Orange website? http://www.orangebikes.co.uk

Considering the amount of machining that#s gone into the backplate of THIS, AND the fact that it’s anodised, £50 for one of these is a bit of a bargain.

If you were to manufacture these yourself in the UK you’d probably pay £50 per backplate just for the machining, sod the rest of the processing that goes into it.

WD40 is not a viable lubricant…

TBH I’d back off – this is a situation where being pro-active could possibly make it worse. You need to be supportive but the more you try to prepare him, the worse his denial will become.

He has to come to the realisation himself. Deal with issues as they arise, bu tbe as patient as you can.

There are a number of people on here I trust to give a excellent, informed advice.

The rest just seem to spout whatever seems to be fashionable at the time and what they’ve read since they traded in the golf clubs.

This, and what makes it worse is most of them actually believe it.

Sheldon Brown is at least fairly reliable, if not 100% accurate. I’d trust the information on there far more than anything I read here.

Come home to a real fire – buy a holiday cottage in Snowdonia…

Whats the chances of me being able to find any of this??

Well lots of other people find it. Ever heard of an OS map? 8O

Sending packets by Royal Mail is about to become more complicated, especially if you need insurance.

Eh? How? The only difference I can see is that you need to take the physical size as well as the weight into consideration now.

Remember that it’s *YOUR* responsibility as sender to make sure you have adequate insurance – even if your ebay / forum buyer “doesn’t pay for insurance”, if it doesn’t reach them, it’s you who has to refund them

That’s always been the case. But then I never send anything of value less than Special Delivery, and I certainly wouldn’t trust Royal Snail with anything over £100 in value.

Is it? (Looks out of window). Only flurrying at the moment

It is now but it was snowing quite steadily as I drove into work this morning.

Yes and maybe. Depends how much you’re offering.

youll be impressed with the mpg

Unless you’re being ironic I doubt that muchly – all engines have a sweet spot where they have maximum fuel efficiency.

Sitting at idle or at low revs uses significantly more fuel than driving at 56mph in top gear.

Add in the inclines and you’ll be watching the fuel gauge drop faster than a thing dropping quickly…

Funny that – the OP started this post 5 days ago yet hasn’t reposted…

Southern fairies…

Burnley is, if I remember my geography, more like south of Skipton.

We’re both right – it is South but also West. 23 miles South West. And 30 miles due South of Settle which is about 15 miles North West of Skipton. And there’s a lot of deep snow lying too.

It’s snowing steadily over the whole area this morning.

I quite like the 8:57 from Manchester Picadilly to Marple…

Roads are nearly all open except some of the more exposed routes, but there’s still a lot of deep (and I mean DEEP – think 6 feet or more) snow drifts up the tops. Also a lot of boiler-plate ice in patches. It’s tricky walking in places at the moment.

EDIT – it’s also snowing steadily this morning in the Todmorden area.

She’s a mentalist. Trust me, they all are…

The area round Skipton is fairly clear although there are big drifts around walls and a lot of minor roads are still closed/blocked. The forecast for this weekend is for more of the same. Bring thermals…

There is less snow the further west you travel. None at Lancaster for instance.

Er, I’d disagree. I live in Burnley and work in Skipton. There’s far more snow over my side of the hill than in Skipton.

That was the road outside my house on Sunday morning…

And most Lancastrians were actually from (what is now) Yorkshire (and what was then Northumberland)…I do know my history, I just like antagonising grumpy Yorkshiremen…

GOing to blindly guess at the Helvellyn ridge, it’s the only Lakes photo I remember in the calendar (not got it on me…)

As a study in workmanship with wood its amazing

As a study in CNC router programming it’s completely mundane… 8O

Because we still haven’t forgiven you for the dirty tricks at Towton… :evil:

No you won’t die. Whinlatter gives you a bit more of a “high mountain” feel (it’s quite exposed in places), whereas Grizedale is more low level. Both are fairly easy going but unless there’s a decent thaw I can imagine that Whinlatter would be, shall we say, “interesting”…!

Walna scar: there is a loop – go up lawson park to grizedale then over to parkamoor and down to sawrey. Head over to Torver and then up hummer lane then over stephensons ground and down to seathwaite. Head up Walna scar and back down to conniston.

That’s a hell of a trek unless you’re a racing whippet – personally I’d head off down the road to Torver to warm up, then head over Broughton Moor to Stephenson Ground; from there over Brockbarrow and down to Seathwaite, then up and over Walna Scar. That said I’d think twice about tackling that route in the current conditions.

A good all day ride would be Lawson Park, Parkamoor, Dad/Grandad/The Dentist, Satterthwaite, over Breasty Haw then Great Intake to Grizedale Tarn; drop down to Esthwaite, then on the road to High Sawrey before taking the bridleway over by Moss Eccles and Wise Een tarns; hang a left on Long Height and drop down to Colthouse before heading into Hawksheads for tea and cake. Then up the bridleway past Ann Tyson’s house to join the NFT back to Grizedale. Stay on the NFT up the “Between Elephants” section up onto the ridge then back down by Lawson park and into Coniston.

Crowded House – Take the Weather With You. Back in the day, the old Lancashire Mountain Bike Club/Burnley Rough Riders used to go away every Bank Holiday weekend, usually to Keswick. We somehow ALWAYS transpired to have that tune on the radio on the way up the M6…

Also it doesn’t rain inside a car.

Clearly you’ve never driven a Caterham or a Westfield…

I think the answer to regular cycling for both sexes is the revival of the traditional upright British roadster.

Full mudguards, oilbath chaincase, hubgears. Problem is that they are simply not fashionable. (You can buy one secondhand with 50 odd years of use on it, and if it has had basic maintenance, it will run just as nicely as brandnew.) They are heavy, but a modern version could be much lighter.

PASHLEY anyone? (Linky)

How much for genuine parts? Stuff is usually cheap for a reason…

Is the seat stay a bolt in component?

Yes, it is. I used to have one back in the day!! Seatstays and complete frames do turn up now and again.

Is it just me or has the OP gone particularly silent. Personally I’d have gone down the confiscating his clothes route. It’s always a winner, especially in remote rural areas.

I don’t think it’s restricted to just sweating in public.

Yes. There’s the farting and arse-scratching too.

Surely it’s up to the FC to maintain the trails, not you? Just ring them and ask to get them removed.

I really don’t get it…. these “economic” migrants are coming here to work, not to scrounge. You can argue about the rights and wrongs of that, but there just is no evidence to support this bullpoo that is being spouted about benefit scrounging.

Undoubtedly but…

Many economic migrants come here to work and to better themselves; there are a few though who come to abuse the system. There has to be on the law of averages (and based on the number of Poles I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the last few years, I’d say that probably 1 out of 10 is a bad apple).

Now unfortunately there is still a lot of closet racism in the employment market. I used to work in a town where 20% of the population was from the Indian subcontinent, yet not one person in the company (40 people) I worked for was from that ethnic group.

This being the case, many economic migrants find it hard to get work that isn’t low paid (if they can find work at all) unless they are exceptionally well qualified, and thus end up claiming benefits to make ends meet, or to fund a lifestyle of any sort. Even doing this, in many cases they will be far better off than they were in their country of origin.

Add into the mix the woeful state of our immigration controls and the tabs we keep on migrants, and it’s easy to see why there are so many on benefits still in the country, who should have been “returned to sender” long ago.

FWIW the first part of the answer here is to work like, erm, very hard working people to clear the backlog of migrants who shouldn’t be here.

Steel or aluminium?

I think he paid over the odds.

Basic Gyro S is currently £2499 RRP according to Orange’s website…

Agreed about Adam Henson, he is a complete and utter bell-end and quite frankly if I ever met him I’m kick him in the bollocks.

Thanks for the replies, I’m in Cheshire. Googling it seems £150ish if I supply the CAD

Way too much. The laser cutters I use charge £40 minimum. If you can provide material and DXF of the profile you want cutting it shouldn’t be much more than this.

You could try the Glenderaterra Beck run from Threlkeld. It’s only a short loop but it gets you far enough from civilisation to feel like you’ve been somewhere.

That said, “that” step on the Western side of the Glenderaterra valley may be pretty dodgy in these conditions.

Also bear in mind that the weather forecast for the North West is NOT good for the Easter weekend – another significant snowfall is possible.

Whose rules is it being run under? I’m assuming that it will be British Cyling’s interpretation of the UCI rules, which only specify that a full-face helmet must be worn at all times for downhill, whether practicing or racing. BUT it doesn’t give a definition for a full-face lid…

That said I get the feeling that the organisers may take a dim view of you trying to use the Met and claiming it’s a full-face…

But I am toying with the idea of a caravan and I am wondering what normal family sort of car is good for towing.

It’s all down to how big a caravan you’re intending to tow. The usual rule of thumb is that the fully-loaded caravan should be no more than 75% of the MGW (maximum gross weight – i.e. car fully loaded, full complement of passengers, all fluids at the correct levels, full tank of fuel) of the towing vehicle.

Just to give you an example, my dad tows his 16 foot Bailey Pageant with a Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI with no problems.

Pay a visit to the Caravan Club’s website, there’s more data on there about towing than you can shake a stick at.