I bought a Raleigh Mtrax off ebay – but it was clearly some sort of “new old stock” as the tyres had no wear whatsoever and there were still paper tags in pristine condition attached to skewers.

That chain failed in several spots over the first 20 miles of ownership.

It was just faulty. Thats all.

And for a brand new bike, if the description of the damage is not misleading by op, I’d demand a new frame, or it repaired at their expense to the condition it was in before the incident, which is what the law would state you were entitled to. Sod £50 and piss off which is the rpesent offer.

I wouldnt send it back either to the manufacturer, without first getting a report on the chain and the condition/damage of the bike from someone who cannot be argued with, ie some sort of engineer.

A court will take the engineers evidence over an unsupported allegation of “taking it off road” (given the bike is clean?) 100 times out of 100, and you should then request the cost of the engineers report too.

Demand a new frame fromt he shop. If they refuse, ask where you can serve documents, and tell them you will issue court proceedings.

If they dont pay, issue court proceedings in the small claims court.

Thanks.

That is f**king ridiculous. The hypothetical case specified above works round the clock, has done for years and so earns wayyy above the national average. And has saved hard for years and generally done the “right” thing throughout financially. A f**king poster boy for the New Labour/Tory ethic.

If said hypothetical case can’t afford a half-decent house in London, even if he/she utterly exhausts his savings (which he/she would rather not do) – who can? Hypothetical case might as well go on the f**king dole. F**king baby boomers, c**ts.

Joining the Socialist Party.

Of course, all those on average wage, or even less, dependent on job skills, are clearly lazy and don’t do more than 9-5. We’re clearly all retarded, as there are £80k jobs on trees, I just can’t find them. Some us can’t save, we spend every penny just “getting by”.

I suppose if you mean poster boy, you mean of the nulabour/tory “more for me, less for you” as we have significantly undertaxed the rich for nearly 20 years as they hold so much “elective power”. The political parties pander to those with some sort of “power”. Our tax rates are lower than most comparable places in Europe (which explains the crap transport in/out of the capital compared to say Amsterdam)

Shame a “half decent house in London” is over £500k. Well, learn fromt he rest of us, and live where you can afford, rather than keeping up aspirationally with your friends “Jemima and Tarquin” in their trendy Islington pad!

Sure you should go on the dole – of course anyone can live on £60 a week if they try hard, like turning the hot water off for days on their key meter. Not everyone on the dole is a 30 fags a day white lightening guzzling single mother eastern european dole scrounger. (copyright Daily Heil). Perhaps due to the aspriational “house buying” bubble created by our charming politicians over the last 30 years, our economy went phut due to people like you over extending themselves into housing. Thats why theres a million and a half (or 3 million if you use the counting policies of 20 years ago), and no jobs. Its not because everyone else just works less hard than you.

Sorry to sound insulting, but you do honestly come across as if not a “troll”, the most witless smug attention seeking self pitying idiot. Theres people here who put in a good hard shift for a third of what you earn, who live where you want to live through often no choice.

Sorry once again for the overly strong reaction, nothing personal, but I am again astonished how “ignorant” people in good jobs can be, whilst I talk to people far more “worthy” on a fraction of your income on a daily basis.

Anyway, ignore my bitter petty jealousies and just ponder on how marvelous you are for a few more minutes. That’ll sort you out. And if you join the Socialist party, I’ll cut my cock off and join the Womens Institute. Hows that for a deal?

Its swings and roundabouts.

I bought a Bianchi roadbike from Halfords on the c2w scheme, and had it delivered to a (now sadly defunct) Bikehut store in Dorking. They had some really nice bikes in the shop, and my roadbike was built up splendidly. I think its frankly bonkers that as cycling is one of the few recession busting businesses apparently – Halfords binned their bikehut philosophy, thinking we all need even more places to buy oil for the cars that we drive less, and are less able to maintain than say 10 years ago.

And as for Herman, I get the feeling he owns a Merlin. These threads tend to decend (in a well meaning way- this isnt a critisism) into a “buy one like mine” simply because the purchasers are happy with their product, and theres nothing like cycling (except cars, hifi, guitars and other manly pursuits) where you choice of brand says somthing about “you!”.

The Boardmans are well enough reviewed to suggest they are a safe buy, and they seem to resell on ebay well because of it.

However, what I would really really really recommend, is trying a few bikes. When I first went shopping for a MTB, I went to a dealer in Brighton, who had several brands. I had a budget of about £400 back then.

He was really cool about letting me try them out for a pedal round the pavements (after leaving identification), and I tried a Rockhopper. It was ok. I then tried an alu Rockhopper (whows how long ago it was), which was awful. Quite “sitty up” riding positions. I then tried a couple in the Marin range, and they were even less inspiring. Now, I wasn’t a brand snob, and I noticed a fairly plain, and (seemingly) underspecced bike at the back of the shop, and it was a fair bit more, at £550, but with its skinny tubes and low small frame (for the same size, if you get me), there was an “Orange”. (it was a c16r).

And man, it was just even within 20 yards, a far far better bike. The steering was much more “lively”. The bike just sprinted off the line with a real “zip”. It was just so much better in everyway, so I found the extra and went for it.

But I’d never have bought it if I hadn’t tried it. And once I did, everything else,even well reviewed, was frankly not for me. You might find the same about the Boardman. Not all geometries, ie lenght of top tubes ect, fit us all the same. You might find a very unfashionable, or even overpriced frame, just works for yo in a way that apparently “better” bikes dont. You might even find yo preferred your Claude Butler, in which case, save the cash and upgrade its parts.

And I wouldnt get too hung up on people saying you cant buy a decent FS for £1k. or whatever, agan, the Boardmans are really well reviewed, and if you like them, and are ok with FS, then go for it – I think STW have just reviewed one, which gets published next issue – might be worth waiting a couple of weeks…

If most of your riding is roads, to school, the HT might be a safer option, you will not get the benefits of FS for most of your riding. If however, you go out with your mates a lot, then FS will speed you up, but it does come with a servicing trade off.

Also be aware that not all FS frames are the same. The Boardmans seems to be more xc biased, ie lightish, slightly more limited travel, and a lower racier geometery, other bikes say from Kona might be a bit burlier, but more for “ragging it a bit”, so don’t get hung up on the Boardman if you are looking for lots of jumping ect.

But best of luck. The fun is finding the bike you bond with. The pain is paying for the bloody thing..

If you gave up after 20 mins, then you clearly were not enjoying the acting.

The story was tosh, but seeing Clooney, Malkovic, Pitt ect all let loose and clearly enjoying themselves was a joy to behold.

Seeing the actors really make the best of a film that ultimately didnt quite pull together was entertaining.

In winter, when its cold, and I have to break the ice off the saddle, I regret it.

When drivers pullout on me knocking me off, I regret it, til the compensation cheque arrives.

In spring, summer and autumn, when I zap past the queueing traffic, and park for free, I don’t regret it.

When I want to go somewhere looking smart or take a date out, I regret it.

When my insurance renews at less than £80 a year, tax at £60, and for that I get more performance than a hot Subaru or say a Porsche, on anywhere other than motorways, on a bike giving 45 mpg and that cost me £1k and I could still sell it for that, I dont regret it.

That women notice me in leathers, and laugh/joke, when they’d ignore me otherwise, I don’t regret it.

That I can use the bike for journeys of pure pleasure, without needing to get somewhere, and go on ride outs with mates – which would be futile/pointless in a car, I don’t regret it.

When I go for a beer with mates I never have to “drive” as I can’t give a lift. I don’t regret it.

That plod give more sympathy to bikers, and I’ve been stopped for speeding 2x and given a roadside lecture and sent away, when in a car I dont think same would have applied, I don’t regret it.

Going through forward facing gatsos at speed, I don’t regret it.

Pros and Cons. The pros still oughtweigh it.

A quick hand shandy might help, biologically anyway…

Having had 4 alfa’s of prime 80’s vintage, (33, Sprint, GTV and 75) these are not “problems”. These are just your new car trying to show you its “character”.

Now, if you want to hear about “real” issues. The ones that make you truely believe you bought “Christine”…..

If that was my boss, I’d dig a trench through his front garden and install a cable, just for the hell of it…

So..

something underground, that you never see, that is for a neighbours benefit, is something that you feel “violated by”.

you are only the middle class equivilent of a “street teen adolecent” who complains when the teacher “invades his personal space”.

Its a bloody cable underground. I know Victor Meldrew is a cult hero these days but honestly, at the end of the day, was it going to make even the tiniest difference to your life?

The “false legalese” and “injured pride” make you sound small minded. I am sure your a lovely person, but get some perspective, and not from people who think 3k on a Yeti is normal behaviour.

The map does suggest it’s situated in Fail land…

Count yourself lucky you don’t live up here (liverpool). 12 years no claims, diesel Touran, £850 a year!! Cheapest quote I could get. When I was in Guildford I was paying £350.

Yeah, well, everyone up there claims, and its where most of the solicitors are, and where most of the court issuing is done, via the deeply crooked and dishonest Birkenhead and Liverpool County Courts.

I dealt with a claim today from two coppers claiming whiplash, and the damage to their car was £48. If even the filth are bent, what hope honest people?

Now, the chances of an insurer, daring to call Liverpool Plod in a Liverpool court dishonest? None, as the courts will award £30k costs and you will never win a case like that, so best settle sharpish for “economy”. (If a court finds plod lying, thats dismissable, so they never do….) So a sub £50 claim will prob end up costing about £10k.

I have investigated this matter, and am afraid to advise you are still not paying enough, especially if you wish to retain the services in the event of a crash, of a dapper, smart and generally brilliant claims handler (in England) with a bit of a bike habit.

Please phone up our renewals and ask to pay more. We can alter you mileage, add drivers, and generally ramp the price up to something more in keeping with your expectations.

This no flour thing mentioned confuses me – what the hell is in the biscuity base? So its made with all the things that cake, and buscuits are made of.

I say in a moment of obtuseness, that turn the tables and ask the correct question –

“Why *isnt* cheesecake, in fact, cake”? Explain why it *doesnt* count, rather than why it is.

Second the IL2 Series, but they are about to launch “IL2 – Cliffs of Dover” for which a whole new flight engine has been written. Although its il2 on the box, its basically totally new, and should be better. It basically is going to be the starting point for WW2 and what ever they plan, starting with the battle of britain in MkII spits, Emil 109’s.

Its going to be good – should be, the game engine for IL2 has lasted nearly 10 years? Goind to require a decent bit of kit to run though…

I have one.

For £100 its great. But get it unlocked (easy to do). Orange are thieving tosspots.

Good screen. Good touchpad. Good memory, reasonably recent android 2.1, ok battery life for a smart phone, and its fast enough for a duffer like me. Want faster, well find another £300 for an HTC! Camera is not brill, and no flash. All in all, the only critisms really for the money are the orange branded stuff, that makes it worth rooting the phone just to get rid.

Possibly an adverse reaction to sulphur?

Not so much in white wines, and not in beer.

Best reason not to have a motorbike.

How about “I have an allergy to fun!” ?

I do a 25m commute through 30, 40 limits into Croydon, but with open bits of dual carrigeway. It’s just far enough and fast enough to tip the balance in favour of a bike and away from scooter, as I also use it socially at weekends for longer trips. I use an SV, which is light, low, not too powerful, and easy enough to ride, with a torquy 2cyl engine. If I was driving, I’d still be queueing in traffic to arrive last wednesday morning. And dont forget free parking for bikes vs £6pd in towns in the south east.

soon as the dog even thinks about barking give it a sharp rattle and say no in stern way. While staring at the dog. You must also get your wife to do the same.

I don’t think his wife barks as badly?

No one has really posted any quality chocolate yet.

Cadburys is still a veg fat processed bar of low cocoa solid origin.

I run screaming from the cloying fatty nastyness of Dairy Milk. All this about twirls, snickers. Its not chocolate, its “confectionary”, in the same way Darts is a pastime, not a sport, and Nursing auxillaries are bottom wiping tea makers, and not qualified underpaid medicians.

Even Green and blacks I find gritty and rough.

Try Montezumas chocolate bars, they’re ace.

Just a quick pointer –

You mentioned you have a bad back. Don’t be sucked in by claims of “orthopedic” matresses. The term has no clinical meaning what so ever.

Its surprising how many frau.. er, whiplash claimants decide they need a new £1k mattress after a minor accident, and that its a cost of the accident to be claimed back. Usually they had a bed like scardycats to start with….

Its a risky strategy! We once decided not to employ someone because he pushed his luck with what he thought he was worth. He tried the “this is a risk for me” stuff (we don’t like people who are risk averse as they spend too long worrying about jobs, and pensions, and stuff and not enough time actually working!). He suggested 25% more than we had offered.

We declined and withdrew the previous verbal offer. He came crawling back saying he’d do it for the original offer. But by then had already pissed off two of the directors with his attitude so was not employed!

And is potentially now working for one of your competitors, and you lost out on a high quality employee worth ££££££ to your company for the sake of a few quid.

Do you think your companies policy is mirrored by FTSE top 100 companies?

I’ve only met a couple I’d trust.

One of them was me. The other one was the chap I worked with at the time.

Neither his predecessor nor forbear were people I’d trust, and I never met apart from a couple of weekend staff, any I’d trust either. It comes with the territory.

I tried being honest. People sadly don’t want honesty in estate agents.

If you get 4 agents round to value your house, then 9/10 instruct the one who gives the “biggest” value.

I used to work in a town on Salisbury Plain, where a lot of houses were similar. I could go to someones house, point to several I;d sold, pointing out the intricacies of price (the market was barely moving at the time!) and give a likely value to within £500, given there were usually plenty for sale.

And time after time, people would go elsewhere, to the “big name agent” who routinely over valued, and then spent the 3m of their sole agency trying to get the price down.

People like to be flattered, and hate to think they might be losing out, so they believe lies quite easilly…..

To be honest, you haven’t got a hope.

The “sealed bids” is simply a way of the agent getting all interested parties to get their offers together, and get a sale underway quickly.

Unlike Scotland where solicitors conduct the bidding (and the’yre dishonest as hell anyway), the agent will simply work out how much his developer friend needs to bid to get it as they open the envelopes, and slip in one of a selection of carefully pre printed offers into the process.

Then the agent gets the commission in selling it, and then in selling it on in 6m when its been developed, and his developer friend makes a tidy profit, possibly slipping a back hander to allow the biding to go “smoothly”.

You know why the baker had brown hands?

He urgently kneaded a poo.

Where is all the experience that they are buying coming from? It’s a business, it has a function to make money and not molly coddle the employees. It’s all bullshit.

oh the children of thatcher…. its all about the money with them…

:(

Companies have a social contract with the markets they enter into. On the understanding they are allowed to make money in a relatively unrestricted fashinn, it used to be understood that for that opportunity, you “buy into” the society by supplying jobs, paying taxes and generally benefitting the society you joined.

If all you want to do is sell, make cash, and keep it, you should be barred from entering the society.

In much the same way, companies shouldnt be allowed to lobby governments. They dont get a special “vote”, but the employees do. If governments take decisions that employees like, they will vote them in. Employees will tend to like things that benefit themselves, and ergo, their earning ability and progression, in a meritocitous way. (is that even a word?). Compaines are essentially an important but parasitic part of society. (I mean this in a non insulting way).

Cookings going to kill any germs. Theres nothing much in your washing up water going to kill you. A quick rinse, and at least you got wet and dry cured oaksmoked bacon. If you cant eat it, it might polish up something…

Apparently a bread maker only uses .36kwH of power to make a loaf as opposed to 1.36 kwH for oven made. CFP and all that.

Eh? Perhaps I am being slow, but I assumed the op already had an oven at home, for his other domestic cooking. That he is considering adding to the demand for “breadmakers” which essentially sit around unused a lot, and which only duplicate equiptment he already has. The oven is legacy equipment, and probably considered by 99& of people the item they’d keep if they had a choice of fitting their new kitchen with either a breadmaker or an oven.

Of course, if the op has no oven already, and is considering never baking anthing other than an extensive range of sun dried ciabattas and other morning goods, then I say BUY THE BREADMAKER!

+1 audiolab 8000a.

Apparently a bread maker only uses .36kwH of power to make a loaf as opposed to 1.36 kwH for oven made. CFP and all that.

But the oil out the ground, the refining and transport of same to make the plastic box, the industrial mining operations for the metal bits, the trees cut down and transported in ships to pulping plants and the water used to pulp, just for the packaging and instructions, and the carbon footprint of the office/factory making the breadmaker, as well as the further footprint in shipping that breadmaker to you in store.

You can probably keep the oven on for a year before you get near the carbon footprint of buying a bread maker.

Doesn’t a conventional oven bake bread? Why do you need a “bread maker”?

Bakers don’t use little japanese boxes which leave a sinister hole in the bottom of a loaf like the dog’s cock has been in there….

Perhaps it was the fashion police, warning another fixie owner.

Eh? I deal with motor insurance, and hire fairly frequently.

CDW is essentially, you paying to reduce the excess. IE the car might have a £500 excess. Paying say £5 per day extra, usually reduces that down to nil. I don’t see what the insurable risk is here? Unless the CDW is only removing the excess down to say £200? Even then, seems a rip off to me.

In the UK for example your insurance has say a £300 excess. You have a non fault accident, and you get put into a hire car. The TP part of your insurance transfers over from your own policy. But if the hire car has a £500 excess, then you might elect to pay CDW. But if say, your own excess was £300, and the hire car has a £300 excess, then whatever happens, theres a £300 excess. Olny one excess can be decducted, as the claim is only made on one policy. So insurers refuse to refund CDW, as to pay it gives you betterment. IE the hire car then has a policy on more favourable terms than the policy you actually chose on your own car.

So that website links to an example of a £2000 excess, and this policy is essentially insuring against that. But what sort of hire car firm runs the risk of trying to recover £2k from any driver, especially in the tourist market, when people disapear abroad after their holiday ect. I have never seen an excess that high? The ad even mentions declining the care hire excess insurance, yet it may be less than this? Bizarre.

The correct answer is that regardless of right or wrong, the bus driver will not admit it, and even if stationary in a 7 tonne bus when grazed by a vehicle in th lightest of brush past collisions, will suffer terrible “whiplash injuries” and “psychological damage”, and will have at least a fortnight off work, possibly more with the right GP signing off the fat bastard. He will probably use Thompsons Solicitors under his union membership. Car driver realising that incident was trivial and even on 5050 will lose ncd will tell his insurers he isnt bothered about defending the matter. Bus driver will get enough from a judge asd his solicitors are not ones who will ever accept an insurers offer out of court.

Solicitors will get 10k costs. Bus driver £7k. Everyones insurance goes up.

Along with taxi drivers, police officers, and then public servants, bus drivers are the most suceptible to “knowing their rights”, sorry, of getting hurt in any incident of any triviality.

My Grandfathr went to Berlin, and all he brought back was an empty bomb bay.

Leak and mushroom in a cheese sauce.

and apparently the fleeces which I also bought are made out of recycled plastic, which have caused a nice case of eczema on my elbow!! Cheap = shit

Sorry, I thought most of them are. I thought that was a design feature, not an indication of low quality.

On the one hand, people want something to do with all those recycled plastic containers, and then when they do, the enviromentalists are slagging them off. You cant win…

I work for a well-known insurance company. It’s mental. Everyone’s f*cked. Just knackered and stressed. Lots of politics and fighting at the top.
Is everyone’s work stressy at the moment or is it just us?

I work for RBS and it’s toilet. Our office is closing, we’re being moved halfway across london, and despite the fact we’re gone in 3m, no ones yet been told what help/assistance they can expect. Its going to turn my travel to a 2.5h journey each way for a low paid clerical job in claims, the tossrrs won’t make anyone “redundant” so it seems constructive dismissal is the only route forwards.

Honestly, a lot of people have just given up…

12m contract, in which time you gain experience, and look for another job. I always found it easier to get a job “from a job” rather than from being unemployed. You might stand more chance of geting the better job you want, and seem a more credible candidate, willing to work, if you take it.

If human breastmilk, er, designed for humans specifically, unlike that produced by the tit of a cow, is not safe for human consumption, then words fail me.

The article mentions viruses ect. Er, the reason cow milk has to be pastureised is because of TB concerns amongst other things.

I don’t fancy it, but surely the people who actually *complain* about these things should be forced to wear jesters hats when out publically so they might be identified and ridiculed for their zealous enforcement of their own hazy and ill conceived ideas on the rest of us.