Thanks iDave – useful help there.

Hora, the first bill came through just as my daughter came back and I actually thought that bill covered most of her trip. From phone call to phone bill can be up to 4 weeks, then phone bill to bank statement is a 3 week delay, but I hadn't really considered this beforehand, so was a little shocked by the 2nd bill. The 1st bill was going to be a 50:50 split with daughter, the 2nd kind of changed our perspective on that!

Tron,
maybe that's the deal – they finish and he walks away without coughing up, or he pays and they last a bit longer. Makes sense to me but I can't see her buying into it (maybe she did that with £2k of phone calls though)

Yep, have 2 mobile contracts, 3 PAYG and a home broadband with Orange, so probably £110 a month. I'll call Orange anyway, despite the naysayers, even if only to explore the possibilities and see if there's a cost spreading option

Cheers – she's at 6th form, working part time, and off to Uni in Sept. My deal with the kids is that we pay their basic phone contract, feed and cloth them until they are earning full time (or if they can't get a job, in full time voluntary jobs).
Trouble with the bills was the first came in and I knew from the bank statement. When I went in to the Orange account the 2nd was sat there waiting to be paid in a few days time (so the warning shot had landed after the 2nd shot had been launched).

She has no car or other assets to sell. And the boyfriend will be contributing. That discussion is happening tonight.

And she has spent more in phone bills than our holidays for 3 years. Like I say, she will be paying, just got to work out how.

Thanks for all the parenting advice. Kind of expected that. FWIW she will be paying, it's just the direct debit is set up so her monthly contract is paid straight away from my account. I was more wondering whether anyone has a history of Orange being "charitable" for excessive phone calls/bills. I am annoyed that even unanswered calls cost £1.45, and that is not clear in any tariff listing (and there were quite a few of those).

But, she used the service and that service must be paid for. (I accept that, and never questioned that in my original post)

Funny how many people jump to the conclusion that my daughter is a spoilt princess, and her parents are soft and lack parenting skills. If you knew her or us you probably (hopefully) wouldn't jump to that conclusion.

thanks Don Simon – I don't expect a refund, just wondered what the intellect on STW had to offer.

Jujuuk68 – there's a few assumptions in your post. She has been seeing her bloke for 18 months, and actually we did not make much of it. We actually wanted the relationship to end, as they're not best suited, but that's a difficult one to engineer. Both of us parents are actually very balanced and fair, and she is developing emotionally (who on here, at 19 years old, knew as much as their elders?).

Her trip was funded by her part time job during 6th form – as was her brothers round the world trip a few years ago.

So I guess I'll just pay without comment to Orange (which was the plan anyway)

I have just fitted alloys to my T5, so have a full set of steels with good tyres (5-7mm tread, Michelins and Toyos) you are welcome to for £80 set. And I'll throw in the wheeltrims

BWD – I tend to think that if you have done something you are truly proud of (whether it's because you beat everyone else, or just yourself), then there is no harm in telling people. But the trick is knowing when to stop telling people – that's when the big egos become tiresome. Having said that, I am not aware of people on here having big egos (OK, there's a few, but they tend not to have bike egos, just "I am always right" egos). As you say, it's down to the individual and there's no right or wrong way.

Thanks Terrahawk,
you're just rubbing it in that you followed in my tyre tracks until I bailed!

Fair play to you though – was a great ride (yours, not mine).

Just reading the RobDeanHove responses above (that I hadn't read before), and although I kind of agree that if everyone did one way record attempts, the trails would be full of riders upsetting families etc, the TCW is a seldom ridden route. Both times I have done it, the first time I saw no one at all, the 2nd time I saw a single set of tyre tracks that were days old. I think that the SDW is more often ridden – more people know about it, it's easier to get to and from, and to link both ends, and it's more visible (in that BHF organise randonnees etc). You only know about the TCW if you go looking for it.

However, that said, I will be having a good think about a TCW double next year. 24 hours is achievable, but it would have to be the right combination of weather, dry terrain (it's a soggy slow route otherwise)and daylight hours. Oh, and fitness comes into it as well (or I might have imagined that bit). Just need to convince the other half that more time on my bike is a good idea.

Pencarnan near St Davids – fantastic setting and right on the coastal path. Long (2 mile) walk to the Farmers Arms in St Davids though

I would say that yes you have a problem, but you are going the wrong way about fixing it. Find out the MDs / Chairmans name and write to him with a fair a balanced letter. Explain that you must have some kind of response, and copy the letter to the manager of the store you have an issue with.
Blocking a technician in on your drive puts you in an undefendable position.

What's the best home brew sealant recipe? I need to make some, but have always bought sealant before. As I seem to get through a lot, could do with making some.

You need an adaptor. Check out CRC, Brake Adaptors website. You need to be very careful of the description though – do you need IS to IS +20mm, Post to IS +20mm, IS to Post, Post to Post?

If this doesn't make sense, talk to CRC helpline

Although you may think you are correct, you should have anticipated the ped about to cross, and adjusted your riding accordingly (ie. stopped). If taking a driving test, you would have failed.

But I agree, it's hardly a scandal worth reporting in any kind of comic

I don't care what anyone says, concrete is hard. If my helmet scrapes along it instead of my head, I will probably be OK. If my head scrapes along it instead of my helmet,I will probably not be OK. So, I wear a helmet. The same as I wear a seatbelt. It doesn't prevent an accident, but it does improve the chances of walking away from most types of one.

But there are types of accident where a helmet or seatbelt could make me worse off, but I believe them to be less frequent, so I will still wear a helmet.

I don't care if no one else wears one (apart from my kids), as long as they don't expect me to pick them up afterwards.

I think in order to understand where you can make the biggest improvement, look at the races you have done and analyse your performance in them:
Do you ride fast over everything flat, but slow right down for obstacles (spend some time learning how to ride techy bits faster)
Do you run out of energy after 20 mins (improve your fitness as people have discussed above)
Do you ride a 40lb downhill monster (buy a bike more suited to your riding)
Do you lose massive time whenever there's a hill (either up or down) (uphill – get fitter and stronger, downhill – remove brain and practice)

You can improve a massive amount by looking at where you are slow, and why, then focussing on that – and it's different for everyone

My Bill Nickson steel frame was great – I am it's 3rd or 4th owner, and when I got it (for £200) it was covered in 8 speed DuraAce. Did LEJOG on it, and some competitive road rides, and many many training rides, and have only had to put it to bed as the frame has rusted through at the bottom of the seat tube. Love riding it though (it's Dedaccia tubing, and weighs about 5lb, whole bike around 20lb). Still great to ride 20 years after it was made. I wouldn't hesitate to have another one, but now lust after a carbon loveliness type road bike.

Has to give access to public rights of way for people, but no rights of access at all for dogs. Unless you can appeal to his good nature, you're out of luck.

OK cheers all – that was what I was thinking, I wasn't sure whether the wear is visible (ie. around the seals like on my Pace), or around the bushes and therefore hidden. Sounds like it's around the bushes so buyer beware!

Yes, regularly service my forks, and clean the seals after every ride, I think I just ride through the wrong type of mud. Most of my rides are 3 hours plus, so any crap that gets in spends the whole ride grinding the stanchion away until I clean them.

I'll try some Fox's worst case is I spend £200 and they last 2 years.

Tempted away from RS due to Post Mount only caliper mounting, and Pace are no more (and DT Swiss are silly prices). Marzocchi are too heavy, so I guess Fox are probably the best of the bunch.

There's a lot of speculation in the press, so don't believe everything you read/hear.

The press make up (and many believe) lots of stuff. And often misinterpret what the Manufacturer tells them.

So, the claims for 70mpg may not be true now, but one day they will be, likewise carbon bits and 0-60 on 1.5 seconds from a 600cc single cylinder.

Can't you lot knock some foreign cars instead of the stuff that keeps British Manufacturing alive?

It has nothing to do with BMW – no parts, technology or anything (let's not forget who gave BMW their 4WD capability).

It will not be built in India – still UK based manufacturing.

And it will be the most fuel efficient 4WD in its class, drive like a car, and be a cracking piece of kit.

The interior is already designed – Mrs Beckham hasn't had a hand in that (yet).

A reason for the question:

I have just done the Trans Cambrian Way, with Polaris kit (tent etc) in 13 hours. It's 105 miles, and as I was only 30 mins or so slower than John Houlihan's time of 12:25, and because I think there is a good hour to come off my time, I think it is worth a crack, before the fast lot get wind that there is another trail out there that needs an even faster record setting. Sounds like me saying I have ridden it, with a GPS log as some kind of evidence, is not really sufficient – I would need to tell lots of people first (which I am reluctant to do as I like to operate without lots of fanfare etc). Plus I am reluctant to go through the ride again in one stint if someone else has already done it in 8 hours, as I could never get that quick.

19km, B roads with some undulations (can't call them hills) and a small bit of cyclepath – used to take 38 minutes, with one 35 minute (road bike) time. Now takes 42 minutes (rigid slicked MTB) as my head has got bored of pushing it every day (and I am struggling to get back up to full strength after breaking my leg last year). That's with a rucksack of varying weight (depending whether I carry the laptop).

In 8 years commuting, am now on my 3rd set of wheels (rims wear out), but original jockey wheels (they're about the size of a 5p now). I am experimenting with jockey wheels to see whether the amount of wear affects shift quality – currently have concluded that on my cheapo commuter bike it doesn't, and on my good MTBs it also doesn't, but on the good MTBs worn jockey wheels look bad. On the commuter I don't care if they look bad.

Advice in the book of knowledge says "mirror, signal, manoeuvre". I tend to get my hands back on the bars though before actually turning.

The other approach is jam on the rear brake and skid round, proper 12 year old style

I think that the question is not "Any point in objecting?", but "Any point in not objecting?".

If you don't object, and it is an eyesore, then you have no defence. If you do object, some changes might happen.

You can object on any grounds you like, however the planners will only consider grounds that affect your privacy, quality of life, commercial impact – you could show that the chimney would have an impact on quality of life.

In the first instance though, talk to the neighbour – issues like this are generally best resolved before anyone spends any money (and the neighbours architect and planning application cost money)

They cost what people will pay. It's that simple.

If they cost £200, they wouldn't sell to those people who want a "proper" mountain bike. If they stick a £2000 tag on it, it becomes a thing to lust after.

Think about the "R&D" cost – your paying for a couple of frame design engineers (£50k per person per year) and a bunch of prototypes – at a couple of k each. Spread across a few thousand frames (for the volume manufacturers) it works out at not much per frame.

I can pretty much guarantee that a good quality Taiwan made frame from Giant/Scott/Spesh/ etc costs about £300 to make (plus shock). The rest is made up of tax, duty, profit, shipping, overheads, etc etc etc

Adrian Flux here – 43 years and £334 (limited to 7500 miles) for a camper conversion. Another £67 for unlimited mileage. Only 1 years no claims (company cars before that)

Trans Cambrian Way is a good 100 mile route – it is part of my Kielder 100 training to get that done in a day, then bivvy out and ride back on the road the next day. As far as nav goes, a GPS coupled with paper maps (on A4 sheets) works a treat.

Epicyclo – do you want to offload it for not much cash?

Couple of mates used to have Raleigh Grifters when they first came out, didn't they have a rear brake that you had to pedal backwards to get it to work?

Mine was a singlespeed – a bit niche for it's time – oh hang on, we all had single speeds. Maybe gears would have been niche?

Who's Geoff Apps?

Teadrinker,
sorry, the email on this is my work email, and I won't log back in until Monday or Tuesday. I don't mind paying (it's actually for an event I am running and hope to make a small amount of money from), so I don't want to take advantage of other people.

If, however, you work for an insurance company, bank, estate agent or other industry of low integrity, I will happily take you up on your offer of getting it done freely at work.

Can I get back to you on Monday? (I am away for the weekend now)

Cheers

Cheers, so the £50 cash offer I have had is a bargain!

I need to get our office to invest!!

I have a Magellan route for it. It's a bit of an epic – 8.5 hours riding time – I can email it to you tomorrow?

Thanks Sillyoldhector – that looks like great stuff – probably kill me as well as the weeds!

Surf Mat – I was thinking of a burner, but £175? Cheaper to pour petrol over a set light to it.

I think salty water is the favourite so far

I don't often post on here, but this has got me laughing. A doctor (I thought all doctors were quite mature, well educated etc etc) behaving like a 5 year old when he gets a hard time.

I suspect R O is not a doctor, but some kid who hasn't been given a new bike for their birthday.

Where can I send my spares box?

Salty water sounds good – I tried some neat salt on some thistles in the lawn and it killed them OK.

It's kind of friendly to the environment – the sea is full of the stuff!

Did the Lord of the Loops in the Peak a few weeks ago. Great ride, 11 big(ish) climbs, and 105km. Get an early start though as it's an all dayer.

The Trans Cambrian Way (100miles) is on the "to do" list. Am aiming to do that in a day, then bivvy out and ride back the next (on the road). Might need long daylight hours for that!

No GPS route, sorry, but if you can read a map, any of the bridleways from Newport seem to be good, I can give you map references (easier via email) if that's any good. Some of the footpaths look like they need keeping open as well…..

My 130PS T5 is great to drive – bought it a year ago with 12 months warranty left – and I am glad I did. Excessive driveline clunk has resulted in 2 dual mass flywheels, a clutch, a driveshaft, and as none of the above fixed it, the dealer has just cleaned and greased the input shaft (gearbox out job). Totally fixed the problem – if only they'd tried that the first time round.

Anyway, if you can get a van that is less than 3 years/60,000miles, it will have warranty left. After that and you're on your own. The later vans (post 2007) are meant to be better (quality), but then you only tend to hear about the bad ones.