Well Germany have just fired up a Fission reactor….

I think we’re going to need the power for more than a millionth of a second.

The GC contenders are very likely to be among the lightest on the team, so no issue – much more likely to have a bike that’s too heavy
If you really cared, make all the team’s bikes weigh at least as much as the leader’s, since that’s who’s most likely to be the “problem”. I don’t really care if Stannard gets a lighter bike at the bottom of Alpe d’Huez

No, but the riders on Griepels team might complain about having to lug around big heavy bikes just in case he gets a mechanical near the end of a flat stage.

Weight of bike against a rider is too complicated to be realistic.

Gerber Suspension foldy up tool thingy? Quite a manly thing.

I wonder how Jeff is going to beat them this time round, surely they’ll have installed AVG following their last encounter.

He won’t – he’ll try and install the USB key with the virus on and realise they’ve upgraded to USB3 ports and running MacOS…

Thankfully he’ll crack their passwords by guessing the mighty leader is called Brian123 and start up iTunes which will bring their entire cunning plans grinding to a halt.

Check out Yammer – it might be what you need, though it’s more of an ‘office’ type Facebook replacement. Can’t remember if it is MS product but it seems to play nicely with our Office 365 setup.

Some of the Neil Gaiman books might be worth a shot.

Or our little one has ploughed through the two Darkmouth novels and really looking forwards to the third on in Feb.

If Labour want to get anywhere they need some younger people from outside London with ideas, not old folk in their London commie luvvie bubble.

Corbyn is the first London-based Labour leader since Attlee in 1955.

Strange, could have sworn Ed lived in Primrose Hill. And pretty sure Mr Blair didn’t really live in his 2up 2 down house in the grim North.

Check out the Q Acoustic 3020 – supposedly better than the 2020s and the same price-ish.

We’re currently keeping the eight year old in suspense, though there are rumours going round the classroom that ‘apparently’ its just made up.

Well I can’t recall such an intense debate and interest with regards to whether or not to bomb since the prelude to the Iraq War. Certainly there wasn’t quite the same level of interest and debate concerning the previous votes on bombing Syria or Libya.

I do like your answer ernie. Thank you.

Do you think the debate has been so intense/interested only because the press feel the sharks are circling JC

I know people are praising JC for having principles and allowing a free vote, but surely if you feel so badly against something (and I presume he does because of the Stop The War involvement) that when you’re now the leader of the opposition you must think this is your real chance to make a positive stand?

Yep, the CX ones just have seals on both sides of the bearings. The standard ones just on the outside. No brainer to me for the CX versions if price is same. Or stick a decent pair of SKF bearings in once the first ones expire.

Maybe the Fulcrum Racing 7 LG – you get the benefit of a slightly wider rim. I’ve got the Campagnolo equivalent and they handle my weight no problem.

What on earth is random about the Tee fees? Research tells me that £25 is cheap!

If you’re that keen to play 52 weeks a a year then the cunning thing to do instead of paying £25 each time you play is to actually join the club for a considerably smaller amount and get your golf for free each time.

Not like that it isn’t! Who lives in walking distance of a golf club?

Well, I overlook the local one so I do, for one…

I suspect golfers also live pretty local to the club they play at. Yes, it might be a couple of miles, and yes they will no doubt drive there.

My point was that some random numbers we made up to justify that golf was ‘expensive’ and mountain biking wasn’t. Both can be as expensive as you want to make them.

If he forces everyone to vote against the bombing then that will be put down as a definite “policy”. Free vote and he’ll lose and show his weakness. Think he’s been cornered.

My local municipal course is 25 quid a go. Do that once a week, adds up to £1300 just to play. Then there’s all the bats and silly clothing to add on.

£25 quids worth of petrol to a local trail centre each week adds up to the same amount if you’re going to pick random numbers to justify things.

And whilst we complaining about the ‘silly clothing’ golfers wear I think we need to look closer to home as well.

I’m hoping the magazines aren’t putting new bikers off. Apparently I need to spend over £1500 to get an entry-level full susser. And those latest £950 forks are decent value too… 😯

We’re not a niche market anymore. Get over it.

Could it just be the same eCommerce software that CRC use?

If I remember correctly I spent the first half of the evening trying to look down her blouse, then the second half calling her stupid for not working out some daft party game we were all playing. of which she never forgets to remind me of.

On out first date? I remember looking at my watch for a lot of it as it turns out she has a very annoying habit of being very late for everything. It should have been a warning.

15 years later and I still pretty much do the sames things. 😆

I’ve never used an estate agent. Always just stuck a sign up and relied on the fact that other houses in that are up with agents will bring the passing trade to your door.

Someone did this round ours. Sat on the market for a year as all the other houses sold pretty quickly. It might have been that they were asking a cheeky price for theirs but funnily enough a local estate agents board popped up recently and then pretty soon afterwards a sold sign appeared.

Possibly there is a particular niche where self selling works better?

So while there may be some pressure to keep the rides running so customers are happy, I suspect it’s not nearly as bad as pay-per-ride fairs where they are losing money every second a ride is shut down.

People queuing for longer for a reduced of rides (due to closure of certain ones) aren’t spending money in the cafes or such like. Or have gone home early etc.

Very ‘polished/professional’ photograph – setup maybe?

Looking at the size of their combined mortgages the couple are massively over leveraged so it’s not surprising they are panicking

Not sure about that – the rent on the flat will be covering one mortgage I’d like to think. Possibly they’ve had the flat empty for a few months hence the panic.

The £8k on credit cards could be interest free cash advance to put in the savings account like everyone on STW thinks is a good idea (though looks like it never reached it and went on a new handbag possibly).

Some of those calculations for kids education look a bit flaky to me – including the £9k for university fees.

Clikcbait, much like those reports that raising children ‘costs’ £500k over their school days. Thats if you assume you’d have to move house, buy a big new car, etc. etc.

Basically like everyone says, do a budget, decide what is important to you. They have a lot more going for them than people on the breadline.

Don’t get so hung up about a car lasting 10 years. You could drive it out of the showroom and written off within minutes (mate got pranged when he was waiting to turn into a petrol station to fill up for the first time…).

Amedias is the voice of reason here. You’ll not notice the difference over six miles.

Could be worse – the one I was looking at had the power button just beside the delete key…

But yes, I’m with you on having to hit FN and f5 etc.

Are prices really going up by that much over the whole country or does some Russian Oligarch buying something in Kensington for £55m not skew the figures somewhat?

Kinda puzzled as to why he’s “allowed” by the mothers to go to a range with you so long as he uses loan equipment. What’s the difference?

Big difference going there to shoot and rifle getting locked away again when he leaves, and having one in the house where he may use it unsupervised etc.

If its going to be secured under lock and key, only allowed out when you are there and mother not too happy then I think its not the most sensible idea.

Funny age 11 – possibly physically too small for the proper ones (especially if its target shooting).

Can’t imagine he’d be allowed to bring it into the school shooting club unless you rig up that fake guitar case for it.

Think I was 13 when I joined the target shooting club, was a couple of years before I could get the Walther but they had a couple of decent loaners ones at the club anyway.

I’d say see what Feb brings in terms of commitment, and what actual kit they are using.

I’m with bigyinn on this one – not your problem – that’s what the fees on paypal cover.

Unless, of course, you’re planning on doing the dirty yourself…

I suspect eBay would just write-off £20, possibly to some dodgy tax regime.

I plan to see the doctor and get a surgery in 2 months time.

Ha, good luck with that unless you’re going privately.

‘Twas a while ago when I had the first hernia and was a gym bunny, but I can’t remember struggling too much with machine equipment. The only one I really steered clear of was the assisted chinup type ones (to be honest, think that was how I did it to start with, got out of shape slightly and tried to pull myself up incorrectly).

Can’t answer number two, sounds too complicated to worry about!

Regarding three – keyhole and mesh seems to be the default these days. Though I didn’t have a huge choice – the surgeon I was referred to did keyhole.

Only post op complications they discussed were infection (don’t shave the area yourself before op – they’ll do it in theatre now if required with clean kit), and potential to staple through a nerve or something.

You might get offered a two for one and put the mesh over both sides (if it’s in groin) – I didn’t need it but maybe something to think about – it’ll take longer to heal I’d say but save doing it again – if you’ve got weakness in one side you’re very likely to do the other at some point.

It’s a bit OTT but nothing compared to the “NO TYRE KICKERS OR TIME WASTERS”

Or the usual eBay one – “advertised elsewhere so I reserve the right to stop the auction if I fancy”, though I suspect that may be code for “open to offers outside of eBay”.

You think they will sell for £950, you can only cover for the price as that is what you have lost if they go missing. You don’t need to replace them from new, just cover the selling value.
And £10 to go to post office, that is all part of selling something.

£30 for postage is taking the piss. I would be charging around £15 with ParcelForce.

Yep, if you’re going to sell some wheels for nearly a grand then I’d absorb a bit of the cost of posting myself. Though, conversely if you’re paying a grand for them then the extra £15 extra postage isn’t going to break the bank.

Abandoned bikes, cars, boats, whatever… they are all the consequences of people’s chaotic and disfunctional lives. People buy things then forget where they left them or they get ill or leave or die or anything.

I suspect with bikes like this it’s either students or pub bikes left overnight in town, then the drunks think it massive fun to trash them, normally the wheels. I’d guess it’s not worth most people starting again with a potentially bent frame and buying kit to put back on it – they just buy another working junk bike. Though you’d have thought the lock was useful to someone, typically might have more value than the rest of the bike!

Even if you’ve been dicked around in auctions before if you want the best return from your auction then just bite your lip and be nice.

Either that or he’s thinking these are perfect wheels for the hipster and they all talk like that and have an attitude so he’s pitching it at the desired market…

Before I shut up shop last night, I noticed that there’s no cable guides on the downtube for the rear brake cable…….

Bit of an oversight, it’s only a bike frame, I’m sure they’ll be able to sort it……..

Ah yes, reminds me of my first custom frame from a now defunct builder. After the usual lengthy wait it came with both top tube and down tube cables stops for everything, god knows why. The first reply from the builder was quality – apparently they’d done it “on purpose to allow me complete flexibility in where I’d want to run my cables”. 😆

I had to point out to them that a) I didn’t ask for that on my ‘custom’ frame and b) even if that were true then they were missing random cable stops on both versions so wasn’t even usable that way either!

There was a refund…

It would have been impossible to live in a property whilst electrical work was undertaken, no heating or hot water as all radiators have been removed and no working kitchen. Nothing structural though.

You need to tell the council it’s uninhabitable. You might get some leeway there but it’s up to the council to decide – we moved out for three months into rented accommodation whilst our house was getting renovated and despite several long conversations with the local council we ended up paying both council taxes.

Don’t suppose she has friends in the sport that have just dropped out does she?

I was high county level/near national squad level in my youth but it got pretty hard when a couple of pals dropped out. Lost a bit of motivation and ditched myself, though to be fair a lot of that came with uni/job/beers/girls.

But all the way to the top, local government and health are separate, so who can make this stuff happen? As a taxpayer i’d rather the council spent £10 than have the NHS spend £50, for the same outcome. But if I were a council finance boss, I’d rather the NHS spent £1000 than I spend £1. The NHS would want the councils to discharge people into social care/nursing homes really quickly but it has absolutely no way of making the councils spend the money to get that service in place.

I think that sums up the whole problem in all government/council departments nicely.

Also, being content/happy is not the opposite of depression, you could be content in life but still have depression.

Waves. Pretty healthy, good job, no money worries, fantastic wife, beautiful kids and pretty much suffered from depression all my life. Mostly around death of my parents when I was very young.

Bet most people here have scrawled a list of the components on their dream bike (or just the next n+1 one) when bored one day. Cycling is almost the perfect storm for that kinda stuff.

I’m in the thankful position where I can pretty much afford any bike I wanted, and have dabbled (suddenly realised I was commuting in winter on XTR kit once!). I could see how that could get out of hand. My best pal who I ride with is cash-strapped (though not particularly bothered about it) so we don’t have an arms race. Pretty basic bikes each (okay, I’ve got Centaur against his Veloce drivetrain) and we both mutually agree its the friendship/riding that is the point of it.

Depression is an awful thing, sometimes perspective is useful too for things. A lad a work always used to drive around in a fancy smart car, easy to get envious until we found out he couldn’t afford the petrol for it, never went out of pubs etc. Grass is often not as green on the other side and all that.

I’ve found defining your priorities does focus your requirements. Family (and to be fair a nice house – an appreciating asset if nothing else) is my focus now and things like job are means to an end. I’ve gone from a new car every couple of years, to running them into the ground.

My Topeak is about 20 psi out on the guage. It feels like the handle is going to snap everytime I use it. Not been impressed to be honest. It’s now in the back of car for the odd topup of the car tyres instead of a footpump.

Lezyne head didn’t seem to work on dome of my tubes strangely, and became just a pain to screw on and off.

From experience watching friends split up, when it comes to divvying out the possessions don’t get too arsey about it. It’s a) not worth arguing over that teapot and b) it gets expensive when solicitors start getting involved about said teapot, even if it is your ‘favourite’.

Whilst it’s not the best response, at least it’s the situation that causing the split rather than the individuals so that might help to make it amicable, or at least more manageable.

If you’ve not told your immediate friends/family it might be worth speaking to someone you trust in your close circle about it.