Its is proably what uplink has said LOPT (Line output transformer), its probably the insulation on this component that has broken down. It can also still be carrying upto 20,000V on a large TV even after the TV is switched off and unplugged.

So if you don't know what you are doing its probably best to put the cover on and leave it alone :-)

Bazzer

If you have a good relashonship with your agency then it should be not problem. Just remind them they make a fair bit of cash from you.

But they may have however billed the client based on the fact you were not VAT registered, even though there bill would have incured VAT (assuming they are registered, which they will be)

Have a look at you contract, how is the rate expressed is it say something like £45 + VAT/Hr or just £45/Hr. If it does not detail the VAT then I reckon they may tell you to poke it as they assumed it was £45 including the VAT.

Remember though your contract is generaly with the agency, they are the ones who pay you, not the client. So its upto them to be kind to you not your end client.

This really is noddy stuff, as a director of a company you do have certain responsibilities !!!!

Bazzer

PS Edited to add BR is right as an IT contractor generaly the FRS scheme is the way to go, unless you are a geek and buy lots and lots of computer equipment for you work.

Chances are you will get room for a couple of runs later on in the day. Especially if they have 2 buses running.

Bazzer

molegrips, I cant understand why someone who seems so disinterested in cars, would even worry what one looked like ?

I understand where Mat is comming from, at the end of a day a car is for driving, if it does not drive well it misses the point of being a car. Like a really nice looking mountain bike that rides like a heap of crap.

Driving well does not have to mean fast, it can me comfortable or fun or all 3.

So are you saying you want a car that looks good for posing in but you dont car what it drives like ?

Bazzer

So go for an E55 AMG in a saloon then ? I sugested the estate for the bike carrying and they also use the estate as the F1 pace car :-)

If he is after a Starship Enterprise warp drive uber barge then surely the V10 M5 is the only model worth considering. All the others are great cars but ordinary in comparison to the 500BHP+ big hitters.

Bazzer

Have you looked at E55 AMG mercs, the estate is nice and again residuals low due to the polar bear killing fuel consumption.

Bazzer

PS I thought the Cayenne was limited off road due to the fact tyre choice was limited and none were very good offroad. Though I might be getting mixed up with an X5

'ere, bazzer, they're not maxxis re-fuse are they ?

I've found them great so far for puncture resistance, and (for that level of durability) seem quite fast to me

Not sure will look tonight.

Funny thing is I could tell you exactly what tyres are on the mountain bikes, including the spare wheels :-)

But loving the new found road riding :-)

Bazzer

Hi Oldgit

They are Maxis something or others. I am mainly on country roads and they do seem to have a lot debris on the road though.

Will have a look at tyres to see what the tpi of the carcass is.

Whats a good fast tyre with good puncture resistance ?

Bazzer

I was not sure what to go for but the people at Planet X persuaded me the SL was the way to go.

I wanted it for fitness training for the MTB and some longer day rides. They said that the Nanolight was limited to 23mm tyres. I have 23mm tyres on the SL at the moment and after another puncture tonight I am wondering if I should change them. I am running 120psi and I pump them up before every ride.

Was not sure if I would like it, but I love it. I have an black SL with SRAM red including the red cranks. Seems very fast to me and pretty comfortable.

Bazzer

Love mine, was out on it tonight.

5'11 and I am on a large and feel it fits fine.

Choosing riding it over muddy trails at the moment !!

Bazzer

Molgrips

With reguard to your client not wanting to pay your rent, you could negotiate a new rate with them instead of the expenses claim. Thats the good thing about working for yourself, you can be flexible in these matters.

Be aware though if your company has assets in the unlikely event you are sued (if you dont have the right insurance) they could be seized.

Bazzer

Make sure you use the right year for the oil level, as the newer (180mm I think) models have much more oil in the damper leg. But you would realise as it wont all fit in the leg :-)

Don't ask me how I know this :-)

Bazzer

Ignore the doubters Rockplough … you can just about manage it for that price! Got a week in Austria all inclusive for £275 this year flying from Glasgow. Obviously lift passes are on top of that but the small area pass was about £150 I think

Well thats already over £400 and he has not hired board and boot (if he needs too) or had a beer or a sandwich for lunch yet. You are easily going to add another £200 to that £425.

Find the extra money if you can though, snow sports are fantastic up there with alpine (bike) riding holidays.

Bazzer

Problem with restricting a 180BHP bike to 33BHP is that you will have a 33BHP bike that is geared for getting on for 200MPH. It might be ok as restricting air may just strangle it as the revs rise, so you might have low down torque stil, but I am guessing an R1 makes 33BHP pretty low down the rev range.

Bazzer

An R6 might have been a better bet if he was hell bent on a Sports bike.

Really good forgiving handling, but only really silly fast if you rev the tits off it.

If he has a bit of sense and is at least a litle bit scared of it, then I am sure he will be fine. But as Juan said he wont need to learn how to ride as he will just have to twist the throttle to catch up with the traffic even if he trundles around corners.

Bazzer

Remote, its the way forward. I like mine so much I move it between two bikes.

Bazzer

That is such a good idea, wish that was close to me, is it at Woburn ?

Bazzer

A restricted 125 will be fun for about a month then you will try and go somewhere on it that is further than a few miles and wish you had passed you r test and bought a proper bike.

There is a compromise and that is to do a non direct access test, then you can ride a slightly less restricted bike (33bhp I think) but reckon best thing is direct access and a something like a bandit/fazer 600

If you just want to ride around a city then ignore above and get a small bike :-)

Bazzer

Be aware that the same "type" of turbo can have a variety of different trims on the compressor wheel and the inlet and outlet on the compressor housing can be in different orientations for different vehicles. Also the orientation of the compressor and turbine housing can be different orientations.

I would whip it off and have a look at it before you spend any money. See what has happened to it. See if its just the bearing that has gone or if you have had a turbine/compressor break up.

If its a bearing then consider getting a rebuild kit and doing it your self. There are some issues with shaft balancing but if you mark everything it can be done without re-balancing.

There are pages on the web detailing this if you google it.

This is a rebuild kit for the Turbo on my Westfield Busa Turbo

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Turbo-Rebuild-Kit-TD04-TD04L-TD04HL-VOLVO-850-T5-V70-/130346838066

Hope this help

Barry

On a side note, why don't you put the shifters the other side of the brake levers on the new bars ? Or is there an issue with doing this with the SRAM shifters ?

Cheers

Bazzer

I have a trout light and mates have 4fouths lights.

4fourths is really very neat and small, can get warm and auto dim if not moving. Really nicely made though and slightly smaller than a trout.

Trout is brighter but a little bit bigger, but it is smaller than it looks in any pictures. Heat management seems to be really good on it.

Tonyg I think I ride sometimes with the same people as you, Phil, Ilias and Gary etc, starting in QE park in the week.

Bazzer

Scott Genius MC30, I hated it !!!

Bazzer

If a mate asked you to be his best man, and he was getting married in a church would you turn him down?

The difference is you are not expected to say anything that you dont beleive in as a best man, or indeed as a bride or groom at a church wedding.

Bazzer

I agree with IA I would will at some point swap the Patriot for a 5 when funds allow. As I don't need a do it all bike anymore, which was the whole point of the Patriot.

Bazzer

Well you don't NEED a DH bike for a lot of the stuff, but it can be much more fun on one.

My Sunday is a very different beast to my Patriot and if I dont have to pedal up hill I enjoy riding it more.

So I would say go for it.

Bazzer

I agree they are not the best looking specs in the world but as woffle says they work really well. They sit close to the face so stuff does not get by them and they are quite big. Also the lenses are superb.

Bazzer

Can you post a picture of the marking ? sorry to be a pain. Do you have an email address we can take it offline and not spam others ?

They are £35 from steptoes at the moment.

Bazzer

I have a Planet X SL pro with SRAM red being delivered today hoping it will be a good bike to get into road riding with. I have not ridden a road bike since I was about 16. Really looking forward to it. My goal is to get a few 100milers under my belt by the end of the summer.

I might be tempted to wear lycra bib shorts but draw the line at shaving my legs :-)

Bazzer

Woffle are your persimmon lenses vented ?

If they are 100% perfect and scratch free I will have them for £25 posted ?

I bought a pair of Jawbones which came with a pair of persimmon lenses and I lost one of them out of the box before I had even used them :-(

Bazzer

Just to balance things up I have seen a cracked deviant, mate was knocked out by the impact and is still alive so you could argue it did its job. But its not a full DH lid, like a TLD or a THE etc

Bazzer

Bazzer – I was racing them in 1987-89, it was just called class 1,2 or 3 back then. No graduate scheme. It was my only vehicle, so I drove it to work Mon – Fri, then raced it on the weekend. Crashed it loads though

It did seem that the people with the budget to cover the cost of crashing had an advantage. When I stopped following it, it had already gone stupid with people having big motorsport prep companies running cars and them turning up in the back of a huge transporter. Not realy the spirit of club motorsport.

Bazzer

Trimix were you racing Caterhams in the graduates series or somthing else ?

Yep and its got all the bits to make it go round corners too.

Custom Cages T45 roll cage
6 speed sequential gearbox
Nitron Shocks
Carbon seats, nosecone and dash.
digital dash with data logging and lap timer.
Westfild anti roll bars.
Massive engine spec including JE forged pistons, carrilo H beam rods etc.
LSD
plus lots of other goodies.

I reckon its one of the fastest ways around a track unless you want to put wings and an aero package on a car.

road registered and MOT'd but much more fun on a track.

Its for sale at the moment too if anyone is interested. It was on pistonheads for £16999 which is a lot lot lot less than it cost to build. But I would be open to offers if anyone was interested.

If I am going to spend a weekend away at a track these days it tends to be a DH track and I tack my Sunday instead :-)

Bazzer

PS I reckon it would be a perfect comuter car for you molegrips ;-)

Its funny you should say that as Westfields can suffer from front end lift at high speeds :-)

Its an awesome car but still very easy to drive I would post some pictures but my web server is down at the moment.

Bazzer

mastiles_fanylion – Member
My father in law is thinking about selling his Westfield (same design as a Caterham/Lotus 7) with a 180bhp Puma engine and geared/tuned/prepared for hillclimbs (ie, 0-60 in around 3.5 seconds).

I am so tempted.

Or you could buy my turbo charged Hayabusa Westfield :-)

300bhp under 500kg full T45 cage carbon seats full data logging blah blah blah :-)

Its fairly quick around a circuit :-) Was built to be a reliable car at Spa so more than able to deal with UK circuits.

Bazzer

I've driven in snow and ice, and on gravel and mud. Testing myself a bit within limits. I'm no expert, but I know a reasonable amount about what to do, and MTBing has taught me to keep my head and look for all the ways out in a crisis.

But yes – no expert, and a skidpan course would be very good.

But what's your point? I don't think I'm a great driver.

My point is that you are saying that people should change there behaviour to be safer on the road ie slowing down, I am saying you may want to make yourself safer by getting some decent training. You could then do both ans be twice as safe :-)

Bazzer

Hi again molegrips

As others have said it depends on your budget and if you want any training or not. But if you can afford it you wont go far wrong hiring a Caterham and doing a trackday with bookatrack.

http://bookatrack.com/

You will get lots of track time, they are prety easy to drive super fun but also very fast if you get it right. They will easily keep up with most supercars in the right hands.

If you want any more info let me know.

Bazzer

PS downside is its very addictive :-)

Bazzer – I can handle a car if that's what you're asking

Again not meant to be personal, but how do you know this ? where have you practiced again and again what happens when you step over the limit of grip your car has. I don't think the road is the place to do this and you really do need repetition to get it second nature.

Thing is I though I was a fast and pretty good driver before I got on a race track, turns out I needed a bit of practice :-)

I also had a very fast crash at Quary corner at Castle Coombe, I know I would not have crashed with the skills I have now. I would have sacrificed exit speed but would have been in one peice.

Bazzer

But what difference does that make? This is not a personal fight. so you won't win it by proving you're a better driver. Once again – speed cuts safety margins. You can't argue with that

Sorry if it came across personal, what I was trying to get over was that training increases safety margins. If people were realy that bothered about safety they would slow down and get some decent training and more importantly practice in a safe enviroment.

If you are interested in this sort of thing you could do a lot worse than some time with Andy Walsh.

http://www.carlimits.com/

Bazzer

A question for you Mr molgrips

If you entered a roundabout at a speed under the limit, hit a patch of diesel etc or ice and your car started to slide, do you have the skill and experience (not just read what to do on the internet) to sort it out ?

If not why not ? do you not feel it is your responsibility to learn to do it ? I may one day save your life or someone elses.

Bazzer