Thanks blazin – I had planned for about £2k ish so not unreasonable

Yep Simon trying to sort… But does not excuse the bloomin ads taking over! (yes maybe better if I pay up but these ads are very intrusive and wondering if it puts people off, small adds fine on a banner but full screen ads that you cannot cancel without shutting down the app / page)… That’s not good

Why am I getting a full screen fresh goods friday advert which I can’t close without crashing chrome! Jeez I love this forum but out of all the forums I use this is proper broken and so so much hard work (bet Drac is fine on ipad)

I would love to subscribe but mates have and they all complain!

Ffs this forum is terrible for photos! Why is it so hard to post a picture from my phone! (been here since 2007)

Tried all the foam ones and expensive audio ones (not custom fitted though)

Tried the wax ones which were horrible

I really rate the silicon ones. You can heat up a bit between your palms and squidge them in well. Never fall out and absolute perfect fit. Plenty of different types (I use ones in linky below) but you can get softer or firmer ones. Saved my marriage for sure! Ha ha

Note – I see you have tried bioears. These are quite hard and large… I always tend to rip off a bit to make the plugs smaller (obviously not too small!) but I can happily make a single plug fit both ears (so they don’t feel too large).

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Re-Usable-Waterproof-Cancelling-Travelling-Reduction/dp/B09Z8GDYCF&ved=2ahUKEwjRge6E5OKEAxURzgIHHQlsAuMQFnoECCYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2Z4W3GZE24kbwuEpWfuA3i

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Cheers… Yeah quite a poor spec for £3k but not really sure if there is anything comparable out there at the £3k limit.</p>
Spesh does a turbo tero but spec looks worse (but £500 cheaper which might offset a new fork)

Cheers for the reply Robertajobb no I don’t think so… See if this link works, see the total pay… If you add the 3 threshold figures up (which seem to be the portion of pay that is within each band), there is a £1 k ish difference between the result and total pay.

I might be missing something completely obvious!

Understanding your P60

Sharkbait – thanks @ will ask on assured tenancy

Dickey boy – again thanks so much for taking time to reply. Half moving stress as you say is quite comforting as well as having cash in the bank to negotiate hard.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Must stress – thanks all for replies. Really helps.</p>

@ rock hoper indeed – back to square one we go but might be buying at bottom of market having sold ours at top. We are trying to decide if worst case we might have to live in temporary accommodation for 4-6 months of it all falls through. Small chance – but it’s a chance!

Balls

Blackhat really useful thanks.

You picked on a big point about the price reduction – the vendor of property we are buying will not commit to reduction at this stage (give we still have 11 ish weeks to go) but I think so long as they know a reduction will be coming post October (when  the chain is further down the line) it would be illogical for the chain to work out between them a reduction in price to cover increased mortgage rates otherwise I am off and will look for another property.

Point 2 – yes little bit annoyed that I can’t get something in writing on this reduction, but I guess I will be in a stronger position to negotiate hard as you say with cash in bank (agents just want the commission from the sale I think and not working in my best interests)

Gah no idea why this stupid forum (as much as I love it) is so bloomin hard to use with text!

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Awesome irc, the poolman, rich and the brick for replies
>Nice to see most (all) people think the same as me… It really helps so much! (really does as its a big decision)</p>

Nuke – thanks mate! This is what I am thinking too. Worst case I have cash in the bank and in a really strong position to either negotiate on price reduction to keep chain alive or buy another property for less

I think I know the answer, it’s really helpful to have a bit of discussion with randoms on the Internet who also happen to like bikes :)

<p style=”text-align: right;”>Appreciate you all taking the time to reply :)</p>

Hey shark bait… We did suggest this but we had following reply:

Would there be any chance of the Cornwall property offering an assured merging short term tenancy to the couple buying it (from Hillary Drive)? They could then potentially move in earlier and have the tenancy ended when they complete the purchase? That would then leave their property vacant and the rest of the chain could proceed. They could then complete the purchase once probate has been granted. Is this this something that could be discussed with solicitors?

Agents respose : no very unlikely as all Solicitors would advise against this. If the Sellers in Cornwall were to agree to this, they would become Landlords. As such, they would need specialist Landlord insurance, gas & electrical safety tests carried out not to mention the cost of having an AST drawn up

More cash than dash – cheers I am swinging towards moving now and getting cash. My thinking is it gets me in the best situation but on the flip side means we might have to live in a tiny temporary house for longer. In the grand scheme of things my issues are insignificant compared to others.

Poolman – cheers for the reply. Is indeed a tough decision! Been told its a simple estate and 8 weeks in but as you say who knows!

Cheers mate

Tj and timba – cheers guys for taking the time to reply – Appreciated.

I don’t really understand the whole probate thing on a house sale.. I think a grant of probate needs to be issued before a house can be sold which is a bit different from the entire probate (where all funds are distrubuted and closed down) . Grant of probates from what I can gather are 12-16 weeks on a sale. I think (and I don’t really know) the 6-12 months is for total completion of estate (I.e funds have to be held for 6 months) including hold of inheritance tax and all that fun jazz.

Timba – cheers is possibly where I am at. Probably £25/£30 k up right now… But it’s all relative. My purchase is also high, unless the sellers reduce post October (when my current mortgage offer expires)

Wow bloomin good timing this thread… Just happened to pop on here earlier today during a very productive toilet break at work and saw this thread! Was just about (later today!) going to order a frame and some other bits totalling about £460. Wonder how many people who don’t know the situation are merrily placing orders?

Sad news… Having and two old Inbred frames in the shed and a fatty frame kind of expected on one / planet x to be around for a while.

Would I be crazy taking the risk to order? Assume so….

Hey! Interested as would have written exactly the same thing.

So there does seem to be alot of variability and wide spread of offers out there (if you have a good LTV ratio)

Best I have found on below 50% LTV on a 5 year fix is with barclays (surprisingly) at 3.84% with a random £794 product fee. Virgin offering 3.74 but with 1500 squid setup fee.

I am currently thinking of the 5 year fix for stability and hope things settle down but rates would have to drop by at least 0.7% at the end of the 2 year fix (comparing to the extra 3 years) to compensate for the higher rate on the 2 year fix (4.1%). If that makes any sense! Spreadsheets rule here to plug in the numbers and the random generator on predicted rates.

Its all a gamble and very difficult decision :(

Stirling – yep 3 times now :)
Poolman – yep this is the thing… Been over it with my critical eyes and all looks OK to me..I have spotted some small issues with a weepy pipe, older electrics etc. But nothing that would put me off right now as offer accepted under asking price

I do get a feeling the feeling £500 quid on a survey might tell me nothing more than I know now…. . Or it might give me scope to haggle

I guess the second part of my question becomes more important now – who the heck do I use!

Tj – thanks… Yes my thoughts exactly… But the question is who? I have no builder friends near me sadly

Cheers Timba… Sadly no. No real building work is required (I hope!) just a good bit of painting and replacing old people stuff… Current decor is “of its time” I think is the polite way of putting it :) might split the garage at some point into a store but don’t want to waste anyone’s time as this is a while off whilst I save up some more pennies!

Would be happy to pay for good advice but don’t want to pay £500 quid plus for nothing that offers any value! Mortgage on a 40% LTV so not sure how much they will push a full survey over a basic valuation (this is still ongoing)

Cheers!

Northern matt – yep this is what I am afraid of :( property is not new, Old couple downsizing but well maintained. Plumbing is fairly old, CH timer is old school dial, electrics won’t pass latest regs and I will need to fit new downlights etc (all within my capability) but fine for now, couple of double glazing panels blown in conservatory, slight leak in 15mm copper compression fit to water softener under sink etc. All small things. It’s the structural stuff I am less familiar with so maybe a builder would be better? Got a good price so not worried about the small stuff but if the house is going to fall down I would rather know ;)

Towzer yeah sadly I don’t have anyone near me local I can call on :( would welcome any recommendations on here for sure! So many companies out there, pretty convinced the survey is worth it given value involved and peace of mind and per muffin man and caher comments (thanks guys) but now it’s just who do I get to do it…..

Any decent builders / property experts / RICS accredited surveyers on here? Or welcome any reviews on companies (national or otherwise) you have used just to help me narrow down my selection*

*no comeback, I am pissing in the wind here as the quotes range from £400 to £900 for level 2 report.

Cheers!

Cheers for the reply guys – really appreciate it. Yeah keep seeing comments like yours Dr J… That’s what is concerning me. Part of me thinks I should get one done… But the other part looking at example reports says it won’t pick up anything I could spot (not bragging but it’s all basic stuff and anything more complicated as muffin man says will be caveated by “needs further inspection”)

Fossy yeah that’s the concern – I want the report to show anything I may have missed “the big stuff”

I am sort of thinking, like anything to do with health and safety (my area of expertise) these surveys will highlight problems just to show you are getting value. I don’t suppose they ever come back with “all good mate!”.

As suggested mortgage may need one but I thought that might be valuation report which is slightly different (and more a paper based excersise)?

Got a couple of quotes for survey and the weasel words in the T&Cs basically absolve the surveyer of any liability if they miss anything…hence I guess it all comes down to the quality of the guy/girl doing the survey.

Just had EPC done on my house and that was laughable – ten minutes in then out. For £75 quid to get exactly the same answer as I predicted.

Again thanks – any builders / RICS survey options for people you know would be appreciated (bonus points if they ride ha ha)

Hi happy new year. Not first hand experience but my dad also had this done at 57. He was given the option of a knee replacement (private) or the lube and chose to try the acid jab first as was worried that he would be worse off with the operation and would lose significant mobility (his knee was at a point where it was bad enough to cause him pain in the mornings and after longer walks but not bad enough that he could not continue with daily life) – he had tried steroid injection but got to a point where they did not work.

I think he had about 3 injections in the end which carried him through to 62. Then things were so bad he got a new knee.

One thing he keeps bringing up is he wished he had got the knee done earlier when he had the chance- the 5/6 years on jabs were really hard (I think he was masking the pain considerably) and he kind of got a new lease of life after having the knee done… Started going to the gym more, hillwalks and basically his fitness improved considerably, he became so much more active and his type 2 diabetes disappeared completely.

Sounds like you are well off this point yet and have much more life in the knee than my dad did :) so jabs may well work much better for you.

Hey guys.. Its buried in the original thread a few times. I did do a sperate post about 2 years ago now (my goodness time flies!) – have built quite a few of these before and folders but all have had slight issues which I am trying to improve

Chainless bikes!

My weird home brew bike is still going strong. Over 1000km covered mainly round swinley (yeah I know not a massive test ha) but quite pleased with the absolute lack of maintenance needed and the fact the frame has not snapped yet! Not had time with life / work / mortgage / kids and all that jazz to build the next one yet but design is coming together (next one will be 29er and will include a folding joint in the single top tube so I can easily chuck it in the back of the car)

https://postimg.cc/DWNm0DTm

gif free upload[/url]

Yeah look like work trousers…

I have a few pairs from these guys which I highly rate

https://www.engelbert-strauss.co.uk/work-jeans/e-s-worker-jeans-3160920-95997-290.html

I am with eon and got something very similar

£1.29 increase for electric and minus 0.02p for gas over the year

Weird

Spend hrs and hrs making “bombs” on building sites (not real) just used all the offcuts of single and triple core cable and other bits and bobs to assemble complex creations!

Also match heads and tennis balls – fun

Had a whole shed full (hidden from my parents of course) of potato cannons made from pvc pipework, duct tape and a piezo electric igniting system taken from lighters

Gat guns (lots of my friends had these and we would run about the garden shooting each other with darts)

Black widdow slingshot with the arm brace – would shoot a steel ball through half inch of chipboard no issue

Archery – this ended abruptly when I shot a few arrows through my fence into the neighbours shed

Bb guns – the gas type (used to be able to buy them as toys from Daniels in Windsor (no age restriction) so used to hide in bushes and shoot cars

Air rifles – used to use 3 in 1 oil to diesel the pellets. My parents were perplexed at the pattern of holes in the fence and both sides of the shed. This was really dangerous looking back as probably classed as a firearm

Fun snaps.. They were fun… Used to buy boxes and boxes from the market and cover the road with them as cars passed

Stink bombs – got sent home from school for that one as dumped a pack in the old fashioned air blast heaters in the assembly hall. Smell disappeared after about a year

Fireworks and old washing machines were fun..chuck one of the air blast bangers (can’t buy them anymore sadly) into the drum and close the door. Remember being lucky one time as the door blew past my head at extreme speed..

Jolly Rogers cookbook… Need I say more

I do wonder how I escaped unscathed from my childhood. I miss those times… All too PC these days :)

As I said a few posts up and so did the other chap – bushes are tight.

Temperature does have an effect on the tightness of the due to the differing CTE’s (thermal expansion coefficient) of the metal. The lower leg is cast magnesium and exposed to ambient air temp. The stanchion containing air piston is aluminium. As the air is compressed in the air piston it heats up expanding the stanchion ever so slightly. The magnesium lower fork legs will shrink (again ever so slightly) in diameter (as exposed to cold air) tightening the fit and making bushes even tighter.

All my RS forks with right bushings felt much better in the summer and terrible in the winter

I tend to avoid kwick fit and the like because some of them (not all) tend to drain oil from the dip stick hole with a pump. Depending on sump geometry this can be OK but most of the time leaves bad oil and debris at the bottom of the sump if the technician does not get the tube all the way to the lowest part. (fine for a quick change mind if that’s your thing)

I prefer the old fashioned (and normal) way of draining from the plug then you can be sure all the old oil and crap is out.

Also if your car requires a specific grade of oil, I would prefer to use an indy specialist who knows exactly what oil to put in. Alot of places like Halfords and kwick fit buy the oil in huge drums and will often fill with alternative (they are not going to hold stock of every single oil spec).

Not really helpful I know

Molgrips… Cheers yeah slight correction, flow is 78 return 65. So only 13 degree delta. Bit of a geek like you and have stuck k-types on my pipework and have spent an embarrassingly large ammount of time (with much amusement from my family) playing about with flow speeds and balancing rads

I don’t have a bypass valve in my system – just a towel rail which can’t be fully shut off

I can get the 20 deg delta (and get return to run below 55 deg C where boiler is most efficient with pump speed on low… But issue is I have a mix of stupid microbore and 15mm so even with balancing carefully, on low the heating in living room (with long run of microbore) does not get flow until the trv’s kick in (or should I say kick off) in the bedrooms. Also when the diverter kicks in and HW demand adds in then just not enough oomph on low.

All fun… Its an old system and ideally needs to be ripped out and redone

Interesting Fossy ta assume you posted here from my closed thread :) I will check consumption in KWh

Led’s throughout but two big tvs and kids laptops / phones etc. Plus tumble on every other day etc. Living life as normal ish for the time being but Nov has been fairly mild so far

Lots of things I can and should do like turning off things at the plug, replacing blown double glazing (prob will have the biggest impact for sure)

My original other post below for ref:

So I know there are so so many variables but would like to see if I can benchmark my November gas / elec usage against others with similar ish variable (if that is at all possible!) to see if its on the low / normal / high side before I go throwing money at improving things for marginal gains

3 bed terrace, 2 kids, 2 cats
Standard 1978 ex council build – brick downstairs (cavity), cladding upstairs, crap double glazed windows (probably all blown)

15kW greenstar condension boiler set to flow of 70 (return about 65 deg C so not condensing right now but any Lower House feels cold)

Heating on 21 deg. TRV set to 3 in each bedroom (downstairs apart from living room set to 2)

Bill for 34 days (end Oct to end Nov)
Elec £86
Gas £132
Works out at £6.50 ish per day

Heating on from 5.30am to 7.30am then on again at 3pm to about 9.30pm (water heats same time… Old gravity fed system)

So does that seem alot / to be expected or low?

Hard to compare previous years usage as change of supplier means all historic data lost

Very true Tom. That watch is hideous! Preowned too. Different strokes for different folks.

I don’t know… When you can get one of these for the same price… Seems crazy to me!

https://www.ducati.com/gb/en/bikes/monster/monster-sp

Can’t wait for a year or two when all these pop up on the second hand market so I might have a chance of actually affording one :)

Crazy how many <1 year old e-bikes on pinkbike and other FB sites etc. With very few miles are popping up now (mind you might be out of the lockdown impulse purchase period so maybe not)

Trek have opened a store really near me and they offer transferable warranty to subsequent owners (as long as bike is registered) and I also have a spesh turbo store also local so for me I would only consider either of these two brands currently as for such an expensive purchase I would want to be able to take it back to a real shop.

As said above.. This sounds like a symptom of tight bushings. No amount of playing / tuning / running in will help I am afraid. Drop all the air and set rebound / compression to minimum (ideally remove air cap). Flip bike upside down, remove wheel and then pull up and push down on the forks… Should be lovely and smooth, fork should compress and extent very easily with no stiction or notchieness.

Have had exactly the same issue as you describe on 2 pairs of 2022 revs, and a pair of lyrics. Just could not get them set up right at all, small bump compliance was terrible and forks would sit deep in travel.

SRAM / Rockshox QC seems be getting worse. First two pairs went back to SRAM under warranty and came back pretty much the same (tiny bit better but not ideal)… Got fed up so made up a crude Bush resizing tool and now the forks work brilliantly.

Might be lube or something else but my money is on either the upper or lower bushing being too tight (lower seems to affect small bump compliance more and upper deeper travel or might be both are tight)

I would send it back… Or sent it to someone like tf tuned. Might be weeing in the wind playing with setup if there is a fundimental problem internally.

Good luck