Which defender for mountain biking?

[Bromsgrove Defender]

cant say much about the td5s, but....

Ah'd avoid pre 2000 td5's as I think they all had the dodgy plastic dowels in the cylinder head and oil creepin into the engine management unit other than that they're great quite fast too. If I bought another Landy though I'd go for a 200tdi but thats only cos I like to play in the water and I've got to be careful at the mo as to how deep I go.

If I'm very good this year Santa might bring me a harness extension

Got nice tides mark inside tho

 

[olmasters]

Me and a mate regularly go to the mendips in my 90 and the two bikes fit in fine. We ride all mountain spec hardtails (so nothing too chunkey like fr or dh bikes) although the two fit in just fine. Front and rear wheels have to be removed first and the two fit nicley up against the bulkhead and the wheels can be placed in between the frames to prevent them ratteling. Because the bars are pretty wide (full width) they dont really fall over, although I have made up a few tie points to secure them further and prevent the wheels/chain clanking over bumps etc. It also helps security wize to have van sides so the bikes are less obvious. Although Ive allways fancied the idea of making a secure anchor inside the lode area (perhaps connected to the chassis) so I can securley lock the bikes inside the 90.

Ollie

 

[fenby1976]

I used to go mountainbiking in the mendips when I lived in Bristol, along with Ashton Court and Leigh woods. I haven't been there for years now. Is the Ashton Court track still in existance?

 

[boydy1989]

As promised, some pics.

The first is me tying the bikes on for the return 300 miles journey from cornwall, the LR easily held enough stuff for me an missus to go camping for a week, with lotsa space spare.

The second pic is my LR as i was about to go back up to uni, again 300 mile drive, i rekon the LR was probably nearing being overwight but the old NA still pulled it fine.

 

[Kennymac]

Ho!

got a 110 CSW and use it a fair bit for cycling, you can get 3 bikes in the back without taking wheels off and you get used to the ride after a while. I sometimes get use of a tranny van, I much prefer the landy.
cheers
k

 

[tankduck]

oh man I want one right now lol. I'm just gonna have to save up for a few monthes and try not to think too much about defenders (not proving too successful at the moment). I keep seeing ideal ones on ebay/autotrader and just wish I could go and buy one right now!!!! It seems that you can get a decent defender 90 for like 3-4k and 110 for about 5-6k without going too silly. I only finished uni last year or else I'd be budgetting for something more but hey.

I can't believe how cheap the insurance is either on something around '95 for a 22 year old, unbelievably cheap.

 

[Ghost]

You can just about fit a couple of downhill bikes in the back of my 110, they will go in a 90 but it means removing the front/both wheels and hanging the forks over the back of the tailgate. One option to consider if you get a 90 is to purchase a towball mounted bike rack for it, you can get some pretty sturdy ones from the like of Pendle these days and it'll be a lot easier than lifting a 40lb+ bike onto the roof!

That is if you ride downhill, if you wear lycra and ride cross country, have you considered an MX5?

 

[tankduck]

lol, yes I do ride cross country, but I don't wear lycra!! Nah I'm not massively into cross country but its the only riding you can do around my area so yeah it just gives me something to do on my bike really. My setup is for xc/all mountain so I get the best of both worlds really. If I had it my way I'd be riding all mountain/downhill but topography really does not permit it lol.

I have been looking at the bike racks from pendle actually, I've currently got one for my car and the quality is good so I'm tempted by either the spare wheel mounted one or the one you mentionned (only problem with that is you can't open the door with it on

 

[Ghost]

lol, yes I do ride cross country, but I don't wear lycra!! Nah I'm not massively into cross country but its the only riding you can do around my area so yeah it just gives me something to do on my bike really. My setup is for xc/all mountain so I get the best of both worlds really. If I had it my way I'd be riding all mountain/downhill but topography really does not permit it lol.

I have been looking at the bike racks from pendle actually, I've currently got one for my car and the quality is good so I'm tempted by either the spare wheel mounted one or the one you mentionned (only problem with that is you can't open the door with it on

The towball mounted one I'm thinking of you could open the door with, obviously not if it's got bikes on it though you'd have to take em off first.

Sounds like you've got a pretty skinny bike though so you might get away with some roof bars and a normal roof bike rack, as long as you don't decide to go through mcdonalds drive through on the way home after your lunch you'll be alright

 

[tankduck]

yeah not very heavy at all, mates bikes are reigns though so a little chunkier, nothing that heavy though.

 

[tankduck]

ok guys, might have this all sorted now. have found a 90 200 tdi with 130k miles and new recon lt77 box. body is great so the onl downer would be the mileage but Im sure I'll get loads of fun out of it This time next week I could be posting pics of my new toy
Thanks for all the advice guys!

 

[Paul D]

Nice one.

 

[boydy1989]

How much?

 

[Ghost]

How much?

+1, always interested to see what tdi 90s fetch in the real world (not auto trader and back of land rover magazine dreamers)