I bough a run down house over a year ago and am only now seeing the light. Riding has had to be put on a back foot. Best advice I can give is do as much of the stripping and clearing yourself to keep costs reasonable. Whatever you think it will cost might as well add another 50/100%.

I have a scale 20 and an anthem x and like both bikes. Around the marin trail they are pretty equal time wise for me, but i prefer the anthem on more bumpy trails like coed y brenin. I use the scale more for back door rides which includes a mix of everything.

I would have preferred the money to have been given/ringfenced to the RAF to purchase new helicopters improve service as a not for profit organisation.

I would recommend makita 18v drills. I’ve been renovating a house over the last year and have used a 18v drill and a separate SDS drill/hammer to hack all the walls in the house without a problem.

i got the drill in a box set including two batteries, a charger and a lot of bits for £100. The makita sds was £130, also well worth it.

Stop ruminating over it, if you are not getting anything positive out of it I’d move on as I assume apart from yourself you haven’t got any dependencies.

Go for it. Commuting 3 hrs for a 4 hrs shift is a lot unless you are paid mega bucks.

Don’t think a novice will like the Tarw as there are some rocky sections in it. I’d combine the new blue Minotaur and Cyflym Coch, both will be 20km.

True, unless you have found a better job with better holidays in that period !

I think changes to contract terms have to be agreed, they can’t be imposed.

Will they pay you for working the bank holidays? Or will they up your holiday entitlement to cover the lost bank holidays?

That boiler online is £2k, add 10% for plumber collection etc, one day to install (?), say £250, and a little for materials, readjusting pipes etc, so my guestimate is…….£2,500. Id get afew quotes as well.

Went through A levels, a degree in civil engineering and then worked up to being a chartered engineer. Didn’t plan on being an engineer really, I just fell into it. My job now is project managing road construction schemes. However after 15 years I fancy a bit of a new challenge/change so will look at whats around over the next 12 months or so. Ideally would like to work for myself but we’ll see.

Travel tap

Are these in stock now?

Ive stripped my house back to the stone and am slowly rebuilding it up. Its taken much longer than I planned as I depend on others as well.

I took all of mine down, except one room where I painted the artex with feb blue ( which has grit in it) and it will be plastered in the next week or do.

Wouldn’t worry about it. I had an interview once with quite a big energy company, went really well, but never heard a thing, not even a “no thanks” 😆 and they can’t use the excuse of no staff, they had a dedicated HR Dept.

On a civic type r I get 15k from the front and have 70k so far from the back.

I hacked around 75% of the internal walls of my house with a makita sds, cost around £130. Still works fine and well worth the money.

Ive owned a new shape one for around four years now, no problems at all and a complete bike, with both wheels fit in the back. Honda servicing costs £200/300, bridgestone tyres are £120 each, front last around 12,000 miles, rear have done 70k,, average 32mpg on my 25 mile commute, insurance around £500, tax £270/year (i think).

I owned the previous shape before, also a very good car.

They should have told you of possible delays in returning the product before you sent it in to be fair.

Thanks. If I use two cables to one coax socket – do I just leave the other cable free for now?

I bought a repo house earlier this year which I’m currently renovating.

The process is the same as buying a normal house except for a few differences. You put a bid in, you need to supply proof that you have the money in place at the time of the bid, they either say yes we’ll accept or no, you are way off.

However when the bid is accepted, a notice is then placed in the local paper/internet saying they have received an offer of X amount and anybody wishing to submit a higher ofer should do so before completion of contracts. (you usually have either 14 days cash or 28 days (i think) with a mortgage to complete). So you will be in the process of buying the house, solicitor appointed etc but someone could come in and bid more and the mortgage company might accept this. You would then have to decide to pay more or walk away but still pay solicitors/survey fees.

I was lucky with mine as noone else came in with a better offer and as I work in engineering I didn’t bother with a survey as the structure was ok – I was going to gut the house anyway so plumbing/electrics etc wasn’t a concern

edit: I doubt you’ll get 50k off of 150k but you can use it as your first bid and see what the agents say.

Im 5′ 10″ and have a M giant compact frame.

Don’t think i’d give a £1k non refundable cheque to anyone tbh.

I also had an EP3 and now have the newer FN2. Had mine since 2007 and done nearly 70,000 in it, excellent to drive, whole bike fits in the back with the seats down, no problems at all, still on original exhaust and average 32 mpg on a mix of 30/60mph run. I normally change cars every 2 years but have kept this one much longer.

I’d have more faith in Mickey Mouse than the current government. 😆

Spare tube taped under seat – multitool, micropump, tube patch, tyre patch, chainlink, CO2, phone, gel into back pockets, bottle for drinking.

Try an exped ul7, packs very small and it had baffles (?) running the same ditection as your body, helps stay on the mat.

I preferred it to snowdon as well, less people there as well.

Why not buy an off the shelf concrete panel garage? Probably cost £1500/2000 fitted. Youd need to do the base yourself, something like 100/150mm of concrete with mesh would be ok, say 3m3. Planning would be a few hundred, if you know someone who does CAD they could do the drawings pretty quickly.

I dont race but use a 12-27 on my road bike, but live in snowdonia so quit a lot of climbing.

This, very bright. Silverpoint also do the same one, thats the one I have from Cotswolds

Alpkit Light

Its unrealistic to be expected to move around without any expenses.

Can the £35k be justified in what is at best a flat market or are they trying to make a quick buck.

Ive got both, Hope everytime, customer services is brilliant where shimanos isn’t.

Yes I have as well, print off the form from their website and they phone you for payment after a few days. Brakes work fine now, also changed the pads. Think mine were around £95 for strip/service & new pads and return postage, done in Jan 12.

I’m 5’10” and ride a medium TCR Advanced and a medium Defy – both compact framesets, inside leg 30″. I’m probably borederline between a (Medium)M and a (MediumLarge) ML but am happy with the M.

I’ve got one and think it’s superb. I use it mainly for solo wildcamping. Space is very good for one person, two can fit but I wouldn’t want to use it for a week say with two people.

Materials are thin, thats why it is a superlite, but very strong and no problems. The inber tent hooks makes it much easier to pitch than a sleeve, I had a sleeve on my ultra quasar but prefer the hooks.

I did seam seal mine with silnet (£10) which took a few hours to do and have not had any problems with leaks.

Also if it rains, you can pack the flysheer seperate to the inner, no faffing about unclipping the inner from the outer. Also it takes a few minutes to erect, so no issues there as well as the inner is also water repellant, enough to keep it dry for those few minutes.

For two people for a week or so I’d recommend a superlite or ultra quasar as tbey have a bit more room and 2 porches.

Very expensive but a Hilleberg Nallo 2GT. The porch would be good for storing and drying stuff and you could easily recoup 1/2 the cost on ebay if you wanted to sell it on your return.

Edit: or a vango equinox 250, about £160 on ebay but probably weighs a kilo or so more than the hilleberg. Ive got an equinox and pack size isn’t that small, so worth lokking at one if you are going to carry it.