Had to do this to my sister in law's car a few weeks ago.
We got a socket that was 'just' to tight to go over it and witha mash hammer forced it on over the locking nut. It cuts into the metal and then use a ratchet to take it off.
The socket can split so better to have too many than not enough but I managed to get all 4 off using 2 sockets.
Just don't miss when you're hammering it on 🙂

I started as a retained FF 15 years ago, then went wholetime a couple of years later and am now wholetime/retained.
I do it for the money! As do all the guys in the station. In days gone by we did it because it was a good thing to do, was enjoyable and you got a bit of pocket money from it.
It is now 100% a job! what's more the expectations management have from retained FFs now is far greater than you'd imagine. There is now however pay parity with the wholetime wage so many of the guys would not leave as it's now worth too much to them. My retained station is relatively quiet and I took £7.5 k from it last year and I wasn't the top earner, one guy scooped more than £10k.
As for the cover being there, the RAPPEL system stats show the realtime retained availability and it often makes scary reading! I am in a very small brigade and it's not unusual for 10+ pumps to be 'off the run' in the county especially during the weekends.
as for whether the service provided is to the same/similar standard… There's only so much you can do training for 2 hours a week however this is by no means their fault nor a slight on their commitment.

What tyre for commuting?…

I am?
Really?
hmmm. Why am I the last to know?

You'd still have to pay a 'disposal fee'
Alternatively they'll offer the bike to you for the remaining payments however there will be no tax relief on this amount. You'd also have to pay the final disposal/transfer fee on top of that. Depends on whether the company wants the bike as an asset. They'll maybe just want rid of it. You might get it as part of the package.

Sorry, I'm slow typing on my phone 🙂

I've been hearing a lot about Glenshee developments for some time now. I know the amount of red tape they've had to get throigh has really slowed things down.
When I read on here and on their Facebook page the bike route was open I made a point of going up and trying it out.
I live closer than most on here I'd imagine so a trip up was no big deal. The wife and I loaded up the car, collected a friend en route. We got there and got unloaded, got our day tickers @£15 (single runs £5) wethen headed to the uplift. Very friendly but very 'makeshift'.' We got to the top and got started. The surface is covered in sharp, medium/large stones so it's puncture-tastic! We finished our first run and went (somewhat underwhelmed) to the cafe.
We were well fed and watered then off up the hill again. Now due fo the area being so exposed the change in the weather within the time if took for the uplift was quite dramatic! The rain was coming in sideways! Anofher somewhat, uninteresting run later and I looked up the hill, the cloud cover was right down so we happily packed up not wanting fo ride again even if the weather had sorted itself out.
Could have saved a bit if I'd payg'd but between punctures and disappointing weather and trails I was ready to go tbh.
It echos comments from my school reports. 'tries hard but could do better'

…unless they're working on tight margins as it is.
There has to be a bit of give and take I s'pose.

ooooooh, now that's a whole other thread and indeed has been several times in the past 😀

Thanks for making my future purchase sound so exciting Geoff 😀

Cyclescheme take 10% of the cost of the bike from the shop.
I can kind of see where the retailers are coming from. I understand that a bike they've already discounted has already cost them some profit without losing another 10% to Cyclescheme. I'm looking at Planet X bikes and they add 10% to the price. Some of the offers there represent very good value indeed and I appreciate their margins will be small and they are perhaps more reliant on volume to make money.
If a product is worth it then you have to put these things in to perspective.
Think how much Cyclescheme are making out of all this for doing not very much at all!

Print the emails, post them to CRC in an envelope marked Managing Director, Private and Confidential with a brief, polite covering letter.

Looking at the OP's first email that he considers to be worded "pretty politely" I'd say that'd be more of a challenge than getting the tape to fit the bars.

It depends on how you interpret the guidance and how it's implemented.
Halfords are a part of the lobbying group so I'd expect them to take a similar route as Cyclescheme.
It still looks like it will offer good value. Not as good as in the past but still good.

That's the sort of thing I'm after 😀

I was going to be going however my cousin decided to move to NZ and her going away party is on…the 21st! Nice one 🙄

I use the photobucket app.

The CIA are watching you!

No employer will want to be stuck with the bikes.
As suggested before

[*]£1000 bike leased from the company for 12 months [/*]
[*]it's then transferred in to your name for £0 – £whatever they want[/*]
[*]If it's less than 25% (£250) then you'll pay Tax and NI on the difference[/*]
[*]If the company is seeing the benefit of the scheme then it's probably in their interests to charge you £0 or £1 and let you square things up with the tax man for the benefit you've received from your lovely, friendly employer.[/*]
[*]They're not stuck with a bike no one wants,[/*] [*]the tax man gets what he's due[/*] [*]you'll still pay <£100 as a final payment, which in the big scheme of things isn't that much of a hardship.[/*]
You save £££ on a bike
You're fitter and off work less
You pay your tax
You think more of your employer as they've been nice to you
The bike shops continue to sell more bikes
The economy booms and we cycle our way out of recession 😀
Oh, and even the tree huggers will be happy.

See! Everyone's still a winner. You'll just end up a few tens of pounds more out of pocket.
Right, I have to go and have meetings at work! I'm administering the scheme at the mo and have 40+ people wanting bikes already with another 15 days to go for ordering the vouchers. There could be a few very unhappy people if things don't turn out well! (not to mention those who's existing loan period ends in 5 days time! 😮

cue a tax guru to come and rubbish my approach 😀

That is very nice!
I am in the middle of spec'ing a new road bike for myself. Nothing quite as nice as that I'm afraid but a Ribble Sportive Racing but (Sorry for the wee hijack here but it looks like you know what you're on about 😀 ) what say the STW roadies? Should I go for the
[list=1]Shimano Ultegra 6700 10 Spd Double @ £1199.99 [/list]
or

[list=1]Campagnolo 2010 Centaur UT Carbon 10 Spd @ £1186.02[/list]
Or alternatively you could sell me your Felt radoggair for something in between those figures 😀

Any help would be appreciated from anyone slightly more 'in the know' than me.

Cheers

Paul

Congratulations! Well done.

…as long as your work is with Halfords cycle to work scheme

Almost what you're after:

Username 'Swift' built it for his wife and I think it looks the business.

You will be leasing the frame from your employer who may decide to sell you it after the 12 month loan period whereupon there will be an assessment of condition and the final payment agreed as a result.
Frame and forks are not within the rules of the scheme I believe.
If the LBS do quote you a bike and you stick your bits on and your employer thinks it's still worth 20% of voucher price are you willing to pay that or walk away and leave all your bits on the 'bike' the LBS quoted you for?

❓ 🙁

cyclescheme has started sending out condition forms to be completed by the supplying shop to get a value.

Interesting. Do you have any further details on this?

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/specialist/cycles_bus_passes.pdf

Sale of cycles after end of loan period
The cycles exemption relates solely to cycles that are not sold to the employee. However, an employer or a third party cycle provider may choose to offer the cycle for sale to the employee after the loan has ended. If the employee is able to buy the cycle for less than its market value, the difference will liable to tax and to employer’s Class 1A NIC liability.

HMRC reviewed it in Dec 2009

That camera shot from the side on the finishing straight was great. The way you got to see Cavendish come through! The rest of the guys on the front were quick but MAN ALIVE what a turn of speed the boy has!
This has been a great tour. It's had a bit of everything. Even my wife has been hooked by it and she's never really shown any interest in road cycling before.
If it turns out clean then it'll have been an excellent advert for road cycling.

Cougar – Member
When I got mine last year, the 'market value' was set by my company, and it was 5%. No idea what impact the changes would have, but perhaps your company would be able to give you an answer rather than Cyclescheme directly?

I too have only ever paid the 5%
This was the amount suggested by Cyclescheme prior to Dec '09 however things may be changing???
If the employer does choose to sell the bike then the onus is on them to ensure market value otherwise the difference is taxable. It's unlikely that every employer will be checked but you never know.
There seems to a few grey areas.

I received a reply from Cyclescheme that didn't really clear anything up.
Apparently HMRC are soon to be releasing another update to clarify the 'market value' thing and Cyclescheme are reviewing their processes.

Escape Route in Pitlochry. On the way back from the 'Puffer Lite. Stopped in for a blether and a caffine fix to keep me awake for the rest of my journey home. It's about 40 mins from home but I'd consider it my LBS before any of the others (7 or so) that are less than half the distance away. Service is everything and they have it down to an art there.

Paul.

iPad

The back of your head Gordymac, he caught your best side 😀 😉 Don't mean it like that…. 😯

epicyclo – Member
The race needs time to build up momentum. It's going to be one of the must-dos soon.

The great thing was the increase in the number of soloists, but for the event to break even it needs more teams.

Make sure you drag some more friends along next year!

It showed some grit to go from a team to a solo effort. Now you are ready to graduate to the next level – go singlespeed.

BTW I appreciated the music when you passed me

Not so much grit more I'm too tight to have spent £105 and have a DNS 😀
Not sure on the singlespeed thing and if anything I actually took a step away from that by shaving off my 'tache this morning 😉
I can only assume you were riding singlespeed yourself? I'm quite sure of that as I don't seem to recall passing anyone on a geared bike during any of the 12+ hrs 😀

epicyclo – Member
Alan, thanks for setting the results up like that.

Another great race from the 'Puffer organisers. I'm glad they didn't cancel it. Who will forget seeing that orange full moon shining on the treetops sticking out of the mist?

Was there talk of it being cancelled?
I was quite surprised at how few participants there were compared to January.

Ah! I knew I recognised the face! Sorry I didn't get a chat with you Gordon. 😳 I doubt I was making much sense by the end anyway. Congratulations on your win in the mix trio.

Great weather and great set up!
I ended up going solo as my mate backed out and my wife was too ill.
I hadn't trained much as I was hoping the others would make up for my lack of fitness and preparation. 😀
The change in mindset between trio and solo was a lot to take but hey, it's just riding a bike, right?
On arrival I thought that 6 laps would be a good showing for me but I got my finger out and managed 8 in the end. I became a bit of a musical chicane with the wee speaker in my camelback playing out some embarrassing tunes from my ipod which was set to random. Who knew I had such uninspiring cheesey nonsense on there! 😯

Hacksaw and superglue? 😀

people who start threads like this talking about price etc. without providing a link to the product or even the actual price are the worst sort of people.

Not really as the op was asking people who already owned it. One would assume they would know what it did and how much it was.
I didn't know what it was so I used a service on this Internet thing called a 'search engine' it gave me a link to info about it. I found it interesting and subsequently came back to find out the owners opinions.
Its not really that hard. People who don't make an effort and expect everyone to do everything for them really are the worst sort of people. That said, Hitler and the likes would be up there too 😀

Most of those bikes are hanging in my garage. I can only use one at a time… The wife reminds me of that regularly 😀

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/why-so-many-blues-and-twos

I too was expecting something entirely different upon opening this thread 🙁