Good ideas about the pedals, I hadn’t thought about that. So 16″ wheels? I read some sizing info on a bike website and they seemed to think someone of his height should ride a ‘size 14’, presumably this was referring to the wheel size?

Interesting, I am looking at the Xperia Z3 compact and Moto G too. The Z3 seems to offer a better camera, smaller size, maybe better build, and better battery life at fairly significant extra cost (£6ish over a 24 month life).

I would probably want to see how much the 4G Moto will cost first, just for ‘future proofing’ though.

I find it annoying that it is more difficult to get a decent quality small Android phone than a decent quality big one.

Ok… now I have read some negative stuff about Urban Forest (in multiple places, including STW). Losing confidence in the online option now…

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cladding-nail-question-shed-content

I have done a bit of digging on the net, and there seems to be a bit of consensus that BillyOh sheds are crap. I have been looking at Urban Forest and Tiger Sheds. Tiger Shed seem to get a bit of a better reaction.

For anyone that’s interested, I tried this jacket on. Compared to the other Gore jackets I tried (the Contest and Phantom) the fit is odd, and did not suit me. It seemed overly large on the upper arms and the chest bagged out. It just looked a bit wrong.

The material seemed thicker/harder than the Contest AS Windstopper. I did not ride in it (sending it back) but suspect it might be less breathable than that jacket.

I have ordered a couple of other jackets to compare, hopefully I will only be sending one home…

Sailor V.

On the basis of that, I will go for an XL and report back…

Re the mesh lining- I think waterproofs/windstoppers have those to make it more comfortable when there’s a lot of moisture inside and disperse it rather than having an inner with actual water on it. So I suppose the idea is that it’s not needed for more breathable stuff.

Personally I find that if I have a jacket in contact with bare skin (i.e. a short sleeve jersey), then sweat can make the jacket stick and seem more clammy. I think a mesh would help with this. I also feel that keeping the membrane apart from from skin helps avoid water ingress, though this may be speculative b*ll*cks on my part.

Hmm. Looks like the only windproof, thin shells with mesh liners that I can find are made by Gore, which means expensive. I tried the Contest AS on at lunchtime today which was OK, but the front hem was cut very high. I wasn’t bowled over in comparison to my previous, relatively cheap, pertex shells, but it was nicely made. I just balk slightly at paying lots of money for something so thin and insubstantial!

So is Goretex wind-stopper better than pertex for breathability? I’m getting very confused by all this now. I always thought pertex was OK for breathability.

MrSalmon: Interesting that the OP is finding Pertex stuff less durable- is the fabric tearing or is it coming apart at the seams?

It may have something to do with the cut of the garment. The fabric ripped at a seam in two places on the back. That particular jacket (Montane Featherlite) seemed flimsier than my old Endura Rebound’s and lost colour on being washed too.

The Rebounds seemed more robust, although thorns and a fall did make their mark.

muddy9mtb: Well you say that, but is seems you can spend a lot of money on a lightweight Gore windstopper! Has anyone tried one of these, the ones labelled ‘active shell’ windstoppers? Seems to include the Element, Power and Xenon windstopper jackets.

Thanks for the info so far.

scotroutes: You’ve correctly identified the major problem with Soft Shells – nobody really knows wtf they are.

Maybe I should have asked that question. I used to assume they medium thickness items that took on a sort of combined role of role of jersey and windstopper with a smidgen of rain resistance. I suppose what I am looking for is the same thing but with minimal insulation, but does this end up just being like a pertex shell again?

The Solarstorm sounds like the sort of thing I am looking for. What didn’t you like about the beam pattern Northwind, was it too narrow/wide?

I could always just get the latest version of the 900 lumen as well I suppose, they seem to be very cheap now.

Thanks for the input guys, a lot of useful information and definitely enough to get me started planning…

Exactly that. I can’t believe how little metal there is stopping that part from snapping… or not. Unfortunately I don’t ride the bike as much as I should. If I rode it more I am almost certain it would have snapped within the bike warranty.

It would be easier to buy a new shifter, but I don’t want to…

It’s on my road bike, and the cheapest I can find it for is £115. On searching the net it seems lots of them have failed the same way, so it looks like a design error. Apparently SRAM have changed the design to be more robust since then.

So I kind of feel like I shouldn’t have to fork out £115, because to me it looks like a design/manufacturing error. Effectively the lever snapped off because I tried to do something so rash as to change gear with it 😕

geoffj – that’s precisely my concern!

Aha! Yes, I just removed the rubber outer-ring from the top-cover (parts 6 and 7) and can see the rubber o-ring is left inside.

Brilliant, thank you very much!

Let the fitting begin…

Cripes, parenthood sounds complicated.

And then thrashing them to within an inch of their lives if they make a ‘chuff-chuff’ noise.

Maybe that is sex education after all.

Ninety year old man in ‘not in touch with society today’ shocker.

Brown the meat properly. That will make a huge difference to any slow-cooked beef stew.

Yoiks! There you go then, it seems that even the longer holidays don’t compensate for the workload.

It might not be called holiday but it’s still time not working.

Lets assume a teacher gets 13 weeks ‘out of term time’, whilst a conventional job gets 5 weeks holiday. Bung in an extra week of bank holidays (estimate).

That means that the teacher works 38 weeks of the year, Mr/Mrs conventional works 46 weeks of the year.

Therefore, if they were being paid the same yearly salary, the teacher would need to work ~21% more hours to be paid the same hourly rate as Mr/Mrs Conventional. If Mr/Mrs Conventional worked a ~40hr week, Teacher would have to work a 48hr week.

For all I know this could be the case. Inset days etc. would reduce this.

Not sure why I did this.

Err…

You eat dinner at 13:00?

There is a book too, which I assume is a compilation of articles, and also excellent.

Not completely OT, but if you are interested in how the media (mis)reports science, and like working yourself up into a tumescent rage, Bad Science is well worth a read.

Fanny Cradock?

From what I read it’s not just about JPEG compression either, it’s about converting the raw sensor data to an image format. You could convert the raw data to a bitmap with zero compression, but you would still lose an awful lot of information.

Ok I think i’m getting there. A quick googling suggests that one of the main differences is the application of a logarithmic function to the sensor data, which would account for the irreversible reduction in colour/brightness depth. Thanks all….

Ok, but to say that you categorically cannot alter the stauration, contrast of a JPEG is a bit misleading, surely?

EDIT: Lots of replies in the meantime.

So when I use the brightness, contrast etc. controls in Photoshop what is it doing in that instance then? 😐

Like makeup on a beautiful lady, or barbeque sauce on asparagus.

Syrup???!?!?!?! 🙄

I find lavazza is easy to make espresso w crema – I seem to struggle with other supremarket in-house stuff.

Are you using finely ground stuff (marked espresso) or coffee intended for cafetiéres? I have no problems getting crema from supermarket coffee, which is odd.

Very good. Compare it with Panasonics GF range and the Olympus-EPL2 – they’re all high-quality ‘mirrorless’ systems, i.e. bigger/more flexible than compacts but smaller than DSLRs.

The Pana/Oly use a different lens system with arguably more choice, but a smaller sensor (albeit not hugely if you shoot 4:3). The Sony has better image quality but less lens choice. This may change in the future(?), but I wouldn’t have much of an idea about that to be honest.

I’d read up on them, then go for which ever has the best deal. Oh, no viewfinder by the way. Like wot he said /\

P.S The small body size is a bit pointless in comparison to the lens size. Oly use a collapsible kit lens which is nice on that principle, and both Pana and Oly have pancake lenses for very good compactness. I hear Pana are getting into the collapsible lens malarkey, but that’s just a rumour at present. The NEX has sold well apparently, so fingers crossed for more lenses.

That’s a lot of machine.

That’s what I thought…!

I am guessing this is an espresso type machine. If so, and if you plan on buying pre-ground coffee, just make sure you buy stuff marked ‘espresso’. It will be ground more finely, which is what you need for an espresso maker for various reasons.

Beyond that, it’s a question of taste. Personally I don’t like anything roasted too far on grounds of flavour. My favourite espresso is M&S espresso, and it’s half the price of Illy.

Thanks mol, It’s a back-street in Winchester – my biggest photo folder at the moment!