WWTD (What would Thatcher do) ? She sorted out the mess Labour left in the 70s so could she work her magic now?

Runs away….

Someone living in farringdon is going to be living a pretty different life to someone living out near Epsom or something.

No-one in Epsom thinks they live in London surely? Many in Richmond prefer to say Surrey than London. But, yes, Ealing and Chiswick are very different from more central places and out to the east (shudder :wink:).

I think if you’re going to abuse the system you have to do it so that your company won’t know – if the company sees someone trying to buy a kids bike on the scheme then they have to stop it. Many companies don’t offer the scheme so it’s best not to cause yours problems if they do – I doubt the tax man would find out but that isn’t the point.

Managed to avoid running one over the other week by lifting my front wheel at the last moment – was worried I’d hit it but no squished bits. If it hadn’t been so well camouflaged I’d have seen it earlier….

Get something 2nd hand with little use – probably get a nice frame and 105 groupset from one of the big manufacturers.

Some of those top cities sound pretty boring places to be.

London’s fine if you’re well off IMO – live in a leafy area to the west or north. I like NYC but makes London seem quiet; not much space other than Central Park but that can get crowded. I like the idea of Japan but suspect I’d get fed up with the lack of space.

As most of us are fit and young we’re well positioned to fight off these bugs right? Bugs kill of the weak so maybe it’s nature’s way of keeping down the population? Like pikes….

I think they do – or at least the cheaper ones. They also make Decathlon’s 10sp links as I bought 2 pairs for £3.50 and they have KMC stamped on them. I think if you buy KMC packaged ones they’re rather more expensive!

When Chuck Norris pedals the bike stays still and the earth rotates under him.

Chuck Norris doesn’t need to ride a bike, his destination comes to him.

Warrington is ace – it’s the home of Pete Postlethwaite

He may have been born there but now lives near the Long Mynd – good mtb territory!

I know someone who got a Rohloff hub built up into a wheel he bought a cheap bike to go with it which he then gave away.

I think this is meant to be about household income and outgoings that you have control over – rent and mortgage are more or less fixed costs whereas the others are variable costs.

I spent my placement year at BNFL in Risley business park close by; I chose to live in Chester as hated the place!

I once built an ikea chest of drawers with a spoon as friend asked me around to build it for her and I didn’t think to ask if she had a screwdriver.

KMC suggest not to use degreaser on chains:

http://www.kmcchain.com/index.php?ln=en&fn=service#2

Some like to name their houses after a tree in their garden – Silver Birches and Conkers are both near me. Have you got any interesting trees or shrubbery around your house? Or just a rather worn bush you’d rather keep quiet about?

I’ve just bought a rack and panniers having done a bit of research. I bought a Tortec Expedition rack and Altura Dryline 56 panniers for my few days in France but I was tempted to go for a steel rack as they’re far tougher – maybe you should consider getting one but they are a bit more cash.

A good selection here:

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/category-Rear-Rack-254.htm

My parents live in Church Stretton and I seem to remember thinking that the easiest way up I’d seen was from All Stretton – this may be on the road.

The 13.8% is employee’s contribution, not employer’s.

Well I can’t find any info on that – not that it’ll ever affect me I’m sure.

A friend of mine likes Dairylea; I suggested that it’s meant for kids. And chavs.

I use my conti verts when it’s not too muddy and not too dry – would be fine in the dry but I prefer bigger volume tyres then.

Which ones don’t work?

50% (Income Tax) + 13.8% higher rate National Insurance contrib.

That includes the employers’ contribition then? I don’t think that’s quite the same thing. For every pound a get in pay over £150k I pay 51% in tax – is that not right?

The marginal rate of tax on £1 income over £150,000, however, is c.64% when you take into account NI.

How does that work out?

The rest of his income will be as dividends attracting f* all tax.

Dividends are still income – I think you have to pay 32.5% on them as a higher rate tax payer.

I rarely see the 2002-2004 Spesh Enduro about even though they sold so many so they must be deemed old and indeed old for a few years now. However I have a 2004 S-works and think it’s great! The travel is a bit on the low side these days for it’s weight and that racey full susses have as much, but the geometry is more suited to going down than up so more fun than a racier bike – up is still fine though.

I don’t really care. I would love to “earn” > £150k pa. Of course it is obvious that someone who “earns” that much is working at least ten times harder than someone who earns £10k pa.

Maybe not working harder but possibly contributing more benefit to society – hard to tell which is why we allow market forces to dictate salaries. Except for firemen…!

I have a Spectrum +2, an Atari ST and a Sinclair QL in a box but no power leads; thought I might build a collection but can’t be bothered really!

Some of the changes did seem a little complicated to me. I think a 50% level of tax is fair enough, but not sure a what income level, but all this messing about with pension contributions seems odd to me. Maybe just making pension tax benefit to be a max of 40% in conjunction with introducing the new 50% band would have been more my idea of sense.

Even 0.1mm makes a difference! I had a bike with a seat tube that couldn’t take a 27.2mm post (should have done) but a 27.0mm post slipped so had it reamed out to 27.2mm.

Are you sure about that footflaps? Are you assuming a robbery takes place at the time of the beating?!

A bloke (black but that’s irrelevant!) didn’t like me moving in front of his car whilst queuing for a roundabout – I wasn’t riding just pushing myself along with my feet. He pushed his car into me running over the end of my shoe so I brought my fist down on his car. He jumped out and I rode off through the traffic a bit concerned but assuming he would never catch me.

I’ve also picked up my Inbred and swung it at a guy in a lion taming keep back sort of a way. If people apologize for making a mistake then that’s fine, if they have a go at me then I make a point of not completely wimping out.

I think the BBB one is a fine bit of kit! I found some good reviews when I googled for info.

I have this comes and it comes with allen key bits:

http://www.parker-international.co.uk/7078/BBB-TorqueFix-Torque-Wrench.html

…glass in windowpanes, whereby glass over 100 years old or so, is noticebly thicker at the botttom than the top, due to flowing down the pane and sagging…

That’s true – we rotate ours every 50 years.

I saved the full story!

A 4×4 pulled out on me in the rain on the way home from working in Wallington one Saturday. I managed to not go into the back of it but slapped the back as I stopped – kinda making a point – we were at traffic lights with cross roads. Of course the driver wound down his window and I told him what he’d done – trouble is he was a large bloke and his 16 yr old son was sitting next to him. He denied any wrong doing and drove off to the left whilst I went straight on towards Sutton. As I climbed up the road I saw this bloked in front of me in the road obviously wanting to stop me – no idea why he now wanted to get me! I thought the best thing was to ride as hard as I could and get past him but unfortunately he tried to grab me – unfortunately for him I knocked him onto his back and I wobbled a bit but stayed upright. His son then chased me but I dodged him and got away.

Of course I was no sh!tting myself and wondering what to do as the road was uphill and quite busyish and I didn’t really know what to do, was getting tired and had to worry about other traffic.

As they approached again I went on to the pavement and then they stopped in front – this time the kid tried to get me but I got past OK so they chased me again. This time I went up a side road as they caught up with me and the son got out and chased me – I went through someone’s front garden from the side and then back out the front to the main road again – I was on a road bike so using my offroad skills to the max! Unfortunately the big bloke was waiting in the road but this time he decided to smack me in the head instead of risking getting knocked over again – I wobbled but was OK – nearly the end of me though as a car was coming the other way but I avoided that.

Now running low on energy and going up hill so when I saw someone walking up I got off and walked with him getting close to Sutton and the police station now. The chasing car took a while to come so guess they were looking down side roads to see if I’d gone down one and b the time they caught me up I was close to the police station and they were on the busy 1 way system that goes around there. I walked up to the front of the station and waited for quite a while but didn’t see them so started to walk off but then saw the 4×4 so went into the station – the kid jumped out and followed me in.

I told the police woman at the counter what was going on and she told me someone had just phoned in to say a cyclist was being assaulted. We were told to wait in seperate rooms. The Dad came in after a bit and a policeman chatted to them for a while then they left.

Then the policeman chatted to me saying they said I’d tried to assult the Dad by knocking him over with my bike. I said he’d been trying to grab me and just trying to get passed as was worried about what was going to happen. He seemed to believe me as said he couldn’t understand why the bloke was in the middle of the road. I explained everything and he seemed sympathetic but said that as I wasn’t hurt nothing else would happen. I told him that we cyclists have to put up with this sort of thing quite a lot and the law doesn’t seem helpful. I had to be careful what I said as I was getting close to the ‘The law is an ass’ thing and wanted to keep him on my side!

Police – I posted an account on here where a driver and his son in a 4×4 chased me repeatedly getting out of the car when they got ahead of me to attack me – 1st time 1 tried to grab me but I knocked him over as didn’t stop, 2nd time punched me in the head. I got to a police station closely followed by the driver and son, the police told me a witness had phoned in about it. The police did nothing – not even some sort of a warning.

The toughest post I ever came across was the Titec Knock post but don’t think you can get it anymore – maybe 2nd hand? Cheaper than Thomson but heavier.

In 1974 the top-rate of income tax increased to its highest rate since the war, 83%. This applied to incomes over £20,000, and combined with a 15% surcharge on ‘un-earned’ income (investments and dividends) could add to a 98% marginal rate of personal income tax. In 1974, just 750,000 people were eligible to pay the top-rate of income tax. [6] Margaret Thatcher, who favoured indirect taxation reduced personal income tax rates during the 1980s. [7] In the first budget after her election victory in 1979, the top-rate was reduced from 83% to 60% and the basic rate from 33% to 30%. [8]. The basic rate was also cut for three successive budgets – to 29% in the 1986 budget, 27% in 1987 and to 25% in 1988. [9]. The top-rate of income tax was cut to 40% in the 1988 budget.

98%! Thank goodness for Thatcher…. ;)