Driving In Austria

 This page provides the basic rules of the road for driving in Austria.


Telephone Numbers
Emergency Services:

Police	133
Fire	122
Ambulance	144

You can also use the European standard emergency services number 112.

Speed Limits
Speed limits in Austria are measured in KPH (Kilometres per Hour).  Speed limits are likely to fluctuate from place to place so ensure you check signs when driving.

Motorways	130kph/80mph*
Open roads	100kph/62mph
Urban areas	50kph/31mph

* A speed limit of 110kph (68mph) applies on some motorways at night.

Toll Information
The word for toll is Mautstelle. To use expressways other than unsecured loans the A13 Brenner, A9 Pyhrn, A10 Tauren, and S16 Arlberg Tunnel you must purchase and display a tax disc (vignette) on your vehicle. To use those expressways listed you simply pay a toll, although the disc entitles you to a 15 percent discount. Choose from 10-day, 2-month and annual tax discs.
The penalty for not displaying a disc is €120 for cars and €65 for motorcycles. They are sold at border crossings, fuel stations and post offices.

General Tips and Road Information
Driving through mountainous areas in Austria can be spectacular but be careful in the winter months as roads can be icy and/or blocked with snow.  Traffic is usually fairly mild but can be heavy if crossing the border towards Hungary, Slovakia or the Czech Republic.  Car use is sometimes restricted when air pollution is high.
Passing on the right is allowed only on one-way streets or when passing trams or when passing a vehicle that is indicating a left turn. You are not allowed to bad credit loans  cross a solid yellow centre line. Give warning of your approach by flashing your lights.
Police are empowered to collect fines of up to €36 on the spot. The officer must issue an official receipt. You'll have two weeks to pay. You can request to bring the case before a court instead, but you may be asked to make a security deposit.
Unfortunately we currently have no information available on Austrian road signs.  Road signs within Europe follow similar patterns and we advise you refer to the road signs used in Germany as a rough guide.

Requirements

Minimum driver age:
The minimum driving age in Austria is 18.

Licences:
Non Europeans must carry an International Driving Permit.

Required equipment for your car:
You must carry a warning triangle in your vehicle though this does not apply to motorcyclists. All drivers must carry a first aid kit in or on their vehicle. Snow chains must be used in mountainous areas during winter.

Headlights:
Headlights must be on at all times in built-up areas. Parking lights are not necessary if your vehicle is visible from at least 50 metres away.

Seatbelts:
Seatbelts are compulsory in both the front and rear seats.

Car Horns:
Horns cannot be used in Vienna and are prohibited elsewhere as indicated by signs.

Children in the front seat:
Children must be at least 12 years old to sit in the front passenger seat unless you use a child seat or they are over 1.5 metres tall.

Motorcycles:
Motorcycles must be operated with headlights on-night and day and helmets are compulsory for the motorcyclist and any passengers.

Useful Links and Further Information
If you are renting a car in Austria we recommend booking in advance with Hertz Car Hire.

john bishop rides

 
John Bishop and Chris Boardman (picture credit - Sport Relief)

Scouse stand-up comic John Bishop has reportedly enjoyed a good night’s sleep after cycling 185 miles from Paris to Calais followed, almost immediately, by rowing across the English Channel and so far raising more than £400,000 for the charity Sport Relief. The comedian now faces the prospect of running the equivalent of three marathons in three days to complete what has been billed as ‘John Bishop’s Week of Hell.’
Bishop, who had never ridden a road bike before agreeing to undertake the challenge, set off at 8.22am on Monday morning from the Trocadero in the heart of Paris, accompanied for the first part of his ride by Olympic gold medallist and former Tour de France maillot jaune, Chris Boardman.


Just an hour into the ride, the 45-year-old unsecured loans experienced a clipless moment familiar to all cyclists inexperienced in riding with cleats as he fell to the ground after failing to unclip in time at a set of traffic lights.
Speaking as he broke off for lunch on that opening day, Bishop told the Sport Relief website: “It’s lunchtime and I’ve done 55 miles - which on any other day in my life would be amazing, but today there's still 130 odd miles left to do. I’m trying not to think about the row tomorrow - and as for the Marathons, it’s probably best not to worry about them at all at this stage.”



The Sport Relief website also revealed that even at that early point in the challenge, Bishop, who is being coached by Professor Greg Whyte of Liverpool John Moores University, was struggling with issues such as a sore shoulder and neck as well as bad credit loans pains in his left hamstring.
After arriving in Calais in the early hours of yesterday morning, Bishop was only able to grab a couple of hours sleep before setting off on the rowing leg in which he was joined by Davina McCall, Denise Lewis and Freddie Flintoff.
Earlier in the week, however, it had appeared that the row would have to be cancelled after French authorities refused to grant permission for the crossing.
However, that decision was reversed by the Admiral of Cherbourg, reportedly after comedian James Corden, who helped organise the challenge, spoke to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took up the issue with President Sarkozy.
Today, Bishop is running from Dover to Faversham, the first of three marathon-distance runs that will end in London on Friday.
Full details of the challenge including how to sponsor Bishop’s efforts can be found on the Sport Relief website.

Malcolm McLaren

Malcolm McLaren, the subculture hacker who created the Sex Pistols, discovers the new underground sound. It's called chip music. Can you play lead Game Boy?
We live in a karaoke culture. The Japanese word means "empty orchestra" - a lifeless musical form unencumbered by creativity and free of responsibility. Simple, clean fun for the millennial nuclear family. You can't fail in a karaoke world. It's life by proxy, liberated by hindsight.
Authenticity, on the other hand, believes in the messy process of creativity. It's unpopular and out of fashion. It worships failure, regarding it as a romantic and noble pursuit - better to be a flamboyant failure than any kind of benign success.
Karaoke and authenticity can sit well together, but it takes artistry to make that happen. When it does, the results can be explosive. Like when punk rock reclaimed rock and roll, blowing the doors off the recording industry in the process. Or when hip hop transformed turntables and records into the instruments of a revolution. unsecured loans Now it's happening again. In dance clubs across Europe and America, young people are seizing the automated stuff of their world - handheld game machines, obsolete computers, anything with a sound chip - and forging a new kind of folk music for the digital age.
Until recently, I was feeling stifled by the tyranny of the new. New corporate lifestyles for doing everything well. Too well. iPod this. PowerBook that. Listening to albums, like Madonna's latest, that were made using Pro Tools - software that reduces virtually every mixdown effect to a mouse click - left me with a depressing sense of sameness, like everything on TV. I had decided to make an album about the "look" of music: the visual gestalt of youth culture. For me, music has always been a bridge between art and fashion, the two realms I care about most. It's one of the most natural expressions of the youthful need for confrontation and rebellion. Now it was lost in the hearts and minds of a karaoke world. I couldn't find my place in it.
Then I discovered chip music.
It all began on a freezing winter evening in snow-capped Zurich, Switzerland. Some friends of mine had a vague relationship with a small-label dude who caught my attention at a party rattling on about lo-fi. He soon had me playing phone tag with a clique of "reversible engineers" working illegally in Stockholm. I didn't know what that meant, but I was eager to find out.
The quest led me to the outskirts of Paris: Ivry sur Seine, to be exact, dead south of Chinatown. In that desolate industrial district, I had a 10 pm appointment with two guys named Thierry and Jacques.
The address turned out to be a forbidding, semi-abandoned factory. I couldn't open the gate, so I waited nervously in the darkness. After a while, a suspicious, balding youth came out of the building - Jacques. He seemed to have trouble finding the keys to undo the heavy chains that secured the premises. Finally, the doors swung open. After a terse greeting, he led me up a concrete stairway and through dark, labyrinthine corridors of peeling plaster.
"What's that smell?" I asked, my nostrils assaulted by what seemed like a hot pot of hairy horse and curry powder. "It's the Cameroon embassy," he answered, smirking. Jacques, a shy young man whose teeth were nearly black because of his fear of dentists, explained that wood carvers, graphic artists, photographers, and hip hop kids from North Africa worked here. Only half the factory had electricity or heat.
Two flights up, Thierry welcomed us into a dim, tiny room at the far end of the building. To my surprise, I found myself in an Ali Baba's cave of outdated studio equipment. The chamber was stuffed floor to ceiling with hardware from the dawn of the 1980s: dinosaurian Amigas and Ataris once prized for their sound chips and arcane applications, giant echo plates, and knob-studded analog synthesizers. In the center was a pair of dusty turntables, one with a 45-rpm single on its platter. Thierry put the needle to the groove. I reeled as the record player emitted a din like screaming dog whistles. It sounded like a video arcade gone mad.
The low light revealed the Frenchman's T-shirt. Emblazoned across his chest were the words FUCK PRO TOOLS. The phrase described perfectly what I'd been feeling for months. Like any fashion victim who comes across a new and stylish idea, I was smitten. Fashion is most easily used as a disguise - it allows you to be something you're not. It's much more difficult to use it to express who you are. I understood immediately that this was no facile fashion statement.
"Who made this record?" I asked. In stark contrast to the silent Jacques, Thierry - once he started talking - could hardly stop. "Mark DeNardo from Chicago," he said. This twentysomething Puerto Rican artist, he told me, is the Velvet Underground of the 21st century, the next step in the evolution of rock and roll. "This is chip music," Thierry continued, "made on an old Game Boy. I don't like hi-fi. I can't afford hi-fi. To make this music costs only 15 euros. You can pick up an old Game Boy from the march aux puces," the Paris flea market. He presented an outdated Game Boy and, maneuvering his thumbs on the keys, showed me how to create musical sequences.
Thierry spun another record. "This is Puss," he explained. "He's from Stockholm. He sings with a girl: 'I'm the master, you are the slave.' They're the new ABBA!" The album cover featured a simple photo of a Game Boy, nothing more. I loved it.
The next record was an EP - an extended-play 7-inch - by a Stockholm artist called Role Model. The last time I had come across this format was in the 1960s, when I bought my first Rolling Stones record. Role Model sounded like a videogame fashion show, as though Twiggy were somehow stuck inside Space Invaders. It was intelligent dance music made using analog approaches, distinctly human and more individual than simply switching on a drum machine. The more I listened, the more contagious it became. The names of emerging artists rolled off Thierry's tongue: Adlib Sinner Forks, Bit Shifter, Nullsleep, Glomag, The Hardliner, Lo-Bat, 8-bit Construction Set - an entire lost tribe of Game Boy musicians., the subculture hacker who created the Sex Pistols, discovers the new underground sound. It's called chip music. Can you play lead Game Boy?


We live in a karaoke culture. The Japanese word means "empty orchestra" - a lifeless musical form unencumbered by creativity and free of responsibility. Simple, clean fun for the millennial nuclear family. You can't fail in a karaoke world. It's life by proxy, liberated by hindsight.
Authenticity, on the other hand, bad credit loans  believes in the messy process of creativity. It's unpopular and out of fashion. It worships failure, regarding it as a romantic and noble pursuit - better to be a flamboyant failure than any kind of benign success.


Karaoke and authenticity can sit well together, but it takes artistry to make that happen. When it does, the results can be explosive. Like when punk rock reclaimed rock and roll, blowing the doors off the recording industry in the process. Or when hip hop transformed turntables and records into the instruments of a revolution. Now it's happening again. In dance clubs across Europe and America, young people are seizing the automated stuff of their world - handheld game machines, obsolete computers, anything with a sound chip - and forging a new kind of folk music for the digital age.


Until recently, I was feeling stifled by the tyranny of the new. New corporate lifestyles for doing everything well. Too well. iPod this. PowerBook that. Listening to albums, like Madonna's latest, that were made using Pro Tools - software that reduces virtually every mixdown effect to a mouse click - left me with a depressing sense of sameness, like everything on TV. I had decided to make an album about the "look" of music: the visual gestalt of youth culture. For me, music has always been a bridge between art and fashion, the two realms I care about most. It's one of the most natural expressions of the youthful need for confrontation and rebellion. Now it was lost in the hearts and minds of a karaoke world. I couldn't find my place in it.
Then I discovered chip music.


It all began on a freezing winter evening in snow-capped Zurich, Switzerland. Some friends of mine had a vague relationship with a small-label dude who caught my attention at a party rattling on about lo-fi. He soon had me playing phone tag with a clique of "reversible engineers" working illegally in Stockholm. I didn't know what that meant, but I was eager to find out.
The quest led me to the outskirts of Paris: Ivry sur Seine, to be exact, dead south of Chinatown. In that desolate industrial district, I had a 10 pm appointment with two guys named Thierry and Jacques.


The address turned out to be a forbidding, semi-abandoned factory. I couldn't open the gate, so I waited nervously in the darkness. After a while, a suspicious, balding youth came out of the building - Jacques. He seemed to have trouble finding the keys to undo the heavy chains that secured the premises. Finally, the doors swung open. After a terse greeting, he led me up a concrete stairway and through dark, labyrinthine corridors of peeling plaster.
"What's that smell?" I asked, my nostrils assaulted by what seemed like a hot pot of hairy horse and curry powder. "It's the Cameroon embassy," he answered, smirking. Jacques, a shy young man whose teeth were nearly black because of his fear of dentists, explained that wood carvers, graphic artists, photographers, and hip hop kids from North Africa worked here. Only half the factory had electricity or heat.


Two flights up, Thierry welcomed us into a dim, tiny room at the far end of the building. To my surprise, I found myself in an Ali Baba's cave of outdated studio equipment. The chamber was stuffed floor to ceiling with hardware from the dawn of the 1980s: dinosaurian Amigas and Ataris once prized for their sound chips and arcane applications, giant echo plates, and knob-studded analog synthesizers. In the center was a pair of dusty turntables, one with a 45-rpm single on its platter. Thierry put the needle to the groove. I reeled as the record player emitted a din like screaming dog whistles. It sounded like a video arcade gone mad.


The low light revealed the Frenchman's T-shirt. Emblazoned across his chest were the words FUCK PRO TOOLS. The phrase described perfectly what I'd been feeling for months. Like any fashion victim who comes across a new and stylish idea, I was smitten. Fashion is most easily used as a disguise - it allows you to be something you're not. It's much more difficult to use it to express who you are. I understood immediately that this was no facile fashion statement.
"Who made this record?" I asked. In stark contrast to the silent Jacques, Thierry - once he started talking - could hardly stop. "Mark DeNardo from Chicago," he said. This twentysomething Puerto Rican artist, he told me, is the Velvet Underground of the 21st century, the next step in the evolution of rock and roll. "This is chip music," Thierry continued, "made on an old Game Boy. I don't like hi-fi. I can't afford hi-fi. To make this music costs only 15 euros. You can pick up an old Game Boy from the march aux puces," the Paris flea market. He presented an outdated Game Boy and, maneuvering his thumbs on the keys, showed me how to create musical sequences.
Thierry spun another record. "This is Puss," he explained. "He's from Stockholm. He sings with a girl: 'I'm the master, you are the slave.' They're the new ABBA!" The album cover featured a simple photo of a Game Boy, nothing more. I loved it.


The next record was an EP - an extended-play 7-inch - by a Stockholm artist called Role Model. The last time I had come across this format was in the 1960s, when I bought my first Rolling Stones record. Role Model sounded like a videogame fashion show, as though Twiggy were somehow stuck inside Space Invaders. It was intelligent dance music made using analog approaches, distinctly human and more individual than simply switching on a drum machine. The more I listened, the more contagious it became. The names of emerging artists rolled off Thierry's tongue: Adlib Sinner Forks, Bit Shifter, Nullsleep, Glomag, The Hardliner, Lo-Bat, 8-bit Construction Set - an entire lost tribe of Game Boy musicians.

Audi R8

What is it?
Audi R8 Spyder 5.2 FSI Quattro; Audi’s mid-engine supercar with a fabric roof (no folding hard-tops in Audi’s vast range, remember).

Power comes from the same direct-injection 5.2-litre naturally aspirated V10 engine that’s fitted to the coupe. A V8 version is not available from launch, but is expected to follow.

Drive goes to all four wheels (with a rear bias) and Audi will charge you £111,995 for the manual or £117,700 for the R-tronic automated manual.

Technical highlights?
Lightweight materials are used throughout. The body is a combination of aluminium and composite materials while the chassis is predominantly aluminium, as are the suspension wishbones. There’s even magnesium in the roof structure.

However, this isn’t a flyweight supercar – the light materials peg the weight rather than reduce it – meaning at 1720kg (100kg more than the coupe) the unsecured loan car is class competitive, rather than class leading.

Fortunately, the extraordinarily punchy motor compensates. un The stats say 0-62mph in 4.1 seconds but this car accelerates with a rare ferocity that makes it feel way quicker. You’ll love the zingy, inertia-free nature of the rev delivery too – more like a MotoGP bike than a car.


What’s it like to drive?
The R8’s true supercar credentials remain (that acceleration, precise steering, huge grip) with barely any of the usual soft-top compromises (handling imprecision, scuttle shake). On excessively broken surfaces a few tiny tremors filter to your palms and during absolute ten-tenths, tyre-ripping, on-the-edge driving you can detect the extra mass shifting fore and aft – but the effect is negligible.

We’ll have to test a coupe and a Spyder back-to-back in the UK to confirm a suspicion that the coupe feels a tad more agile in fast left/right/left transitions, but again, on first impressions it’s borderline incredible that the R8 Spyder remains 99 per cent uncorrupted by the additional weight and the removal of the solid roof. Then again, Audi always intended to build a Spyder version of the R8 and undoubtedly future-proofed the engineering from the get-go.

Of course, the open-air configuration means you’re introduced to a whole new level of aural histrionics – you find yourself utterly distracted by the yowls and fizzes and burbles and pops of that mighty engine. It’s a truly multi-layered voice and utterly beguiling.

How does it compare?
Exceptionally well, both in terms of pricing and performance. If you are considering anything from a Jaguar XKR Convertible (£80,995) to a Porsche 911 Turbo bad credit loans cabriolet (£109,048) or even a Ferrari California (£143,325) then you must arrange a test drive. Sure, it doesn’t offer the storage of its front-engined rivals, but if you desire driving thrills over boot space (this is evo, after all) then little can touch it at any price.

Anything else I need to know?
Magnetic dampers (standard fit) provide a ride that Rolls-Royce would be proud to call its own, while LED headlamps, sat-nav and a superb Bang & Olufsen stereo are standard too. There’s a neat seatbelt-mounted mic for the hands-free kit available as an option and the fabric roof completes its action in 19 seconds at speeds of up to 31mph.

Tank Bag

I first took Homemec in 7th grade and it was there that I learned to sew. I remember I made the race car pillow. It was red and blue. Fast forward 21 years to 2006 and you find me buying my first sewing machine. Since then I have made stuff sacks, bug pants and gloves, a bug tent, tote bags, a tarp, small storage sacks and now my first few Gas Tanks for bike packing!

I hope to perfect the Gas Tank then move on to a rear one, then to a bar sleeve, and finally to a frame bag. If I can manage that I will attempt a seat bag. The first two bags below are made from Cordura and Hydrolite. The two camo bags are made from 2 layer Goretex. I work in the outdoor industry and have access to the extra materials so I use what I have. We’ll see if they how up to the X-pack material most people use.




Gas Tank v1.0



As you can see I made the corners on this one way to sharp. Sewing was a real pain.




Gas Tank V2.0



As you can see I rounded my corners and added a bit of flare bad credit loans to this one.

Gas Tank v3.0



This was made special by request for my good friend Jill. Not just anyone gets a My Little Pony gas tank.




Gas Tank V4.0





As you can see my last two bags are in production. I have tweaked the shape unsecured loans a bit more and added double foam to these ones. In the picture above you might notice I’m missing one piece, the Velcro for the top tube straps. I have even added a key clip to the design.

Helpful suggestions are welcome.

Selling a car online

Before you get you put your car on the market it is worth trying the Internet to get a good idea of how you wish to sell it. There are services out there that will offer you a fair price for your car and come and collect it. Selling a car has never been easier! Gone are the days of trudging around to dealers or waiting for someone who wants the exact model you are selling and then dealing with their queries. Now it is just a matter of forwarding a few details to the right site and sitting back while you wait for them to answer you. It is even easier than waiting for a consignment deal, you get the money up front with a minimum of hassle.

I have had some terrible experiences while selling a car. I have had to do it on multiple occasions when I have upgraded or purchased a new vehicle and needed to get rid of the old one. To me, any form of advertising based approach can be painful. There is a reason they call people tyre kickers. Fielding queries can become a full time job for the duration of the sale and you have to put up with them at all hours. That is where services who do all of the leg work for you become worth their weight in gold. It works both ways. There are services out there that will find the car you like for you and get it at the right price too.
When you complete a hassle free transaction both the buyer and seller come away from the whole thing feeling relieved that it has been such an easy going transaction. People are more unsecured loans likely to feel satisfied with the transaction and there is a greater possibility of repeat business. Companies that connect buyers with those selling a car are doing a great service. Alternatively having companies who just take some details, send you back an offer then come and pick it up are even better. You are dealing with the buyer directly in this instance and can be assured that nobody is going to be knocking on your complaining about being sold a lemon.
There is the other end of the spectrum as well; that is people who actually enjoy the thrill of selling something privately, as I was when i wanted to sell my car. In fact many people make a career out of it. Online auction houses are full of people who buy low and sell high. It is also the back bone of the whole share trading system. For most people however, the hassle far outweighs the advantages. It is also a competitive world where you are reliant on your product selling. Having a service in place that actually wants your product before you are even contemplating selling it makes the whole process so much smoother. It is nice to know that when the day comes you are able to sell what you want to sell and bad credit loans continue on your merry way without having to rely on random strangers coming across your advertisement.

Remploy in trouble

Remploy is proposing to close 36 of its 54 factories, with potential compulsory redundancies of more than 1,700 disabled workers.

Minister for disabled people Maria Miller said the Remploy board was proposing to close the sites by the end of the year because they were unlikely to achieve independent financial viability.

She said the £320 million budget for disability employment has been protected, adding that the money will be spent more effectively.

In a written ministerial statement responding to unsecured loans a Government-commissioned review into disability employment, Ms Miller said savings from policy changes being announced will be used on "proven employment programmes" to benefit "many more" disabled people. 

The minister said she had assessed "very carefully" the needs of Remploy workers, as well as the 6.9 million disabled people of working age who could benefit from greater specialist employment support.

She said: "The Government will reduce its current subsidy to Remploy from the beginning of the new financial year so that we cease funding bad credit loans  factories which make significant losses year after year and restrict funding to those factories which might have a prospect of a viable future without Government subsidy."

Remploy will shortly begin consulting with unions on the proposed closure of the 36 factories and on the potential compulsory redundancy of 1,752 people at the sites, most of them disabled workers, she said.

Kendon Dual Stand-Up Trailer Review

Ownership of a trailer requires that you have some place where you can store that auto appendage when it is not in use. Home ownership was once on the increase in the U.S. and in other parts of the world, but the recent trend has been towards condominiums and apartments as long-term living solutions; for them, space is a premium. Even home owners, though, are in situations now where saving unsecured loans space is a welcome thing in the household. Efficiency is exceedingly important to all of us as our collective resources become significantly less available. For the ultimate in quality, space-saving utility and flexibility, you are presented here with the Kendon Dual Stand-Up Trailer: a top of the line carrier for just about anything you need to tow.

 The Kendon Dual Stand-Up Trailer is actually part of a series of trailer configurations. There are several different platforms upon essentially the same chassis; Kendon even makes an automotive carrier. The key difference between it and your normal trailer would be that, when not in use, the Stand-Up will stand up. It will fold up into a shape which only takes up a space 24 inches deep by 84 inches wide and 77 inches high – not bad, and well within a parking space at most complexes provided the sharing auto is not overly long. And, when folded, it has heavy-duty casters with which to roll the trailer into and out of storage position.

Kendon manufactures the Dual Stand-Up using a triangulated, round-tube steel frame – go ahead, think ‘trellis’ – which they powder coat for rust-resistant durability. The numerous configurations do differ somewhat from one another, but the Dual Stand-Up used here has two removable rails with moveable, integrated front wheel chocks. Setting the Kendon apart in the market are the independent torsion bar axles which ride on rubber cushioning and are connected to 13 inch wheels wearing radial buns.

The Dual Stand-Up’s adjustable and removable rails allow for several configuration adjustments. In fact, this carrier can handle two cruisers, or two sportbikes, or one large, full-dress ultra-tourer or even an ATV. Kendon’s diamond-plate platform is low for easy loading, but it also allows you to use it as a basic utility hauler. Loading is a snap with the included ramps, the front wheel chocks are adjustable and locking, and it has several strategically placed tie-down points.

A simple four-pronged plug which runs right next to the standard two-inch ball hitch provides for all the necessary lighting, so make sure your tow vehicle is properly equipped. The Dual Stand-Up unit can carry 2000 pounds, and only weighs 400 pounds. And, the entire package feels very solid and well constructed; it will probably last longer than you if properly maintained.

The Kendon Dual will easily ride behind everything from a sport-wagon to a full-sized, heavy-duty pickup truck with ease. It does get loud when it is empty, so try to counter-weight it if you have to take it out unloaded. When the trailer is either half or fully loaded, it rides very smoothly and proves its brilliant design and quality build – rock solid stable.

The only negatives with the Kendon Dual would have to be the weight when you must stand it up alone; it can be a beast and even moving it around can challenging on a rough surface. The biggest complaint has to be the cost, though – it retails for US$2650! There are some used examples but not as many as you bad credit loans might think – Kendon builds them to last.

If you can afford the cost, it is very tough to find a trailer this versatile, this durable and this easy to store anywhere from anyone else. The Kendon Dual Stand-Up Trailer is a luxury ride for any, maybe all, of your motorcycles – present and future.

Check the HPI of a vehicle when buying

Vehicle data experts HPI are warning used car buyers about the rising number of Category B insurance write-offs being dangerously repaired and returned to UK roads for sale. These are vehicles that have been recommended by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to be scrapped.

"The Government's Scrappage scheme gave the UK new car market a fantastic boost, but the continuing lack of good quality second hand cars for sale, means unscrupulous sellers are using a variety of ways of conning used car buyers out of their money," says Nicola Johnson, Consumer Services Manager at HPI. "Criminals have been capitalising on this shortage by disguising Category B write-offs as a good buy. An HPI Check will give a used car buyer the complete picture of a vehicle's history, including revealing if the car has been an insurance write off and if so, which category. This offers protection from paying good money for a vehicle that is not fit for purpose and a possible safety risk."

All vehicles that are written off are put in to one of five categories, depending on the condition level. The categories include unsecured loans cars that can be repaired and returned to the road, or ones that are recommended to be totally scrapped and never allowed back on the road again.

It is not illegal to repair and return 'written off for salvage' vehicles back to the road, however all classifications excluding Category D must pass a Vehicle Identity Check (VIC) with the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA).
Insurers notify the DVLA of all cars 'written off' within salvage categories A, B, C and D. This notification will set a 'VIC marker' against the DVLA vehicle record for Category A, B and C write-off.
While a VIC marker remains set, DVLA won’t issue a V5C registration certificate, or V11 vehicle license reminder.
VOSA carries out the VIC which is designed to confirm the car's identity, not its road worthiness. This helps to ensure that the genuine car is returned to the road in a bid to reduce the problem of ringing - when stolen cars are given the identity of a written-off vehicle. The VIC marker will only be removed when the car passes a VIC test by VOSA.

However stresses Nicola Johnson from HPI, the VIC test should not be mistaken as a safety test. "Anyone looking to buy a car that has passed a VIC should seek to have it independently checked to ensure that it is in fact road worthy.

"One in twenty five vehicles checked by HPI are recorded as insurance write-offs and we currently hold 650,000 write-offs on the HPI database, which confirms the scale of the risk to buyers. However, a check against HPI's registers will tell you if the car has ever been written off, giving you the information you need before parting with your cash.

"It’s easy to be taken in by shiny paintwork and a low price, but it could be hiding a multitude of faults that haven't been fixed. bad credit loans Unscrupulous vendors will sell a write-off to make a quick profit but if the vehicle is not properly repaired any price is too high."

Spada Gear

Ellie wanted to try out one of Spada's latest helmets and decided on the Evolution Empire model, aimed at entry level prices it surprised her on how much bang you can actually get for your buck

Initial Thoughts

Spada Clothing have been manufacturing clothing for motorcyclist’s for a quite a few years now, the brand of late has become more popular and is making an appearance in more local motorcycle clothing stores and dealerships courtesy of it's good, solid quality at an affordable price bracket. With high performance helmet reviews dominating in the media, I was keen to get a hold of some clothing so that I could try it for myself and see how an entry level helmet TRULY stacks up, pound for pound, against what many consider to be the best brands around. With a suggested retail price of £59.95, I was expecting very little other than a very basic lid, but in fact it’s jam packed with good quality features and provides excellent value for money.

Construction

First things first, the helmet has unusual empirical themed graphics which can be aimed at either ladies or men, and it comes in three colours, unsecured loans empire blue, red or gold. The Evolution helmet from Spada is a good comfortable fit and is reasonably lightweight at 1450g, you obviously do not get the very pinnacle of high tech materials for such a price point but the weight is kept neatly in check.

The removable cheek and skull padding seemed to retain its shape, and after riding with this for just over a month it seemed to only give a little,  nothing really too noticeable which I have had with other cheaper branded helmets aimed at the same price point. When out on the road I found this helmet to be fairly quiet, however the top vents do cause a whistle at higher speeds, something which wasn’t too bad and nothing that a quality pair of ear plugs wouldn’t fix, it is not the quietest helmet overall.

This full faced helmet is equipped with an internal tinted drop down visor which proved handy on a bright day for reducing glare. The mechanism for sliding and locking the internal visor started off slightly stiff but did become better with use and it is situated at the side of the visor in an easy to reach location, something a few higher priced helmets could learn from with their concealed mechanisms. There are two upper and one lower adjustable vents situated just above the visor or below, which keeps your head nice and cool in warmer temperatures, in the colder temperatures however, I did find that the visor had a tendency to fog up and the breath guard didn’t seem to do the job at all but it did keep my nose warm!

It took me a little while to figure the “Quick release visor system” but once mastered with a quick pinch and pull method, the visor is nice and simple to remove without any problems, I found changing the position of the visor was a little “clunky” and sometimes it failed to close with one sweep. Not mentioned on most resellers of the helmet is that this does come Pinlock ready which is another  nice feature Spada have graced us with, this is something that often comes at an additional premium or faffing on other brands who do not offer it as standardElli. Safety-wise this helmet is EC2205 approved and has the double D ring fastening strap which does inspire more confidence than a seat belt strap. Unfortunately there is no SHARP test rating as yet.