Cycling UK Forum

The A-pillar blind spot is appalling, many comment on it on the net and state how they nearly hit car/bike/pedestrian because of it and how shocked they were that they could have done such a thing. It should be put to "Watchdog"! I still think an estate car makes a more sensible family car than a zafira style box/minibus... I know this is a cycle forum but most of us own cars and drive regularly due to circumstance.

Gearbox wise I'm a manual man, something to do between mobile calls and eating cereal .

mark1978 the 1.0 is it the ecoboost or same engine non turbo? The figures sound like what I'd expect in real use, averaging 45-50mpg regularly would be good for petrol and very acceptable in my book.

The thing is that cars and engines vary considerably. Modern engines ought to be better, or at least more consistent from one to the next, but in reality they will still vary.

At one time a technical college near me had various (mostly old and well-used) engines mounted on test stands with power output and fuel consumption measuring gear on them. Students would be invited to see which engine produced the most power at a certain fuel delivery rate. Of the various engines there, quite regularly the one that was most efficient turned out to be an ancient Ford Essex V6. The ironic thing about this was that in the real world, I never encountered an engine of this type that actually gave decent fuel consumption, but this motor was obviously different somehow. The best hypothesis was that this engine was in dire need of a decoke, and thus had more CR and high gas velocity on part throttle. I never did find out if this was borne out by a stripdown or not.

cheers

I love IC engines and had some good library books covering their design and also the "weird" designs such as swashplate engines etc. The book below is excellent

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Some-Unusual-Engines-L-Setright/dp/0852982089

also Allards "Turbocharging and supercharging" is good. I inherited the 3 volume set of the "design of the high speed oil engine" by CW chapman. This chap had an interesting life and developed many of the perkins diesels. The article below is a good read.

http://www.academia.edu/8525309/Charles_Chapman_and_the_invention_of_the_high_speed_diesel

But from my own experience of electric drives the simplicity in component terms of the electric motor takes some beating. They re mechanically and magnetically complex in design but beautiful in their simple form...... no alternators, cambelts, camshafts, valves....... need I say more.

old_windbag wrote:I love IC engines and had some good library books covering their design and also the "weird" designs such as swashplate engines etc. The book below is excellent

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Some-Unusual-Engines-L-Setright/dp/0852982089

also Allards "Turbocharging and supercharging" is good. I inherited the 3 volume set of the "design of the high speed oil engine" by CW chapman. This chap had an interesting life and developed many of the perkins diesels. The article below is a good read.

http://www.academia.edu/8525309/Charles_Chapman_and_the_invention_of_the_high_speed_diesel

But from my own experience of electric drives the simplicity in component terms of the electric motor takes some beating. They re mechanically and magnetically complex in design but beautiful in their simple form...... no alternators, cambelts, camshafts, valves....... need I say more.

Best book I've got on engines is this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Motorcy ... 1844259943 . Don't know where they get those stupid prices from on Amazon - Yorkshire Trading Company shop in Louth was doing the book for a quid just after last Christmas.

Yes that looks good and there have been many innovations in motorcycle engine design.... they always seem to be ahead of car engines by a few years. Many different configurations too from V3's to V8's etc.

I used to get a catalogue from Louth Transformers....

old_windbag wrote:Yes that looks good and there have been many innovations in motorcycle engine design.... they always seem to be ahead of car engines by a few years. Many different configurations too from V3's to V8's etc.

Yep Norton 500 single was the first unsupercharged motor with 100BHP a litre output and before WW2. MZ were getting 200BHP a litre in 1961.

Also a lot of those british racing singles were producing a higher brake mean effective pressure than recent multicylinder racing engines.... so they were being pushed hard stress wise, very advanced for their day. Theres a chap down south who builds replicas( manx nortons ) for classic racing they look beautiful, I think he's made a copy of the honda 250-6 which was revolutionary for the time.

old_windbag wrote:mark1978 the 1.0 is it the ecoboost or same engine non turbo? The figures sound like what I'd expect in real use, averaging 45-50mpg regularly would be good for petrol and very acceptable in my book.

Yes, 1.0L Ecoboost.

Well I went to a dealer today and measured the boot sizes of a fiesta and a focus, seats up and seats down. Since doing that I found a useful website whose measurements match those I took today( the fiesta depth measurement differed to mine by -4.5cm but I measured to the seat back, so seat position affects this ). Its a website for motibility users etc but lets you search for cars and it gives all manner of dimensions that the manufacturers often don't. It gives boot width at narrowest, boot depth with and without seats down etc. It could be useful for anyone looking at various cars and whether bike/buggy/pram might fit.

http://www.rica.org.uk/2830

They must have to be reasonably accurate for the end purpose they support.

old_windbag wrote:Hi. I'm currently driving a 13yr old car ( vectra B ) that may be mechanically in a bad way. This was following the MOT emissions test which I personally feel is not mechanically sympathetic to older engines, but thats another subject. This car comfortably accepts my bike with front wheel off and seats down. If I have to change my car then I'd be looking at either a Mk7 ford fiesta( aston martin style grill 2013- ) or ford focus 2013- . The focus should accept a bike similarly to the vectra but its disadvantages wrt the fiesta are lower fuel economy, higher insurance group and small amount of VED. The fiesta clearly can take a bike with both wheels off and seats down but does anyone know from owning one if it will take a bike wth only front wheel off, or is it too small ( this is a bike with mudguards on as well ). With mudguards it means even with both wheels off you still have the same length to push in even with rear wheel out and front fork has limited rotation due to mudguard.... they work for their role but are a bl**dy nuisance in this circumstance. I'm not keen on mounting a bike on a rear/roof rack and a bike bag/case means having to un-torque stem etc plus mudguard issues again.
So any info from focus/fiesta owners who do put bikes in and also the type/size of bike would be appreciated. If I can save the vectra that'll be good but if not these two models are the cars that interest me.

Why are the only 2 options a Fiesta and a Focus? Focus is good - and there is the estate version for throwing bikes in but the Fiesta, as good a car as it may be, is not good for cyclists. the seats do not fold flat. There are so many other viable options out there these days. If mpg is very important to you then consider the Skoda Roomster. Diesel and as much space as a garden shed! (Not the right car unless in tourer guise, but the 320D BMW is so efficient it doesn't pay road tax nor pay congestion charge!)

I currently work abroad so when in UK I hire a car. I ended up with a Fiat 500L on one trip 2 years ago. Do not confuse it with the Fiat 500. It is spacious - very spacious - enough for a load of bikes and I got 70mpg. Last Christmas I had a Fiesta - the super economical one but only got about 40mpg (I say only, I get around 28 with my own car). Last summer I had a Focus. It gave the same as the Fiesta, but was a better drive and more space and comfort. 3 years ago I ended up with an upgrade - a diesel Insignia - also around 65mpg overall. Very impressive and in reality the newer version of your current car. I do like the Fiesta but for cyclists wanting to carry bikes its not the one.

I get my bike happily in the back of our Fiat500. We have a Clio too, and it's surprising how similar they are inside size-wize. It's just that the Fiat 500 is compact and looks small, but externally it's the same width as the Clio and only 4" shorter overall. Distance to boot lip is basically the same when the rear seats are folded due to the way they fold.

One of the reasons for looking at focuses and fiestas is the aesthetiics of how they look....I feel the latest Fords have excellent looks. That may seem in conflict with seeking a car for practicality but the art of good design should be to accomodate both requirements. I don't like "boxy" cars nor SUV's so thats why I rule out cars like the 500L etc, the standard 500 shares its underpinnings with the Ford Ka. I feel the Focus is the more practical car and the Fiesta would be tight but both are nice driving cars. In engine terms Im going to aim to keep the vectra running ( I'll come back to that later ) but if I am forced to change I'll be reverting to petrol. Modern diesels are very efficient, I love them, but what I don't like are DPF's with 75k lifecycles and the need to waste fuel when regenerating them.... its all a mess. I'm also not too happy with the general govenment negativity towards diesel and its pollutants. Range extended hybrids are very good but sadly it's early days and no company is pricing them at the common man. Unless we're all on 50k salaries, maybe I'm the one not in the real world. Electric vehicles at present are very limited and expensive( factoring in leasing batteries etc ).

My vectra has served me well, a very nice car in its B variant, I never liked the c version. For me if I were looking at a big saloon like this it would be the Mondeo that stands out. Two other nice cars in the focus category are the skoda octavia and kia ceed. In trying to get my vectra repaired I've met many garage proprietors who have come out with such flannel and lies that its shocked me the general shoddy attitude to doing the best job possible. Why any trades person feels the need to tell blatant lies beggars belief, my own view is you take on a job or you don't, but if you do, you do a sterling job where the customer and their repeat business is the priority. We've lost this in so many areas nowadays.

Buy any car with a towbar,then use a simple scissor style bike rack(cheap as chips at the Range).Best ,most simplest way of transporting a single bike,very secure,out of the wind.Had mine years.Also a zafira has a great sized boot.My deisel does 50mpg+

I won't use our tow ball mounted rack any more, or should I say I won't put my precious Mercian on it.

Last time it was on, we were shunted up the back. Luckily my precious Mercian survived, but the rack was slightly damaged .......... but repairable. We were only shunted "gently", but had we been hit properly, that would be the end of my Mercian.

Now, my Mercian goes inside the car out of harms way, or if I needed to transport it with a loaded car, I'd buy a roof rack instead or use the trailer.

I'd rather my car gets damaged than my Mercian.

Once bitten, twice shy.