things like servicing and don’t mind spending money on cars which is a rarity for stuff at that price point.

I wouldn’t touch a £3k 1 series and I’d definitely avoid diesel. Seat Leon and other VAG stuff will have issues at this age and money.

https://www.creationwatches.com/products/seiko-mens-208/seiko-presage-cocktail-time-blue-acapulco-open-heart-automatic-ssa439-ssa439j1-ssa439j-mens-watch-21272.html

Just cut the lock and it’s almost certain no-one will care or do anything

You’re not doing anything illegal and presumably you can prove ownership in needed, so don’t worry about it.

I think the main thing is to be realistic about the price. plenty of bikes out there not selling. Ebay sold listings is usually a good indication of actual pricing. Intense don’t seem to get a lot of love on the second hand market so I’d be inclined to split it. Being 29 and boost, the bits will still be desirable. 650b stuff appears to be pretty much worthless now.