@stevextc The frame’s boost and has a 24mm compatible bb but no cranks yet, hence my question.

Didn’t think the M8000 were that heavy, they are cheaper which is good but I would like to go below 30t.

Yes the Affect lets me keep the bottom bracket, and cinch for the granny ring.

Any downsides for Aeffect compared to say M8000?

Some schools will let kids try out for a week. My daughter did, and changed her mind. But her friends enjoyed it. A lot depends on the school, and your daughter.

26″ High Roller 2 (F)
Ardent (R)

Dunno about the others but Jedi’s great…

Had a Honda for a few years. Enough power and reliable. Looks just like that Frisky Fox too…

Pick the one with the lowest annual cost. Probably iWeb.

Picking developed market stocks pits your skills against every other fund manager/trader/random punter out there. If you don’t know why your odds are better than theirs, then they’re not.

Some sort of combination of global ETFs should be a lot safer in the long run.

The Scosche Rhythm+ is accurate, armband-based and has Ant and Bluetooth Smart. Only downside is that the rechargeable battery is good for 5+ hours but probably won’t last 8 hours. It may depend which communications protocol uses less power.

Speak to recent clients for similar work. Check their resources eg team. Use a clear contract eg JCT.

If a contractor underprices a contract, they won’t complete.

Got a Mi 5s; hardware’s good, but Xiaomi haven’t released the kernel source code contrary to the GPL, so no independent ROMs.

Xiaomi’s MIUI ROM is a bit buggy and the software is full of ads.

The Mi 5 is probably a better bet if a CyanogenMod port is available.

Highland Park 12 is good value
Laphroaig Quarter Cask amongst the Islay ones
Springbank

Despite the wish of IFAs to offer good and impartial advice I’ve crunched the numbers and I’d prefer to get the one-page form filled as economically as possible.

I’m going to move the deferred pension to a Sipp. If I achieve 1.5% real return over the long run I’ll be ahead, which I think is doable. The first time I’ve seen achievable returns.

The trustees of the pension scheme want the form. Potentially it may say I shouldn’t transfer, but if so I can still insist and do it, depending on the attitude of the receiving scheme.

It seems ironic that to address the problems of those who, perhaps encouraged by unrealistic assumptions about returns offered by commission-led ‘free’ advisors, we are now obliged to pay the same group for fee-based advice, whether or not we need it.

Pension schemes have also assumed highly unrealistic rates of return until recently, which is why it didnt make sense to switch, and why so many company schemes have closed.

It takes me quite a while to earn the sort of money these IFAs charge, and I have the advantage that I already know my position.

Funny the IFA told you that size doesn’t matter. All of the IFAs I’ve recently approached want at least a 1% fee, no flat fees.

Possibly size doesn’t matter when the percentage looks high, but does when the fee is high and the percentage small.

I second julzm’s advice.

The assumption in your father’s calculation about his future income is that inflation doesn’t affect the value of his savings, which over 30 years is very unlikely to be the case.

There is a CGT relief for the period a house is the Principal Private Residence of the last 18 months, and any other periods, with the gain calculated on a pro-rata basis unless there’s been a formal valuation.

It would probably be worthwhile moving into the house before selling it.

If the property is jointly-owned then there will be two CGT allowances.

Best speak to a tax accountant.

If your father sells, on a 30-year view he should hold a significant proportion of equities to ensure growth and inflation protection.

Most managed funds underperform the markets because of fees. ETFs attempt to follow the indices, and have low costs. The UK market is dominated by a small number of sectors, so perhaps a global ETF. Talk to an IFA if you need help.

Be careful about bonds as inflation is more likely to rise in the next few years than in the past, and it’s a significant risk with bond yields so low. Especially with a 30-year view.

Possibly some gold for protection.

Bank account and short-term instruments are good for ready cash.

FWIW I’ve just ordered an Xiaomi Mi 5s which has a similar spec, dual-sim, but an IPS screen. I’d heard the OnePlus Three screen is significantly less colour accurate, which matters to me. It’s also slightly cheaper. Seen a few complaints about the Mi 5s’ interface, but I’ll put CyanogenMod on it when it’s available.

This is to replace a OnePlus One which was great but developed a hardware fault which prevents it booting beyond the Recovery menu.

Eh? Trump is the living embodiment of Neo-liberalism.

Trump identified the problem of communities which have been left out of the nation’s economic success over the last two decades, and offered solutions. Between 1996 and 2013 annual per-capita US GDP has grown from around $30,000 to $53,000. But most households haven’t shared equally in that. US real median household income has been on a downward trend since 1999 and (after a second temporary blip in 2007) is now back where it was in 1996.

His campaign was based on fixing the economy for those people and they voted for it; he also provided endless distractions with his comments and behaviour. The Democrats responded by attacking his personal suitability but didn’t make the case for the economy. In the end, it was the economy stupid.

Trump’s solution for those who’ve been left behind is to blame it on foreigners – immigration and trade – and build the walls to keep them out.

This is mercantilism – trade is a zero-sum game and America will be better off if he negotiates tougher terms to raise the price of imports, which will hurt the foreigners and benefit America.

Most likely he will pick on limited product areas, such as steel, to attempt to revive the US industries which have suffered, whilst allowing iphones to travel unimpeded.

His view of trade and globalisation seems commonplace, but the root cause of the losses of those rust-belt communities isn’t trade, it’s technological change. The productive businesses which generated wealth for those communities in the past have been overtaken by changes in technology, and those communities are struggling to find new roles. Whilst the pace of change has been increasing, there hasn’t been an effective policy response either in the US or the UK.

The neo-liberal response of ‘let them make their own way’ hasn’t worked.

There’s also the increasingly unequal distribution of the spoils of economic success.

Trump’s solution is a programme of public infrastructure building, and tax cuts which will keep the Republican Congress on side. So the spending taps will open. The infrastructure spending will stimulate the economy broadly, but leaves the underlying issues of technological change and income distribution unaddressed.

If he succeeds, expect inflation to rise, the Fed to raise interest rates to compensate and Trump to attempt to loosen the Fed’s grip by appointing dovish board members and Chair.

Still, unless he provokes another global financial crisis by blocking trade, or causes a geopolitical upset, it should be enough to secure a second term.

Stress can be a consequence of loss of control of one’s situation. If you find disagreements or arguments difficult to handle or stressful, you might find a book called ‘The Power Paradox’ by psychologist Dacher Keltner useful. It isn’t a self-help book, it isn’t marriage guidance, more a discussion of some theories, with practical implications.

Bkk food tip… Err rustic Thai

Singapore mid,upmarket Ginger or PS Cafe Dempsey Road

Local; Malay food, Maxwell Road food court, breakfast at Amoy Street Food Centre

Singaporeans are foodies and your friends will know where’s good.

Try Ice Kacaing

Bkk then

Downside of the Gulf airlines is a break in the middle of a long journey. If you can sleep on a plane then you’ll arrive fresher after a long single leg.

I’m not a fan of Emirates in economy; I find it cramped and functional. Etihad are better, Qatar is very good. I like Swiss, haven’t tried Finnair. BA are efficient and do a good job, but may be a little more expensive.

Cheapest flights to Asia are usually Bangkok. You could get a budget flight BKK-SIN with some time in BKK.

Are you stopping in Singapore?

Might be worth lowering your heart-rate during some sessions to keep it in the fat burning zone. It’s slow going at first but your pace should increase, whilst still burning fat. That should avoid the bonking.

It also might be worth recording exactly what you eat over a day or two to see what the nutritional mix is.

Wider than your shoulders, but not too much wider as that restricts your room for manoeuvre and makes more work for your arms on descents.

Make an exact byte by byte copy of your card to work on; don’t use the original. In Linux I’d use dd for this – not sure about other OSs.

In Windows I’ve had the best results with GetDataBack by Runtime Software but after the last Windows crash I switched to Ubuntu so I’m not sure what’s current.

Good luck.

Rudy Project do wraparound glasses with interchangeable lenses to which you can fit a prescription insert. I’ve had a pair for years and they’re great.

@thisisnotaspoon

Yes but QE isn’t free money, it’s the BOE buying government bonds from the banks so they can improve their liquidity and leand more.

Doing that with the population at large would require some sort of consideration in return for the cash, for example the BOE could offer to buy 10% of everyone’s house. But at some point they still have to sell it back to you.

The BoE could hand out £1,000 to every household funded by debt. In the US it’s called a tax rebate, but exactly the same process. The result is more government debt and more consumer spending.

@jambalaya

there is no guaranty it will not be spent on a foreign holiday which is of zero benefit to the UK.

Sterling can only be spent in the UK, so when you go on holiday someone has bought your Sterling in exchange for their foreign currency. The question then is to what extent they save it, by investing in UK debt, or spend it on UK goods and services which stimulates the UK economy. The fall in Sterling should also be stimulative.

Government could ensure that the money is spent in the UK, by borrowing and investing in the UK, but politicians set their faces against that, and the public agreed.

@teamhurtmore

Balance sheet recession… doesn’t not exist in economic textbooks and is not taught, hence central banks and politicians do not know how to respond.

Irving Fisher, debt-deflation theory, Econometrica 1933 theorised about this; Ben Bernanke (ex-Chair of the Fed) whilst in academia sought to formalise Fisher’s theory and in office has acted on it: Out of Keyne’s shadow The Economist

Gov get away with it by dressing it up in fancy language ie QE which most people do not understand. This allows them to hide the fact that they are simple stealing off people in a clandestine manner that few recognise.

Do you take the same view of taxation?

@ jambalaya

We have via ultra low interests… So what’s the problem then?

It’s a very pertinent question.

Distributing cash to households is going to lead more quickly to economic activity than buying bonds, lowering interest rates and stimulating asset prices.

In theory, lower interest rates persuade companies to invest. In practice a small percentage difference is marginal. Investments are predicated on high rates of return so a small change in cost is irrelevant when the business climate is poor. Under these circumstances investors bid up low risk assets such as bonds and property and there is little impact on the real economy.

However central banks are doing this because politicians are absent. There is no co-ordinated fiscal response. Despite low interest rates governments are unwilling to invest in their economies, which should be profitable.

Hence dishing out free money to the people is a better solution.

Buy the bike back, pay by PayPal. It’s stolen property so it’s against eBay’s terms and covered by PayPal’s buyers warranty. Report it to PayPal as stolen and claim your money back.

Report the eBay sale to the internet fraud division of the police – online. That will encourage eBay and PayPal to repay you without returning the item as they normally require.

Once you’ve done that they can’t make you return the bike, because it’s stolen and that would make you and them complicit in the theft.

Oh and you should tell your local police that you’ve recovered the bike. Even if they interview the seller, he will probably say that he bought it from someone in a pub that he’s never seen before or since, and without any evidence connecting him to the theft, he’ll probably walk away.

The other liability you may have is your lease. If it’s a fixed term, you’re liable for the rent until the end of the term, unless you’ve the option of giving early notice.

If so, the sooner the shop is re-let, the less your liability. You are probably also responsible for restoring the good condition of the shop and redecoration before handover.

Your landlord won’t want the expense and trouble of removing a non-paying tenant, so even with a fixed term you may be able to negotiate an early departure – which should be covered by an agreement to say that there are no further outstanding liabilities when you hand it over.

Once you’ve done that, you can estimate how much debt you’ll be left with – add everything up with conservative estimates for any unrealised assets. If you’re working when you speak to the bank, you may be in a stronger position to reschedule your loans – you don’t want to be paying 20+% overdraft rates.

Good luck.

Hi Simon, thanks for the advice.

It’s a 2010 fork so out of warranty.

All the external seals look fine and the fork holds air at 120mm. The internal air-spring piston also seems well-sealed. Is there an internal seal between two chambers in addition to the four external seals? If so can I buy a replacement seal kit? I’d like to have a go at it myself.

Funny thing is the lower pressure between 120mm and 150mm when the forks are extended to 150mm doesn’t seem to change after I pressurise the forks, and the higher 120mm pressure also holds. So it doesn’t seem like any air is leaking inside the fork or to the outside?

When I took it apart I thought the 120-150mm travel worked purely by raising the top of the fork on an extender so allowing more travel on the same air piston. Could it be something to do with the way I assembled it – in terms of getting air in and keeping it fully extended whilst putting it together but I wondered if the piston had not been fully extended when I sealed the forks.

Does this make sense?

Cheers

John

Agree with Simon, but unless it’s raining I prefer Drumlanrig for interesting riding. Lots of natural roots, hairpins and so on in a broadleaf wood. Rick’s bike shop is there. Kirroughtree second, although slightly sanitised and then maybe Mabie. Especially if you can find a local to show you round.

I like sealed cable runs to keep things clean and smooth. I’ve used Flak Jackets – bit of a faff to set up – and Gore Ride-On which were straightforward to set up and slick – but expensive.

This time round I’m going to try the Transfil Flying Snake cables since they’re cheaper £22 from CRC. But I hear they don’t seal the ends well so maybe I’ll put on some of those Shimano tongue and shield kits to seal the ends.

Looks like I’m in the minority on this.

Just spent 3 days trying to sort out a credit card payment for an SLX chainset to be told that they don’t know how long delivery will take, but suggesting 3 to 7 business days. Well that’s 9 to 14 days from the order. Too long for me.

On the plus side they do send lots of emails. On the minus, they’re not much help.

I have used them before and my recollection is that they weren’t exactly quick then either. FWIW CRC almost always manage next day for me. Likewise Merlin and Wiggle.

Anyway I got my chainset elsewhere.

What Mumboman said – I’ve used them a couple of times with mixed results. Prices are cheap but processing is inefficient and slow.

There’s an English translation button on the website – unfortunately it only translates a proportion of the text, so a working knowledge of German helps. On the phone they speak good English and are helpful. However they are inefficient, so a lengthy series of emails to make a payment.

For whatever reason the website failed to start processing my paypal or credit card payment – and although they advertise 1 to 3 days delivery, they admitted they take several days to get an order out the door. Once that’s done you’ve still got to wait for international post. Their current estimate is 6 days from start to finish for my order.

As long as you’ve time to spare and don’t mind emailing credit card info for manual processing, the prices may be attractive. Personally I’ve found plenty of other companies who do a better job for similar money so I won’t be using them again.

Just come across this thread whilst wondering how gripshift and 10-speed cassettes can be made to work together.

Did Paulpalf get 10 speeds out of the rear cassette using a 9-speed rear mech and gripshift? Surely the 9-speed gripshift has 9 stops in the ratchet which won’t correspond to those needed by a 10-speed cassette?

http://luckynino.blogspot.com/2009/03/10s-grip-shifter-from-92g.html sells 10-speed gripshift. Has anyone tried it yet?

Well worth looking at his site for the footage http://luckynino.blogspot.com/2009/03/extreme-alpine-biking-on-ht.html of Lucas Stoekli and Thomas Frischknecht (mostly) riding up and back down the 4,165m Breithorn! :roll:

Are any of the chainring teeth hooked or bent? Try taking a closer look with the bike on a stand.

Thanks everyone for all the good suggestions.

@hugor very perceptive! I’m in Thailand… :) The crossmarks are good, but a heavy carcase in UST. The surfaces are mostly hardpacked sandy dirt, usually dry, sometimes damp or wet – with a dusting of loose sand off the edges. I’ve ridden at Thetford and it was looser than here.

Just got back from a ride where the front wheel washed out cutting across a bumpy dirt road fast :(. My mistake but maybe the Race Kings as there aren’t many rocks.

The Kenda Small-Block 8s look interesting but there doesn’t seem to be many users.

Rocket Rons look good for grippy cornering and I’ve liked a few Schwalbe tyres.

Another suggestion was WTB TCS Bronson eg 2.1 at 640g – has anyone tried these?

Thanks everybody for all the advice. I’ve just fitted a Rock Shox Sektor RL U-Turn 110mm-150mm which I got for Eur 289 from .

Chosen on the grounds of price-performance and I haven’t been disappointed.

Since the Sektors run a 20mm Maxle Lite and post mount rather than IS, I also ‘had’ to get a new wheelset – Hope Pro II Evos with ZTR Crests sealed with yellow rimstrip replacing Mavic XM819s with my UST Crossmarks – and Formula K24 brakes. Merlin has a killer deal on a set so I got front and back brakes :-)

I’ve done a couple of rides so far and the bike is a whole lot better. The extra weight I gained on the forks (Sektors 2108g – DUC32s ex-crown and stem 1771g = 337g) I lost on the wheels and my own weight – overall it feels lighter.

The front-end is more stable and planted – the Sektors stick to the ground. I’ve used the U-Turn to play with the geometry and I also tried a couple of stems and settled on 60mm. 100mm was too long – my DUC32 stem was 70mm, and I may try a 50mm with wider bars which I think will be a better fit.

Axle to crown is reportedly 532mm at 150mm on the Sektors (520mm on the DUC32s) but the bike feels quicker and sharper than with the DUC32s – better in twisty singletrack and fine on descents. I find running them at 130mm is too twitchy, but I need to experiment some more.

As I’m around 66kg I’m only getting 15mm sag on the standard spring (70-82kg) and they aren’t particularly plush. The soft spring (yellow – 63-72kg) should be a better match and closer to my Pikes.

Anyway the bike already feels much better. I still have the DUC32s and when I have time I’ll fit a fresh set of seals and service them – maybe I can get them working as well as mboy suggests. Then either put them with the other leftover parts on a hardtail I’m building, or sell them.

I hope this helps anyone else who is in the same situation.

Take a look at the micro four-thirds standard. Interchangeable lenses, great image quality and easy to handle. You’ll probably take a lot more pictures.

I got a Panasonic GF1 rather than a DSLR with the 20mm pancake lens – based on a Leica design – and the ultra-wideangle zoom. With the pancake lens it fits in a jacket pocket and I carry it around most of the time. No regrets.

You have full control with this and probably pick one up on eBay as it’s discontinued. The GF2 and GF3 are simplified versions and maybe less appealing if you want control which the DSLR suggests. Shoot raw for higher quality or jpegs for family snapshots.

The Olympus Pen E-P2 looks like a good alternative – check out dpreview.com.

Thanks for the suggestions but I’ve already tried that without success.

I have two pairs of DUC-32s. The pair which came with the ML7.2 still have their original black seals and don’t leak. The second pair which are now on the Maverick were serviced and tuned for my weight – say 72kg all up – by Extra I think. They had new blue seals etc and leak oil. Cost about £70+ I think.

Both have the same rebound performance and lack of response which was unaffected by Extra’s tuning. My Pikes wipe the floor with either of them, but that’s not what I’m looking for.

To come back to the question – can anyone suggest suitable alternatives from experience? Or come to think of it I could upgrade my Pikes to Lyriks and put the Pikes on the Maverick…