Vomit-inducing content from the Guardian

[PH]

I'd hardly call Landrover a fashion brand - the 90 and 110 are still about the toughest and most capable off road vehicles made at a reasonable price. They're working vehicles not fashion statements. The army buy enough of them and I don't think they're interested in fashion.......

Not fashionable enough obviously, production ends this year.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 81460.html

[ian s]

I drive a Land Rover mainly because it is devoid of many of the modern "gizmos", and just as importantly both engineered and built in Great Britain. If a few more people bought british designed and built things the country would have less of the deficit it now has

[RickH]

Can anyone enlighten me as to exactly why Land Rover produced this article about cycling? (I realise they sell bicycles but I don't think that was the point of it ...)

They have done articles on all sorts of outdoor activities as part of their Hibernot series including

Winter fun: adventures on your doorstep

You don’t have to travel far to get the most out of winter. Here are 10 ideas for discovering something new, right on your doorstep...

1. Go fly a kite...

2. Be a winter walker...

3. Get away from the crowds...

4. Go deer spotting...

5. Bench press in the open air...

6. Go rockpooling...

7. Monkey about in the trees...

8. Learn bushcraft...

9. Find a geocache...

10. Track down the wildlife...

(link)

None of which have anything inherently to do with Land Rover either.

Yes it is subtle (or not so subtle) marketing, suggesting that if you want motorised transport for the "Great Outdoors" then LR can supply it to you.

Rick.

[Wilf Roberts]

Can anyone enlighten me as to exactly why Land Rover produced this article about cycling? (I realise they sell bicycles but I don't think that was the point of it ...)

Simple - LR products are very often bought because the customer likes the idea of buying into a "lifestyle". So their marketing focusses on wholesome outdoor pursuits that make potential customers think "I'd like to be doing that". Similarly many of the car manufacturers advertise their products by picturing them being driven (close) to their performance potential on a deserted mountain road. But they will, in reality, spend much of their lives parked on the motorway burning fuel to power their air conditioning systems. It's all part of the aspirational illusion of the car industry.

[Thermostat9]

land-alfdb268-001.jpg

Pah! Back in 1995.....

[Cyril Haearn]

Can anyone enlighten me as to exactly why Land Rover produced this article about cycling? (I realise they sell bicycles but I don't think that was the point of it ...)

Simple - LR products are very often bought because the customer likes the idea of buying into a "lifestyle". So their marketing focusses on wholesome outdoor pursuits that make potential customers think "I'd like to be doing that". Similarly many of the car manufacturers advertise their products by picturing them being driven (close) to their performance potential on a deserted mountain road. But they will, in reality, spend much of their lives parked on the motorway burning fuel to power their air conditioning systems. It's all part of the aspirational illusion of the car industry.

There is a lr phone now, the microphone looks like a radiator

[Cugel]

Can anyone enlighten me as to exactly why Land Rover produced this article about cycling? (I realise they sell bicycles but I don't think that was the point of it ...)

Simple - LR products are very often bought because the customer likes the idea of buying into a "lifestyle". So their marketing focusses on wholesome outdoor pursuits that make potential customers think "I'd like to be doing that". Similarly many of the car manufacturers advertise their products by picturing them being driven (close) to their performance potential on a deserted mountain road. But they will, in reality, spend much of their lives parked on the motorway burning fuel to power their air conditioning systems. It's all part of the aspirational illusion of the car industry.

There is a lr phone now, the microphone looks like a radiator

In the Lake District, landrippers and other motorised body-rotters are churning up the green lanes, making them impassable for farmer folk to such a degree that the farmers are having to abandon their farms. This is apparently OK with the Lakeland councillors of various hues as it increases tourism. And a number of the rascals are also "off-roaders" too.

Still, if the many profits can be increased by selling a few landripper bicycles as well, this is surely a Very Good Thing, especially for the shareholders and the fatcats. The grunts actually making the things may also get an extra 10p an hour.

That Lakeland is a resource and so must be used up as fast as possible, along with all the other resources. Perhaps in time, it can all be sold to Trump so he can make it the best golf course ever, in the world or even the universe? Landripper could make the SUV-like golf carts.

Cugel

[Tangled Metal]

Whereabouts in the lake district are they driving along green lanes ripping them up so farmers have to abandon their farms? Is this just one of your over the top, exaggerated posts?

I'm not a local in that I'm from North Lancashire not Cumbria but I have certainly spent a lot of my free time in the lakes and don't recognise what you describe. Walna scar Road is the single example that comes close.

Once it was the shortcut from Duddon valley to Coniston and Ambleside that was driveable with ordinary cars but that's from the 60s I believe (before I was born) but it's long since been that passable. I do recall my childhood walks over it included sections still with tarmac. I think the last of it disappeared well before TROs were put in place probably over 20 years ago.

There's a few other popular areas that I know about, but damage is minimal. More just a bit annoying with a few puddles walkers have to dodge but not much else. I'd be interested to know where its being ripped up. 8 certainly doubt the typical Lakeland farmer would find a bit of 4x4 damage as cause to leave their farm. They're certainly a bit tougher and practical than that. Even the southern farmers I've met who've moved up there wouldn't give up like they. There's a passion for the job and land among them. Churned up green lanes wouldn't bother them. Not least because they'd avoid them with their quads anyway.

If I'm wrong if really like to know about it.

[Nigel]

Whereabouts in the lake district are they driving along green lanes ripping them up so farmers have to abandon their farms? Is this just one of your over the top, exaggerated posts?

...............

If I'm wrong if really like to know about it.

No idea how accurate this article is, but its one. I recall reading similar in on another newspaper site recently

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/Repor ... 6cbe750-ds



- Nigel

[Tangled Metal]

Not very accurate. Not been there for a few years but it's an area that has seen recreational 4x4 use for a long time. So I doubt it's any busier now than back when I was last there and the damage was minimal. Walkers do more damage to the lake district so that WHW body in the article come across as a group with a problem with 4x4s beyond purely being worried about damage.

Before anyone accuses me or even thinks it, I have nothing to do with 4x4s. Never owned one or driven one. I have been off road in a LR as a kid but it was on a road construction site a relative worked on so any damage was by heavy trucks not the tiny LR. I have been a keen member of the ramblers association (later the ramblers without the association). I am a cyclist and walker not an off roader. If prefer not to come across them but I'm not ideologically opposed to them like some can be.

In this example I think it's not a problem because the effects/damage of 4x4s there isn't a problem. Walna Scar Road is different. However both those areas have not forced farmers from their land. I am very interested to know about any examples of that. If certainly want to check them out for myself.

BTW the issue on the lake district isn't like the oak 3 District purely because there's really no significant length green lanes open to off roaders. The Kentmere route has a chain and padlock on it at the end of the hard packed section and it's known about by off roaders so it's rare indeed to see one up there. That would be a decent length route if it had not been closed off. It would suffer damage of the order of Walna Scar Road off it had not. I've only seen one group of offroaders up that road. All happened to be foreigners who were really quite ignorant of the rights of access. Ignorant in other ways but we put them straight. Straight back the way they came.

[pete75]

In the Lake District, landrippers and other motorised body-rotters are churning up the green lanes, making them impassable for farmer folk to such a degree that the farmers are having to abandon their farms. This is apparently OK with the Lakeland councillors of various hues as it increases tourism. And a number of the rascals are also "off-roaders" too.


Cugel

They're making them impassable for tractors and the like? How?

[Cugel]

Whereabouts in the lake district are they driving along green lanes ripping them up so farmers have to abandon their farms? Is this just one of your over the top, exaggerated posts?

I'm not a local in that I'm from North Lancashire not Cumbria but I have certainly spent a lot of my free time in the lakes and don't recognise what you describe. Walna scar Road is the single example that comes close.

......

If I'm wrong if really like to know about it.

One man's over-the-top exaggerated post is another man's everyday experience, eh? I know you dislike having your wee certainties poked at but really you must attempt to open your mind just a little chink or two in order to allow alternative notions a try at your various prejudices and preferences.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... igners-say

In April two hill farmers, Glen and Dorothy Wilkinson, left their Tilberthwaite farm because of the damage caused to an unsealed track that runs through the land.

Little Langdale was described by Wainwright as ‘scenically one of the loveliest in Lakeland’. At the time, Wilkinson said 4x4s passed through the farm on a daily basis, and the park authority should be closing such roads to recreational off-roaders. “They have absolutely wrecked the road,” he said. “They have made it impossible for us to carry on with our jobs.”

Cugel

[Lance Dopestrong]

Our local coppers and PCOs have Land Rover MTBs, but they cant ride them because they havent had nanny inspect them for 6 months.l

You'd only moan if they carried on using them, one broke, someone got hurt, and then sued the force for hundreds of thousands to be paid out of the public purse. And it happens - a West Mids Bobby suffered career ending spinal insuries from an improperly maintained bike, and a PCSO in one of the East Mids forces suffered head and neck injuries due to a faulty bike.

Aside from the expense, why should a rider in uniform be expected to ride a bike that has not been confirmed as safe? I wouldn't.