Rode a Kinesis maxlight – great frame, good geometry and really liked the bike. Switched to a Soul and noticed how I could ride all day and not have the shocks transmitted thru the frame. Might be down to design, geometry etc. no emperical data to back it up. Looking at a road bike at the moment and not going aluminium, maybe carbon or titanium for lightness and maybe steel.

Mortgage lenders may soon be asking for more specific details of potential borrowers' expenditure – including booze/fags/other vices.

Booze = £4 for three bottles of Westons strong cider. On a bad week 6 bottles

Fags = zero

Other vices = urm excluding mountain bikes I'd hate to put a price on hookers and cocaine 😉

he's been surrounded by very hot women ever since uni

Am I missing something here? Too much choice clouding his judgement? Move along, nothing to see here (relationship wise anymore)….

Me o the other hand, I went in to IT.

<sighs> me too but at least I learnt how to program in Pascal

Girls in groups have pull a pig night as well

Any idea where? I have a <cough> friend who might benefit from this 🙄

As Tom Baker said in "Genesis of the Daleks" when he had the chance to kill the Daleks before they started on a path of galactic destruction…. "Do I have the right?" Because of the Daleks actions, alliances were formed, good deads were done. Getting rid of evil might also prevent good from happening.

Wanders off to watch some classic Tom baker Dr Who 😀

STW'ers say that the MBR beanie is too small…..

Now either the beanie is small or STW'ers have big heads 😆

Use LED3 flood with 2 * 2.6AH batteries and very happy with it. Pluses: solid, well engineered, can easily vary the power to conserve battery (press switch up for up, down for down), good run time, good company, will be able to upgrade to XPG from them at some point in the future but don't know at what cost, good run time, Smudge can make up a replacement bettery if you need one. Downs: downhills at speed could so with a spot but not at £170 !!!

Agree, no point in LED4. But baby trout worth looking at.

Can someone exaplain how Moz / Lester actually found this thread and started to join in?

And £320 for some food FFS !!!! I could pay £10 for a pizza and have £310 left over to pay for escorts @ £120 per hour 😀

Raleigh Mtrax bought new in '98. Though I expect it to be retro cool any day now.

I've a set of U Turn Rebas that came on my '09 Cube AMS – 90 to 120mm adjustment but with Q/R not maxle. Great fork.

Excellent riding so long as you avoid the cheese eating niche whores….. 😉

Specialised BG ones – tried Ergon grips but never really thought they were as good.

can't you phone a call centre solicitor to answer this type of question ?

have been thinking about this for some time now and taken good advice from a mates dad (81 and still lectures engineering), quite simple forget about earning money from it .

Downside to that is it might be better to spend your money on something else to reduce your environmental impact. For example buy your electric off an Eco company that only provides "green" electric. Without the grants and FIT then there is no way that I'd spend that sort of money on PV when there's a better option.

It's worth noting that if your generating system is connected to the grid in anyway then it will have to shut down if it looses that connection in anyway. Therefore, you wont be able to generate electricity during a power cut.

And I was SO hoping to have cold beer when everyone else's fridge had stopped working 🙁

In our office we mostly use laptops. Power off and lock in the drawer over night for security. But this leaves the transformer on over night which still drawing power. Option is to crawl under the desk and pull the plug !!! Not sure about desktops in other offices – I think most people power them off. If updates take place then they happen over night if possible otherwise during the day. With laptops we have to be on the network for a three (?) hour period over two weeks to get the upgrade. Would like to have a master switch for each block of desks which you can just flick off when you're the last one to leave – makes sure all power is off.

At home I measured the current draw of all my pc stuff – printer, external hard drive, PC, monitor, surround sound amp, router etc. The printer was drawing current when plugged in but turned off !!!! So now everything is turned off at the wall.

They sure are pretty……

When I spoke to Lumi about their lights earlier this year they said upgrades would be available as / when new LED's came out. No boffin but would have thought it's a new PCB, LED's and optic. Driver, switch etc. stay the same?

tks for the replies. My few notes on it.

Capital outlay
Cost of 2KW system @ 10k
Grant = £2,500

I’ve no idea if the grant has artificially inflated the costs and these will reduce once the grant goes. Also systems should (?) get cheaper as technology improves and more units made/sold to bring in economies of scale.

This outlay has to be funded somehow so you’ll either be losing interest on it if saved/invested for the long term or if added to mortgage then paying @ 2.5% interest at current rates. Hard to predict what future interest rates or investment returns will be.

Annual Costs
Annual Maintenance – maybe just a clean but no system is fool proof so no clear idea of what this will entail. Maybe have to replace a panel.

Insurance – haven't checked but fairly certain there will be little or no charge on your buildings insurance.

End of Life of system
Decommissioning – don’t know how long the system will last before needing to be replaced or also what costs this will involve. Maybe some environmental tax to get rid of old panels etc.

Annual Income
1) FIT @ 36.5p per unit generated for 20 years – but this hasn’t been set yet, could easily be reduced / removed by a Government that needs to claw back budget deficit and I don’t know if it will be treated as taxable income so could reduce by 20/40%. Also this figure is reduced the longer you put off buying the system.

2) Energy generated & not used so fed back into the grid @ 5p per unit. This rate may change either up or down over time.

3) Invest the money made each year but also factor in the money not spent if you didn't have PV panels.

Energy expenditure
Energy need above that generated and taken from the grid @ what ever tariff you’re on. 15 – 20 p/unit ? Difficult to predict where prices will go but IMO they will show a rise over any future 5 year period.

Energy Consumption
1) During the day when the cells are generating most electricity it’s best to be using the most in the home. At night, you want to be using the least energy as you’re generating none. So the split between day and night usage affects the pay back.

2) over time your energy consumption may change – could go down as you use less 'cos of better appliances or may go up if you start a family etc.

Effect on house prices
Not got any independant view on the effect of house prices. As said above most people don't stay in a house for a long period of time.

Non monetary stuff
1) How much you put on "being green"
2) If we do suffer energy shortages in the future or power strikes like the 70's then you'll have some security of your own electricity at certain times of the day !!!
3) It's very much an emerging market with a few cowboy installers. Pick the wrong panels and/or installer and it'll be bad.
4) Figures from someone who's had PV panels for a year are: rated 1440, generated 1186 which is 82% efficiency.
5) What actual guarantee do installers offer? Is it an insurance backed one so if/when the installer goes out of business what happens.

Overall I think there are too many variables or future unknowns to predict an accurate pay back period. I could probably invest the capital in the stock market over 20 years and make more money than I'd save by installing a system. And that system has a finite life where as the investment would keep on growing. But, from my figures I reckon 10 – 15 years for me.

As for wind turbines – Warwick council did a one year trial and the only ones that generated any usefull electricty where on top of small blocks of flats…..and the residents had them taken down 'cos of the noise generation !!! At the moment I've seen no independant evidence to say urban wind turbines are cost effective or in fact effective at energy generation.

Double post !!!

Seduce the queen and recruit a wasp army

If only my seduction technique was that good 🙁 Think the best way to attract the Queen would be to cover myself in home made jam …..

Don't fancy tackling the nest myself so if they've got to go I'll be calling the professionals.

tks, might PM you in a few days.

if by solar thermal you mean heating hot water then don't think that makes sense for me – gas for hot water and central heating only costs me £350 a year with about £100 of that for hot water when the heating is off so reckon saving on hot water might be £100 a year if lucky which means pay back is a long time.

Have a south facing roof and done some in depth calculations but there are far too many variables to realistically get an accurate result – also when max electricity is being generated I'm out – I use 21% of total electricity on economy 7 when it's dark outside …..

I've found they don't last as long as standard rotors and if they get bent slightly (ie when transporting bike) then they're harder to bend back.

Haven't tried it yet but carbohydrate drink with Whey protein mixed in with it. Allows you to mix and match the ratio of carb to protein and cheaper than buying an all in one. If you time it right then Holland & barret have a half price sale on the whey protein powder and you can stock up 😀

Ordering direct from the far east saves a whole bunch of money but sometimes middlemen are nice folk trying to make a living in an increasingly competitive environment and maybe they deserve a bit of support from end users.

Maybe "back in the day" pre internet but now when you can import yourself why pay someone to do it for you? Last time I looked I could order (ie import) bike stuff from the States, pay ALL import duties/VAT if customs applied them and still be cheaper than they were being sold here. The only reason I can see is if you think you'll need the ease of dealing with a warranty claim thru the importer.

As for expensive – looking @ two head units without batteries

baby Trout = £170 for 4 XPG LED which most people think is excellent VFM (me included) and Trout himself says he's putting it together for way less than minimum wage and doesn't factor in design time etc.

Lumicycle = £165 for 3 XPE LED

Factor in 1 * XPG @ £3.50 (I think) and also the other plus / minus factors Lumicycle have – make a profit, company costs, economies of scale and I don't think the cost of good quality LED lights is too much. Yes, you can get cheaper alternatives which are good VFM and with technology moving on it probably makes sense not to pay a lot more for a slightly better light which may be obsolete in two years time. Of course, Lumi have said their head unit is upgradable which will be good.

If I was to pay £80 for something to take to bed it wouldn't be a pillow 😯

John Martyn a few years ago doing Solid Air as an anniversary tour or something like that. Absolute pants. So bad you actually felt sorry for him.

Or Motorhead 2 or 3 years ago. Just a loud, distorted pile of rubbish where you couldn't even tell what the songs were supposed to be. Would be outplayed by a half decent college band. Saw them on the Ace of Spades tour so I know how good they were.

6 or 7 LED's ????

Has anyone thought about the effect of mud on the different style of lenses and how that affects the lumens put out ??

Rectangular/low v circular/higher/more surface area – which one will collect the most mud ???

Who's going to be first with a built in "head lamp" washer that's what I want to know?

😀

Having failed in my previous two 24 solo attempts to finish due to injury this years Mayhem was make or break for me. My gym trainer/masseur's (trans Wales, trans Rockies etc. competitor) last words to me before the event that I was in better shape than ever before but it would be 80% mental and 20% physical – and it was.

I broke the race down into two laps at a time with only stops to get drinks/food, bike cleaning and quick change of clothes – I was NOT going to stop for any extended length of time. I tried not to have preset goals to get to but when day break came I did think to myself "I've broken the back of this" but had to remind myself there was still 8ish hours to go!!! At one time I did think to myself "why am I doing this?" but just focused on the trail and back to knocking off two laps at a time. I had one moment where I had to stop by the side of the track and down a gel as I felt woozy but then got back on and focused on someones wheel for the next 5 minutes to get back on track. Things won't go according to plan for the whole of 24 hours but just accept it and keep moving forward.

I'll train with music but don't race with it. I concentrate on the lines I'm taking and how the track is changing over time, trying to be smooth and do each lap as well as or better than before. What can seem like a boring section can have some interest in it.

This worked for me but then again 90+ percent of all my riding is done solo 😯

A friend of mine is thinking about doing the "phone line" chat. No, don't phoning them up. She's thinking about answering the phone to all the sad lonely people out there. Money's good. I've said to go for it.

Coupld of years ago bought one direct from manufacturer off the internet – can't remember the site – but it was a LOT less than you'd pay in the shops – like 40% of the price. They are noticably different to other mattresses and took a bit of getting used to. Still unsure if they would really be that much better than a top end non foam one. I looked at the Which report when I bought it.

Compared to non foam – as they support you it's not as easy to move around, you get hotter so can sweat a bit more in the summer. I've heard it said your "performance" can be impaired but personally can't comment about that 🙁

One thing I do like about my Mk1 Joystick is it's light (as in light weight not bright) and is reasonably low down on the helmet with a fixing that if I did catch it on a branch the joystick would come out rather than pull the helmet up.

Undecided whether the baby trout would be better with a remote battery on the rear of the helmet than an all in one 3 LED higher up. OK, 4 LEDS's but the driver allows five different combinations of lumens/run times. Then again, my preference would be for a 2*LED / 700 Lumen spot on the helmet.

Go Outdoors[/url]

Lot of sale stuff at the moment.

Using this web site[/url] and these figures – forward voltage per LED = 3.3V, nos of LEDs = 3, efficiency 90% and the battery shown

run time on max @ 1.5 hours

Trout – how are you attaching the battery to the driver and are you planning on charging in situ or taking battery out ? I've been thinking about how it could be done but not come up with a simple way yet.

As successive Governments have ignored long term fuel security, investment in renewables and wasted North sea oil and gas we'll have to turn to whatever we can get our hands on to keep warm and generate electricity. But I wonder who'll be tough enough to go down the mines?

What is the best way to set up cheap and easy for newbies?

I've registered domain names with UK Reg and you do pay £x per year. Hosting is thru my ISP force9 for the monthly inclusive price but that means you end up using their names. eg "http://www.davegriffiths.force9.co.uk/Leprabikeride/&quot; rather than "www.leprabikeride.co.uk" and not sure if it excludes business.

It's dead easy to set up a web site if you have some techy knowledge but hard to set up a decent web site !!! Suggest you plan to spend some money on it by getting someone who's done it before otherwise you'll put off more people than you attract.

they left my Shimano mw02s untouched in the footwell though !

not niche enough……

Thought a few years ago he was contemplating it. But with his depression (?) decided that it just fed that so stopped. So surprised he's thinking about it again. Did like the film of his life though even if it did deviate from the truth a little.

Yup. Business Analyst (geeky though without the programmer chic). Earn above average salary which pays for bikes, fast cars, loose women 😯 and cat food. Flexitime. Good holidays. Varied work and all the stuff I do is interesting like working on our counter fraud initiatives at the moment – get inside the mind of a criminal…..??? Very much in charge of my work load. 25 mins cycle to work. A company that rates it's staff more than a PLC – we're a mutual. Dress down days on Fridays. Oh and final salary pension (well at the moment). Good grief almost forgot the indoor swimming pool and sports pitches 😀

At least they have it in stock. Some non bike retailers would advertise something and have one of it in stock. That soon sold and when suckered you in they hoped you would buy something more expensive.

Lately I've bought off Merlin – they answer the phone and actually have a conversation with you. Of course, if they weren't so cheap i'd buy off the lbs ….

anyone local to Leamington/Warwick happy to show the local trails off

Of all the joints, in all the World you had to pick this one. The greatest thing is that whenever you go away the riding is guaranteed to be better……

I'm outside Stratford and there are a few bits which break up the monotony of the road sections. Wales it aint.