I will never buy from Carpet Right again. Every muppet I dealt with from beginning to end was useless and the end results was, at best, average.

HTH :-)

You lucky bu&&er!!! ;-) Well done.

I would only echo what TJ says – even plumbers are very limited in what they are allowed to do with lead these days, so be very cautious in what you attempt as if it goes wrong it could end costing £££'s to get it sorted whether you have the money or not (been there, have T-shirt etc etc….)

I know a guy at Mira who designs these. They really are pretty neat inside, use good materials and the support, should something go wrong, is very good (keep the receipt if you buy one!!). They are also standardising the fittings for the mixer bodies, so if you decide to change it in a few years time, the existing pipework should still line up with the new mixer, saving a lot of hastle.

IMO – yes, they are twice as good as the equiv Triton.

Looks like a valve sweated into a lead pipe – have a similar arrangement in my kitchen. When the tap went wrong, the plumber took the core out of the tap and replaced with a blanking plate to stop the leak and fitted a new tap above it allowing the lead into the rest of the house to be replaced.

Best not to bu&&er about with the lead pipework from the wall to the tap as if it splits it'll be a right faff to fix it.

Indeed – if you can arrange a Vulcan flypast, I will supply a head full of fillings for testing!!!!

quieter than a 747 though.

Well, yes, that may be so…. but it's the only plane that's come out of there that's been loud enough to actually make me think 'what the f'ck is that…'

……apart from the Spitfire they keep in the Rolls-Royce heritage collection at Filton which regularly flies over us on its way in/out. A (now) rare thing of true beauty :-)

The Airbus-branded one took off from Filton yesterday. Just happened to be standing in the right place to see it from our front garden. F'ck me it looked big in the sky, even from a couple of miles away! Oh, and the noise…..

Conti Ulta Gatorskins here too. I swear by them….. some people on here swear at them! ;-)

If you've been separated for 2 years, or you are both prepared to say you have been and it doesn't contradict any significant dates…. like the wedding!, then this is grounds enough to grant the divorce and it should be a very straight forward exercise in paperwork.

As a DIY divorcee myself, my only other comment is to be prepared to be treated like a piece of sh!t by the counter staff of the courts office… or maybe that was just the staff at the Bath office….

I'm gonna get flamed for this, and it is very much personal taste, but…..

… I tried panniers, didn't get on with them and went back to a rucksac inside a month(!) There, I've said it ;-)

It was mostly on climbs – there's 5 short/sharp climbs each way on my commute which I've found are best tackled at a steady pace out of the saddle. The extra inertia caused by "rolling" the panniers with the bike up the climbs made it feel very slow. Don't get the same effect with the rucksac as the upper body is relatively still. Horses-for-courses…. Obv, all IMHO…… etc…..

No complaints with dhb shorts. Have several sets for comuuting as they are (relatively) cheap as chips and have been surprised at how comfy and durable they are for the money.

Prob repeating what's been said on Foxyriders post, but I use a Deuter Bike 1 with a Respro Hump (IIRC, I don't think it is a Hump, but something similar) waterproof/hi viz cover which is a lot better than the rain cover that comes with the bag and has a light loop

In reply to the OP…. yes. Sold my "second" MTB last month for peanuts and am currently splitting the race bike. Averaging 5000+ miles a year across the road and cross bikes. Haven't ridden either MTB in 2.5 years. It was a tough decision – started in MTBs, and I still avidly follow all the latest MTB gadgets and gizmos – but it was a no-brainer in the end.

A young family hasn't helped, but I find I enjoy road riding/racing so much more these days. The money gained from the MTB sales is going to be ring-fenced so if the call of the dirt returns I have funds available to get a bike.

How much is a replacement Deore quality HTII BB going to be – £20 ish? So the cost of facing is going to be around 50% of a new BB.

If he's going to ride it lots, so the rate of wear on the bearings is potentially higher then it may be worth doing. If it's for occasional use, so the bearings don't see much wear anyway, then prob not worth doing and live with the replacement cost at some point in the future.

However, if it was me, then yes – £10 well spent

Yeah, if I wasn't paying then I'd go for resin ones….. but they don't last very long if you're using them every day in all weathers on a commuter…. so I usually get sintered ones ;-)

The ultimate question is how much below your asking price are the buyers offering based on the kitchen not being to their liking? Compare that to fitting a cheap, but shiny, kitchen that will tempt them in and potentially get more people interested, strengthening your position as seller. If the difference between the two is enough to justify the hastle of chossing/fitting the kitchen (and all the 'little bits of extra work' that starting something like that may reveal) and delaying selling the house then it's worth doing. If not then, er it's not.

Tough call either way, as I guess in your head you want to just sell the house and move on.

Based on the experience of a few friends who've been in a similar position when selling, your best bet is to spend 2/2.5k fitting the cheapest 'netural' looking kitchen you can in the existing space using the cheapest 'neutral' wall tiles and flooring you can find – you'll get that money back (and probably more)….. no point spending any more or doing any major works/rearrangements because the new owners will rip it out anyway within 6 months and fit something else!

Had ours done last year. Had it all done by one company. Including a bit of building work, re-plastering everything, rewiring the kitchen, re-routing the gas pipes having moved the gas meter from inside to outside and spunking £1200 on a cooker it was around £10k all in. They supplied the trades folk (except the plumber), designed, built and fitted the kitchen. I supplied and fitted the wall and floor tiles, did the boxing in of the pipes and the painting/finishing.

Very happy with how it all worked out – added some nice touches that I may not have thought of if I'd attempted/done the design myself.

'how do you influence people to take your chosen course of action?'.

Offer them cash, booze or hookers – choose two out of three.

You can have that answer for nothing – HTH ;-)

CRC were doing road BB5's a bit cheaper than BB7's a while back

The shimano R505 calipers work with road levers. Not tried them, but may go down that route in the near future (See below).

I currently use a set of old Deore mechnical MTB calipers (M515?) that I have modified to reduce the amount of required cable pull which is a cheap-as-chips set up. Having used these for 4 years, I fancy improving things further, so may get some R505 calipers, or get some proper reduced travel arms for the Deore brakes machined up.

No complaints here either – everything comes up realy clean, just leave it for a few minutes before 'agitating' and rinsing.

Oh, also great from removing grease from carpet, as I discovered the other day ;-)

Scruff – talk to me about Crooks Peak. Done some walks around there and like the idea of following the ridge. Is it possible/legal to follow the ridge from Crooks Peak, through Cheddar and on to Wells (and further?), or is it Cheeky-all-the-way and a bit of a no-no?

IME, it depends if you are prepared to deal with extra time and hastle of dealing with many people/parcels/cheques/emails in selling the bits for a bit of extra money, or the relatively 'clean' and simple one-off sale of the complete bike for a little bit less money.

Also, as you say, it may also depend if you have a couple of 'boutique items' which may get a better return if sold on their own, rather than being smeared into the complete package of a fully assembled bike.

A question to be filed under '…it depends…' ;-)

from milford to te anau

That road was amazing to drive along, let alone ride…. soooo want to take the bikes there one day…..<sigh>

Mr A – got into a rather heated discussion a few years ago in Ashton Court. Was riding the section from the gate house round by the wall… came round a corner at low speed to find a toddler, er, toddling along the path ahead of the rest of the happy family merrily out for a walk. Stopped without drama, no skidding needed, well in front of the kid….. who proceeded to burst into tears (probably scared, as to her I'd just appeared from nowehere). Father came lumbering up with a lump of wood threatening various levels of GBH and WOULD NOT accept he was walking on a way marked trail (…even though we were stood next to one of the markers), and could not see that just as I had half an eye on the possibility of people being on the trail and was ready to stop he/them should be aware of the potential for bikes to be there as well and the problems that might cause.

Don't know what this adds to the debate, but it made me **** angry at the time ;-)

I'm with Clubber – bobbins, the lot of it, in any real world sense (i.e. everyone else is looking to make crank arms STIFFER, rather than add flexibility)

Wasn't this idea taken to its (il)logical, and very heavy, conclusion a while back with some cranks where the arms were connected to BB shaft by springs, the theory being you put energy in the springs in the 'power' part of the stroke, which was recovered at TDC/BDC pushing your foot through. It did mean that one foot was spinning differently to the other….

Can I ask again why car drivers get pissed off with RLJing? What impact does it generally have on their own journey?

It has no impact on their journey, but they see you breaking the law with little possibility of getting penalised – even if the junction has camera, a bike is unlikely to set it off, and even if it did there is no way to identify you. This leads to two reactions: a) Immediate retribution, cutting up, squeazing, throwing stuff out the passenger window as they pass (or all of these in combination) and b) letters to the Daily Mail asking for compulsory registration of all bikes, compulsory testing of all riders, mandatory helmet use, insurance, taxation etc etc.

Bikes are a soft enough target without given the motoring lobby even more reason to beat us over the head with specialist legislation

"piss off other road users" As an "other road user" speeding and talking on mobile phones when driving piss me off because they can both result in me being dead. Running a red light on a bike on a quiet road will not.

In this hypothetical situation, you're making the judegment that the road is quiet and therefore safe to ride through the red light…. no doubt the car driver will equally say that he thought it would be OK to be on the phone 'cause the road conditions allowed it. Both are still illegal and the dangers to themselves/others won't become apparent until after the accident. Next.

Edit: BoardinBob puts it more eloquently ;-)

Apart from the last sentence, I couldn't agree more (IME, there is no trend to red light jumpers…).

Having 'had a word' with a few of them, and presented exactly your arguments of '…playing by the rules…' and that their actions tar me with the same brush in the eyes of the average car driver, the usual response is 'f&*k off and leave me alone, it's none of your business what I do'.

Yours, frustrated-in-Bristol

<waves>

I've got a set of the orig Hayes HMX-1 hydro mechanical jobbies from the early 90's where the master cylinder and calipers are in one casting at the disc. Was using them day-in/day-out until very recently, but all the seals now need replacing and I'm bu%%ered if I can find them anywhere. As a bit of retro history, I'm not going to throw them out…. and when they work they're fine, but no better than the mechanical discs that replace them.

+1 for Bike – was rather impressed with their Shimano stock and the new workshop area (if not some of the prices ;-) having not been in there for ages.

Dunno if you can buy a new single shifter though – might have an odd one I guess. Give Bristol Bike Workshop a call if not – it’s the kind of thing they might have knocking around the workshop.

Deuter Bike 1 – had the older model for about 8 years and replaced it with the newer one recently (zips started to fail). Newer one is a bit bigger (which I wasn’t keen on), but it’s better detailed with all the features I need, and the slightly bigger capacity has turned out to be a boon, esp as there are compression straps to keep it slimline when not full.

The council are talking (again) about doing it on a few major roads in Bristol on Sundays through the summer.

It would be a great idea… but the car lobby is currently holding sway, saying closing 4 roads each Sunday would lead to traffic chaos (they are all easily diverted routes) and, anyway, cyclists have loads of ‘…dedicated facitilites…’ already

<rolls eyes, wanders off shaking head>

never understood the whole black rims/spokes thing. Just adds weight surely?

As far as I can tell(/google) there is no quoted weight difference between between black and silver spokes. I accept that in reality there must be a SMALL increase, but even over a pair of wheels the extra weight is going to be trivial in the grand scheme of things.

From a looks point of view i prefer silver spokes and black rims, but my next ones will be silver, I’d rather spend a fiver on a better rim rather than a black one.

That’s fair enough – I’ve nothing against silver either, but having eye-balled a set of silver wheels on the bike in question, they just looked wrong in comparision with a black set due to the colours of the frame/finishing kit. On my race bike, the opposite is true. Horses for coarses.

<Holds hands up>

PP – My mistake – I was looking at Total Cycling, but at the STAINLESS ACI 2.0/1.7 spokes, not black…. but they do come with a nipple and are 23p a throw. Best I can do for black DT competitions (my preffered option is 70p a go from PedalOn, but the ACI’s do look appealing at that price…. Apols for the confusion/getting your hopes up! ;-)

EDIT: ACI black DB spokes 35p each, with nipple, at CycleBasket.com…. nope never used them either ;-)

PP – I THOUGHT it was from Total Cycling, but having just checked back it appears it wasn’t them. It took quite alot of googling to get them for that price, so when I (re)find the link I’ll post back. Whoever it was, yes it did include a 12mm nipple.

I phoned up my LBS yesterday with exactly the same question…. They said it would be £25 per wheel for building (inc extra fiver as I was supplying the – brand new – rim and hub…), plus the not inconsiderable cost of £1 per spoke (black, double butted, but standard brass nipples). Oh, and they can’t fit it in for another month.

I only enquired as I need it done fairly quickly, so think I’ll be doing it myself this w/e, having paid the much more reasonable 30p a go for the spokes on-line

Slightly off-topic, but I was equally shocked/depressed/sick/outraged/minded-to-commit-a-similar-act-of-violence-to-the-three-in-question when I read this yesterday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/8101008.stm

I don’t usually rise to the Daily Mail ‘look at THIS!!!’ kind of story, but it really did boil my pish…. :-(

(…wanders off shaking head…)

IIRC, if you can’t demonstrate exceptional circumstances to the judge you’ll have to demonstrate 2 years of separation before it becomes absolute.

Having been there, do what you can to keep it amicable and stoichally jump through the legal hoops until it’s over. Oh, and there is no more depressing place in the land than the family law courts (not helped by all the c**ts ‘manning’ the Bath office – and breath….). Best of luck.