"Why might it be easier to set up a wind generation in Spain than it is in the UK?"

It isn't.

Because we have prevailing westerlies and regular frontal systems, not influenced by a semi-permanent Azores high.
Because we have enormous Westerly facing coastline.
Because we have a vast area of shallow North Sea ideal for building turbines.
Because we have extensive highlands, under utilized and already denatured from their natural state by deforestation and hundreds of years of hill farming, which could have a multiple uses.
Because we are a small country so we don't need to transport the power as far as in spain to make it worth laying the cables.

I just read that Spain last year produced over 20% of it's entire yearly supply with wind turbines, and yesterday produced over 50% on the day. – And they have a lot further they could go.

The Spanish President is considering phasing out their nuclear stations.

Oh and who is it in Europe who has the biggest wind potential? ..Spain.. er no, it's the UK.

It's a panic measure because thay have been sitting on the fence for so long. Goverment was afraid their popularity would take a nose dive by spending money on sustainable energy sources and efficiency, and anyway, they gave all our money to the bankers, rather than encouraging sustainable development.

It'll all cost us hugely more than they predict in the long run, not to mention our kids generations who will be left to clear up the radioactive mess it'll leave.

Hi Blastit.

I have an Islabike Beinn with square taper cranks. Chainring is rivet/press fit to the crank, but it was easy for me to get a 32T crank+chainring from Islabikes to replace the existing 36T. Crank arms in my case are 127mm.

Rgds

40/28 is a huge gear for kids bike, I'm not surprised he has problems. Check out Sheldon's gear calculator and compare his to your bike to get a feel for it.
My daughters 20" wheel bike was 36/28 and that was too much. Last week I put 32 on the front ,and it's much better. It dropped lowest gear from 26" to 23" and really helped her a lot on the steep hills round here.

"Local hero"

The Governments perception of what will make them (un)popular is still getting in the way.

There are vast reserves of natural energy out there, but still nothing like enough top level committment to investing in the necessary infrastructure to get at it, or store it properly, or doing anything like enough about reducing demand.

So after years of warnings, panic is finally setting in with yet more short-termist thinking, throwing our money instead at new nuclear. – Our kids will be picking up the bill for generations.

I'd expect any friends of ours (many of them childless BTW) to expect us to bring our 7 year old, – and they'd all enjoy it.

It all depends on folk I guess.

Definitely yes if you have hills. It's scary waching them on the hills without brakes!

We had a cheapo (brilliant) Lidl bike when our girl was small. I added a rear brake off an ancient kids bike. I had to make a new lightweight spring, and use a gear cable to keep the friction down. It worked brilliantly, and she was soon skidding to a halt down the steepest hills.

Braking is not at all hard for them to lean, easy, and essential where it's hilly. Don't let any naysayers put you off!

My LX frequently will rub the pads, and it gets worse the dirtier they get. A thickness of a few grains of dirt or sand is enough to set them off. Frequent cleaning and lubing the pistons and seals seems the only solution I've found. 😐 Perhaps it is related to the amount of fluid, I've not tried removing any. Perhaps I'll take a few drops out and see if it helps.

The other thing which can help my LX is occasionally re-seating the wheels. They move minutely within the drop-outs after a few days or weeks of riding, and with very small pad clearances that tiny offset can be enough to set them off rubbing also. Usually they touch only so lightly that they set the disks ringing, with a very high pitch that goes right through me. Irritating, but re-seating the wheels sometimes stops that one.

They have almost disappeared anyway, with the growth of organized displays. The huge improvements in professional fireworks have just shown up most affordable family stuff to be the pathetic little squib it always was. Fewer people bother wasting money on them, because they are nothing like as good as the "real thing".
Years ago when professional displays were also rather rubbish, kids were firing things off from early October, that's nearly stopped all by itself.

But you are absolutely right! It sounds rather lame these days to have had only "a cold".
On the related vein, we have been told that for some time that we are in the midst of "pandemic" flue: Society quickly runs out of superlatives. What happens when the Sh*t really hits?

"cant get wet" .. Is nonsense. Mine gets sprayed with liquid grit every day of the winter.
I don't ride under water though. Clearly you do fatmuthahubbard, – so you'd better save your money for better things.

Hi Swadey,

My Rohloff is on a Thorn Enduro frame which I found secondhand. (I got the Rohloff on Cyclescheme – ahem). Comming up for 2 years now, and about 10,000KM, ridden nearly every day off road. I have changed the oil once, worn out 8 chains, rotated the rear sprocket, and still running my original Raceface chainring. Sprocket and chainring are both on there last legs now.
I replaced the cables recently when one inner frayed a little inside the clickbox.
It does everything they say, and I have no grumble whatever. It's a brillaint for an everyday bike, and has never let me down, or given anything other than a perfect instant gear change.
I would not want to go back.

It's probably still wet inside. Much electronics is washed with water during production anyway. – Shame you didn't throw distilled water though!

Let it dry some more, then exercise the dodgy buttons a lot. Probably no more than a bit of calcium deposit in the keyboard dome.

I often view it with the ads bar disappeared off the RHS (shrink the window) and use the slider. Much less irriating also.. When I run task manger and view the CPU usage, there is clearly less CPU useage when the moving ads are off the edge of the window. I guess Windows decided not to bother computing that bit.

Is this reasonable? it's funny because Mrs Mc asked me the same the other day regarding a different site and I didn't know the answer.

I was so impressed by those bunch up on top of the Houses of Parliament the other day that I immediately set up £10 a month to Greenpeace. Direct actions really do make a difference. So go and do something. Sign up for Airplot, or do what I did. I'm not about to lock myself to a lamppost, but I am very happy to support those that do.

I wrote to my MP and told them where I sent my money. It's my first ever "political" donation. I'm sure the Conservative party would have loved to have my £10 a month, but no, it's going to the folks on the roof of the Commons.

These real actions do make a difference. Politicians do take notice. I guess cyclists have a greater than average support for this sort of thing, but clearly there are some notable exceptions on this forum.. so I'm heading for the bunker right now.

Jenga: "the powers that be don't see it that way.

Sorry, who are the leaf police? – What do they look like?

I got LOADS more pinch flats in the days I rode 717's compared to 719 now. Same routes.

"environmentally unfriendly pests and diseases can be harboured." LOL 🙄

I love it.
What I don't like so much is the dark, rain, puncture combo. That can be offputting at times. Especially when it also includes getting covered in unseen hidden dogshit whilst repairing, which more often strikes in the dark. – But I prefer to remember my sweeter rides.

..And it's probably easier to use real needles than fake ones? – So it could be worth doing. (Never been there myself mind). Anything which causes someone normal to nearly pass out must be having a very strong subliminal effect.

I was at the Doctor once having a rip in my hand sewn up, I nearly fainted when she started sewing, and I always thought I was the unfazed type. Certainly made me feel very strange, and if it was supposed to be doing me some good, then I'd sure have been looking for it.

"Probably the best idea for transporting tiny babies around"
I agree, We had something similar. Mrs Mc even did breastfeeding whilst on the go during long walks. Kind of in-flight refuelling. These things are just so good.

acjim: "What do the only carriers folk do if they're invited to a party / wedding / some function where it's likely the nipper will want to sleep at some point?"
She would just sleep. She would often go to sleep either in the carrier or being held, then we'd plonk her on the nearest sofa or anywhere.

And if we didn't want to stay at a painful social do, it was always a good excuse to get out! ("Got this sleeping child in my arms here you see, must leave, bye.." 😀 )

She's slept on pub couches, other people's beds, Curry house chairs, Cafe sofas. It's all the same to a toddler.

Hi andylaightscat,

Thanks for the info,
My work doesn't involve making a new connection. I am going to add to an existing connection, but only from my side of my own manhole, which then already feeds into a carbunkle of a manhole belonging to TW which is down the bottom of my garden.

I am told the fee is partly to pay for their admin to file my data (Filing cabinets can get pricey I guess), and partly to pay for Thames Water's insurance. (Which is funny because I don't normally pay insurance for other folk's property). I don't get any site visits or anything..

The drain serves properties up the road, and a parallel one is storm water.

What bugs me is £343 to tell them where their own drain is. This boils down to me basically asking them where it is, and then telling them.

My foundation will be 2.5M away, so that classifies as "close" unfortunately.

If in doubt, get a wee book to show you how it's likely to be connected. It's only pipes after all, kids stuff really. – Overcome that fear!

And don't compromise on cheapo TRV's. They will fail. Believe me, you'll regret it. Buy good brand names – which will cost about double the cheapo ones BTW.

I bought a rucksack the other day from the US. Customs charged me VAT even on the delivery charge (in addition to the cost of the pack).

Nothing I could do about it. Oh, and then there's the handling charge. Grrr..

And another good things about kiddie backpacks. The kids get to see much more, they talk constantly to their parent (very good for linguistic skills, sadly lacking in many cases today because many kids spend hours down at pavement level unable to communicate clearly). And they breathe less fumes if you are in town, and they don't get licked by dogs. Other people (general public) talk to them and communicate and smile much more because they are at eye level.

Having a child on your back is often an immediately welcoming thing, and you get treated much better in busy streets, people like to see it.

You can also go on proper walks, even moderately exposed climbing and stuff.

The child also learns that walking is normal, and you won't get stuck with a four year old still riding in a buggy. (Sad to see, but true in some cases)

I guess you can tell I don't like pushchairs 🙂

My opinion.

My daughter is now nearly seven. She never had a pushchair or a pram. I am proud to say I have never had to push one of those huge monstrosities, or manoeuvre the stupid thing through a shop, into the car or onto a train – ever. It made life much simpler, travel far easier, and our house much bigger.

Get a good front pack, then a very good back pack, then they walk. The times they don't they are still small enough for shoulder rides, or they are using the scooter bike (which is your first priority when they reach 3!).

If you must get one, keep it simple, cheapo and secondhand. Those vast things with disk brakes and stuff paint you firmly into the 4WD Chelsea Tractor bracket. – But perhaps you'd be proud to be there, and I've just put my foot in it.

Paint? I leave painting to Mrs Mc and she uses brushes!

"On a mountain bike you need to lean the bike over a lot more than the rider i.e. you're shoulders stay upright whilst the bike leans"

Satisfactory science required. Doesn't compute.

You ned the right solvent. Nasty stuff called Xylene shifts most residual tape glue. Xylene is a component of Hammerite thinners, which you can (still) buy. Take care with it, very toxic, it's absorbed through the skin, and might take existing paint off (test first).

People who sign off with "Kind Regards"

The Brussel Sprout pizza I got in Slovakia was definitely over-rated.

Tidal waves are irrelevant out at sea.

Freak waves are quite a different thing, caused by constructive interference, and the answer is yes.

Yes, and yes. Argument too simplistic. Agreed. 🙂

Even if you could reduce your carbon footprint by more for less money by doing something different?

In that case, I agree of course it makes less sense. – You mean not driving the SUV, and turning the boiler down instead. Indeed, but it's getting people to act this way, that's the problem.

"If not your wasting the money." (sic)
I don't think investing in renewables should ever be called "wasting the money". For those who can afford it, that type of investment is not "wasted" if it reduces their carbon footprint. There are plenty of people willing to pay a lot of money to do this, irrespective of whether it "pays off".
Fossil energy is too cheap. That's the problem which leads directly to "wasted money" argument.

I use them and they are great. A tiny bit heavier, but mine is an off-road XC/commuting bike which I use for everything.

From time to time without SPD's, I use it to nip out to shops, or go on family road trips in the summer wearing only sandals. The platforms are great, and I can ride it with any shoes provided they have a soft-ish sole to bend round the small lump in the middle, which on those occasions does not really make much difference.

Hi Smudger "payback is possible in 8-12 years depending on your daytime usage – the higher, the better the payback".

Surely if you have high daytime usage, then you don't get to sell your power at £.368 becauase you are effectively using it? How is it that payback is faster if you use more daytime power? Surely the more you don't use, the more you sell at £.368? Am I misssing something?

– I should move over to the Green Building Forum at this point!