Eldest daughter(8) and I turned granny’s 3 storey house into an SAS style killing house this afternoon. Granny not impressed! Daughter got bored of stalking Christmas card targets and insisted on stalking me. As NW said those pink Rebelle guns really sting!

I’m in Swanage for the hols. I can hear the Purbeck hills calling and every time I walk past my Piglet in the hall it gives me that look. I’m hoping that by taking my children and nephew to see Paddington this morning I’ll earn enough brownie points to get out for a few rides.

I’d suggest the lowest setting is 80mm so the next one down from where it currently is would be 140mm. However, if you email this guy with your pic he wil give you a definitive answer. John Valera, X Fusion US service manager, jvalera@xfusionshox.com Really nice helpful bloke.

Second the storm controls, have run them over winter for a few years now and nothing else comes close to their ability to shed the claggy clay mud we have round here. I’ve been tempted to leave them on all year round but I tend to find them just a little too twitchy when it’s dry though.

I reckon on just shy of 100 words a minute. So for half an hour I’d be aiming for something in the region of 2800+ words. I speak at a moderate pace and tend to have quite a few pauses to let my words sink in and to gather my thoughts. I usually have a full script in front of me, but occasionally speak from bullet points.

Hopefully sounds like a good result.

The Ned Flanders bit was tongue-in-cheek; I’m a Baptist Minister with experience in youth work. If someone like the OP came to me, I’d be happy to stick my dog collar on and go and have a chat with the yoof, and try and steer them into something a bit more constructive.

Are there any organisations near you that run detached youth work? Children’s centre, church, other religious group etc? Might find a Ned Flanders type preaching at them drives them away.

When I was in the Royal Signals I trained as an aerial rigger and really enjoyed it. I then did a civvi rope access course with Mark Wright in Rotherham. Tell your mate to Google IRATA for info on rope access training and quals. Alternatively if he fancies the forces the RAF have a trade dedicated to rigging.

I do a few days a week spannering at a small but very busy bike shop. The workshop is rammed and we can hardly keep up. Whilst the actual job of swapping a tube takes 3 or 4 mins, by the time you’ve spoken to a customer about why they got a puncture, why their tubes have funny twiddly bits on them, booked the bike in, got it into the workshop, put a tube in, faffed with the inevetiably crappy brakes/gears/wheel bearings,lubed the chain, called the customer, had another chat with them about what caused the puncture, taken payment etc, you’re getting on for 20 minutes at least.

For the last three days I’ve done 6 tubes each day. Anyone who thinks that an appropriate model for a small business to adopt is to do 2 hours of free work a day is bonkers. Anyone who thinks that fitting tubes for free will cause customers to buy more stuff is also bonkers, as orangeboy says, it just means we’d be fitting tubes for free all day long.

If a customer is genuinely interested we’ll get them into the workshop and show them how it’s done. We’re always friendly and chatty, after all we are bike enthusiasts, and we bend over backwards to help customers out when we can. I often feel the boss under charges for work we do, especially given how hard I feel I work!

Worth a go for a fiver!!!

That’s exactly what I thought, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

It’s bigger than you’d imagine, but doesn’t get in the way. I carry a full sized leatherman tool, bike multi tool, CO2 pump and 2 cartridges, a box of bits a pieces, minimalist 1st aid kit, and there’s still a bit of room. I also like the transparent section for my mobile phone.

I had exactly the same dilema. Hate wearing a back pack, especially for shorter local rides. I now have one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350999394671?var=620245514700&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 Not quite enough room for everything plus a tube, so I have a spare tube strapped under the saddle with a cable tie.

Going from the Fulcrum document mrmo linked to – The wheel hub bearings are RMO-008 which I know to be equivelent to 6804 and are readily available.

The freehub bearings are RMO-009, which are not a standard size, but can be bought from bike shops, a quick google turns up this – http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/fulcrum-4-rm0-009-rm-freehub-sealed-bearing-28x19x5-4pcs-id75192.html but you may find cheaper. HTH

I used the split bmx tube method on RM5s very successfully. Might be worth a go if tape doesn’t want to play.

Erm, no, not cheeky, perfectly legal to ride on. They are public roads.

More often than not they are unclassified county roads and are legal to ride (and drive) on. You can check with your local County Rights of Way office to make sure.

Wife has a Kindle Fire HD, which we both think is superb, but neither of us have used any other tablet so wouldn’t know if there’s anything better out there.

I tend to set my phone up as a wifi hot spot rather than use the bluetooth tethering, seems to be a little less faff.

I do it quite regularly with mine and have never had any issues. I’m on a T mobile unlimited data plan.

Swanage/Isle of Purbeck surely has to be in contention?

There’s no such thing as a car ‘that isn’t in saleable condition’! As per the others, stick it on ebay. I’d put it up with a buy it now and best offer.

I’ve never understood the obsession in this country for owning a house. If you’re happy where you are, why not stay put renting and sell up?

The pro-tip with my method is the cap nut lets you use a ratchet and socket for greater ease.

Like it. Rememebering back (I’ve only used that method once)I used a second nut at the bottom to act as a locknut, thus achieving the same as a cap nut.

Sort of as per IA – threaded bar with penny washer and nut up through the bottom of the steerer. Screw SFN down onto bar. Tighten nut at bottom and watch in amazement as the SFN makes its way serenely down the steerer.

Thanks all. Thought that might be the case. For some reason I’ve never got on with the Haldon red route, so if much of the blue is closed I’ll give it a miss. Will give the Princetown route a go.

Boats? Erm, don’t think so :-)

Crikey, firstly none of what I said contradicts the fact that denominational hierachies are TRYING to to tackle prejudice.

Secondly, I qualified the ‘probably’ by saying that ‘I don’t really see marrying people outside my church as something I’m terribly keen to do anyway.’ As there are no gay couples in my church, I would consider a request from a gay couple who weren’t part of my church in the same way I’d consider a request from a straight couple who weren’t part of my church. I’d also have to consider if it were an issue I’d be prepared to lose my accreditation over at this moment in time, given that, as part of the attempt to deal with prejudice, the ban on BUGB ministers marrying homosexuals is likely be lifted within a year or two.

You’d be very welcome to read my essay on homosexuality and marriage from a Biblical perspective if you’d like.

And if you don’t know any non-religious 60+ year olds who are anti-gay then you probably don’t know that many 60+ year olds!

Crikey, I don’t know, but I’d suggest your views come from the popular media perception of Christians. It seems to me that from a denominational heirachy perspective most denominations are trying to tackle organisational predudice.

Crankboy, I have what are considered very liberal views on homsexuality. I do think that most modern ministers across the denominations are quite forward looking on the issue, although you would probably find a lot of churchgoers are not. Across the road from me lives a retired Methodist minister and his male partner, and next door lives the Head verger of the nearby Abbey and his male partner.

Strictly speaking Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB) ministers are forbidden from conducting gay marriages. However, all Baptist Churches are independant, and I would argue that ultimatetly it is up to the individual church, not the Union, to decide whether a minister should marry a gay couple. Steve Chalke, a well known Baptist minister recently wrote in favour of gay marriage. Although I felt his arguement was weak, it did start a debate among Baptists that we should have been having several years ago.

I probably would marry a gay couple, but I have to say that I don’t really see marrying people outside my church as something I’m terribly keen to do anyway.

Just in case anyone’s wondering, I would quickly point out that the American Southern Baptists do not have much in common with other Baptists around the world and in fact are not part of the Baptist World Alliance.

One of the things that this thread has really highlighted to me is that it’s not only Christians who allow their Socio-Cultural expectations to influence their understanding of the Bible/faith, but non-Christians do it as well. Several posters have made comments which show that they are mentally adding to what the Bible says.

For example, Jesus said that remarrying after divorce is adultery. The automatic assumption, because of our cultural conditioning, is that therefore he thinks it ought to be forbidden and punished. Whereas he said nothing of the sort, and a more rounded reading of the Gospels enables us to understand that God is a God of redemption and restoration who doesn’t hold our past against us, in fact quite the opposite, he enables us to move on despite our past.

Mr. W’s comment is another example

is supposed to be a set of rules and requirements from the same god thing.

Our culture is set up in such a way that we think we require rules. In fact, whilst many Christians fall into the same trap as Mr W has, the Christian faith, as difficult and as strange as it may sound, is about an individual’s personal relationship with God. Churches, or ‘The Church’ is a family of individuals all of whom, hopefully, know God personally.

Which is why it is perfectly legitimate, as hard as it may be to comprehend, for different Christians to have different views about certain things. For example, I was able to justify serving in the British Army as a Christian prior to Iraq and Afghanistan. Other Christians are devout pacifists and others would have no problem with Iraq and Afghanistan. All of these views are, in my view, perfectly valid and legitimate. I know that might be very tough for individuals who like everyone to be of the same opinion as them. As a sort of metaphor for what I mean, I have three sisters and a brother; all five of us relate to our parents differently, according to our personalities and situations, and our parents relate differently to us. In the same way different Christians relate differently to the same God.

Roper – no prob. I think one of the strengths of having so many different churches and denominations is that one church doesn’t have to try to be all things to all people. There are those churches, like the one you describe, which are ‘hospitals for the soul’. People go to receive the spiritual care that professionals; NHS, Social Services whatever, don’t have the time or the resources to give.

Personally, I seem to pick up all the misfits! Those that don’t really fit in anywhere else, either in society or church. I think my very real and honest approach to faith and life, whilst it can be off-putting to older more traditional Christians, is attractive to those who are struggling and who need more than pious platitudes.

There are sadly those churches, like the one where I was asked the above question, where they really just don’t have a clue about what’s going on around them and they become cliquey social clubs.

crankboy – you could try kicking my dog, but you’d probably end up missing a toe or two.

Don’t know about BT, but we had a tree that was hitting power lines causing them to short out interrupting the electricity and sending sparks across the road. Bloke from the power company turned up with a cherry-picker, very apologetic, asked if he could take the top part of the tree down. ‘Our lines, our responsibility’ he said when I asked if we should have done it.

mike – essay sent. Interstingly the local CofE vicar, who I get on with very well, doesn’t consider himself to be an Anglican.

Oh yeah, you need to update your blog. October 2013? Tsk

Some of the people at my local church are spectacularly miserable.

Genuine lol!

‘Oh, Reverend KJA78, why don’t people your age come to our church?’

‘Something to do perhaps with seeing you lot every Sunday, dressed like you’ve been to a funeral, coming out of a building surrounded by dead people, with a look on your faces as if you’ve just spent the last hour watching me kick a puppy.’*

*may not actually have been quite the answer I gave to the question.

Yes, GF you missed my point that I also object to it, however the 3% or whatever is of the population who are Anglican probably don’t.

Mike – being a Baptist I believe firmly in the seperation of church and state. That being said, about 3% of the Lords are Anglican Bishops. Depending which figures you believe, somewhere between 1% and 4% of the population consider themselves Anglican,and the Anglicans claim that about 50% of the population have been baptised into the CofE so it hardly seems like disproportional representation.

As for the harm the media can do and the influence it has, I’d hardly call it limited.

‘I am careful not to cross any moral line that would take me into manipulating people’s real-life decisions or belief systems.’

Phew, that’s me reassured then.

As my three year old would say ‘I’m back! You found me!’

Cougar – it’s ok, I can handle you ignoring me *sniff*.

Crankboy, no I didn’t get that particular girl, however I did that morning meet a girl with whom I subsequently became great friends and have been married to for the past 10 years.

Mr.W – You seem to be asserting that I manipulate people in order to elicit an emotional response, without me or them realising that’s what I’m doing. An interesting proposition and one to which I will genuinely give some serious thought. I hope that you and miketually, as disciples of Derrin,have the same critical approach to his teaching as I do to the Bible, and have considered if and how he may be manipulating you and to what ends.

Mr W. – I will leave you this evening with my ‘Testimony’ and then I’m signing off til tomorrow. I had no interest in Christianity and very little exposure to it as a child. I spent a summer season as a 19 year old working it the kitchens of an Outdoor Pursuits centre where it seemed that everyone else was a Christian, they banged on and on at me about it. As you have probably gathered I am pretty articulate, intelligent and assertive, I was proud that I was able to reduce them and their arguements to nothing, even on one occasion making one of them cry.

I fancied a girl I worked with, she was a bonkers raving charismatic Christian and invited me to see a Christian comedian one evening. Not only was he totally rubbish, but I learnt that she was going out with a school friend of mine. I was very rude and offensive to people who had been nothing but kind to me over the last few months.

The next morning, Sunday, I decided to go to their church to apologise. As I shaved I looked in the mirror and wondered why I was going to the church, after all I’d see them all on Monday at work. I said ‘God, if you’re there, I’m ready to believe, just let me know.’

I arrived at church, none of them were there! The minister knew me and brought me in and sat me down. The service began, they all stood to sing. I stood, my left leg began to shake uncontrollably, then my right then my torso and before I knew it I was completly immersed in what I can only describe as ‘Truth’. I stood there crying, knowing that my life would never be the same again.

There’s a lot more that’s happened since then, but for me it’s not about a sense of wonder at creation, it’s not ‘I feel small’ or ‘How did the universe begin.’ It’s back to that moment, 15 years ago where God spoke to me, and I believe has been with me ever since. When I read the Gospels and Acts, those men and women come alive for me, and I love being a part of what they were a part of. Anyway, I’m off to wait for the men in white coats. Sleep tight, God bless.

Roper & Mr. W – Although I can see where they are coming from, I don’t really like the arguement from some Christians and people of faith that everyone has a ‘God-shaped hole’ and their life will be unfulfilled unless they find God. What I see though as I minister to a broad variety of people with all sorts of issues is a hunger for more meaning to life, an explanation of evil and suffering, and a desire to be loved. I believe that the God I believe in offers that to us all. So I suppose in a way I feel we all ‘need’ God, but don’t have a satisfactory way of explaining that.

My question about Athiests and spirituality was worded poorly, it came across as rhetorical, whereas it was genuine curiosity. I came to faith at the age of 20, I’m 35 now. Looking back at my teenage years I suppose I did have a spiritual need that went unfulfilled, I’ve always thought that was a fairly common part of the human experience.

crankboy – there’s nothing I like more than a pint and an incoherent debate, unfortunelty I am nowhere near Leeds I’m afraid. I nearly got a church not far from there, however I was a bit to liberal for those backwards Northern Christians. If you’re ever down in Dorset give me a shout.

In regards to the Christian narrative of Jesus & Rome, I suppose it depends how you start with Jesus. What I mean is you can find the subversive rebel or the prince of peace if that’s way you’re looking for. Turn the other cheek – humiliates the person doing the slapping, walk the extra mile – it was illegal for Roman soldiers to force civilians to do too much work. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s – He’s just said money and possessions are nothing and not important.

‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace, I have come to bring a sword’ ‘I told you before not to take anything with you, now I tell you sell your cloak and buy a sword.’ etc etc.

I suppose the ultimate Christian explanation for Jesus’ death was that it was part of the plan for salvation, it doesn’t really matter why the Romans executed him, God had to die to destroy the power of evil. That’s a whole other debate, I suppose, but for me it has a lot more to do with what the Christian church is meant to be, and what it’s meant to be doing and saying, rather than we being ‘saved’ from some untangible source of wrath because of our ignorance.

Kennyp – I too believe in evolution and that the world is billions of years old. Not that believe is the right word here!

Thanks Rockhopper, I guess it has something to do with the difference between having a 18-19 year old infantry grunt who’s been playing COD since he was 12, and a 30+ bobby with a few years pounding the beat and a bit less testosterone pumping through his veins.