The Canon 17-85mm EFS is also a lovely lens. I bought a used one for my better half a couple of Christmas’ ago.

Problem is they are not reliable. There’s a ribbon cable in them which fails, this one went after a couple of months. Fortunately I got it from a shop who put a 6 month warranty on it so they repaired it FOC. A year later it has the same symptoms, I’ll do it myself this time.

Great lens but be careful if you happen to look at one to buy.

I’ve got a Canon 400d. The 300d and 350d are just slightly lower resolution versions. All are quite cheap now and will almost certainly come with the standard 18-55mm kit lens, ok but not great. It’s a good basic camera, I’m sure really keen users would find its limitations but it allows me to fiddle as much as I want to.

My favourite lens is the Canon 50mm 1.8f, it is a prime lens so no zoom but the colours are fantastic and it’s very cheap, so cheap I actually bought one brand new! The low f stop can be fun as well.

My boss has a high end Nikon, I forget what model, with a wobbly bottom end Tamron lens on it and it’s awful. It’s a waste.

I’m 14 weeks into a fractured vertebrae and awaiting MRI results. The pain and restricted movement is pretty bad but I just fall over because my legs give out or just don’t move when I tell them to. I did consider what life will be like if I can’t depend on my legs long term, pretty dire really. However I am not accepting delivery of those thoughts now, no trying-to-put-it-to-the-back-of-my-mind or trying ignore them, just simple, flat out refusal to let myself think about it. That’s my way anyway.

Muscle wastage is a bitch. I had my leg in plaster for 5 or 6 months 10 years ago. When the first cast came of at four weeks the bit just above the knee was so thin it actually scared me. But it came back with fairly gentle exercise, which was nice. In my experience it will come back more easily than you think.

I tried a guitar but the missus, supportive as she is bless her, took it away before she felt compelled to beat me with it..

This is my experiences of working on A2 and B4 chassis VAGs.

Removing bushes? I always have a blowtorch and hacksaw handy, if you don’t need them then that’s a bonus.

With some mechanical sympathy you can press the front wishbone rear bushes in with a vice and suitable lumps of steel bar to space the arm off the jaws / push on the right (outer metal ring) part of the bush. As long as the bush goes in straight (it’s metal to metal fitment) and the pressure’s on the right bits you can fit them with a heavy hammer and lumps of wood, but that’s last resort country. The front ones will push in with a vice/threaded bar and lots of watered down fairy liquid.

ARB bushes: I had the Corrado on stands under the sills and with a jack supporting the subframe undid the rear two bolts. This does mean the weight of the engine and box is on the jack so place stands an inch below the subframe to catch it all just in case. You only need to lower it an inch onto the stands and the bushes can be got at. Be aware that you could be stretching/squashing any number of pipes, wires etc so someone to check this as you lower the jack is handy.

Rear bushes are a threaded bar job but you should be able to do them without taking the beam out. People leave the whole weight hanging on the dampers and that’s probably fine but I prefer to support the beam and at the same time stop it swinging about.

By the way if the bushes you intend to fit are FEBI I wouldn’t waste your time. Lemforder are not much more and far, far better. I spit on FEBI front top mounts.

Also I fitted R32 Golf front wishbone rear bushes to my Golf and they are great. They’re solid not voided and allow less wobbling, again barely anymore than the non R32 ones.

I set up my camber with a simple gauge from Trackrite, about £20. I had it checked after with a lase kit and it was spot on what I had set it according to the Trackrite. You have no option but to set the camber if the damper comes off the hub carrier but even if it doesn’t not re setting the camber makes no sense.

What age Passat? I have rebushed my Mk3 Golf and Corrado, some Passats use the same or very similar rear beam and front arms. ARB bushes are fun..

As above all aftermarket arms I have seem have been pretty poor. With a clean and lick of paint I bet 20 year old VW stuff I will outlast brand new aftermarket ones.

My Marin Palisades Trail, about 1992 I think. It was my first decent mountain bike. It acquired V brakes, Rockshox Mags etc but I found the rigid forks and threaded stem from it the other day so I may put it back to standard, not sure about the cantis though..

If someone buys something lasts a lifetime they will probably only ever buy one of them..

When there are massive companies churning out skit that wears out in no time but still have the market share despite it what chance do a small firm making quality kit have?

Arcam AVR1300 and an ancient Marantz 2226b btw, yes I know the Marantz is American..

Thank you everyone for your input. I wasn’t encouragement that I was after per se but I certainly don’t feel as dejected as I did yesterday.

I’m under no illusion that it won’t cause me trouble later to some degree. My other various breaks play up play up now and again, especially when it’s cold. I do take comfort from the fact that the x-ray results didn’t prompt emergancy treatment. As has been pointed out above any obvious and imminent danger to the spinal cord would have made that happen.

I can’t wait to get back to work (really!) and then riding again.

Mr Cycle pink bike cleaner from the poundshop. According to my brother it eats anodised finishes if you leave it on too long.

RE: The “+” infront of the figure you saw: It doesn’t necesarrily mean that the figures you saw meant that they did find positive camber and anyway that would not be compatible with the uneven tyre wear you have.

It could well be that that those figures were under a heading of negative camber, but seeing as they didn’t let you examine them properly it’s hard to say.

I don’t know what figures your particular car should run but I’d put money on it being negative to some degree rather than 0, or dead upright.

Oh I’ve really confused things now, sorry.

I presume you live in a country with no speed limits, or have a private racetrack ?

Erm.. Er… I meant kph, not mph..

and a high speed blow out could easily have happened

It can and does happen, although if it’s any comfort these modern low profile, reinforced sidewall tyres usually let you know well before it all goes too wrong. A total failure which lets all the air out before you can stop is actually pretty unlikely.

You may also find that they’re run-flats. Are they really heavy, hugely expensive and give the ride quality of a knackered old Transit? If so then they probably are.

EDIT:

I have actually cocked up on the camber. NEGATIVE camber is when the wheels lean in at the top, POSITIVE is when they lean out. No modern car that I know of uses positive camber as it is counter productive. I got negative and camber the wrong way round, I blame the painkillers I’m on at the moment.. I most definitely run negative camber on my cars.

The idea of camber is that as a car leans outwards through a corner (and of course the wheel leans with it) that the wheels stays as upright as possible so that the whole of the tyre is in contact with the road. If the wheel is already leaning in when the car’s upright then with a bit of experimentation it can be set up to be upright when cornering. Of course it means the the inside whell while cornering is now leaning alot more but as it is not really providing any meaningful grip it’s a worthwhile compromise.

I thought they would be standard for the model. I just asked because some dealers have been known to swap bits about to make a particular car sell better without making sure they are actually suitable. Wheels with the wrong offset for example can cause problems with suspension, bearings and even trye rub if it’s way out.

I’ve seen some pretty severe inside-edge tyre wear before. However that concave wear down to the canvas right on the shoulder but with some tread left right beside it is new to me. A friend of mine was a tyre fitter for years and a fellow car nut, I’ll ask him what he thinks.

If the car were mine I would get a tread depth gauge (a couple of quid) and check the inside, outside and centre every week and write it down so you can keep track of any uneven wear. It sounds boring and is a hassle but it does mean you’re informed if you end up in the same situation again.

“From what I saw of the sheet with the measurements on (which was waved about in front of me quite quickly) was showing figures of +1.5, +1.8, +3.1 (the +3.1 was the highest figure I saw). I have no idea what those figures mean!”

Those would be camber figures. + is positive, that is that the top of the wheel is leaning in towards the body of the car. The number is the degrees from dead upright that they’re leaning by.

I don’t know what the tolerances are for your car but you could find out via the V.A.G workshop manual, ELSAWIN.

For fast road use I run my mk3 Golf and Corrado at +1.5 on the front. After fine tuning it myself I have sttled on that setting to give the best cornering grip without wearing the tyres excessively or making the car unstable in a straight line. The rear isn’t adjustable on either of them as they both use a torsion beam axle. Yours is almost certainly a multi link setup out back which would be adjustable for at least toe in.

My Jaguar has a multi link rear end and with two worn bushes and a worn track rod end the geometry is constantly changing, not good. It wobbles, especially over 100.. I need to rebuild it asap.

Have a read of the supension pages on Carbibles.com for a good, in depth explanation of car suspension sytems.

That wear you have is quite extreme, almost looks like they’ve been rubbing though I doubt it as all four are the same. Are the wheels the standard ones or were they an optional extra?

That’s encouraging, thank you.

I agree good physiotherapy is important, last time I went I was forced in to a pretty good charades type effort of The Exorcist. The head turning round, not the projectile vomiting..

I’ve been off work and laid up since the fall and my back’s been the main feature of my everyday life since. I saw a GP at the beginning of June and described spinal tenderness and poor motor control in my legs, she gave me codeine.. It was only after I pushed the issue later (with another GP) that it got investigated further with an x-ray.

Thank you for the vibes