Right, thats me off down to M&S.

merino is your friend.
I too am a sweaty bloke (most of us are!) and Embers and Smartwool are my social saviours.

Ticket gone to Sturmey. Have a great day!

Anyone?

On first seeing a Kebab:
"I looks like a cornish pasty with its Ar$e hanging out!"

All the best Andy.

Yorkshire Tea will be there on saturday giving cups of tea out.

Garmin every time.
Glad we sorted that out for you.

Rusty Spanner is right. Those with kids do not get any priority on selecting holidays. It would be wrong to do so. However, its fairly self leveling as those WITHOUT kids try to avoid the rip off period of july/august when everywhere is full of screaming brats.

that green is my facourite ever on-one colour.

As crikey says, be upfront. If he takes offence when he has already had 4+ days of freebie food and chaufeuring then he deserves to be offended.
I would have expected a decent bloke to have at least filled your car with fuel and/or taken you out for a weeks food shop by way of recompence. It's the least anyone can do. If he has contributed nothing then he needs to be asked as he is clearly not being thoughtful. If he has already contributed something then I don't think it should cause offence if you say "look I am skint, having a great time, but skint. Can you help out a little?". Who could argue with that?

Fixing/maintaining your own car saves a fortune. I have been doing it for years now and really begrudge taking car to a garage, when I know that most jobs I do better myself, in the knowledge that anything I snap will be replaced. Mostly garages botch up any trim or missing clips.

Tinners, thanks for the comments. I have an audi 1.6FSI A2 for work use, that does 50mpg and is a brilliant car. The XC90 is the new family workhorse. It will do low milage and holidays. With the kids entering their teens, I find myself with never enough seats in the car. Now I don't have this problem. The MPG impressed me so far, 41mpg from Stoke on Trent to Sunny Leeds. Will do the servicing myself (have done for the last 5 years on my V40 and thats just done 160,000 miles). Working on Volvos is a joy as the parts are very high quality. My brothers Renault Scenic is tat in comparison to any Volvo.

[goes to fetch pipe and slippers and stroke the labrador]

Well, I found one!
Just picked it up from Stoke on Trent. It's a silver D5 163 Geartronic.
It has black heated leather and rear seat entertainment. Also has the running boards and premium sound. A real fantastic car. V happy!

casio oceanus ladies.
Got my wife one from Chapelle last year. It is solar powered has radio time signal and looks as expensive as any rolex (gets lots of comments). Was only £100.

7day shop normally. Or CCL

Whats the next "big thing?", and I mean proper big thing, not marketing led crap. Big things like disc brakes, platform damping meaning bikes bob less etc etc. So what is it …and how big is this next big thing….

Nicely put Andrew!

I was tempted. I got a road bike (Planet X sportive). Best think ever. Only thing to warn you, I now use this more than the mountain bike.

So glad I am in the marginal seat of Rothwell and Elmet. I am half tempted to volunteer for door knocking/leaflet dropping. It's going to be an exciting election no matter who gets in.

David Mitchell is my personal fave.

pants. Never leave home without em.

I like Alistair. He's the only one out of the current labour crop that I have some respect for. Actually thats not true, I have always had regard for Jack Straw too, but I think that he was tarnished by iraq and it took Chilcot to bring that to light.

Us cyclists tend to be quite determined to decide for ourselves when and where we wear helmets. Me? Well I pretty much always wear one and have been glad of it on a few occaisions. I defend the right not to wear one as I believe passionately in freedom of the individual to choose for themselves.

I am sure callmeDave and Boris are slightly opinionated on this and other matters?

Of absolutely no consequence to me if they wear helmets.
I shall be voting purely for whoever isn't the party that took us into an illegal war on a lie and doesn't have an incompetent scottish bully at the helm.

Gooner, I am interested in the wheels. Email me. Hows yer back?

ouch. Hope they drown in Buckfast.

http://www.laterooms.com for mundo bargains.

I was about to suggest Etape too.
Or the Ibis on Kirkstall Road.

Well of course photography is better, you get to earn more money than Ti29er and take pictures of buildings and stuff.

In defense of sports science. My neice is looking to study this in conjunction with education at Liverpool and wants to become a teacher (PE and primary school). So thats a worthwhile degree as its relevant.

Probably he will get a job in banking if he has sense!

To many numpty worthless degrees. We need more science and engineering and less "hospitality management".

collect bikes?

[plenty on here do!]

Absolutely love Banksy. The combination of wit, subtlety and audaciousness needed for some of his work it brill. Much better than the hag tracy emmin anyday. (Excuse spelling, its early).

Are Drayton still the best brand?

Absolutely brilliant. Not sure these are new products, most of the mums at my school already have the Numpty Down Jacket.

stardust is one of my favourite films. Just perfect.

The flex is the best bit about a good carbon (or Ti) post. It really takes the buzz out of the trail, much comfier on a hardtail. I don't have ANY Aluminium posts on my bikes appart from a Thomson on my FS.

Just checked. Both my 2002 minis and my 2005 minimonos have an 8mm bleed nipple. The monos also use an 8mm spanner to fasten the hose to the lever. The older minis (two piece silver caliper) have a wider bore hose so need a bigger spanner.

8mm I think.

Another vote for mechanical independance here.
Do all my own servicing with best quality oils and components.
I tend to replace and bits on my cars before they fail completely if I can, especially if it lessens the chances that I will have to fix the thing over the winter. Crawling under cars in january is no fun. However fixing a car in june, with the sun out and the radio on can be a nice way to spend an afternoon.