Pretty sure you can tell Google to avoid motorways and also avoid tolls

You can but after a few minutes it defaults back to taking you to the autoroute. It also gives route alternatives so I tried selecting the one that didn’t take the autoroute – exactly the same, in a few minutes it defaults back to the autoroute route. Sometimes it’ll take you on a ridiculous detour to get you on the autoroute even when there are obviously quicker routes. It’ll always take you to the nearest échangeur even if it’s through town in the wrong direction and it’s better to avoid the town and take the next one. And it always assumes 130kmh on the autoroute whatever the weather (autoroutes are limited to 110kmh in the wet) or traffic conditions.

Try it the next time you drive in France.

Even when there aren’t autoroutes the route suggested is sometimes bananas. In Toulouse recently and heading for a Supercharger the Google route went through the whole length of the commercial zone to the Supercharger, parallel to the traffic-free toll-free 70/80kmh ring road.

Suse pic, a mountain in Italy

Tired will always be tired not TI Red

Which is it, Mildred or mild red.

I’ve now got two women in the car telling me to go the wrong way. :) But at least the Mapy one doesn’t throw the map book out of the window. The Google one was really annoying, she kept diverting me to the autoroute, I reckoned she was sleeping with VINCI so gagged her, but sometimes untie her for the last km to a Supercharger, she must have a thing with Elon too.

Madame Edukator says much the same as Mrs owg above. She’s in secondary and the ones that were in the last two years of primary during the lockdowns have now reached her, they get worse results and more detentions than she normally dishes out.

Nudge suggests pushing it out from the side which could damage the piezo if you drag the saddle along it, I loosen till I can pull it straight up so there’s not risk to the piezo.

I’ve never had to take the strings off completely to get the saddle out.

I used the Gibson recommened heights at the 12th as my objective, they’re on the Gibson site. Measure the current string height for each string at the 12th and work out how much too high each string is. Double these values and that’s what you need to take off the saddle. I then take the saddle out and measure its depth for each string, and calculate how deep the saddle needs to be for each string. If the intonation is OK I sand the amount that the string that requires the least removing from the bottom of the saddle with wet and dry on a glass plate. For the other strings I take additional material off the top of the saddle with a fine file then wet and dry – at this point you can make minor corrections to intonation by moving where the rounded top is to make the diapason shorter or longer (I use a non-wound G-string which requires a longer diapason than a wound one). If major intonation changes are needed I take every thing off the top of the saddle.

I’ll admit to having tried to go too low on a couple and bought bone blanks from Thomann to replace them. On a guitar I use plugged in I’ve gone nearly electric low but on guitares I use acoustic I’ve found that lower than Gibson height I can’t play hard enough for a good volume without something buzzing.

Be very careful not to damage the piezo pickup when removing/fitting the saddle.

And file the nut if it needs it first and make sure you’ve got the truss rod set right (the curve of the neck) before you start measuring.

As another Zoe owner that’s run out of free connective services – I never used them anyhow. I use the phone for navigation and could still connect it to the car but don’t, it sits in the tray by the gear lever charging with the nice Mapy lady telling me where to go (though we often disagree). The car lives in a garage so I don’t pre heat and I’m not wasting leccy pre-heating if it’s away from home at public charger prices. I didn’t use the time or percentage thing, that’s sorted by me or the charger. It’s not that I’m a technophobe (well maybe a bit), but I’m not a geek either, I like simple solutions.

I find the predicted range isn’t very useful and rely more on what I’ve learned from experience. I know that locally range isn’t an issue, I just charge when down to about 25% and back up to 90%. On long runs in Summer on main roads I know there’s about 300km between charges and 250km on motorways – less in Winter depending on temperature. What it says on the dash isn’t very useful. Arriving in ski resort it’ll tell me there’s 180km left and 40km later 230 with exactly the same charge in the battery.

France’s current position was made clear by Barnier yesterday claiming “legitimate self defence” for Israel. Madame told the radio what she thought of that. If someone gives you a slap ripping both their arms off and blinding them is not legitimate defence, especially if you’ve been squatting their garden for decades.

Googling says you’re right about BMW and Mercedes but VW is mainly Korean cells with three suppliers to one Chinese, and Merc is rethinking some of its European cell commitments. Amusingly they’re still planning on buying French cells. Mercs with Renault ICEs and now with French cells. The German government dropping subsidies on EVs looks like screwing some European cell factory building. Short sighted or short sighted.

I think Michel Barnier had it about right – “boucaniers”, bucanneers. Johnson could bluster through fine relying on his staff until both he and his staff bit off more than they could chew.

He rose to power through the old school tie network getting jobs he would never have got on merit. But served his paymasters well enough with columbs full of bollocks and outright lies – his forte.

And screwed nearly all of you all over. He came close to screwing me over too but Barnier wrote a very good withdrawal agreement. It’s only very recently that I’ve had any kind of info that my UK pension shouldn’t be affected by Brexit. For a while it looked like it might not be indexed linked like say Australia where Brits only get a tiny non-indexed proportion of their UK pension, but it looks like Barnier and his team protected the interests of Brits already established in Europe – fingers crossed, I still can’t find anything beyond press articles. Barnier did a far better job of protecting Brits’ interests than British PMs Johnson and May.

I think you’ll find that European manufacturers are increasingly making use of the capacity that is coming on line in Europe, Daffy. Renault used to source its batteries in South Korea but now gets them from Poland, Hungary is also a big producer. If you are interested in buying an electric car check where the batteries are sourced before you buy if it’s important to you, it is to me.

Which European brands source their batteries in China? Obviously Dacia does because the car is just a rebadged Chinese thing. Others?

Nice idea Oldman but I’ve posted much more info than that already and I’m sure everyone is sooo interested in what I post they’ve retained every bit of it. I’ll be soo disappointe if they haven’t.

Anyhow, the governement, 10 000 more kids have fallen into poverty under Labour thanks to the 2-child cap says a Guardian title. ****.

So they’ll then be competing on a level playing field, just as Honda, Nissan and Toyota do or did in the UK. It then just needs no-selling-at-a-loss legislation to avoid dumping, France already has that.

With prices like that brands that manufacture in Europe respecting human rights, environmental norms and employee protection are doomed. Protectionism needed. I wouldn’t buy one if it were 10e but too many will.

B) To get rid of the benefits/drawbacks of the conservatory tear it down and replace with a brick extension.

Done. Polycarbonate = cold in Winter and hot in Summer. The polycarbonate got upcycled into a roof for the wood store which is far enough fropm the house not to be a noise issue.

DrP about medical

DrJ is the real doc who is quite handsome, drives a… and rides a… and lives in… with… X having…

DrP is nearly my age, not so handsome and we have some other things in common. He likes spartan modern furnishings or did in his last place anyhow. Now back in the UK after… drives a…

Just teasing, but seriously anyone taking a minimum of notice soon builds up a mental profile of the people on here, I could sit down with a pen and write more than a A4 page on some without thinking too hard. I’ve even been accused of stalking and having files on you all – I did make a quip to that effect but have infact only have kept one record or rather two, lists of in and out when the original Brexit thread was running, long since binned. It’s just the way my memory works (and sometimes doesn’t) that seems to surprise people. I bookmark some pages too when I make predictions to see how they hold up.

People post about their medical issues, private lives, holidays, passions, problems and all sorts of wonderful shit, and some of  remains in my head, I can’t help it. I know more about at least 20 people here than I know about the club members who I’ve ridden an MTB with on a Saturday mornings for 20 odd years and who’ve invited me into their homes.

So to me anyhow you’re not Internet Randoms, you’re a bunch of people I like enough to virtually hang out with. You can’t get on with all the people all the time and as in real life I know those I share values with and those I don’t. I have a lot of respect for some I don’t share all values too. In disputes I sometimes stay out of  the playground gangs it but sometimes as in yesterday dive in – Ernie is one hell off a sharp carpenter and wields a political banner with just just as much precision as his hammer – he doesn’t deserve the “attention” he’s getting. He’s visibly been trying to diffuse rather than escalate but even ignoring the provocation has been provocative apparently.

Vive STW and all who sail in her !

Signed a ex Welsh Water scientist who enjoyed reading the Thames Water article that apparently started all this. :)

Still use mine, it’s the perfect tool for a Brompton.

it was your “easily fooled who believe the bollocks” that started the annoyance

Which was in reply to a quote from another member’s post not you. It was absolutely not aimed at you personally as others have realised and pointed out to you. It’s a specific aspect of carbon capture I reacted to.

It really is getting late now on this side of the chanel.

and I’d just shake my head and walk away as there’s no point arguing at that level.

Pleeeeeze

Up to eight quotes from other members in  one post with antagonistic replies

Completely ignores linked info and dismisses it as unreliable sources whilst treating official propaganda as gospel.

Makes claims on own lifestyle but fails to back them up

Constantly criticises other members attitudes and posting style whilst posting in a heavy-handed and arrogant manner.

Slags off the “level of argument” whilst using all the tricks in the STW book.

Accuses members of getting personal having already got personal.

Assumes other STW members are ignorant plebs unworthy of arguing with him

We can see what you’re doing, man. Anyhow it’s getting late and I’ve just had to remind myself, “don’t feed the troll”.

Sleep tight.

Iknew knew you’d slag off the links, pot kettle black.

my home is well insulated

Let’s see, my house isn’t even passive and I’ve got:

Floors: R=3 100mm of plyester wool

Roof/ 100mm wood fibre R2.8 crossed with 100mm cotton/lin/hemp R2.8 and 66mm polyurethane R=3 and in most of it there’s 100 of rock wool in the ceiling tooat R=3

Walls: varaibale between R=3.2 and R=5.2 depending on material used. (a typical UK cavity wall with insulation in the cavity is R=1.5)

Windows: triple glazed uw 0.9 or 1.0

Check out the energy bills threads to see what people spend on gas to get an idea of the energy demand of what most people consider a “well insulated house” to be. But how many would give up 100mm of space and make the investment in money and time and inconvenience to properly insulate. Very very few on this forum.

Now yours.

You apparnetly know a lot about black holes. Well I published on the impact of atmosperic pollution in the journal of environmental management decades ago, have maintained an interest in pollution ever since, have the whole geological history of the planet in my head to make comparison with and haven’t lost my geologist approach to science.

Don’t continue the debate, or stick around and maybe you’ll see that sometimes you just might have fallen for some clever greenwashing and oil industry propaganda.

Have a read of this thread, just my posts from the page I’ve linked if you want to see where I’m coming from. You’ll note that STW was way more confrontational than it is now. Those of us still around are fairly thick skinned. I’ve got even older threads in my book marks but I covered most of the important points in the linked thread:

Global warming update!

Stratford upon Avon with a train ride into Brum on one day to walk some canals/museums/infamous streets, a visit to the theatre (book early), row a boat on the river, jazz night in a pub (can’t remember which night or which pub sorry)… .

First Google result about the energy used in carbon capture, estimates vary but the amount of energy required is similar to the energy produced by burning the fossil fuels that produced the CO2 in the first place.

https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transition/the-amount-of-energy-required-by-direct-air-carbon-capture-proves-it-is-an-exercise-in-futility/2-1-1067588?zephr_sso_ott=zfFkpC

Even if you believe the oil-company financed hype the energy needs are colosal.

https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transition/the-amount-of-energy-required-by-direct-air-carbon-capture-proves-it-is-an-exercise-in-futility/2-1-1067588?zephr_sso_ott=zfFkpC

Then there’s the water needed:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/15/emissions-capture-carbon-cost-water-electricity

And al that when  the vast majority of STWers still have gas central heating and drive an ICE car. Low hanging fruit first, stop burning oil where there’s a viable alternative, which there is.

INSULATE with both carrot and stick incentives which won’t include a Winter fuel payment. I think about four of us on STW have homes that are anywhere near passive house standards.

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY tax fossil fuels to fund investment in alternatives rather than subsidise and encourage fossil fuel use

SORT OUT TRANSPORT. mainly public transport but also good, maritime, tax on aviation fuel at the same level as petrol and at least five time renewable electricity etc.

Labour won’t do this, they pander to the fossil fuel lobby.

The existing clusters are injecting into expired oil/gas fields for pure storage.

Utterly insignificant and usually rapidly abandoned projects.  It really isn’t the answer and is perhaps top of the greenwashing league. The oil and gas industry would make a much greater contribution to reducing green house gas emissions if it invested in properly capping the thousands of old wells that are leaking methane around the globe.

Ploughing energy, resources and money into carbon capture when there is so much lower hanging fruit is counter productive and only serves to appease the easily fooled who believe the bollocks. When energy is totally decarbonbised and there’s a surplus start working on carbon capture. Till then concentrate on reducing emissions.

Also, we are currently (sic) advised that slow charge rates are better for our batteries, so using high currents for each charge should be avoided.

We are speculating about the future possible with solid state batteries that will take very high charge rates without degradation rather than current battery tech.

It was seeing a new Model S Plaid pull into one of the new 250kW Tesla charging bays with the charger in the middle of the bay that provoked my thinking. I didn’t time it but the car was there about 15 mins and had probably put in 60kWh. It’s getting more like filling up with petrol all the time and solid state batteries will take it a step further.

How would those in favour of lampost chargers feel if there were rows of 250kW chargers on the exits of large supermarkets, DIY store and places they regularly go? Every one I knew in Brum used to fill up with petrol at Tescos, filling up with leccy for a couple of weeks would take 10-20 minutes under a dry canopy?

I agree with Molgrip’s point about favouring night time charging but the population with drive ways will already be doing that. From an infrastruture point of view it strikes me as easier, cheaper and less digging to put in a few thick cables than a lot of thin ones. From a maintainance point of view too. I wonder if there are any stats on the proportion of UK households that have a driveway or private off-road car parking that could be equipped with a private socket. Every lampost won’t be enough anyhow and create parking rage worse than we have already as people squable over the (looks out of the window) 7 cars per lampost.

Only interested in the edible variety these days. I often return from a ride with jersey pockets bulging or enough in the pannier to fill a pan.

Last time I carried a spare it was nicked :(

Edit: spare worth nicking, I’ve learned to keep a just legal one if ever I carry one, and the phone number of the insurance/recovery.

I’ve got couple of Warmoth necks and junior has one on his favourite Tele, MSP. Of mine one is 41.5 and the other is 43.5. Even 2mm means I don’t get so many unwanted mutes but I prefer the narrower one for chords with thumb fretting. You may have to learn to finish the fret ends as they generally deliver dressed but not rounded. That’s one of the reasons I like them, on some Fender necks the fret ends are rounded a bit to much which means the E/e string drops over the end with vibrato.

Only in the UK in a LHD car, the only place I have to drive on the wrong side of the road. Madame Edukator normally puts me right immediately but on one occasion she didn’t notice either, country road with no signs or road makings to put me right. I’d like to thank Mr white van man who braked as hard as I did and flashed which suggested I was the idiot. No problems in the UK with a RHD car or in Europe with a LHD, it’s having the wrong car for the road network that confuses me, I automatically assume kerb side is passenger side.

Consider the investment and running costs in a petrol service station, whatgoesup. And then it requires a tanker turning up regulary. However because the turnover is high they make a profit, and that despite tiny margins. As I was sat at one of the 23/24 occupied Superchargers recently I did some mental sums on how much Tesla was making based on the average occupancy of those chargers:

The average occupancy shown on the app was about a third and I’ll assume the cars charging were pulling about 100kW (I was the only non Tesla)

So 8 x 100 x 24 = 19200kWh a day which is 7008000kWh a year.

I’ll make an edukated guess of Tesla making 15 cents/kWh. Even with that modest margin the charge station makes over a million euros a year. I doubt they’re losing money on them and what fantastic publicity for the brand they are.

Now consider what the not very competitive competitors are making with their mark up of around 55cents on motorway service areas.

All that to say I think Shinton makes a good point: Public charging stations, 250kW charging and solidstate batteries are more likely to be the future than charge points in lamp posts.

In my nearly 8 years of EV ownership I’ve seen models come and go very quickly:

The Renault Fluence is designed around a quick change battery – garages capable of doing that redundant.

7kW chargers in villages – now all removed (the plug standard is redundant anyhow)

22kW AC chargers in ones and twos all over the place – only used by locals, nobody uses them on a long journey anymore except maybe Zoe owners with the 22kW onboard charger. I haven’t used one for a couple of years.

50kW DC they usually gave between 25 and 40 in reality, if I come across one now I’m pissed off.

250kW DC now were talkin ! and I think they’re the future rather than 3.5-7kW from a lampost.

Nissan Leaf.

Should I start a new thread? This one seems to be bogged down in posts about Starmer being a dick. I keep coming in hoping for some news as to how Labour is undoing some of the unfairness the Tories dealt out over their years in power and just find more examples of Starmer being a dick. So how about a new “Benefits of Labour” thread along the lines of the benefits of Brexit thread but hopefully with some benefits.

Yes I know it’s early days but I’d like to see something about how Labour is implementing its promised major reforms of employment law for example.

Some companies in France give longer holidays to employees who use trains rather than planes to go on holiday. For example if you take the train to holiday in Italy you get an extra day’s paid leave as taking the train loses you a day. Works well according to a news report. That’ll potentially save more CO2 than 2 weeks of not commuting by car.

Thing is the employees were eco-aware and motivated, it’s not going to work with flabby climate sceptic conspiracy nuts.

You’ve clearly “understood” so you can’t “prevent the realisation” and you’re presenting the phenomenon as fact so you’ve also “accepted”. No point reading mtivational bollocks books about it then. No suggestions beyond don’t waste the time that’s left reading  books telling you how to think.

I see your question mark, mrmonkfinger. I absolutely agree with your sentiment but I’m still a fan of ABS and ESP (and my favourite tyres) for those once or twice in a lifetime and only if you’re unlucky moments.

For example bumbling along a route departementale in les Landes at the legal limit when one of the drivers coming the other way decides there’s enough room to overtake when there isn’t. It’s then that all the safety legislation, testing and homologation become your friend. Brake, avoid, two wheels on the grass and the car is still pointing in the right direction.

One day I hope cars will be automatically limited to the speed limit. Till then however careful you are you might someday be thankful for a bit of technology and some grippy rubber. Since the snow-flake tyres only rule in the mountains in France very few cars are seen slithering around using too much road or getting stuck.

I want my politicians to be humans and humanist rather than lording-it-over-the-plebs privileged pricks who line their pockets with “favours”.

If he can’t cover the total cost of his hobby himself he shouldn’t go, if he needs more security than normal, he should pay. I can’t afford an Oassis ticket so I don’t go.

Signed, a pleb.

Husky snow chains.

One of the down sides of being a “star” is that public appearances become uncomfortable/risky so most stars act accordingly. I don’t think he should create a major security headache with his own selfish and perfectly futile whim of going to a football match. He’s clearly got enough income to pay for the box so if he wishes to go despite the risk and hassle for security he should pay for the box and leave the place in the stands for those who can’t afford a box.

Personally I’d rather he spent his weekends meeting people on zero hours contracts or working all hours on minimum wage temporary contracts that sat in box at a football stadium.

Less tread equals more grip in the dry, more grip in the damp, less grip when it’s properly wet and less grip on snow. Touring car racers obliged to use road tyres used to put them in a lathe and skim the tread down to just enough to last the race. The main reason that full Winters have less grip in the dry is that the tread blocks tip under braking and cornering forces. Those off us who’ve run full Winters to the death over Summer know that when they’re nearly worn out and the tread doens’ flex as much they grip really well in the dry and damp.

I’m lazy so just put the new tyres the end that was worn out.

Source: Honda Civic with a waggly arse with lift off oversteer.

Understeer/oversteer is a bit of a moot point in a modern car with ESP. It works really well

Coming from a motorsport background I don’t like most road tyres. Many have a hang on then completely let go character. So I drive accordingly, slowly. The tyres I used in motorsport on the other hand retained remarkable levels of grip at quite extreme slip angles. I’m willing to sacrifice some ultimate grip for tyres that don’t have that all then next to nothing breakaway characteristic. The Cross Climates and Alpin 6 have some of that “feel”, nowhere near enough to be able to drive like on race tyres though – so I don’t, I bumble along with the rest of the road users leaving a generous gap.

Caution rather than ultimate barking performance.