Thanks for all the input – seems some are better at visualising this than others! I probably wouldn't have noticed if both were wrong but the fact they are different to each other makes me wonder if they'd behave differently under heavy braking, bad conditions or cornering. As I have my old wheels with tyres correctly on maybe I should put these ones on the back just as less likely to be a problem there? Aesthetically this ain't great though as mixing wheel styles:

Well yes that's fine but still seems chavvy to me. Perhaps better than the big lion feet things she used to wear….

To my shame my wife has some but only uses them as slippers.

Renting is fine as long as you appreciate that you'll need an alternative investment to property – that is invest money elsewhere so as to pay rent into retirement or buy a house. If you think you can grow your money faster than property prices will rise then you'll win though keeping that profit tax free is an issue.

But it sounds like you don't want to invest so much so whilst you might have a better life before retirement your future beyond that could be difficult taking the rental option.

Mine sticks out a bit but has rounded off OK; slight discomfort at times but nothing to worry about.

I'm sure a handy chap could knock together a built in wardrobe….

Hmmm, well my understanding is that the underclass is something that has been ingrained over several generations so 'twas happening before Thatcher.

We're also presuming that the poor don't/won't work

Whilst that is true of many poor people the underclass are unlikely to want to work and that's a generational problem for them.

Patch

I got a load of Ikea wooden hangers; made some hooks for handing tyres and wheels from a rail in the garage from some wire ones.

You'd have to give many of them a lot of help as they're fairly clueless.

I've spent time with school leavers in a council estate in London with an organization involved with trying to help them become employable; they're very difficult to help – it's a generational thing. They're used to being provided for by the state so don't see the need to do anything differently and think there's no point anyway.

Well I'm not one of the underclass….

What kind of society do we live in where people are attacked for trying to do better?

That's the underclass for you….

Ask him to compare to the performance of a FTSE tracker?

There isn't enough pound coins in circulation.

No there aren't….

Anyway, this is why I carry big denomination notes instead of coins.

There was a TV prog a while back about a once rich man who was now living in a caravan after his wife suggested they give everything away. Unfortunately she didn't like living in poverty so she left him. Women eh? Gotta love 'em … or something.

Aunt Sally was the 1st woman I hated.

Definitely not position 7

homophobe.

Does anyone really do no.8? I don't like people breathing on my face.

Your bike is a Pinnacle.

The problem really is about motorists' ignorance but can't legislate for that.

You've got a short memory.

Yeah don't you remember the boom? Just because it was fuelled by credit is irrelevant.

Hmmm…we got my wife's friend to do ours who is a keen amateur and has done courses. Unfortunately a week before the wedding she got hit on the head and her friend had to fill in for her. Not so good.

a – attracts the girls you know.

Height to weight ratio – I remember hearing that a good climber ratio is 2lbs for every inch of length.

I lived in NYC and also Newburgh on and off for a while – just because I had a project there. I loved the food – quite cheap, a lot of variety and good sized portions. I'd probably try to live Upper West side if in Manhattan. Not sure about mtbing but cycling around Central Park has it's moments – actually I could just see you going around there on some Rollerblades….

Yeah but aP you're special….

Aston Hill is a trail centre really?

As for building something like the ones in Wales well the investment there is justifiable based on the amount of money that's attracted into poorer areas; the Surrey Hills aren't so poor….

Skoda Roomsters seem quite sensible to me

Virgin base package (10mb); sometimes does drop below 3mb in the day.

…I had an '06 – critically acclaimed as one of the best all round bikes of our time.

Nah that was the '04 version… 😉

Is it really a good idea to share a bed…?!

Bed sharing 'drains men's brains'

Also, on a slight tangent – how often do you wash your duvet?

Britons 'sleep in dirty duvets'

If we don't cut the NHS budget what do we do? Cuts elsewhere? Increase tax? What can we afford these days? What's best for the economy and the future?

You know how we are/were known for taking nuclear waste from other countries and making money out of it? I reckon we should pay someone to look after these 2 problems for us. Give them a new start I say – Zimbabwe maybe?

I fail to see that if I kid hurts another kid he doesn't think it's a bad thing – he won't want to get hurt in the same way right?

These are the best:

http://www.mouseprice.com/

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/

Regret moving to Brittany back in 2001.

Why? Boring to live there? It seems a nice place to be but not a lot to do maybe? I say this as cycled around there and beyond last year and thought how much more pleasant than where I live in Surrey it is.

A girl wanted to marry me back in 2002; I thought best not. Later married a different girl whilst I'm happy enough some of her bad points were not shared by the previous girl so do wonder what might have been sometimes.

I started fencing when I was 9 and gave up when I was 12 when I moved to another area. I was pretty good but didn't like the new school and just gave up out of laziness really; shame as it's the only sport I was ever really good at.

Ooh that's a bit of nasty gazundering! An estate agent I got friendly with told me about that when I was looking at buying my 1st house. He used to do it as reckoned that most people really don't want their sale to fall through in hard to sell times especially if they have found a place to buy. But the thing is to not care yourself if it falls through which means keeping costs low and also not needing to sell somewhere so risk losing a buyer.

I moved with a Luton van last time with a mate; only just got everything in even though I'd taken 3 car loads up previously for the bikes and whatever else I could cram in. As my new house is a lot larger that'll never happen again so paying others from now on – not that I ever want to move again.

I got a load of boxes from freecycle and took twice as many as I thought I'd need which was fortunate. My wife's clothes were the main problem – so many bin bags full of them.

Is the point of this thread to prove that excessive chat about body weight is dull?!

I have to make this decision soon as my wife might finally pass her test…. Thinking that a Focus would be good if she's OK with that over a smaller car but also thinking if get a Focus may as well get the estate – would that feel a lot of car for a not so competent beginner driver?