Are you after the actual ‘web design’ part of it? Or the coding of the said design? Though I suspect a bit of both leaning towards the code side….

The spacing between cogs in different – think 9 campy cogs/spacers is actually wider than the Shimano equivalent. If you want to see if you could live with it, give the adjuster on your mtb rear mech a couple of turns and see how long before you go mad with the grating of cogs just slightly off from the chain….

Its a small difference but enough on such a delicate setup to be annoying at the least.

Having said that I’ve run a Shimano cassette on an otherwise Campy road bike for a while before I went the whole hog – the low gear would slip a bit and I’d always have a tiny (maybe imaginary) feeling the other cogs just weren’t meshing properly. There are various tweaks you can do – can’t remember the websites.

nickc – you obviously don’t understand the STW attitude to things – why spend £2000 on a bike when a £500 one would do quite nicely? Why spend a quid on some white spirits when you can buy a GADGET to do it? And you can do something else whilst it’s buzzing away….

Is it the tyre/tube moving? I had similar problem finally traced to some cheapo plastic rim tape that was moving and slicing into the vale.

Quickly sorted with some decent cloth stickybacked rim tape – which also may cure the problem if your tube is slipping…

The shims are from Syntace
http://www.syntace.com/index.cfm?pid=3&pk=757

If you’re gonna put thinner slicks on for road duty I think the larger 700c wheels look better than a 26″ with titchy tiny tyres. Plus the gearing rations would work out better too.

What freeman says – it’s on 32inch plus you’ll really see any difference.

And you’d need High Def feed to utilise it anyway.

Think there are some nice little ones about – think Humax do one with a dvd and hdd recorder in (or was it just freeview and the hdd recorder…) built in – that might be good for the caravan – one box to carry about, catch up on all those missed episodes of Emmerdale on the hdd recorder….

The are the equivalent to Marin/Mondeo but I still think the Dell laptops are a decent build, you should get a decent spec one for £400 – the old man has just ordered one, I’ve not seen it yet. They’ve probably still got a sale on – might get free delivery or something –
http://www.dell.co.uk/offers

If you’ve got plenty of outer cable already try this for a couple of quid:-
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Cycle/7/Transfil_Gear_Cable_Waterproof_Kit/5360011242/

basically some fancy cable caps and a bit of thin hose for the bits that are just outer cable – it’s suprisingly good – use this on my all-weather commute and it keeps the crud out.

Don’t be afraid to ask for discount. Get a good a price as you think, then say you’ll sign the cheque if he/she throws in free warranty (or servicing or something).

And don’t be afraid to walk away. It’s not as if there’s gonna be one Golf for sale.

Specialized pricing was always a bit suspect on their high-end S-Works – I was bored one day and worked out I could buy the frame/forks and all the same kit (or better) for a lot less than they were selling the bike for (and that’s without their buying power).

The boutique brands might take a bit of a hammering – the big players need to get shot of last years models to make space for this years, so they can drop prices on their margins – the smaller makers who don’t have a new bike a year are going to have to pass on the increased costs for materials and transport etc.

Cycling and indoor rowing helped me a lot during the bad patches – did something like a million metres on the rower one year.

My missus has got a saying up at her desk (think it’s from an old CEO of Pepsi or Coke) – basically life is like juggling a whole lot of balls – the work one is a rubber one – if you drop it then it’ll bounce back – the others – health, family, spirit etc are glass – drop one and it’ll be broken or chipped forever.

Good luck fella.

Hey, it’s my birthday today too!!!

I was tempted with a Gore Phantom or Contest jacket with my birthday beans – part of my pressie is to be allowed to surf the web all night finding what I want (though I suspect a cunning plan to allow Mrs Breathe access to Celebrity Big Brother…..).

I think the reason they are being consigned to the back of HMV is that the shops are getting bigger profits from games hence their prominence.

IIRC if you look at the stats on downloads vs CDs purchased I think CDs are still the major player. Once someone starts selling lossless downloads then that might change.