Did you try googling for scams involving Indonesian bike stores? It’s not even the first one posted here I’ve come across. Theres hundreds of hits for these dodgy sites.

To be honest, sending £750 to Indonesia is pretty stupid. To think you’ll get a £2k bike delivered is naive.

I may be wrong but this screams “scam”. They trying to get double the amount from you means they really do think your a special kind of mug.

They have gone into administration. It’s in the news and easily searchable.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-21241708

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldjudgmt/jd000615/goodes-1.htm

Certainly in terms of gritting, there is little comeback on the council for the crash. Not the answer to the question, but just throwing it out there.

Ask Lance to stand behind her?

Admittedly an LP12 of that vintage may be a bit tired – its like cars, or bikes – whats the mileage. Mind you, mine’s a pre 85 spec, had all the upgrades to to (but excluding the corner plinth bracing). And it was markedly better than a new planar 3 back then. Indeed, I prefered the Linn Axis to the Planar 3, and the Axis was a fair bit inferior to the LP12 of that vintage.

OFC the present Sondek is a long way from a vintage LP12, but thats the joy, you could actually rebuild it/service it yourself, with s/h bits of the bay, in a way you’d never dream of doing with a new item.

My lp12 came with an Ittok LVII, (Valhalla) and were I to pop it on the bay, I’d be lucky to get £400 for it, so it’s certainly achievable if the OP waits a while. And even a 30 year old Sondek line mine is a cracking listen……… it cost a whole terms student grant back then!

Of course, of the mid price tt – if a Rega is the sort of thing, then if you can’t find a pretty old, un-upgraded lp12, a Linn Axis is still probably in the price range, or certainly a Linn Basik. Expect the Axis to come with an Akito Arm which was pretty good for the cash, or a Basik with a Linn Lvx.

My first TT was a See Corp Revolver, which is as good as a planar 2, and sold to my friends parents, still doing sterling service.

And even a Pink Triangle “Little pink thing” might be within the price band.

Even a Dual 505 II might not be a bad start, given it should be very affordable these days.

See, the thing is, my Father ran a solicitors practice in the 70’s and 80’s, and during that time employed a retired ex publican. He happened to become a publican after leaving the RAF where he had been Squadron Leader Rank, albeit in the stores.

He told my dad some time in the 70’s that they crated up a load of spits after the war, and concerned that which ever Indian/Pakistani Govts post partition would move to capture these machines and initiate an Air Force with some decicive capacity over the other, the Govt dictated that they be disposed of.

So in best Air Force practice, they were lovingly disassembled, crated up, including being coated in grease ect as if for long term storage, and then sailed 60 miles of the coast and thrown over the side.

Personally, I don’t believe there are many, if any spits. Politically there was no appetite to allow them to fall into “enemy” hands, and yet were obsolete and not worth shipping back to the UK. A few were sold to the Israeli air force, but by 1946, remmeber we were in the jet age. A bunch of old ex WWII tired obsolete marque spits in the far east were worth nothing.

Still, it’s only conjecture, but told to my father by the person who organised the sinking of them. Sadly he died 20 years ago.

Of course, you could go classic and try and find a second hand TT of higher original quality – even an old Linn might just be found lurking for the right price – and then it’s like bikes – you can upgrade as you go…….

My LP12 is lovely. Clearly better even though ill matched ancilliarys in a very small room, whilst badly placed, over my fairly expensive and more modern Arcam CD Player.

I think I’d rather spend time with Martin Bormann than Charley.

27 posts and no one suggested “turning it off and on again”?

Orange G2 26inch – bought in Dec, to replace stolen and much loved P7 of 10 years vintage.

I’d take the stolen bike back in a heartbeat – but as a short 5’6 guy, a fore/aft penny farthing was never in consideration.

Btw – why don’t we call them all 99’ers, given that a 69 is a large back wheel and a 96 a large front wheel?

If you put a headight, mudguard, some clocks, rear suspension a tailpiece and a sensible exhaust, it would be quite a nice bike. As it is, it’s just a lovely classic, ruined. Like tatooing a scar on the face of Cindy Crawford.

I do wish people wouldn’t **** about with perfectly decent pretty original bikes just to show how they can make them worse – at least do it to some godawful ersatz copy Kawasaki W650.

Geniunely, I think it can be an early sign of menengitis.

Orange Clockwork 29er?

I’d me more amazed if it was an Alfa Romeo and the electricals were still working fully. On a dry day in June.

I used to use MER when I had a car – and always got fantastic results. Indeed, it managed to turn an old Morris Minor I had into a half gleaming battleship grey you could see your face in (and for a non metalic, grey, thats an achievement), and half yellow dulled tinted grey, simply because I ran out of time – and for the next 3 months the car looked like it was 2 from the scrappie, welded together in the middle!

Used it on an old orange alfa to discover it really was red as well. Never seemed cheap, and took ages to apply and wipe off again, but I would buy a bottle again if I had a car.

I also have an Experia Arc S and recently keep getting update errors with FB – it’s nothing to do with the storage – it’s something androidy/facebooky. I find uninstalling FB and then reinstalling it straight away has sorted it – it’s somehting to do wiht Google Play cache data I think.

If you go into settings you’ll porbably still have loads of storage space. I thought like you it was storage originally and moved lots of apps to my SD card, but trust me – it’s just some Android bug that FB doesnt like.

There’s some worrying advice here – Category C/D isn’t a straight forward relationship with the damage caused.

Essentially, Cat A – C are the only ones with any meaningful relevance. A & B you couldn’t buy anyway without being licenced.

C Does mean damage outweighs repair costs, subject to salvage value. So your Ford Focus with £1500 repair estimate, £250 salvage value, and a pre accident value of £1600, is a Cat C total loss. IE Insurer pays £1600, gets £250 back, total payout £1350.

D however, is a slightly odd category, its where the value of the salvage is high enough, (and will tend to be prestige and sports cars or where parts are very expensive), that the car IS repairable, economically, ie its repairs are less than the total loss, but that its worth writing the vehicle off and paying the total loss out – So say PAV is £15000, repairs £10000, but salvage is £6000, then insurer pays £15000, to recover £6000, to get £9000 paid out, rather than pay £10000 repairs.

Essentially a Cat D has no real meaning, unlike Cat C. A Cat D is not a linear relationship to the damage.

But a £13k car, you aint going to keep it forever, so be aware its still going to be 10-20% less than other identical cars for sale.

Echo posts above – why can’t women be curious about men and their bodies – if it means safety in numbers then let them – sex is not the same as love – its easy for a women to perve over a mans body, and then come home to the one they love – as can a man at a strip club – albeit it seems women’s enthusiasm seems “bawdy” rather than “intense” and they can enjoy it as a group rather than as a single person. – OP is over-thinking it all – just accept society doesn’t accept women as entirely even or equal in 2012, and celibrate that sexuality and what turns us on, even mildly, isn’t the same. There’s hormones, and learned behaviour behind it – but ultimately if your threatened by the chippendales, you have bigger issues than believing your partner is leaving you for an oily fireman.

Brookmyre +1

And most of John O’Farrell’s work is pretty readable – The Best a Man Can Get, May Contain Nuts, This is Your Life.

The thing to remember, is that if you have a product someone wants, and can supply it at a price that beats what they are paying, and are reliably, why would someone NOT want to do business with you?

Cold calling in business is acceptable – the secret is speaking to the right companies, and the right person at the right company.

This means doing research before EVERY call. Better to have 1 call which works per day, than 100 which all fail. Find out who makes decisions, whens best to get them, who already supplies them ect.

For example, trying really bih businesses is doomed usually to failure – you don’t know who makes decisions, what their authority is, ect – I occasionally get cold callers at work, I am just 1 of thousands of claims handlers for an insurer, where buying is all centralised – waste of everyones time and money.

Maplin are both pricy, and don’t have anything like the range in store that the OP needs. None of my locals even seem to have Intel in stock, its all AMD – and their range of in store fx cards is pretty poor generally.

And as for building it yourself – the pro is its really not that hard. The con – by the time you ordered parts, places like Yoyotech, Chillblast and the like, pc’s are actually cheaper prebuilt these days. I used to build my pc’s, years ago, but when I got this rig, I couldn’t buy the parts for the cost of getting it prebuilt – and on this pc, when I opened it up to add an extra hd, the cable maanagement inside was awesome.

The difference in the CPU’s is that i7 does hyperthreading.

Games don’t use this really. If the pc was for video rendering, then I7 is the chip. If for gaming, save cash and get the I5 3570k.

Overclockers, Chillblast, Yoyotech will all build you a decent pc. I got mine from Yoyotech, and it was beautifully put together, overclocked, with great cable management inside, which can be extra costs on other companies sites, so a fractionally more expnsive pc ended up actually cheaper, and being Central London, meant I could collect and use the same day.

Ditto on the card advice, the 6xx series Nvidia’s are the “present” technology. I bought my pc with a 670, which still 6m later is the “card to have” balancing cost vs performance, ie a few % slower than the top of range 680, but only 2/3 of the cost. Since I bought mine in june, 660’s have been released.

Anyone mention the Orange Diva yet?

I suppose for an unsophisticated person, who has an old old Krupps Expresso Machine, and a cafetiere, I make what ever I fancy.

Ie if I am in the mood for a longer coffee, I’ll grind the beans a touch less finely, and use the cafietiere. Then you get a more “brewed” flavour to your beverage,a bit more rounded and smooth.

If however, I need a bit of a wake up, then the Expresso machine gets used, (althouhg I drink it again, long, ie I let the machine fill a normal mug. The taste from the same beans is a little more “concentrated” or somehow sharper and a bit stronger. This morning, feeling a little lazy and not needing to “focus” I had the cafietiere in action, but on a work day, am more inclined towards the expresso machine.

Its a bit like drinking red wine. Get a light bottle of red and chill it, for an acceptable drink, or open, let breathe, for a different drink, depending on mood/food.

Well, I’ve had to use C&N Cycles Redhill a couple of times.

not only have I NEVER felt ripped off, but actually the contrary, that they simply haven’t charged enough.

I went in for a headset to be fitted, and it was a tenner. Now, I don’t care what you say, you can’t do ANY job for a tenner these days. Given a shop has rent, light, heat, staff, insurance, inventory tools and other costs, to even look at a bike, let alone do anything, these says, needs to be able to charge a reasonable rate per hour. I couldnt do it, and so a tenner was perfectly fair. I earn nearly twice that per hour, but add the costs of my place or work and other stuff, and my cost (rather than what I earn) it probably £30 an hour to work in an insurance office.

I then went back to get a chainring removed from a crank, the chap did it there and then, and didn’t charge me, despite me protesting he really should. Ok, it was a 30 sec job with the right tool, but I’d been trying for hours with the wrong ones! I HAD to buy a handful of inner tubes, just to make it a fair transaction.

Disappointed at the lack of bombers and damp shoes so far in this thread.

What software are you running?

My understanding is that i7 is only remotely worth it, if your applications use the hyperthreading. Games don’t really, and web browsing/email ect doesnt. A spreadsheet/wordprocessor is unlikely to get it anywhere close to capacity. If you a lot of graphically demanding stuff like CAD or Video encoding, then apparently thats where i7 begins to pull ahead, but unless you do mostly that, I’d be inclined to save the cash.

I understand that a Brickie should do iro 600 bricks a day for an average job, up to 1000 for a simple job (ie no windows/doors, simple bond)

Looks like he’s done you about 200 a day, but factor in the moving materials about – did that take 2/3 of the day?

And given Hong Kong has a long history of being the font of cheap/tax free hi-fi and Linn have plenty of dealers out there – why would someone look to find cheaper s/h Linn kit in the UK and take that risk.

Me, I’d not chance it. Quid says the next email asks if you take Western Union?

I quite like my very old Yamaha Fx500 with pedal board. But I do sound very 80’s and early 90’s.. But the thing cost me £50 on ebay including postage – and it does for vocals and bass too.

Coffee from places like railway stations. I could pay £3.69 for a whole bag of Lavazza beans,and have a caffeine buzz for a fortnight.

Or one of your awful railway rip off coffees. Push the boat out and have a muffin with it, and wait – I only have a fiver on me!

Why do you think you can wallet rape me for £1.20 for a mars bar, when I can exit the platform and get the same for 75p outside, or 65p further down the road. What is it about the station platform that makes it such “value”.

Oh, and I feel the same about motorway service stations. I pay a premium to go to the Fat Duck at Bray. I dont pay a premium for Burger King on the M25! I can drive past a Burger King on the M25. And I do. If you weren’t ripping me of, I might have stopped.

So if he steals and moves on one bicycle, then he can pay the fine?

I don’t see the point in a financial penalty for a financial crime, when the wrongdoer has resorted to financial crime to earn income.

You need a different way of disuading the criminal.

Just sue him – moneyclaim.gov.uk

Easy, cheap, let the sod get a ccj and as your £2k down, might as well baliffs to his life for a little extra.

I don’t think some of the advice here is good advice to be honest. The thing about verbal contracts, they ARE enforceable, as long as you can prove you had one in force.

So, if the Gym company is threatening court proceedings, tell them you will be calling their own employee who made the oral representation, as a witness, against them. Tell them that prior to this, in the interests of fairness and full disclosure, you wish to arrange a time for them to be made available to you, so you may take a witness statement from them about the conversation, and then present it to the court as a statement of truth.

If the employee is “unavailable” you want to know why. If they are not willing to make a statement, then they can be compelled to. The loss of the emplyee and the upset caused may be greater than their loss incurred by your cancellation. Put it this way, if you get a statement confirming your version of events, then the judge will NOT be impressed, regardless of the contract they seek to enforce.

If they pursue it further to a hearing (small track claims), then ask them to quantify the loss. The loss to them represents a share of the lighting, heating, staff costs, wear and tear on the equipment and contributions towards the various insurances/training they have. By failing to attend, they are making savings, and therefore their actual loss is the gym membership fee + some admin cost for cancelling, less the overheads. If they want £80, offer them £20 as the loss of profit on the membership, as to obtain he full amount would be a double recovery, ie savings + fee.

Of course, some posters above are also correct in how to deal with the debt recovery company.

Well, the guys on face book, so why not look at his friends list, particularly his girlfriend and parents, and ask them if they can persuade him to not get involved in a life of crime before you report him to the police for theft?

If they’re a decent sort, then they might just sort him out?

£93 on a Suzuki 650 comp.

But yes, it’s hard to scuff your bike wheel in a car park against a R reg Toyota Carina Diesel with 450k miles on the clock, giving it a vicious scratch thats nearly all the way through the dulled paintwork – leading to a dodgy engineers report writing it off, 4 claims for whiplash in their car, 4 on your bike, storage and recovery charges all round and a credit hire car, all the time being pursued by dodgy solicitors who will send all parties to a bend Doctor NS look to litigate where ever possible to earn £10kinc legal fees out of Birkenhead County Court.

As someone said – the bulk of motor insurers payouts is to third parties, not the own damage element of the claim.

Hmm. Cheese, and chocolate. Sort of needs a wacky “fusion” concept. Like a cake, but get this, one made from “cheese”. We could give it a special name, like, “cake of cheese”. Or something similar perhaps…

You CAN claim from the insurers of the stolen car – but ONLY if the thief was later identified.

If the thief is identified, then the insurer is not contractual insurer, but is in the position of RTA insurer.

The thief doesn’t need to be successfully prosecuted – they might get a warning/caution, but as long as you can say “it was them” and make allegations of poor driving and a breech of duty of care to you, then it matters not if it was stolen.

It’s why the Police are too busy to deal with the ££££ of stolen bikes we lose (and find again on Ebay) – a couple of **** using slang take all the resource.

Its also why, in my opinion, the police service is a total and utter completely insulated and unaccountable public disgrace.