V10 M5 perfect :-)

Iron Horse Sunday.
Cotic Soda
Cove Hustler
Planet X Pro Carbon
Claudbutler hardtail (Pub Bike)

I had a ZX81 followed by a Commodore 64 in hindsight probably two of the most influential presents I ever had. The stuff I learn’t on those computers has paid for its self many times over. I am so pleased my parents bought them for me as I am not sure I would be where I am now if they had not.

I am 41 by the way :-)

The Princess Bride , is a classic.

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Didn’t really want to go and see it but went because wife wanted to go, great film.

Hugo 7/10 but 3D is still rubbish.

I got a pair of those free logitech headphones too. They sound OK but seem to transmit loads of mechanical noise up the cable.

So is I wear them running they make a lot of noise.

Not bad for nowt though :-)

Sharp Dressed Man, ZZ top.

Makes me chuckle thinking about it now :-)

PhilAmon, you seem like a pretty nice guy and I can tell you are trying not to offend, but I think its a shame as I truly feel you have been misguided.

I do realise that you probably feel the same about me.

AdamW, love whoever you want and feel no shame you are doing nothing wrong. One day we will be amazed people actually believed this stuff !!!

I agree with DONK

You would not join the Clu Clux Clan and say you like the social scene and costumes but you don’t agree with burning black people on crosses.

To paraphrase it only takes good men to do nothing for bad stuff to happen !!!

The problem was, the rules dictated to qualify for the scheme you were not allowed to have an agreed right to buy the bike at the end.

It would have been perfectly legal for a company to charge you nothing to hire the bike for 12months then give it to you and you pay the tax on the BIK.

But this is not ideal from a companies point of view, unless its your own company :-)

C’mon fellas, I’m about the least tolerant to the religious you will find on here but you are being a bit mean-spirited. You are performing acrobatics to try and out Phil as a disgusting homophobe. He has said he isnt so leave it at that please.

Totally totally wrong, I want him to see his religion for the disgusting homophobic institution that it is and that’s very different.

I think PhilAmon is being very diplomatic I do admire him for being prepared to enter into this debate totally outnumbered and out gunned.

But I think he is using diplomacy to side step the question.

So can I ask it in a different way

Do you think that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven does AdamW have to admit he is wrong and say he is sorry about his behaviour ?

Sorry AdamW for making it personal but we have been reminded that evangelists are real people with feelings so I think its only fair to remind them that their views can upset real people with feelings too.

Also you still have not answered my question

“Why does god want us to praise him ?”

I agree these “in the middle” companies are capitalising !!!

The tax man does not care if you pay market value for the bike. All they care is that you pay the tax on the benefit in kind on the fair market value of the bike. This is very different !!!

Cool we now have moved from a thread on doorstepping to actual door stepping which is great. Though I am not sure what will be more scary PhilAmon, here or a strangers door.

Can you answer me a question though.

Why does god want us to praise him ?

“The Road” Cormac McCarthy.

Put this on my amazon wish list this morning to remind me to order it.

I ran out of books to read the other night, so i borrowed ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ from my housemate. It was dreadful. I rarely start a book without finishing, and i’ve plowed through some really dire novels, but it was a total waste of my time. I’m amazed at how much hype it got when it first came out.

How far did you get ? It does start off a bit slow and strange, but then it develops into a truly great book.

If I recommend it to someone I always warn them its a slow starter.

Had two days skiing in Val D’Isere at the weekend.

Could not ski back into resort but still a lot of fun and the quality of the snow up the top of the mountain was surprisingly good.

Elfin,

What about the Shunning thing though where people are pushed away from their friends and family. You have to admit that is dangerous and pretty destructive ?

http://www.xjw.com/shunning.html

Yes they are Jehovas who knock the door, but you do have to admire their balls, so to speak.

The do come across quite friendly, but I do have a friend whose wife is an Ex Jehovas witness. When she said she was leaving the church, they told her parents and family that they could not see her anymore if she left or they would be thrown out of the church. She has not had any contact with them for over 10years.

I have no idea if this is common or just their church but its very scary.

I had an interesting conversation with a couple the other day.

My questions was if god really does want us to praise him, what does this say about his character.

I love a good chat with them if I have time.

Some are quite interesting to talk too.

I am not sure if they deliberately miss represent evolution or if they don’t understand it though.

Yes

I think Catch 22 has more laugh-out-loud (or should I say LOL?!) moments than any other book I’ve read. Does waffle on in some sections though.

I just didn’t get it, I had a little bit of joy with it 1/2 way through when I started reading it with black adder goes forth picture in my mind.

Just finished Daphne du Maurier Rebecca, which was fantastic.

Now reading J. D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye

Been catching up on some books I should have read years ago. Which included Catch 22, Fahrenheit 451 and 100 years of solitude.

All of which I enjoyed apart from Catch 22, which I realise puts me into a minority.

What do you use the PC for ?

fog is worse here than earlier now.

About 3 miles away and its light fog.

Wow that Bazzer is one clever fella, there seems to be no end to his talents. There seems to be loads of clever chaps on here that can turn their hands to anything bike related.
Funny though, all that intelligence and they have yet to work out that there are others in the World that do not possess the practical sills they do.

Thanks but there are limits I am not that good at dancing :-)

The reason I go on about it is because I know its not that hard. If someone asks me to do a job for them on their bike I will generally say I will help them do it. Nine times out of ten they will be amazed at what they have done and say I really didn’t think it would be so easy.

Take say doing an oil change on a set of Pikes. I reckon its about as difficult as cooking a beef wellington. I don’t actually know how to do that but I reckon I could have a good go if you gave me the recipe book.

Biggest problem with people achieving stuff is not attempting it in the first place. Remember the longest journey starts with the first step.

But maybe I am wrong and people can’t do anything for themselves any more and the country is full of morons (tongue firmly in cheek)

Flowers was obviously a bright bloke but was only using existing technology just on a bigger scale.

Alan Turing and Bill Tutte really were thinking outside the box and solving a problem people did not think was solvable. Working out how a Lorenz machine worked without even seeing one is pretty impressive.

Of course the work done at Bletchely was a team effort but I think Turing and Tutte deserve being recognised as pretty clever chaps :-)

I bought my road shoes from the LBS. They were a fair bit more expensive from them but I had a laugh with the owner trying them on and I took so long I thought I could not buy them online :-)

But every time someone comes through your door to try before they buy online YOU have an opportunity to convert them into a customer.

You just need to find the right way of doing it. Even if its selling them something else other than the thing they came to try that you can’t compete on.

You need to be a salesman !!!

So what is the answer then LBS’s ?

Or is there not really a problem and you guys make your money from C2W people and commuters who can’t fix a puncture ?

You can’t really blame customers for buying online when they can get it cheaper and quicker from Wiggle or CRC. Its interesting CRC and wiggle market to me and send me vouchers for money off etc. My local LBS just moans that people look at stuff in his shop and buy it online, to the point I don’t like going in just in case they think I am doing that :-)

On the subject of Demo bikes LBS’s again need to push back on the suppliers to tell them they need to support them with this.

No car dealer would expect you to buy a car without having a test drive. You don’t go into a BMW dealer and be told that they can’t be expected to have a demo M3 because they are really expensive.

There are a couple of things I don’t understand about the LBS business.

First is why do they not push back on the importers/manufactures refuse to take product from them if they don’t give you a competitive pricing structure.

Why don’t LBS sell online as well to get their volumes up? Ebay and Amazon allow simple entry into online sales.

Times are changing and customers need a compelling reason to spend money these days.

I do agree though with what has been said I think the average STW’er is probably not the market your typical LBS is targeting these days. Maybe they could though with the right plan in place.

bazzer – there are a lot of people who simply are not interested in maintaining bikes. They use bikes but are not people for whom cycling is a hobby.

Totally understand that, but its not a case of can’t its a case of can’t be bothered.

I can understand someone who says don’t want to do it because I just can’t be bothered that’s fair enough.

I don’t change the oil on my car these days, I could and its not because I don’t have the tools etc. Its because I am too lazy to crawl underneath the car.

Its just all the excuses that are trotted out about not having the tools or skills etc. Its a bike not a life support machine.

As for bike maint I see the consequences near enough weekly of the dad/granddad/uncle etc repairs We are not all blessed with the dexterity and knowledge to fix “stuff”

Its not about being blessed its about being arsed to try. The reason I can do it is because when I was younger I tried fixing my Raleigh Chopper when it went wrong. I changed my own punctures and we built up bikes from old frames etc. So now I have a nicer bike I am not afraid to do what are simple jobs on it.

As for the comment re go and learn – where?

Lots of places, friends, internet or Park big blue book of bicycle maintenance. There are plenty of places if you look.

Its about confidence and we have a generation of people who have no confidence in themselves to do the real stuff in life. We have a culture of we must be officially trained or have a qualification to be competent at something.

Horses for courses mate. I can’t do DIY, however i can rebuild a motorbike from component spares and have done more than once.

I can’t do car engines but i can change a camchain on a motorbike.

I can’t wire a plug, however i’m trusted with over 1000 Microsoft servers

Thats odd :D a bike engine and a car engine are pretty much the same and all the principles are exactly the same. I reckon you would not have too much trouble if you tried :-)

My guess is you are interested in building a bike engine but not a car engine :-)

I had built a fair few car engines and I was nervous when I built a turbocharged Hayabusa engine from the ground up. Complete disassembly, measure modify and rebuild. Knew I could do it though as its not rocket science. I loved building that engine so much lighter and less hard work then building a car engine :-)

I must add I have no formal training in this sort of stuff, but I am always willing to learn. If someone else can learn about something that means I can too !!!

Mech hangers are not quite in the same league as re-facing a BB. ALthough you could argue with the right tools, doing the BB is fairly simple.

Surely though refacing only needs to be done once if moving to an external BB. If bike came with an external BB or replacing another one then its straight forward.

To be honest, although I would rather buy the tool and do it myself if possible, I will concede that I can see why someone might say get a headset fitted by a LBS. But not just replacing worn out components etc or adjusting the gears.

Its funny people seem happy to do DIY on their houses which is probably most people most valuable asset, but they won’t work on their bike them selves.

Also add into the equation, if you **** it up, your bike is off the trails/road…. . if the LBS **** it up, they’ll sort it.

Really you don’t think they might just tell you it was like it before ?

I think knowing how things work is a good idea just in case things break when you are out and about. It can be the difference between being able to ride and not. If you can’t change a broken mech then what are you going to do if you break a mech hanger 2hrs from your car one day.