Broad Chare is great. Other current favs are St Vincent next door, Kaltur in High Bridge and the French Quarter. All really good.

Edukator

Member
Before shooting from the hip and going straight to HMRC, maybe ask to speak to the owner of the shop

That’s what I suggested

It’s not the tone of what I’m saying at all. You said call them and threaten them that you’re calling HMRC and they’ll beg to offer a refund. I’m saying call them and offer them the chance to understand the rules and get back to you.

You’ve used the word fraud a lot. I think that’s a pretty harsh accusation – it might just be a knowledge gap.

till someone like Blazing saddles phones the hotline and gives them an invoice number.

There are a lot of accusations and/or assumptions on this thread, really. We don’t know, for certain, if an aftermarket intercom fitted at the point of purchase should be sold without VAT.

Before shooting from the hip and going straight to HMRC, maybe ask to speak to the owner of the shop. They might know the rule and have an internal training or system need to address. They may not know and need to check with their accountants and then come back to you.

Of course you could just go straight to HMRC. It’s not exactly a friendly approach to sorting it out though, and not every shop is owned by the bogey man or shyster.

I think you’re most likely right, but there are probably a lot of shops who don’t know that.

There was a bit of a discussion on a different forum whether an aftermarket intercom was classed as an integral part of the helmet, or whether the rules only covered OE fit. Maybe the shop does know, but errs on the side of caution and collects the VAT and pays the VAT on the intercom so the only person benefitting is HMRC, not the shop (and obviously not you).

I run my Trek Stache as a SS. There’s enough adjustment in the drop outs, and huge amounts of mud clearance for this time of year. It’s still one of my favourite bikes. 🙂

Another Tidal Hifi subscriber.

I have a Bluesound Node connected to my hifi which does Tidal’s MQA natively – it sounds very good. I can’t really tell a difference on my Sonos kit (which is limited to CD quality) dotted around the house but on a decent hifi the Masters/High Res albums sound great, as you’d expect.

The Tidal catalogue doesn’t have any obvious gaps to me, but there are far more high res options on Amazon HD. Sadly, Amazon’s app is horrible, it’s no better within BluOS and there’s a lack of quality and depth in the curated content versus Tidal. I have a three month Amazon HD trial, but I never use it.

For what it’s worth, I can’t reliably hear a difference between Amazon High Res and Tidal Masters on listening, although some people on Reddit reckon there is a big difference…

Toby, for everything you said, Teams is very good – if you haven’t looked at it just because it’s MS then maybe you should have a look. It’s a very, very good bit of software.

We’re in a mixed W10/MacOS environment here for what it’s worth (although admittedly we are all on O365 licences) and I’m pretty certain there is a Teams client for Linux too.

File repository, with folders, easy search by type or within messages; tabs within each teams for Wiki type pages; Teams/channels for all staff where you can put info for new starters (which experienced staff could hide the team or leave it if they feel it’s no longer relevant).

We love Teams. We were held back a bit by not having granular privacy control of channels so had too many fragmented teams and because of that people couldn’t find the files or channels easily that were relevant to them, but now that’s fixed.

Great for sharing documents, using it as a repository (it’s SharePoint really), great for collaboration and it is evolving quickly and already has good integrations with non-MS product.

It’s a great piece of software, and is now 90% of internal comms, I only wish they’d hurry up and integrate To-do (Wunderlist replacement).

Nothing in the house risotto…

Cook some frozen petit pois in some chicken stock (I actually quite like the Knoor stock pots, think they are okay). Reserve the stock after draining, and purée the peas with butter and lots of basil.

Cook a plain risotto as normal (I use Noilly Prat), stir through the puréed peas once the rice is cooked. Good as it it, or top with anything from frilled halloumi, toasted walnuts, pancetta, scallops, prawns with a big squeeze of lemon, grilled chicken or pork – the list goes on…

It’s a bit of a staple for when we’ve forgotten to shop, but we’ve always got peas, rice, Parmesan, shallots and butter in.

I like them both. Would say the MM is better on wet rock by some margin, Hillbilly better in the mud. I run Hillbilly/Butcher on one, and Hillbilly/Purgatory on the other…

Sharkbait: I should have been more clear. You can still stream from NAS, but not from your collection stored on your iPhone/iPad from the SONOS app. I think it still exists in Android, not sure?

I suppose Airplay2 solves a lot of this, not as cleanly in my opinion, but only if you have the latest speakers (which the OP will have I suppose).

The sound quality is good for what they are, just be aware you can’t stream from your own music collection anymore – online music services or nothing…

I think if you have time to read that over breakfast then you’ve already won… 😉

That was brilliant. Thanks!

I had a DCT Twin and swapped it for a manual when I changed. The manual is brilliant, it has a lovely box and a light clutch but I’ll go back to a DCT when I change it.

The DCT is just better, off road as well as on – it’s a brilliant gearbox. I thought I would really miss a clutch on slow manoeuvres but I rarely did. At times, where you’d ride/cover a clutch on slow moves you just ride it like a scooter and use a bit more throttle and drag a bit of rear brake. Again, we’re talking less than 1% of your riding and it’s the only thing that takes any time to get used to. Other than that, it takes about a mile before you think that really it’s going to take no getting used to whatsoever.

You can run the DCT in drive, sport or manual. The sport has three levels you can choose from and on the highest level it really holds on to a gear without changing up. Sports also the better option in town IMO.

Although the 2020 bike has a sensor to stop the bike changing up mid corner, it’s really not an issue – it happens so occasionally and when it does it’s not upsetting at all.

Talk about perspective.

Ride in peace, Michael.

Dinnington is a great shout.

Quiet roads to Cramlington means you could pick some quiet ways to get to work and avoid the A1 altogether, car or bike. A few nice new estates (if you don’t mind them) gives you a lot of choice within budget, it has a great first school which feeds into the Gosforth system and, crucially, school buses pick up from Dinnington to get to them.

Nearly every road ride I go on passes through Dinnington at the start of the ride, and there’s a few bridleways pass through it so you can link up off-road rides from the doorstep (think mostly CX type, rather than enduro…)

A short taxi ride to Gosforth for a night out, a slightly longer one to Newcastle.

I’m on the Great Park like a million other people (and counting) but if I was moving tomorrow I think I’d head to Dinnington.

^ +1 what Dean said. I don’t get it. Call it a motorbike if if makes you feel better.

They make it possible to climb a steep hill at a third of the speed that you can descend it on a non-assist/assist bike. What’s the issue/risk?

To non-mountain bikers, we’re all a bunch of arseholes – they don’t differentiate, not sure why we are?

Jez Avery used to scare people shitless in a silver one blinked up more than the one Cougar posted above. It was only missing purple anodising.

Top bloke, terrible taste in cars…

😂 yeah, probably.

Nothing to do with driving god status, just suitable tyres.

Here, a quick search to save 5 pages… 4WD regular, vs RWD winter. Lots of results, all the same.

Edit, wrong link: https://youtu.be/STaximkaQxo

If it goes really badly I’ll be in the wife’s Polo.

You’ll be better than fine. A RWD on decent winter tyres will out perform a FWD car on non-winter tyres in snow.

For that matter, a RWD with good winter tyres will out perform a 4WD on snow on normal tyres too.

^^rs

FaceID is alright, but it’s a complete pain in the arse for note taking, as above.

FaceID and a fingerprint sensor would be perfect, I’m forever tapping in my pin in meetings when the iPad is flat down on the desk as the camera most likely won’t see you. Having the iPad in portrait with the camera at the bottom helps a bit.

I sold my 135 in January and changed to a Golf R estate. It was low miles and only three years old but my kids were finding the back pretty cramped – it’s tiny really, but I absolutely loved it.

The Golf should have been perfect for me, but every time I drove it I thought I’d fall asleep with boredom – too capable, probably… Build quality was hugely disappointing and not close to the 1 series, which some people think is a low bar already (I disagree). The engine was clearly capable, but utterly unlovable.

I tolerated it/tried to love it for 9 months but I’ve just swapped it for a F31 340i tourer. Not as nice to drive as the 135, but bigger. It’s a lovely place to be, and although the steering is much too light, the engine is a cracker and will be the last of the RWD 6 pots.

I’m just back 500 miles over the last two days, sat at about 70mph and it returned 43mpg. The Golf would have been 37mpg (ish) on the same journey.

I think I’ll keep it for 10 years or so while they figure out electric vs hydrogen.

Just the usual really. Normally KMC k710 but I’ve used PC1 before with no problems (even though most hate them).

I might be significantly weaker than you…

It’s the opposite in my case, it’s a winter bike for really muddy routes and the less the chain has to go through the better. Had a tensioner before and I might as well just had a mech and gears (edit: slight exaggeration). Thanks though 😉

The Moxie is more bike than I need, but it looks good, hadn’t seen that one. Sherpa (lovely) a bit short…

Stooge. Completely forgot about them.

Do they sell a frame only, Clink?

Etta James and Harvey Fuqua, If I Cant Have You. Great little tune, easy to dance to and you can through some really embarrassing slow grinds in through the chorus. 🙂

^^ Smack My Bitch Up. We had that as the warm up to the song that N walked down the aisle to. Great track.

There’s another scenario where the shop was told replacement frame would be, say, £400 and the customer pays £200 deposit, balance to pay.

When talking to their account manager, he agrees to wave it as goodwill. Customer saves £200, shop makes £200.

OP would probably say in this instance he wants his £200 back, but he only got the replacement at £200 because of the shop’s relationship with the company/account manager.

My guess is the shop haven’t been invoiced yet, and have just forgot to charge the balance on a non-stock item – and that there will be a bill coming soon for the difference to the OP.

Make sure you’re disconnected from the Apple TV, use settings to forget the device. Then plug your keyboard in with a lightning cable, it should just pair once the cable is connected.

Edit: wobbliscott beat me to it.

They are for Vees, but I’d want to change cantis for Vs anyway for the sake of a another tenner or so – just much less hassle on a kids bike…

My kids have Avid Speed Dial 7s. You can adjust reach and modulation – I think they’ll make a huge difference (with Vs).

I think it’s been covered but my 9 year old has been on his MX24 for about 9 months. He’s 10 in Jan, pretty average height, and will be on 13” 27.5 BY Feb/March. He’s about at the limit of the MX24.

We went rigid and cantis, MX team I think. I’d factor in some decent levers if you go that route (Avid Speed Dials here) and he’s on a clutch Deore 10sp drivetrain now with a N/W chainring as we were forever dropping the chain off-road.

The biggest one-off cost was a set of Chromag Radar Youth, but they’ll stay with him for a few years and they are a great pedal. Couldn’t find another of similar size/quality, must be one though.

He regularly does Kielder/Glentress/Hamsterley red (well, with a couple of chicken runs when he’s not feeling it) as well as lots of local loops. The Orbea has been spot on and is a nice (short) length.

Two Flite Genuine Gels still used every week on a Smuggler and a Decoy. They were from 1991. Still love them, no idea how they still look okay.

My commuter is on 2001 Crossmax 29 which still look and feel brand new.

I’m not in the cycle trade, but I feel sorry for those who are when the average customer does’t value their time if/when they need them.

Once you allow for NI and pension costs, seasonality, average utilisation within the seasons, the hours productive/sold and a share of the shop overhead, £9 per hour becomes £25 per hour cost before VAT, or £30 with VAT to break even.

At £11 per hour it’s £34.50 inc VAT per hour to break even.

At £9 salary, I can’t see how any cycle shop is expected to sell their time for anything less than about £45 per hour, making the shop about £12 per hour after VAT with the above assumptions. Even then, a pretty poor return for the owner given the risk.

That assumes the person is on retail work all of the time, and not bike building and so on.

Have a look at Trek X Caliber and Roscoe. Neither are long, both come in 13.5” frame, and both have WSD builds if you need one too…

Bouchon Bistrot in Hexham is good.

Definitely fennel, but get somebody else to eat it first.

Seconded Tramuntana Tours in Port Soller. There is also a bloke in Carrer de Sa Lluna in Soller town who hires top-end Pinarellos.

I popped in there yesterday. I think he’s called Boris, really lovely bloke. Pinarello and Specialized, including a few ebikes. It’s only his first year open I think, great espresso too.

http://www.kilometrocero-Mallorca.com

I’ve extended my hire with Tramuntana – they are really, really helpful. The roads are hot, but if you get out at 7am they are lovely. Today was properly hot by about 9am. I can’t stress how much I’m loving 30/28 as a combo 😉

Tramuntana Tours based in the Port de Soller are good. Im here at the moment, I’ve hired an Emonda off them for a few days suffering. The road is very hot after about 10.30/11am…

They do guided off-road trips, either on Remedy/Slash or Powerfly. They seem a really good bunch.