I’m going to do something radical here and reply to the original Q about “half fat” eMtbs.

I have a Levo SL along with my other bikes. I dont have a full fat ebike so wont offer an opinion on those.

The SL is designed for folk that are fit (ish). It’s not a ‘TURBO all day bike’. You gotta put the effort in.

I find it helps with my fitness for these reasons:
– it’s got a ‘heart rate mode’. When set: it is not an ebike. It’s a heavy pedal bike. Until you hit the target rate you set in the app it doesnt help at all. If you go over the target: it kicks in.
– it’s got a built in power meter. Not for the ebike part: but for your input. Pair it to your garmin: set yourself a target watts, and off you go.
– its got a limited range (deliberatly). You gotta put the effort in.

What’s not so good – and this relates to some comments above about bonking: when the battery drops to a certain point (maybe 20%) the assistance drops off significantly. Keep riding and at 10%: you get barely any assistance. The first time it happens- it seems weird but just be aware.

When I swap back to my manual bikes: they seem lighter but sluggish initially but 30 mins in and I’m still smiling.

Ive had an Optama 720p and it was so good when it came to upgrade time I got one their 1080p models~ (hd230x).

Both are great. Lamps lasted way longer than claimed (following the shutdown procedure) and genuine replacements are about £120. Beware of fake lamps on ebay – find an authorised dealer.

Buying second hand: the main thing to be aware of is that the lamp hours can easily be set back to zero so assume everyone selling one has done it and budget for a replacement lamp in the near future.

Well that was surprisingly close today by Brändle.

I wonder if there will be a bit of a flurry to take it on properly now?

The krupps one can be modified to give a really good consistent grind for espresso – but obviously invalidates the warranty. It’s also sold under lots of different brand names (eg starbucks).

Hacking the Starbucks Barista Grinder

When ours eventually died we got an Iberital- same end result but its sturdier, a bit quicker (and noisier), takes lots more beans, and will hopefully last longer. But yes- the dial takes forever to turn to get any result.

I buy cars and vans from auction for my own work – and yes – dealers pay WAY less commission / fees at auction than you and I ever will.

So if you trust the guy, and he’s at least going to be a second pair of eyes, then it might be a good idea.

But – as you mention- your budget wont get you any one owner ex fleet choices. And there’s a lot of real crap out there that just goes straight to auction.

At your budget MY money would be on doing a search for a one owner, japanese, petrol in a private sale. Boring, but tend to be cheapish.

I dont know if this helps you but this is how I repaired a leaking push rod o-ring (years back)?

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/diy-joplin-top-seal-head-removal-fitting-tool

The maplin ones arent great tbh. Your best bet ime is to buy a suitable “extension lead” eg from magicshine uk if they still do them and cut off the connector (you’ll be left with a spare for the light side).

Be very very careful cutting the old battery side cable. There’s a + and – wire in there just waiting to be shorted out with a bang!

I have the same problem swapping from monitors to a projector. This is not a proper fix but a free tool “Icon restorer” (from Freesoftland) saves the icon positions and you can restore at will.

Assuming a dumb switch and a typical broadband router (with a firewall) then you shouldnt need an extra firewall.

And yes – plugging stuff in to a switch should work exactly like directly into the router.

I’ve got a router on one floor, a switch on the the other floor and another in the office. One cable from each switch to the router.

The router does the broadband and all the clever network stuff (like assigning IP addresses, firewall etc). All the switches do is dumbly merge and pass the data / packets on to their destinations.

Try and get Gigabit switches if youre moving lots of files etc.

For comparison: tyreleader.co.uk sells common sizes for £30 – £35 each: new, incl delivery to the uk.

It’s ok – they’ve got good lawyers! Cycling wont be damaged by this in the slightest.

please PM me

Patrick – if anyone does want to contact you: you dont have any contact details in your profile.

Also if anyone had any info – the last place you’d want them sharing is on an open forum.

When my 2 were nicked from north Edinburgh the parts (reverb, brakes….) started appearing on ebay within hours. Apparently my frames were unlikely to ever be sold in the UK as they were the only really traceable part.

Anyway, eyes peeled here and I hope it works out ok.

Ireland tried it out recently. By the time the next vote came around: the tech was out of date and the commisioning politician involved (allegedly) had retired to sunnier climes.

The cost per vote per head per election worked out at about £10 IIRC.

From Wiki:

As of October 2010, the total cost of the electronic voting project has reached €54.6 million, including €3 million spent on storing the machines over the previous five years.[10]

KMK Metals Recycling paid €70,267 for 7,500 e-voting machines; 1,232 transport/storage trolleys; 2,142 hand trolleys and 4,787 metal tilt tables.[11]

“Retro reproduction” on Haddington Place (basement place) would be worth a call ime. They seem to specialise in turntables.

Their website seems to be gone but they are physically there and are active on facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/RetroReproduction/info?ref=page_internal

:)

Eurosport UK are showing it live from 17:30 – 19:15.

I’m pretty sure the 5 LED one is as near as possible a clone of a cateye 610. Its certainly as bright and the modes are the same. Maybe it wont last as long though.

ffordes.com

Always 1st class service and genuine no quibble warranty. Stock changes all the time.

Thanks eskay: my quotes were similar – well, -ish, for “Sachs” stuff- at my trusted garage.

Also – having borrowed an A4 with a solid flywheel fitted – I’d never fit one to my own car.

eskay: any ballpark figure for what you paid incl labour for both replacements? And what brand dmf did you get?

lastly what sort of mileage is yours at?

Have you had any luck with this?

I only ask as there was was a “common” (known?) problem with some mk3 mondeo’s where both headlamps seemed to fail simultaenously. So there MAY well be a link to yours.

Page 4 of this thread starts to deal with the most common mondeo problems (there were 2 common issues iirc).

http://www.talkford.com/topic/94509-headlight-problem/

The “freeloader plugin” problem occurs depending on what ads you’ve been served: so it wont happen all the time or for all users.

And the freeloader term above isnt me: its automatically replaced / edited in my post.

Theres a recent known problem with “free loader plugin” on some sites using IE and chrome. Firefox not affected.

What year is yours? What schematic are you looking at?

BTW: I wont know the answer: for the ’11 model there were no o rings. Just spacers/bushings.

In reality – no matter what a hire company says on their website about what vehicle you’re getting – its only “an indication”.

So go ahead and book a vivaro or what ever. That doesn’m mean you’ll get one. On the otherhand our local Enterprise seems to have bought the entire worldwide output of new Transits.

So basically – ime- pick a size of van and choose on price incl excess etc. Unless you can ring your local branch and ask of course!

Not sure if I’m being a dumbass but there seems to be variants ie 1/2″, 1/4″, 3/8″, metric….how do I know which one to get?

1/2 drive is normal for bigger jobs (cars etc).

1/4 drive is normal for smaller nuts / lighter stuff (smaller bolts on cars, most bike stuff).

If you want to save money imo spend your cash on decent 1/2 stuff and add a budget 1/4 set which never gets the same abuse / torque.

My local Aldi (or was it Lidl?) still have a stock of a really good 1/4 set for around £12. 3year g’tee. Used to be sold under as Magnusson brand by B&Q for a lot more until a few years back.

I’d look at the Dell outlet store: nearly new / ex demo stuff at a proper discount and almost as importantly – decent backup.

I got an i5 xps 14 recently for £400. The site gets updated daily (afternoon) and there’s usually nothing left by the weekend so you need to be kind of patient for stuff to turn up. And then be really quick to actually buy what suits.

Hilldodger: as regards that £220 HP: that processor will appear prettly sluggish with W8.1. Well according to this anyway:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+E2-3800+APU

I’m surprised many 09 frames are still around tbh! I had three varients under warranty: but tbf the seattube only went on the original.

The other problem area is the original swingarm/ chainstays.

Get as late a one as possible. Basically – that’s the overall advice: avoid the 09 models. To help identify the year: the toptube / seattube join is noticably different after ’09. In ’10 the swingarm was no longer asymmetrical. The latest version went back to asymmetrical (and afaik was only available in matt black).

stany- I understand your feelings, but realistically there aint any such thing as “Cheap car hire Italy”. That’s not just me saying that.

Anyway weve used HA more times than I care to remember at Pisa. We had one accident and one police fine over the years and in honestly – they were dealt with fairly (esp the accident – I parked a Passat in a ditch).

If someone in Italy is super cheap : well just be careful.

Well now, that’s an interesting set of criteria!

#Edit – sorry I missed your location above

Yes- the more info the better.

Do you want to race: or get fitter: or hoon about in the woods?

Anyway 29’s: maybe look at Canyon. And Rose.

In the Uk look at Pauls: lots of last years models.

Everyone will recommend what they ride: which is a good starting point.

Do you have a local bike shop? Have you asked them?

What kind of riding? Whereabouts are you? How long have you been doing this?

What do you have now and how would you like to improve it?

#Edit – 1K£ is a really good budget: lots of choice!

There’s lot of info out there if you use the (admittedly odd) search term “ghetto ex721”

eg:
http://www.ridemonkey.com/threads/anyone-running-mavic-721s-tubeless.229370/

Hi Stany – we used to hire cars in Pisa a lot – less so recently. Nearly always through Holiday Autos.

We generally used “full to full” conditions on a bigish car and it works out at 80% Sixt 20% Europcar. There are a few other companies in the building that I’ve never heard of.

The only downside of full-full IME was that one time very late on a Sunday night where the only open petrol station was this prepaid – automated one. Basically you put your notes in – they’ll give you fuel up to that amount. There is no change. Or anyone to argue with.

When you say “same company” is that a broker like holiday autos?

If so they quote maybe three different local supplies. Each will have a different fuel policy.

In Pisa all the car hire place are in a newly built block which is a mini bus ride from the terminal.

Personally I’d always go for full – full: anything else you know they’re making money from you.

There is a handy petrol station nearby, but its prepaid cash only at nighttime (a machine with no change): so bring some 10 notes.

Is it a Ford by any chance? Or what car is it?

Have you changed any other bulbs anywhere else on the car at all since you last used the carrier?

On the tow bars I’ve owned (both retro fitted) there was a small box installed near one tail light. Both were about the size of a deck of cards and is connected to reverse, stop, left / right, etc. That’s where the beep comes from. It needs a permanent 12v supply (that fuse can go- or if a Ford – the “light control module” will it try to close it off).

Im sure someone with more experience will be along shortly.

I had problems with my Superhub 2 with some devices dropping out or not reconnecting as expected (no printers here though). After a bit of digging its always seemed security related.

Can you check if the device is happy with no security on the router: just to help diagnose? I set up a guest network to do this (but that’s probably pretty useless for a printer in reality).

Alt+F4 from the desktop?

Have a look at the Hearos range.

Their “Extreme” are good for gigs, and come highly recommended but more in the “getting my work done and getting home with hearing intact” kind of way.

#Edit – they’re also cheapish

I don’t think that CRC one you linked to will fit: well according to Cane Creek anyway. What they say you need for that make, model and year is (assuming original fork):

Upper Headset Fit
EC 34 /28.6

Lower Headset Fit
EC 34 /30

ie the head tube is 34mm top and bottom.

http://www.canecreek.com/headset-fit-finder