20″ Rocket Rons were always very light I seem to remember although a bit more expensive than the ones above.

Phone 2Pure up in Glasgow – 0131 449 4147 – they are the distributor in the UK.

Always been very helpful when I’ve called them.

Be careful and as above get the information about what damage the car had sustained and how it was put back together.

A lot of ‘damaged repairables’ are sold at auction and then put back together. Most are then described as very light damage.

There was a post on Pistonheads where some guy had a link to an auction house that sold such cars and showed the damage prior to repair. Most look horrific but were later advertised as ‘very light damage’ after the repair.

Worth checking out, so buyer beware.

As above seeing 558 again was great as it brought back lots of memories of airshows in the 70’s/80’s.

Having been in the cockpit of the Vulcan at Wellesbourne I can only say I would not have wanted to be the guys who sat to the rear when they pulled some of these steep manoeuvres.

Solids in the shower? Wrong on every level!

I drive over 20k miles a year so these sorts of small fun hatchbacks don’t fit my criteria one bit but interesting to read other peoples comments on tyres.

My past two cars have been a 330d and a 640D but both are non M Sport models so thankfully only have 18″ wheels and not 19″ or 20″ which some of the 6 series are on.

The big wheels do look nice but are just so unnecessary.

I’ve always been impressed with the way any fast Ford drives but feel the build quality is still not there with VW.The Polo GTi or Fiesta ST are both seriously rapid with a few tweeks.

As others have said Solidor use a wooden structure but a lot of the other composite doors are a foam filled door. Composite just means they are made up of several different materials.

I have just placed an order for a Solidor front door with side panel and also a fully glazed Solidor door for the utility room.

For both I’m paying £3.1k fitted. Front was £1.9k, utility £1.2k.

I suppose I could have got a cheaper door but I went with a local company that have a very good reputation. I could have spent more as one company who reckoned they were the cheapest in the area quoted over £4k.

I looked at uPVC doors and what really put me off was the appearance and the ugly hinges.

Two of my neighbours have had their’s replaced in the past 18 months and paid just over approx £3.5k from memory. This was for 2 x Single Doors, new frames and all electrical work.

Both used a local firm who supplied Horman doors and despite the above comment they seem pretty secure to me. These are sectional doors, not roller, and both have had a glazed top section. I think the door sections are about 50mm thick and insulation with foam.

One had a horrible golden oak colour and the other was white. I did ask the owner of the white doors what colour he was going to paint them as they look rather plain.

The problem you have is the shelf being only 18mm thick.

The turning load from the tip of the shelf to the point at which it reaches the wall will be high compared to its relative weight and with only 18mm touching the wall it cannot spread the load out.

Kitchen cupboards although a lot heavier spread the load out over a big area.

The Ikea flowing shelves are about 50mm thick and use a concealed bracket that is almost 50mm x the full length of the shelf. I have found these to be secure on a hollow wall.

As mentioned above the best way of securing that shelf is either to fit a pattress of have a try with the corefix fixings.

I’d kick up a fuss as the speed rating is all about how the tyre handles speed and also the heat that builds up in the tyre.

So although you never drive at the maximum speed you car will still have the ability to heat the tyres up through acceleration.

Insurance companies would definitely pick up on the wrong type of tyre.

I used them a couple of years ago and found that the Indian call centre people couldn’t see the same screen as the lovely people in Ireland.

After numerous calls and hours wasted the girl in Ireland sorted the issue in 5 minutes and even rang back a week later to make sure everything was okay.

Since swapping to Virgin I have been even less impressed with them. Broadband speed is up and down even when connected directly to the router.

Where to next as my contract is up at the beginning of January?

I have a brand new Brand X Ascend post that I bought in April/May for my son’s Five.

It’s never been out of the box as we fitted a used Fox Transfer post and by the time I got around to looking at returning it it was too late.

Let me know if interested and I can supply with the receipt for warranty purposes.

My daughter’s Mini One cost just over £300 to insure as a learner with two additional named drivers.

Test today and if she passes the policy is void and she has to take out a new scheme. This will be around £1100.

Its all about risk. As learner she is always supervised.

Unless riding back to back test I think most riders would fail to tell the difference in such small changes.

When I built up my Mk 1 Ibis Ripley they said use a 51mm offset fork and the bike was said to be optimised for 130mm travel but could run 140mm.

I drew it all out on a CAD package and the changes were very slight so in the end I opted for a 46mm offset fork and 140mm travel. Bike feels great.

I would speak to the supplying dealer as they tend to offer the best rates. You have up to 30 days to take out such a policy after buying the vehicle.

From my experience BMW have offered really good policies and dependent on wheel size they start from around £400 to cover wheels and tyres for 3 years. Excess is £10 per claim and I think it is 5 tyres and 10 wheel repairs in 3 years.

I travel in excess of 20k miles a year so the chances of me suffering a puncture or damaged tyre/wheel is higher than someone doing less than 10k so as with most insurance it’s all about chance and probability. Also with my car having run-flat tyres once you do get a small puncture they tend to be unrepairable.

For me it is money well spent as I had all 4 wheels refurbished on my last car and also 4 tyres over a 4 year period. The last tyre was replaced 5 days before I picked up my new car which at over £200 would have been rather annoying.

Broken tib and fib end of July 2014.

Operation with plate and 7 screws whilst out in Gran Canaria and was only in hospital for 4 days I think. Different flight home form and my family and I took up 3 seats to keep my leg elevated.

Several different types of cast on my leg over here and eventually cast removed late October but I then had to have a brace on for a while.

First proper ride out was in the December.

Although the NHS were good I found that they only told me things if I asked.

On the plus side there was a nice chap on here who was offering up a load of chillies that he had grown and having expressed an interest a few weeks later a parcel arrived with a load of Chilli Jam that he had made. Very kind.

Good luck!

BMW warranties are well worth having but you must obviously consider the cost versus risk.

A fews ago my wife’s 3 series convertible had an issue with the folding metal roof where the hydraulic system failed. The car was a few months outside of warranty but as the car had a full BMW dealer service history BMW issued the parts FOC.

Still an expensive job though as labour was around £900 but the parts would have been £960.

At the time the extended warranty would have cost us around £600.

I’m assuming the retailer is Chain Reaction or Wiggle.

If so I bought a set of Mavic XA 27.5 Boost wheels for a stupidly cheap price the other year and had no issue registering them with Mavic.

It is definitely a sellers market at the moment but you have to be realistic.

There is an V1 Ibis Ripley for sale on here and Ebay and if I thought I could sell mine for £3250 I would sell at the drop of a hat. There is no way it will go for that.

Maybe £2.5k tops but I reckon I would be better off selling mine for parts and mine is better specced too.

I have a delivery each weekend from Waitrose and limit this to £100. Todays was less than £90 as was last week.

This will include household items too such as bleach, washing up liquid and toilet rolls etc.

My wife will go into the local M&S or Morrisons at least twice a week though on top of the above and having checked my bank account I would say about £1k a month is about the the same here but that includes all household products, toiletries and the dreaded alcohol.

Takeaways are not in the above and we have 1 a week.

We through very little away and generally have enough food in the cupboards and freezers to be ready for the next apocalypse!

Brokeback Mountain

I nearly always build my bikes from frame up as I am never happy with the factory builds.

I’ve just built a Five for my son and managed to get a spec that was between the Pro and RS model. I got a new frame for just over £1k from Sunset.

The key is taking your time and being cheeky with your offers –

Hope Fortus 35 Wheels – £230 used once. When i collected the seller sold me a set of new tyres and bars for £20 too.
New Yari Forks – £289
New Hope X2 Brakeset – £235
New headset, stem, bars and a used saddle direct from Orange – £40 (Orange have an outlet where they sell parts on both eBay and Pinkbike.

I did then splash out on a new SLX 12sp groupset but its the last bike i’ll be paying for.

With regards to supply and demand it is crazy at the moment. I’ve just sold a Cannondale road bike for £25 more than I paid for it 4 years ago.

26 inch bikes are also fetching good money.

Slight hijack, when you have got multiple W shaped trusses spaced about 50cm apart in a relatively modern house and one of them is right in the way as you access the loft, can you just chop it out or will the roof fall in? Asking for a friend who keeps banging his head…

Do not chop this out it is key to holding your roof structure together!

In most modern houses the roof trusses are all assembled off site in a factory and this is what makes loft conversions more expensive on these types of roofs as you need to do a lot more structural work.

I don’t think hope do an I-spec EV mount yet.

Yes they do.

Having just built a bike for my son the SLX 12 speed stuff is really impressive.

I’m normally an XT/XTR person but if I manage to get a new bike later this year I’d be happy with the SLX.

Why do you want the SRAM chain?

Regarding brakes there are lots of offers if you can find them on Hope. I got X2’s for just over £100 each new.

Ebay is your friend on a build like this. A new set of Yari forks for £290 which I then put in a new £40 upgrade attune in from TFT. This also enabled me to change the travel.

Have you thought about joining British Cycling for a year? Although Evans stock is poor you get 10% off.

DT 240 Hubs.

Interesting to read these comments as I recently built up a new bike for my son and had originally bought a SRAM NX groupset.

As soon as I installed the rear mech I just thought it felt horrible, so much so that I took it off and put the lot on eBay.

I then ordered 12 speed Shimano SLX from a local shop and have to say it’s brilliant and that’s comparing it with 11 speed XTR and XT on my bikes.

It’s p****D me off enough that I am going to do some work.

Hopefully it will be gone when I come back later today….

I’ve just built a bike up for my son and initially bought a NX group-set.

I thought it was very poorly made so sold it on EBay and then bought SLX from a local shop. When I fitted the NX rear mech it was all wobbly and appeared loose even though it was tightened up fully. I have seen a few reports of GX SX and NX rear mechs snapping in two at the mounting point.

Both of my bikes have a mix of XTR and XT 11 speed but I have to say I would happily run SLX 12 speed, it really is well made, looks good and was a breeze to set up.

The Shimano cassettes are also 10-51 and cheaper than SRAM

I went yesterday to pick some new bits up from the shop and although the car parks are mostly still shut people were parking on the roads around the visitors centre.

Earlier in the week a police car was there all day turning people away.

That saw thing is horrific!

3 x Indian, 1 x Chinese and the kids have had 2 x Dominos.

However I have to drive 7-8 miles for both the Indian or Chinese but assume this is allowed anyway? Essential food shopping.

Many years ago I bought a copy of MBUK and then read inside that I was the winner of last month’s competition.

I got a set of American Classics wheel skewers.

Very light but awful as the lever was so thin it dug into your hands/fingers when trying to open or close them.

I fitted them to my Cannondale M700 that later got stolen.

Some great looking bikes there.

I managed to convince myself that a new Five would be a good buy for my son as the frame was half price. Forgot that his old bike had 26″ wheels!

Why not get Hope hubs and Stans rims?

Not the cheapest but you will end up with a set that last for years with spares available for the hubs from almost every decent bike store in the UK.

I ran Hope/Crest on my old Clockwork 29er and was really impressed with how light they were plus tubeless tyres go up instantly.

I use Premier Seafoods for fresh/frozen fish and Alfred Enderby for smoked fish, both based in Grimsby and owned by really passionate people.

Nathan Godley at Premier – https://www.kingcrab.co.uk

Pat Salmon at Alfred Enderby – https://alfredenderby.co.uk

I’ve even been known to drive from Staffordshire just to buy their fish but they offer a mail order service.

I’d get a refund and then go and see a nice local bike shop.

I’m in the process of building up anew bike for my son and bought a new SRAM groupset off eBay and once I started fitting it realised that I preferred Shimano.I couldn’t return it but did manage to sell it on again for a few quid more and recover my costs.

I’ve now ordered a new Shimano groupset from a local shop and paid a bit more for it in the process. However the whole shopping experience was nicer and I know that i’ll be looked after on all the other bits and pieces that I will no doubt need and when I do need those bits it is only a 20 minute drive.

I’ll add my own experiences.

Growing up in the 80’s it was all vinyl until CD’s starting to come out and then we all swapped to CD.

I have kept all of my vinyl but in the late 90’s i got rid of quite a few CD’s.

I don’t regret dumping the CD’s but I do regret not buying albums in the 90’s and 00’s on vinyl as a lot of the vinyl was sold in such low numbers due to CD sales that it is now almost impossible to source at reasonable prices.

I sold my last CD player over 10 years ago and most of what I listen to is generally streamed, internet radio or on my iPod that lives in the car.

However when I do have time I like nothing more than sitting down and playing an album on my turntable. Both my amp and turnable were bought used and between them are over 50 years old.

Neither the turntable or amp will depreciate and in the two years that i have owned both they have actually increased in value.

You will either like vinyl or you won’t but it is still a format to be considered, just that it is now quite expensive. Either way just enjoy your music however you listen to it.

I like that!

Have you spoken to the neighbour?