I work for RBS, and they are presently crapping all over some of us, and as we are not unionised, we can barely put up any resistance.

I bitterly regret we are not unionised, and it’s due to the part of the bank I work for “actively” discouraging it.

I would have put the list the op want to buy in exactly the other order.

Bandit – big, heavy, and can be quite fast without the brakes or suspension to do it justice in an old steel tube frame.

Hornet – fine for buzzing around at high revs, its exactly what some poeple doent like about inline fours.

CB500 – docile, reliable, but certainly enough hp to get past stuff. Better than most other 500’s like.

SV650 – Same budget sus and brakes as bandit, but 50kg lighter, so matters far less – brakes are fine, suspension can be upgraded fairly cheaply later on, torquier so easier to ride than needing to keep revviing a il4, very chuckable, and can be got faired for commutting.

Id go from bottom to top in that order.

Its nothing to do with cosequential.

In repiring your car, they owe you a duty of care to do so skillfully, using the correct proceedures and parts.

The failure is their breach of the duty of care. It is forseeable that removing the engine inexpertly can and will cause additional damage.

It may be the rememdy in law is to put you back into the position you were in prior to the accident, wit a second hand part, as an imporved new part might be classed as betterment.

but I would not allow them to charge me for the additional repair.

If they refuse, you can get an independent engineer report (find one in the phone book – or contact MIMI the trade body for motor engineers) to proivde a report for less than £100 to decide whether the manifold looks as if it cracked from their repair or prior to. Engineer will look at dirt in crack ect. so see whats likely.

Then issue a money claim online and attach the engineers report, invoice and a pro forma invoice for repair.

Wait for judge to find in your favour.

See, this is what happens when you give it 110%.

Wait until they’ve been working late one winter evening.

Deserted car park
Balaclava
Knife
Leon.

They soon get the message…

What that a Greek bloke called Leon is going to serve them a portion of stickly pastry treats made with honey and pistasio nuts?

what sort of message is that to give?

I think using 110% is a first written warning.

If they also “work hard and play hard”, then it becomes sackable.

Thats the killer phrase in internet online dating which has me reaching for the “delete” button anyway. Anyone who “plays hard” is to be avoided at all costs.

Don’t think even the Finns drink Finalndia.

I seem to recall a bottle of “Korsenkorva” from Helsinki Airport being rather good. Might have to google for it in the UK. If you live in South East London, then the finnish Guild near London Bridge sells it, along with Faser chocolate and other essential, Finnish away from home items.

Sv650.

Its lowish, so new riders take to it as its easy to get on and off. Its light, so its easier to save when you nearly drop it. also makes for easy moving round traffic in town.

Its a v twin, so its easy to ride, lots of torque so you dont have to do a lot of tapdancing to find the power band. Curvy ones look good, and fall comfortably in your price bracket. Mine does me 45 mpg in commuting traffic, and 55mpg+ on motorways, even at cruising speeds of 80-90.

And will last just a tiny bit longer than the 500cc class bikes, as a tiny bit more powerful, but handles well too.

The naked version has higher bars, lower gearing, and with a couple of crash bungs, doesnt “drop” too badly. Try sv650.org for a uk riders forum.

As an Alfa Owner of old, might I suggest the best fix for a warning light is a small piece of black tape, applied neatly directly over the light.

It worked for me, although the Alfa 75 I once owned needed a couple of fairly lengthy strips over the “on board computer”, unless it was christmas and I was feeling festive. Then I’d hang a fir tree air freshner over the top for that full fairy light experience.

I’ve been in “the afterbirths”, and “avocado shoes”. The latter named after the footwear of choice of the landlord of the White Horse, Downton, in the early 90’s. He used to have this pair of slip on green shoes which were truely awful.

Your only jealous as you found *someone* who was actually enjoying being at work…..

Besides, you know what estage agents say about houses over 50 years old are likely to have had someone die in them, so you shouldnt get creepy.

Well, i hate to break it to you fella, but someone probably had a sherman in your house before you bought it. And in every public loo you ever visited.

Besides, everyone does it, or have you cum all victorian over us? Why not leave them alone, and move on. Unless your question was really “should I try the door to see if it’s unlocked”? In which case, you probably support Fulham FC.

If you open a branch near Reigate, Surrey, I’ll work for you for free for 2 months if you train me……

Reading between the lines I’d think its more a case that she wishes that they’d both done the decorating together.

I think she’s got the painters in right now…

Paying someone to do something isn’t the same as doing it yourself.

She could have organised it herself if thats what was wanted. Why does he not have pride in the home he shares with her. Everyone can find the space in ohh, a year. Theres noting special about getting a man to cut the grass, and lets face its hardly taxing, and money wasted, in a recession.

I see her point, although it is almost totally a uniquely female point of view, that its not the doing, but how something is done thats important. Its not the financial outlay of paying the painter, but the emotional investment in taking pride and doing it yourself.

On a lower level, who takes pride in fixing a bike, rather than just wheeling it down to the bike shop? When I was a nipper, I could’t mend a puncture.. and when I finally learned, it was great!

It’s a sad state of affairs when you can shag yourself but don’t enjoy it.

My boss is a miserable wan-ker, is that what you meant?

To be honest, I’ve rarely if ever had an isue with BT.

First time they installed a line for me, and it did need installing, they turned up promptly, did the job, took them an hour or so, needing cables from main road ect.

Every move has been smooth with them, I have had, ooh, 1-2 service outages in the last 7 years, which were brief, of a few hours or less.

My bills are accurate, timely, and when I upgrade and get new hubs/routers, they arrive promptly and always work out the box and install properly.

Apart fromt he irritation of once having the indian call centre thing, which did eventually resolve the issue, (I just felt could have been a bit smoother), I’ve never had an issue with BT.

However, my father, who went to talktalk, cannot wait to dump them. His service was fine with BT, but a bit more expensive, so went the talktalk route. He reckons he pays even less to talk talk than forecast, as he is on a semi permanant compensation charge back tarrif due to their total incompetance to get stuff fixed or get a reliable service.

And as for Orange, they are the most useless incompetent thieving scum ever to pretend to be a business…. don’t even get me started on how awful they are.

I suspect forums are full of people who post if theres an issue, and you get a misleading impression, when in fact, the 99% of people who avoid the thread are totally happy.

From memory, you get 3 “flicks” of your players, ie you flick the man onto the ball, causing man to move, which keeps it “your turn”, and at the same time, you can flick 2 others into positions where they may receive a ball from the next – to siumulate team mates running up the field. You then continue to make progress flicking a man at the ball and making contact, and another 2 off the ball flicks, until such time as you fail to make contact with the ball.

to prevent infantile “long ball games” the ball must be ahead of the shooting line (twixt half way and penalty box).

Remember to flick “properly”, or if we end up playing, and I have 9 of my precious Aston Villa no 74 team hanging in the goal netting, as you went “ping ping ping” like a machine gun, its fist pie for you sunshine.

To be honest, at first, it seems dull and slow. but trust me, when you get up to speed, and can accurately flick the little guys round things applying spin ;like on a snooker ball, and can jut the ball how har/soft you want from a decen distance, it can become incredibly fast paced. You end up losing the ball say, by passing it into an opponents figure by mistake, and then the other guys all over you, flick flick and can score before you get in place for the keeper.

Practice, does actually make it a brilliant game. its exactly like snooker,which is shit till you have some sort of skill, then makes sense from there.

And of course “Sailing by” the tune that introduces it, is as much part of the magic.

The truth approximately – is that if your not at fault the insurance company will not give a damm, especially if a recovery is no the cards and they sell on your pi claim to their panel solicitors.

If you are at fault and its a modest bump, of a few thousands of pounds, again, they simply won’t care much. Its not as if they can get out of it, s152 of the RTA ect.

If you cause a catastrophic accident, causing a huge claim, they will examine everything about you and your policy to try and void it, and refer your claimants on to the MIB.

In fairness, he’s only like our own grandfathers are or could be.

Served in the war with a reasonable record, and seems to have a mind of his own. I suspect if any of you were in a postion to meet so many different groups of people, so frequently as your “job”, that you’d firstly find it dull, and be looking to make a few jokes and quips, and that theres a % that will offend someone, somewhere, doubly so when everything you say is recorded and reported for that very effect to flog a few papers.

For example, his remarks to students in China about becoming “slitty eyed” if they stay too long, was a reasonably intelligent reverse quip about a longer standing Chinese joke about staying in the west and becoming round eyed, but the press wouldn’t want that reported, as that might be fair, even handed and crucially, sell fewer papers.

I am no royalist, but it seems the embittered republicans in this thread can’t seperate their own opinions of his role with his personality.

Lets face it, he seems hapilly married, after 60 odd years, which is more than most of the posters here can manage….. I expect if he was *your* grandfather, happilly married, servedin the forces, you’d all be rather proud, secretly, even he did embarass you on occasion.

Page 2 of the thread and no mention of bombers of weeing is shoes.

This place is going downhill towards maturity….

Reigate/Redhill ?

Its about 14-18m fast from East Croydon, and only another 20m to London Bridge. (So closer to Londinium than Guildford/Dorking) But its the other side of m25, its a bit posh, its got great places to eat, and countryside within literally minutes cycle. You can cycle to Dorking/Box Hill off road from there via Reigate Hill.

From Redhill Station, you can get east/west to Guildford/T Wells, as well as fast north/south to Brighton or London, and as its a touch chavvy, cheaper than Reigate/Dorking/Guildford.

OFC if you want bars/clubs late night curries and London Living, then look further up the line. Coulsden is the last stop on the Nightbus.

I find most bikes too big for me. I ride a sv650, and its about perfect, but is smaller than your bandit. No point me looking at Triumphs or most BMW’s.

Its beer for people who don’t like beer.

The logic goes something along the lines of “you have been in an accident that is not your fault, that is unlucky, therefore you are an unlucky person and more likely to have another accident!”

It really doesnt.

I had 4 alfa bangers and I never learned my lesson.

Alfas get you like that. I have killed a 33 Greencloverleaf, a Sud Sprint Green Cloverleaf, a GTV2000 (120mph, threw a conrod) and a 75 Veloce, which might as well have been a clown car the way it fell apart.

But you make a lot of new friends with an old Alfa. Especially in the AA. Both of them.

If you got spyware/malware/leyloggers on your machine, from your grot surfing, then it doesnt matter who the retailer is.

I’m afraid it’s an example of insurance companies trying to assess their risk as accurately as possible – you’ve just become higher risk, and there’s nothing at all you can do about that.

Its just a case of someone whining about insurance companies without having spoken to them or otherwise knowing or bothering to find out the facts before hiting “send post”. But dont let reality interfere with your rant. People dont like being “wrong”, when its just easy to blame some faceless corp.

If you have been in an accident, then your policy t&c do say to report it. If you dont want to comply with a product t&c, dont buy it.

Secondly, bus drivers particularly, as its usually diciplinary, – lie. So your insurer will probably get a letter trying to hold you at fault, despite your assertion you were stationary. Be prepared for a counter allegation of your own wrong doing.

Indeed, people cling on to ideas like being “stationary” or “hit in the rear” to somehow try and avoid taking any responsibility. you were in the van, in the driving seat. What happened before? IF you pull out from a side road, slam on your brakes to be “stationary” you will still be at fault – Not saying thats whats happened hear, but just to explain why your insurers will not immediately just go “ok thats fine then”. Also remember that if th bus company insurer dispute liability, thats becasue of the facts they are told. They are simply the relay or conduit for untruth, rather than the fabricators of same.

But lets assume that all runs well, you call the bus co, who inform their insurers that their driver was at fault –

All insurers do work on the basis that until they know theres no claim against them, they will withhold ncd. However, I am not aware of any insurer who raise your premium for having non fault acidents. Ie when liability is found in your favour, and your insurer closes its file, your ncd is reinstated. You are not loaded for non fault, asit doesnt reflect on your risk for the future. There are caveats of course – you keep having several non fault hits in rear that makes it look like your a slam on compensation seeker, then they might review that.

When you go for future insurance, you declare it non fault, if thats how it resolves, and that a nil pay out was made, and you should be fine.

Odd.

If it was someones prized Orange 5, and someone just happened to “find it”, and not notify anyone, because “iw was a dirty old bike”, they’d be tar warming, chickens being plucked, and pitchforks being sharpened.

Why then is it different being a loved family hairloom of sentimental meaning, a 1 off item handed down the generations is “finders keepers” suddenly ok?

20 year old Castle Durhams here reporting for duty.

I never realised they were such a popular brand of speaker. I like mine, suit analogue very well, tiny bit warm, but that goes ok with the lp12 front end, and a nice cabinet.

Shropshire Blue is imho better for toast, if you believe blue cheese should be served that way. Well it stands to melting well, and is possibly better with a splash of mustard than a stilton might be.

There was a Jensen Interceptor used in one of the Saint series.

Started in a Volvo p1800, then a white xjs v12, and in 89, a blue Jensen.

Is there a market for doggie “trackers”?

Would dog owners pay to have a pet “tracked”?

Just sensing a business idea here, and sorry to hijack a thread. Or is there an obvious problem?

I used to dream of my own little Microvax…

Thinking of all the mud’s I’d have hosted…

Mini 1000. (rolled on roof) 87
Morris Minor 1000 (repossesed)91
Austin 1100 (failed mot – scrapped)
Austin Metro (written off, into a dual carrigeway crash barrier) 93
Skoda Estelle 120 (Given to fire brigade to practice rescues on)95
Alfa 33 (Rust in pieces) 96
Triumph Acclaim (lost interest-think it got taken for banger racing)96
Alfa GTV (Engine threw conrod at 120mph!) 97
Alfasud Sprint (See a pattern developing) sold for resto iro 99?)
Alfa 75 3l (Sold for parts/resto 01)
Kawasaki gpz500 – 04 – stolen.
MG Midget (Stolen whilst rusting in pieces) 07
Mazda MX5 (Stolen whilst laid up awaiting repair) 10
Suzuki sv650 (t boned by a car 10)

Presently on another sv650, but looking for a Triumph Spitfire for fundays.

Alfa enthusiast, til I discovered bikes.

It seems to be the current weapon of choice among the more lethal end of the private hire business, who previously used to choose and then deliberately wrote off those imported Toyota Lucida/Previa’s in cash for crash scams over the years. VW’s seem to be reliable enough to keep taxi drivers going between non fault payoutknocks.

You can get 7 family members with a whiplash claim for a light knock in a Touran, (or aforementioned Previa/Lucida) whereas the old favourites of yesteryear, the red diesel Toyota Carina with badly fading panels and 400k on the clock only sat 5.

Thats a whole extra £10k to claim, (including your family relation solicitors legal fees), and a like for like plated Touran is £130 pd over £80 pd from your other family relative who is hiring it to you whilst storing the crashed car at a small fortune per day.

When I went to Finland 3 years ago, it was way “cheaper” than the time before when I went 20 years ago.

20 years ago, a round was a tenner in english money, when the same round was £3 in an english pub.

Last time I went, bottles of wine from a shop was say 10% more than you’d pay in UK, and a bottle of Cider in a Helsinki bar less than £4, whe we pay £3+ for same in UK.

I;d consider Finland over Sweden and Norway for those reasons.

Rarely find plates funny, but “MR 5 1NCH” on a Porsche a couple of weeks ago gave me at least a wry smile.

Could try a “Putsch”.

I hear they used to be popular there…

The point is, he is your “physical” neighbour.

But you are our “taxpaying” neighbour. The proximity of someone doesn’t somehow make them less fraudulent.

And to all those who wouldn#t snitch on a crime. I hope its your childs face next time, and I know whos dog it was. Make a diffenrence now?