Fair enough. I’m not particularly squeamish about meat/food. Eating dog, cat, badger, squirrel etc. probably wouldn’t bother me too much.

Live bugs might be a bit of a stretch though!

molgrips – Member

He’s just been on TV eating Viking food. Brains, balls, sheep heads, the lot – and he didn’t make any kind of face or even crack a joke.

That takes some doing.

Isn’t it just a case of sticking it in your mouth, doing a bit of chewing and then swallowing it?

Our boiler and timer went off last week. After a bit of testing, it turned out that the heating was pump shorting-out and blowing the fuse at the spur to the boiler/heating.

I fitted a new pump and all was fine again (in fact the heating is now far better than at any time in the previous 2 years that we’ve lived here)

AlexSimon – Member
TK Maxx is interesting. Clothes that someone deemed worth £100 one year, that now look not worth £20 because you realise they’re badly made and the brand name emblazoned across them is meaningless.
(mostly)

From what I’ve seen, much of the clothing is pretending that it was “worth £100 one year”, and so attempting to increase its desirability…. a bit like the special offers on wine in Tesco.

I’d like to think that I’m not materialistic (I don’t covet expensive possessions and have mostly modest and many second-hand/repaired ‘things’. We too have a CRT TV. Only 28″! I’ve even been known to go on mtb-based retreats with the Dalai Binners), but I probably am materialistic to some degree as I do have more things/toys than I need. I do prefer using things to collecting them in order to tell people about them.

As for not wishing to see TV adverts: I rarely watch TV ‘live’ (iPlayer, Virgin TV on Demand etc.), although few of the very few programmes I do watch are on commercial TV anyway. As a consequence TV ads have little effect on me.

Some followers of supposedly omnipotent deities are very quick to defend said omnipotent deities.

-Am I the only that find this slightly amusing?

Of course, young blokes of all religious persuasions like a riot, especially if they are disgruntled, poor or have an “evil” enemy. Followers of religion have been known to have scuffles with followers of slightly different flavours of the same religion, even in the British Isles. The religious aspect is fairly irrelevant, of course.

Stans Sealant now ordered…..

I know that a lot of blokes agonise over losing their hair, but they should just get over it!

Using the clippers for a few minutes once a week to remove the stubble beats queuing in a barbers on a Saturday morning before being asked my views on the latest developments at City or United (I have no views on them) or where I’m going on holiday every 6 weeks or so.

binners – Member

In your day it was retiring to the Gentleman’s club to recline in your leather wingback armchair, brandy in one hand, cigar in the order, regaling your friends with tall tales….

How do you know about that?

They were the days before I had a Binners’ style haircut.

Champagne Bar in Durham

Durham must have changed since my day….

DaveyBoyWonder – Member

Yep, heading towards Leeds is a pain. Its the nature of the beast – everyone heading towards work. Very satisfying filtering past the stationary vehicles for miles and miles on a motorbike though….

binners – Member

ie: every single day. There is always an accident around the Worsley interchange. ALWAYS! believe me.

Indeed. People can’t seem to cope with not tail-gating or lane-swerving at the merging of the M61-M60 and M60-M62/M602 in a series of lashed-together, never quite completed-as-the-Brave-New-World-planners-intended junctions with some very ‘creative’ slip-roads and narrow lanes where 3 have been squeezed in where 2 lanes used to be. Considering the volume of traffic it probably isn’t too high an accident rate.

If the M60 itself is ok, then the M62 towards Warrington can snarl up, with traffic backing up onto the M60. And then, of course, there’s the M6 just along the road.

Throw in the sheep shoppers visiting the nearby Trafford Centre during the build-up to Xmas and it’s even better.

There’s a huge difference between using a sharp knife with a consistent edge and using a blunt knife (for anything: cooking, gardening, log splitting, DIY, shaving etc.). It’s not always about the *cost* of the blade. I once used a friend’s extremely blunt, but fairly expensive, Global knives, awful.

righog – Member

A word of warning though. The knives ( if they are good ones) will be extremely sharp, so much so that my wife will not use them.

I once offered to sharpen my Mother-in-law’s ancient food-bludgeoning bars with handles, but she said that they would be dangerous….

Sharpening guide -for an axe, but the principles are sound, although you probably want to avoid the convex grind on a kitchen knife

With practise a pen-knife, sheath knife or kitchen knife can be sharp enough to shave the hairs from your arm, but still retain an edge.

Frequent stropping keeps the edge straight. No need for frequent re-grinding.

In most cases, ‘Push’ the edge of the blade whilst using emery/stone. ‘Drag’ the edge of blade whilst stropping,

Tools:
Various grades of Emery paper (a stone is optional, but not necessary)
A leather belt for stropping (or even a sheet of paper)
A Steel (or just the edge of a car window glass)

ie. not really expensive.

breatheeasy – Member

Politics.. Its all very confusing.

Indeed, I’ve worked on elections and voting stations. A lot of the Labour supporters I’ve dealt with would have been kicked out of NF meetings for being too extreme. They just vote Labour because their fathers did, etc. etc.
Exactly. Or on religious/sectarian grounds in some areas.

Most people vote (if they bother…) for the same party every time, no matter what the parties say or do (How many people read manifestos?).

The floating voters in marginal constituencies are the people who decide the election. Occasionally there is a ‘big’ swing, but it is not often that it is big a swing in the number of votes.

It appears from the news coverage that the Republican party have become more extreme. I once heard the phrase “God, Guns & Gays” to describe the issues that divided the parties.
-I’m an atheist with no interest in carrying a hand-gun to the shops and have no problem with homosexuals.

If I was a US citizen there is no way I’d vote for the Republicans -as currently portrayed by the UK media.

One thing that amuses me:
In the USA, not believing in a traditional, Judeo-Christian interpretation of God would be an issue for a potential president. In the UK, believing in God (well, talking about it and about praying for guidance) is an issue for a potential leader.

I can read a map and enjoy reading them.

I am a Luddite when it comes to sat-navs when driving. I positively enjoy planning where I’m going and then getting there with the minimum map use, home or abroad.

When I’ve been somewhere I can generally find my way around there again if I ever go back.

When the satellites break down and the roads grind to a halt I’ll hopefully still be able to find my way home.

Yes, I used 25mm of Gorilla Tape. Pressed firmly and carefully onto the rim to prevent bubbles.

A static 40psi is one thing, but bashing against a rock/kerb is another. I’ll try it outside later.

ps. I had the rim and tyre on the bike anyway, previously used tubed. I bought some sealant and ‘latex’. If it works my homebrew sealant cost less than a litre of Stan’s and will do a lot of tyres.

There was actually a lot of foaming around the tyre.

It appears that the sealant (akin to Slime) was too viscous to slosh about in the tyre.

Having removed the tyre, re-taped the rim and bought some ‘latex’ (acrylic for mixing with mortar rather than natural latex, due to local availability on Saturday pm) solution (mixing it with the tractor sealant) and re-installed, there was an instant inflation, with only a tiny amount of foaming. Shaking the wheel seemed to plug the gaps.

Pumping it up again, the tyre, sat in the garage had held 40psi for ~36hrs this morning, although the residue of sealant on the outside of the bend was still moist/tacky in places.

I’ve no idea if it will work on the trail….or kill my tyre…

With hindsight I should have bought some Stan’s for this first attempt at tubeless.

jam bo – Member

People actually pay for business class with their own money?
That’s what I thought…

I did some work in the US in 2002. The airlines were struggling a bit in the post-9/11 era, so BA were doing a promotion, upgrading business class passengers to First Class in one direction.

Mixing with the rich & famous (well, Jay Kay) in the Concorde Lounge was an experience and the flight was very pleasant, but at £3800(! 10 years ago) it is not something that I am ever likely to do again.

Virgin Upper Class was different (sharing the lounge with Patrick Stewart on one occasion), but the ‘luxury’ on the flight not up to the same standard as BA First Class in those days.

I’ve decided that my sealant is quite possibly not latex (I can’t find a datasheet) and is more like Tyre slime. It is also thicker than the Stan’s stuff on the videos.

I could dilute it and, failing that, continue being DIY by buying some latex. Alternatively, I could just give-in and buy some Stan’s sealant….
Which, according to the datasheet, is actually only:

Propylene Glycol (ie. A type of anti-freeze, presumably for winter rides) 20 – 40%
Natural Latex 15 – 30%
Water makes up the remainder

molgrips – Member

I have one of those, I can’t stand wires all over the dash, so a solution needs to be found.

My Pure Highway sits under the passenger seat/footwell mat, all wires concealed:
Antenna runs along the centre console and tucked into the pocket on the back of the passenger seat.
Power lead (when plugged in)runs from the fag lighter downwards
Line-out fed behind centre console and up into the glove-box line-in socket.

Very discrete and I only use it for 6Music so don’t need to change stations.

Asec Garage door Bolts

6 Music plays great music all day, including in the morning. And if you listen to Shaun Keveney, you can get him to give you a middle aged shout out on a Friday to celebrate you creosoting your fence, or something. I’ve had quite a few. I got us all a collective one for Hit the North

Indeed, a positive side effect of the lack of publicity for 6Music is that if your wife texts in whilst you’re driving along there’s a good chance that you can get an, ahem, shout-out(!).

Lauren Laverne reading your name out -proud, it brings a tear to my eye.

Prof Brian Cox is also on with Shaun Keaveny on a Friday and has been for some years, since before he became TV’s favourite physicist.

ps. for you folks who can’t get DAB in the car:

Binners

What worries me is where he’ll pop up next. Given the BBC’s track record of once giving George Lamb his own show on 6 music…

-That still gives me nightmares. That bloke was the reason that my former colleagues turned against 6Music and we were forced to return to Key 103.

When he moved to weekend mornings, it ruined many a Saturday.

Why is anybody over about 24 listening to R1 anyway?

6Music and R4 all the way.

Who? William and Kate? Not really a fan of the royals myself.

?

Cheers folks.

To seat the tyre I used a DIY pop bottle inflator which seated the tyre fairly vigorously. I subsequently reduced the pressure to 30 psi.

The bubbles are visible at the join between the bead and the tyre.

I’d expected the Flow rim to give a fairly good seal with the tyre due to the profile of the rim.

The sealant is This stuff:

The washing up liquid was to test if the tyre would seat before trying the sealant. I didn’t wash it out afterwards. I’m intending to clean the wheel and tyre again to remove the washing up liquid before my next attempt.

I used some tractor tyre sealant (with granules in it), painted it onto the tyre bead, added it to the tyre and did the things suggested on the various videos. Mucho shaking, rotating etc. etc.

Gorilla tape rather than Stans stuff.

I’ll re-tape the valve, clean the rim and tyre again and attempt to perform the black magic later.

I normally use Spds, but occasionally fit flats for a change. I was glad I’d previously practised on flats when I had a day on a rental Demo 8 on flats on the Todtnau DH course.

Flats hinder me a bit on the uphills, otherwise I’d probably use them more often.

?

These rough, inner-city ghettos, eh?

Maybe, due to the disturbances in Libya, Syria (being vaguely in the same region of the world, albeit on a different continent) will now receive the benefit of a visit from Uncle Sam and maybe the donation of some anti-aircraft missiles in an attempt to spread more democracy and act as a calming influence on the Middle East in this election year? By the time it all kicks off against the liberators somebody else will have to manage the situation.

ps. This is quite an interesting book in places:

It doesn’t take much to get a rag-tag mob of restless, disgruntled blokes to form a posse and carry out acts of violence, whether in the UK or abroad.

Throw in a bit of offence to the surprisingly sensitive followers of an omnipotent deity and it escalates rapidly, with ‘taking offence’ becoming compulsory. Add a few weapons supplied in the past to these chaps by “the West” and watch it all escalate around the world. (Young lads in other areas seeing it as a good excuse to have a good riot and burn a few flags, no need to have seen or read the source of offence.)

Come to think of it, I’m amazed that such things have never happened in any other countries of strategic benefit to “Western interests” that have had democracy enforced upon them….. Oh hang on on a minute.

Who’d want to be the US President during this mess?

What they will now need is a target that is a threat to the “Western Way/Free world” that isn’t actually too much of a threat. The US State department and the Republicans will now be browsing wikipedia and Google maps in attempt to find somewhere suitable.

soma_rich – Member

Simon that’s a cracking guide. I think I can do that. Bit nervous though….

There’s an even easier way to remove the spacers and it doesn’t require an oil change. It took me a couple of minutes to do, including getting the tools out. Search the www.

Having said that, Loco does a very good job and 20quid sounds very reasonable.

soma_rich – Member

Thanks LoCo what would you charge to change the oil and up the travel?
Rich

Give it a go yourself. It is very straight-forward. If you find that you can’t do it you can then send them to Loco.

Ebay

Am I balls, I’m not even particularly a royalist.

That reminds me of those people who say,
“I’m not a racist, but…” 😉

I just get annoyed by the “this is all being done with my money” stuff that gets banded around when the vast majority isn’t.

They are wealthy by virtue of being ‘royal’. It’s not the money that bothers me too much, it’s the notion of we ‘common folk’ being ‘subjects’. ie. We are inferior by virtue of our non-blue blood. Unless we happen to marry into royalty and our blood changes colour.

Let’s become a Republic. Our honorary, ceremonial presidencies can have a fixed term.

…and Harry can go to Vegas in peace.

IHN, do I assume that you are a member of the Royal Household?

A Duchy that employs, at a guess, a thousand or so people, so it certainly makes a difference in their lives.

And the business activities of the Duchy attract corporation tax. And Prince Charlie pays 40% tax on his income from the Duchy.

Again though, I don’t want facts to get in the way of dogma

That sounds like a bit of a circular argument to me.
I suspect that if Prince Charles didn’t ‘own’ the Duchy and all that sails in her, others would.

Remove the monarchy and the UK will continue to function as before. People might like the Royals, but they are just people like everybody else, albeit with life-long privilege.

If it had been done years ago, Harry and Wills could now be living out of the public eye, working for the armed forces. Harry would be doing similar to what he does now, but on a lower budget. William may or may not have been married to Kate Middleton. The wedding possibly wouldn’t have been such a grand affair though.

The public would even get more access to the palaces that could have been given to the National Trust.

IHN – Member

I hope all my tax money goes to Harry

Unfortunately for you, none of it does (apart from the bit he gets as Army salary). I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you sent him a postal order for a pint though.

Where did the Royal family’s money come from?

They benefit from a long tradition of royalty that is a mix of violent conquest, nepotism, intrigue and the one-time (exploitation of the)belief in ‘divine appointment’.

Lucky them.