[devil’s advocate]Back when we had 3 round-the-clock Casualty departments (as they were then known) within five miles of the city centre, if you were hurt enough to go there, but not so much that you needed an ambulance to get you there, you had what the government likes to call “choice”.

My understanding is that the actual outcomes for patients are significantly better with experienced, dedicated and better resourced trauma teams, rather than numerous, smaller A&E departments which don’t carry the same resources or experience.

Indeed, although one of our now-closed Casualty departments had a great reputaion for managing complicated fractures, much of the expertise from that department went up to the big hospital that didn’t close.

The same principle of concentrated expertise also follows for hip/knee replacements, dialysis and all manner of other complicated procedures and care pathways that are currently being sold off to “any willing provider” across multiple sites and employers/agencies/organisations. All in the name of “choice”. 👿

…errr, nothing to do with bikes but topical if you are in Devon this week: I went to an art exhibition in the old Devon “Regional Seat of Government” nuclear bunker this morning.
http://www.bunkerproject.co.uk/index.html
Both the art and the “poking around vast cold war relic with no one telling you what/not to do” were awesome fun. 😀

also, one of our smallest local government fallout shelters (under Pounds House in Plymouth if you are interested) had excercise-bike powered ventilation. 😆 Photos etc if you search online and allegedly the bike is still there!

[edit] you do know that the UK SSR is an urban myth, don’t you?
Ifound out about it via this excellent website.

rosscopeco – Member

No, but I’ve posted stuff from the forum with an old postage label still attached. Dumb I know but as I say, I’m learning the hard way

…if you post anything of significant value that you sold in the classifieds, you would be wise to put a return address on the back.

Ebay/paypal has always given buyers the seller’s name and email address (and also their home/postal address if you ask to collect or pay by postal order/cheque). I suppose I am suprised it doesn’t happen more often really. There must be hundreds of people out there from ebay/classifieds/discogs marketplace who have this information about me. 😕

High risk areas tend to be more socially deprived areas and city centre, low risk areas tend to those areas higher up the social ladder suburbs etc.

😈

IIRC Sun Alliance Insurance started out as a private fire brigade. You got a cast iron plaque to put on your house (a bit like the old AA grille badges: there is a very old house near me that has one) so the fire brigade knew it was ‘ok’ to started putting your house-fire out.

Perhaps the government are after wealthy folk going back 150 years and having the choice to pay for their own fire brigade service that gets there a bit sooner. 😆

I don’t. One has slick-ish tyres, a rack and full mudguards, but all my bikes have 26″ wheels and riser bars.

You rang, sir?

😀 Happy twiddling Mike.

If it’s any help, my 2009 sid team has the same colour decals under lacquer (as opposed to stickers). IIRC you could look up the serial number on the back of the crown. Also there may be one of those circular ‘date stamps’ in the casting under the crown, certainly used to be with older RS forks.

Best way to tell if it is an 09 sid will be to look for wear in the inside of the arch on the lowers on the air spring side, or put a decent (90+ psi) amount of air in, compress the fork and see if the top of the wheel moves to the left. Of course mine does this too. 👿 Although not all 09’s did, I believe they replaced so many lowers under warranty that year that the fault did not recur in subsequent years.

Ace. 😀

The key to success… seat height!

agreed, I have had to ‘negotiate’ my kids’ seats upwards in two or three stages. Although they are arguably on wheels smaller that they could/should be for their ages (so presumably way bigger standover and lower bb height than they could have), it is unnerving at first for them not to be able to sit on the saddle and place both feet flat on the floor. But both mine are way more confident about giving it some beans now the saddles are (nearly!) proper pedalling height.

Never travelled for ‘business’ abroad: with all those tips what do you do about claiming your expenses?

I would imagine that all those tips you wouldn’t be paying if your employer hadn’t sent you away must get a bit spendy after a few days…

I thought the flipflops were suprisingly robust for something you get on the front of a magazine. I have a few bottle openers from mags which are ace. That bright green “puncure pod” thing lives on albeit closed with an elastic band nowadays, and I have had loads of gear cables and energy bars/drinks oevr the years. I like the pretend Buffs, but not so fussed about the union jack one on MBUK this month.

Small freebies that are made well are best (ie small stuff you might just pay a quid or two in a bike shop for), rather than the walllets, multitools, bendy tyre levers ie all the stuff you probably have but paid a bit more for examples that actually work.

Songing-machine off here has a fantastic far-east rip off mellow johnny’s kit in white, which leaves pretty much nothing to the imagination. Decent ‘team’ bibshorts always have a double layer at the critical ‘builder’s crease’ panel.

On the other hand, their returns system is waaaaay better now.

I filled out the form that came in the package, stuck the self-adhesive label back on it and dropped it off at my local Londis on friday (collect+ and no need to pay postage and claim that back from them): despite the bank holiday the money is back in my paypal account today.

My history teacher at school reckoned Ze Germans had terribly unreliable tyres/seals/gaskets and could/would have won the battle of Britain if they had just a better supply of rubber. 😯

Any lego fans got any special ways to stick them together- i thought of glue as i am sick of rebuilding them tbh

JY, according to the other forum I waste my life (and pocket money) away on[/url] (there are three or four mountainbiking active posters on there), the shop displays use normal liquid polystyrene cement, like you would stick an airfix kit together with. But this is effectively melting it together so even if you do manage get the bricks apart again, they will never be anything like the same when you try and build anything else.

For this reason, ex-shop display sets go for less than you’d imagine on the collectors/secondhand market.

I have heard of people using small amounts of pva glue for wobbly pieces as you can peel it off again, but never tried it myself: not sure if it would withstand ‘playing with’.

they did that argument ^^ on another thread the other week zulu. As you would doubtless be keen to point out if it was being discussed within, say, the context of failiing social mobility with regard to the advantages and tax breaks of the private school system, studying PPE at Oxford is hardly a measure of “born into wealth and priviliege” any more.

As I recall the ‘cabinet/shadow cabinet CV’s comparison’ just highlighted the difference in real-world experience the current shadow cabinet has over the real one. 😕

Zulu: Benn: oh the irony. You even hotlinked the picture from the coalition of resistance website: I expect you will have to have a little lie down after all that. 😆

I can’t see Osborne setting up workers co-operatives to help failing industries, and joining the Stop The War coalition after he retires.

Still, if there is any merit in that old-fashioed idea of political extremism being a ‘horseshoe’ shape, then Z-11 and Tony Benn should be about ready to jump off their respective ends and swap political places altogether. 😉

Zulu-Eleven – Member

I’m still waiting to hear this explanation about how Gove was born into wealth Binners

…is that really all you can find in this thread to call him out on? 😉 and indeed 😆

Gove still in the cabinet? 😉

Ah well, at least his conniving ‘new money’ ways will not leak into budget/tax/fiscal policy in his current post eh?

yes, and mostly yes.

BillMc, that link is genius! 😆

When is a URT not a URT?

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/where-do-you-start-with-this-one

Fly racing gloves are a bit garish for girly girls, but their kids sizes do go right down to the very small indeed.
See these ones here.
My six year old fits nicely in an xs size of those, and they go down to xxxs.

You are the original zoofighter, you’ll be reet!
Not that you will need any, buy good luck anyway. 😀

Please post pics later if you get any ‘owies’.

Buuuuuurp! 😀

(I suppose I had better pack, come to think of it!)

Half link for sure.

cookeaa – Member

I bet the only reason they missed out 1 1/8″ for handlebars was so some fudd can’t put the stem on the wrong way round. That would be ace, a 60mm stem with 5 deg offset to the right!

Nope I think Tioga actually had a crack at flogging just such a product…

Indeed they did. The “Cube” stem iirc. Somewhere in a box I have a Scott branded 1 1/8″ handlebar too.

So that’s five handlebar “standards” in how many years? 👿

stop moaning richard, and do something else.

Don’t panic Project, Virgin healthcare is already making inroads into the health service. Of course, as the government tell us, it’s not privatisation, but I am not really sure how Virgin healthcare taking over NHS provision of children’s services in Devon[/url] (oh, and community services in Surrey[/url]) is all that diferent from them running a previously nationalised railway serice.

Ernie:

“essence” 😀 oldskool film post of the week. 😆

Skillz Graham. 😀

+1 to all that stuff about floating voters and winning them over with some exciting topical stuff in your new spangly election manifesto.

I would add that the floating voter bit is all the worse since it is only the floating voters in marginal-ish seats that clinch it. Floating voters in safe seats make no difference at all to general election results in FPTP.

You could have a ‘swing’ of 15,000 votes in my constituency and still not shift the current MP as it is a hugely safe seat. Meanwhile in the adjacent constituency, (with the many of the same local issues/employers etc) voting has always been more close ,and over the years the change from conservative to labour to conservative could have been made with swings of just 6-700 votes.

My employer has for years used pool cars as a means to paying out less in travel claims/mileage to its employees using their own cars. If I prang my own car on work business claiming 46p a mile or whatever it is to cover fuel, maintenance and insurance, then it is my policy, my excess, my problem.

If work insists that I use their car on work business because they think it will save them money in the long run, and then I prang it, whose problem is it? (never damaged a works car fwiw)

But as above, you should have something in your contract or works car policy that spells out the excess (in pounds not %) you should pay in ‘your fault’ accidents on work business.

I would also be highly suspicious that someone else has subsequently damaged the car. How could you check at the time and notice a tiny scratch by the foglight and not the rest of the damage? 😕 Or would anyone accident/claims/bodyshop repair-related like to comment on how you could bend the whole front end at ‘frontwards round a range rover’ parking speed? I’d be checking for paint/scratches that are not consistent with the wall you drove into for a start.

The new lezyne one is also less than half the price of the exposure one. 😕

I have mine now. Also no recess for chainring bolt, so nice and easy to fit the opposite way round when its worn. I suppose it is not steel and says nothing about any hardening process like the fancy alloy ones, but if it lasts even a third as long as a steel one/E13/renthal it will still be worth it.

ID: julianwilson
AKA: Julian
Distinguishing features: balding, wiggo sideburns (which I’ve had since 1995, harumph!) Ale in left hand (not as in ‘drinking rules’, just that it leaves dominant right hand free for European/a-bit-camp gesticulations)

zulu: fair enough. I suppose you have to be toally upfront about who you are and who you work for so people know,(ctbm, richiesilverfish etc) or keep right out of it.

It must be a bit frustratinging for you when you look on the bike forum and see ill-informed guff being earnestly written by one happy/angry customer about whatever product(s) is you are involved in selling, or indeed the ‘competition’. I stay out of quite a few threads on the chat side that pertain to my own professional life for similar reasons.

The “what brake/hub/rotor mount/handlebar clamp size” threads will be all unbalanced now. Who’s going to argue with Poddy and cynic-Al about cup and cone hubs now? 🙁

Suprised that if z-11 is a Mavic rep he doesn’t seem to chip in much on wheel threads on the other channel.

Julian, good questions and avoided because I did genuinely go to fit in swim training before the 200m final.

…yet you managed to fit in replying four or five times to other bits over yesteday evening whilst I chipped away, including when TJ picked up on it (and didn’t quite make it party political again!) How peculiar for you to have nevertheless managed all those other posts whilst training. 😕

Reticence is due to involvement in “related project” that is far too early to discuss.

What do those projects have to do with the experience and outlook that your own education and teaching career might bring to your opinions? A couple more teachers seem to have managed to back their comments up with their backgrounds without making it obvious to anyone who they are or where they work. What are the chances of anyone that knows you in the real world/professionally who is reading this not having worked out who you are already suddenly realising it’s you?

If I hadn’t seen you ‘chase’ the likes of TJ and JY with multiple posts/questions for smallish points on other politix/economix threads, I probably would have gioven up as you really seem rather evasive, but if it seems to be OK for you to do so to others, then I am sure you won’t mind me continuing to press for the details.

duckman, great to see another teacher contribute to this thread with his cards fully on the table. 😀

Teamhurtmore, since it wasn’t the wonderings about what your education and professional experience brings to the table that got TJ banned (after all, not a peep about it at my end: unlike both TJ and your good self I have never once been ‘moderated’), I will remind you yet again that it would be nice in the interests of your comment earlier:

its important to understand in-built biases. “Some” if not “all” history (and economics teachers) might get and teach that as well as sport!

…and the issues at hand in this thread which I would have thought schoolteachers of all backgrounds are most excellently placed to comment on,
what potential bias does your own education, employer and type of student have for you here?

Off to bed now. Since you seem to have been active on this thread all evening, hopefully I will have a slap on the wrist or an answer on here in the morning. 😀

A friend worked for the home office in Liverpool (now in London) and said there were quite a few cycle commuters there and generally in Liverpol. …terrible for punctures though.

tj, it was THM’s raising of this that piqued my interest. -His original comment (about the Guardian) of course is quite right:

its important to understand in-built biases. “Some” if not “all” history (and economics teachers) might get and teach that as well as sport!

When a debate seems to circle around:
1) CMD’s criticism of state school teachers,
2) whether or not “you get what you pay for”
3) the need/superfluousness of additional funding for sports traditionally excelled in by those with a public/private school background,

…then it becomes all the more important to understand the possibilities of in-built bias amongst those who were educated by the state or by the private sector, and those who teach for the state or in a public/private/crammer school. I am not so black-and-white as to be seeking to ‘out’ THM as a Tory, but I am curious as to why he would seem to be so reluctant to back up his points on a thread so tied up in those three issues with more background to the professional position from which he makes them.

I am sure the other well known teachers on this forum will happily ackowledge that the different people and places they teach to/in brings them different outlooks on both the practice/experience of educating, and the political environment in which that education happens. To pick three prolific and open contributors to such threads: aganellis’, miketually’s and don simon’s employers and workplaces all being different, their students all being different ages and there for different reasons. I know this because all three have been quite willing to discuss this on the forum in the past. Why not THM? ❓