>Plus, being Shimano, they will last forever.

..though it wasn't always the case (see above)..

Ours is probably over 10 years old, stair hugger thing (DC03?) – we use the washable filters and wash 'em every few months (plus I keep a pair of older more knackered ones for diy use so I don't clog the house ones with plaster dust etc.

Needed to reterminate the cable cos it gave up inside the spool , no problem otherwise, gets (ab)used byt a cleaner every week or two as well.

Probably other things suck a bit better than ours, but not having a bloomin bag's probably saved a lot of £ over the years…

I'm in Walton, work on the edge of Egham – about 30-40 mins to Egham depending on traffic lights/bike, Molesey's probably a little more. Tho' if you're on the Hampton side of the Thames, you can probably get there in about 30 mins. Weybridge is a bit closer than Walton but doesn't reduce the journey time much 'cos it's just a different route more to the west.

Surbiton's a good spot – probably 50-55 mins out through the A308 (I reckon on Egham>gym in Thames Ditton in about 40-45 mins)

Thames Ditton's worth considering – likewise Claygate (55 mins?)

Trains through Weybridge/Surbiton/Walton are pretty quick 20/30 mins to London or better (Surbiton gets more services), those through Hampton Court or Claygate (different lines – as is Hampton) are somewhat slower (tho' from Claygate there's also a slowish but direct route to Guildford, you can go direct there from Surbiton too but frome Walton/Weybridge it's chance at Woking)

Surbiton also has the advantage of being just inside zone 6 if you want to go into London much, and Kingston's nearby – another station or two down the line adds about 3 quid of so the the cost of an evening travelcard. Last train to Surbiton (likewise Kingston) is about 1am, and it's at the end of a night service route from Trafalgar.

Avoid north towards Feltham. Woking's very good re connections but some bits of the centre are a bit pikey in the evening.

BTW – you *can* get a train from Surbiton/Walton to Egham if needsbe – it's a few stops down the line to Weybridge, then pick up a kinda shuttle service from there though Chertsey towards Egham (winds up in London but it's a very slow way of getting there).

HTH

Think I'm pretty close, was working on something last night – just need to get a better take.

Is it any use if I simply lob backing track on one channel, guitar on t'other ? – that ought to be easy to separate I'd have thought.

During the last (?) election, the Tory party had a poster showing someone getting mugged/burgled or some such incident.

Caption was something like 'She's being attacked and where are the Police?

Someone had added underneath, with a spray can:
'Shovelling coke up Mick Hucknell's arse'

Sadly I didn't have a camera with me…

Got a 6 channel/3 channel stereo thing off fleabay some time ago – 906 IIRC – to plumb into the house. (We've got speaker brackets in several rooms c/o the previous occupants.)

The religious requirement, as I understand it (I could check with some mates or colleagues I guess), is to dress modestly. If you look through the muslim world that's interpreted very differently – it's a cultural issue (as is female circumcision, for example, which is also illegal in the UK).

Equally, you wouldn't expect to go to a muslim country walking around inappropriately dressed..tho' the irony there is that a western woman in *some* countries is far more likely to be hassled…so much for western decadence…

>It is far far less stressful letting the pro's do it.

Bear in mind that the pros aren't just the local 'big company'.

We moved almost 5 years ago (after 15 yrs in the same place – loads to shift!). Bunch we were buying off (bloke was a solicitor too..) didn't do enough to get the contract exchanged on the friday, and we were due to complete on the *following* friday. Dropped letter off to removals on the sunday night to say we expected it'd happen on the monday – then find out on the monday/tues morning they've removed our reservation. Grr !! – 3 days to sort it 🙁

Ring around, find one bunch that are free, don't have their own vans, never heard of 'em – could they be a bunch of cowboys? But very professional, friendly, even helped out shifting a whole lot of plants I'd squirreled away at a mates place – finally finished at 10pm !

On the other hand, the bunch we'd previously booked were *also* moving in our buyer from nearby (didn't put 2 n 2 together re the two bookings), turned up, then disappeared, came back again, then try to charge our buyer for 'late keys' which the silly tart tried to pass on to us.
(Let me qualify silly tart: got solicitors letter demanding we pay the excess – and we'd already let her off some ££ over a few survey issues as a matter of goodwill- we gave a polite but firm reply of 'not all our fault'. Then get a spoilt child kinda letter from her including complaining about cleaning the house – which we'd been quite careful to do…she'd previously had the cheek at one point to ask if we'd take the carpets out upon leaving 😮 We ignored the bitch. My GF would probably be less complimentary..)

Oh, and if you live in Surbiton/Surrey, the removals company are both well known and also have an undertakers service – that should narrow it down. Tossers.

Not so relevant in your case, but two things I've found:

a) if moving yerself, buy the unit-sized boxes that removals guys use – they stack nicely in the back of a van, unlike picking up discarded ones in various sizes that later give you grief when trying to stack, or start moving about in the back of the van

b) you can do this do this yourself if you're disciplined, but it may be worth paying the guys to come in the day before and pack – they just bag up/pack contents from drawer irrespective of what it is. There's a huge temptation when packing your own stuff to try and reorganise it, etc – just pack it and worry about it at the other end.

Dunno offhand, but normally a front caliper with IS mounts will fit the rear but for the next disk size down
eg 185 on the front becomes a 165 on the rear – obviously you'd need the appropriate disk too

Curious.

Just as well I've got a(n unworn) backup pair I bought about 4 years ago off this very boutique..err..forum !

>stopped getting sidi cos the soles would allways fall off.

Gawd knows what you're doing to 'em !

After a pair of the orginal Shimanos (8months mebbe ?), bought my first pair of Sidis early 90s – about 6 years of use, then a pair of Spesh (lasted mebbe 18 months), then another pair of Sidis about 2002. I haven't been ndoing as much commuting/rding as I used to but they're still fine, main wear is on the lh heal from commuting (unclipping and stopping).

All the shoe faliures have been the same thing – cracked baseplate around the cleat on the rearmost 'bunnyhop' foot (I'm crap at them, hence the '')

FWIW – in all the 'what shoe' threads I've seen on various forums, I've never seen anyone complain about soles falling off..mebbe the design/adhesive's changed in recent years ?

Get *something* going, that's better than sitting on yer hands. I've got got caught out from a) leaving BT in my 20's at a smidgeon under 5 years (contributions returned) b) no pension scheme at first company after degree/postgrad c) when they did bring one in it was Equitable Life (before it went down the tubes) c) not joining the scheme at my current place 'cos I spent 4 years inteding to leave.

Net effect is my pension's looking all a bit crap, and I'm 46 – fat chance of retiring at 55 !

>And of course I'm dead jealous I have no musical ability

Aha, drums for you, then 😉

I'll see if I can get something together over the next few evenings..

>Fox news isn't a news channel though

Sarah Palin's joining them as a contributor, if that's any indication…

His marketing department promises more than he can deliver ?

>but where the new headquarters sits isnt a big deal.

No, it *is* quite important.

Apart from anything else, they currently pax their taxes here. But it's become more common over the last 5 or 10 years that UK companies have been taken over and notionally restructured so they're a production facility of their non-UK owners. Profits got back to the parent company, and the country (effectively *us*) lose a lot of tax revenue as a result, despite the fact that that the UK company, as was, may not have changed in essence.

One link here (first hit on google), but the issues's been in the press a few times over the last year (including yesterday's Guardian, I think)

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/markets/article-23796668-city-talent-isnt-as-vital-as-cadbury.do

Sidi.
Not cheap but won't fall apart, and last for years..

BTW – the pic's a little fuzzy, but it *does* look just like a smoothing capacitor and a bridge rectifier, as I'd suspected.

>Policy statements to illustrate that, if you please.

Yeah, like a policy statement is a good indicator of what any future government will do ! – past record is probably as reliable..my concern in the case of the Conservatives is the old (or even new) dinosaurs in the party, in the same way there are in the Labour party, but at least we've seen the Labour party's recent record, some good, some bad.

Vote for who you like, it'll just be a different shade of shite, they'll just bugger up different bits, and the difference is whether they bugger up the bit you're concerned about, irrevocably.

(Personal faves that come to mind – Conservatives privatising the rail network, particularly in such a screwed up fashion, and the 70's labour party/Birmingham council for turning a bunch of smaller grammars comprehensive as part of their political mantra – all it did was turn some excellent schools into mediocre ones, and it was generally working-class kids like myself that attended them anyway !)

Got a link to the manufacturer's datasheet ? – and any pics of the internals ?

I'd guess they've got both a rectifier and smoothing inside (otherwise they'd spend a good portion of a cycle non-conducting). 12v ac (rms), smoothed/rectified is just under 17v, rectified/smoothed with no load, in which case there'll be some way of limiting/driving current to the leds (approx 11v in series) – tho' there will be a voltage drop under load. So I'd imagine a 12v ac/dc bulb would work with a 13.1V lumi pack.

From a quick browse, some appear only to be listing for use with ac – tho' I wouldn't have thought they'd really have some sort of transformer sitting inside.

>I have found that if I change the chain as soon as it hits .75 then I can get a couple of chains through a single

Just about to try this (was actually the original chain), first indications looks ok but haven't tried it under load yet.

T'other thing you can do is have a couple of chains and alternate them to spread the wear.

>Unlike the OpenOffice format of course, which is.. errr.. oh XML.

FFS.
As I said, the *lastest* version of Office, which uses Open XML – I just couldn't be arsed to look it up. That's the nastiness I was referring to.

(To clarify, latest probably= 2007)

>I take it you mean Office Open XML format, the ISO/IEC standardized open format that they use. The same standards body that OO use?

I think you may have arse-about-face – whilst wikipedia may be inaccurate, have a look at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML

Amonst various references is
http://www.infoworld.com/t/applications/iso-publishes-office-open-xml-specification-918

"OOXML was opposed by many on grounds it was unneeded, as software makers could use OpenDocument Format (ODF), a less complicated office software format that was already an international standard.

The debate became so embittered that IBM, which backs ODF, threatened in September to consider leaving standards bodies that allowed dominant companies such as Microsoft to wield what it perceived as undue influence. Microsoft was accused of leaning on countries in order to secure enough votes for OOXML to pass."

Basically, Microsoft attempt to (and are successful in) getting their standard ratified (tho' office 2007 appears to departs from it!), which promotes obsolency so everyone else has to follow a bunch of unneccessarily moving goalposts. Companies with existing Office installations at some point can only buy the latest version when they need more copies, and so the whole cycle moves on.

Just 'cos it's an 'open standard' doesn't mean it's a good idea for the industry.

>If there's no money in it why does a guy I know who is still in his 20's

I know of one ex-colleague who's in that position – but I think the reality is the returns for most games developers (ie the engineers) are pretty average, salary wise. If a game does really well they'll get decent royalities from it, but for every game that is a hit, there's probably loads which aren't.

We've had several guys over the years that have joined our company, coming from game developers, and it certainly hasn't been for the money…

>OpenOffice is utter gash

Pah!

OpenOffice is fine.
The OH does a lot of work at home, whilst at work they use Office (various flavours).
The only problem she's ever had in shuffling (a lot of) documents between the two was with the latest version of Office, which has some xml nastiness built-in (c/o Micro$oft's infinite wisdom..well, trying to build in obsolescence more like) – and even that wasn't insurmountable.

In any case, 60 quid is 60 quid – not to mention you're chucking money at Microshaft…

>So the ropads are of little interest to the local councils

FWIW, it's your *county* council that are responsible for road maintenance, not your local council.

Lusso do theirs with footloops – so they *ought* to reach 🙂 There's a few variants including Roubaix and a (coolmax) lycra version (good for autumn/spring). I've one pair which are probably 10 years old (slightly different outer material to the current stuff) but still work fine. I'm 5'10 (~32" waist, 39" chest) and a medium fits me fine , but there's enough material in the shoulder straps they ought to handle someone taller.

Ribble seem to have good availability (particularly the coolmax, which I couldn't find elsewhere).

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/pp/road-track-bike/Lusso-BIBTIGHTS/LUSSZBBT

The seat padding is just two layers of material, but I've never needed anything underneath with the Roubaix version (I've only ridden the coolmax version on a recumbent)

Could be worse, socks and sandals…

Re the garage pump thing – you *could* carry a Schrader>Presta adaptor, as you'd get on a track pump (not that I do…)

>Ah, if life were that simple we wouldn't need garages.

If life were that simple we wouldn't need women 😉

My OH generally isn't that bad – at our old place I kept 3 bikes under the stairs without too much grumbling. But she is a bugger for complaining about stuff being left around, yet used to leave the week's ironed clothes hanging up all round the bedroom (now sorted 'cos we've got a large spare bedroom where the wardrobes are – aka her changing room.

On the other hand…she's **** useless at keeping the kitchen tidy, why use one plate or utensil when you can use 4. Never heard of 'washing up as yer going along' either…

Once she threw out an unopened bottle of aftershave she'd given me (there were a couple of others there, plus razor, and not much else of mine) whilst tidying some (cutlery) drawers of cosmetics etc stored in the bathroom
'you've never used it'

'thats barely 2 square inches, you've got at least 4 drawers of your stuff in here, how much room did that take?'

'oh'

I've been talking about painting the 'den' (kinda workshop thing at the bottom of the garden) green – actually using some paint we'd used in the hall at our old place. Oh no, can't do that, it's too bright. She almost *never* goes there, it's bikes, tools, and paint…which I've pointed out, and I think she's cottoned on 😉

http://www.challenge-activ.com/home.htm

Went there in '03 with some mates, the couple that run it are v friendly and helpful, and at the time did some (XC) guiding for several days too. A short walk from the centre IIRC.

Probably only as much as is needed to allow the bearing shell (or RH fixed cup, for taper BBs) to have something to sit on for it's whole circumference. If the nick isn't preventing the bearing from sitting square, don't worry about it – or if the nicks burred, just get the burr removed (or carefully remove it yourself).

1989 Cannondale M600 (slopey top tube)
1991 or 92 'dale M500 (level top tube) after M600 cracked 🙁
1996 M2 Stumpjumper
2003 P7
2003 Enduro

(and there's a couple roadbikes and a couple of recumbents too – only thing I still don't have is the roadbikes and the M600)

Whilst at uni I did someone's tutor a favour by riding back a (freshly imported) bike one day, which I guess must have been a really early mtb – big tyres, derailleur gears, fell like riding a farm gate – that was '84 I think.

If it's a Victorian or Edwardian place and you're not painting them, and if they're pitch pine it might be worth trying a reclamation yard – 'cos you may have trouble getting a decent colour/grain match with currently available timber.

A little like the hallway approach, I practiced in the walkway over the local station, so there wasn't too far to wander off line. Probably took 3 or 4 nights of an hour each to get it, but then a month or two before I got the the point of not pushing too much pressure through the pedals. (At first you spend a lot of time getting the fore-aft balance right – I got rock 'ard quads over about a month or two).

I'd be inclined to leave any finesse over mounting/freemounting the thing 'til you've got the basic balance sorted, but YMMV.

>Swinley to the West – flat, xc but more technical than Epping and better draned I believe

No big hills but not flat by any means – the hills there tend to be short/steep so the singletrack's generally pretty swoopy (IYSWIM), the trails are maintained by BOBMBC to be rideable pretty much all year – drains reasonably well.

Mebbe more reason to have the blood test now ? – it'll tell you if you really are anaemic, rather than just feeling a bit run-down – a few times whilst at uni I was turned away from donating blood 'cos I was anaemic, despite feeling fine.

They don't take that much blood IME, certainly nowhere near as much compared to donating blood.

A few examples here:
http://www.arkel-od.com/tips/rack.asp

– looks like the upper boss is about halfway up, and the lower boss pretty close to the dropout

Re accomodation – just had a look at the fees at my old halls in Manchester (25 mins from the centre, so walkable to UMIST or Owens):

http://www.accommodation.manchester.ac.uk/ouraccommodation/areaguide/victoriapark/hulmehall/

Approx 114 per week, unless things have changed (I doubt it) the only meals *not* covered would be lunch mon-sat. No retainer/rent paid to landlord outside term time, I suspect no council tax to be paid, no dealings with crap landlords, and the majority of food covered.

FWIW, when I was there it was about 35 quid a week, and I was getting a full grant of 55 or 60 quid..