Looks pretty easy compared to my house – ahh the joys of Yorkshire black lime plaster…. :(

I really have no sympathy with the miners here, if I put myself as a miner back then I would have gone to work as I don’t believe in striking – I would have had my house vandalised, been physically attacked and been shunned from the society I lived in just because I had a different view.

The police weren’t angels, I know, but I’m glad we don’t see any of this union action any more, it has no place in modern society.

I grew up in the mining area and my dad worked as an engineer for the NCB. He quit rather than strike. That’s someone who had principles and I hope I would have had the guts to do the same myself.

I bought a Numatic Bertie machine from B&Q recently for my house renovation. It has a much less powerful motor than the current house’s Henry (new EU rule?) but actually sucks much better.

Started out with a good ethos, now for a couple of years at least jumping on every bandwagon going with pile it high sell me cheap tat, questionable quality control and crap customer service on top and they blame outside forces?? Err don’t think so.

Thanks all for the advice. I think I’ll investigate total cost including fitting and see how much extra it is before I make the decision.

There will only be a bath with no panels in the room when I do it.

Problem is I’m not living in the house yet so its tricky to get a pro in. I managed to sync a builder/plumber/spark together but I don’t want to have to take a day off for loads of other jobs – only so much annual leave!

Which areas do you ride in most?

I had the Topeak system. The waterproof case is good but can steam up and the mounting system isn’t as good as some of their other kit – Quadlock is better in that respect.

I have the quadlock system for my bike and car and it’s brilliant. Decided to spend the money after having some cheaper branded ones that were crap.

However I only use phone on bike for touring or road rides where I can put the phone in a pocket if it chucks it down. I wouldn’t use one for proper muddy MTB rides or where I might crash.

I don’t like loads of devices when my phone does pretty much everything but if I wanted GPS on the MTB I’d get a Garmin.

Never needed one though, I like naps and exploring rather than following other peoples routes!!

I think the interior is completely gone, that’s why the fascia is falling down. :(

Never seen it in real life but thats a (well was) lovely looking building. Real shame.

I don’t think it sounds that dodgy. If he’s telling the truth and he did leave the keys in the car he won’t be insured. He might still have the documents – if I was in his position I’d try everything to get the car back.

But if it didn’t have a tracker and you don’t have any spare keys from when you owned it you can tell him that, sympathise with him and wish him luck.

Not everyone is out to scam you.