There’s quite a few of these within budget

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196566424476?_nkw=xjr+jaguar&itmmeta=01J77B42Q4J3BTH7AGTDEZPHEW&hash=item2dc4459b9c:g:NgoAAOSwIcZmUL2-&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKnRSAa3fv6nyNomIJArSHvytwDPb9fC%2F9G5jZwNnMsMK85xsmRhAi68QDWQXv1W8BP8vmhqVaQ37BPCzZ13zatVhJ3ZO5Kx7PhNKLIgc2TLLYPNeWxtG65yIMYn%2FwRezTjcQ%2FzF%2FpDnRZtC%2F3x5O90vzlRQ8%2FP6AH06VMLVBwcSObeE9TiZkBtf%2FouVyY02dbBci0uIqKzFvMRhkSDx%2BRVBoRh136IhoyTbTkUguy9mECC32qTYq2lGu4ayGPesgWE%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9arkOu5ZA

Much classier than an M5. A bit thirsty but if you aren’t doing big miles it doesn’t really matter that much

So can we make a choice but gorrilas, for example, can’t? FB above implies that they can, and do. If we both have the correct digestive systems to be omnivors then it’s a mental thing rather than a physical thing. Do we have better abilities to make choices than gorrilas? If we assume that we do then when did we get this ability, did a neanderthal or homo erectus ever decide that eating meat was wrong and see if they could just live off plants? Or do we and other omnivorous animals have the ability to make this choice but we modern humans are the only ones with the luxury of a readily available supply of sufficient suitable food to allow us to do this, rather than having to just eat whatever can find/catch?

It’s obviously a no-go for a lion or an anteater but for ourselves, the great apes, extinct humans?

No, Mansfield Hall at Reading. Not the nice Victorian building at the front, the dodgy 60s one behind it.

I thought I’d got lucky when I arrived and saw the nice building, and then whoever it was doing the meeting and greeting said ‘I’ll show you to your room’ and it went downhill from there

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.450005,-0.9640981,176m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkwNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

That’s the new one. It didn’t have courtyards and things when I was there, just mushrooms in the bathrooms

That’s interesting FB.

Presumably they can eat the meat they are given, and so are omnivorous like the other great apes, including ourselves, but if they don’t eat (much of ) it in the wild is that a choice? Or is it just really hard to catch?

I don’t recall seeing any big B&Q type places anywhere near Briancon (which is lovely by the way). Might be a little local hardware store somewhere but they’re even less likely to be open on a Sunday, best to pop into Lyon or Grenoble on the way by.

Wikipedia again:

Not only is their diet 99% bamboo, but it turns out that raw bamboo is very high in cyanide

Despite its taxonomic classification as a carnivoran, the giant panda’s diet is primarily herbivorous, with approximately 99% of its diet consisting of bamboo. However, the giant panda still has the digestive system of a carnivore, as well as carnivore-specific genes, and thus derives little energy and little protein from consumption of bamboo. The ability to break down cellulose and lignin is very weak, and their main source of nutrients comes from starch and hemicelluloses. The most important part of their bamboo diet is the shoots, that are rich in starch and have up to 32% protein content. Accordingly, pandas have evolved a higher capability to digest starches than strict carnivores. Raw bamboo is toxic, containing cyanide compounds. Pandas’ body tissues are less able than herbivores to detoxify cyanide, but their gut microbiomes are significantly enriched in putative genes coding for enzymes related to cyanide degradation, suggesting that they have cyanide-digesting gut microbes.

Chickens will eat anything, I’ve seen them attacking a mole and ganging up on a pheasant trapped inside the run, I’m not sue if they were trying to eat the pheasant but no doubt they woud have picked at the corpse if I hadn’t rescued it

Ooh,  sloths are bears too, I didn’t know that.

I also don’t know how to paste stuff properly it seems

Wikipedia say they are bears

<h2 id=”Taxonomy”>Taxonomy</h2>

For many decades, the precise taxonomic classification of the giant panda was under debate because it shares characteristics with both bears and raccoons. In 1985, molecular studies indicated that the giant panda is a true bear, part of the family Ursidae These studies show it diverged about 19 million years ago from the common ancestor of the Ursidae; it is the most basal member of this family and equidistant from all other extant bear species.

But yes, it was a grey area for a while (I guess grey areas are what you get with black & white things)

My first year halls were so bad that they were demolished a year after I graduated. They were a wreck wehn I was there.

We saw this as a good thing, we didn’t really have to look after anything, so one minded if we rode bikes down the stairs, or drew chalk outlines of corpses on the carpets or spent sunny days chilling up on the roof or having water fights or whatever. People who lived in nicer halls paid more and had to be really careful with them, they had much less fun

It was considerably cheaper in my day though…

If I just put the lid on the compost properly they go away.

If they’ve no food,  they’ve no interest in being there and so just leave

When changing a caliper on mine I found the wheel was stuck on, no amount of whacking would get it off. Half a mile (very slowly!) with loose wheel it’s had it free.

Also why cheap?

Because it’s locked up to a fence outside work all day and it’s a dodgy area. You do actually want cheap

Because it’s out doing lots of miles in all weathers and you don’t want to ruin your good bike. Prioritise longevity over cheap to buy.

I tried recently, I use minimal amount of electricity, £25ish per month, so was looking for the one with lowest standing charges, happy to pay a higher unit rate instead. All very much the same I found.

So go with whichever has the best reputation for customer service (ie avoid Scottish Power and Opus) I’ve been quite happy with Octopus, much better to deal with than SP at any rate.

MOD- A reminder that referral links are not permitted.

The firepit ones are ok.

If you are using a jetboil your cooking options will be quite limited, I’ve got a very slightly heavier stove and a mess tin for this reason, I can do pasta in it, I can simmer, etc. worth the very slight weight penalty

You can do couscous in a jetboil, and add whatever you like to it

Twice in the last four or five years on my own bikes. It is the thing I lend to people most often though

 that the buyers are not legally forced to pay for it/collect it and can just ignore it after winning and never respond.

I get quite a few non-payers who never reply to anything. I write them a very polite letter, saying that if they see something on eBay which they really don’t want to buy, please don’t bid on it, as it annoys not only the seller but also all the serious buyers. I then post it with no stamp, they get a little ‘insufficient postage’ thing through the letter box and have to take that to the post office and pay £1.75 to be asked not to waste everyone’s time. It’s petty but gives me some satisfaction. And also use the report buyer bit to help those who’ve got their accounts set to block these people

Nothing for me, but it’s my first winless month since last September so I can’t complain really.

Dyna, there was a bit a few pages back where it turns that a lot of people on here are maxed out. Sadly, I’m not one of those.

Once I have a wheel off I pop it under the wishbone/axle/somewhere similar, laying flat, if anything does slip off it’s less likely to hit the ground/me.

Also, you’ll be wanting to spin the wheels in the air. Might be stating the obvious but when doing the rears put it in gear, when doing the fronts put the handbrake on. When doing any chock the other three wheels. Possibly overkill with the chocks but I always do just in case, and I’m still alive. Although I would be even without the chocks, I’ve never had one slip off, but you never know. I did have a jack sink into the grass once, that was a pain. Do it on a hard surface!

And yes, do it with your son so he knows how for next time. And if you’ve never done it before you can learn together, often helps to have a second pair of hands anyway, and often someone else to suggest something, spot something you’ve missed etc.

It’s the other way round, the seller gets the buyer’s details for posting?

So – thoughts on needing discs too, or is pads on old discs on a low-performance car that barely gets up to 60 downhill, less if the aircon is on, a sensible compromise (safety is a consideration too, just that pads looks a piece of piss, pads and discs increase the jeopardy by 3 more bolts

Pop some photos of the discs up if you can. I get my discs done on alternate pad changes if that’s any guide, but mine is heavy on brakes, mainly due to be heavy full stop

I don’t know if they’re all the same but I found that the peg spanner you use for changing discs on an angle grinder worked brilliantly for winding my piston back in

Pads are a doddle.

Discs are very vehicle-dependant. Not sure about a C1 but it’s a garage job on my transit, they are behind the hub, the torque on the hub nut is 450NM, which I can’t shift, and tends to destroy a wheel bearing when removed.  I suspect a lot easier on a C1. The torque on the bolts on a proper mini is 60NM for instance. I changed one of my calipers and that was easy enough, just some rusty bolts a bit stiff.

Anyway, more helpfully if you are near the Tweed Valley you can borrow my trolley jack and axle stands.

Just to annoy everyone on page 1 saying the Prodigy or Keith, I just thought I’d mention that my first ever gig was The Chemical Brothers with Keith from the Prodigy doing a set afterwards.

That is all

Just message each other, there’s various ways around the sending email addresses/phone number thing, and exchange details that way, then cash on collection, safest way.

I’ve got bikes made of titanium, steel, carbon and aluminium.

If money were no object they would all be titanium, apart from the time trial bike as you really need carbon for the weird shapes. Ti and steel feel very similar to ride, to me anyway, but ti is a bit lighter so that swings it for me.

Also a solid race debut for Colapinto bringing it home in 12th.

Which puts him 21st in the champiosnhip, one place ahead of Bottas…

Agree it’s madness not swapping Piastri and Norris on the last lap, ten points is huge, even the three from this time could make a difference.

Saints or Hope.

New ones are over budget so keep an eye on eBay, they can be had for £50 quite easily

What are we calling big here, double garage size or proper big barn?

Grew up with gas, have an induction now as no mains gas here

I prefer gas, just much nicer to use.

Only advantages of an induction for me are easy to clean, and I have a very small kitchen so an extra bit of flat surface is nice, but for actually cooking I prefer the gas

Also, if you do go for induction avoid those stupid touch controls, I absolutely hate mine, get proper knobs. They adjust themselves if you just brush against them with anything, and the worst one I had was a pan boiled over, the water got onto and turned everything up maximum! A solution to a problem which didn’t exist, get knobs!

I have been riding since the mid-90s. I have seen one stem break in all that time, an old quill stem which went at the vertical weld, luckily just pulling away from a junction so very slow speed.

I have seven Thomson stems on my bikes, and a similar number of their seatposts. Never had any cause for concern with any of them, all secondhand and I’ve had them for ages.

Did anyone see the reports that Belarus had shot down a Russian drone?

https://en.defence-ua.com/news/belarusian_jet_shoots_down_russian_drone_in_yelsk_district_for_the_first_time-11676.html

Interesting. It was just passing through, same as loads have done previously. So why now?

My running club uses Spond.

As a member/user rather than an admin it’s great. No plans to change as far as I know so I guess the admins are happy with it too

I remember the Market Rasen earthquake, and I was thirty miles away. Absolutely no doubt that was an earthquake, I knew immediately.

So I would suggest that if you have doubts it probably wasn’t

Done.

I wonder if I could swap it for one of their river kayak courses? Just need to win first of course…

, especially running two very different spec cars in the same race.

I missed that. And Checo was closer than he’s been for a while, (fastest in Q1 IIRC?)  Were they different specs at Spa too when he got the front row? He clearly likes a different kind of car to Max

Haas’s trucks have been impounded at Zandvoort due to the dispute with Uralkali.

They still think they’ll be at Monza on time.

Just thought you’d like to know

I’m fortunate enough to have a lot of bikes.

Apart from the fattie they all feel the same. I doubt they are, so that probably means that it’s just not something I feel if it’s just a small difference. I use spds too.

Ive always carried mine. And also a set of shoes, pedals, lights etc in the hand luggage just in case. Never had a problem.

Airlines weigh the bag to work out overweight fees but as long as it’s under 32kg they don’t care what’s in it.

I can’t find anything in New Jersey, but there’s these bags from Connecticut, any good?

https://www.grassillinicreations.com/

The cost cutting might have been true in the pre-cost cap era, but now it would be an allocation of costs thing rather than a total cost thing. If a team think it worth having a spare then why not, they’ll have to make cuts elsewhere. And I suspect they would be minor, they already carry enough spares to each race to be able to repair anything, why not just have them already assembled before the the start of FP1? They would even have engines and gearboxes for each driver, so using a t-car would incur a penalty if they’ve already gone over allocation but that’s it.