Ben's Citroen in Sweden

[Ben82]

I hear you there Jim, considering it's not even Carbon Fibre it hardly weighs a thing and can be carried (if balanced!) with 1 finger! I have similar to these on the bike: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-pd-m520-pedals/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's a shame that I daren't leave it anywhere as it would have been perfect for going shopping here with a backpack, but need someone with me to watch the bike whilst I shop!
My cousin got his nickname put on his bike (not sure if it's painted, but it looks like a good job). But the problem with me doing that is the bikes being so rare thieves might just assume it's part of the bike anyway.

[Hell Razor5543]

When my cousin Bob was at university (in Cambridge) he said it was common for bicycles to get stolen. What seemed to happen a lot was that somebody would turn up with a backpack, take a look around, and if it was clear, whip out a bolt cutter, slice through the lock, and bye bye bicycle. You needed very expensive locks (made of indestructium) to protect your bicycles there!

[CitroJim]

My Defy is carbon fibre Ben and will blow away in a breeze

Here she is



Both my bikes are insured at a cost not far off the cost of car insurance and they insist on approved locks... Hence the humungus D lock I have that weights several tons and I think is made of Indestructium

Not dared to leave my Defy parked anywhere yet... Locked or unlocked...

[elma]

Wow carbon fibre and discs! Road bikes are coming around to my way of thinking. That top tube doesn't look terribly back breaking either. If only there were bike roads for them with no cars.

[CitroJim]

If only there were bike roads for them with no cars.

If only They can be found James but you have to ride a bit on busy roads to get to them

It's amazing the technology in a modern bike nowadays and the Defy is not a particularly high-end one either... Get up to the real carlos fandango ones and it's mind-boggling... Electronic gears are now available if you have very deep pockets and virtually everything can be made of carbon now... Even wheels... And tubeless to boot!

[myglaren]

My youngest daughter, Laura, has a partner who's day job is building high end cycles. Some of them cost more than cars.
He has a racing cycle that weighs about as much as a sheet of newspaper and is all but invisible head on.

She has a bike just like yours Jim, grandson has a similar one his dad built for him.

Youngest son only owns one and a half bikes now, self built. Don't know what they cost but one was £16,000+

[CitroJim]

Youngest son only owns one and a half bikes now, self built. Don't know what they cost but one was £16,000+

Gosh and gosh squared Must be one heck of a bike with all top-notch gear on it...

[Ben82]

That is a lovely looking bike Jim... really jealous. Mine doesn't have disc brakes just the standard pads on the rims. £16K for a bike...wow.


Today has been very tiring, the C5 failed me in the towing department, as per my other thread, it's a shame as the towing stuff was working when we towed something last (probably about 6 months ago).

So I ended up driving a Hyundai i20, towing a trailer far bigger than the car. It was my first time towing a trailer as well. So had to get used to two new things in one go (the car and the trailer). Everything went fine and we made 3 trips to the house and back and have made a lot of headway with getting our stuff down there. We mainly have stuff that we can fill up the car with and then big furnitures to take down.

SWMBO'd doesn't want to live in the flat any more, and wants us to be moved in asap. Not sure how that will work Cay's Step Dad's Cousin (who lives nearby so a distant relative who isn't that distant!) also has a C5 V6 (mk2 though), which we might be able to borrow for towing duties. I love the way insurance works over here, it is a godsend, insure the car not the driver(s).

[CitroJim]

Moving house apparently is one of life's most stressful activities Ben and when towing electrics fail it makes it much worse I guess

That makes sense with Insurance Ben. I know the insurance situation here needs a really fundamental overhaul and that would be a good start/model to work at potentially.

[myglaren]

Swedish system of insurance is far too common-sense for this country.

One thing that the Swedes I worked with assured me of very early on was that the British have a predilection for making things far more complicated that they need to be.

The Swedish tax system on the other hand - strikes terror into most hearts every damned year.

[Ben82]

The Swedish tax system on the other hand - strikes terror into most hearts every damned year.

Cay has her own company and I have to help her with filling out her taxes every month, it does seem rather complex, but I'm not sure if the UK tax system is any better (I haven't had much experience with tax returns etc so wouldn't know).

I doubt the Insurance sector would want to switch to be honest, after all charging a premium for new drivers etc probably nets them a hell of a lot of money. The only caveat some insurers have over here (for cheaper insurance) is that the driver needs to be at least 25 - irrespective of when they passed their test.
You can also drive on the roads here without a license from the age of 16, in a vehicle that has only 3 gears and is limited to ~30mph, those vehicles have a triangle on the back, they look like this

[CitroJim]

You can also drive on the roads here without a license from the age of 16, in a vehicle that has only 3 gears and is limited to ~30mph, those vehicles have a triangle on the back, they look like this

How interesting They must cause a fair few hold-ups I'd have thought... Do they have a rule that says they must stop every so often to allow tailbacks to pass them out on the open road?

[elma]

When you build your own £16,000 sounds normal.

This idea got put in the "later" drawer when the cheapest I could produce a prototype frame was around £10k, it's a new composite idea that may not even work. It had a few dirty tricks built in that would have seen it winning races for a season then being banned. Full assembly would have worked out over £16k as the wheels and gears on it were a bit unique as well. I'll come back to it later.
I also have an idea for growing frames from mould and impregnating them with resin, that'll be dirt cheap but I need a mushroom farm first.

I think youngsters in 30mph restricted cars with a big red warning on the back sounds great. I've seen far too many kids come off of mopeds over here which aren't really suitable for winter use anyway.

[Ben82]

You can also drive on the roads here without a license from the age of 16, in a vehicle that has only 3 gears and is limited to ~30mph, those vehicles have a triangle on the back, they look like this

How interesting They must cause a fair few hold-ups I'd have thought... Do they have a rule that says they must stop every so often to allow tailbacks to pass them out on the open road?

Depends on how busy the road is... since they're only doing 30 and the size of a regular car, overtaking them is generally easier than say a tractor. Open roads generally have about 1/3rd of a lanes' (some have whole lanes like a hard shoulder) width on either side of the road that they generally pull into to allow overtaking. I think I caused more of a tailback yesterday doing 80kph in an 80 limit

I'm not sure if there's any specific rules that apply to them differently from any other road user to be honest.

They're quite expensive though, seen them going 2nd hand for 6-10 grand, not sure how teens can afford them, maybe they get them on their student loans or so, to be able to get to uni!

[Ben82]

Pics of the house are over this way --> https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 3fd9318a90" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;