Epicyclo – where did you get your Smooth Drops from ? I can’t find a dealer, nor are they on ebay.

I’d suggest that you try a load of bikes in shops / trial days first. Your spec is unusual but what you want on paper may not work for you in practice – see the thread on making mistakes which Ton started.

If you’re short, consider a 650b size wheel, it might work better for you.
And for a list of frameubilders, look at the exhibitor list at Bespoked:
Here is bespoked[/url]

I’d set off at 4am at the latest, and belt it for the first few miles, you could be stuck in an M25 jam for a couple of hours easily. The night before would be worth it for peace of mind.

I don’t understand the problem with negative equity as applied to people moving house.

If you buy a house for £200k, but then need to sell at £150k in order to buy elsewhere, it’s probable that the house you want to move to has also lost the same proportion of its value, eg it’s also priced at £150k but was previously £200.
So what is the difficulty, unless you’re moving to a region where prices have risen or remained stable?

First aid & sewing kits.
The former to include water sterilising tabs & imodium, Don’t buy anything heavy or large as 1st time travellers tend to take far too much with them.

The whole thing, or just the frame & shocks ? Is that the FSR or Ht model?

The housebuilders own large tracts of land with outline planning permission, but they have a disincentive to build becuase that land is appreciating in value, whilst rates are not levied on it. There are also disincentives to bilding on brownfield sites, as they are more expensive to develop.

Small changes in tax law could remedy both of these, and increase the supplyo of houses. In the 30 or so years that we have been selling off public housing to private individuals, the population of the UK has increased by several million. So demand has increased tremendously.
I also seem to remember that there are 200000 empty properties in London alone. If they were compulsorilty purchased, at their original cost + inflation, then many people could be housed.

I’m somewhere in the middle.
I am fussy about my bike, but both tight so that I tend to buy second hand and impetuous that I buy something that feels right to start with but then I find it’s not. So after a bit of tweaking & changing contact points, it’s into the attic with them to mature for a year before selling at a loss.

I don’t know where the figures quoted came from – I suspect a property that was bought some time ago.

For a recent buy, the interest payments + overheads would probably balance the income as things stand. With the new tax regime, the landlord will be making a loss.

[Ballpark thoughts, £200k property, interest payments £8k, rental income £12k, overheads & void periods probably £3k. So current profit, excluding tax, £1k. Future losses – considerable)

rents are already high, so it will be hard to put them up. Results – fewer landlords wanting to buy, therefore lower house prices

Rain Alarm, both on Android & PC.
Or the Met Office one.

What makes you think your planning dept will take 6 months?
Write a short email, wait a week, phone up to ask.

I think they have a statutary duty to respond in 6 weeks… mine have

BD, if those are your plans do you want to borrow my van in exchange for a loan of your beautiful wife?

And for the sale of peace, don’t play the banjo.

That’s very common in my Victorian suburb. I’ve not noticed any houses with their roofs caved in.

She was French.
She made me miserable.
She is now a lecturer at the Sorbonne.

Ravey, my uncle worked there during the war. He later moved to Whitehaven, guess why?

Not that different from black pudding , is it? That just swaps the oatmeal for rice.

I’ve eaten witchetty grub in Oz, which was buttery-eggy in taste

>>>As an afterthought, what the hell is “Deep-fried twinkie” from the list above? I thought twinkie was a euphemism for ladybits?

Ton, you make me jealous. I used to love the Moors but just don’t get up there since I moved south and my parents sold out. That route sounds just excellent

STW & Grit should just merge into Mumsnet, as an area of special interest.

Just get in & swim. You might not do half an hour, five or ten minutes might be enough to start with, but do it.

Open water swimming is what every kid does at the seaside, it’s not rocket science. You just get into the water & go for it.

(fwiw, I’m a member of England’s only private open-water swimming club, which is in a drowned quarry)

My nephew has the same problem. The Torygraph’s Honest John reckons that the Peugeot 308/3008 & a Citroen are about the only cars to do it well.

Coincidentally I have a 2nd-hand 308 SW for sale…. see my ad in the classifieds

Rice pudding – mmm.
With milk for protein & calcium,
Sugar for that energy boost,
Rice for long-term carb recovery.

Perfect!
(Damn, beaten to it)

Buy a weekend broadsheet newspaper.
Look at the smaller ads in the colour section.
Take your pick.

(But if you want to be sure of the quality, you’re going to have to go & look at some beds in John lewis or a manufacturer. They will deliver for you! )

FWIW, we bouhgt from a small manufacturer 20+ years ago, & the bed is great. You spend a third of your life in bed – isn’t it worth spending some time actually looking at them before you buy??

The numbers of deaths from coal is quite incredible – several miners are killed every week, & there was a Chinese mine disaster a couple of years ago which killed 160-odd.
Gernany didn’t immediately call a halt to its coal-fired power stations.

The low-level waste is just hat, low-level.

I’m speaking as someone who played on the beach at Seascale the week before they closed it 🙂

Fill them with cats.

Nope.
“Tango James” from down the road is tall, handsome, orange-tanned and aggressive.

He used to keep his degree certificate and his karate weaponry (those hinged sticks) on his dashboard.

Ask the Socialist Workers’ Party HQ?

We have had a series of cleaners for the last 15 years or so, it was Mrs M’s condition for going back to work full time after children.
Somehow or other, most have been Polish. Most have been great, some not so good, but they needed the work & we could afford it. We don’t clean beforehand apart from making sure the loo is flushed, but we do tidy up – the weekly visit prompts us to clear up the accumulated rubbish from the floors & tables beforehand.
If you can afford a cleaner, do it. 3 hours per week is enough for us.

Where are you coming from? I’d park in Leigh Woods, as it’s only a shortish walk / ride form there.
Check the Suspension Bridge website for accurate closure times.

62 years, 1m74 / 5’8″, 81kg, 12st9lb.
Overweight but not obese, not as fit as I’d like.

Have you looked at the met’s rain radar?

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/observation/map/gcnhudru8#?map=Rainfall&zoom=7&lon=-2.88&lat=51.47&fcTime=1438812000

or

http://www.rain-alarm.com/
If you have an Android phone, Rain-alarm is a bundle of fun.

The route’s a mix of canal path gravel & road. It’s easy enough, but can be very busy at weekends between Bristol & Bradford. Take a bell, you’ll need it.
How about the Ridgeway between Goring / Avebury / Chippenham?

EDIT: Beaten to it.
Or combine the two in a loop. Camp at Honey Street.

Yes, definitely. I’ve seen loads this year and last, from Northumberland to Cornwall.

Why not look for the right job first, as that’s what you’ll be doing for 40 hours per week. Then move & rent somewhere local & investigate the area.

You may find that wages are lower in areas with cheaper housing, so bear that in mind.

At Latitide festival a couple of years ago, they were even stopping people from bringing water into the festival site. On a hot day, that absolutely sucked.

Bikebuoy, sorry, my Sutra is a 50cm, probably a little too small for you. But I really need to get rid of it, it’s a standing reproach for not using it.

How tall are you? I have a Kona Sutra for sale. 3×9 mainly XT, BB7 disc brakes, bar-end shifters. It’s an excellent tourer, designed for the job.

A bit like this:
Sutra

Reeth’s in the Dales rather than the NYM, which are the other side of the Vale of York. Ride out of Reeth, much less driving.

So do you live in Bristol? It isn’t clear from your post. If not, stay in Chelt as the drive between is joyless, or find somewhere in Stroud or Nailsworth where there are trails round the edge of the hills.

“not being sexist” so girls are supposed to read about ponies, rabbits and talking horses. I think that IS sexist.

I didn’t imply that at all. I’d rather my daughter read about girls doing stuff than getting the message than only boys/men can have adventures or do exciting things. Frinstance, in Treasure Island, I think the only women mentioned are the hero’s mother & LJS’s black wife. Even Wind in the Willows has all male characters, possibly excluding the washerwoman. From Lord of the Flies to Lord of the Rings to Huckleberry Finn (now banned in many schools in its original text) , it’s all about the boy.

Apropos Treasure Island, how do you like this quote:

” I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance ; I know of my own knowledge that he has a banker’s account, which has never been overdrawn. He leaves his wife to manage the inn ; and as she is a woman of colour, a pair of old bachelors like you and I may be excused for guessing that it is the wife, quite as much as the health, that sends him back to roving. ” ??

Not being sexist, but most of the above are very much “boys’ books”. with all-male protagonists. So consider

Black Beauty
The Secret Garden
Alice in Wonderland & the Looking Glass
Little House on the Prairie etc
The Swallows & Amazons series
CS Lewis’ Narnia series