Do they need to be online? Can’t you just pop in or call your local florist and sort something out with them?

Andym… phew.. I thought I was missing something vital there, and couldn’t work out what it was! :D

Whatever you get, don’t forget to get some uni-directional speaker cable… it makes all the difference… :wink:

andym… money saved from paying interest on a mortgage isn’t tax free, you’ve just already paid tax on it, which is why you need to compare it to the net savings rate.

For example, for £10k, if you are earning 5% gross on that for example, if you are a lower tax rate payer, then you’ll be getting 4% net. As long as your mortgage rate is above 4% then you will be better off paying off your mortage. If the mortgage rate is less than 4% then it’s better to save.

Depending on the interest rates, it’s not always the best idea to pay money off your mortgage. If you can get a better net interest rate for your savings than you are paying on your mortgage then you are better off putting your money in savings.

Also, make sure you both have completely filled your tax-free ISA allocation for this year (£3600 each), and then don’t forget that when the tax year starts again in April, you can put another £3600 away each.

I was looking about at what mortgage deals are available and found nothing more than 90% LTV… but the problem with them is that they are very expensive! You’d be looking at something like a 6-7% fixed interest rate for 2 years, or equivalent. If you have say a 25% deposit, you can get 3-4% rates…

When you do the maths it turns out to be about £800+ a month in mortgage payments on £100,000 on a 90% LTV mortgage. If you then put on top of that the overheads that would be needed to let the property out, I can’t really see you getting your mortgage covered by the rent. So a 95% mortgage would be even worse!

I just watched it… and I do believe I spotted Chipps…

:oD

I think that as the website is still only in beta they think that they can screw around with it as they please… I’ve had several occasions where it’s just not let me on, but a day or so later I have got on no problems..

Hmmm… damnit… why can’t you all come to a concensus? :wink:

I’d all but decided against the messenger bag after andym and redted, but then fuzzyjimble and adh sway me back again… looks like I am still in two minds…

The thing is, am not so bothered about the sweating bit as I’m a right sweaty bugger anyway and always need a shower when I get into work, I’m more worried about how comfortable it will be over 15 miles when it’s full of work clothes, towel, lunch etc… unfortunately I haven’t got anywhere to store a whole weeks worth of clothing at work, so I have to carry it there and back every day.

And while I do like the practicallity of panniers, they are bloody heavy! Myabe some lighter panniers would do the trick… hmmmm, just what I need, another option!

Upload the files to the Sportstracker website, and then download them from there?

I’ve done it a couple of times like that and had no problems with importing that file into Memory Map.

I’m gonna be trying this out for the first time towards the end of March… and I have to say, I am slightly nervous, but rather looking forward to it.

Although I have a feeling we’ll be going to Calshot, so MrSmiths comments are not helping!!

:wink:

cyclelife/vdubber… so does that mean that neither of you think there is any difference in the ride characteristics of different HT frames then?

If on the off chance you do think there are differences, how then would you go about describing those differences in ride without using ‘nonsensical, marketing-driven superlatives’?

why is it that the three main religions all managed to arise within a small area of the earths vast surface? were other peoples not worthy? why should “god” choose the people in this area?

alpin… you do realise that it’s probably because they all use basically the same text and just interpret it in different ways…

And I am sure the Hindu’s might have something to say about being excluded from the 3 main religions… there are a few more of them than Jews, and in fact, according to wiki Judaism is only number 6 in the world religion standings…

I understood Stoners gripe, and I was just pointing out that the particular issue didn’t seem to be associated with the £25 voucher that I used last night.

It may be that they have responded to that criticism and changed how things operate on the website, I don’t know, but it wasn’t how it worked for me.

EDIT: In fact, having just read through the article again, it actually says that they have changed how things work…

Stoner… having just bought 12 bottles of wine for £55 the £25 voucher is exactly what it says it is…

Granted, there is then a page that comes up and asks you if you want to save a further 33% (£18ish) on that purchase by opening a wine savings account, but there was nothing stating that you could only have that £25 voucher if you opened an account. There also didn’t seem to be anything else on the site saying that you couldn’t just buy wine from them without paying any money into an account.

So, a voucher giving you £25 off, and no need to pay any more money to them… I’m not sure what your issue is with them as there certainly didn’t seem to be anything misleading about the voucher or the website…

As it is, having looked around the site, and knowing how much we usually spend on wine a month, putting some money into an account and then getting 33% money back on any wine we buy looks like a cracking deal.

grumm… just some Tektro ones I picked up in the classifieds, not got them yet, so we’ll see how they go, but to be honest they can’t be any worse than the normal v brake I have on the back of my Pompino at the moment, which is there due to the lack of any canti bosses…

As I understand it, mini-v’s require less pull than standard v’s, but more pull than a canti, so sit somewhere inbetween… they will work with road levers, but, as stated above, might require some careful setup.

Oh, and if it makes any difference, I’ve decided to go for mini-v’s on my Pompino…

Until I start whinging about the setup and go back to canti’s… :wink:

Well… have just ordered a case with the voucher, so we’ll see how it goes… but am not sure you can go too far wrong with 12 bottles for £55!! :oD

Ooooh… hopefully that’ll actually make an appearance on iplayer so I can have a watch too…

Or go for some secondhand Hope XC hubbed wheels for about £100 off the classifieds…

Whatever happened to being able to ride with a single 10W halogen? Everyone seems to need more and more light these days…

Although saying that, those Lumi LED’s are quite tempting…

It’ll also depend on any other taxable benefits that you might get through work like health care… you’ll get taxed on the value of those.

Just a couple of things mccett…

Can you point out how a race track is in any way the same as an Alpine descent..

Secondly, at what point on your motorcycle do you have to set up the suspension for peddle input?

I’d say that mountain bike suspension is probably a long way in advance of motorbike suspension in terms of technology, just because of the demands placed upon it. As such, it makes it a lot harder to tune properly, and to service.

Aaaah, is this juan’s monthly dig at Turner and Ventana owners for not buying a Kona instead?

:wink:

BoardinBob… ViewRanger[/url] is a full on GPS OS mappy thing for S60 phones…

wwaswas… I just tend to start mine and sling it in my rucksack and it works fine. If it’s gonna be very wet then I just put it in a small plastic bag. Not had an issue with it losing satellite track yet.

I have used it a few times, although not with the livesharing bit, although I do like the idea of it if I’m out in the wilds on my own… am not sure I would use it unless I had an unlimited data plan though.

The longest I’ve had it running is about 4 hours, and that drained the battery quite a lot, although the phone was still useable but that was on the old firmware. Not tried it on the new firmware yet, but the general battery life has been improved no end with it, so it should be better now.

Did anyone actually ever find a link to this patent? I’ve had a look several times but nothing ever seems to match…

I’d say that the mechanic would be doing a bad job if they hadn’t cleaned and regreased the bearings, the bit I’m a little surprised about is that the shop hadn’t already factored that into the cost as it’s a standard enough job.

They are designed around the old 130mm Vanillas, but anything of a similar size will do, that means an a-c height of around 500mm or so.

I use some old 130mm Z1 FRs and although they are a little tall, they are just magic to ride with…

stilltortoise – I usually get a 3 or 4 washes out of one of the small bottles, but then I don’t tend to wash my Paramo jacket very often, probably only 5 or 6 times a year. It does get muddy, but the back is shielded by my hydration pack, and the rest just brushes off when it dries, and doesn’t seem to affect the waterproofing at all.

You should never really wash anything that relies of DWR as part of it’s waterproofing in detergent as they almost always contain wetting agents to allow the water to completely soak into the clothes as they are being washed. As you can imagine this is bad for waterproofing!

I always use the Nikwax Tech Wash stuff, but, as stated above, pure soap flakes work too.

The likely thing with you feet was that water was running down your legs, inside the tops of your socks, and thus we feet…

I’ve found the only way to stop that is to wear full length waterproof trousers.

As for the Stealth jacket, that’s a big of a bugger, but good to know as I was going to buy some Stealth tights! Maybe not now…

enfht, would this be in the same way that John Major went straight into an election as soon as he became PM?

Are you a banker by any chance? :wink:

Wasn’t the Fixie Inc. Pure Blood that was briefly reviewed in this months STW able to be run SS or geared? It is disc only though, which could be an issue…

Looks bloody gorgeous though..

You’ll be wanting to stay at North Lees campsite then…

Surely riding over from France and then doing it would be more of a challange… :o)

BETD do them don’t they?

I just gave up with the bushes and got the heavy duty bushing kit from TFTuned and replaced the whole lot. Seems like a far better solution that the top hat bushes as well…

I’m number 3? How the hell did that happen?

Does this mean I am important somehow?

I don’t know what people have against Dysons, mine original one is over 11 years old and still going strong…

Memory Map? You do realise that you have to buy the map files don’t you?

Or are you talking about some other piece of software that you get with the Garmin?