Tracey – Have you and yours recovered from ‘The Devil’ experience yet? I feel for your pain.

Not boiled them, but I feel like burning my Juicy 7’s. They suck.

[waves] at Devs [/waves]

Got a new in box set on eBay for £120. Not much off the CRC price, but what the hell. Couldn’t be doing with the Avids any more.

And yes, it’s been pretty much surfing all week. God it’s tough out here sometimes.

Laters annat.

I was about to offer you a ride on my Nomad to see what you reckoned if you are local – but I just checked your profile, and in truth you couldn’t be much further away!

Find a bike for sale locally with 7’s on it and take a test ride?

Can’t comment on the Oro’s, but I am about to take the 7’s off my nomad and stick SLX’s on.

I’m used to the old (4-pot) XT’s on my old bike (FSR XC) and can’t get happy with the Avid 7’s. Too sharp for my liking, poor modulation.

Oops – When I saw the title, I thought I was looking at the classifieds again. Wrong forum…….

I’ve got a 2Hp / 24L one (Screwfix Direct, £62) which is more than man enough for the job. To keep it company I got a pile of the air tools Aldi were doing on Sunday.
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.
.
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. Screwfix are not longer doing this one at £62 by the way – I’m sure it was mis-priced.

Ah. OK, do you watch the recorded / live programs on the downstairs telly on AV or on a ‘channel’?

You only need either the scart (AV) or the RF (Channels) connected to the telly.

You can split the RF using a basic passive splitter (Cheap – lowers the signal) or a Amplified splitter (Expensive, lowers the signal but not as much). Still doesn’t give you a remote control path back though.

Personally, I use amplified RF distribution round the house, and scart locally at the ‘good’ telly. And a stand-alone wireless remote sender to send the remote signals back to the kit (Sky digibox in my case)

Tim,

The natural choice would be to use the scart for the local telly. But – there’s no problem doing it the way you have it now.

AV extenders will work fine – unless you are going through a lot of house/stone walls etc. If it’s just upstairs then there should be no problem.

Obviously, you will need a scart socket on the far away telly – should be one unless it’s very old…

These sort of things are OK.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Family.aspx?Menu=1605&worldid=-9

I have a cheaper set I got from Maplin a while ago which are basically the size of a scart plug – they stick out a bit, but are all in a single ‘lump’ that plugs into the scarts each end. Not the best in terms of signal strength, but worked fine for me.

How are you connecting the HDD recorder to your first TV?

The norm would be to use a SCART lead for this – higher quality – which leaves your RF out free to feed the far away telly.

As for the ‘magic eye’ – These are used to feed remote signals back down the Co-Ax wire to a Sky digibox. To make this work with a HDD recorder, you would first need to make sure that the HDD recorder feeds a voltage out of the RF out (9v) to power the eye, and that the HDD recorder can actually accept remote signals in via the RF out.

If the HDD recorder doesn’t support this, try a set of these :
http://www.sparky-uk.com/one-for-all-wireless-remote-extender-sv-1000-55-p.asp

Also, most ‘video senders’ have a facility to send back the remote signal – and with these you wouldn’t need to run the cable to the second telly.

All depends on the available outputs on the HDD recorder, and what the remote and local tellys can accept.

Gary_M – same as I had by the sounds of it. When I registered with a dentist I was expecting a shock / horror reaction and a b0ll0cking from the dentist. Not a bit of it. He just suggested that it would be better out than in, as it had the potential to rot etc. Must admit, it’s a wee bit more comfortable now it’s out.

@Coatsey – I got what you meant too – not a bad idea that.

More likely a solenoid problem. It’s basically a big heavy duty switch. When you turn the key, and just get a click, that’s the switch operating. If the engine doesn’t turn it’s either because the switch isn’t conducting power to the starter motor, or the motor is seized.

Make it ‘click’ with your lights on. If they dim a wee bit, then the solenoid is not sending power to the starter. If they go very dim, then you are sending power to a seized motor – Don’t hold the key in that position too long if this is the case.

If the starter is seized, try sticking the car in top gear, with the ignition OFF, and rock / push the car forwards and backwards a few feet.

If the problem is the solenoid, you can test this by shorting it out with a spanner – but I would strongly recommend that you don’t if you are a complete numpty in this area as reported!!

Assuming that the lights don’t dim mutch when you are ‘on click’ as it were, try repeatedly turning the key to the start position, so you get a click-click-click-click-etc. If it tries to turn on one of these clicks, then you definitely have a burnt out solenoid contact.

If it was me, I’d whip the starter out, strip the solenoid and clean the contacts – or replace them if they are bad (and if you can get spares). I have just done this on a 1999 Hilux, which has this as a weak point. Sounds like this may be the point when you need to reach for the phone and the credit card.

The good news is that Fiesta’s tend to be simple (and cheap) to fix.

Good luck.

I wish I’d seen his auction for XT brakes a couple of days ago – just bought some SLX’s

Best graffiti I have ever seen is on the back of the doors in the blokes bogs in the White Horse bar, Elgin.

Must try to get a photo – but it’s not the sort of place you’d want to be waving a camera around (or anything else, for that matter!)

Have a look at then Beers of Europe site (www.beersofeurope.co.uk)

Not strictly Europe-only, more like beers of the world – but that domain was probably taken!

I went from ‘naked’ SPDs to caged ones purely for those few times when you are on a sketchy section and you do dab (rare though), it can help your confidence getting going again if you are able to just mash down on the pedal without needing to be clipped in – which you can with caged ones. Once you have a bit of movement going, you usually have time to clip in again. Same applies riding in snow, when you end up with a lump of snow stuck to your cleat.

£385 delivered to the UK from Andorra

Bought out there, or online? Got a web address?

http://www.beersofeurope.co.uk/acatalog/Beers_of_Europe__Belle_Vue_266.html#aBEBV104

But out of stock at the mo. Was this your usual supply?

My lad was riding without peadls OK before his 2nd birthday, and pedals on at about 26 months. 18 months might be a smidge early, but it really depends on the kid.

Seems so long ago now – I’m teaching him to drive now!

Broke a tooth offshore once (on soup !!). about 1/3rd of it came out.

Couple of weeks later, the second 1/3rd was becoming really annoying as it wobbled around etc, so I pulled it out with my fingers.

When I finally registered with a dentist when a space became available, 2 years later, they removed the last 1/3rd – no probs at all.

But I wouldn’t recommend the DIY bit, or the 2-year doing nothing bit!

If you’re not in pain, I’d wait – but that’s me, not you.

The Espace Killy yellow snow still tastes better than the stuff in my garden last week. Must be the extra garlic.

I spent no more than 10 euros per person on lunch at tignes this year

What did you eat, Snow?

Anyway the snow is better than it has been for years

Ah…….

No. When you record the program, you are recording the raw (encrypted) data.

When you replay it, your card is checked, and you get to watch whatever you have paid for.

You have 2 receivers in there, and one decoder. It’s only when the data gets to the decoder that the card is checked (OK, you can’t actually record a program that you are not signed up to either)

AFAIK the current sky encryption hasn’t been cracked.

A gun like this?

Go for it. I think Maplins had them knocked down to £35 when I got one.

Using FF portable 3.0.5 – No probs.

Used SkiSet last year (www.skiset.co.uk) – They get you into local (good) rental shops with a pre-booking at decent rates. Just did a dummy booking for a pair of Bandit SC80’s, no boots, 6 days (7th free) for €90 odd. Cheaper for later on in the season, natch. About 30% cheaper than walking in off the street in the resort.

Tracey – Your picture from above La Daille is going to cost me a fortune – I need to go NOW….

Is this one?

Looks very much like it. Make sure it’s the Pico Z Tandem, not a cheapo copy.

I understand the Tandem one is vaguely flyable [;-)]

It’s surprisingly good – and quite robust too!

Are PD22’s not just the clip-in platforms that you stick on one side to let you ride SPD pedals with flat shoes?

I got a Pico Z tandem (chinook) in Maplins a few weeks ago, knock-down price, and flies really well inside. It’s even got a LED blue ‘searchlight’

RICE.
Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. And phone a sports physio today – they won’t want to see you for about 3 days though.

Bag of frozen peas on the pain for about 5-10 mins every hour or so is fine.

That thread is useless without pictures……..

Have a look here : http://www.heliaddict.com/

I took the other approach. Spent the thick end of a grand on a Raptor 50, starter, 6 channel radio gear, tools, etc

Surprisingly it was not too difficult to get to a hovering level. Bit more tricky when you start to fly at a bit of speed – these things can move FAST.

At the quoted budget, you will probably struggle to get a heli that is man enough to fly outdoor unless there is absolutely no wind. The smaller battery powered outdoor ones are getting cheaper though.

BTW, 6 channels – 1. Roll, 2. Pitch, 3. Yaw, 4. Throttle, 5. Collective (Main Blade Pitch), 6. ‘Spare’ – normally used for Gyro gain adjustment.

Me. 7-7 today and tomorrow.

You want one of each? Craziness!

That’s what I was using with my crappy right thumb – Rapidfire for the LHS, dual control for the RHS – worked fine. I thought I’d fit the LHS if I liked them, but got used the half ‘n half, so never bothered fitting the other one (My left thumb was OK!)

I put one on my RHS when I was recovering from a broken thumb, with a normal shadow mech – got on OK.

I’m in the same boat. My Sky+ box is becoming a PITA. Recordings won’t all play properly, lots of missed ones, some that never seem to stop recording etc.

I’ve called to ‘register’ for a HD box – they are talking about 9 weeks or so for existing customers. £49 for the new box though. Brand new customers get one straight away.

I’m considering buying a Sky+ HD box off fleabay for ~£140. You can get BBC HD and ITV HD without the £10 / month ‘HD’ sky sub, apparently.

As “a 40 year old with only experience of Dos6.2/W3.1/95/98/XP” I have done just that.

It’s a bit painful, with things like the command line being case sensitive, and everything being so different. But, after a wee bit of perseverance I have started to scratch the surface. I have a Xandros EEEPC, which is based on Debian. The different distros and inter compatibilities (and lack of) can be a bit of a minefield.

Can’t comment on the cBeebies thing (iPlayer?), but most complete desktop distros seem to come with all the web/email/news/office/games/etc built-in, so you shouldn’t need to add too much on (if any).

I’ve also resurrected an old company laptop (IBM Thinkpad) with Ubuntu – seemed pretty straightforward and complete. Don’t use it much yet though. You can install ubuntu onto a USB stick, and boot from that if you want a play.