I have the GF1 with the 20mm lens.
I have this as a more portable option on rides to my Canon DSLR.

To date, the DSLR hasn't been used since getting the GF1 – its that good.

Took some action shots – jumping off a ladder drop – last weekend, in poor light – results are superb – on the "idiot mode/Ai" as well.

The lack of view finder I agree with, would be better with one, but thats not the "style" of a bridging camera. Also the 20mm lens means you have no zoom so its back to walking backwards/forwards to capture your shot – which has a sense of fun in itself.

For the actual quality of pictures and its HD filming it seems outstanding.

Hope ceramic 2yrs old+ – faultless.
Just bought another on the back of this experience to replace an XT that died rather early.
Riding partner went for King, looks quite similar, feel confident myself that Hope understand English riding conditions and design products accordingly.
Big thumbs up here for Hope.

Surbiton is the wife swapping capital of England (fact).

In case influences your consideration of locations…..

The parking position of the third party is unlikely to make any significant impact on the third parties ability to bring a claim against your son.
The Road traffic act requires a duty of care on your son's part.
By hitting a parked vehicle, while carrying out his 3point turn. He has failed on this duty and therefore will be considered liable for the TP damage. That the TP, from your note, had parked illegally most likely, while a contributory factor, in that your son's 3 point turn might otherwise have been completed without incident, I don't believe will have adequate weight to do anything to shift the position of your son's Insurer having to accept liability in this instance.
Hitting something that is parked nearly always makes you liable, unless another party shunted you into the stationary object in the first place which was beyond your control.
Sorry not to offer more encouraging comments, I work in Insurance and this would be my work-minded view.

Negotiating cash isn't necessarily advice I'd advocate, but sometimes does lead to a more sensible solution. You need to consider the cost of your son's No Claims Discount (if he has any) the quality of car he hit, to get an idea on parts/labour costs and then decide if you wanted to make a "without prejudice" offer for the envisaged repair cost. Any offer you do make you should qualify as a WP offer, so in the event negotiations fail, you have tried to protect your motor Insurers position to some extent.
Some motor Insurers will get the hump if you attempt to negotiate a TP claim, fail, then want to pass things along as most likely your actions have prejudiced any ability for the Insurer to consider defending the claim.
Hope this is of help.

Cheers Onzadog, greatly appreciate the thoughts.
Person who sold it, said had fitted it to SX shock.

In at No 1>

Crank 2

If only I could recover that 2 hrs of my life.
Would guess written by an 18yr old virgin desparate to get laid.
So bad, it almost does complete circle and becomes good again-but doesn't.
Man it sucked.
If however you haven't seen it, don't let me review but you off of course.

Artillerydave,
Greatly appreciate the advice – thanks.
Bummer to hear no after market springs available – kind of limits if range of use….first Marzocchi fork…likely to be last at this rate!
Removing coil and riding with air only makes me kind of nervous too, not to knock suggestion c/o S8Tom – thanks too.

Nimrod
Its James – I read this post, thinking couldn't have summed up Argos paint job better – only to realise I think its me your quoting as having summed up Argos paint job in this way!!!!
Think I've been told they usually do Road bikes – so not subject to same abuse….hence paint not fairing well on the forks I had done.
But they did look stunning on day I picked them up, better than Rock Shox's own finish IMO.
Hope someone else can offer subjective opinion for you…..
heard me & Mr-many bikes – have acquired another each!!! going all slopestyle in Surrey Hills ..! or trying too.

ahwiles
you need to steer with your knees, literally jut them out like your knock-kneed, then let bike move/be loose between the gap you've created with your knees.
Try dropping your saddle height a lot too while you practice.
Practice, practice, practice…..etc…..

I bought – Sigma DC 18-200mm lens – think about £300(ish) from memory.
Mean't I don't have to faff changing lens, as this picks up the ability of the kit lens, plus gives me a decent level of zoom, also not to heavier to again fits in camelbak(just).
Riding related shots have been brilliant with this kit.

Yes, got 500D.
Had 400D before.
Considered 40D, but went with 500D instead as has HD video option.
Had it about 3 months.
HD video is excellent – for short bursts of wanting to capture moving image.
Took some incredibe (IMHO) shots last night in dark conditions, using flash, of a night ride including jumps – am amazed at quality, has caught individual spokes in the wheels in mid-air.
Is lighter than the 40D (if you intend to carry in your camelbak)
Standard kit lens is rubbish, buy just the body and a separate lens.
Am not gifted with a camera, or in understanding how they work, but using it in the spirit of a compact camera, it gives me outstanding shots that make it worth having a DSLR instead of a compact.

As a self confessed wheelie addict – who has attended a wheelie school (for motorbikes), with 25odd yrs spent refinning the skill and practice probably covering twice a week. Heres my suggestions for cracking it.
Pick a slight upward slope/or flat ground – avoid anything downhill for now.
Pick an easy gear, say middle front chain ring and 1 down from top at the back – nice and spinney to lift the front with minimum effort.
A little back brake helps – set it up so its 1 finger use (without stretching the finger) this means you can feel some very slight resistance from the back brake, match your finger for the front brake (but don't pull lever) so hand position is equal both sides.
With back brake giving a little resistance, do the lazy option to get the front up – push down on forks a little – say 1" travel, then use the pop and best foot forward, push the pedals purposefully to make the front wheel lift, theres not really much lift from the arms, the gearing and your pedal input brings the front up. Don't pracitce wearing SPDS – use flat pedals, then if you go over the back – no worries.
Begin by going higher than you think necessary, at some stage your "feel" the balance point. The point at which the bike is in harmony with being on the back wheel, from here its using your knees for balance/to steer and pedal smoothly catching any rearward dip with the back break and if the front drops bit more pedalling.
Hope this helps.
only people who can't wheelie knock doing them!!!
once sorted, the coaster wheelie is when going downhill becomes much more entertaining.

Tagging onto this thread…

I need new lens for my Oakley prescription riding specs.

I use them for night riding (using lights off rd).

Would yellow tinted lens be better than clear at night in pitch black conditions, or better to stick with clear.

Reading threads, seems suggestion is yellow improves overcast conditions, but not right choice for night riding???
Thanks for any advice that follows…

Firstly, good luck.
People often unplay the challenge of nailing the CBT.
People often say you can't fail it – you can! (and I must own up I did!).The day is broken into 2 parts, usually some classroom based discussions on road craft in the morning followed by some playing in a safe area (i.e. off the main highway).
Are you riding a bike with gears? or just a twist & go style scooter?
If you have not ridden before a bike with gears it might be unrealistic to expect to pass the CBT in a day, with no prior bike riding experience.
Twist & go however is piece-of-pi55.
Afternoon then is a road ride with instructor, you need to demonstrate good observation as main thing to aim for. Assume everyone on the rd. is out to kill you and act accordingly.
Don't do as I did, forget license, lie to instructor saying home is 15mins drive away, then drive the 45mins. journey usually takes like its the last stage of lombard RAC rally, then forget to put on glasses once back and with adrenalin overdose set on off CBT thinking why have I gone blind & then failing! Took it next day & passed. Rode 125cc for 12months, then did full bike license (passing 1st time) then lived on track days riding 1000cc proper bikes for about 8 yrs – seriously expensive hobby but loads of fun. Last big bike good for just over 100mph in first gear – made for fun exits from pit lane!
Again good luck, post results please!

A late shout for Halifax & sainsburys (which is a Halifax underwritten policy).
Very good prices, against market.
Excellent customer service.
Insure my bikes £5500 & £3000 respectively.
For your Marin, your not meant to part insure and unless you could ensure achieving same purchase price you need to state the bike is worth £3200. That said I’d insure it for £2950, as this might keep it under an Insurers threshold whereby premiums change, if you got given £2950 you’d negotiate purchase of a £3200 bike easily with most LBS.
Have heard good things about M&S too.

Perhaps been too harsh, as see your company is holding threat of email/internet mis-use policy against you.
Are you allowed to access facebook on work PC? if so, then employer has not taken adequate steps to prevent your breaching policy and therefore would be hard pushed to inforce any considered breach of said policy.
I still say though, own up to your email exchanges, as much as your friend breaches the unwritten code of conduct concerning sending messages to each other and then not using them at a later stage to his/her own advantage – that sought of behaviour sucks!

Without being too blunt, have some ethics & back bone please.
Stand up for the the colleague and provide honest evidence, as asked of you.
Despite Small company & sometimes small minded thinking that goes with them, they will respect you more for being reliable with evidence, in giving an honest account regardless of the direction it could have on the firm Vs employee bringing the claim.
If your employer hasn’t acted reasonably is it right you then assist in glossing over their behaviours(?).
Karma will get you in years to come pending what you do here!
Best of luck in having some morales and doing the right thing.

Have used Mavic 819 tubeless rims on both my bikes for some time now.
Seem very strong, taking drops up to 5-6ft comfortably – albeit I don’t weigh much – 11stone fully kitted up – not sure how they’d fair with a heavier rider? perhaps others can comment.
I use Hope ProII hubs on both wheel sets.
Have just last week changed rims on main bike to Stans flow rims – meant for more heavy duty riding.
Has meant where 819’s are narrow limiting tyre choice of width up to say 2.2″ before tyres start to role about on rims if riding with lower pressure, Stans flow rims give wider rim so can use wider tyres.
Stans rim need rim tape to run tubeless tyres but easy to fit and works fine.

Halifax Insurance – 0845 602 7377.
2 bikes £5500 & £3000 – premium equals about £150 of overall well priced premium – all cover, theft, damage – away from home/worldwide.

Had 1 claim for going under height restrictor with bike on top (don’t ask….) dealt with v. well cheque to LBS.

Also my employer, but means I am confident the service is strong.

higgo – yes, non-pikey verison of inner tube solution (no offence to pikies intended)

IMO – just neo guard is adeqate.
Crud catcher on down tube catches mud when moving slowly from being flicked upwards, once speed is up most seems to fly forward being where the neo guard does its job.
I only dropped using crud catcher around Feb. time slimming down to just a neo guard on both bikes and have found this fine in ALL conditions North downs has inflicted on me.
Some mud still gets through, but 90% seems to be dealt with by neo guard.

Excess is likely to be something around £100 (being market average) unless you requested to have a greater value excess in return for cheaper premiums when you took out policy.
M&S do provide a no claims discount, which at best is usually something around 30% off your annual premium. If you decide to claim it only steps back, rather than disappearing completely, probably it will go back to around 20%, if you have had 6 years since your last claim.
What does your policy cover, most have a limit of £500 (per bike) unless you have specifically mentioned the bikes at inception and increased the value for which you insure them.
Therefore, 2x bikes stolen value circa £500, pay £100 excess, perhaps loose £50 in discount over yearly premium, leaves £350 reasons to still proceed with a claim.
View it from an accountants point of view and it makes sense to use your insurance if the above guidelines sit with what you’ve got as your policy.
market is very competitive, M&S gets good press over cover they give for MTB, Halifax also is equally strong – I insure £4500 5 spot (mainly XTR build) and £2500 Prince Albert and premiums are very good c/o Halifax.
Hope this helps.
I am a claims person for my job.

Only just got back & logged back on.
Household insurance – will only pay if an insured event has happened, i.e. someone puts their foot through roof, storm conditions rip it off, imapct from falling tree, etc.
The issue with it already being present is not material, it is the event, which you are insured for/want to claim for, happening during the term of your policy that is the important bit & yes, in this event the Insurer would pay the licensed removal costs, plus replacement of the roof.
Interestingly, I have rec. documents within my industry flagging up carbon fibre as new, pontential, asbestos (as per parisroubaix) might make this material no longer quite so popular.

Even if it is asbestos – which would need a sample taken and sent off for laboratory testing to confirm in order to be sure as cement sheet roofing looks much the same as asbestos, its not something that should deter you from buying a hse. particularly if its in reasonable condition.
Have a look at the timbers the roofing is secured to, can you see evidence of rain getting through – staining to the timbers, if the roof leaks this is what would force your hand in needing to do something with it.
Otherwise its nothing to be overly worried about, until the day it breaks or the roof leaks. Personally, I much prefer this as a roofing material to a mineral felt roof which you know needs replacing every 15-20yrs and is a guaranteed cost to pay in future.
Best of luck with hse hunting – is good time to buy!

In order to take the debris to your local council, they will require that you double bag & seal the material. Which would then mean needing to break it into smaller sized pieces to fit.
I would strongly recommend you do not attempt this job, were you wanting to remove it, the roof sheets will be VERY brittle, you’d need crawler boards to get onto/across the roof. Professionals often fall through these roofs, such is the risk of working on them, when removing them.
Keeping the material wet is good advice as it makes it more stable and air born particals are less likely to escape, but knowing about asbestos and its associated risks, I wouldn’t take on such a job, even the once.
There is a method of prolonging the life of the asbestos sheet roofing, which is a polymer coating but is only worth doing if the roof is in good condition.

Asbestos requires licensed contractors to remove the material. The cost of this specialist work is horrendiously expensive.
Usually the removal cost is greater than the cost to replace the roof if you were to put back concrete sheet roofing, being similar in style to asbestos sheet roofing.
Health risks are only present were the roof sheeting to be broken then HSE considers air born particals would be present giving risk to health if breathed in, but being outside, a roof, is less of a hazard, versus having asbestos inside a building that you occupy.
Wouldn’t worry myself, most 1930-1950’s properties that have a garage were often finished with asbestos roof sheeting as the garage roof.
They last for eternity and are only a problem when someone walks on them, as they are very brittle after 50+ yrs and break. Then your issue of the expense in removing them surfaces.
Likely ball park cost to remove typical single garage asbestos roof, circa £1200-1500 c/o licensed contractor.
That said, in truth your likely to find a builder who will just do it, minus any observation of HSE guidelines – not that this practice is right.
Hope this helps, am involved in the overseeing removal of asbestos c/o working in insurance industry.

Yes, to an extent…assuming you mean you will use an inner tube still.
819 rim has an inner lip/grove, that the tubeless (UST) tyre bead slots into.
A normal, non UST tyre doesn’t then want to sit in a uniform way with this rim.
I have this rim on both my bikes, and while wanting to use up a back selection of tyres, found any non UST tyre wouldn’t sit straight on the rim and was more prone to coming off the rim when riding hard.
I have now used nothing but UST tyres on the 819’s.
Its quite a narrow rim, so I don’t go past 2.2″ width. Otherwise the tyre feels like it roles on the rim.
Be interesting to see any other opinions.
Have ridden some quite large drops on these rims on both full sus. & hardtail and remain true and seemed stronger than expected for their intended use (Xc). Rode smaller ladder drop at Chicksands last week and was fine. Have used Hope ProII hubs with tripple butted spokes and nice light weight achieved.
All in all well recommended here.

I have GD fitted to 2 bikes.
I use the 4″ classic drop, which gives 1″ drop then the full 4″.
I previously used a Speedball which only gave 3″ in total.
I would actually now like a 5″ drop GD if possible.
I would strongly vote for the 4″ !