I’m in the same boat. My company have phased out company cars and now everybody gets a car allowance (many people already took the allowance anyway because it suited their circumstances).

I’ve always taken a company car as I usually cover 35-40k per year, roughly 50:50 business:private so financially its a no brainer.

Now i’m moving onto the allowance, having run the figures – after tax & NI its unlikely that the allowance will cover the cost of servicing, tyres, tax & insurance, never mind actually buying or leasing a car in the first place. First world problems I know, but still a PITA.

I was about to buy a forerunner 235 when I spotted that Argos were selling the Garmin 645 Music for £199.

Its a birthday present for myself for tomorrow so havent tried it yet, but on paper it seemed a good deal.

I was there yesterday.

Plenty of vans on. We didn’t have to wait at all at any time – literally straight on to the van each time.

Managed to get a total of 11 runs in which felt like a decent day out. (Only my second ever visit to BPW so not sure what others would consider reasonable).

Covid rules were being strictly enforced – to the point where people trying to use Buff’s as face masks were asked to leave the van before it set off.

One word of warning – it might just have been because it was a wet weekday, but the cafe was closed, with just a kiosk selling pre-made stale sandwiches. No dirty burgers sadly.

Assemble two sets of friends & get them to both view the house a week or so apart. Get the first to make an offer at say 35% below asking price, the second at -30%, then you offer -25%…

Then sit and wait.

Our 55 plate 330d touring was economically written off last year after a minor rear shunt.

The insurers paid out about £4.5k and we bought it back for £1k, I found a replacement tailgate for £30 and paid a local mobile mechanic £100 to swap it over.

Absolutely no affect on the recent insurance renewal cost.

I’d say go for it.

I bought a 12 x 8 Nordic shed 3 years ago. Its big enough to fit an Asguard bike store square on at the back (takes up the full width, but it does fit).

No problems at all. Gave it another coat of waterproofing oil this spring and the water glides off it.

Our roof sags a little exactly as the photo above, but thats just a feature from the way its designed, and doesn’t cause a problem.

For the money, I couldnt find better.

OP – I’ve just sent you a PM

Ive just put my Ribble Evo Pro Carbon up for sale on the classifieds. Ticks all boxes apart from disc brakes.

Also on Ebay

Ordered some new brakes this week from Merlin and arrived early. Top work guys.

The same brakes were a few £ cheaper at Evans, but, well, y’know – Mike Ashley etc… Just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Ive got an old, medium Cotic Soul with Pikes that I would be happy to move on. May be worth sticking it on Ebay unless anybody on here wanted it.

Edit – just updated the add in the classifieds

Latest Classified Ads

I got a secondhand Frog 43 for my sons 3rd birthday last year, and its served him well (used every single day without fail!) though he’s already at the upper end of it size-wise, so will probably look to move him on to a 20″ wheel in July when he turns 4.

It had the road-spec tyres on it which I never got around to swapping out, but they he managed just fine anyway.

It will be in the classifieds at the start of July.

Technically construction activities can continue, as long as they are undertaken in accordance with the Site Operating Procedures recently updated by the Construction Leadership Council.

I would doubt that your neighbours builders laying the patio are even aware of the site operating procedures, never mind coming close to complying with the requirements.

Site Operating Procedures during Covid-19

That was in quite an exposed location, and storm Ciara sure kicked it in the balls…

Its being replaced, and the new one is going to be strapped down to the deck, and the roof will be strapped down to the walls. Still not a particularly durable design IMO.

Don’t forget to strap the roof down

IMG_2194 strap that roof down by John C_1979[/url], on Flickr

So of all the people who feel they may have have it, did anybody else wake up in the morning feeling incredibly thirsty?

As in a ‘two pints of water + a pint of orange juice & lemonade’ at 7am before you can even talk or start to feel normal type of thirst?

And this is coming from somebody who doesn’t usually have a cup of tea / coffee / juice etc in the morning and normally only gets a glass of water at work at 9-ish.

Possibly, but like everybody else, without testing its difficult to know for sure.

Had a sore throat on Saturday morning, and by lunchtime had to go to bed and slept through until 5pm. Felt like the usual symptoms of man flu – fatigue, shivering, sweating, repeated all the way through to Monday morning by which time the sore throat was tailing off & the other symptoms were virtually gone. I couldn’t sleep properly at night as I was tossing & turning so frequently.

I haven’t coughed once since the sore throat started, or had any trouble breathing.

Both kids have also each had one of the main symptoms, ones had a cough (which could just be his regular asthma cough) without any fever, and the others had a high temperature for a few days but no cough.

Would be interesting to find out for sure.

We live on the coast and a lot of the privately owned beach huts seem to be getting simple photovoltaic panels installed to power a couple of lights, kettle, hob, TV etc.

Probably quite a cost effective way of getting power to your garage.

Avoid like the plague…

1) Insulation slumps over time leading to cold spots at high level leading to condensation / black spot mould occurring at the tops of walls.

2) Mineral wool or similar in the cavity will snag on wall ties leaving them frequently damp for prolonged periods of time, resulting in accelerated wall tie failure.

3) Over time mortar, sand, brick dust etc all break down & can get trapped on full-fill insulation, leaving a damp soggy mass in contact with the inner skin of brickwork with resultant damp transfer.

They were following the M3 motorway (as they often seem to do), then disappeared off into the distance over Amazingstoke at about 3.30 when I was travelling south this afternoon.

We bought our 55 reg bmw 330d touring back off the insurers after a van dented the tailgate, writing off a car that we’ve owned for 6 yrs, and had recently spent £2k replacing the clutch, DMF, tyres & brake pads etc.

I think we got roughly £4.5k for the car less £1k to get it back. It now owes us nothing, so I plan to run it for the foreseeable.

No impact on insurance renewal quote even though its now a Cat-N (non-structural)

An inattentive van driver dented the tailgate on our 55 plate BMW 330d touring and that was enough to render it a cat N write off. £4,500 offer from our insurer less a £1k buy-back meaning we’ve got a perfectly usable car that now owes us nothing.

The fact we’d recently spent the best part of £2k on the clutch / DMF, tyres and a service just made me even keener to hang in to it.

You claim on your house insurance, and they can then decide if its worth pursuing a recovery against the plumber.

They can send out a forensic bod to look at the pipe joint in question & give their recommendations to your insurers.

If its just a straightforward joist repair, plasterboard ceiling, redecoration etc then they may not bother pursuing the plumber.

Yep, that was me.

Glad you sorted the other issues.

I’ll have a word with our structural guy this week and try and find a time to call by.

Hi DT78 remember me!

I would gladly call round again at some point, but this time would bring a structural colleague with me who incidentally lives just around the corner from you, and is currently taking the back off his house and building in more steel than seems physically possible as part of a Grand Designs style refurb.

When you are ready, there may be others closer to you, but I’d strongly recommend RM Fabrications in Verwood for any steels that you need.

Leaking roofs are a maintenance issue not an insurance issue.

I’d be happy to let this go for £600, includes a bit of growing room as its a medium:

Orange Alpine 160

Almost all UK banks have several cash centres dotted around the UK, usually positioned to help minimise the time & distance that cash is on the road.

As db mentioned, a huge proportion of the cash comes through from supermarkets for processing. In answer to the OP’s question, yes they certainly do.

My Orange Alpine has just gone on ebay

grab a bargain

Click buy now!

It’s a great bike, with the exception of a slight creak from the bottom bracket, mine has been faultless and has been used 2-3 times per week since I bought it a couple of months ago.

The ti frame feels great, comfy yet very fast.

The Brick & Andysmiff,

I never realised Wimborne was such a hotbed of Gravel fanatics. I’m in Colehill & try to get out 2-3 times a week, mainly over Cranborne towards Blandford & Tarrant Rushton.

Drop me a message if you fancy meeting up at some point.

I’ve got a 2011 Alpine 160 with Cane Creek DB coil shock that I’m looking to sell on.

I’ll PM you the details.

mlpinto – I went through the same deliberation when ordering mine, but the words from somebody else earlier on in this thread about being able to fit lay-back seatposts and longer stems to a smaller frame being possible, whereas you cant make a big frame any smaller etc etc.

Out of interest, how tall are you? I’m 5’11 and originally ordered a large but changed my order to a medium just before it was assembled. I’m glad I made the swap as the medium feels spot on for me now.

Your insurance would pay for the strip out & access, plus the cost of reinstating it back to the pre-loss condition. You would have to foot the cost of the plumbing repair (which sounds like it would be minimal).

I’d only consider claiming if it had caused damage to any surrounding timber joists, studwork etc, but it would have to be pretty bad.

If you do claim, be prepared to have your pants pulled down when it comes round to renewal time.

National Plastics

Whereabouts in the country are you? I deal with leaks like this quite frequently for insurers.

If you are anywhere south of Oxford there is a company I use who for a flat fee (£650) who ‘ll send a chappy to hunt out the leak using gas tracer kits, listening sticks etc (and yes, some firms do use divining rods), and a plumber to dig down and fix the leak.

Let me know if you want the contact details.

Your water provider won’t be any help if the leak is downstream of the meter.

Or how about a singlespeed? 🙂

Make me an offer before it goes on Ebay!

Mine arrived today as well. Really like the look of it. Can’t wait to get out on it tomorrow night.

Both centre lock discs had slight play when the brakes were applied, but they were easily tightened up which solved the problem.

Not me (honest), and a workplace rather than a workshop, but somebody I used to cycle with is a veterinary surgeon, and he admitted to once slipping on some blood on the surgery floor and mid-fall, somehow managed to staple his hand onto a horse’s penis. Your honour..

Alex, go for a medium, that way if we’re both wrong, we can swap 🙂