You want something that puts a brake lever parallel to the handlebars, and clamps around it?

Couldn’t you just use a normal flat-bar lever? I guess it’d mean cables going out in a funny direction though. You can get flat bar levers that pull road bike amounts of cable.

Or alternatively, you used to be able to get normal road levers without hoods. I have a 70s bike with them on (suntour ones), although I dunno where you get them from. Again the cables might go funny places.

Joe

Cool, thanks for all the comments – it’s a laminate worktop, so that should be okay.

In terms of the dishwasher gap, I think it is a 45cm gap – so I was figuring on just moving the units the whole 45cm, and leaving a gap on one side of the cooker (or both).

Good to know it’s possible anyway. Sounds like compared to the cost of the fancy cooker*, it shouldn’t be a massive hit to move some cupboards around. Phew.

Joe

*which to be fair to is way less than my piano was, and will be way more useful.

If it’s just a ride not a race, and I can stop any time I want, for this kind of ride, I’d just take a couple of chocolate bars, plus something sugary in one of my water bottles. Can always stop at a shop to get some crisps or whatever.

If it is with other people, and there aren’t any cafe stops, I’d take energy drink in both bottles, and maybe 3 or 4 chocolate bars.

Joe

Glastonbury isn’t full of smelly people any more. It’s full of very rich kids who get the ticket bought for them by their parents, and old people.

Overheard at Glastonbury 2004, referring to the woman from Morcheeba or some band like that – “Gosh Giles, she is a jolly fine filly”, which kind of sums up the type of people who go nowadays.

And it isn’t £175 for a weekend away – it’s pretty hard to spend less than £250 on it, if you include buying food and drinks and stuff, and if you’re not a stingy bring all your own food type who has all the camping gear, you could easily spend £300-400.

Joe

Is it just me who thinks it’s a bit stupid that the headliners of glastonbury are all ancient bands from way before my time? When I went, the bands headlining were bands that were actually big at the time, whereas this year, the three people headlining this year (if the bbc is to be believed), are Blur (40 year olds, 10 years after their last big hit), Neil Young (64 year old, 30 years after he was big), Bruce Springsteen (59 year old, 20 years since his hits).

I guess with the £175 ticket price, you have to cater for the oldies – it isn’t like many young people can afford it nowadays?

Joe

At the start of last year, when prices were still mental, someone did the maths on upgrades, and compared the cost of doing the upgrade, with the amount of value it would add to the house. At that point, you lost money on all the ‘upgrades’ (new bathroom, even a cheap one you could lose something like £2000 by doing it!). Now, with prices dropping somewhere between 10-20%, the calculation is way worse, and you’d probably be an idiot to do any major work on a house just to sell it.

Things like new bathroom, are also pretty taste related too – you’re obviously thinking of bunging in quite a cheap one if the cost of all those bits is £8000. If someone comes along and wants a nice bathroom, putting in the new cheap bathroom will just have been wasted effort.

Bear in mind, if you sell, you’ll typically get about 10% less than the estate agent’s valuation too (that’s the average accepted offer at the moment).

Joe

I’m liking that the person at the top telling people not to go biking up Snowdon at this time of year was also telling them that if they do go up, to take one of the three impossible / pointless / dangerous to bike routes up!

Sounds like it was good weather for it. A lovely ride in the snow isn’t it.

Joe

(if you’re in a big unionised industry for sack, probably read ‘voluntary redundancies’ or not employing replacements.

I dunno about you, but I’ve worked at places with 35, 37.5 and 40 hour weeks, and it really didn’t make that much difference anyway – we seemed to work pretty similar hours at all of them (sort of 9-5ish).

Joe

Cos then in theory they can then sack 1 in 13 of you.

It’s a stupid management idea though because work doesn’t really happen like that. There is an interesting book called the Mythical Man Month that talks all about this, which unfortunately a lot of high up managers, not being the sort of people who are able to read books, have not read.

Joe

Get an offer in principle for something on the high end of what you might want to spend. When you make an offer, make sure the estate agent knows you have an offer in principle that will cover that offer, don’t let em know you have any spare.

If you’ve got 25% deposit and no house to sell, you can bargain quite hard – estate agents and sellers are *desperate* for people like you.

Also, make use the propertybee plugin[/url] for firefox to see where house prices have fallen (it makes firefox add this information when you look at listings on http://www.rightmove.com), so you can see if people are serious about moving, and if they’re likely to lower their price (the place we’re buying had lowered 3 times in the last 3 months or something, so we figured they’d go a fair bit lower and it turned out to be true).

Joe

I went through oftel (I think it’s now called ofcom) with BT, after wasting a month or two in the BT complaints procedure.

result = payback in a week, plus £50 extra money for the hassle.

Joe

The big difference I find between most riding, and paddling, is that when you’re paddling, there’s often a point where you hit something, and you know you have to keep going for a minute or two, or else you’ll swim and it’ll hurt. Even a rubbish paddler like me, who’s never paddled anything they couldn’t swim out*, can get that rush.

I do get that feeling when I ride my mountain unicycle down something steep. It has the same unstoppable nature about it, every so often you just have that feeling where you know it’s too steep, so stopping is going to hurt, so you just have to pedal it out. That happened on some of the descents in Morzine big time, although on the local trails it isn’t often that it happens for more than a couple of seconds. I think it has something to do with not being able to freewheel, you get that “I’m being carried away” feeling, it’s kind of like the constant having to paddle in white water.

I get an adrenaline rush on the road bike sometimes from going fast, but it always feels so in control, and so like I could stop if I wanted to, that it’s much less full on.

The most crazy thing for that feeling though has to be surfing – the point when the wave kicks in and you get a massive acceleration and you’re suddenly speeding along, how amazing is that!

*Actually white water swimming = even more cool fun than paddling for me!

I always used the assumption that resistance stays pretty similar, and calculated it as if for a 12v battery:-

If you do that:

12v 35w on a 2000mah battery would run for 40 minutes.

wattage at 16.8v = 49W (again running for roughly 40 minutes).

You’re overvolting by 40% though, so who knows how long the bulb will last for / whether it’ll melt. Whatever you do, don’t leave it on when you stop.

Joe

I just find the UK generally too busy in terms of people per square foot, be in on the roads, trails, hills, shops or camp sites. I like my space.

If you don’t like busyness, then NZ would definitely be worth a try – except on the main tourist routes in summer, New Zealand is certainly not a busy place.

Joe

One thing really worth doing if you haven’t yet is putting yourself into the google geographical index. I think it’s on google webmaster tools (if you haven’t looked at them yet, google for them – you need to be signed up for them anyway). Geographical search is only going to get more important in the future what with all these mobile phones and laptops and doodads with gps in them that people are using nowadays. For people offering local services, it’d be stupid not to be in the index.

I’d worry about search engine ordering people – if they screw up, they can get you blacklisted from google, which basically means no sales for a few months.

I appear to be top of google search for my (rather common) name now, simply by a)having a site with lots of relevant and up to date content, simple design, a sensible set of keywords etc. and b)having a noticeable online presence in a few other places, that links back to the site.

Joe

If you’re on a laptop / notebook CTRL & TAP brings up a contextual menu. It’s not rocket science.

Isn’t it Command and tap? Not to be confused with the button marked ‘Control’ on macs, despite being used for the same things as Control always has been on most non mac computers? Or am I confused?

Joe

Assuming the video and the sound are jumping, it’s probably because you’re running something else at the same time.

That’s a jolly fast machine, something half the speed would happily play DVDs, let alone that.

Press ctrl+shift+escape, and go to ‘processes’ on the window that pops up, and look on that list. Is there something that is showing 90 or more in the CPU column, other than ‘System Idle Process’.

This sort of thing happens on dvds is the drive goes bust too, but if it’s happening on everything it probably isn’t the dvd drive.

Have you run a virus check / spyware check recently?

Is the web / loading programs slow?

Joe

and the lack of RMB frustrates.

There is a right mouse button equivalent. For ‘ease of use’, they changed it so you do ‘command + left mouse button’ when you want a right button click. To make things even more user friendly, the ‘command key’ as everyone calls it, is the key in the bottom left of the special mac keyboard which has a funny squiggle on it, that there is no way of writing in normal text.

But if you stick in a 2 button mouse the right button works fine (although you still need someone to explain what the ‘command’ key is for other things).

Joe

House prices are crazy mad – Christchurch is supposed to be one of the least affordable places to live in the world, thanks to the massive prices, and low salaries. If you have a UK sized deposit though, that’ll make a bit of a difference. It is quite cheap to rent there though, and they are having a house price crash at the moment, so who knows.

Raw ingredients for food are pretty cheap. A few things are silly expensive, like anything imported. I don’t know about buying cars, but petrol was dirt cheap when I was out there. They don’t have very good public transport out there though, so do expect to have to drive around a lot unless you’re the sort of person who uses a bike for their shopping (I had no problems without a car, but without using the bike so much I’d have been screwed).

In terms of riding and outdoors stuff – Christchurch has some nice local riding which you can sensibly live right next to (the hills are 300m high, about 5km from the centre, and there are a ton of good trails in there – they have uplift days on them too). You can drive out to the proper mountains for a day ride (or longer rides).

The downside compared to Scotland is that they only have access on some trails – so it isn’t like you can always do a massive ride just anywhere you want, in some ways there isn’t the same variety of trails. Also, do expect it to take a long time to drive anywhere, and to have to drive quite a way for rides (like 1-2 hours each way for much of the out of town riding). In terms of paddling they have some quite good rivers, I’m not sure if there are access limitations though.

Road biking is massive in Christchurch if you like that – really big group rides, and lots of lovely people who do it.

In terms of jobs and stuff – be aware it is a very small place. I’m from Nottingham, and Christchurch feels a whole lot smaller. It is very spread out too. In any particular field, there aren’t going to be a large number of potential companies, so be sure the job you get is one you want to stay in for a fair bit of time.

The culture is a bit small town too, and if you like bands or art or anything, don’t expect anything significant ever to come to Christchurch. Personally I like to at least have access to a major city for culture and the like, without having to fly to Sydney. That’s one of the things that put me off.

Joe

While im no imaging authority, I’m informed that Gimp is able to do pretty much anything that PS etc can do, just with a little more faffing required – I have access to both and quite frankly I can switch seamlessly between the two without care,

For web graphics and things to be displayed on a screen, it is almost as good – although it is missing adjustment layers and actions.

It can’t yet do 4 colour (for professional printing), or high dynamic range stuff. So it isn’t quite good enough for people using it for things that will be printed out.

The interface is surprisingly usable now too, they’ve really improved things a lot.

Joe

I’ve never learnt.

Was made easier I guess by the fact that my parents never learnt either, so I’ve always been used to getting myself around by bike.

I guess I save a load of money compared to running a car, but the thing that is really nice is that it keeps me pretty fit without having to think about it. Plus I hate sitting around in cars, whereas I love riding bikes. Sitting in trains is okay as you can get stuff done, but driving, what a hassle.

Joe

You can get trains out to the mountains – they have a ski resort there, so we’re talking quite big mountains. There must be some great riding in them. Cotos was where we went.

Joe

Joe – is that the trig at Hemlock Stone openspace? i like that shot a lot! I can never seem to link the Hemlock Stone into any of my rides unless i ride just there, i always find it out of the way a bit

Is here, top of Stapleford Hill.

You can link it into Strelley / Trowell on bridleways, or along Notts canal. There’s also a bit to the east of the golf course, where the Robin Hood Way goes, that has some trails in. Or you can just play about on the trails there and on the other side, you can make a 10 mile ride just going up and down the two hills different ways. Although I wouldn’t bother on a nice weekend day, as it gets too many people there, particularly on the Bramcote Hill side.

Joe

At the top of Mount Hemlock Stone, Nottingham

It isn’t strictly a bike though.

When I did similar, doctor told me that if I could walk on it, I should walk on it, and that for the type of injury I had, resting and stuff would just make me stiffen up and make things worse.

But he did wiggle my knee around and stuff to check that I hadn’t done any serious damage to some thing or other before telling me that.

Joe

What colour koolstop?

Are swiss stop going to be noticeably better? Anyone tried both?

cheers,

Joe

My road bike has 105 brakes – they have a metal bit on the outside of the pads, with a little screw through it, and a rubber bit on the inside.

Does that mean they are cartridge pads?

If so, can I use any brand of insert in them, or do the inserts only work with the same brand of cartridge holder bit?

Joe

Blimey, you actually use video calls? I’ve never known anyone who used them ever.

Is it for some weird pornography / phone sex thing, or is there some other reason you want a tiny poor quality picture of the other person’s face when you call?

Joe

If she’s an absolute beginner to biking, the high peak trail is pretty flat except for one big climb at the start, wide and easy, with nice views. It isn’t hardcore mountain biking (it’s a sustrans type trail), but it won’t be muddy which is always a bonus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Peak_Trail

It’s an out and back not a loop. Starts from Cromford, about 2 miles from Matlock. If you want, you can park at Middleton Top, which is sw of Matlock, not very far from it, you can skip the climb too.

Joe

Llanberis Tourist Info – 01286 870765

give em a call, check what it’s like now.

If you go up the Llanberis track, you can see what the conditions are for the ride down anyway. The bit just after the tunnel under the railway, half way up, is the bit that is most dangerous when icy.

Joe

as my rent may go up when the lease is re-written (no increase in 2yrs)!

In our experience, rents only get put up when people move. We stayed in the last 2 places for 3 years each with no rent increases. To be honest though, at the moment, rents are dropping so much that some people round here have actually renegotiated their rents down.

Joe

I’d ask someone in Llanberis on Saturday night. Last time I went up, I stayed at Boulder Adventures in Llanberis, and they had a pretty good idea of what the conditions were / how much snow there was, cos other people staying there had been up the day before.

If you’re staying nearer to Coed-y-Brenin, I’ve had success in the past by phoning up local outdoor centres to ask em if they’ve been out in the hills recently. Or if you have internet access, post on a mountaineering / hill walking forum.

Joe

I do a lot of my route planning in Viewranger. It’s pretty handy – you can plan routes in the pub the night before, on the train on the way to a ride etc.

It can load gpx routes that you download off the web (or you can create your own routes on OS maps using http://www.bikehike.co.uk )

Joe

I use it all the time – it’ll happily work for about 7 hours on my original N95, and longer on the N95 8GB.

Do you pay any connection fee, usage charge whilst the gps is running?

If you’re doing live update, you pay data charges for sending your location (assuming you haven’t got unlimited mobile internet). Otherwise, you don’t have to use any mobile services to use the GPS. You can also turn on AGPS, which uses about 5kb of mobile data per time you start the GPS, which talks to the mobile phone network in order to get a very quick fix on the GPS satellites, and makes GPS work much better.

Joe

The iPod thing only works by downloading it over the net in realtime, so only works where you’ve got a 3g connection. I don’t think anyone has done a Nokia thing like this.

With Viewranger you actually buy the maps, so you have them on your memory card. So if you’ve got no signal, you can still use it (like in large parts of the Peak District). Which is why it costs money.

Depending on where you ride, Viewranger national parks is cheap, and has most of the Peak District, lots of good Scottish riding etc.

Viewranger really is great by the way.

Joe

It’s not distance, but how long it takes that is important. I’m about to start a 15 mile bike commute – to drive it would take well over the hour it takes to bike because the traffic is a bit busy. Personally I think you’d be crazy if it’s going to take that sort of time.

When I worked with people who commuted silly distances by car, they all hated their commutes, but had done it so that they could live in a slightly bigger house (which they never spent any time in), or near a better school (to send their kids who they never saw) etc. That was in Nottingham and London, both had terrible traffic. Personally I’d rather live in a slightly less nice area than waste loads of time driving cars. If you enjoy driving cars, and the traffic isn’t too bad it might be a different calculation – same as I live away from work cos I enjoy riding bikes.

Joe

Im with Pk. I personally resent people who turn up at bang on the dot and busy themselves putting their coat down/making tea/making themselves comfortable. Do all that later. Start as you mean to go on.

Turning on the computer isn’t ‘making tea’, ‘making yourself comfortable’. It’s a vital part of the work. If it takes a long time, then it’s because they’ve designed their systems poorly (or ‘network issues’ as it’s described above, which basically means the same thing).

In a professionally run organisation, where there are daily preparatory tasks required, people are paid to come in before they are required to be fully active. For example in shops, banks etc. it is common to be paid to come in 30 minutes before opening time to open up the till, check things out, before turning on the customer face at 9am or whatever. In a situation like that described above, the manager is just expecting free work, which isn’t a professional thing to do as a manager, it’s just going to demoralise those who are affected by it. Just because you may be able to get away with poor management in the current economic climate doesn’t make it good management.

Joe

If there’s a team of 10 people he’s losign half a days productivity every day whilst you all start your machines.

Which he should take up with the IT department. Turning on a machine that is vital to your work is just as much part of your work as doing whatever task you do when the machine is on.

Joe

erm, in the current economic climate, when the boss says jump, I’d say you jump…

I manage a team, and have had to bring a couple of people up on this recently – the stance is that you have to be capable of working your contracted hours, and if you need the system to do that, then you should time your arrival accordingly. 10 minutes for a system boot isn’t unreasonable, after all, you’re on here during the day clearly, and you can always grab a coffee while you’re waiting. If you are unable to do so for any reason, that’s a personal chat / agreement between yourself and your boss.

Whilst it’s probably practical advice that right now rocking the boat is maybe a bad idea, your ‘stance’ is so incredibly blatantly stupid that I’m glad you’re not my boss. It’s like saying to a train driver that they only get paid once they get the train to the station, rather than for the time driving the train out of the depot. If you want people to start work quicker, then make the systems work properly and start up in a sensible time. If you want people answering the phones at 9am, and the system takes 10 minutes to start up, then pay them to come in at 8:45.

The person you (and the original poster’s bosses) should be hassling, is the IT people, 10 minute+ boot up times is a sign that something is right and proper screwed on your network.

Joe