Irn Bru

Hi Ian, reason for anti clockwise was I really want to see the Giants Causeway stones on the north coast. I haven't got a clue if even doing the entire / most of the coastal route would be possible in 4 days, hoping for experienced Ireland members to chime in on this Think you will be pushing it....we have done all the irish coast anti right round galway and donegal to the giants causeway so going wise would take us doing the part we haven't done but i honestly don't think that way has that much to offer; might i suggest we go from stranraer and do it that way if you want to go to the causeway...but as you say maybe some of our irish cousins can chime in I suggested Liverpool as the start so as to try and encourage a good mix of members to join the trip, easy access for almost everyone and pretty central in the uk geography, but I'm more than happy to listen to everyone's ideas for this trip, start points route etc, it's all in the pot for stirring everybody's imagination and input

Well fast enough to enjoy the roads, but slow enough to take in the scenery is always my philosophy

Hi Ian, reason for anti clockwise was I really want to see the Giants Causeway stones on the north coast. I haven't got a clue if even doing the entire / most of the coastal route would be possible in 4 days, hoping for experienced Ireland members to chime in on this

I did think of that before posting but as it's so far away at the min, I'll leave it here and see how the interest builds. If warrantied, I'll ask a mod to move it later this year.

I always wanted to tour the Emerald Isle ever since I learned to drive many moons ago, and what better way to do it than in a Zed and with club members. As title date it's ages away yet but as I have a ton of events and road trips planned for most of this year, plus the fact I know very little about all the good roads to do, Im starting this early to garner as much info as I can, as soon as I can, that way when the pulling together of the final route and overnight stays are fixed in, it'll be much easier to do. I've only ever been to Belfast and Bangor for a wedding, as far as Ireland is concerned but I know from speaking to folks who have done it, it's an amazing place with great roads and scenery to take in. Road trip open to members and their friends and would again be done over a 4 day long weekend. Obviously attendees are free to make it as short or as long as they wanted to do themselves if they like. Soooooo, looking for input from any member who either, has done a tour or / lives in the Emerald Isle. Won't be putting an official attendee list up till nearer the time but if anybody wishes to say "I'm in" at this point or further down the planning stages then great. Would be looking to get ferry from Liverpool to Dublin and start the tour there, probably heading in a anti clockwise direction and following the coastal roads for the most part, but happy to be advised on better roads and route by anyone in the know. Be great to have members attending from all five nations on this trip if possible. Cheers Bri

One word...... Juncker. HE is the biggest threat to the EU, not us in the UK. That guy needs retiring with some lead !!

Major reform of The House of Lords was in The Labour Party manifesto.............in 1964!! They've been in power for over 20 years since then and all they have done is to reduce the number of hereditary peers, who were in the main Conservatives. The problem is that if you had an elected second house it would lead to similar problems they have in The States with one party blocking the other. If you held the election on the same day as a General Election then it'd most likely go the same way with the same party winning both the Lords and the Commons. If you held the election mid term then it would on most occasions result in the opposition winning and blocking legislation...not good. Anyway, The Lords have limited powers and can't block things indefinitely. Pete Interesting info on the 1964 manifesto Pete, didn't know that. My gripe as you will have read is that they are "placed" in the Lords by the current PM's, not us, the people they are supposed to work for. Elected officials is democracy at work, the Lords isn't.

Plenty of us dont get to vote on who represents us though so thats not really an argument , I mean did you get to vote for your first minister or the Prime minister ?? Not sure I'm getting your question, but yes of course I did and do at every election ! Edit: Ah... see what your trying to say now. Nobody gets to elect the FM or the PM, we only get vote for a party politician, but you vote for the party leader, cause that's who does all the talking. Only the party MP's can vote for their leader, and as it's been for the last few leaders they have decided who becomes the FM or PM, us minions only get to select our prefered candidates as MP's.

Not saying I don't agree with you, but then why have a second tier at all? It's just another layer of democracy that really won't serve any purpose, as then all we're doing is having two MPs per constituency. Whilst the olde worlde person who like UK history and the way the law/Parliament works wants to keep the HoL, I'd rather see it removed from the decision making process altogether. It could stay simply as a discussion room, where people who do still have influence in the real world (rightly or wrongly) can debate the choices made by those sitting in the green seats without actually having any real power. Agreed, but at least have "the discussion room people" elected by their peers / public. Again, it's all about the UK being deemed a modern democratic country to live in, unelected "discussion room people", well that's just the same as the Lords is now ! If they were an elected council, then at least everybody gets a say in who they want discussing the relevant bills and laws on their behalf. If it's left to the system it is now, it remains an unelected body looking out for their own interest as the Lords are doing and have done for decades. This is 2017, the pomp and grace that bestows the Lords belongs in the 18th century. Brexit is going to lead to many many new ways of how the uk goes about its business and we as a nation need to evolve past this pomp if we are going to make our mark in the world outside of the eu. And a good start IMHO would be to drain the swamp and drag our political houses into the 21st century where all and every person who enters politics knows their going to be held to account, or they'll be voted out. That's the problem with the Lords, we the public don't get to vote them in. The uk system of lower and upper chambers is full to the gunnels with cronies.

The Lord's is nothing but cronism and an outdated 2nd teir council. Bin them and have an elected upper house put in place. How can democracy be claimed in a modern country when you have unelected ballons shouting down the elected government ?. After all most of them were 3rd rate civil servents who brown eyed the previous Prime Ministers and really have nothing to offer and no right to be shouting down an elected government. I sincerely hope that a general election comes along soon where a major player puts it into their election manifesto that they will reform the Lords and turn it to an elected house of representation for us minions and boot all these old codgers into touch.

Ditto. ... For me it's a case of I know that I'm on a road with other vehicles and kerbs ready to break my bones if I come off the bike, and having been "doon the road" 3 times in my biking years I know how much that hurts. Same applies to driving the zed, only at the back of my mind it's more to do with not wanting to damage her by rattling into kerb !!

@ Ekona, I'm running with Avon zz5's, were put on new for me at point of sale 2.5 years ago and still got a few 1000 miles left on them. I've found them to be good, at least for my driving ability and I've only really pushed them and myself to the limits when I done a track day at Crail. I found them to be pretty good and considering the Crail track resembles the state of our roads I was very happy with the performance of them. Reason for asking is I'm probably going to use these again when the time comes to replace them, but I never hear of any other member using them or asking about them. They are A rated for wet grip, E rated for fuel and 70 on road noise. I like them and they are competitively priced just now at £100 for the fronts and £110 for the rears on 18's. Down £20 per corner since last year, which makes my tyre supplier think they are replacing them with a new version. So £420 in total for what I believe to be a very good tyre. Your thoughts / knowledge on these Dan ?

I thought ice thefts had died off these days with them being security coded and "cheapish" tbh. I haven't heard of breaking in and theft of an ice for years. Cars actually being stolen, that's another thing altogether.

What does that mean wilo? Still For Sale Cheers Irn Bru, ...can't believe I didn't get that. I'm blaming man flu. It took me a few minutes to suss it too mate lol

What does that mean wilo? Still For Sale

It's all about taste at the end of the day.......and budget obviously, but I'm not one for spending mega on a mod that's only got a fraction of it on show, barr the Ark Grip system that is, but that's mega maccaroonies. The Toyosports exhaust came with the car, brand new, and not loud enough for me, so got the resonator deleted. ........ still not loud enough so decatted, but then my flexi went pop, so shelled out for a Stillen Y pipe, so now I'm running a full mongrel exhaust, Japspeed decats, stillen Y pipe and Toyosports exhaust, no fitment issues with all the different pieces and loud as............

Brilliant news

Guess it's all about your budget, anything from £300 ish to.......well whatever you want to spend. Toyosports is a good budget exhaust but the y pipe flexi's are sh!te, but rest of it is good quality, Invidia for the quality and sound, Japspeed K1 for brutal noise lol.

trouble with that is if you've went to the expense of uprated over stock, which can be 100's of £'s dearer then you can't claim for them if your in a accident Hmm good point, I hadnt considered it from that angle. It has always been more about having a payout declined due to non disclosure Exactly why I declare everything and in writing (and I always make sure I get a response too), just not worth the grief with a decline to payout. Also, up here if your pulled by the rozzers, they go thru your car with a fine tooth combe and ask you if your mods are declared, then go off and check their data base. And as my car is very loud I can expect to get pulled at any time. Tbh though they don't seem to mind loud cars here, but they will go through every inch of it if they do pull you

Excellent, thank you! Can I ask which broker, and which underwriter? Broker is Grove & Dean and insured with AXA

trouble with that is if you've went to the expense of uprated over stock, which can be 100's of £'s dearer then you can't claim for them if your in a accident

Notified my insurance broker when I fitted mine, told them what it does and doesn't do, accepted no problem. I email my broker every time I add a mod, fully describing what it does, never had any issues with them, however I am on a moddified car policy, which I'm told by my insurer is the best way to insure if you want to continually add mods to your car. Only thing that seems to get questioned is any power increase modding, but even then when my car went from standard bhp to 300 ish I didn't get any increase, turboing, supercharging also easily accepted, however they won't touch a NOS' d car .

.....fastest de colour too