Review Archives - Page 2 of 21 - TBNI.Blog

Bilt Hamber Touchless Dilution Guide :

November 10, 2024 by TomBoyNI

Bilt Hamber Touchless Dilution Guide :

Bilt Hamber recommends using their Panel Impact Ratio (PIR) system to work out the exact amount of TOUCH-LESS required to get the best results. This is based around percentages: 0.5% for maintenance, up to 2% for very dirty vehicles.

The aim is to work out the real-world flow rate of your pressure washer.

You only need to do this process once..

Take note of how much water goes through your specific pressure washer and the corresponding dilution ratio/amount of product you need to measure out.

For snow foam lances:

Fill the reservoir up to capacity with plain water.
Turn the dilution knob to maximum (‘thickest’ foam).
Discharge the lance into a bucket, watching the reservoir until empty.
When the reservoir is empty, stop.
Now you’ll need a measuring jug.
For 2% dilution (very dirty vehicles), measure the amount of water in your bucket and multiply this number by 0.02. For example, if the total amount of water used is 10000ml (10L), you would need 200ml of TOUCH-LESS.
For maintenance washes, multiply the total amount of water used by 0.005. 10000ml takes you to 50ml of TOUCH-LESS.
Re-fill the reservoir with water and the correct amount of TOUCH-LESS. Shake for a few moments and you’re ready to go.
You can of course experiment with dilution ratios and the effect TOUCH-LESS has on your vehicle.

For trigger and pump sprayers:

2024 Kilbroney Vintage Show

June 19, 2024June 17, 2024 by TomBoyNI

2024 Kilbroney Vintage Show :

The Kilbroney Vintage Show returned to Kilbroney Forest Park on 15th June 2024 for another year and it was packed with cars from the early days of motoring right up to what could rather questionably be called vintage.

However, the standard of machinery on display was, as always, superb. With cars spanning the generations and club stands for every generation, Marque and area you could hope for, the selection on display was really rather impressive. The are some absolutely stunning cars tucked away in this country and beyond with plenty of vehicles making the trip from the South and the other side of the Irish Sea. The longest travelled award Officially coming from Scotland, but a little birdie tells me there was at least one other that didn’t wish to be included in that category that had quite the journey.

There were concerns about the weather, with a rough enough night the previous evening the weather forecast didn’t look great with a few days to go, but that is the good thing about coastal weather, it only takes a slight change in wind direction and the forecast becomes a work of fiction. The reality was that it was a bright and sunny day, there was one prolonged shower but once it blew over it was back to bright and sunny. The grounds of the park were also in great condition and even with the rain the previous day and that shower it maintained its integrity and every one was able to get out and home without issue, the tractors did not need to be called into action for a rescue mission for anything!

If you haven’t visited the show you really should add it to your calendar. My advice would be to

Arrive early and make a good full day of it, there is loads to see and do, just simply walking around the display and having a decent look at what is on show would take a good few hours.
Don’t leave during the rush, either go a little early or just enjoy the park and let the 5pm – 6pm exit rush calm down.
Consider bringing your own drinks, picnic or snacks. The food is expensive.

There are activities for the kids, they will be costly and loads of food options. They are really costly. Belfast Continental Market sort of prices. I had a ‘Gourmet’ Burger, it was delicious, but it was also £9. That’s pretty expensive for a car show burger! The Northern IReland Fire and Rescue Service also put on a few demonstrations throughout the day and they are well worth a watch to.

The absolute stars of the show though are the Vintage vehicles. The meticulous attention to detail in the maintenance and preparation is an absolute credit to their owners.

I do not envy the decisions to be made by the shows Organisers on who wins what as there is simply so much quality to choose from.

This year the awards went to :

2024 Kilbroney Vintage Show Results :

2024 Dubshed

April 17, 2024April 17, 2024 by TomBoyNI

2024 Dubshed : 6th & 7th April 20324 : Eikon Centre, Lisburn, Northern Ireland :

The show season kicked off in spectacular style at the start of the month with 2024’s edition of Dubshed. Back again at the Eikon Centre, Lisburn this year £25 got you two full days of displays and exhibitions. With a wind storm whipping up a gale on Saturday (and Sunday to an extent) having the majority of the show indoors led to a much more comfortable experience. Although it stayed dried, much to the relief I am sure of those enthusiasts who were displaying their motors outside.

By a strange twist of fate not prebooking your tickets was an advantage as the queue for prebooked customers was massive compared to those who just appeared at the door. The organisers though have already said this will be addressed next year, however that is about the only negative thing I have to say.

With 2 Halls full of cars there was plenty to look at. Hall 1 had its Dubshed focus firmly on the VW / VAG Group vehicles with everything from spotless classics to heavily modified modern vehicles, the standard of car on display was exceptional.

Hall 2 then took on the rest of the motoring world with everything from hypercars, supercars, JDM, drift machines and American marques all well represented.

Nomad Sport Band Review :

November 26, 2023 by TomBoyNI

Nomad Sport Band Review : Apple Watch Band

Apple’s Apple Watch straps and bands are difficult to beat in terms of fit and quality. They are well made, feel right, fit right and look right. Whether you are looking at the Nike Sport Loop, the Apple Watch Ultra Dive Strap, one of the official offerings from Hermes, or something in between you are guaranteed to have something that will have quality, form and function. One more things is guaranteed – they are costly.

So you have something that works well and looks right but is also expensive. The result then is the market will be flooded with bootlegs. A quick browse on an international marketplace will show hundreds of options for copy straps that instead of costing somewhere between £50-£100+ you will have similar ‘looking’ options that start at a few £s.

Often though, you get what you pay for and often these bootlegs will look the part in the photos but when you receive them the quality is far less that what you would hope for. You can get lucky but I have always found that the fitting systems on non genuine straps is poor. The band (especially the fabric options) can often be reasonable but the fitting is pretty useless.

All is not lost though. There are some good third party accessory manufacturers who make products that are not simply a knock off of one of Apple’s designs. They spend money in research and development and come up with alternative and functional products.

One such company is Nomad.

I have recently reviewed another Nomad product, the Nomad Rugged Case, which I have used now for around 6 weeks – it has not been off my phone and still looks exactly as it did when purchased. This was a huge contributing factor as to why I opted to try the Nomad Sport Band Apple Watch Strap.

2023 TBNI.Blog Christmas T-Shirts

January 7, 2024November 13, 2023 by TomBoyNI

2023 TBNI.Blog Christmas T-Shirts :

And they are gone…

They might be back at the end of 2024?

The TBNI.Blog Christmas T-Shirts are available again!

They are just a bit of Christmas fun and each one purchased gives a couple of quid to the site, which all goes towards the running and upkeep costs.

If you would like to get your hands on one they are available exclusively here :

Oh and act fast, these will disappear again on 6th January 2024.

Nomad Rugged Case Review : Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

September 9, 2025October 13, 2023 by TomBoyNI

Nomad Rugged Case Review : Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max :

Nomad Rugged Case for Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max — Nomad Rugged Case Review

Nomad started make accessories around 2012, the first product being a Kickstarter Crowd Funding project of an ‘ultraportable charging cable.’ Since then the company has excelled and is now considered one of the top manufactures of premium mobile phone cases.

Their leather cases are highly reviewed and since this year and Apple having ceased manufacture of leather cases for the new iPhone 15 range Nomad has become one of the most written about and reviewed leather case manufacturers.

However, this review is not about leather. This review focuses on the Nomad Rugged Case.

The official description of the case is :

Surprisingly light in hand, Rugged Case protects your iPhone from all angles with a durable polycarbonate frame and fortified corner bumpers.

Durable TPU bumpers and camera ring
Polycarbonate frame with PET backplate
Anodized aluminum buttons
15ft drop protection
Dual lanyard attachment points
MagSafe & wireless charging compatible

Fusso F7 Liquid Wax Review :

September 9, 2025October 4, 2023 by TomBoyNI

Fusso F7 Liquid Wax Review :

With winter fast approaching it is now a good idea to give your motorcycles and cars a thorough winter clean.

Why you may ask?

To protect your paintwork from the harshness of winter. The increased road grime, the harsh temperature variations and the dreaded road salt that will eat and destroy everything that it can. (If you are an all year biker then In relation to road salt this is even more important for you and you really need to look at anti-corrosion protection for your machine. My personal recommendation is ACF-50, but that process will be covered in another post.). Now is the time to get ready for the attack of winter.

What should I do?

Deep clean and protect. Take the time now to do a little hard work to make your maintenance throughout the winter that little bit easier.

This is not meant to be a detailed post on how to wash your car, so if you have any questions please feel free to comment below this post but here is what I recommend to get yourself winter ready – the final step uses Fusso F7 – and the review you came here for.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give is do nothing in direct sunlight or when the paint is hot.

Snowfoam – to remove any obvious dirt and grime and soften what remains on the paint.
Citrus Spray – to remove or soften any bugs and other road grim.
Thoroughly rinse, if you notice a large amount of grime being removed a second dousing of snow foam would do no harm.
Wheels and tyres can be addressed as the snow foam dwells.
Wash using a wash mitt – using the two bucket method, one bucket contains your suds of choice, the other is for washing and rinsing your mitt. Do one panel at a time and rinse your mat thoroughly between each panel.
Decontaminate – what you need to do here will vary by car, but you may benefit from clay, tar removal etc.
Rinse thorouhly.
Dry. A car dryer is ideal – and screw fix sell a vacuum cleaner that also blows for about £35. It is a bargain and an absolute must if you plan on doing similar with your motorcycle.
At this point I decided to polish the car using Autoglym Super Resin Polish. I didn’t need to clay, or use a tar / spot removal product and Autoglym SRP is now often overlooked for some of the more influencer heavy brands, but don’t underestimate this product. It is an absolute essential for any garage shelf!
That was me ready to try Fusso F7.

2023 Classic Bike Festival Ireland Review

January 14, 2024August 10, 2023 by TomBoyNI

2023 Classic Bike Festival Ireland Review :

The 2023 Classic Bike Festival Ireland ran over the weekend of 5th and 6th August 2023.

In summary, the event was exceptional.

Sunday 6th August 2023 :

I was unlucky, in that I was only able to visit on the Sunday, but the overall set up was excellent. I have also heard and read only positive things for the live entertainment on the Friday and Saturday evenings and on may arrival on Sunday I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of all the campers and campervans that were parked up for the weekend and had had the opportunity to enjoy the previous evenings’ entertainment.

As for the Sunday event. It was great. From things getting underway at around 09:30 am there was rarely a time that there was not bikes on the circuit, and there is the secret to a good biking event – get bikes out there and keep things moving.

The only noticeable break, was for lunch, and I am a big fan of how Bishopscourt plans a lunch break, it means you don’t have to decide what session you are going to miss.

Paddock, parade laps and racing…

A quick walk through the paddock early on Sunday morning was a mixture of bikes getting prepped and bacon baps getting made. Bacon, brown sauce and fumes… What more do you want on a Sunday morning?

Michelin Anakee Adventure : Long Term Review

October 9, 2023June 22, 2023 by TomBoyNI

Michelin Anakee Adventure : Long Term Review

Michelin Anakee Adventure Tyres (on a 2010 BMW R1200GSA) :

This is a long term review of the Michelin Anakee Adventure Tyres, which replaced my Metzeler Tourances. Those Metzeler tyres were exceptional and were available at the point of changing so why, you make ask did you change from what you liked and clearly worked for you? The answer to that is simply marketing. At the time I changed to these Michelins they were the stock tyre for the R1200GSA and then for the new R1250GS model range. So if you bought a new bike from BMW these are the tyres that came on a new bike and I wanted to try them out. The power of marketing and brand awareness, eh.

TOP : Metzeler Tourance / BOTTOM : Michelin Awake Adventure

The Michelin Anakee Adventure is currently the OE tyre choice for the following :

BMW MOTORRAD : R1250 GS
KTM : 790 Adventure, 390 Adventure
MOTO GUZZI : V85 TT
TRIUMPH : Street Scrambler, Tiger 850 Sport, Tiger 900 GT

You can read the Long Term Review of the Metzeler Tourance Tyres here.

I put 10,290 miles on these Michelin tyres and at the point of change the rear was on the wear markers and there was still a reasonable amount of usable tread on the front.

Michelin Awake Adventure : Wear and Tear after 10,290 miles — Metzeler Tourance at Point of Change

If you are looking to know the crux of this review, then here it is. They are decent but there are better options. Read to the end to see what I replaced them with and my initial impressions. No cheating though please. Don’t be jumping to the end of the review just yet.

G-Shock GA-140BMC-1AER ‘Tokyo Neo’ Review :

June 13, 2023 by TomBoyNI

G-Shock GA-140BMC-1AER ‘Tokyo Neo’ Review :

The GA-140-BMC-1AER: A Bold Fusion of Style and Innovation :

Released in August 2019 in Japan, the Black x Neon Series includes four G-Shock watches with blacked-out bezels and neon hands and accents. The matte black bezels represent the night and the yellow, red, and blue neon accents represent the lights that evoke “Neo Tokyo City.” The theme brings to mind the classic 1988 anime film Akira, which takes place in the year 2019 and was promoted with the tagline “Neo-Tokyo is about to explode.” According to Wikipedia, Neo Tokyo” is a common name for a fictional futuristic version of Tokyo often depicted in manga, anime, and video games.”

The Power of Black:

At first glance, the GA-140-BMC-1AER immediately captures our imagination with its sleek and formidable appearance. Drawing inspiration from the urban streetwear scene, this model exudes an air of confidence and undeniable style. The bold black color scheme, synonymous with the G-Shock legacy, creates a striking contrast against the vibrant red accents, resulting in a timepiece that demands attention.

Digital Meets Analog:

One of the defining features of the GA-140-BMC-1AER is its unique hybrid display. This model elegantly combines the best of both worlds, blending analog and digital elements seamlessly. The three-dimensional hands, coated in luminous material, effortlessly glide across the dial, ensuring optimal legibility in any lighting condition. Meanwhile, the digital display offers a wealth of information, including time, date, and a handy stopwatch feature.

Unmatched Durability:

As with all G-Shock timepieces, the GA-140-BMC-1AER excels in durability, making it an ideal companion for the adventurous at heart. Its robust construction incorporates Casio’s signature shock resistance technology, providing protection against impacts and vibrations. The watch is also water-resistant up to 200 meters, ensuring reliability in the face of the elements.