For all you crying over job losses you didn’t spend ages on the chat function being fobbed off. I didn’t change the postcode when they carried my address over . They did but suddenly it’s all my fault.  If that’s the level of customer service that’s acceptable to you then i despair. You can’t speak to them on the phone (they won’t give you a phone number ) and the chat function just endlessly repeats the same it’s your fault .

@boomerlives It’s likely they will still be in profit when RM is seeking more money to bail them out from the tax payer.

Royalmail was privatised some years ago. the last bailout was some years before the privatisation, though probably when it was state owned , the govt took the profits when they occurred and didn’t reinvest them in the enterprise. I thought the strike was due to the difference in opinion as to the profitability of royalmail. The union is talking about record profits and the company is saying it’s losing £1 million a day.

i’ve got no beef with roaylmail or the strikers, my problem is with ebay who couldn’t careless about it’s sellers. I’m sure all sellers have got horror tales about buyers and the seller can’t even leave negative feedback to warn others, all you can do is block the buyer from future purchases which doesn’t help when you’ve been screwed over.

@oceanskipper “I wouldn’t be refunding based on the scenario others have already commented.”- this doesn’t apply to ebay sales as the seller has no real say in the matter as ebay will refund and then charge it to your account. Once the buyer puts in a claim your chances of stopping the repayment are marginal at best.

@boomerlives – like ebay who recommend packlink who use evri. Last 2 times a seller has sent me something via evri – the first never made it past the senders depot and the second the parcel was opened and the goods removed, so i received an empty box. That Evri who make it almost impossible to put in a claim for a lost parcel. Royalmail might be a bit shit ,but it’s easy to make a claim for a lost parcel.

After writing the above i’ve decided to end all my listings. don’t want to lose hundreds of pounds.

@ harry – i can tell you what will happen – you’ll get screwed. I spoke to ebay customer service and the line they are taking (apart from marginally extending the dates ) is that if the buyer receives the goods after being repaid, then it’s up to the seller to ask the buyer nicely to pay. That’s it. Can’t even leave negative feedback. As a result i’ve deleted multiple listings and only using special delivery on the higher priced items. Ebay continues to shaft sellers.

I tried to email a complaint, but ebay just bounced it back to me, saying they werent interested.

Animal rescues such as cat’s protection will have traps for catching ferals etc. if you ask nicely , I’m sure you could borrow one from them.

Halfords do a 1600 lumen for £60 with the ability to fit below your wahoo. The bonus of buying in the uk is that if its defective you will be able to sort the matter out, without the hassle of dealing with china

re the bottle battery for the Mahle e motion x35 on Orbea bikes and others. The problem is that the bike will probably need to be reprogrammed to work with the battery (or not) Make sure you buy the extender from a source you can return. My local orbea dealer spent a week trying to get the extender to work with my Orbea gain without success. I was told that Orbea were “less than helpful” in trying to sort the matter out. I had to return the extender to the seller. On a brighter note the latest mahle app allows you to play around with the assistance levels on the preset options.

Are you sure the wheel is sitting correctly in the drop outs ? Looks like the wheel may not be fully in the dropouts.

selling tvs seem to attract the most infuriating potential buyers – i’m torn between the people who tell you they can buy the same tv elsewhere for £20 cheaper. (They don’t seem to appreciate being told to stop bothering me and buy the cheaper tv) or the person who told me they couldn’t afford the full price because they’d just spent £2000 on a foreign holiday.

bikeparts.co.uk seem to have them (x392)

Perhaps I’ll be lucky like yourself. to date it’s just crickets …

@oceanskipper I know what problems getting the right saddle can be. I’ve just done the c2c (whitehave to tynemouth) and although everything else ached , I didn’t get a twinge from the c17. Hope it works out for you.

It’s a pity that we don’t know of the Japanese equivalent of chainreaction for the smaller stuff. I’ve been ordering model train stuff direct from Japan as it’s much cheaper than the uk (even with postage which is reasonable for the size of package). All the orders have been under £135 and after 10 orders I’ve not paid any duties or fees. The longest delivery was 10 days but mostly a week. So saying I’ve no doubt queered my luck.

Seen live ones whilst cycling at dusk in the suffolk countryside. I remember seeing a dead one on the Northumbrian moors which was the size of an adult pig.

prefer this 2 hamsters 1 wheel

iainc the only problem will be the spokes, as they are proprietary to the wheels. I’ve used fulcrum wheels with no problems but always aware that if i broke a spoke i’d probably be struggling to get spokes other than online from germany.

Just had someone tell me he’s going to report me to ebay and trading standards because I don’t courier an item to some remote scottish island – i told him if he’d asked nicely – but now he’s on my blocked buyers list and i hope he reports that too. Lifes too short to deal with these people.

Tweeks have slx one for £69

I use a token ninja in my canyon carbon frame – it got rid of the annoying creak of the press fit shimano bb. A carbon frame with no aluminium insert for the bb is a recipe for creak city. No problems to date.

I’m using ergon gp1 s on all my bikes because of arthritis in the thumb. Means hand rests more on palm than a death grip. Try a cbd patch on the joint – it’s working for me where injections haven’t.

The yukata stuff is really watery i found. My local chinese shopstuff is miles better. The stuff from Asda https://groceries.asda.com/product/oriental/ajumma-republic-kimchi-korean-pickled-cabbage/1000046413108 is pretty good. they also sell gochucjang if you want to make it yourself. I found it goes best with pig based products.

the three books I’ve reread the most times are all by Stanislaw Lem
1)Tales of Pirx the pilot
2)More tales of pirx the pilot
3) Eden
Intelligent science fiction more about humanity than aliens or robots. Never get tired of rereading them.

Quite enjoyed “mom and dad” for gonzo cage.

I had some elastomer forks on a carrera I had – ballistic ? At some time they gave up the ghost and seized solid. i didn’t even notice for several months. As much as I like the shape and colours of some retrobikes, much of the equipment on them was pants.

hmrc decided to get rid of all their experienced staff and rely on a computer coding system that doesnt work. Since I left them in 2013 they’ve failed to get my tax code right. This tax year after complaining (yet again) they amended my tax code correctly , but then changed it again a couple of months later. I’ve received the code for next year and again it’s wrong. Write a complaint letter laying it on thick to Jim Harra the chief executive at 100 parliament street, London. don’t bother writing to the paye deptr, unless you like wasting stamps. Ask for the underpayment to be written off due to official error and ask for compo.

I’ve used marks cheese for a nice bit of bowland every so often.

It’s actually 102bcd not 103. Try these people https://www.garbaruk.com/chainrings/round-mtb.html?category=1&search=&attrib=10-56&attrib= or i’ve got a wolftooth for sale on ebay

Theres an article here-https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/28/brexit-customs-duties-to-apply-to-eu-goods-worth-more-than-390. It looks like they are expecting the seller to collect the vat on behalf of the uk government – i’ve noticed this on some of the recent ebay listings.

I’ve had a single wheel trailer and a burley two wheel trailer(burley travoy). the two wheel trailer was much more useful and user friendly (even was able to move bags of gravel in the burley with no problems. The problems with single wheel trailers is that when loaded they dont like to stay upright and will pull the bike over before you get on the bike. I ended up fitting sidestands to mine. I never used either off road, but for shopping the burley was superior – you can even wheel them round the supermarket. Burley travoys are great for shopping. I eventually got rid of mine as i could get my groceries in two panniers.

@bazzer – a new Yamaha cds2100 would cost £2k so £1300 for a naim seems a bargain. I’ve had arcam stuff in the past – the last was a cd72. I wish i’d had it upgraded to a cd92 when arcam were offering that option. Some years ago i got a great deal on some Roksan gear – they were selling the roksan Kandy mk1s at half price – £700 for the amp and cd player. The amp still soldiers on connected to some b&w 685s.The amp has some impressive heft. I could sell the michell but not just yet – still sentimentally attached to it.

@bazzer – I bought it based on the looks – I was on holiday in York at the time and saw it at vickers hifi when they were close to the town centre. Even better I think it was on interest free credit (might be wrong about this as we are talking 1987 or 1988. I think it was £300 at the time. It replaced a dual cs501? which was itself a replacement for a sansui sr 222. I keep the michell from nostalgia – its not been used for years, but it still looks great.

After lauding the sound of my yamaha cd s2000 cd player, it’s decided to commit suicide again. 18 months ago it refused to load any cds. The repairers couldnt find anything wrong with it . i had the laser mechanism replaced at a cost of £180. It was fine for a while, then it started to refuse to open the cd drawer. That eventually stopped but now it refuses to load . Since i bought it secondhand for £450 some years ago I’ve purchased a naim cd5si as a replacement.

try facebook purity – https://www.fbpurity.com/

“Could go 1×9, keep the existing shifter, buy a cheap 11-40 or 11-42, 9spd cassette” tried this on the camino” couldn’t get the indexing right – could only get 8 gears, despite hours of fettling. Bought the 1×10 kit from decathlon as above which was the cheapest i could find and it indexed first time. Even tried the free goatlink copy that came with the cassette – made no difference. If anyone wants a 9 speed 11-40 cassette without waiting for delivery from china i’ve a barely used one and a brand new one sitting doing nothing.

when i went 1 x 10 on the al camino i found decathlon to be the cheapest – admittedly the shifter is there own brand – looks like a sunrace or something. it’s quite clunky in operation but works fine.Shifter is £9.99
Btwin chain £9.99 (its actually a kmc)
SHIMANO CASSETTE 10-SPEED 11X42 DEORE HG500 £29.99
REAR DERAILLEUR 10-SPEED MEDIUM CAGE SHIMANO DEORE M6000 SHADOW RD+ £44.99
+ cross channel delivery fee -£2.99

I had to pick up my order from asda.

The only problem is that you might get worming under the lacquer. I had an Orange Evo2 that was polished alu with quite thick lacquer. However cuts and flaking round bottle bosses etc led to worming under the lacquer. In my opinion when i sold it despite being 15 years old it still looked quite presentable but I have seen others that look dreadful after a few years

If they are the OMM Kamleika halos that fold up to the size of a tennis ball be aware that they are incredibly easy to lose. I had a pair (not kamleika ) which folded into a little ball about the size of a bramley apple. Unfortunately they rolled out of my bag never to be seen again. Prior to that i was always misplacing them as they rolled under the sofa etc or get hidden under another piece of clothing. Great for lightweight, but a bugger to find and easy to lose.

@infidel – i’ve messaged you. Please send me your email. The system ate my long message and if you send your email address i can type it out again without fear of being eaten by this crap message system. My email is bobgarrod@gmail.com

the big hoppers are called yorks. see my post above.