Go retro – get a Kos Cruiser by Mongoose!

I could usually tell you, but I am holiday this week. If it can wait til next week, let me know and I’ll sort you out….

Do you not remember the thread I started a few weeks ago about suspiciously cheap Orange’s?

The feedback was excellent, but a year old. Suddenly selling expensive mountain bikes – 10 available – and suddenly a couple of poor feedbacks and the guy has disappeared. Clearly a hacked account – high value sales, collect payment and run….

Does sound similar to you. Who would be trying to get the most for a high value item on a 1 day sale – ie too short for suspicions to be flagged for the hacked account holder to notice?

Did he have a Mastiffee….

12’0 clock High – not actually that bloody or gory, but tells the “human” side of command. And for education, it’s one of the very first post WW II films where the focus on “The Germans” isn’t really there – its a film on the stress of combat, morale and leadership.

Perhaps that economically, Europe’s leaders are more or less at each others throats in blame game, as ecomomies crumble, with one apparent country appearing to have all the power in negotiations, placing restrictions and its own economic agneda on those countries – which the “man in the street” might deem unfair, the appropriateness of the Battle of Britain Memorial flight, simply as a reminder to how badly things can go wrong,is more sentient today than at any time in the last 60 years.

Insurance is just like bike manufacturers.

They all have their own data, and evaluate the risks individually. Orange think single pivot is the best all round compromise. Your insurer thinks it knows more about the risks of how Touran drivers drive, compared to its claims frequency on them. It might be a higher risk, but per pound earned, it pays less out in compo.

Young kids drive Yaris’s, and when they have an off, all their mates get “whiplash” these days. PErhaps mature’r Touran drivers passengers are less likely. Small car = Santa Cruz VPP including frequent bearing failure.

No – it ended. I was monitoring it on my phone. I tink the same seller had relisted Orange G2’s on sunday.

http://www.sv650.org is your friend for help and advice – friendly bunch too,albeit half of them own triumphs thesedays!

Well, I asked –

Dear french9632,

Hi – You indicate you have 10+ of these avaliable – do you have one in 17 inch. Secondly, you seem to have a variety of bikes for sale – and RRP on one of these is £999. On the adage “if it looks too good to be true, it is”, can you tell me roughly how/where you sourced these? Abroad? Bike shop closing down? Or are you a dealer? Not fussed about warranty and can assemble myself, but this account seems unused since 2006 and then not for bike sales in volume, til a few days ago and I am understandably concerned about sending £500 to a stranger, where the background seems a little “unusual”, although noting the feedback on a recent G2 sale.

Sorry to sound suspicious, I don’t mean to seem rude, but I was about to buy one of these from CycleSurgery for £699 (2011 model) when I saw this.

I got a reply –

All mine are 2012 fully legit cycles
Just starting out as tried selling one last week and the interest was amazing so trying selling more at little more than the price I pay for them wholesale
Only thing my customers do is pay up front as I have to pay for them when I order them and cannot find TGIF myself at the min
All above board just seeing how it goes
Cheers

– french9632

The odd thing about his feeback/G2 sale, is that the frame size of the purchase was 17 inch, but the second hand one that the buyer of his new one sold, was 19 inch.

I think I’ll steer clear. Somehow the word “legit” worries me. Not a totally satisfactory explanation. Unless someone at Orange is getting a buddies deal through the back door, and pasing them on to a mate, I can’t see even at wholesale parts prices, that you couls tip a Pure 7 out for £499, even allowing for dealer typical mark ups.

The thing is – the lad has learned that whilst very painful, it’s “managable”, and therefore might be a bit more gung ho than a child who hasn’t had the same injury. Which might in turn lead him to be a bit more adverturous in life.

It’s long term, probably a good life lesson.

See, I thought to myself that it looks a scam. Is there a time limit for a disputed transaction with Ebay – longer than the postage might take, for example?

But thats when I started to look at the feedback, and there’s been 1 sale, of a G2, so far. but when I looked into that, it struck me as odd that the buyer of a new G2, has just sold a s/h G2. I;ve then tried looking further into “feedback chains” but coundn’t see anything particularly untoward, save the G2 buyer seems to specialise in rare books, as a trader, unlike a casual ebayer.

I’s been a while since someone called me a dildo………

I got one – its great.

A bit more power to it than the 500’s you learned on, and despite it’s budget suspension, which is it’s biggest shortcoming, on fresh tyres you can fair sling it around if your feeling brave. It is easy to ride being a twin, as it has lots of torque, so you don’t need to be buzzing it like a sewing machine to have some “go” under the right wrist, it’ll pull on a wide open throttle from 3-4k. Therefore you don’t have so many tap dances on the gears, and you can just get on and concentrate on everything else happening around you.

Of course, if your not feeling brave, it’s also light at 169k, so 50k or so less than a fat inline 4 like a bandit, low seat at iro 780cm, so easy for the ladies and learners – I am only 5’6 and on the balls of my feet at stationary. Easy therefore to wheel/paddle in and out of car park stops, and ok on economy – I get depending on the type of commuting (30mph up A23 into Croydon lower end, Motor way to Lowestoft highend of 150-190, out of typically 15l of fuel on a 16l tank, with the low fuel warning iro 30m earlier.

To be perfectly honest, I see nothing really that I fancy to replace it – it’s just perfect for me. I could do with something a tiny bit faster, but then you get into weight, and height issues. The SV is a fab all round compromise, and unlike an old Monster 750, mine starts even in winter!

Bono is a supreme tax dodger, all the while exorting Govt’s, who are only really spending our taxed income, to spend more on projects he supports. The man is the worst sort of pious bulshitting hypocrite.

Good work fella, i presume at the BV cafe. I bet he was quite intimidated being surrounded by 20 storm troopers on Five’s

Imagine the sound of being chased by 20 filing cabinets!

I’ve heard a couple of Picolax tablets cures this.

I suppose your talking about the suspension bikes.

My first proper mtb was a simple Orange Clockwork, and BLOODY GOOD it was too. In spite of it’s apparent Taiwanese origins, the frame itself was superb. It was far and away better at it’s price point, than Rockhoppers, Marins ect (This was iro 1996). The frame REALLY rode well, to the point they could have charged more for it, and it would still have been worth it.

Following on from that after its sadly regretted theft, a couple of P7’s from 98 and 2001, which again – had a great geometry and feel (albeit a fair chunk more rigid than the CW).

I can’t tell you about the recent bikes, but as I have just had a venerable 2001 P7 stolen, the reduced Pure7 down at Cyclesurgery near me is likely to have my sticky fingers on it in the next few days.

To be honest, having had 3, none of themwere duff bikes, and arguably, better than the competition bikes. But this is steel 10 yo + bikes I am talking about.

They have the best pirates!

They arrrrr, arn’t they….

Don’t forget as your going much longer on the road to factor in food stops.

Also, that the costs fo fuel alone don’t include a potion of tyres/consumables and servicing costs. And by christ I’d not do that distance, with mates aboard in a C1.

Oh, and don’t forget the costs of european breakdown cover, green card cover, and all those daft bits and pieces the frogs insist you need + the hassle of painting your lights yellow and not having the ability to have full beam on those long dark motorways.

Oh, and your chances of an accident are much higher, and the French Police will be more than unhelpful, whatever happens, it will almost certainly be “your fault” – taking a statement soley from the other driver and not from you to reflect your views in any subsequent police report are fairly common. French insurers are total bastards to deal with, 10x worse than your worst ever experience with a UK insurer.

Me, I’d train to Dieppe/Calais and then hire a car rather than take my own vehicle.

I only say that as I have dealt with foreign motor insurance claimsfor my present employers for years, and they are a total pain in the harris.

Actually, unless I had a phobia, I’d fly. Better a couple of hours in the air, and several in the pub, than hours after hours on a foreign motorway in a crappy little french econo-town car.

“sweating like a rapist”, was used by a young pretty blonde sat next to me a few years ago.

Not keen on that one, but from a burly tattoed football fan in a boozer, it might be vaguely acceptable…

Chewky – that doesn’t even sound remotely right.

let me look at Direct Lines on line underwriting guides tomorrow, but I am certain that you get 2 years on an international non EEC licence (excluding certain states) before you have to exchange it for a UK Provisional and pass a test.

Loads of people drive in the UK on cars they own with international licences. Well, they certainly crash, and I deal with their claims quite happily.

It’s going to almost certainly be the same model or referral to a third party AMC, it’s just another referral source.

Think about it, manufacturers involvement with your car actually ends when they sell it. Once its past the factory gates, thats it. However, as a big organisation, they have a “brand” and a ring of “crediblity”, I mean, you all trust BMW right, but not an AMC? Well, the likes of BMW/Mini actually have their dealers signed into those scumbags Accident Exchange. You have a non fault car, and Mini will NOT give you a courtesey car for repairs, simply one bought from the dealership by Accident Exchange who then expect it to be HIRED out on excessive credit terms at every opportunity.

All it means is an AMC gets in there, hires cars at extortionate rates, repairs at extortionate rates, usually delaying repairs for increased profit, and by ringing the “branded” maufacturers supplied number for the same dodgy AMC, the manufacturer gets its referral fee.

The acid test is – “do they give a toss if I am at fault?”. Try just ringing the fault parties insurer – they’ll do everything you want, just cheaper to keep next years premiums down.

Surprisingly, ergonomically, escalators are actually quite tricky to navigate to humans.

Your own stairwell at home will have a steeper pitch to it, as a consequence of having to have a lower tread due to space constraints.

There has been a surprising amount of work on optimal staircase design, as it’s actually an accidental “hotspot” within the home.

To accomodate the higher levels which escalators tend to run, (the floor to height difference of a shopping centre is not the same as your home) and the mechanism that allows for an escalator to arrive with a flat footfall at bottom or top, the actual stair is very steep as it starts to rise or decend, may be almost double your home stair, with which you are practiced in rising without armfuls of shopping.

Indeed “memory” might make you more likely to lose your footing on a forward moving, rising, moving stairwell, with an unfamiliar rise and tread to what you are used to.

Ultimately, if you are so pushed for time you need to run up and down, then it’s at your risk, and you are endangering other passengers and being inconsiderate of them in a narrow moving space. There are still a surprising amount of accidents on escalators annually, leading to lost limbs and or breaking bone injury.

It’s NOT just because people are lazy, but that at a “shopping” centre” they might be expected to er, be carrying shopping, and so it’s a safety aid and one which allows those of frailty (ie old, young, disabled) to shop safely.

Just because the op is a ss 29’er riding, Audi driving, male white youthful fit IT technician (well, he must be, he’s on SWT for heavens sake) with all the adviantages that this gives him, it’s no reason to have a go at those that aren’t, or that don’t want to endanger themselves with loads. Using an escalator correctly isn’t laziness like eating chips 30 times a week, nor is the OP a hero for sprinting up or showing off by using stairs.

Well, if you were geniunely affected by the recession/unable to get a mortgage/not a stw IT Audi driving professional, you’d only be renting anyway, which is an even worse return on your money.

So think yourself lucky that paying a mortgage is generally less than rent, and that you also are purchasing “protection” of not being turfed out by a landlord on a wim, and that ultimately, rent is “dead money”. At least your actually paying something off, which will be of a decently considerable % over time of what you paid. Your amount of negative equity isn’t going to equal the payments you made, so your still quids in, and have some control over your destiny.

Tommy, it looks lovely.

Whilst all brands split opinions, imhm, as an ex clockwork, 2x p7 owner, with the exception of the X1,orange haven’t really made a duff bike in nearly 20 years, and I doubt they’re about to start now.

Gz, it looks great, and I am sure it will be… enjoy and well done…

No one mentioned aDucati St series? A 2 or 3 mighr be at nearly 10 years old, affordable? And likely to be a decent compromise between tourer and sports bike that the poster wants, and more interesting than a big jap 4.

The poster who found the link, is helful. When I click on the link, it was listed in “bikes” not bike parts. Perhaps listing it correctly might have helped the would be buyer, but I do think that the advert was whilst not a mastepiece of clarity, easy enough to work out that it wasn’t the whole bike. But the joy of asking a question was clearly lost on Ralph.

Ok, the stopping distance at 30mph is about 24m ish, so she was still travelling when she hit you, and clearly was doing more than 30 when you pulled out. However, by your admission, you didn’t see her, but blame her for not seeing you. What was the speed limit of the road?

How can you prove the skid marks were heres? How good were your pictures of them? Have you emailed your pictures to the claim handler?

You realise under new rules, your insurer has only about 14 days to make all enquiries into liability if it’s going to minimise costs under the new Ministry of Justice Protocols, and so won’t be writing for Police Reports – theres never time and the police are hoplessly slow, inefficient and inadequate about this sort of thing. Your best bet might be to ask the attending police officer to make a statement.

In the absence of witnesses, and compelling proof that they were not there to be seen when you pulled out, given they clearly saw you some way before the junction to have started braking, your heading for a split on liability at best. But I say that without any of the “evidence”.

Bear in mind it’s going to batter the battery life.

Most smartphones capable of a decent storage and or streaming need charging every day anyway, without using the hting for hours for music.

At least with NO collision, a decent insurer WILL investigate this.

Just ensure you tell them there was “no” xollision – a Forensic engineer can adduce that in evidence, and that might be enough to challenge the GP’s who will find “whiplash” in their honest and othewise reliable claimants.

I spot a Goodwins Law slipping under the radar there.

To be honest, just because the person has a nasty viewpoint, I don’t see why essentially, namecalling someone who won’t see or care about it, is worth 56 days in prison, when lowlife who steal my cars/bikes don’t even get a trivial investigation, even when theres plenty of evidence.

When did a “thought crime” become more important than a physical crime? Someone steals my car, I can’t get to work. Someone calls me names, I can walk away.

Given that to an extent, rascism is hardwired into us, and it’s only civilisation and education that leads us to overcome basic beliefs, why has “race/religion hate crime” become so topically important just now, when we still can’t get basic rights and wrongs addressed on an everyday level?

Rascism is nasty, but is it really “imprisonable?! Should non violent people who simply believe something different to what we would like, really be sent to jail, at the expense of investigating genuine “criminals who harm?”

We already have a thread about a car incident, implying ethnic origin is significant, and it is true that certain cultures are grossly over represented in this sort of crime. So at what point does saying this become “rascist” and at what point are we all reporting that poster to the police?

Rascism is such a grey area (it’s not black and white, honestly), I am very uneasy in seeing courts intrude into “social” areas of life, when they should be mroe concerned over rather more significant criminal issues.

Well, on a motorway run to my dads, I get about 60mpg max out of a Suzuki SV650s. At 43 with 2y ncd, my insurance fully comp subj to £100 xs was £95, 6m tax was £45 and I don’t pay to park anywhere, so it suits me.

It’s 300 mile round trip, but to be honest, wimp that I am, after 150 it really enough for a break. 2/5 Hours wizzing along fast quiet A and B roads on an early sunday am in the warm disappears quickly. Same time on mile after mile of the A12 and m25 is soul destroying. I’d recommend for that mileage a proper bike for touring, but they do tend to be bigger//heavier than I’d want for my weekday commute.

How about if it’s summer use only, the Ducati ST series tourers? Less “Fashionable than some, but owners seem to love them.

It’s the impossible to measure synergy of a number of unmeasurable quantifically and individual items, creating a complete picture in the mind, leading the mind to associate the impression formed overallinto memory, both short term and long. It is also generally personal, asit depends on past experience to generate.

A Yorkshire pub with a stone floor and a log fire is one mans “warm and homely”, but the same pub, with an uncomfortable chair and a miserable landlord, is a “miserable pub visit”. It seems something also, that some cultures are better at than others. For example, how many Chinese Retaurants, for all their gilt dragons and goldfish tanks, still seem cold, stilted and unhomely, whereas how many Curry houses seem to somehow be more “alive” and welcoming.

Is one overawed in a French restaurant, of even modest repute, afraid to speak up to the waiter or criticise the food or service, whereas an a genuinely Italian one where the main course takes an hour to arrive and the owner is playing with their little son in the restaurant doesn;t offend in the same way?

How about a Morkie? Friendly, sociable little teddy bears. Its a Maltese/Yorkshire Terrier cross, make good family dogs. Well, the one I know does.

Need to know really the colour of your hair, complexion, and what shoes/tie and hankie you will be completing the ensemble with. A short fat red faced bloke in a purple shirt is a no no, and yellow/peach can make a pale skin look washed out.
But realistically, almost any colour will go with dark grey, white is classic, but might be too formal for a summer wedding? Blue/grey might not give enough “contrast”. What colour is the bride/bridemaids wearing, or the theme to the wedding generally?

Edited to take in Yunki’s point – a lovely traditional Liberty print mens floral number if you don’t want to go TOO traditional. If the weather’s good, I’d be doing just that, with a nice light (but not white – that can be vulgarif not at the cricket) linen summer suit.

Right hand clockwise. Left hand (I am left handed) anti clockwise.

Its notimho about inside leg, as a prev poster mentioned, but how comfy you feel when reaching the bar. The thing about frame sizes is as they get bigger (taller) they also get longer.

I am 5’6-5’7 ish, with a 30 inside leg. For clothes for example, sometimes I am a cut long 29 in m&s clothing,and sometimes a cut short 31. However, despite getting away sometimes with medium legs, I am always in suit/jacket terms, a “short” in the topbody.

With bikes, it’s the same. I tried a 53cm Boardman Road bike, and it was far too long for me, the reach to the bars was so far, that Whislt I could just about reach them, my control over the gears/brakes and stearing would have been limited, and I didn’t want to “gamble” on “adapting” to the bike over time pysiologically. I eventually then bought a Bianchi 49cm road bike, and whilst it can fel a tiny bit “compact” up front, it’s far more comfy than a “superman” position that the larger frames needed, even if all the measuring guides suggest a 52/53 cm frame should be my fit.

In terms of mountain bikes, it depends more on the maufacturer. Orange mediums seem to fit me, as do Kona’s (well, the one’s I’ve tried) but in trying Marin and Specialised, I always needed to drop down to a small size. You do need to try a bike rather than buy on the basis of a rave review for this reason.

I sort of disagree. A blender and a juicer do different things.

If you put apples into a juicer, to get apple juice as a “base” to your smoothies, you will get, albeit clouldy, apple juice. The bulk of the apple product is seperated from the juice.

If you put apples into a blender, all you will get is a thick, pulpy, mashed apple, which is not the same thing at all.

You need the juicer, to get the thin running juices. A smoothie maker is only a simplified blender.

So for example, this morning, I made a red berry and banana yoghort smoothie. – I put in a banana, some frozen red berry mix from Sainsburys, a few spoonfuls of cheap basics yoghourt, and then thinned it out with apple juice, to make a thickish but drinkable product. That takes about 30 secs in the blender.

If you tried the same thing with a smoothie maker, but omit the apple joice, and go for apples, you’d be blending for a good while longer, and end up with a much thicker, virtually undrinkable product. Mashed apple isnt the same as apple juice.

A soft fruit like a banana blends easilly. A carrot, or an apple or pear, do not, and require seperating the joice fromt he pulp.

However, you will find, when you start to use a jouicer, that unless you have good supplies of VERY low cost fruit, that the economics don’t work. You would need to pulp in the juicer, dozens and dozens of apples, to get the same £79p carton from Sainsburys. Ok, home juiced tastes generally much better, but even if you get fruit from a market, it’s still an expensive way to obtain juice at home.

Stunning country. Tragic history. People very welcoming but understandably frightened.

You make it sound like Lancashire.