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you can check out any time you like but you can never leave… 😉
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yeah it’s an absolute beauty of a spot. I joined one club but they only did events/competitions and didn’t have a practice ground of their own, and whist I tried one of the comps as a total newbie I was waaaaay out of my depth skills-wise, even on the novice routes. I had a go at all the sections but I crashed a LOT and spent much of the day getting dragged out of ditches by very patient marshalls xD.
However, through joining that club that led me to the one I’m at now which has it’s own practice ground. They also do comps but I’m not really a big one for “organised fun” anyway (esp first thing in the morning!) and much prefer just working on obstacles/techniques at my own pace. There’s a few folks who go there regularly in the afternoon mid week and it’s very nice and chilled, much more my scene 🙂
There’s help/advice from others if you want it but otherwise you can just show up and do your thing. Plenty of space for everyone to do what they want in peace and quiet without annoying anyone or any legal issues. I had a glorious run of 5 weeks in the summer where it was sunny and I got to ride every week.. then stuff just kicked off in all sorts of areas. At the same time I got injured (non-riding-related), and then injured again in a different way (also non riding) so spent the next 6 weeks or so hobbling to and from doctors with 50% of limbs bandaged/strapped up to hold me together lol xD
I’m mobile again now thankfully but it’s been a wee bit challenging.
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yes and no.
I already had a bike trailer so that was the first thing I considered and it’s something I tried while I still had the audi. Whilst I’m not a huge fan of driving with a trailer and can’t reverse with one for toffee, it sorta worked ok the couple of times I got to use it before the audi packed in.
When I went to a bike event though I noticed they basically all had vans, out of 50+ people, almost zero trailers and I asked why that was.
Apparently it’s not uncommon for folks trailing bikes to get followed home from meets and later the bikes get stolen, especially as people who have a dirt bike usually have others too, which seemed plausible, and the near total adoption of vans supported that . On the bike groups there’s bikes getting nicked every week so it’s definitely a thing.
Also part of my intent/hope was potentially to go to places (other than the club) to ride – so find a nice scenic spot and go exploring (e.g. salisbury plain trails and similar) where I’d then be leaving the car, trailer and all other stuff on its own for extended periods of time. Again in a car stuffed full of tools and gear it’s very obvious what it is and very easy to steal, vs an ambiguous white transit which could be anything and has a sealed, opaque rear compartment.
Especially with dirt bikes, the sheer amount of spares and kit you need to take, from tools to spare wheels/tyres to riding gear, really piles up and whilst it may have just about all fit in the syncro it wouldn’t have been ideal. As we know the syncros aren’t really famous for having bags of room at the best of times. As it is the van is piled high when I go out, even the front seat is full normally.
Most of all though, as I mentioned it’s been a difficult few years and the ..erm.. shall we say..”technical riding” was what pulled me out of that dark hole and kept me going. What I needed was just a reliable, efficient box on wheels to take the bike to a place where such riding is allowed and indeed encouraged, not something which is predicated on a whole stack of “what-if”s and “maybes” which, unfortunately, the syncro still is.
I had already kinda resolved that the syncro was the last car I was ever going to own so wasn’t really that keen on the idea of a van initially, but I had a few close calls and even a couple of mishaps so I needed something which worked right away before I messed up properly and got really hurt, cos I also wasn’t gonna stop doing what I was doing. My dad sorta talked me round and I tried renting one for a few days to test the idea and whilst hiring was expensive and not terribly convenient, it worked great which got me wondering about it more seriously.
It turns out asphalt/kerbs/concrete etc are *really hard* when you’re thrown at them and a bike dropped on top of you, even with full armour. I can tell you that after what must really have been about the mildest accident you could have in the circumstances, then having to then push a broken motorbike a several miles home in the rain with a couple of broken ribs, a fresh back injury and a concussion, and the several months recovery afterwards gave me plenty of time to reflect on how much worse it could have been and how perhaps learning this sort of thing on nice soft mud without the threat of pretty significant legal repercussions might be a better plan, and sooner than later!
Thankfully I found a club which owns a nice bit of land where you have a key and can just go ride any time you like. They go round periodically with a digger and set up new piles of rocks and stuff to fall off and it’s all very nice and chill and pretty much guaranteed not to end up being chased by the bill. The obstacles are much better than those you find on the street and if i fall off I only have to push/stagger as far as the van where I also have all my tools so can potentially patch up the bike and/or myself and go back out, or head home.
The syncro used to get, what, 25mpg? if I didn’t push it too hard (which would be further reduced with a trailer) – the van gets 35mpg *fully* loaded with a bike in the back, is comfortable and warm and will keep up nicely with motorway traffic if needed, though mostly I just trundle around at 50-60mph where it seems to be most efficient.
I deliberated over this a LOT because the van wasn’t cheap at all, but landed on the side of “alive but with little savings” rather than “RIP but with savings”, and I’m quite happy with my decision. It’s exceeded expectations in pretty much every respect and has even opened up some work opportunities too.
As I have since also discovered, with just a little bit of work it has the awesome side-benefit that I can go stay in it at nice scenic locations (even without a bike!) which has done good things for my state of mind too 🙂
The one thing i will say is that ford’s “rust treatment” is shocking/nonexistent. There’s less protection on a 2010+ van than on an ’89 mk2 golf. “Oxidised not galvanised” is not a joke and it’s no surprise they all have rusty sills. However, (thanks to the syncro) we have plenty of experience with this so before anythign got serious there both sills got the full preventative electrox “marine-grade” treatment and a nice thick coat of 2k and so far that’s been holding up nicely 🙂
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Wow another year passed… and still virtually no progress. I’m pretty sure I’ll be long gone before this thing ever sees the road again :-\
It’s annoying, as soon as I get the time to work on it, there’s not the funds, or when there’s the funds there’s not the time. So far every time I get to a point where I think “YESS, finally i get to work on the syncro” there’s some major life calamity or pandemic, or national financial meltdown which throws everything off track again.
Unfortunately the cost of fuel (and everything else) going up hasn’t really helped matters, or helped making a car more practical.
It starts (usually first time, despite standing for months), it runs, there’s no rust I’m aware of, it’s even mostly painted (albeit a shitty rattle-can job just to even the colour out, some of which is already peeling).. tbh it really only needs the fuel lines securing underneath properly and a rear-right brake-cylinder, flexi-hose and the short hard line replacing and a wee bit of tidying up inside and then it would arguably be somewhat MOT-able..the leaky downpipe issue seems to have actually resolved itself somehow so I may even be able to skip the downpipe rebuild, though it would still benefit from a better setup there long-term (turbo manifold and v-band piping would work nicely).
I’ve learnt a LOT about fuel mapping and injection systems from doing the bikes so now would potentially even be in a position to do something cool with that side of things or at least throw a wideband in it so that I can tune it somewhat… but everything on cars is so big and expensive and takes forever and I get older and weaker and more injured as time passes :-\
But even if i got through all of that, what the hell am I supposed to do with a car? I can’t put bikes in the back (like the van), there isn’t the room to stay overnight in it (like I do in the van)…if i want speed/thrills then the bikes are definitely the way to go – but at the same time I can’t bring myself to sell it. I guess to a large extent it’s an example of “sunk cost fallacy” but also it’s literally been my mechanical education.
All the stuff I do on bikes and other vehicles now relies on skills I learnt from working on the syncro. I’d love to see it on the road again but for me a car is about the least practical vehicle possible, especially since with the bike “traffic” doesn’t really apply and that’s one of the features I most enjoy about 2 wheels.
Thankfully it doesn’t really cost anything to sit there on the drive SORN’d but it makes me sad to see it so close to finished but not quite make it there.
idk, there’s not really any point to this update other than explaining where I’m at with it..life is quite difficult for us atm and work/financially/healthwise we seem to be going backwards rather than forwards, the bikes are mostly what’s keeping me sane/motivated day-to-day. I just wish there was more room for the syncro in that equation.
Ironically – it seems like the syncro is the one vehicle I’ve ever bought which is worth more now than when I got it xD
innabit 🙂
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by .
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by .
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Just curious whether this happened in the end?
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given the current fuel prices that seems a little bit far 😉
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syncro recognition at last!! 🙂
Welcome to the forum Peter, hopefully we have someone who can help out.
Is Lloydy still around? his Country was looking mint and very original in his last updates..
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oh wow that came out lovely!! Great job 🙂
so clean 🙂
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Oh nice I thought you’d retired from all that.
I think most of my “old” engine stuff must be coming up to being “vintage” and maybe worth soemthing again soon 😉
My website | My Youtube channel (both mostly bike related)
heya Chris, tbh that looks pretty useful… I guess this is a bit like that chatenet stella you had (or were considering) a while back?
What sort of engine has it got in it? The one in that video was certainly moving quite nicely.. looks like they had it up to almost 100kmh which would be pretty exciting in a little frame like that 😉 It was all in french though (i think) so wasn’t xactly sure what they’d done to it to makie it faster.
you do occasionally see little 2 seater “citycars” like that but I’ve only seen a few, ever.
interesting!
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yeah actually that result is impressive. I will have to try that on something.
I wonder if they use something similar in the “rust converter” stuff which you’re supposed to paint onto rust to stabilise it before painting? Though tbh the vinegar seems to produce a cleaner finish than rust converter (which normally turns things kinda black).
Very interesting!
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ok wow I didn’t expect that… way to do the build-up xD
that’s actually pretty impressive. I thought vinegar was acidic so would eat away at it or is that that effect, like leaving a penny in coca cola?
My website | My Youtube channel (both mostly bike related)
hmm… doesn’t look all that different from here. isn’t vinegar acidic, so wouldn’t it be etchign the new steel ready to accept some moisture and make new rust?
My website | My Youtube channel (both mostly bike related)
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by
