Ian Munro is correct and is aware of the physics behind this. We don’t care about upstream effects, all we’re interested in as consumers is in terms of inside our system – which I define to be inside my house.

“getting the element up to temperature” – that’s still heat being added to the system. “electrical resistance of the unit” – put a current through a resistor and it generates heat. “heat conduction losses” – that’s heat being given out. all within the house.

basically if you take the heater as a unit – 100% of the energy that goes in (that you’re paying for) comes out as heat (inside the house). if you take gas, the calorific energy that goes in, not all of it comes out. heat goes out of the exhaust outside of the house, combustion isn’t complete, and so on.

Waterjet cutting as an alternative to laser cutting. Cheap, accurate, no thermal effects. Either should be suitable though.

Couldn’t give you an exact price, but middlesex laser cutting in Uxbridge (not really near) didn’t charge much for laser cutting for me a while back.

Have you factored in that you’ll need to supply a dxf file of the profile, or do you want that generating too? If you have dimensions or a paper sketch etc I can create something for you.

Have I massively misread the news story here? The new as I read it is that people have stopped getting worse off. Not that things are better than before the recession.

This is the first time that on average pay has risen faster than inflation. So we’ve hit bottom on the curve of disposable income, and are ever so slightly on the way up.

To answer the op, I’ve timed it well (well my parents did) by coming out of uni with an employable degree skill just as companies started tee hiring. My salary is lower than the market rate for my job, but by living modestly we have enough cash to get by. I would argue we do live within our means. So a small increase in salary would be most welcome and noticed.

Driving up to see mates I don’t see nearly often enough, sitting outside drinking whisky and burning wood in a ‘burner’ I built yesterday, which is shonky as hell but should be a laugh!

I’ve got a SS commuter for work which I do a couple of days a week, so try to get out on the MTB for more fun at the weekends, but thanks for the offer Leigh!

I’ve done most of the uptonogood route, albeit spread over different rides, maybe I’ll give it a go for in a 1er.

Just to toss my opinion into the mix, I’m very much a 3 week fermentation brewer. I just forget about it, means I don’t have to take multiple hydrometer readings, just original and final, and I know it’s finished.

I did a St Peter’s ruby red kit, it stuck at 1020 (i tested after 2 weeks), but by 3 weeks it only got down to 1015. Not ideal conversion, but it does taste great having been 6 months from brew date now. Look up munton’s kits sticking at 1020 for it being a relatively common issue, but doesn’t manifest itself in bad beer.

no worries, only recently got in from work so a bit late to organise tomorrow but another time sounds good!

here reference to this thread I started a week ago – it’s pretty anti-social, and doesn’t really improve safety. By all means full beam on an empty country lanes, it makes drivers think there’s a car oncoming, but in traffic it’s just a distraction to drivers, and they seem to struggle enough as it is to keep us riders upright.

came on to post this PSA, thought I’d do a quick search first and it’s already up! just bought some.

My old car… sniff…

Has anyone calculated the payoff period for these?

I’ve just run through the calcs, want to replace 12 50W halogens with 6 watt leds, costing around £10 for apparently good quality items. All lamps are on for around 4 hours per day (winter more than summer) on average, which leads to about a 28 month payback period (dependant on the assumptions I make).

Some leds might only last for 3 years (although apparently might have a 20 year lifespan – but what if I move house and have different light fittings?), and they require a capital investment which wont be accruing interest in the bank (admittedly low rates). Not sure that this will work for me? Perhaps the approach would be better by going for cheaper 35W LED bulbs from IKEA for £4, and sacrificing light levels/quality.

Some saying the holiday carry over is bad – you can only ever do it for 1 year maximum. Then the following year you can only carry over your entitlement, it doesn’t compound year after year.

E.g. 2013 to 2014 – first year of employment I can carry over 5.
2014 to 2015 I can carry over 5, but got 5 from 2013 to 2014, so I’ve got to use up my allowance.

I see it as a good way to build up extra holiday for emergencies, and especially as my first year was quite busy it was easy to not take holiday, I was happy to lose it either way.

Personally I think segregated space would be brill. Not because it’s safer in particular, but because people will certainly perceive them to be safer, and therefore drive up numbers who make short journeys by bike instead of car. More people cycling, means more people know someone who cycles, and is likely to treat a cyclist as “oh, that might be John, my brother, I’ll give him plenty of space”, when they’re not on a segregated section of road.

There’s a shop in Reading called robert gatward. My missus works there, and she’s especially good at selling engagement rings. Not good as in has high sales figures, but finds out what people want and matches it. Not commission based so I don’t have anything to gain from posting it. It might be worth a look if you’re close.

Mechanical Design Engineer – just finished first year of work after uni.

Love it, completely out of my depth but really enjoy the process.

Enough to get me by, but less than market rates. I figure I’m getting better than average training at the moment though, so it’s a long term strategy, although will be arguing for a payrise shortly.

I’ve used a combination of mitchell’s wool fat and arko. both good. not necessarily at the same time though!

Tapenade?

Thanks no-eyed-deer. That’s something I did suspect, and any oil remnants would have invalidated my ‘leave it over night’ test, so thats what part of the last night clean up was – thoroughly degreasing the caliper, removing coppa slip, and anything else around the pistons from lubing the pistons/seals the other day.

If there’s oil coming out of the pistons it should be pretty obvious now, and also it will always recontaminate clean rotors or new pads, causing the problem to rear it’s ugly face again after a short period. If there’s no oil coming out, and the problem doesn’t recurr, then you may well have hit the nail on the head.

If the seals are gone, they’ve failed with normal useage conditions, and probably only done 700 miles or so, in 18 months. That’ll be warranty job then (shimano does a 2 year warranty), as that’s not really good enough, especially given the reliability of supposedly poor Avids!

As for the area ridden, it’s currently the chilterns ish. So clayish mud.

Couple of things this morning which point towards a seal failure. Slight moisture visible around the seals on the front calliper only. May have affected the rear due to the amount I’ve been troubleshooting and swapping parts around. Also telling is the levers lost a bit of hardness, indicating pressure loss I.e. loss of fluid. Did exactly the same on the avids to compare and they maintained pressure.

Looks like front calliper seal them, but I’ll leave it longer to confirm.

Banks, this conversation is being taken seriously I can assure you. What are Shimano “SS” pads? Where I’ve used SS before I’ve been referring to super star components pads.

Well, this evening I cleaned pads again, swapped rotors, pads, chamfered pads, no difference.

The levers are ty-rap’d to the bars. I’m sure you’ll all be eagerly awaiting an update, so I’ll post up the results first thing in the morning. Hopefully there will be a conclusive leak from somewhere, whether it’s me not tightening up a bleed nipple or hose union (I’ve checked for tightness), or leaking past the seals.

Thanks for your input banks. Unfortunately as described up above the issue began with Shimano pads. I’d welcome any other ideas you may have that haven’t been covered above though?

I’ll try the rubber band idea as a test. I’ve not observed any oil so far and pads have never appeared contaminated. It’s certainly worth a shot to either rule it in or out.

The pads are certainly able to float in the calliper with the rotation of the rotor back and forth, at a guess 0.5mm or so. I did shim this at one point to remove any play but it made no difference. Also theres no paint missing on the contact surface so it looks like design intent in order to allow clearance for the pass to move within the calliper body.

I’ve a pair of juicy 5s which were second hand 4 years ago. No issues with them really!

I haven’t changed the caliper adapters except where I needed to changing between a particular set of forks.

As for facing the disc mounts, I’m under the impression that would only be effective if the caliper was not presented to the rotor square and true.

The rotor’s have been cleaned before the new pads were added. Shimano pads were sanded prior to trying again as they’ve been used before. SS pads were just whacked in as new, as well as cleaning the rotors.

I’ve come close to binning them but finding it hard to when so many have success stories with this brakeset – hence buying them!

Doesn’t fit your requirements as it’s without USB functionality, but I’m looking at bodging one of these into my car:
Lepai Amp

I’ve got one as my home amp, and it’s great for the size and price. It does have a whining in 1 channel, but I’m getting a replacement through, and it’s not a common issue, although has been reported on forums. The change in power supply from an inverter I’ve got to the DC from the car battery may be all that’s required to shift the noise.

I’ve got one of these Muse DAC
which is no longer required as I returned the virgin media unit I got it for. Sell for £10 if you want a cheap stop gap, I’ve never had any issues with it, it did the job just fine for me.

Bringing up old info, but may be useful to others:

Avid Bedding in Procedure

Shimano Bedding in Procedure

Shimano Brakes and Heat

I think I’m going to have a crack at re-grinding the discs back to fresh steel and removing all evidence of friction material. Followed by trying a proper bed in procedure. Theory being that the discs currently have microscopic variations in thickness causing vibrations.

Just of note,

Genesis IO SS
New Deore brakes (comes with organics I think)
Avid G2 rotors.
Rigid on-one forks

Front and rear squeelin’ like a stuck pig.

I bought superstar organics, and exactly the same problem. Changing the mass/damping of various components doesn’t seem to affect it (vibration f=ma+cv+kx), so it needs to be stopped at source. I’ve tightened all bolts, cleaned and relubed. rotors have been sanded down and re-bedded in. Rotors is my next step too, so you’re not on your own!

Another vote for Vittoria’s as an alternative brand. I’ve had a pair of these on the commuter for 8 months or so, done 1000 miles and no punctures front or rear as of yet. Feel fast rolling but nothing to compare against really, and don’t seem to have worn badly at all. Only issue I’ve had is minimal grip on claggy stuff, but don’t think my nobblies would have faired much better.

Was that you I saw near the pump track at about 130pm today then? I cycled by and saw some kiddies on it, looked like they were having fun!

Bike pump on frame (annoyingly I forget to take it for mtb rides because it’s on the commuter!)

Carradice saddlebag (barley I think) with clothes, lunchbox, tubes, thin waterproof, spanner, chain tool, multitool, puncture kit, inhaler. No water needed – only 45min to 1hr commute.

I’ll be selling my mk1 mx5 shortly if you’re interested. Just writing up the 2500mile trip to Italy we did in July, didn’t skip a beat. Brilliant cars.

Fermentation period in the bucket takes 2-3 weeks I found so far. Get a hydrometer and measure it (I am a nerd though!) and you’ll know for sure, and it’s interesting and you get to fiddle, so satisfying your curiosity of the first brew. Mine have all taken ~20 days so far, so now I just leave them for 3 weeks and then bottle. Saves thinking and risking an infection by interfering too much.

You’ll need bottles. El cheapo method is scrounging/saving PET bottles. I went bin diving for a couple of weeks around the back of local pubs. Filled the bath with a weak bleach solution and 80 bottles, cleaned all bottles checking they didn’t have chips/cracks/weaknesses. Requires a capper and caps though! Costs ~£10. You need 80 because you’ll brew your first batch (40 bottles) and want to start your second before you finish drinking all of your first. Alternatively get 40, get cracking, and when the second brew is on panickedly look for another 40 before the second batch finishes!

I do one plastic bottle, and one clear for each batch. That way the plastic bottle gives me an idea of pressure build up (read up on priming and batch priming!), and the clear gives me an idea of clarity and an indication of readyness to drink.

You can physically drink them from the fermentation/bottling stage. I had a litre left over when bottling, not enough bottles. So I had 2 pints of ‘green’ beer. Tasted ok. 2 weeks makes a massive difference (say 5 times better) and carbonates it. 2 months and it improves again by double.

I’ve done 4 kits so far, and one turbo cider (very cheap but not amazing results), so I’m not experienced, but just got over the wondering what to do stage.

Kit beer guide
Takes 1-2 hours to do this bit.

bottling guide
Takes 3 hours the first time. 2 hours the second. 1 hour the third.

Read jimsbeerkit and brewuk forums for lots of guides and general discussion and then get stuck in. You only need a fermentation bucket and siphoning tube to start on the cheap. But personally I would bottle (so requires capper and caps), and get a speed bottler/bottling stick/bottle wand. Makes bottling very easy and controllable.

St. Peters ruby red is lush for after 2 months bottle conditioning. Even got a red tinge to it now!

Coopers Pilsener was great after a month, but needs cooler temps so wait until winter.

Woodfordes wherry as above, good begineers introduction, nice basic beer.

Wilko’s golden ale is a cheap and drinkable one. Not as nice as above, but if you’re worried about getting it wrong then give it a go as you’re not risking much.

A colleague has a 1.9 diesel I think. I joke with him that every service/breakdown he’s had since I started working with him (9 months), could buy him my mx5. Each time – that’s 4 mx5s. Unfortunately I can’t help with the specifics of what to look out for, on his it was a previous hamfisted owner who bodged it up to sell. Had a timing belt failure and bent valves.

However, it’s quite a nice car to ride in!

Another sheep here. This has been brilliant, drove it to Italy and back this summer. Unfortunately need to sell it soon, looking to buy a moggy for some welding practise.

660 is a good gap filler
*EDIT – I promise I didn’t just read that from above, just what I’ve used at work*

I’m very much enjoying Duane’s posts right now. Bought a red mk1 mx5 late last year purely for a bit of fun, with a road trip to italy (also camping) this summer and going to le mans in it. Le mans will be 2 6ft2 plus’ers, and camping. Going to be funny!

Anybody doing this? I’d like to but at the moment I’ll be billy no mates. Only in Didcot so could even ride to the start and home after beerage!

HT leads as above are a good cheap fault finder, and also should be part of a service regime so you’re not losing anything by replacing them.

Check/replace sparks. Again if you haven’t changed them in a year or 2 then just replace them and call it a service.

Check the crank sensor is fitted securely. (lhs of engine bay as you look under the bonnet, down below the plastic timing belt cover down the bottom of the engine, goes onto the crankshaft pulley, wire comes out towards the radiator).

Vacuum hoses (plastic cover near the lhs wiper arm pivot – nearside of car) can split or fall off connections.

I’ll have a think and see if i can remember anything else obvious on mine.

Seeing as they’re amazingly popular with people on here, I contributed to one less cavalier on the road.

Bought for £350, driven to Le mans, written off by a friend in the night. Tried driving it but it crabbed so badly it was at 30° to the road to drive straight down it! Sold to some french gypsies for 20Euro to buy us breakfast, hitched a lift back with mates.

Legend of a car, pretty sad it went actually! The only turbo car there, gutless 1.7 diesel which was so slow!!!