It’s a beautiful looking frame but for me I’d like to have seen a complete Reynolds tubing set for a made in UK product. I’m sure they were good reasons why that couldn’t be achieved though.

When’s the Ti version coming out? 😀

What happened to the Scottish start up that was developing a new eBike motor platform? I think David Hemming was working for them a while back…?

The Strada is a great choice for road use. I use the remote control blipper thing to step down to a lower beam level when need be – it’s a very handy addition.

I use Viking Juice on my “burner” / station bike.

It lives outside in the rain all year, gets road filth all over it from commuting and gets no love apart from viking juice twice a year if it’s lucky.

The chain has yet to rust.

“Look at it this way, the longest direct Tube journey is Epping to West Ruislip, (55km) and it’s only a bit longer than the distance from Leeds and Manchester.“

This is correct – but the journey time is 85 minutes.

By contrast Leeds to Manchester by train takes 45 to 65 minutes so the North is better served than some routes in the South.

A PSA for any existing nest cam users – the new Google cameras are absolute bobbins. The new cameras will only work with the Google home app – so if you have nest cams you’ll lane up using two apps.

Additionally the functionality of the new cameras is hopeless with loads of existing nest features missing e.g.

– no rewind on a live feed
– no viewing / clips through a web browser
– no ability to define motion zones

The new cameras are a half baked product and Google has made no commitment to developing the above features even if they’ve existed for years on nest.

If I was choosing again now I’d go with an alternative.

Amazon UK take payments in GBP via a Luxembourg subsidiary – this is part of their tax strategy.

Since Brexit, the removal of the European Interchange fee cap for cross border Ecommerce / credit card payments effectively lifts the rate from 0.3% to 1.5% – which Amazon will be charged.

If amazon UK was the charging entity (exposing them them to additional UK tax), the rate would stay at 0.3%.

Wiggle do a great insulated parka in their own brand “fohn” range.

The quality and warmth is really good on them – mens and womens versions available for £150 ish:

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/fohn-insulated-parka

+1 for islabikes. They hold their value really well so the cost is negligible.

The video further up the thread is very helpful as well – I’ve shared it loads of times and used it to teach both of my kids to ride in under 30 mins. The youngest (then 3) nailed it in 16 minutes!

“Meanwhile in the RS end of nowhere, village of 15 houses Northern end of DisUnited Kingdom. We get 2-3Mb that drops out consistently every day, we’ve been quoted 150K to connect to fibre“

Can’t you just get a few Starlink modules and share them over outdoor mesh links?

I think the cost is something like £80 a month for 200mbps download and 20-30mbps upload.

The Cannondale graphic design is awful.

It’s as if they now have the approach of:

Cannondale: “please do a graphic design for us”
Random 16 year old with a computer about 5 seconds later: “here you go – I wrote your company name on it using a block font”
Cannondale: “whoa, that’s so cool, we love it and will use it everywhere”

What happened to the edgy / ballsy / exciting colourways and graphics they used to be famous for?

nip round and install a no smoking sign on the doors to the bin store. The management won’t notice / care and the staff will think the management installed it so will probably comply.

How about “have you ever thought of letting someone get a word in edge ways when you are interviewing them?”

I would have recommended nest up to now but the latest cameras all require the Google “home” app.

By contrast to the nest app, Google Home is a complete load of bobbins and even lacks basic functionality that the nest app has had for years e.g. rewind 15 seconds on a live feed.

For anyone that’s already got nest cams, the new Google nest cams require you to have both apps.

“ 25% of tory party donations are from the construction industry. ”

I’ll bite. What’s the source data and to enable a fair contrast, how much cash have Labour MPs and the party received from the construction industry?

To start the list off – Angela Rayner has railed against the construction industry and cronyism but accepted a donation of £10k from a developer after that.

Families across Europe are seeing similar rises – and they will continue until supply and demand rebalance across supply chains.

E.g. in Germany, their equivalent of the ONS is reporting 4.9% food price inflation and 14.3% increase in consumer prices and energy.

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economy/Prices/Consumer-Price-Index/_node.html

“She has obviously not made the connection between her hardline, empathy-free approach to politics with the radicalisation of those with little or no hope.“

If it’s as reported; the attacker being an Islamist, the conclusion above is absolutely hatstand. People have been randomly murdered / tortured / beheaded by Islamists in over 80 countries. The radicalisation isn’t as a result of society, it happens despite it.**

** having seen some of the community “views” first hand I think a lot of people would be pretty horrified at what’s taking place even in Britain – and it goes down to the ages of 5/6 year olds.

BBC now reporting it as a suspected Islamist attack.

3 x attempted / actual murders of MPs in 11 years. What a senseless waste.

How will we ever get good, experienced, level-headed people to represent us when these are the risks they face?

In the podcast linked above he actually describes having a relative stabbed 52 times in a car park and the effect that had on his views. 41 minutes in. What a terrible irony.

It’s a great podcast by the way – seems like a very down to earth person.

Whilst we don’t know the motives yet, this sort of thing is the inevitable result of the breakdown of democracy people using their vote to select politicians I disagree with. When all other methods fail, what else is left?

Fixed that for you.

Shoot me now

Weeks ago – no issues.

Remember you can wear them back to front and inside out, so that’s only 456 days on each bit of fabric.

or 3,652 days use out of a pair of boxers for the OP if he’s not already doing that :-)

Andy4D makes a good point above on assumed returns and the calculators not mentioning draw down as an option.

One of the most useful things I’ve read in pension planning is an article on drawdowns and guardrails. The logic seems pretty sound and there are a number of different well tested examples given. I keep meaning to knock up the rules in a couple of excel macros but haven’t got round to it yet.

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/retirement/dynamic-spending-rules/

“I’d expect at least 5 years out of a pair of boxer shorts”

1,826 days use is pretty good going for a pair of boxer shorts.

There’s a lot the bike industry could do to reduce theft but there’s no incentive to do it – more thefts equals increased sales of bikes and parts.

One thing that could be done is serialisation of parts and group sets – with laser etched 3d barcodes being linked to sale history. Even if bikes were stripped for parts the components could still be traced back to the owner when sold on – making online stolen goods marketplaces like eBay and gumtree much easier to tackle. Several such small 3d barcodes on each component worth more than £150 would make the theft pointless – because the damage caused by removing the barcodes would render the item worthless.

And another – about 1 mile west and 15 minutes after the first mugging yesterday. Unless they dropped off the first bike in that time it means there were two gangs out yesterday.

Police were called at 17:09hrs on 11/10/21 to high Street, SW15 in @MPSWandsworth after a man was reported to have been assaulted by two males, who then stole his bicycle. One of the suspects was reported to be in possession of a machete and so armed officers responded. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/eKOCTOZlMK

— Royal Parks Police (@MPSRoyal_Parks) October 12, 2021

A heads up for anyone that rides in and around Richmond – there was another bike jacking on Monday.

Same modus operandi – moped scum rams cyclist off bike then threatens victim with a machete. This time outside a school by the Roehampton Gate.

There was no sign of any police in the park yesterday despite 3 violent muggings in less than a week.

Based on the location and direction of travel of the moped scum they probably came from the Roehampton Estate which has a history of moped mugging occupants for most of the last 10 years.

Also for any locals – the moped scum gangs are nicking bikes from houses at night.

I’ve decided to pack in any road riding in West London now apart from on my tatty station bike – I’ve seen the moped scum gangs too many times to feel safe. Hopefully the mudguards and panniers will put them off…

Another bike theft in Richmond Park! from londoncycling

https://road.cc/content/news/moped-gang-steal-junior-national-tt-champs-bike-287033

I use purple extreme on everything including a station / rat bike that lives outside.

The chain on that can go months through the winter without any sign of rust even though the “care” it receives is limited to standing in rain for weeks at a time.

Having said that the new silca synergetic lube looks good so I might give that a try on my road bike at some point.

Couldn’t resist the random question – how much does a Concorde or similar tyre actually cost?

Turns out it’s a lot less than I guesses – $US 1,5000 a corner for a 737 tyre.

https://simpleflying.com/aircraft-tire-cost/amp/

Google killed local newspapers.

Deny there are any marks on the ceiling and ask if she’s suffering from floaters in her eyes. Go the extra mile and show you are a concerned and supportive partner by offering to book an eye test for her.

“I still find it astonishing that anyone could vote tory. Where is these peoples moral compass?“

TJ – don’t you rent a flat out?

Some people (many?) may take the view that people renting out properties is one of the biggest problems in society because it reduces the supply of homes for ownership.

It would be easy to bridge from that to a similarly bombastic statement about your moral compass or lack of it.

So perhaps it would be better to see people as humans first and debate issues in a courteous and respectful way in order to understand others and avoiding rushing to blanket judgements.

Just saying…

(And if you don’t rent a flat out and I’ve confused you with someone else I’m happy to stand corrected).

Which weighs more? 100g of ice-spheres or 100g of ice cubes?

Before I subscribe please can you confirm the surface area of the ice spheres in cm2?

Also do you have an add-on to the subscription to offset the Co2 in the production of the ice?

Poolman, your friend can’t let a flat on AirBnB and use the share a room allowance unless he remains in the property. If he moves out for a short term let that’s rental income and must be declared as such.

So if your friend is “away” when the property is rented out it is potentially is fraud if he doesn’t declare the income as such – it’s not just a p*** take.

They are bad for the economy because most private Airbnb owners don’t declare the income through self assessment thus siphoning off cash that should go towards paying for public services.

They also reduce profit and corporation tax payments from companies e.g. small hotels / commercial operators and reduce the number of employees in those businesses.

“ 300K is pretty small Beer compared to the stuff Tory donors, Brexit backers and people like Rees Mogg get up to.”

People keep repeating this as if it was fact – which it isn’t.

In the case of Rees Mogg, unless I’ve missed something (happy to be corrected), Corbyn made an allegation that he had set up an offshore structure in order to avoid tax.

What subsequently transpired is that Somerset Capital (a regulated investment firm of which he is only a shareholder) had established a legal entity in Dublin. That put them in the same legal position as many other investment firms – who set up local legal entities in order to transact local equities. When this had been confirmed, Corbyn refused to apologise for spreading baseless allegations.

Other than that, Rees Mogg receives a dividend, declared it for U.K. tax and then pays the tax due.

So what’s the evidence of his dodgy dealings?

Singletrackmind – it’s worth factoring the compounding effect and risk of buying shares in your own employer.

On the risk front – your income, pension and investments are all in the same basket – if Kingfisher has a bad run you could land up having your investments tied up for 3-5 years and come out no better off or at worst lose the lot.

On the compounding effect – there are plenty of relatively low risk actively managed funds that spread the risk around different companies in multiple sectors and still return 10-15% (or more) a year.

Obviously that’s not a guarantee of future performance but compounded over 3 or 5 years the £250 turns into £380 / £502.

I’d personally put the £250 a month into an actively managed scheme in an ISA – so any gain can be withdrawn from a tax free wrapper.

The employee share scheme is typically subject to tax on any gain and if the shares are underwater at the end of the term you may well get your initial investment back but compound inflation will mean it’s worth less in real terms.