Good luck with finding it. I was thinking "unlocked bike – asking for trouble" when I realised my bike's not locked to anything in the garage. U31's suggestion of a bike bag sounds the way forward.

Or BigDummy's. But make sure you get someone to film the whole thing and sell it. You'll need the cash in 15 years when they let you out again.

Spark plugs out and cross your fingers as it turns over

docrobster, if it's still screwed and you'll be hitting London late use the old route – A1, City, A2 / A20, M20. It's not that much longer if you hit London late.

First, go and talk to him. Explain the two problems (fence will rot and fall down, hence his garden will too) + lack of privacy. Suggest what you'd like to happen – I guess retaining wall plus fence now on top of retaining wall.

Give him a chance to be reasonable then follow the rest of the advice you'll get on this thread :-)

Spend – keep the capitalist system turning!

Agreed Solo. The catch is that the energy density of hydrocarbon is very high compared to batteries or fuel cells. For cars and motorbikes we're best off with internal combustion engines and fuel made from atmospheric CO2 + nuclear power.

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=127929

Think Stanage times 10

What tron says. I did a trip in the Australian outback 20 years ago with a an old top loading freezer packed with ice to keep the meat cold. Worked for 2 or 3 days when it had to. Change of state requires loads of energy.

Charging your bike lights – it'll last forever. Coolbox will be a relatively big drain. As its summer your in luck as the cranking current that the battery can provide will be high so you've got a good chance that the car will still start.

Lol Elfinsafety!

Good fun but the equivalent in Whistler is better! They don't have bears in Thetford…

Spanish according to Radio 4. As it's Latin based it'll be an intro to French, Italian etc. and he can practise with Dora the Explorer :-)

Haven't had one for years but when I did they were rubbish. Given the amount of washing your doing you're better off with a washer. You'll get 3 loads washed in the time for 1 wash and dry. Hang the clothes up to dry, inside if you have to.

Got some in my skiing sunglasses (can't remember which model) 8 years ago. Great except for the annoying Oakley symbol on the lens. Much better than inserts.

Grease it and grease the clamp.

For a quiet life try this:

More expensive but plug'n'play

Tile cutting blade in a hacksaw. They're cheap and the cutting element is tungsten carbide.

Although a Dremel with a diamond wheel will be less work.

Jack will work but has potential to go wrong (high forces, flying bits of metal).

No lock is unbreakable – in fact safes are rated merely by the time and noise it takes to break into them.

Looks really great. Where do you get the time with a 3 month old?

Add a wooden post front and rear and run one length of gutter per side. Looks like you've only got a 6 foot run so should be fine.

What about running shoes? Reason I ask is that I'm doing a Questars race next week on flat pedals for the first time and I'm wondering if I can save time by just leaving my runners on. Will they get trashed?

P.S. Runners don't work very well on SPDs as I found out last time when I forgot my bike shoes :-(

CrashPlan

Broadly, first year in you can dismiss without reason. Having said that you had actually resigned – it doesn't have to be paper, my last one was email.

The guy's a bit of a plonker if he didn't spot that you were totally unsuitable for the job. You must be for him to dismiss you after 2 weeks. Either that or he's an arse :-)

I'll stick to gold thanks. Comes off easily with a cable cutters when you bend your finger back through 90 degrees arsing about on the steps in the Tesco car park :-)

I was attacked by multiple nettles on my usual loop today. Be careful out there ;-)

Just done one this morning. Hired a mini digger for £100. Very quick to do and lots of fun! Just dig a large hole around the stump then use the digger bucket to lever from underneath.

Agreed. And it's a bit pointless given England's form.

thisisnotaspoon, where did you get your bike? Ebay, another site? £300 sounds like a bargain.

1984. Cycling on the A20 from Maidstone to Bearsted. Woman in a Volvo estate pulls out of a road on the right striaght in front of me. I'm doing about 25 mph. I brake and shove the bike into the gutter missing her by inches. She accelarates and I breath a sigh of relief.

Then she turns left across me to park diagonally. I plant my foot square in the rear passenger door and fall over quietly. get up, check for damage – none. Knock politely on her window to get her details – she drives off.

I called the police. They went round to interview her. She claims that she left the scene of the accident because she was frightened. OK, I can see that – really scarey being in a 2 ton Volvo being hit be a 10 stone boy on a bike. Not scarey at all being hit by a 2 ton Volvo.

Cougar – the Halfords Professional <edit>tool</edit> range is the business. If you're not in a hurry they're on sale every 3 months or so.

Whatever you fancy. I know someone who uses an early R1. if you want it to be cheap buy a small car.

Plan sounds fine. Drink lots of fluids and have some wet wipes in the car. At least that's my parents did when dragging me round Europe as a kid.

P.S. Try not to be wearing shorts in a car with leather upolstery. Child cruelty!

JCB?

Paint stripper (carefully). You want it back to the bare metal without taking any metal away.

Thanks flyingfox – you're probably a bit far away for me.

Fishboy – thought about that but I'd feel a bit guilty as I have no intention of buying a road bike.

Fair enough. I did find myself thinking "BMW" as I typed darkside – ex Honda VFR forum

I thought the answer was always duck tape?

The salt is used to backflush ion exchange resin. The ion exchange resin is used to swap calcium ions for sodium ions. Over time it becomes depleted (the sodium ions in the resin swap places with calcium ions in the hard water). The dishwasher periodically used the salt to flush out the calcium ions and replace them with more sodium ions from the salt.

If you've got hard water, you need to keep the salt topped up unless you have a water softener in the house.

A friend of mine was held up by 2 guys an underpass, 5:40 pm on a weekday. He looks like your typical out of condition middle aged bloke, perhaps a bit fat. Sadly for his would be muggers he's actually 6 foot tall and he looks fat because of all the muscle he carries (ex professional American Football player). Mugger pulls knife on him, red mist comes down and one mugger is unconscious on the floor, the other one runs off. My mate has a slashed jacket but no injuries (except knuckles).

My mate then ended up on a 36 hour bender because he thought he might have killed the guy. Next thing I see of him he's trying to resign from work – we wouldn't accept his resignation, it had nothing to do with work and was all hearsay.

BUT what if he had killed the mugger? I'd hope that it would have been seen as self defence but he would have had all sorts of trouble proving it.

Not saying don't do it, just be careful out there.

KTM Adventure. Cracking bike and I couldn't stop myself misbehaving on it. But I bought a Triumph Sprint – excellent bike, just like the VFR750 it replaced in so many ways.

Fadda's spot on. There'll be odd accidents but if after a week or two they should be few and far between. My 2nd child is just starting now so I hope that's still true!