Why does anyone bother with a TV aerial anymore?

Because millions of people have really crap Internet which isn’t fast enough to reliably support streaming. Just because people in cities keep having their fibre upgraded from 100mbps to 500mbps to 1000mbps doesn’t meant there aren’t lots of us with 0.5mbps with an upgrade date of June 2028.

If I didn’t have an aerial I’d only be able to watch TV 3 or 4 nights a week.

Gotta love this forum.

OP: I want a derailleur tool but can’t justify £72.

First response: Get a £200 one!

Back in the real world the X-tools one is great, better than the Park one and available for £30.

Years ago I parked in a multi storey car park that’s part of a big shopping centre.

There were a couple of things I wanted in the centre so I did what I needed, then went to the bike shop which was on the street outside.  The bike shop had a Specialized Roubaix on display in my size with a mega discount I was after a new road bike so I bought it.

I was carrying the bike over my shoulder back to the car through the shopping centre (only way to get back to the car) when I was accosted by security guards.  I was told in pretty basic terms that I couldn’t bring my bike in the shopping centre so I told them I’d just bought it and my car was in the shopping centre car park.

After some discussion over the radio with their boss, we agreed that if he carried my bike to the car, that would be acceptable, so that’s what we did!

As above most kids bikes have cranks for 1/2″ pedals whilst adult cranks have 9/16″.

You’ll struggle to get anything sensible in 1/2 so you might have to change the cranks or modify the pedals that are on it.

If they are 9/16 then the plastic V6’s would be great.

I did a few events with them albeit more than 10 years ago now.

It’s not closed roads, you ride with the traffic.  I did London to Paris and although it’s open roads the route was chosen to avoid busy roads.  It was well waymarked and you got a route guide as well.  These days I guess you might be able to get a GPX as well.  The food stops were well organised with a good choice of food with great hygiene standards, and although we didn’t need it mechanical support was very good as well.

The events I did were VERY well organised and supported.  I did the Machu Picchu trek with them and paid the cost of the trip myself (roughly half) and got donations, did boot fairs etc to raise the rest.  When my friend was taken ill at Dead Woman’s Pass, the support was superb.  The weather was such that a helicopter evac looked unlikely so they had porters running in from Cuzco overnight with a stretcher and an additional Dr, so the Dr who was on the trek could stay with the rest of the group.  In the end she was helicoptered out and the additional Dr went with her.  Absolutely faultless planning and execution.

I’d go with them again in a heartbeat.

It happened to me 15 years or so ago.  I tried to fight it, had a breakdown and was removed from site in an ambulance.  It cost me three years of my life.

You are doing the right thing by getting signed off, but be in absolutely no doubt, you need to leave.   Take the time you need to do it on your terms, but leave.  You are currently in an abusive relationship and just as in an abusive domestic relationship your abuser will tell you they love you and it’ll all be fine.  Then the abuse starts again.

Not being a 28 year old woman I can’t help directly, but my self built van has always been insured through BG Insurance. They are a broker and have access to underwriters that don’t crop up on comparison sites. For me they have been half the price of anyone else, and my only claim (broken windscreen) was dealt with quickly and it was straightforward.

Bear in mind that you can only use your no claims on one policy for reasons no one has ever explained, so your daughter would start from scratch although I assume you want her to be added to your policy.

For reference my Renault Master costs me around £280/year fully comp.

If you want to go retro I have a Gravity dropper you can have for not much money.

It’s the 3 position version, down 25mm, then down an additional 75mm.

I’ve only used LHM fluid in my Shimano brakes, including some XTM755 4 pots which have worked flawlessly for 20 years. That’s currently 10 sets of brakes non of which is less than 5 years old.

The only time I’ve ever had the leak issue was with a brand new brake which was replaced under warranty. The replacement was immediately bled with LHM as I had to shorten the hose and that has worked fine for 8 years now.

@benpinnick – that’s really useful, thank you for the recommendation.

@timmys – I’m just going off the Starlink website which states £75/month and £299 for hardware

https://www.starlink.com/orders/?processorToken=2a1b29df-2171-4fe4-9b6d-c5fd35cd3b86

£75/month isn’t worth it for us even if it wasn’t giving money to Musk.  We don’t work from home, don’t do gaming, we don’t subscribe to any streaming services, there’s no kids. It’s just for email, basic web browsing and iPlayer/ITVx etc if there’s nothing on Freeview worth watching.  If the internet goes down, we just catch up with the Sewing Bee or whatever another night and read a book or something.

I’m currently paying £22/month for unlimited data.  I’ve no issue with paying £100 or so for an aerial or booster to make it reliable, but I’m not paying £900 a year for the usage I need. That’s an additional £636 a year, that’s a nice week away for me.

Forget the two boxers, athletics has a much bigger problem.  I was listening to the “women’s” 100m final last night and there was barely a women in the race. Some bloke called Alfred won it, there was another lad called Terry then there was Richards Son, and Jeffers Son as well.

These guys aren’t even pretending to not be men, should I write to my MEP to protest?

Unfortunately I had very little Internet again last night or I could have watched it to see these so called women run but I bet they had flat chests or something equally obvious that proves they were actually men.

Now, where’s my copy of the Daily Mail…

;-)

Thanks Alex, I’m thinking an external aerial has got to be worth a try. I just didn’t want all the hassle of installing it if it wasn’t going to help.

While the weather is OK I’ll just blutac it to the roof and run the cable through a window. If it works I’ll do it properly, it not I’ll return it!

Good shout Matt but unfortunately not near us. I have registered interest though.

Starlink isn’t happening, firstly because I’m not giving any money to that prize prick Musk, and secondly it’s £300 installation plus £75/month and it’s just not worth that for us.

I’m 2 miles out of Blairgowrie.  The update from ScotlandSuperfast.com is:

New gigabit-capable connections are being built in your area and your address is in the R100 contract build plan – it’s part of the Scottish Government’s Reaching 100% (R100) broadband programme.

Build schedule

Work in your contract area is currently due to be completed by the end of June 2028.

In practice we get 5-6Mbps

That wouldn’t be a problem if we got that all the time.  However frequently the 4g drops off completely so we get 0Mbps.  Probably 3 nights out of 7 we have no internet at all, or indeed any phone signal.  On the plus side when the alarms go off at work in the middle of the night I sometimes can’t be contacted :-)

Moving is not happening.  It’s pretty much a dream home where we have woods on one side and lovely neighbours on the other.  We look out onto fields and woods down to a glen with a loch and the Dunkeld hills are in the background.  I’d a million times rather live here with no internet than pretty much anywhere else with superfast fibre!

20ish years ago I changed the BB on my bike the evening before a snowy night ride.  I ran out of time to fit the cranks, so just took them with me along with an 8mm allan key to fit them in the car park before the ride.

Chatting to my mates whilst fitting the square taper  cranks so I wasn’t paying attention and I fitted them at 90′ to each other rather than 180′ and non of us had a crank extractor.

I did the ride with my wafty cranks.  It’s surprisingly hard to pedal a bike like that!

People should not be living in rural areas and commuting 20 miles into town by car

So who should be living in the millions of rural houses?

Farm workers?  No, farms need a fraction of the workers they used to have because of mechanisation.  In a village of 500 there are maybe 15 local jobs.

Retired people? No, they move back to towns when they get old as they struggle to drive and there are no local services.

Working from home?  Not a chance.  We get 0.5mp/s on the phone line or around 3mb/s on a 4g router, that now only works intermittently as the 3g is turned off and 5g is years away.

So is it better for the environment for my house to be knocked down and a new house to be built for me in the suburbs, or to commute 15 miles in an EV powered mostly by the solar panels on my roof?

The advantage for all is that you can buy a bike with no deposit and pay monthly with no interest fee.  Sure, the savings aren’t as great for lower rate TP, but it’s still advantageous due to the above.  Many might not have access to credit on such terms in the general marketplace.

No, it’s even worse than that.  It’s not available to all.  If you are on minimum wage you can’t access it as it would take your pay to below the minimum level, and many minimum wage workers work for organisations that won’t allow access to it as they can’t afford to pay for the bike up front – many small cafes and shops for example.

It’s a stupid scheme that offers the greatest benefit to those who need it the least and nothing to those who need it the most.

The advantage for all is that you can buy a bike with no deposit and pay monthly with no interest fee.  Sure, the savings aren’t as great for lower rate TP, but it’s still advantageous due to the above.  Many might not have access to credit on such terms in the general marketplace.

No, it’s even worse than that.  It’s not available to all.  If you are on minimum wage you can’t access it as it would take your pay to below the minimum level, and many minimum wage workers work for organisations that won’t allow access to it as they can’t afford to pay for the bike up front – many small cafes and shops for example.

It’s a stupid scheme that offers the greatest benefit to those who need it the least and nothing to those who need it the most.

Join the library!

Free books, free internet, free warm place to sit and work, and in our local ones, free jigsaws, free events, free seed library and free use of sewing machines to repair the clothes and rucksack you ripped in your last crash.  In addition, virtually free 3D printer, large format poster printer, use of computer with full Photoshop, laser etcher, 3D scanner etc etc.

Buy a heated gillet.  Heat the person not the space, 10’c is comfortable in the evenings if your core is being warmed.  I charge mine at work during the day…

When my daughter did her Gold practice expedition one of the kids turned up with bags of microwavable rice for his meals!

I do that – it’s precooked so just gets heated up in a mug with a small amount of water.  Saves a lot of time and fuel cooking raw rice.  Instant mash and cous cous for the lightweight option.

I haven’t read it but how the hell do you take 5 months off work to pedal around just because you’re a bit fed up? Is he a city banker or something?

He’s a freelance travel writer.  Makes it much easier to spontaneously go travelling.

It is a great book and thoroughly recommended, but I don’t believe for a minute that he just decided to start pedalling round Britain without a lot of planning.

Major thing to note with the BB7’s is they stick out a long way.  If you are mounting them on the chainstay, your heels will probably hit them and if they are on the seatstay then fitting a rack or mudguards can be a problem.  This was the reason I changed from BB7’s to Hy/Rd’s, but the braking is better with the Hy/Rd’s.  The profile of the Spyres is similar to the Hy/Rd’s.

This review is pretty much spot in IME

Review: TRP Spyre mechanical disc brake | road.cc

@villageidiotdan I’m impressed that you managed to use inches, metres, feet and centimetres in one sentence!

Door closers can have enough force to cause injuries, but they are adjustable so should be adjusted so they don’t.  If they do close with force, the door will slam and eventually damage the door frame, so the caretaker/facilities management have incentives to fix the problem.  Generally it takes a couple of minutes with a screwdriver.

Can she or a friend go and check the door?  If it doesn’t slam shut by itself, then it was slammed by someone else…

There are very very few companies that I would recommend without any hesitation at all and Cotic is one of those.  Customer service which goes above and beyond (answering emails at 9pm on a Sunday night!), ethically strong, fabulous bikes and they support the MTB scene as well. About 10 years ago I had a long chat with Cy at a trade show and came away with a completely different view of what was important to me when buying a bike.

I have a Gen 1 Flaremax, Gen 2 Solaris, and Gen 2 (I think) Escapade.  After seeing and experiencing warranty issues with many of the big brands, and customer service issues with many retailers, when I’m at a point where when I need a new bike it won’t be “which brand”, it’ll be “which Cotic”.

Yes, I’m a fan, no I don’t work for them.

There’s some good people on here.

We got through the 70’s by living in utter terror of being outed and getting the living crap kicked out of us.

I read the comments on here and it makes me so happy that we have moved on and despite right wing politicians and press many young trans people are able to be themselves.

Thank you.

Yup, slowly then WW3 for me.

Climate change has been talked about as an issue for what 40 years?  It’s been a major issue for 15 years.

Yet our global CO2 emissions are increasing year by year (apart from 2020) and global population is still increasing.  We haven’t even levelled it off.

Individual responses to heatwaves are to buy air-con units, we deal with floods by buying bigger cars with more ground clearance.

Greenwashing is everywhere.  “I know we shouldn’t fly to Florida for our summer holiday and have 3 skiing holidays, but it’s OK because we have a Tesla and only eat free range chicken”.

At the last COP summit there were more O&G reps than national leaders and what was the outcome?  The middle east agreed to stop cutting down their rainforests, Brazil agreed to do pretty much nothing, Australia said they would dig up about 5 tonnes of coal less each year and the UK proudly announced they would build 3 more wind turbines.  At some point in the future.  Probably.  Meantime the real headline was that developed nations would give some money to some third world countries to offset the damaging effects of climate change.  And that was announced as a significant triumph.

TJ is right.  Catastrophic climate change is baked in and we are arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  And no, I don’t have any answers.

Mental health might explain erratic or poor behaviour, it doesn’t excuse it.

Mental health problems gets trotted out far too often at the moment to excuse shitty behaviour, it denigrates the struggles people with severe mentally issues contend with and excuses otherwise unacceptable behaviour. And if we cant reference our own direct experience of mental health issues then you’re verging on thought police territory.

FFS

Of course you can reference your own experiences. What you can’t do is claim others have the same experience just because it comes under the umbrella of “mental health”.

And to say it doesn’t excuse it is ridiculous. It won’t in all cases but to say someone suffering from extreme schizophrenia is capable of making logical decisions is utterly wrong.

In my case, despite being signed off with severe mental health issues, I walked into the office and started verbally abusing pretty much everyone I saw before curling up in a corner after I got freaked out by a postit note.  I have no recollection of that at all. It was completely out of character and I was apparently even speaking in a strange accent.

Was my mental health an excuse? Of course. If I hadn’t been mentally very ill, I wouldn’t have done it. I was removed from site in an ambulance and I never returned.

Saying mental illness is not an excuse for out of character behaviour is like saying having a broken leg isn’t an excuse for not being able to run a marathon.

Hew Edwards is in hospital due to his mental health issues. It’s unlikely that’s he’s suffering from mild anxiety or depression. It’s probable that he is very ill and as such is deserving of kindness and compassion.

The lack of mental health knowledge on here is depressing.

Saying “I had mental health issues and I never did anything like this” is just ignorant I’m afraid.

Mental health is like physical health.  Issues manifest themselves in many, many ways.

Some people just get sad and withdrawn.

Some people rant and rave.

Some people get violent.

Some people just eat and drink a lot.

Others eat and drink very little.

Some shout at the sky.

Some gamble away their life savings and everything their families own.

Some shout at their loved ones.

Some hurt themselves.

Some kill themselves.

And some make really odd, out of character decisions and do odd out of character things.

As far as I’m aware Hew has written about his mental health struggles for a number of years.  If during these struggles he’s done out of character things, then this is a symptom of his illness and if he’s done nothing illegal then he should be treated with kindness, compassion and understanding, both by the public and his employers.

Sadly it seems our understanding of mental health in this country still has a long way to go.

And Bairstow drops another one…

Has Bairstow dropped one yet?

Crawley averages more than Bairstow so far this series and hasn’t given away hundreds of runs in missed catches, missed stumpings and byes.

He won’t be dropped though, or even retained as a Batter with Foakes as keeper.  It’s weird, with Foakes as keeper England win virtually everything, with Bairstow they lose virtually everything.  I feel there is a connection…

What is the point of Bairstow?

Can’t catch, can’t bat.

Yup.

Complete fuse blown after a long period of overwork and no support.  I ended up curled up in a corner of my bosses office getting freaked out by a postit note and was removed in an ambulance.

I didn’t really work for 2 years and didn’t leave the house alone for 18 months.

Ignore everyone who says “do this, do that”.

It’s different for everyone.

For some people drugs are great, others don’t respond well.

Some people need talking therapies, others find them useless.

Some need time out of work, some need the routine.

Some need to get outside and exercise, for others it causes overwelming anxiety.

Maybe try all of these things as well as the other suggestions and see what works for you, but there will be more failures than successes.

15 years on I can honestly say it was the best thing that ever happened to me, but it’s taken a LOT of work and emotional energy to get where I am.

Good luck!

I have the same one as jimmy748.

It’s faultless and reasonably priced.  I don’t see the point in spending more.

I found the Pipedream 400 cold even with a down jacket at temps around 4′. I now have a 600 which is great.

Also bear in mind the bags are quite short. The standard bag is 1.9m which I though would be fine as I’m 1.82. But when you pull the cord to make the hood tight around your head it makes the bag much shorter. I’d definitely get the long version if you are taller than about 1.75m

Joking aside, if I had a choice I’d identify as a cis-gender, heterosexual male.

Then I’d get punched, groped, verbally abused and spat at a lot less.

But apparently I choose to be the way I am.  Hey ho.

Ahh working at Halfords was such fun!

Customer: “I want to complain.  You serviced my bike yesterday and you’ve made it too easy”.

Me: “Ermm, I’m sorry, you are going to have to explain that to me”.

Customer: “I used to do 2 laps of the park and it took me 20 minutes.  Now it only takes me 10 minutes so I get less exercise.  I’m very unhappy”.

Me: “Well I stopped the brakes from rubbing, serviced the hubs so they actually spin, and replaced the seized jockey wheels on your rear mech so it will run much faster.  Can’t you just go round the park 4 times?”

Customer: “I don’t have time to go round 4 times.  I’ve only got time to go round twice.  You are a ****.”

Me: “Go away”.

And that was one of the better ones…

I’ll say it again.

Reduced emissions.

Reduced fuel consumption

Reduced noise pollution

It is not pointless.

Totally agree.

Irrespective of the safety consideration, the reduced emissions, lower fuel consumption and lower noise pollution would be massively beneficial.

15000 miles in my car and the fastest I’ve been is 68MPH.  I also hit the claimed fuel consumption figs which is apparently impossible in real world conditions.