Basically you have a choice

1, Accept the child allowance and pay it back at the end of the year (in full if higher rate taxpayer)

2, Don’t accept child allowance – avoid the repayment, but if your income drops below a certain amount (60k i think) you cannot retrospectively claim the child allowance

Hope this helps (IANAA)

I would second the vote for Dave @ cyclefast, not just due to his good prices, but also his good service.

(He built me wheel up the same day so I could go the ‘Ard Rock enduro last year)

Pedalsport seem to do a lot for local cyclists in terms of clubs and Blazing saddles always seem to have a good range of kit.

Hi OP

I raced some of these when I was a teenager – mid 80’s

Recently I came across some old kit that has laid dormant for quite a while!

If you are interested I can take a detailed look, but I rememeber it being a Tamiya hotshot, with a custom chassis / electronic speed controller etc

I have no idea if it works though!

Let me know if more pictures / detail is needed!

Cheers
Alastair

I seem to remember standard Ebay rules are 5 days?

There is another side to this, in that if you get cancer, then your best ever chance of not dying from it is now (rather than years ago)

From a Pharma company perspective, cancers are the last big diseases to make treatments for – this is complicated by their sometimes low incidence (thankfully) giving the large drug costs headlines we read occasionally.

There is a huge amount of research being done by companies and charities on cancer prevention / cure and things are getting better.

Me and a few mates are on the waiting list – not sure if you can nominate, but I am sure that they won’t go wanting for people to take them up!

Alastair Haigh & Keith Jackson if you can nominate please!

Some great stories here guys – well done on the weight losses, none of that is easy.

Just to add that Jack Clarkson is also a great guy – just don’t try keeping up with him uphill!

I remember someone saying that 50% of the England cyclocross live within 5 miles of each other- Calderdale is a great (hilly) training ground!

I have used a double duvet cover lots!

They are really good, choose a thicker material if you can so you don’t get soak through!

Also put it in backwards so it lays on the left hand side, that way the chainset is off the floor to reduce oily stains and the forks dont have have far to go in the car to snag on stuff.

Easier with 2 people, one to guide the back, one to push!

It does work you just have to be patient until the battery takes some charge!

I have done it about 3 times in 4 years – the alarm goes off when a little charge is present – I think it is a feature as it senses low voltage. If you persist, eventually the alarm will turn itself off – you have to open the car and put the key in the lock to help it understand that you are not stealing it!

If you have a charger and can stand the noise for a bit hook it up with the battery from the second car to reduce the time for the Porsche to take some charge. After a few mins, open the door with the key and put it in the ignition, then the alarm should turn off.

Then wait a while (30 mins) and the relay to open the bonnet should work and you can leave on charge overnight or use the other battery to jump it.

Use the battery from the other car/jump leads on the fuse box connections to get some charge into the boxter battery, enough to be able to open the hood.

I have had this a few times on my 911. The boot/bonnet opens with an electrical switch – needs a bit of charge to work.

On a 911 the battery is in the bonnet i guess this is true for the boxter?

Once you have gained access to the battery, then leave on charge overnight or make sure you go for a good (60min) – assuming you have just left it a while since using it?

Clean them first with sugar soap – grease will make the paint not stick properly

There is a product call ESP Easy Surface prep – not cheap but really effective way of preparing the surface for paint.

Use eggshell type paint – gloss will show any imperfection

Brushing is fine, need to take your time!

(If you do a search there was a thread about a year or so ago on this subject with pics!)

I have a 320d estate, the last of the previous model.

It is great on fuel (50mpg for the last 10k or so miles)

I would also look at the 4 series with the 20d engine, there are some cracking lease deals about at the moment – £350 per month for a 425d over 2 years @ 20k per year was a recent quote I saw – obviously the 320 would be a bit cheaper.

The lease companies also seem to have a lot of deals on the 5 door version – mustn’t be selling ?

I would second the idea of a cross bike if he can get on with curly bars

I have a Voodoo bizango and it is very good, but my new Pinnacle arkose from Evans is probably better on towpaths and much lighter.

It would also have the benefit of being able to take slicks and double as a road bike.

I had a 09 2.0 Tsi

really enjoyed it (oddly felt this more when it went back!)

Did about 60k in it for work and in some ways it is too good (very flat torque spread so fast but does not have that obvious turbo slug of speed of older turbo cars).

Handy enough with the seats down.

I now have a 320d touring and find this a little boring to drive in comparison (although cheaper to run -50mpg vs 30 something in the scirocco)

If you can stomach the petrol cost / don’t do too many miles I would go Scirocco!

Worth it if you use it to buy stuff you were going to anyway.

Less worth it if you start spending to fulfil discount chasing!

I have one of the last of the previous shape ones.

Most stupidly long title of any car I have had:

320d M sport touring executive plus (or something)!

I do about 20k a year (current one is 48K) – mostly motorway but the odd school run etc and get 50mpg.

No problems so far – just tyres to replace (one set of rears – front OK)

This one has deprecuated quite swftly – I think due to it being a sell out model – looking around to replace it and it seems to be worth about the final value of the PCP – 15k ish

Could be for sale – I can also hand it back with no cost on the PCP as I have paid half the finance.

Get one they are good!

There is a guy in london with 2 cars, with complementary number plates.

Car number one is a sports car – number plate 2B

Car number two is a small hatchback – number plate NOT 2B

I wonder what question he asks himself daily?

Is the system quite large? – long pipe runs and lots of rads?

There has to be a reason why it has needed 3 expansion vessels and I am wondering if an additional expansion vessel may be needed as the volume increase is too great for the system to cope with?

Replacing the plugs might solve the immediate problem, but having a think about the underlying issue might be worthwhile?

Yes there are alternatives.

Assuming that the Amlodopine is for blood pressure, then an A class or D class drug – (google ABC of hypertension) could be used.

My guess would be to go with D class!

I won a works trip to Le Tousserok in the ’80s – it was absolutely amazing.

When I got married 11 years ago I looked to see if I could take my wife there……………..unfortunately not!

We also visited a sister hotel which was lovely, but the little “hut” style rooms were excellent

Free watersports / learn how to water ski?

Do it if you can!

I can recommend not getting some large plumbers grips and hitting upwards with a hammer.

I have spent hours doing this with my aluminium road bike and seat post.

The result so far is a very poorly seat post with lots of bits flaking off – But still very much stuck!

(I could not use the move the seat method as the bottom of the clamp mechanism came loose on a ride)

No sign of any deals on bikes today!

Does anyone have any inside info from On One?

I wonder if there are going to be any Planet X deals? There were some cracking ones before Christmas!

Im sure there is someone from there on here………….is it worth waiting?

Apparently there has been an explosion at the alphabetti spagetti factory.

………….it could spell disaster!

I would also suggest working out how much you will save with a diesel

ie Most cars have a 2-3k spread for profit / fund for fixing up to sell from the PX price to the retail price

Keeping the same car that 2-3k might be 20,000 miles of fuel or 40,000 miles of the incremental coast of fuel the diesel would save

Cheers Bullroar

I knew there would be someone with local knowledge!

I’m a bit fed up of the Snow update updates!

Scapegoat – do you know which auction houses take the better stuff around W Yorks?

I found putting a car on the mortgage was much cheaper than getting a separate loan.

This does require some self control though as nobody is watching over you to pay it back – the less disciplined could end up paying for a car long after it had gone to the great scrap yard in the sky!

I have a delonghi magnifica and it is great!

Briquettes are great!

I managed to find 1000kg for £200 on ebay delivered.

They are easy to handle / very dry (best kept in 20kg plastic bags to stop them absorbing water from the atmosphere)

The thicker ones linked to above are better than some smaller, thinner ones as they burn longer

Real wood is great when you have some, but these are excellent when you run out!

That really is very good!

Interesting reading this, partly because an unrivalled level of Nobbish behaviour from one of us!

Just my tuppence worth:

I had a new (at the time) golf Gti stolen from my drive, they smashed a kitchen window and took the keys – I remember feeling incredibly angry, not for the car, but because the kids were asleep upstairs, above the kitchen.

The police were fantastic (not a phrase often typed!). The new where the car would be left to see if it had a tracker fitted and staked it out for a couple of days – no luck.

The team that looked after the crime were specifically targetted at higher value car crime – they said keep your keys with you as the last thing they will ever do is challenge you for them. They do not want to be recognised as that could be the end of their “career”

Of course the above only applies to “professional” car crime – the drugged up guy looking to get your car to sell on for more coke may not have this clarity of thought. I would have thought the chances would be in favour of the professionals , rather than hoodies doing a TWOC crime though?

Worry is the interest paid on trouble before it is due!

Loads of sellers do the solarstorm lamp head unit only

If you do a search on Ebay for magicshine and then rank the results by cost + P&P, most of the cheaper ones will have no battery

I dare say a magicshine search done the same way may have some head units only.

There are some great deals out there a quick search of this forum for lights will show you can get a 3 LED light like the magicshine for about £16!

(I would get one of those and have a spare battery!)

If it would fit through the window with the frame in, it would be an easy DIY job to knock out the beading, carefully take out the glass. Then refit.

Fitters use a scraper like tool to push into the beading to prise it off without marking it.

Would that work?

A few years ago I was coming down a nice bit of singletrack and saw a pidgeon in the middle of the path.

It will move away – I thought as they always do when driving and cars move faster than bikes.

It didn’t move and my last minute bunny hop was too late.

I was challenged by a riding buddy at the bottom of the hill (feathers everywhere) and I had to go sort it out as it clearly had a broken wing.

Not my finest riding moment!

I don’t know the answer to your question as I have not tried them to see.

I don’t see that the Deore will give 180% of the service of the alivio

What it might do is give a better quality shift for longer.

My advice for keeping drive-train costs down are to clean the chain after every ride – and keep checking it. Swap the chain early enough and you can save the other components. Some advocate getting 2 chains from nes and having one in a jar of diesel / petrol to clean it then swapping every so often (this is easy to do with a quick link)

Hope this helps!

@scapegoat – very interesting – where are you?

I should say I am not affiliated in any way, there may be better deals out there, but this is the best I could find!

If others know of any better sources of wood, please chip in……………..especially in the Halifax area!