If only I could shoot all the cats in the Garden.

I am 6’4″ and about the same weight as you and have an 8’4″ Bic Magnum.

http://www.boardshop.co.uk/product/s8015-re-pack.asp

I have had it for about 4 years now and it is great the extra floatation over the more standard 7’9″ mini mal is amazing and completely transformed my riding.

They are also indestructable, from my search for a link it would appear that Bic now do lots of different sizes in the Magnum range that is for the larger heavier surfer.

I have no knowledge of the east coast surf though.

Coffeeking – your quote from the oil manufacturers has been taken out of context “Since *75% of engine wear occurs during a start”. High levels of engine wear do occur during the initial engine starting as it warms up. Once it has reached its operating temperature turning it on and off will have no additional affect on engine wear.

Our daughter is similar ( a little older at 2.5), In the evening at least I read her a bedtime story while she has some milk and then brush her teath before reading another story. If she won’t let me then she doesn’t get the second story. She gets it completely and most of the time is happy to let me brush them so she can have another story.

Also an episode of Peppa Pig where they go to the Dentist helped to get her used to brushing as it is her life ambition to be like Peppa.

Check out this, Sony are giving cashback at the moment as some sort of store card that can be spent in most places.

Another classic case of change for change’s sake. All current bike manufacturers must be wrong or under funded not to have come up with such a classic design.

If you shut off both of the radiator values them you will trap all the water in the system. When you remove one of the taps from the radiator not the pipes you will only have to catch and collect all the water in the rad. Once rad is empty remove and them find the correct screw connection to fit on rad tap attach short length of copper tube and hose to drain down full system. If you have a trv fitted unscrew the cap and fit a 5p under it to make sure it is completely shut off.

Singletrackmind have you disconnected the battery since replacing the sump level sensor. The ecu needs to be reset to pick up the new sensor only needs to b disconnected for 10 seconds or so. I have a 100hp Passat with 160k on the clock still running very strong use it for work about 1000 a month and not let me down. Most old cars will need some new parts but if you can do it yourself it can be cheap motoring. I change all oil filters etc every 5 – 6k miles.

Hi SurfDad,

We live in Hontion, I do work but mostly from home and could do with a riding partner, have got really unfit over the last year. Also my wife is a pretty ungirly girl really into walking, surfing etc so you could hook up with her although right now she is 6 months pregnant but she will still talk the talk. I can promise no birthing stories.

Which small east Devon town are you in. Hang on in there with the support of STW folk and other organisations I am sure you can get through it.

Give me an email if you want to meet up.

Cheers Ben.

I love it as a design engineer. I get so much more work done at home than when I used to work in the office. Been doing it for 2 years now, get to live in Devon when the company I work for are in Manchester.

I get to see far more of my Family, I don’t really find it hard to motivate myself to work and nobody cares if all the work is done on time.

I am of course a fairly unsociable person so it suits me down to the ground I go some where with business for normally one night away every fourtnight and that suits me fine.

I have been with plusnet for the last 12 months, no problems and good levels of email comunication. I work from home most of the time and think that paying a little more is worth it for good reliable service. Think we pay £17 a month but we are in fairly rural devon so no option of non BT under a different name.

If you really want great customer service go with Zen, they are brilliant with a relatively small office staffed in England by english speaking people that sort your problems out. You do pay a bit for the service though.

Their used to be a dent remover in Bolton that used to work from a carpark on saturdays he was very reasnoble he took 3 small dents from one side of my car for about £40. Maybe you could look for somebody similar. Its not as simple as one tool fixes all dents he had a huge number of specially bent peices of metal etc many home made. It was like watching an artist at work.

Used to be friends with a group of rastafarian lads from muswell hill. Their sound system needed more than 1 transit to transport. Everything I can ever get will always pale into insignificance.

Cheers guys, blood pressure significantly reduced. Thinking I should get a new stylus for the decks and get back into vinyl.

Cheers will give it a listen.

I read it without even noticing the lack of break etc. At last somebody else that writes as I read.

Attack tomorrow head on or you will just waste it and feel even worse.

Troutie is a top bloke to deal with, his service and enthusiasm for all things bright and shiny is incredible.

No silly red shirt here, its England all the way.

Thanks for the advice all. CFH I do hope you get utterly spannered (love the phrase).

Mefty any more info on bus from Richmond. Where and when?

Mefty any more info on bus from Richmond. Where and when?

CFH are you English or Welsh.

Forgot to say thanks for all the help.

My pc is fine but it is running solidworks and crashes with run out of memory errors when running big models of assemblies. Its an old version of solidworks so wont run on windows 7. As I haven’t kept up the subscriptions solidworks don’t wont to know. Just thought i would ask.

I new XP was limited I thought it was limited to 4GB not 3 so that clears that up. Am I affecting perfromance by having 4GB installed should I remove 1GB, something in the depth of my brain says you have to install ram in pairs.

With regards the cellar is it letting drafts into the living room, its supprising how much cooler a room feels if it has drafts.

The radiators, if the cold area at the bottom is roughly triangular shape higher in the middle than by each end where the pipes enter then it sounds as if sludge may have built up. If this is the case then you have a few options.

1. Remove radiators and replace with new bigger items to also boost heat output.

2. Add a desludging liquid to the system and wait the required time (with the heating on) before flushing the system and adding an inhibitor. May also require that you remove each of the offending radiators and flush the sludge out manually.

3. Pay to have the whole system power flushed, not my prefered option.

Could just be the system is not balanced, check this first as their is no or very little cost involved.

We have oak flooring but it is only 1 year old so havent had to think about oiling yet.

Have used OSMO oils on the doors and the woorktop, they are brilliant. They get very highly recomended on here for worktops so I would look up a local distributer.

Troutie and a few others are hard flooring fitters so will no doubt be on in a while with their advice.

I am not even going to start on why all insurance is so expensive.

Oh yes its because people beleive it is their right to claim for stupid things and even worse the insurance companies let them.

Part of your house falls off due to age, fix it or leave it on the floor your choice!

Wouldn’t have thought so as it was in bad / aged condition before the strong wind etc. Insurance wouldn’t replace windows etc when they wear out and need changing.

Its not a particularly big job to remove the ridge tiles and reset them, depending on the size for your roof etc.

We have a passat estate SE that sits very low at the back with little weight in it. Think they were pretty bad when new for it but as time takes its toll (150,000 miles and 10 years) on the springs it gets worse. I am pretty sure you can fit the rear springs from a the sport model which are stiffer and will stop it sitting so low. I just live with it, but don’t do any towing.

Might be talking to total pap but I think using standard pipe insulation for the return pipe is a mistake as you will loose excessive heat and the panel will be fed with cooler water resulting in a lower temp of hot water leaving the panels.

I might be talking total rubbish. Love the project, you are very well setup.

A 3/2 wetsuit or a shorty (short arms and legs) are what you are after. I would recomend a 3/2 for the boadyboarding / surfing and messing about in the sea but a shorty might be better for kayaking as it will give you much more freedom of arm movement for rowing. Either will probably be fine.

Fit is the most important thing and each brand has a slightly different size and shape so you will just have to try a few on first. As for Sea temperature from now until November a 3/2 will be fine the sea temperature is a good few months behind the air temperature peaks in September and and stays nice and warm all autumn by comparison it is at its coldest in March.

More money normaly gets more panels and more superstretchy neoprene which has made all wetsuits much more flexible.

You would need to talk to them about your specific application but we used to use this product to extend the life of printed vinyl that was in a particularly bad enviroment.

http://www.victorydesign.co.uk/categories/name/frogjuice

We used to use it on vehicles for hire companies etc. that get jest washed with chemicals several times a week. Yes the ink was solvent based but it did definately make a difference.

I would have thought in your case if you can already print them yourself it would be worth a go for quite a small outlay for a can. Need a very well ventilated place to apply it and let it dry.

I have a whole family’s worth of thermarests and have never had a problem with any of them. My personal one also the oldest is approximately 17 years old and has been slept on for up to 8 weeks a year each year. I store it flat behind the wardrobe. My wife has a big delux thing which if you are car camping is amazingly comfy and the kids have the little 3/4 length ones. Can you really put a price on a comfy nights sleep. I have tried cheeper alternatives and all have only lasted a very short prefiod of time most less than 1 year. I rekon my old standard one works out about £6 per year so far and still going strong.

All these good words and it is bound to leak on me tonight, off to find a big peice of wood to touch.

Sure you are not wearing one of these in the car.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190531521003&clk_rvr_id=231653698547&afsrc=1

Thats some can of worms I have opened. I tend to agree with Bazzer. Despite possible how the thread has come over I have a good mechanical knowledge (and a degree in Automotive Engineering) I have been fixing my own cars for over 20 years. I know their is something wrong and was asking for advice, if I can’t fix it I will obviously have to take it to a mechanic. Everybody can make a mistake and I just want to rectify it with as little financial outlay as possible.

Waderider, thanks for your advice, have ordered a new master cylinder, will get it fitted tonight and see how it goes.

An update:

It turns out that it is still very common to damage / flip the seals in Astra / Zafira master cylinders. If I clamp the brake hose on either of the front wheels I get a nice stiff pedal. Their seems to be quite a lot of play in the caliper on their guides as the pad engages when you push the pedal, so I guess maybe this could be the cause. Any thoughts.

Is their anyway to flip the seals again or is it new master cylinder time.

Marko, I presume you mean I need to clamp of the front brake hoses while bleeding the rear brakes first. Will give it a try in the morning.

What does ziptieing the brake pedal to the steering wheel do. It is definetaly not just the pads that need bedding in.