There was a budget bleed kit plan floating about on here for a while – google might find it…

I found them hard enough to bleed with the kit, I dont think bleeding it your way would work. But I could be very wrong…

up from Queenzieburn past the a wee dammed loch to Meikle Bin, and then down to CV. I'd say not to a modern mtbers taste though. For the gent who likes the climb and the countryside – a lot of the height is lost on fireroad.

Hey, does that link up to the fireroad on the east or west side of meikle bin? I'm struggling to see the link on a map – I know you must be able to do it as I have met a few hill runners that have come up that way but I just cant see it!

As for being a modern MTBer to be honest if its not got tarmac then I claim it as MTB terrain and describe it as radcore to the gnarr to my wife when I get home! 🙂

Real man – kinda like the first one but more wet and brownish. Sorry!

ill stop running red lights on my bike when car drivers obey the speed limit

Indeed – thats a superb line to start a pub fight… also:
– When taxi drivers stop hitting me and driving off.
– When people check thier wing mirrors.
– When people stop using thier phone when driving.
– When cars stop going through red lights.
– When people follow the damn speed limit. I dont really care about people doing 70 in a 50 if its a dual carrigeway etc but ffs in a housing estate just do 30 or less ok? Tossers.
– When BMW drivers are made to wear t-shirts saying: "I have a small penis and thats why I act like a ****". Even the girls.
– When people stop buying cars the colour of bad diarrhea! Is "curry shits yellow" a special ford colour?

🙂

I have used these guys for parts before – http://www.espares.co.uk/ quick delivery.

I had to replace the element on my oven, was a 5 minute job 🙂

He suspects somebody has tried to steel the wheels from her car (Renault Scenic – standard wheels).

Haha thats an epic bullshit line! Im impressed he had the balls to throw that one out there!

Do people even still do that? On standard Scenic wheels as well…

Always check wheel bolts after someones had your wheels off.

My corsa needs them to be 110nm, kwickfit regulary get this wrong, last time they did my tyres on one of the wheel's of the four bolts only two were one right, the other ones were finger tight! They also managed to crush the rear wheel bearings but thats another story…

Hes superb! I didnt know he was in Oor Wullie as well… Great find!

Only cycleguard give you RAC for bikes though!

Is that not why you get married and bother to insure her on the car? 😆

Just get the right home insurance – I was with M&S for a year (who promplty did the whole renewal now costs $100000000000 they seem to be famous for on here) and just moved to RBS. For the RBS one they will cover my bikes at a value of up to £2000 each in a wooden outbuilding and will happily do new for old if they get pinched from home / work / car / trail center etc.

They dont have all the silly rules about locks being this that and the next thing that cycleguard seem to have (as long as they are locked they dont really care).

Also as a side note they will insure all the stuff in my house and cover me in case my house burns down! Plus they were really friendly and the woman on the phone had some superb chat on her! 🙂

David.

Whats up with the car, can you fix it yourself cheaper? If your other option is to scrap it then you might as well try, nothing to loose!

See on the round shaft bit that the screw goes through, its two seperate parts, the bit the spring is on? Get some lube between the two halves and keep wiggling it. This is a good use for car brake cleaner as it will get in there and shift the crap. Then keep it lubed, even a bit of grease on it to keep mud etc out.

Our wedding photographer was worth every penny tbh – its one of the bits of wedding stuff that I think you need to splash cash on!

Stuff thats worth money:
– Band. A good band makes a great evening!
– Photographer. You will want those pictures to be good in years to come and you need someone to arrange the good shots. Also it needs to be someone your good ladys happy with – the photographer needs to be able to tell the bride what to do. Good luck to a random mate with that one!

Stuff that you can do cheap:
– Cake. Everyone will eat it anyway!
– Video. No one wants to watch it apart from you and your good lady. Get a mate with a video camera. Job done.
– Buffet. See cake.
– Transport. We stayed at the venue the night before, was cheaper than limo hire on the day!
– Venue. One of the best weddings I have been too (apart from my own obviously!) was a rugby club!

Hope that helps!

David.

(Edit: your pretty far away so shes not much use to you but to anyone in Glasgow Caroline at http://www.clphoto.co.uk/index.php is very very good!).

Just got some of these Diadora Arctic MTB boots for £59 so my toes will be toasty this winter

Where?

Indeed… where? 🙂

I spent all day feeling wierd, like I was bunking of school. I feel very guilty to be honest! I did cheer up this evening though, I went down to the shed and pottered about and then played with the RPG on moderm warfare for an hour!

Ok so the doctor has signed me of for three weeks!

Been round all the local shops for application forms (even my LBS – I needed a tube anyway 😀 ).

Thanks for the advice everyone!

David.

Perhaps check if anything is wired off a spur from a socket – like a shaving plug in the bathroom or a shower or a fridge or similar?

Wow so many responses! Thanks!

First of all I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow. Once I have seen the doctor I think its time to make (another) formal complaint about my working conditions and the previous lack of support I have been given. This time I will do it in writing so there is a record. My managers manager is over from Ireland tomorrow as well as the team moral is so low he needs to attend meetings about it. (In a recent survey only 1/3 of the team said they would stay if offered another job with the same wages and conditions). I will grab him for a bit and hand the formal complaint to him.

I dont particulary care about sueing them – I just want out.

My wife and I move into a new house on the 20th of August hopefully so I dont think we can afford for me to be out of work, however we can afford for me to work in anything as long as its full time.

So, current plan, hopefully the doctor will sign me off for a month and I can use the first week to chill and the rest to get a job, any job. Also think I might try and get my city and guilds 2382 and work towards being an electrician. Perhaps in the mean time I might be lucky enough to land one of the IT jobs I have applied for, however I think I need to stop hoping that happens and make sure I get any job away from my current employer.

I am also happy (if thats the right word) to see how many people here have been in a similar position. It makes me feel less of a fool to be honest.

Also thanks to the people that have taken the time to email me as well!

Wow – good advice from all! Thankyou!

I cant move as my wife is a teacher and has got a full time job, not easy to come by in teaching and all her family are near by etc. I dont think I would want to move anyway as we help care for her grandad and I would really miss him if we moved.

I dont really know why I havent already quit, it feels like giving in or something. I see what you mean about being sick just putting it off, I hadnt thought of it that way.

My company doesnt really worry to much about employment law. They just fight it out in employment courts if they need too. They have a lot of lawyers. To give you an idea of thier business practices they were just fined $100million for fraudulent accounting practices. Doing things right is not thier strong point.I think my doc would sign me off, hes a bit of a soft touch and has offered it before but I was worried about it affecting my CV.

For what its worth my current wage is 20k. The wage rise I have been promised but will no longer get is to a scale that runs from from 25k to 28k (good jump). The same job in the same company on the Irish site is about £36k if you convert it from Euro to Pounds. Clearly I am cheap…

I'm certain that no-one would join a union so I would be the only person. I dont think that would be worth it? No-one else would join as those that stick thier heads up get managed out. The person with the problem with me and a different team leader have an HR approved plan to manage one of thier agents out – they have reduced him to tears in the office with thier dealings with him. They openly discuss how long to they can make him do it again. The reason for this? Hes nearly 50 and has more life experience than computer experience and they dont like supporting him. Hes good at his job as well and the customers love him as hes clearly a very nice guy. HR are aware of this and going with it as he has been given a low rating twice so is fair game.

Julian – thanks for the list mate – I am on most of these already but have missed a few – google is getting me in the right direction for the rest.

Im not sure on getting more money out of them by sueing them. Its not really my style and to be honest the size of the company they will either win or drag it out so long it wont matter any more.

I dont have any weight to throw about really – if I get to stroppy they will just fire me, they need to make customer satisfaction scores, however these are generally made by fiddling the stats. If you say your angry on the phone your contact details will be changed so you dont get a survey. Simples. Only happy people get surveyed, even then we struggle to hit 90% CSAT…

esselgruntfuttock – **** hell mate! That adds a bit of perspective to this. Hope things are good for you now and getting better!

I hope you can make a decision sooner rather than later. There will be light at the end of the tunnel but your the only one with a torch.

Thats pretty much what my wife says…

I think if I quit now all I will be able to get is a job in Asda / Tesco / etc. Does that look better on a CV? I have always liked the idea of being a sparky or a nurse (although a few mates that are nurses have said run away, but some people on here have in the past talked happily about it!), I suppose this could be a great time to retrain…

Measures implies a level of accuracy I suppose (we didn't just assume it, we measured it).

To be honest though he sounds like a cock.

Mine did something similar, replaced the BB with one 3mm shorter… works fine now 🙂

Square taper BB, went from a 118 to a 115.

David.

Owners Forum:
http://www.x-trail-uk.co.uk/index.php
Its always worth joining the owners forum!

Front Disks £35 each:
http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Nissan_X-Trail_2.5_2009/p/Car-Parts/Service-Parts/Regular-Service/Brake-Discs/?104700518&1&8d721cd5827dd63722385e2c59cd89fceef2eb27&BDIS

Rear Disks £38 each:
http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Nissan_X-Trail_2.5_2009/p/Car-Parts/Service-Parts/Regular-Service/Brake-Discs/?104701798&1&d18aae91196020a38ef4855e38e0d2f7175de7ac&BDIS

Front Pads £23 a pair:
http://www.larkspeed.com/index.pl?a=i&k=s&p=U248DP1955D

Rear Pads £20 a pair:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NISSAN-X-Trail-2.5-EBC-ULTIMAX-REAR-BRAKE-PADS-2007-_W0QQitemZ190406129202QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=&rvr_id=&cguid=59fc78a51290a0aad3d58b45fee53b15

Total: £116

If your not happy shopping in loads of different places then these guys can sort you out for £158..

Rear Pads and Disks: £67
http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.php?plid=m41b1076s3973p49998&rs=gb

Front Pads and Disks: £91
http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.php?plid=m41b1076s3973p49997&rs=gb

Car brakes are easier than bike brakes, everything's bigger, more robust and far less fiddly! If you never do it you never will… over the last year rather than pay for work to be done on the car I have done it myself. From being scared of doing it myself, like you, I have done:
– Rear shoes and drums (springy goodness!)
– Front pads (far easier than drums!)
– Fuel Filter
– Oil, Air and passenger filter
– Oil
– Spark Plugs
– Idle control switch
– Engine oil pressure switch
– Rear shocks (rusty faffing bolts batman!)
– Rear driver side light cluster
– Clean MAF
– Clean Carbouretta / throttle body
– Handbrake cable

I couldn't have afforded to have all that done at a garage and would have been totally stuck without the car.(My wifes a teacher and needs it to get to work). Ok so its a corsa-b rather than a nissan x-trail but the feeling of being able to do it yourself is superb!

It fell over and he's home… It was wobbling… 🙂

household green pad cleaning pad and gt85 works and is less abrasive

This works really well actually 🙂

bassspine – Member

being Fred Dibner (when he was alive)

Yip. That would be awesome.

Superb!

Dales is pretty good – I have never been unhappy with them. Their workshop can be very busy though.

What model of Dell is it? Is it in warranty?

If its in warranty let me know and I will give you the part numbers for the CD and hard disk drives and the number to call – if its not the same part numbers work a treat on ebay to make sure you get the right thing..

Cheers,

David.

Thanks for the picture before bed time.

Really. Totally what I needed to see.

Any use?
http://freewindowsvistatutorials.com/safetyAndSecurity/userAccountsAndProfiles/changeWindowsAccountNames.php

David.

Bits of rim maybe?

Are you buying from wheelcraft? I notice your in scotland? If so just ask big al. He's never given me bad advice about wheels! 🙂

My local wheelbuilder uses them. I have only bent one and that was when a car hit me at 30 odd. Very good value for money.

Cause it would make me feel rubbish to know just how much faster than me they are… 🙂

you have to lack an idea of what you're doing for that, rather than be doing it for eye-poppingly deranged reasons.

Can I get some clarification on this? Ideally how crazy would I need to be to get away with it?

Wow that kid kicked my ass on ability!

I'm finding it hard to get out on the bike as my work has sucked every last bit of motivation from my soul and leaves me ready to scream at the world too **** off and die and all i want to do is hide at the weekend. So, em, enjoy the christening. 🙂

After twatting my baws on the stem after an over the bar trip. It was pretty scary to be honest. Doc thought it was funny though, but then my doc loves hearing all about my biking injurys, i think i'm one of the few people that he sees that does any sport…

That would be under strathclyde police… No point reporting it. With idiots like that your better to stop and wait for 5 minutes then carry on. 🙂

There'd be a damn sight fewer accidents if they did leave them to remind people how bloody dangerous it is to be stupid in a car

Your not far wrong actually – leave them with the blood stains on the cars and on the tarmac. It would make people think at least.

As for the plane there is one on a hill near me – I thought about taking a bit as a memento, then decided that if everyone did there would be no plane left for me to see. I took a picture instead.

David.