Pete n Meg, still sending you +ve vibes! Your strength in this has been amazing. A real inspiration in a crap situation. All the best.

Can't fault merlin overall.
Great kit, great bikes, great wheels and good prices.

I have two of their bikes and have recommended their Tig SL to several friends/relatives.

They have always stuck to the agreed build time for me, but they are very busy.

They are also great at answering emails (well John is who I dealt with).

I agree that the shop staff look a little serious, I put this down to it being 6pm last time I went in person to collect a bike.

Ernie, thats not the worst of it. His mate voted Tory at the last election! Up for sending him to the Gulag are we?

I really like Payback by Mel Gibson. A great retribution/gangster film.

I really feel sorry for people like easygirl. They are great people stuck in a system that is crap.
I am not commenting on this particular case, but my cousin is a copper in Rotherham and tells me some really horrid stories.

West yorkshire police are mostly a waste of space. Though their local PCSO in Rothwell is really good.

Chuck Norris doesn't need bike lights. He just turns the planet to face the sun when he needs to.

I really like wilkinson sword quattro platinum. Much better than any of the Gillette products with 4 or 5 blades.

Trout, I think DrP was refering to the old theory, that applies mainly to bikes. ie how many LED's is enough? The answer is n+1, where in is the number that the nutty Captain Crash thinks you are fitting.

try these guys…

http://www.vegeuk.com/index.php

fix it. £1500?
Sell for £4000 plus. Has to be a no brainer?

PS3…counting the days!

oh yes!

Sorry, thought you meant Blair Witch!

Maybee Maggie was just forward thinking…stuffing the miners in the 1980's to leave the coal for 2020 when we need it? Nah!

Meg, you are a legend too!

Welcome back! Best wishes!

Now whens that stag night? come on man.

Normally a £2 coin in our house. Or a quid if not perfect tooth!

I will have the blue if it helps.

didn't know that!

uponthedowns +1

The answer is yes for me. Am sure Jade Goodys mum would give the same answer.

Trout, are the logos going under the anodisation (ie already engraved on the ones above) OR are the anodized lights going back to the CNC place so that the logos are exposed Alu?
I know you said the former, but the only pics have been with post anodised etching.

tempted by one of the high power lasers that can burn stuff!

Perfectly normal. I probably watch 10 things for every one that I actually bid on.

If it's just a frame then you are buggered. Has to be a complete bike.

wors, not a great idea.
This isn't just about Trout. There are local companies (CNC and annodising) that are being supported by this endeavor. If you go down the buy it from china route then you fuel the UK trade deficit and loss of UK skills. Oh..and more importantly, Trout would not be able to pop into the Keighley machine shop when he likes and see big machines carving out his design!

Ernie, I am not ignoring the facts.
This document:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/gse/sickness.pdf

Also from the HSE says that absence rates are high and that in many civil service jobs odd day absence may not even have been reported.

The link you provided does not make my claim baseless. It does highlight that typical absence days are 7 per worker per year. You can make the mental leap to think why anyone would take 30 per year (If it were Riddors then it would be scandalous neglect by the employer).

Now, given the link to the PDF I have posted is 5 years old, and talks of 10 days per worker, it is possible that this has been cracked down on to bring it down to 7? The report does talk of a 30% improvement being targeted. In which case maybe my family members are still coloured by what happened two or three years ago. But certainly this was VERY real for my relatives, who had worked in public and private sector before and were taken aback by the difference in attitude.

will, what car is yours? difficult to tell from the dirty side pannel?

Not me. Only been on M62 and A1 between Harrogate and Leeds recently.

will, where was it?
Was it a blue one?

Wasn't aware of any racing in recent days.

On my A2, have just replaced the suspension for Koni FSD's. Its like platform damping for cars, absolutely transformed the car. Like a go cart now.
Though other drivers still treat me like a school run mom.
Its amazing how drivers see the A2 and think…must overtake this small pathetic thing.

For example, had this eejit in hogging the middle lane the other day. I catch up with him and he suddenly goes all ayerton senna on me (sadly without the car/wall interface).

The new seat ibiza looks lovely (with the scoop out of the rear quarter light for the handle, bit like alfa but nicer).
Same engines and bits as any Audi,skoda or VW.

For photos I use COSTCO print service. For the limited amount I need why would I want a £200 inkjet printer that uses expensive consumables when I can get them on photgraphic digital paper for peanuts?

Ernie, I will trust the first hand reports of relatives I trust if thats ok.

Thanks for your link. This:
The average number of days absence per employee in small private businesses is 4 days, compared with 7 days in large (250+) private sector organisations.

Puts 30 days into context (including the skiving supervisors and managers that make up this stat).

ransos, thats a great rate by any measure. Didn't mean to tar the whole of public sector with the same brush, but I know from relatives who work for other bits of local and national government that its often very different to what would be OK in private companies.

ransos, thanks for that 50% figure. My 95% was based only only on the fact that <5% of councils are facing industrial action from binmen.

I also agree that better management is the key to this problem. Problem is the poor midden men are caught in the cross fire. Folk will take 30 days sick if its custom and practice. This is what sucks about public sector (sometimes).

porterclough, sorry must have missed that. So does that mean that 95% of other councils have already contracted out binmen?

Personally I am not a big fan of contracting out. It can be used by a tool of greedy bosses in a race to cut salaries/benefits of hardworking staff. It can also be used to sidestep militant unions as a last resort.
John, Parkside at Darton was brought down to collapse by a union that would not face up to modernisation in a company that could not compete with better UK companies. Conversley, where I used to work, hard working canteen staff were sold out to Sodehexo. You need the detail to make a choice in arguments like this. In its absence we all just revert to political prejudice.

John, I agree. Long term sick I identified as a cause of bumping up the average. All companies have this. But still 30 days accross the departement is off the scale compared with anywhere I have ever heard of.

Listened to a bit on radio leeds yesterday morning. Found it superficial and lacking in detail. Will stick with Radio 4 for info, sadly a local employment dispute in the shires doesn't make national news in a detailed way.

£200k for a council bureaucrat is ridiculous. Private companies can pay what the hell they like (or shareholders will accept).

BUT …councils, BBC, Yorkshire Forward, NHS pay their top execs way too much and I have no problems with cutting this and getting more performance related pay for the grafters.

Dangerous…£40k for plastics. Well someone has to do the job. If the market collapses then he/she won't be employed.

Yeah, but what I want to know is why LEEDS is almost alone in provoking its bin men to strike? Is it head stuck up ar$e bureaucrats that are provoking reasonable folk to strike? Or is it malingering, lazy binmen that expect pension, 30days sick and more pay than other folk in similar jobs?
[ok thats dramatised, and you have to ignore the point that its not their fault if they were allowed to get away with taking the piss…but hang on thats the excuse the MP's used!]

I really don't know who to support in this because I don't have the true, raw facts.

I know from when my brother went for a job (worked in an abertoir) that binmen were a cushy number in Leeds.

Lets please keep this thread non-inflamatory, until at least we can post some facts.