Yup, still over 800MB which slows down my phone.

@mark my membership expired yesterday and I’m not renewing at least until this is resolved.

I used to work for a WEEE recycling company. The waste is horrendous at all levels in the chain.

Manufacturers junking old stock because the new version has been released.

Customer returns of new products which haven’t even been out of the box – probably buyers remorse.

Consumers ditching perfectly working stuff because there is a new shinier version.

Large organisations chucking out working stuff because of refurb – hundreds of white printers came in once from a massive finance company because they changed them for identical black printers because they suited their office better.

Ever wondered what happens to all the electrical kit from companies that go bust? It’s not sold, it’s scrapped for £110/t. Even the design agency that went bust with dozens of less than one year old high end Mac and IPads – all smashed up.

At least 80% of electrical stuff that’s sent for recycling is fully working and modern enough to be functional. A chunk more is easily repairable. The level of waste is very depressing.

I recently tried to return to Amazon a faulty drill battery. They eventually told me to keep it as they couldn’t find a courier who would accept it.

It ended up in the battery bin at the tip.

A grass pitch with no electric for 2 adults and a child is around £30 to £40 quid and the showers are sometimes extra.

This. It cost me more to park my van on a patch of grass with a 50m walk to some scruffy toilets for a week than it does to rent my 3 bed bungalow for a week. Bonkers!

You do it because you love it, waking up somewhere new.

But also very much this!

810mb for STW
0.5mb for Facebook
17kb for BBC
0.5kb for UK hillwalking
21kb for Walkhighlands

@mark WTF is going on?

What about 1bn dogs? That’s how many dogs there are in the world. Only 0.6bn cats.

Yeah, it’s the dogs who are drilling all the oil, burning the coal, cutting down the rain forests and mining lithium for batteries so we can pretend to be green. And it’s the cats that make them

Why are people owning carnivorous pets that they justify owning bigger cars for in a climate crisis?

Yeah the climate crisis is absolutely due to the cats and dogs. And not the 8 billion humans.

If you still have the ropes and slings I’ll have them. They’ll be used for dog restraints as our garden isn’t dog proof so he has to be on a long rope to stop him running in the road. His existing rope is now more knots than rope. Happy to make a charity donation to a charity of your choice.

I’m 20 mins north of Perth so can collect.

Thanks

Isn’t CyTech the only accreditation of cycle mechanics?

No, there’s Velotech as well. In both cases there are various levels from “I can fix a puncture and fit a brake cable” to being able to properly prep a bare frame and build from scratch. I have seen terrible work from both Cytech 3 mechanics and Veleotech platinum mechanics, whilst some of the best mechanics I’ve seen have had no qualifications, or have been Halfords in house trained technicians. As with most industries it’s the luck of the drawer as to whether you get a good one or a bad one.

Bedding in brake pads though???? I bet more customers would complain their bike came with part worn pads than would be happy they were bedded in.

In Scotland its pretty much ” a plague on all their houses”

tories – led by a dim nonentity who everytime he tries to distinguish the scots tories from Westminster gets slapped down and rtrtacts. Not a single positive policy

Labour – another nonentity in charge who is not allowed to differentiate from london and whoes main policy is SNP baaaaaad

Lib Dems – hopeless compromised by the proven liar Charmicheal 5th place in the number of seats

Greens – spent all their political capital on the GRA and the deposit scheme – the former of which is hardly their core remit and the latter a fringe issue

SNP – hubris, secrecy and murky financial dealings.

Alba – run by yesterdays man and a self confessed groper only people with seats are all defectors tiny real support

You forgot the Scottish Family Party. Run by an ex UKIPer who wants to ban gay and trans people. Yeah they sound great!

I’m less concerned by the finances of the SNP and more concerned that half the membership wanted a leader who was a bigot or one who got her policies from God.

Something to consider is the BB7’s stick out a long way compared to the TRP brakes. On my bike the rear brake is mounted on the chainstay and the BB7’s I moved from my old bike stuck out enough that my heel hit the calliper. I switched to TRP HYRD’s because of the lower profile and the issue went away. If the brake mount is on the seatstay it’s almost certainly not an issue.

In terms of power, there’s not much in it. Pads and set up (compressionless cables) have a bigger impact than the brake itself IME.

I manage venues which are hired out for presentations with various display options.

TALK TO THE VENUE!

We can accommodate most hardware and software options but what works most reliably is if the presenter brings in a USB stick with a presentation built on PowerPoint in a standard resolution with minimal distracting transitions and plugs it into our laptop.

I issue a tech spec sheet to every booking with recommendations but we still get presenters who ignore it.

The best was a guy with a load of PDFs on an old iPhone which he expected to be connected to a projector whilst using a clicker to move from one PDF to the next. Oh and he turned up 2 mins before the presentation was due to start. We’ll try and make anything work but at least give us a chance.

So talk to the venue. See what they have, see what they recommend, see what tech support they have and work with them. I always welcome clients wanting to visit beforehand as it means their event will be successful, they are more likely to use us again and I’m not trying to make something work in front of 150 pissed off people.

I had that with my old phone (Fenix 6 Pro to Ulephone Armor 5), but since getting a new phone (Ulephone Armour 14) it’s been perfect. It didn’t really bother me when it didn’t connect, but I’ve had to conclude it was the phone cutting the connection, not the Garmin.

I had a 2014 Mazda 6 diesel estate. 2.2 engine.

I liked size, comfort, 60mpg and £20 Ved.

I didn’t like having to change the timing chain every 20k miles as they stretch. Mazda know about this but don’t even make an updated kit. Engine “diesels” so fuel gets pushed past the piston rings, contaminates the oil and you have to change it every 3k miles.
Folding wing mirrors have tiny plastic cogs which strip and need the door taking apart to replace. You can push the mirrors out by hand but the motors continue to run making kerchang, kerchang noises all the time.
The infotainment system is dreadful. Kept forgetting radio stations, frequently couldn’t find any stations at all and resets whenever the engine is switched off so you can’t listen to audio books from CD or USB.
Keyfob eats batteries so driving along you suddenly get warning lights that “key cannot be found” and it goes into panic mode.
Trim kept coming loose and rattling.
At only 7 years rust was starting to be a problem.
Basically it’s a big car which is made lightweight to improve fuel economy and build quality suffers. Mine might have been a rogue but all the issues I had are well reported.
I traded it for a Kia Ceed estate which feels so much more solid and has been trouble free apart from a wheel speed sensor which was cheap and easy to sort.

The Mazda was easily the worst car I’ve ever owned and I wouldn’t have another one if you paid me.

So despite my best intentions I came back to look at the thread.

Firstly, my heartfelt thanks for the support. It really is appreciated.

Regarding the anger thing, yes, theoretically I could choose to not get angry but that requires a level of resilience which I just don’t have at the moment. I’ve fought this every hour of every day for 50 years now and I am so, so tired. I’m tired mentally, emotionally and physically and there comes a point when you are too tired to fight anymore.

I was thinking back to a thread of a year or ago so looked back and found it:

Non Binary…

In that thread was a massive debate about whether Non-Binary even exists. Many people including our favourite scientist came out with the usual stuff about chromosomes and genitals and it just makes me think “what is the point”. Hungary, Poland and now Italy are pushing back against very hard won LGBT etc rights. Trump pretty much closed off the USA, Bolsonaro did the same in Brazil. There are countries in the Middle East and Africa where I would be imprisoned and possibly executed just for being me. The rights of women are being eroded in Afghanistan.

But here’s the problem. Whilst it’s abhorrent that the rights of women and gays are being eroded, at least the cavemen agree they actually exist. What chance do I have when scientists and teachers are telling the world that my identity doesn’t exist? Non binary people are not even recognised in UK law https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9515/ Although for employment law it’s technically covered as a protected characteristic.

Unfortunately the bullies always win in the end. it’s like batting vs bowling. The batter can have a good innings and even get on top for while, but they have to “win” every single ball. If they drop their guard or lose concentration for a split second then they’ll smack one straight up in the air or glove it through to the keeper. The bowler stays on the field to attack the next victim, and the batter slinks off to the dressing room.

This batter is out. I can’t do this anymore.

@poah

I cannot express how angry you make me. You always come on to these threads with your bullshit “science” as though that trumps everything. Have you ever read anything I’ve ever written? Have you no empathy at all? I’ve opened up on this forum and shared things that I’ve never even been able to share with those closest to me. I’ve shared how desperate I feel and how every day is a struggle and you keep repeating the same old crap about definitions and chromosomes like some stupid robot. I do this to try and make people understand in the hope that they will be kinder to people who struggle every day just to make it through the day. Clearly I’ve failed.

I am a hunan being with human emotions and feelings and you make me feel so crap and so ashamed of what I am. You are the reason I don’t come here much these days.

Well you know what, you win. I can’t cope with reading your hateful bile anymore. I hope you are proud of yourself. I feel sorry for the children you teach, God forbid any of them have gender dysphoria and come to you for support.

Over the years on these threads I’ve learnt to ignore Poah. I strongly suspect it’s a bot of some sort, the dead giveaway being when it claimed to be a teacher. There is no way that a person so lacking in empathy or emotional intelligence could ever pass a teaching qualification so it must just be a machine of some sort. It also claims to be a scientist, but scientists have open minds and embrace new information and learning so it’s definitely not one of them either.

It feels great when someone denies your entire identity doesn’t it!

@5plusn8

There’s no such thing as love.

There’s no evidence for it at all. Sure, some people claim to be in love, but I’ve never seen any evidence so until you can prove it to me it doesn’t exist. Anything will do – the chemical formula, the chromosomes involved, even a small piece of love the size of a marble will be fine.

I’ve seen evidence of happiness – people laugh, or sadness – people cry. But then again these people are probably just attention seeking anyway. Then when they don’t get the attention they feel they deserve they’ll do something else to get attention. Like a young “man” putting on a dress and make up, taking hormones, getting incredibly painful life changing surgery. Even though this means “he” will probably be ostracised by “his” family, ridiculed by “his” colleagues, beaten up or even murdered. Life expectancy is significantly reduced by the hormones, the follow up to the surgery involves weeks of daily dilation – basically pushing a dildo into your vagina to rip open the scar tissue so it doesn’t seal itself closed.

But hey, “he’s” probably just doing it so “he” can get into women’s toilets so “he” can assault them with “his” penis. Oh, except “he” had it cut off. Didn’t think that one through at all did “he”.
Actually the love analogy is pretty accurate. People whose love has been rejected sometimes take their own lives as the only way they can deal with the mental pain involved. There may be a correlation between the demographic most likely to take their own lives (young men) and gender dysphoria. Not to diminish in anyway the anguish suffered by a young trans man growing breasts and starting periods, it is socially easier for a trans man to wear jeans and a hoodie than it is for a trans woman to wear a dress and heels. Being a “Tomboy” is mostly OK, being a “Sissy” is invariably not.
I went to an all boys school in the 1990’s. My parents were openly transphobic. Fortunately I am gender fluid, not trans. Ask for the evidence of this condition if you like, I refer you back to the evidence of love. Try spending a day in my head and if you don’t run away screaming I’ll be impressed. If I’d have come out as trans at school, my peers would have killed me. Not figuratively, but literally killed me. I saw what they did to the lad who was “probably” gay. My parents would have thrown me out. Fortunately being gender fluid I got periods of time as respite.
But when in “girl” mode, if my choice was stay locked in a male body forever or come out to my family and at school, I would absolutely, undoubtedly have killed myself.

It’s nice that you give me permission to dress how I want, and sleep with who I want. But to say that my condition doesn’t exist as you have seen no evidence of it breaks my absolute core and existence. You have no idea what goes on in my head and the raging conflicts that hound me every hour of the day. You have no idea what it’s like to wake in the morning with the crushing devastation when you realise you have a penis and no breasts. You have no conception of the mental explosion that happens when I go out for the day in girl mode, and then I slip into boy mode to find I’m wearing a skirt.

You are arguing over pronouns and definitions. I’m fighting for my existence and my identity. Every. Single. Day. And I’m exhausted.

If you don’t mind something a bit older I’m looking for a home for a large Stumpjumper. It’s 26″ wheels, Magura fork, XTR brakes 1×9 transmission, decent tyres, wheels are good.

Price would be a charitable donation to Air Ambulance/ Mountain Rescue etc.

And it’s in Dunblane

There are people I know who think that privatisation of the NHS will be fine as they have a Bupa or Benenden package that is quite affordable.

They don’t seem to realise that their packages exclude the GP service, A&E and the safety net of having the NHS to step in if the private hospital runs into problems it can’t solve.

I’m in Switzerland at the moment, staying with the Inlaws You have to get private health care insurance as there is no state cover at all. My FIL’s annual health policy costs £11000. Yes, eleven thousand pounds a year to insure a healthy 82 year old with no ongoing issues. For a laugh I got a theoretical quote for me as a healthy 50 year old. Five grand.

Most Brits have absolutely no idea of the cost of health care and what it means if the NHS is replaced with a fully private service.

I just looked at Ford warranty

Three years or 60,000 miles from new, whichever comes first

Or you can get a Kia Piccanto for £12250 with a 7 year 100000 mile fully transferable warranty.

I’m not buying any ebike until the warranty and reliability have improved.

There is a very simple way of changing things.

Join the Tory party.

There are roughly 160000 members. That equates on average to 246 in each constituency. Just 240 out of every 100000 (very roughly) voters get to influence policy, vote on the candidates for parliament and today choose the Prime Minister.

If you join, you get to dictate how the party is run, and who is elected. If enough people chose to select a moderate candidate with a social conscience rather than a right wing head banger then the balance changes within the Conservative Parliamentary Party.

In Scotland you can join for a quid. In England it’s £25. It’s cheaper than driving to a riot!

Seems the front derailleur has a 16T capacity, so no – it would appear I can’t add a smaller front chainring (unless I replaced both chain rings but anything less than 46T is gonna be too low at the top end)

I think you’d be fine to go to 26t to replace the 30t. On my triple I went from 30/40/52 to 26/40/52 with no issues.

It’ll probably fit, but measure it when you get it and if the insertion sleeve to too long then you can just cut it down. From memory I took about 5mm off the headset I installed in my Bizango and although I sold the frame a couple of years ago it’s still going strong despite the new owner being a large person who does dirt jumps with it.

Glas Tulaichean from the Spittal of Glenshee is rideable all the way up if you have the legs. It’s short though, just over 2 hours to get up and down.

Beinn Dearg from Bridge of Tilt (Blair Atholl) is only a small amount of hike a bike and the descent is more interesting. A longer day out with better scenery.

It must be the postcode then, try CR4 2AA

Yes that does change things enormously. I’m rural Perthshire, so I suspect the loading for theft and vandalism is the overriding risk for an unusual car where you are. There’s not much of that up here…

Lol, a Smart for 2 is around 8k to insure with me in the policy.
A Tigra is 4k.

Wow. I’ve just run it through GoCompare and for my fictional 17 year old daughter the Tiagra is 1100 and a Jazz of the same value is 1250.

Also look at 2 seater cars like the Vauxhall Tigra. A significant part of the risk is paying the ongoing medical costs of the people in the car when it smashes into a tree. If there is only one passenger seat rather than 4 the risk reduces significantly.

When my partners daughter got her first car the 1.4 Corsa was 2.5k to insure, the 1.4 Tigra which she bought was 1.3k

Just a thought.

Or 4 laps of the average athletic track.

Errmm Four. And a Quarter. And a bit.

I use a GS 4700 rear mech on my touring bike with 11-36 cassette and 26/40/50 chainrings and it all works fine.

The thing I don’t like from a function POV is from the forum overview page you have the two columns – forums threads, and latest stories. You can’t independently scroll down the latest stories. When you’ve scrolled down two thirds of the forum threads the latest stories join in, but you have no independent control. Chrome, W10

It’s just bonkers.

I asked a colleague a while back to measure the space for a shelf she wanted at one of our locations. I wanted it fairly precise so I could cut the wood at base and take it to site and slot it it. She came back with 22.2 inches. So what is that? Is it 22 and 2 tenths? 22 and 2 eights? 22 and 2 twelfths? I asked if she could measure in mm but she said it mm were too complicated. In the end I just took a 1m long board and a saw/tape etc Turned out it was 22 and 2 thirds! She is at least 70…

Fine by me.

Have we finally gone metric or is this the return to imperial?

This thread is pathetic.

It’s hard to take anyone’s views seriously when they resort to childish name calling and stupid sexual insults.

I’m certainly not the arbiter of these things but I do wish some people would either grow up or go away.

So will my 7 year old niece need to have a speedo and number plate on her Disney Princess bike so she can ride to the park?

Not gonna happen. Won’t get past any sort of scrutiny.

I appreciate your question is a “noob” one, so not having a dig. But it’s like saying “shouldn’t all bikes have stabilisers so they don’t fall over”, for the reasons given above.

It’s a pretty good rule in life that before you form any relationship with a person, be it professionally, socially or romantically, see how they treat waiting staff and retail staff first.

I won’t have anything to do with someone who is unpleasant to these people, it’s just bullying.

I had armbands when I was that age. I decided to put them on my ankles to see what would happen.

It’s surprisingly hard to remove armbands from your ankles when you are upside down in the sea with only your feet above the surface.

Your son is probably not as stupid as I was.

But will it take a 29er with just the front wheel off?

Errmm, no “Citroën Ami may be small but it still has many practical storage areas as well as a baggage area in front of the passenger seat (whilst still giving the passenger plenty of leg room).”

Can it tow my caravan 500 miles?

And it’s a no to that as well

“With a range of 43 miles and a top speed of 28mph, the Ami is a modern solution for modern mobility needs”

1. Range anxiety need not be a thing if you plan and have half a brain

That’s fine if you can afford a 40 grand car with a 250m+ range. If you can only afford one with a 120m range then range anxiety gets real very quickly especially if it’s cold and you are driving fast A roads.

Six months ago I was looking for a “new” second hand car.

I looked at electric, but for the £10k max that I could spend, you get a ten year old Nissan Leaf which when new had a theoretical max range of 130 miles. Now, in winter with a hilly journey it’s probably less than 80.

I can’t change at home, can’t charge at work, nearest charge point to me is six miles away. So every other evening I’d be driving to a car park six miles away to sit in the car and charge for three hours. In a Scottish winter.

I love the idea of an EV but the reality is I’ll be burning dinosaur juice for a while yet.