Have a look here for lots of info:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/parking-traffic-offences/

I got one of these notices at the end of last year, although from a different company. It was sent to me as the “Registered Keeper” of the car. I wasn’t driving the car on the day in question, so had no intention of paying. I sent a couple of fairly standard letters back to them, they sent me a couple of standard letters back in return (I don’t think they even read what I had written), in the end they just stopped writing back.

You don’t have to use sealant, the tyres should inflate and hold air fine without it. However by not using it you are missing out on one of the big benefits of going tubeless, it is not really that much hassle to add a scoop of solution before fitting a tyre.

If you get a puncture while you are out it is fairly easy to fit a tube, you just need to remove the valve in the rim.

No just the ones I have listed above. TBH I really can’t see you have a problem if you stick with the proper UST ones.

I tend to need to use tyre levers to sit the tyres. I can normally fit tyres without levers, but I have found the mavic rims pretty tight for getting the tyres on and off.

We got our son a CNOC 14 when he was three and a bit. Before he got it he was a pretty confident like-a-bike rider, and was fairly happy riding flat singletrack. When he first got the CNOC it was probably a little bit big for him, so he struggled to start and stop, but he is now 3 and a half and seems to have really grown into it. He hasn’t really got the hang of the brake yet, it is either on or off, but most of what he is riding is fairly flat paths so it is not too much of a problem. He managed to ride about a mile of a recent Gorrick xc course last weekend, I had to help him on a couple of bits, but it was amazing what he could do. The bikes are very well built, I have taken it for a quick spin and it holds up to my weight fine, however I don’t think I would want to take it for a long ride :wink:

If you stick with proper UST tyres they are all fairly easy to mount on Crosstrail rims. I have used Schwalbe Nobby Nics, Maxxis Crossmarks, Larsen TT & Michelin XCR muds. Of those the worst were the Michelins, as I had to resort to using CO2 to inflate when new, the rest went on no trouble at all with just a track pump – in fact I managed to get the Nobby Nics on with a mini pump. Now that the Michelins have been used a bit they seat/inflate ok.

If you use a bit of soapy water when you first inflate them it makes it easier too.

I managed to break the rear axle in my ones. I sent the wheel back (via Wiggle, who I bought them from) and the axle was replaced free of charge, Wiggle even refunded my return postage. The wheel was under 12 months old at the time.

I use a UN54 with my Middleburn cranks, so far I have got about 20 months out of it and it has covered loads of miles in that time, with a lot of them being wet… It has now developed a little bit of play, but it is still spinning smoothly.

I was there for a week in August 2000. Weather was generally pretty good on the coast, generally hot and humid. We did have a couple of heavy rain showers, however they only lasted ten minutes or so, and the water soon dried up was the sun was back out. The sea is no good (read that as dangerous)for swimming at that time of year.

I had my Tinbred repaired by Vernon Barker: http://www.vernonbarkercycles.co.uk/other%20services.htm

I haven’t seen the pics of your damage, but mine had a hairline crack on the seat tube/top tube junction (a common failure on Tinbreds) Vernon did a pretty good job, and wasn’t too expensive.

I don’t think anyone has confirmed it yet, but they are supplied with a couple of spacers.

About 7am this morning:

A little bit later:

Andy, you are 20m off :-)

The fenced off bit of the range is the one by Colony Gate. We did try to get access into there a while back, but the man who can normally sort out access onto Army land failed – something about it being to dangerous. However we let him off as he is organising http://www.areyoutoughenough.co.uk

The red circle is in the middle of Tunnel Hill

http://www.multimap.com/s/DpEYkPCK

There are a lot of trails there, most are fairly hidden, but if you follow the fireroads for a bit you will probably see some tyre marks going into the trees.

I can 2nd Floor Sander Hire, much better products than those available from local tool hire places. I hired some equipment off them to sort our parquet flooring out and there service seemed pretty good.

We bought the Angelcare one with the sensor pad for our first baby. It seemed to work well although I was forever forgetting to turn the sensor off when picking him up…

With our second baby, now 8 weeks old :-) , we still use the monitor but haven’t bothered wiring up the sensor pad this time around.

We normally use it plugged in but have used it with batteries occasionally and it seems to work fine.

Whatever you buy I would recommend that you get one that has a visual display as well as audio, that way you can turn the volume down if you want, but still keep an eye on their screaming.

I have a set of BMW bars on my one series. Quality of the rack is excellent, and they are very quick and easy to fit. I have had them for about 2.5 years, and on average they get fitted once or twice a month, and no problems so far… I wouldn’t hesitate to buy them again. It is worth asking the parts man at your local dealers if they have any promotions coming up, as every so often they have a deal on ‘touring’ parts – I think I got 20% off mine.

I have Atera bike racks on mine, so no idea of the BMW ones.

I have got Crosstrails on one bike, and Hope Pro2(SS)/819 from Merlin on the other.

The biggest difference I notice when riding them is the freehub on the Crosstrail is totally silent unlike the Hope. Both sets of wheels have seemed very solid, I think the rim profile is fairly similar between the two, so I doubt there is a massive difference in strength, although the Crosstrail have slightly less spokes. Personally I think the Crosstrails look a bit more expensive than they really are.

As with any factory wheelset the biggest downside to the Crosstrails is getting hold of spares. I managed to break the rear axle in mine and ending up sending it back to Wiggle, who sorted it out under warranty FOC, but it still meant I was without the wheel for a week or so – if I ever break a spoke I have no idea how I will get hold of a new one – even thou the Mavic service centre is just around the corner from where I live…

If I was buying another set I would probably go for the Hope/819 combo, purely on the availability of spares.

Generally I have arranged my dive trips by booking accommodation via a dive shop abroad, the PADI website has a list of all registered shops. Pretty much all of those will be able to sort you out with cheap local accommodation and then pick you up from the airport etc. Email a few and see who has the best response. Hopefully you can then book cheap flights.

I would agree with all the comments about doing a referral course. You will have a bit more time to iron out any problems in the UK before heading abroad. As much as it shouldn’t happen the way the PADI system works does mean that shops have an incentive to pass divers before they are really good enough, they don’t want you to go home without the badge! From what I have seen the Red Sea is probably the worse for this and some of the courses can be a bit of a conveyor belt – however the diving is good. Other ‘local’ places that are good are Cyprus and Gozo, you can get fairly cheap flights to them both, while the diving is not as good as the Red Sea (you won’t see many fish!) they both have there own charms. Both best for a late summer trip when the water has warmed up.

I am surprised nobody has mentioned that PADI=Put Another Dollar In. On the PADI route don’t get tempted to do every course and speciality, just because your instructor recommends it. As mentioned above do Advanced and then just do lots of diving to get experience. Having said that if you get into diving it is worth doing a Nitrox course.

I have seen bad divers trained by PADI and BSAC. I think a bit chunk of it is the divers attitude rather than the route they have taken to qualification.

My geared one:

My gearless one:

My son’s one:

I use a singlespeed mtb on a Tacx Swing turbo. It works fine and I just adjust the resistance to make the work out harder. The bike is setup with a 32:16 ratio. On the easiest setting I could probably spin away for hours, on the hardest a couple of minutes – there are a total of ten settings.

It is worth getting a dedicated indoor trainer tyre, as they are much smoother and quieter. I have a few of the Spinerval DVDs and find them good for giving me something to take my mind off the boredom of the Turbo.

When our son was 7 months old, we took him on holiday to a beach resort in the Philippines. While he was there he had formula milk, jars of baby food and occasionally fresh (peeled) fruit, so the risk of any tropical disease was minimal, plus there was no malaria in the area. At that age the flight was fairly easy, as he had his own cot on the plane. However since then we have picked destinations a bit closer to home, I guess to some extent due the reasons mentioned above – probably the lengthy flight being the main one.

We had a good family holiday last year in Morocco, at an all inclusive hotel right on the beach. My son, 2 at the time, was spoilt rotten by the hotel staff and had a very memorable holiday. So good in fact we are going back again this year.