or a gun…

I saw the BBC headline; something along the lines of “man dies due to botched lethal injection.”.

Isn’t that a successful lethal injection?

I’ve bought 2 bikes and a few other bits and pieces. No problems at all.

If it’s a big purchase then consider collecting. Even a couple of hours in the car isn’t a big deal for a 1k bike…

I flew 2 bikes from the UK to Thailand last summer.

They were in in LBS bike boxes.

I removed the bars from the steers, chain off, air out of forks and tires*, rear mech from hangers, pedals from cranks, took the wheels out and that was about it.

I used a combination of electrical tape and pip lagging to secure everything and 4 – 5 rolls of duct tape on the outside of the box

Judging from the state of the boxes when we arrived, they were very well treated.

I didn’t touch the brakes. Surely the pressure when you brake hard is very high hence braided hoses.

*the airlines will insist you do this

Just donated.

I couldn’t afford to donate a pound for each time I’ve watched road bike party!

I feel used

…and not in a good way!

I taught my 2 year old son to salute, put his hand on his heart and march when he hears I Vow to The My Country or Rule Britannia solely to piss off his staunchly republican Irish ‘Mammy’.

I denied all knowledge…

quickly becoming a thread to show why I love STW!

DAMMIT!

Got to go to a meeting…

We have a good sleeper (12 hours straight) but a terrible getting-to-sleeper.

I guess you could call it controlled crying that got him to sleep through… well, the baby monitor broke so we have no idea if he cried.

He’s 25 months and until this week, needed my wife or me to sit at the end of his bed until he fell asleep.

With number 2 arriving in October, I decided over the weekend that enough was enough so, after a bath and stories, we turned the light off and left the room. I sat on the landing with an iPad and glass of wine.

He cried until he was sick on Monday (got cleaned in the dark – I had a towel on his sheets in preparation) and then fell asleep.

He cried until he fell asleep (20 mins) on Tuesday.

He grumbled for 5 minutes last night and then slept.

I know our situations aren’t the same but children are craftier than you think. If you leave them long enough they’ll sleep by themselves. It’s tough, but worth it.

I’ve had 8 ‘proper’ bikes since the 90s.

Number 6 was a Spech Enduro M5 and sold it to buy an Inbred. Never looked back. FS just isn’t for me.

61 ;)

Bring some pounds but, as others said, use a cash point. I think Nationwide charge for international withdrawals, but it’s a pretty small amount.

Often, credit cards work out best and give you peace of mind re. insurance.

If you’re going to bring notes, bring new twenty pound notes. The banks here are funny about accepting fifties and any even slightly damaged notes.

Where are you going?

got my boy one when he was 2.

he’s warming up to it more now (2 months later).

I’d say get it early but don’t force them. Slow and steady.

My wife doesn’t know, but I gave him chocolate buttons each time he sat on it, I was so keen for him to ride it!

What’s the oldest/heaviest/tallest some if these options would manage?

My 2 year old is 96cm and 12.5kg. I’d guess he has another 6 months before he’s moved on to the back.

another vote for a wee-ride here.

1 bottle of beer (330ml). Absolutely no more.

I used to live in a condo with parking underneath. I went to turn my car around in its space so someone could use my battery for a jump start. I’d had maybe 9 bottles (4 pints?) over a couple of hours and shocked myself with how my abilities had, well, disappeared!

A few years ago, I remember riding home at 4am. I ended up calling my sensible younger brother as I’d lost my bike and glasses in the hedge when I’d ridden into it.

They look good.

What’s a parallel import?

Can be a nightmare.

My D Max needed bumper, grill, battery and air filter box removed so the headlight cluster could be removed so the bulb could be changed…

A great place.

They’ll sell you a beer as long as you look vaguely 17ish too ;)

I was taught it on cycling proficiency. I must have been about 10 years old.

I’d go at least once.

I’m definitely a wheels-on-the-ground XC’er, but I’m sure it would be a fun experience.

I’ve always found removing the seats pretty easy in my Galaxy…

They’re pretty heavy and I found lifting them out took a grunt, if you dont want to drag them across the floor. You must be stronger than me ;)

Oh, and don’t ever drop one on your toe when removing them after a few beers*. I went to bed thinking, ‘that hurt a bit’, I woke up in the morning with a toe nail lying next to my toe.

*okay, more than a few!

I had to go out before finding links but fisha’s post summed it all up well.

One thing I’d stress more is that hyperthreading isn’t perfectly efficient i.e. 4 physical + 4 virtual cores ? 4 physical x 2. However, it’s getting closer to it all of the time.

RAID arrays are a) starting to add cost b) whilst not hard to set up, not easy.

If I were that worried about access times, I might be tempted to think about an i5 and SSDs. 1 x SSD for the OS and software, 1 x SSD for the current ‘project’ and one mechanical drive for storage.

I’m looking for a factual link now.

A big part of getting an i7 over an i5 at the moment though is futureproofness (excuse the word). Hyperthreading’s becoming more efficient and software is being developed to make better use of more powerful CPUs, more RAM etc.

If I was cutting costs on a build though, an i5 is still a great chip that won’t frustrate you.

Whilst I look, I upgraded from an i5-4670 to an i7-4770. Big difference in rendering and multitasking, although no times or percentages.

Not a baldie but no. 2 every week or so and I live in Phuket.

I use a higher spf on my head than rest of me as, you’re right, it gets more exposure.

spf 20 on my body, 40 on my head and nose. Make sure it’s sweatproof!

I’m very atheist and am against the indoctrination and labelling of children.

Followed by,

My wife’s Catholic and our son’s baptised. It doesn’t really bother me

Not sure I understand the logic there.

Because being baptised means no more to me or him than a little splash of water. Very different to indoctrination.

He goes to a non-denominational public school. If he was going to a school where it was explained to him that anyone from a different faith was going to hell blah blah blah then … well, he wouldn’t.

I’m very atheist and am against the indoctrination and labelling of children. My wife’s Catholic and our son’s baptised. It doesn’t really bother me as I’m sure he’ll be intelligent enough to see the evil in religion and the beauty in science for what it is. Whenever my wife says our son’s a Catholic, I make sure to point out he’s a Tory, a staunch supporter of Exeter Chiefs and believes strongly that the free market works with extremely limited government intervention.

I went to a CofE prep school so know enough about religion to make it laughable.

Even though I went to a CofE school a few years ago (I’m 30 now), we learnt about Jews, Hindus, Muslims and the other ‘main’ religions.

See the morning as an education in what Christians believe for your daughter and not her selling her soul to a god. Enjoy it for what it is. Overcoming her nerves and reading to a crowd!

As others said, -35mm (70mm to 35mm) will have a big effect on the speed of the handling.

I haven’t found it makes the front ‘wandery’, just faster.

I have a racey XC hard tail that was an inch too long for me. I swapped the 90mm stem for a 50mm and the steering was fast enough to make me nervous. A wider bar evened it up.

removing the seats (in a Galaxy at least) is a pain in the arse.

It’ll do what you want well though. Definitely more car-like to drive than van-like; not a problem for long journeys.

Even the load area in pickups isn’t that big. My FiL drives around sometimes in a Ford F250 which is absolutely monstrous, and with a spare wheel in the back (nowhere else for it) the bags we get off a plane with more or less fill it. If I had a bike it’d be a right squeeze.

Really?

The spare wheel goes under the back of the bed. We took 5 adults for 500km last week with only 1 toilet break. No issues. It’s taken 4 bikes easily (f wheel removed) and pothole-shmothole!

Had 5 big suitcases in the back (which is bigger than it looks in the photo – camera perspective etc). The back seats are wider and have more leg room than a Toyota Previa (the car we nearly bought).

It costs me £20 for a full tank (650-700km) but no idea what mpg that is or what the cost in the UK would be.

I do know, it fits the bill and the new Mazda BT50, Mitsu L200 etc are pretty plush inside.

Not gonna get one for 6k though.

one more pic – I do love “the truck”!

p.s. you haven’t lived until you power slide a 2T truck in a dusty field at 50 kmph*

*with the farmer egging you on!

As someone mentioned earlier though, I am on the fence regarding the right to marry.
The Bible is homophobic and doesn’t support gays – for that matter, children, women, slaves, certain races, non-believers etc don’t seem to matter much either.

Why a gay person would want to join a crowd who preach their ‘evilness’ I don’t understand.

Why would having a civil wedding ceremony require joining a religion?

But aren’t these ‘civil ceremonys’ and not ‘civil weddings’? Doesn’t a wedding need to be religious?

I’m not trolling and take note of my “would certainly go”. I’m 99% un-biggoted…

not a big fan of those Frenchies ;)

I_ache’s and Tom’s bike’s are pretty much what I’d build with sensibly limited funds.

Having said that, £500 but I had the xxx is nonsense. I guess, for many rigid builds anyway, the frames are a similar price to the wheel set and to the forks.

A neoprene Lizard Skin chain stay protector.

Must be at least 15 years old… or ti stem bolts. A similar age.

Although most of my components are much newer, I haven’t yet built a bike with 100% new stuff.

Maybe for my 40th (a decade away)!

I would certainly go. I wouldn’t consider the gayness of it; I just enjoy weddings.

As someone mentioned earlier though, I am on the fence regarding the right to marry.

The Bible is homophobic and doesn’t support gays – for that matter, children, women, slaves, certain races, non-believers etc don’t seem to matter much either.

Why a gay person would want to join a crowd who preach their ‘evilness‘ I don’t understand.

Honestly, the sooner religion disappears, the better. It seems incompatible with equality.

I’ve never really driven a ‘proper’bike (a couple of 125cc on holiday) so can’t comment on that but, you’re right about a kart.

It might be because I’ve never hurt myself in a go-kart. Once you have, I’m sure you remember it. Plenty of MTB injuries that are always somewhere at the back of my mind though.

Dicky- my bikes live in our house, normally in the basement. This was only allowed upstairs because it was brand new.

There’s the same rule in our house ;)

That’s a lovely looking bike, regardless of budget!

Mikew – as long as you got an AM3 + board.

Those high-end chips generally aren’t used by people who’ll use the stock cooling. Watercooling like a Cosrair Hx might be quieter but watercooling systems will have a pump and also fans on the radiator.

I have full watercooling over the GPUs (x2), CPU and north & south bridges. If I turn the rad and case fans up to full, it sounds like a jet engine!

The noise saving comes in when the PC’s not using much power and the more efficient cooling can run much more quietly.

Think of AMD as On-One. My Inbred probably isn’t as good as a very expensive frame but, for the money, it’ll perform better per £.

If the HDDs work (and are SATA not IDE) then keep them.

Dell cases are a pain to work with – very particular fittings so it may not work well.

£500 for RAM, CPU, GPU and motherboard…

AMD FX8350 £135
8 cores, 4.0GHz.

Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P motherboard £65

G Skill Ripjaw RAM. 2 x 4Gb £55
Plenty of RAM and you’ll be able to double it easily if necessary.

Coolermaster Elite 334U Mid Tower case £35
I have the full tower version. Easy to work with and well made. Looks good too.

Gigabyte GeForce GT640 £62
All you need.

£350

add into that your HDD(s) and possibly an SSD / PSU. A great machine, in budget!

A ‘proper PSU’ will give you peace of mind. I haven’t heard of Hiper. If you buy new, you won’t need more than 500w. Look for Corsair, Seasonic, Enermax.

An SSD probably won’t be the drive you work from i.e. the files you’re editing will be on a secondary drive, but everything else you do on your PC will be so much quicker. Boot times, opening software. It’s the best upgrade you can make.

Of those 3, the Apollo Crank.

Full suspension at the price is heavy and worthless!

Honestly though, front suspension is too. Someone might be able to point you in the direction of a better bike for the money. Maybe a wanted ad here.

Is £130 about the budget?

Agreed it sounds like a PSU problem to me too.

Try a new kettle lead first.

Also try unplugging the powersupply from the wall and pressing the on button on the case a couple of times. I have no idea how / why but this has solved problems for me before. Similar to what toy19 said, but with the on/off button presses.