As it happens, I’ve just bought one. £750.

Not sure 2k counts towards bangernomics (though it has to be said, the prices of used cars has inflated a lot in recent years). This is the 2nd most expensive car I’ve owned in 15 years.

I also had one of the old Rovers a while back which was pretty much a re-badged Civic. That thing was bombproof.

I’ve used an Ortlieb Aquazoom for my 40d with a 24-105.

Looks nice. But why does it cost more than their panniers when it’s a fraction of the size?

Lanes 2-4 were busy with traffic all doing 60mph. Lane 1, empty. I dropped to the first lane, set the cruise control to 70 and sailed off in my own private little lane. At a point where it all goes straight, there was not a single other vehicle in the lane for as far as the eye could see either in front or behind. The number of vehicles I passed must have been in three figures, easily.

This perplexes me. Something I see a lot. Even with just two lanes. Everyone’s on the outside in attempt to reach their destination faster, and the inside lane is practically empty.

Of course there may be one or two people dawdling along, and even the odd tractor, but if everyone were to use the lanes appropriately, overtaking when necesarry, then the outside wouldn’t be crammed with people doing 45mph.

Is it just me, or does it not take a lot of intelligence to figure this out?

And yes, I notice the 40mph everywhere gang too. You think they’re being safety conscious (which is fair enough, you know), until they plough past schools at the same speed. As I get older I realise there are some things we will just never know the answers to.

Square taper are terrible for coming loose, and when they do the crank arms are quickly damaged. And when they are damaged, they become worse for coming loose, and they like to creak, a lot: because no matter how tight that nut is, the arm will never sit tight on the spindle.

Could it be that?

There’s a few free ones out there. OSCommerce, Magento, etc. Though most will require a little knowledge to customize.

Actinic is supposedly very easy to set up if you don’t mind paying for it.

No massive amounts of experience with any myself, but those are some of the more popular off the shelf solutions.

Fox Flux.

If I had 50 million I wouldn’t spend 20% of it on cars, would you?

You can look at this in many, many ways.

Whilst it’s a large chunk of a large sum of money, it still leaves you with extraordinary wealth that only a tiny minority of people will ever achieve.

What’s there to worry about? That’s another way of looking at it. If you like cars, then why not.

Personally I wouldn’t. But that’s just me.

They’re good at some things, but not others.

They’re a great presentational tool if you do that kind of thing at work. And they’re great for browsing on. But Word, Excel, stuff like that…stick to what you’re using now.

If I have so much as two pints then I just want to get off and sleep in a bush. Sooo much easier than riding…

That sounds like a pretty normal appointment to me. Or do some people receive better care than that?

I understand orienting the map and compass, and reading the contours or the land – though I’m sure the latter particularly is a skill which improves with practice. I’ve just been studying a few different maps and realised that I was in fact in completely the wrong place… Well maybe not completely….it’s a pain to realise that I could’ve fairly easily linked up to the intended route if I’d known my location.

At least I know where to go next time! I should add that I was only using an A4 printed sheet as a map. Possibly a full OS Explorer would be a good idea for backup next time…

I was gonna go for a third attempt, but thought I’d best not wander out into the moors as I’d ran out of water by that time… I’d possibly still be there now…

I’ll check out some map reading stuff….I’m still interested in GPS. But it’s just as a backup really, for those occasions when you can’t make head nor tail of where you’re at.

eez – you get lost twice and decide it’s time to buy some electronic gizmo? Get out there and try again. You’ll work it out in the end. Or die trying.

This happens quite often. Ha.

There was at least one marked as a Permissive Bridleway.

I’d like to improve my map reading too, but I really thought I had it sussed today until I came across several junctions with bridleways leading out into every direction. None of which I could see on the map. So it’s possible I was in completely the wrong place. Or that I had an old map. I rode 20 miles just looking for the route! And a GPS would’ve at least confirmed if I was heading in the right general direction.

Usually get my jeans from Matalan and they last for years. Some I’ve been wearing for over ten years, easily. Only rips they have are from barbed wire fences.

I tried some Sainsbury’s ones a few month back and ripped them in two weeks….though tat was partly down to the fit…

Nothing wrong with PayPal itself. Plenty of big companies using it and it’s one of the most secure out there. But I’d suggest getting someone to integrate it into your cart.

Generally, with the smaller eCommerce sites do, is send the customer off to PayPal (or whatever payment solution they’re using), where they make payment securely, and any relevant order info is sent back to your site.

There are simpler ways of doing it, if you want to be really primitive about it, but I do think your idea of the way it will work would put me off. I wouldn’t want to go through all that hassle. Unless it was a hard to come by product that I was prepared to labour over.

I really want to stop smoking, as im sick of the yellowing around my thumb and finger and the smell on them is disgusting, it will save me so much money. My main battle is work, if i can get through just one night of not smoking at work, I will quit for good i know it.

That was my thing. I was always a heavy smoker and always felt the effects of withdrawel very quickly – they’d start within less than 45 minutes.

And because of this, and because my job requires a lot of concentration, I was convinced I couldn’t go cold turkey at work.

So I went out and bought some patches, just one day on an urge. And I’d tried patches previously, years ago and got on quite well with them – though made the mistake of having a smoke in the morning when I got up, and a smoke before bed… This time however, I found the patches done very little and so after the first day I just ditched them and took the bull by the horns.

I won’t lie…it was horendous. I hated it. Felt like I was drugged up – I suffer really badly in comparrison to the accounts I hear from other people!! But that was 6 months ago now and I’m glad I done it. It’s all worth it.

The holster looks interesting. As I say, I was thinking about something similar, but have never seen them that ‘secure’.

Do you notice the weight/bulk much?

I’ve become so used to riding with just the camera strapped over my shoulder that I don’t want something too cumbersome. But these look ideal for harder riding.

I always ride with an SLR. Usually a 30d. Which ain’t the lightest, but what can you do?

Generally pack one lens, but I may go kitted out with a few + tripod if I’m in the mood.

Camera and lenses get tucked into backpack. Then when I’m using it, depending on terrain and weather, camera gets strapped over my shoulder – which often turns out to be for most of the ride. I like it that way as you often find yourself with opportunities that don’t present themselves long enough for you to faff around with bags of any kind. It’s handy to always have the camera at the ready.

I have thought about one of those small bags like on the photo above though, for better weather protection and some middle ground effort required to deal with it.

The problem I see, is that you simply can’t beat the convenience and value of a large supermarket. All but the hardest of protesters will succumb to it eventually, because with a Supermarket life becomes easier and more affordable.

In return however, the town has to give up a small portion of its soul. Any eccentricity will be replaced by a bland uniformity. Each and every individual dragging their feet around the same isles, eating the same foods…

Thing is, easy and affordable isn’t always the best way to live. But given the option, the majority will choose it. Hence why for most people, sporting activities like mountain biking are confined to TV and X-Box.

I ave an ALDI one, and whilst it’s not the most intuitive to use and setup, it’s been 100% reliable for the past 3 years. A fiver well spent in my book. The downside is they only sell them once a year or so.

I did notice ASDA do them now, for about £12 or something. Might even have been less.

I would say 95% of our driving is stop start, small runs of about 3 – 5 mile max with the odd longer trip on a weekend

Diesels excel on long journeys. Clocking up motorway miles, reliably and cheaply. Doing 3 to 5 miles is not really great for any car, but a petrol engine will handle it better and generally cost you less. Particularly when you factor in the cost of the car, the cost of the different fuels, and the increased cost of servicing and maintaining a diesel. And depending on the size of the car a petrol engine can still return up to and occasionally over 60mpg…

I don’t think Halfords sell Silkolene oils unfortunately. Could be wrong, but I’ve looked for Silkolene (or Fuchs, as they’re now called) motor oil in there a couple of times and they definitely don’t have that.

I’m surprised this is even being debated.

The trouble is, at the lower end of the spectrum (say sub-£200 bikes) suspension is useless. But the customer that those bikes are being marketed to don’t understand this.

It’s like if you buy a car, or a computer, or whatever…you want all the bells and whistles. You don;t necesarilly understand them, you just know you want them! And at the end of the day, rigid bikes are obviously not a good seller. Which is a shame, because at that price, you could get a perfectly good bike, with good components, when you subtract the price of a cheap suspension fork.

Might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but not everyone can afford, or necesarally wants to pay for that choice of opinion.

Essentially BMXs come in one size. It’s not like MTB where you have 16″, 18″, 20″ frame, etc. There may be little variables (just like similar sized MTBs), but they all run 20″ wheels.

Surprisingly, there seems to be a lot of people in here into the less common variation, the 24″ wheeled cruiser. Which was always a racing bike, within its own category. But I wonder if they’re less common with the MTBers purely because 20″ wheels are so friggin hard to ride when you’re used to 26″?? Because that’s what I’ve found in the past. Wobbling all over the place. It’s so different.

For that reason, I’d be tempted by a street/jump oriented MTB ….but then again, a BMX is great fun. You can chuck them all over the place and they love it..

Simple… just rinse out after each use & pop in the freezer until next time.

This.

Works great if you have an ice cube tray in the freezer too….you can keep it away from your fish fingers and stuff, nice and orderly.

Tastes fresh as a daisy when you fill it back up.