geoff-r

Sweating it out in an office with no a/c, not by a window with a ropey 8" fan. Still going outside and feeling that warmth is good.

Cheers for the advice mate I'll keep looking then, of course if you see any good buys on ebay or the like let me know, I'm itching to get myself a bike again!

I would love to buy Jims bike but it's a bit out of my price range and to be honest I think it would be over spec'd for me! But then the thought of never having to upgrade it is nice. I've been looking at the Specialized bikes especially the Rockhopper and Hardrocks as there seems to be a lot around and at quite reasonable money, just didn't know if they were any good.

With Admiral myself but didn't think it was available until 25 (I only used it after being 25), my brother who's 22 is with Admiral as well - I can see if he has the option to drive other cars.

Most are 25 as far as I know mate, sorry not much help but 21 is still high risk.

I know there's quite a few bikers on here (push bike that is) and I'm after a bit of advice. I recently sold my bike and I'm looking to buy another. My previous bike being a Norco A-Line was pretty hardcore and I'm after something I can use on an everyday basis, mainly a bit of road use but mostly on light gravel surfaces. I've been borrowing my brothers 2010 Norco Bigfoot for the last week and it seems to be a perfect bike, love the look of it, kit seems great for what I need but I'm struggling to find any second hand ones (I'm not really in the market for brand new as there are so many bikes that get bought, not used enough and have a huge saving). Can anyone suggest any other bikes? Looking at around the £350 mark for second hand, possibly push a little higher. My main needs in the bike are front suspension (would prefer a hardtail to a full sus to be honest) a good solid light frame and the ability to be chucked about a little if need be, thanks in advance!

Yeah I have to agree the sound system won't be quite as good, the Germans do their sound systems better. My 03 A3 has a better sound system than my 07 plate 350 had. Never had a vent jobber, is that the note pad on the vent? Maybe I should get one so I can note down my money making ideas on the commute

I'd be interested in the out takes!

It's nice mate should be in 'other cars' though. Liking the change to a Zed after it?

Raising the speed limit is not the answer. 99% of the country needs to be educated on how to use a motorway/dual carriageway. Driving on motorways is terrible, people are not taught and they never learn and it totally winds me up.

Mate the 'ASBO' stickers, class

Uh oh, just downloaded this game, I can see me wasting a huge amount of time on it

Haha reminds me of that quality scene in The Inbetweeners!

The guns are a real nice touch!

I like it

People still use analogue? Don't think we've had analogue in Wales for over a year now!

It's not too different, system is similar. I'm not comparing a 370 to a Micra.

Cheers mate I don't mean to make everyone paranoid when it could infact turn out to be normal. Just don't remember it on my 350

I know and this is why I shouldn't be so concerned, I'm sure it's the exhaust and as I will change it in the future maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Pinging would probably be a better description yes. It's just the whole pinging when idling. I would expect it after a drive but it just sounds excessive.

Just after a response to my concern of is this normal or not? Last night I took my car for a little spin, nothing over the top at all, all below 70mph. I saw a mate at the traffic lights and pulled alongside, as we waited for the lights to change we had a quick chat and it became apparent my car was making what I can only describe as cracking noises (the noises you get when a car is cooling down after a heavy drive). I gave the throttle a little blip and the noise died down a little but on tick over it remained there. My mate said the noise didn't sound normal on a car when idling, he's a vehicle technician so I would rate his opinion. I've always thought the exhaust system cracked a lot on my 370 as I can literally go for a 5 minute drive, nothing above 40mph, pull up on the drive turn off the car and the exhaust system cracks like mad. I can do exactly the same in my A3 and it won't make a sound. So I really want to know, is this cracking sound normal on tick over and is my exhaust system cracking excessive when I turn the car off after a short drive?

I took it easy for about a 10th of that When I picked mine up from an HPC their GTR Tech said to get the oil warm then build up the revs over a few increasing runs. Worst thing you can apparently do is to sit at the same revs and part throttle a lot with a new engine. That can be worse than anything that can happen giving it a good ragging when warm. Main thing to watch is the tyres and brakes. They both need a bit of bedding in before you can fully lean on them, and IMO this is why they impose these running in periods - purely to stop people ragging a car they dont know and trying to nail it on the manufacturer. My car has now done 15k miles, hasnt missed a beat and hasnt used any real amount of oil. To be honest I think I asked a question about running in periods and you gave me similar advice. I report no problems with the engine at all to be honest pampering it to 1500 miles or so would have been a painful task and as I've had the car since June last year and still haven't cracked 6k it would have been painful driving like a granny up to 1500 miles!

Terminals on the bottom then

Hyundai's are starting to look better if you can get past the badge (I still can't get past them after my housemate had an awful P reg Accent coupe in uni). http://www.canibeat.com/2011/09/show-me ... i-genesis/

Nice pics bronzee! Great result for the Irish, gutted I missed the game though