Misunderstood the title – £500 hardtail for the missus.
I thought you were after a swap.

12 miles – 30 minutes driving, 45 minutes cycling. Annoyingly our office is relocating a further 5 miles away. The worst part is that means about 10 miles of the route will be in built up urban areas with lots of traffic lights, traffic, junctions. Dreading it. It will make for a very slow drive or a long, probably not enjoyable, bike ride. Public transport doesn't even bear thinking about – walk, bus, train, metro, walk would take about 3.5 hours a day and cost about £10.

I loved my 2CV. Left hand drive didn't make much difference as it was so narrow. Central locking in that you could reach all 4 locks from the driving seat. The drivers door window would come open when you hit a bump. Reverse gear was so hard to engage, I'd only go down streets I could do a U-turn. Starter motor was dodgy but it was really easy to push then jump in.
It'd do 70mph, you just need to rev a lot and keep them high.

I'm lucky. My flat came with a garage :)

It's not turned on?
Seriously… is the valve fully open?

How about The Joy Formidable's "My beerdrunk soul is sadder than a 100 dead christmas trees"?

Thanks for the offer. Sorry, think i'd shutdown computer for the weekend before I saw your reply. Went to Dalby and quite enjoyed the red route. Nothing too tricky but surprisingly long.

100mm Reba's here too. They have the poploc but frankly I'd prefer them without. The lever takes up room on the bars, it sticks a bit, needs another cable and is either ON or OFF. I have RockShox forks on another bike and it's easy enough to reach down and turn the compression lever by hand.

I was thinking probably Dalby. I was just hoping for something further south for my friends who are travelling "up" as opposed to me who is travelling south to Brid.

Yes. Bought some shorts from them which developed a fault. They replaced them quickly with no problems. Good service.

I have Humvee trousers and like them when it's dry. They get really soggy and horrible when it's wet.

6' tall and ride a large Heckler, a shiny lime green one with lots of black bits. Lovely.

It seems most of my favourites are covered. I'd second (third?) Joan as Policewoman, Ida Maria and Thea Gilmore and add Siouxsie to the list. Mantaray was a cracking solo album. And Gabriella Cilmi nice too. Will go and see The Joy Formidable for the 4th time soon.

Maybe we should start a "TarmacWorld" website and forum?

Saw The Dead Weather last night. JACK WHITE is just as talented on drums as he is with everything else musical.

It's a good plan. Good luck with it, shame you're not in the North East.

Misunderstood this one at first – we tend to insult the Americans here!

I don't see the point of leaving bidding until the last minute but I seem to be in the minority. I'll bid the maximum I'll pay (which other users don't know)well before the end time. If someone wants to outbid me that's fine.

Just revisting this thread after my "Verbier" post. I can assure you I'm neither a "cock" or a "bloody show off" ! :-)
It was a damn good week, thousands of metres of descending every day and even some tough hike-a-bike sections and climbs. Even the temperature was well over 30 degrees for 6 days.
If you haven't been, give it a go.

Verbier :)

Stayed with Riviera last September. Lovely little village, not much to do (other than bike) but meals in hotel were really good. Not too far to San Remo on the coast.