oldgregg

A mate of mine used to have a Jetta with the dreaded FSI engine (known as Failure Seems Imminent), and it would mis-fire if fed supermarket petrol. It was a known issue and obviously the fault is with VW who should never have sold that engine in the UK (or anywhere really) without reworking it, but it does show that all fuels are not equal.

That's not a bad shout, and they refuse to sell them in those colours, so it's not as bad as you'd think. Usually the yellow gets painted white so you're left with a blue which isn't too bad on its own.

2nd hand tyres per se aren't a problem, nor are budget tyres. What's important with any tyre is whether it's any good. I have had cheaper ones that were brilliant, and a few years back bought a used car which was fitted with newish Pirelli P6000's (or 'ditchfinders' as they're known on car forums) which were absolutely lethal in wet conditions. We swapped those 'premium' tyres for a set of cheaper Avons after both my wife and I had nearly crashed the car in the wet on separate occasions and the car was transformed... Auto Express (and their sister brands) do an annual test of tyres whereby they put each product round a track in a set of controlled conditions and compare things like wet grip, dry grip, stopping distances etc etc. Of course it's a bit subjective, but I wouldn't buy anything that did badly in their testing. Funnily enough, the Pirelli P6000 didn't score well in the wet. I personally don't buy part-worn or remoulds because you don't know the provenance of the actual tyre you're buying.

But just don't go to Kwik-fit. They're not engineers, they're parts installers. I wouldn't have them touch my car.

I'm with Wyndham on this one. I am, as you know, a bit of a petrolhead and absolutely love cars but I just can't get excited about mass-produced stuff. The problem with cars is that generally they are pretty good at being cars these days and so the manufacturers have to work very hard to make people buy a new model every 3 years or less when in reality you just need to buy the right car, look after it and then keep it for 10 years. We all know that certain countries have a tendency to produce unreliable cars, and that most of the German brands also gave up on reliability in the early noughties when they were haemorrhaging money. This was partly because their cars were lasting too long and thus not being replaced as often, and partly because of the vastly increased costs of meeting safety and emissions standards. We also know that you can't trust a badge like you used to, particularly now that Nissan and Mitsubishi are basically just producing re-skinned Renaults and Mazda and Volvo are owned by the Chinese. Unless you have the money to buy a hand-built supercar they're just not genuinely exciting, so as a daily driver you're best off with something solid like a Lexus, Toyota, Honda, Suzuki, Kia or Hyundai. No they're not considered as exciting, and that's because they may not have invested quite as much of your purchase price into marketing the product via TV ads, having the brand in a racing series, events etc etc. The money has been spent on developing the product, making it reliable and getting the basics right. Robin has mentioned the 'BMW ecosystem' before and that's sort of the point. There is no 'BMW ecosystem'. It's a car. A metal box with four wheels, the drivetrain and some seats. Anything else is just marketing, and you're paying for it.

I do think double mooring is much less common than it used to be, and that's a big part of the problem. There are plenty of places where the river is wide enough to accommodate it, yet you rarely see it. I have seen double (even triple) mooring within the last year during school holidays, but it's definitely not the norm. Long have I said that there's a perfect place on the North for another WRC-style facility but I can't see it ever getting built.

The other problem on the Broads is that because the base stations are usually quite a distance from where you are, the phone is working extra hard to send / receive data (which it does regularly to keep in touch with the network) and so that means more battery usage. Compare standby time at home to what you get on the boat, and it's never the same. Sent from the Norfolk Broads Network mobile app

And of course that can sync automatically with Google Drive or Dropbox etc while you sleep.... Sent from the Norfolk Broads Network mobile app

Indeed. Probably not that popular with NBN's demographic, but Google Drive or Dropbox installed and set to sync automatically is a good way of having a second backup. It's a case of balancing any concern / risk around privacy with the risk of losing data.

What he said, basically. Can I suggest that a USB stick shouldn't be relied on as a sole backup strategy. They're cheap and unreliable and will let you down when you least want them to.

It had probably broken down. They do that.... A lot

Yup. And it's Len who is sourcing the new boats which will come later..

Oh dear.

Yeah, that's the one - AF Sapphire 32 and pretty much the last of those to be built, in 1998. I remember walking past her in Norwich yacht station that season and she was gleaming, I didn't realise at the time just how new she was as there hadn't been a new one built for a while. http://www.broads.org.uk/wiki2018/index.php?title=Boat_Details&BoatId=1696&BoatHistory=2209

Depending on when you're looking to book and how local you are, it might be worth popping in on a changeover day to see if there's one in the yard you can look aboard. They're closed for winter at the moment, but I think the first hires may be out on the 1st of March.

Yeah they're a great way to explore the nooks and crannies. I hired one of the Salhouse Broad ones last year and it's amazing how much there is beyond what you see on a Broads cruiser.

The ones I know for sure are as follows.... Some of the others I'm not 100% on and the rest I have no clue! January: Norwich Yacht Station February: Beccles Yacht Station April: River Thurne just above Thurne Mouth May: NBN Meet - Salhouse Broad July: Pulls Ferry, Norwich September: Wroxham December: Reedham

https://github.com/automl/ParameterImportance/issues/30 And you thought you'd made it up....

Fortunately there is a pretty major upgrade of the Thickthorn interchange in the pipeline... Whenever it actually gets built, it will allow traffic to/from the A11 and A47 eastbound to avoid the roundabout.

I think you may have discovered why they're trying to shift them this early in the season....

Is it this one? https://www.millets.co.uk/equipment/042786-eurohike-mobile-mains-deluxe-with-2-usb.html

This is why some other yards publish a price, and that's the one you pay other than an early booking discount which is clearly shown on the website when you book far enough in advance. With that system, you know you've paid the same as anyone else and although you may have missed the early booking discount we all know how to qualify for that.

I only spotted this a couple of weeks ago but I think @johnsherz had to re-upload because there had been some problems with the original music he'd used. Others have said it and I'm with them - Sherz and Linz are my favourite of all the Broads Youtubers and yes I think the length of the videos, the editing and general format is spot on.

Ah... They do stoppers for them

Well I'm not sure it'll be a night and day change? Just a nicer light.. It was Clive who noticed they looked crusty and suggested changing them. This is kind of what they look like inside (stock photo)