I don’t really have time to do repairs at the moment, sorry!

NOT OK: Cosplaying by yourself

Does being Malcolm Reynolds inside your head whenever you wear a certain coat count?

Atmospheric pressure at sea level is around 11psi, so even taking your Brompton into space would only add 11psi to the tyre pressure. In other words, no – leave the tyres inflated. It’ll protect them too.

Ben, that’s quite an odd statement even for someone in the trade

I was probably in a bit of a cynical mood! Lots of shops have gone, those that have survived have got a good niche, though I know it’s also not easy at the moment for some of those who are still going. 30% fewer bikes were sold in 2017 compared to 2016.

How many local shops survive in other markets, really? Local butchers and green grocers have been decimated by supermarkets, local book shops by Amazon and ebooks.

The question really isn’t how can the LBS survive, it’s how has it survived so long?

I’m not really clear on the difference, TBH ;-)

I suppose it’s what I’d call unmarketing. Just doing a reasonable job and mostly relying on word-of-mouth is really getting other people to do your marketing for you.

Go on – give me an example of how I am affected by marketing and how it influences my decisions?

I got you to buy a Rohloff off me :D

I’m mostly immune to it, then occasionally I’m a complete sucker. There was an advert on here for the Parrot Disco fixed-wing drone – I’d never seen it before, never considered wanting a drone let alone a fixed wing one, but I bought it.

Painting is just tedious. Especially white. Because it never ends – you do yet another coat and it looks good until it dries and you realise it’s not quite white so you need to do yet another coat.

Building things is great. I subdivided a bedroom to make a home office and kids’ bedroom, that was fun. Building stuff in the garden like a treehouse or things in the local park.

<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: #eeeeee;”>Plenty of Nats hate the English.</span>

English people, like my English-born father? My English-born partner? Hatred of the English is very much a minority opinion.

It could well have been a different soft drink.

Agreed with most of what BenCooper posted, but I was struck by the irony of them being posted by someone who supports Scottish Independence. Same arguments!

There is no similarity between Brexit and Scottish independence. None at all. Brexit is xenophobic, inward-looking, anti-democratic and focused on dragging the UK back to some golden age when there was an empire and foreigners knew their place. Scottish independence is about being open and welcoming to people who want to come here, forging closer ties with Europe and our other neighbours, being progressive and being more democratic.

“<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;”>I have no doubt, no doubt that if the votes based on prejudice could some how be filtered out the vote would have been massively different”</span>

It wouldn’t take much. It was only a 52/48 split after all.

Don’t you dare play the free speech argument. No-one’s arguing against your right to say what you think. What I’m arguing is that you’ve made a reckless and stupid decision that’s had real impact on millions of people. Arguing with you isn’t impinging on your free speech – free speech isn’t a right not to be argued with. You’re not being shut down, you’re not being prevented from speaking.

Crying that your free speech is being attacked is a very Farage/Trump move to play.

You missed that the Independent was just reporting the results of the British Social Attitudes Survey, a very rigorous and independent survey that’s been going on for years? But sure, you attack the messenger.

I’m so done with being nice to Leave voters. You, personally, cost me about £7000 in the few days after the vote because exchange rate fall, you have made my European friends who live here feel much less safe and much less welcome, you have removed opportunities to travel and study from my daughter, you have made this country an international laughing stock, and we haven’t even left the EU yet. And all for what? To take back control that we had all along?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/brexit-latest-news-leave-eu-immigration-main-reason-european-union-survey-a7811651.html

“<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;”>To sugerst and imply this is the view of many other brexiters is frankly insulting!!”</span>

Oh well. It’s a basic fact backed up by polling that immigration was a (probably the) major reason people voted to leave. The fact that Leave voters also are willing to suffer significant financial loss to “take back control” backs that up.

Rattlecad is also not bad.

Pfft, you get a better flame from a can of GT85 – that’s not a flamethrower, that’s a blowtorch mounted on a shotgun stock.

But next year, when the carbon one comes out, there’ll be something new on the horizon anyway and you’ll have missed out on a year’s riding of a bike you love.

<span style=”color: #444444; background-color: #eeeeee;”>If you are significantly stronger and grab their wrists then they can’t do much.</span>

Hmm. Knees? Forehead? Ever been in a real fight? Sure, a larger stronger person will usually be able to overpower a smaller person, but usually not without significantly hurting them if they’re determined enough, and maybe he doesn’t want to do that.

<span style=”color: #444444;”>Regarding the slapping, why didn’t you stop her? Was she stronger than you?</span>

Ever tried stopping someone slapping you? It’s pretty hard without hurting them, and if they keep trying then you either have to tie them up or something, or run away.

One I like is that your phone number is somewhere in the digits of pi. And my phone number, and everyone else’s.

Bills Tools is the gorbals is pretty special.

Not as good as it used to be, though – too much new rubbish, not enough old MoD stuff for pennies ;-)

Crocketts used to be brilliant. Going up to the counter with a note of exactly what I wanted, to be told “No, that’s not what you want, you want these instead” by the elderly lady behind the counter.

Small town USA still has great hardware stores. Once went into one looking for a metric bolt (helping my uncle fix his European car) and the guy behind the counter had the most amazing gormless look on his face.

I occasionally wonder about this – not so much because of personal stuff, but because of the business. So much to keep track of there, it’d be a real hassle for anyone else to untangle it if I wasn’t there.

Not sure what the solution is, apart from what I already do – have a simple system to keep track of all orders, bills etc.

Always drove manual until the latest car, and now I’ve decided I’m not a boy racer (it’s a Volvo estate) so I really don’t miss all the faffing about.

It does have a manual mode – tried it once in the spirit of “what does this button do” and didn’t like it.

Definitely the wrong side of Maryhill Road to be North Kelvinside :D

I work in a bike shop. Case closed.

I’m paying them to fix my bike, not deliver an engaging and witty TED talk.

I did a TED talk once.

Okay, I watched a TED talk.

Alright, I used to watch Superted.

And can’t return it.

I’m currently about £800 in credit with Madison because I returned a pile of Alfine stuff it turned out I didn’t need. Most suppliers are fine with returns.

I did this. When I was at secondary school, I would quite often have time off because I had a “migraine”. My mother gets migraines, so I think that was a good excuse, you don’t need to exhibit any difficult symptoms.

Why did I do it? I’m not absolutely certain. Perhaps some of it in earlier years started because of bullying. Perhaps I was also bored in school, the only helpful advice I can give is that I grew out of it, and it didn’t impact my grades or prospects.

I don’t think they are at all comparable. The costs to run a car garage, the tools and equipment required and training for the mechanics is far greater than that for a simple bike shop

Rent and rates per sq ft is probably quit a bit higher for the average bike shop, though. Fundamentally, no-one in the bike industry is absolutely coining it in with repairs, so the costs can’t be that extortionate.

I always try to give back all the spare bits, as it saves me having to dispose of them. Some people want everything back, others are happy for me to pass them on to the local bike charity.

You want some Brain Force Plus, the favourite red pills of far right basement-dwellers everywhere:

they were the STW readers LBS of the year

What were they doing wrong?

These two sentences might not be entirely unrelated :D

In primary school, I spent two years writing educational software for the BBC Micro, that was then used across Strathclyde Region.

Does that count for anything?

With things like this, I always ask myself if it’s such a brilliant return, why isn’t the company doing it themselves?

Raleigh liked to make up their own sizes. Your only real hope is to find an old Raleigh stem.

I’ve got a bad cold, can only hear out of one ear, and really want to be home in bed – so I think I’m about 93.

Talking. So much talking. Shortish car bit, then sitting in a tent talking for ages. Then another average car bit, then lots of talking in the tent again.

It’s like Parkinson with three slightly racist dads and the occasional car.

And I liked the old Top Gear…