Had the same problem with my Endura shorts – the press studs just lose strength over time. Mrs R has now sown on some hook/eye things that solve the problem and have saved me from having to throw out my favourite shorts. All my future shorts purchases will have belt loops.

Edit: Tried the crimping trick, it lasted a couple of rides/washes and then they were back to how they were.

Like others I’ve had problems with the low BB and consequent pedal strikes; I assume this is a consequence of bikes these days being aimed more at predictable trail centre use rather than the real outdoors. I’d expected this from reviews I’d read but was surprised to be caught out by a piece of off-camber canal towpath on its first ride. Apart from that it works extremely well for the general XC and DH-light use I give it. Very surprised by how well it climbs!

On the pedal strikes I’m trying some thin pedals which seems to have helped and is a cheaper and lighter solution than replacing the current 150mm revs with Lyrics or similar. I’ve also pumped up the shock (Monarch) and forks to give a bit less sag; currently running at about 20-25%.

Easton seat post fits perfectly in mine. Frame is about 2 weeks old.

Loads being switched off permanently round here, I think there are big savings in maintenance costs rather than just electricity. No plans to take the redundant lamposts down though, that would cost more than the savings.

Panacur, but only because we can’t get tablets down our cats’ throats – even if we get a Drontal tablet in they manage to spit it out. Panacur is available in a powder that you can mix with their food and they don’t seem to notice it.

If I recall correctly, they started off pretty shit.

They did, but then they started off trying to run a train service using the mess of worn out equipment left behind by British Rail. Since then there’s been massive investment in both the infrastructure and the rolling stock and when I’ve used it it’s been pretty good. I don’t hold much hope for further improvements under First Group though.

Windows 8 is pretty stable and fast, I particularly like the new fast start-up. But the metro GUI takes a bit of getting used to and seems like a step backwards if like me you’re used to having lots of windows open at the same time. As stated above, it’s aimed at tablet/smartphone devices and doesn’t seem to make much sense without a touchscreen or maybe a multi-touch trackpad.

10.2 Nm

should I try to be less considerate to fit your description

No, you should try to be one of the weekend warriors who do know how to behave. :-)

Down here in the crowded SE I’m expecting to see a lot more of this:

Crappy iPhone photo – the sign says “This chicane has been constructed to discourage cyclists from using this trail… We have recently had a number of complaints from walkers who have been subject to abusive behaviour from cyclists who were riding inconsiderately or aggressively. Please respect the Forest Code and fellow woodland visitors.” – yours etc Forestry Commission.

This is I suspect mostly down to the weekend warriors who don’t seem to know how to behave in the countryside and think they own the place. Our best hope for gaining wider access is to show that we’re responsible users of the countryside. Taking the odd cheeky trail at quiet times and respecting other users is fine, groups tearing round and ignoring RoW designations at weekends and bank holidays is going to spoil it for everyone.

You just have to keep trying. It seems to take them a while to update the site after the tickets have been sold, so when you search stuff appears that you can’t actually have.

I’ve had a 2.7D for about 3 1/2 years now – should really change it but it’s so nice to drive I haven’t felt the inclination yet. Build quality is very good and it’s been pretty reliable – a fault with the power steering was fixed under warranty and that’s been about it. Quite economical too – 50mpg easily achievable on a longish run. Lots of room in the boot but the opening in the rear bulkhead when you fold down the rear seats is smaller than you might think so difficult to get more than 2 bikes in without partly dismantling them. Main downside so far is that it’s quite long and doesn’t fit in car parks well – 70s multi-storeys can be a bit of a nightmare.

The estate car version seems good on paper but I don’t think it looks anything like as good as the saloon.

Chilterns trails are pretty awful at the moment, some nice dry bits but inevitably joined together by ribbons of mud which are gradually getting overgrown in some places and in others are getting turned into wider and wider mudbaths by the horseists trying to get round the mud. I’m just about to go out for a ride with with my secateurs to do some sneaky pruning to try to retrieve some of the more overgrown trails.

Doesn’t look right to me – mine comes down much lower at the front; my head is 60cm but I may have more hair – hard to tell from the pic. Maybe the wrong pads? Also wouldn’t be seen dead in that colour scheme – what’s with those stars FFS? Makes it look like a kids helmet.

wondering whether to bother with travellers checks

Do they still make travellers cheques? Back in the days when they were a good idea they were useless unless they were in dollars, in which case you paid an exchange fee whether you used them or not and then had to change the unused ones back in the UK. More recently when travelling to the States I’ve just done what I’d do in the UK – take enough cash for everyday expenditure and then use credit cards or get money out of an ATM if I need cash; it usually works out costing no more than any other method and is much less hassle.

I bought one in the Kingdom Bikes sale at the end of last year and have been using it since. I’ve had no problems with it – it fits me well (YMMV) and was warm in the cold weather, and was surprisingly not hot in the recent 30C weather but the bit of padding at the front that’s supposed to absorb sweat to stop it dripping in your eyes then let it evapourate sometimes gets saturated and stops doing its job. I have similar problems with other helmets – I guess I have a sweaty head. Mine’s white which helps in the sun, dark colours may be a problem as with any helmet. Appearance is a bit unusual. I haven’t tested it in an accident yet so can’t comment on whether it does what it’s supposed to!

Are people wiping the system before installing

Can’t see any reason why you’d want to do this – I just did it from the app store, took about 30 min to do the upgrade after it had downloaded. Still hasn’t fixed my wifi issues though. But I think to go from Snow Leopard you’d have to go to Lion first, I don’t think you can miss out a version. No doubt an Apple expert will be along shortly to confirm or deny this.

I use a Norbar one – http://www.norbar.com/ModelSL0PlasticKnob1_4__N_m_lbf_in-SL0-TorqueWrenches-54-1-12-1181-product.aspx in conjunction with a miniature socket set for about £10 from Halfords that has all the hex keys you need.

If I was buying again I think I would have spent that little bit more and got the next park tool model up

I suspect you’d have difficulty doing a stem bolt up with that to any sensible degree of accuracy. Might be ok for BB cups though. Or the cylinder head bolts on your car.

Still using some original Hope minis from about 2002, finally got them to stop squealing about 3 years ago so I guess they’re now nicely bedded in. Also some XC hubs, on their third set of bearings but still going strong. Oh, and some 8 year old gold anodised bar end plugs, but they’re looking a bit the worse for wear and may get pensioned off soon.

i’d normally be medium but the sizing looks big on paper.

If it helps at all I’m 6′ and my large El Guapo seems to be spot on.

I was surprised to see in the warranty supplied with a Rockshox shock yesterday that stanchions are apparently considered a wear-and-tear item not covered by the warranty, so good luck – you may have to rely on Sale of Goods Act rather than the warranty.

On One smoothie mixer headset fits (and works with 1 1/8 steerer). £40 from On One or $30 from Titus. :roll:

I’ve just been through the same thought process, I went for the Monarch for various reasons. The servicing thing is a big deal for me – with the CCDB I’d be sending it off for a service at £100 a time every couple of months or so, which also means not being able to ride the bike for a week while it’s gone. My Rockshox forks by comparison just need half an hour or so fettling by myself every 100 hours and I’m hoping the Monarch will be the same. Weight is an issue for me even though 200g isn’t that much. And I realised that for me the CCDB would be mainly about bragging rights rather than actual performance – that may not be the same for you depending on what sort of riding you do.

on one have an extra 10% off this weekend

grrrr – haven’t even ridden my frame yet and I could have had it 10% cheaper. :evil:

brant – Member

Better frame pics – http://www.shedfire.com/2012/07/17/new-colour-el-guapos-in-now/

Bit mystified by those pics as they seem to show 2 different frames – the orange one has an extra tube from the seat tube to the top tube and it seems to have a curvier top tube. Which is the “real” El Guapo?

OE cost is 40% more than the SRAM Red cassette

That still makes a replacement cassette the best part of £200 by my calculation, and I regard them as a consumable item – in muddy conditions (and we’ve had some of them recently) I seem to get through them quicker than tyres.

That helps my decision making – I was hovering over the buy button for a CCDB frame, then started thinking that the 29er with XX1 looked worth waiting for. A bit of Googling now tells me that the CCDB expects a service every 100 hours and you can’t do it yourself so the 26 inch frame with the Monarch is looking very attractive. Just need Mrs R’s approval on the colour!

asked if I had taken financial advice

Roughly translated this means “if you make the wrong decision can you please make sure there’s someone else to blame, not us”. IANA IFA but it’s usually worth looking to see what fees are involved in transferring it, it may not be worth it.

hookers

coke

Can’t do that until you’re 55 (or is it 50 now?) when you can take out a lump sum.

By all means use the comparison sites as a guide but it’s worth going to company sites directly as well – they often quote a lower premium than the comparison sites; my own insurance was quoted 50% more on one of the comparison sites than they actually charged me. Also try the companies that don’t use comparison sites.

Setting up the trains to have selective door opening within a 4 car unit is bound to be too complex and expensive

Northern Line trains manage it so I can’t imagine it’s really that expensive. Come to think of it so do some Chiltern Line trains when they use the short platforms on the toy train line from Princes Risborough to Aylesbury and they’re not exactly high-tech. I expect there are many more examples.

Chemical warfare may be your only option. We’ve used Indorex spray and it seems to work, the fleas have gone and the cats are still alive (so are we). Not something I’d want to spray round the house too often though. As for the cats, we’ve found that the flea treatments you get in pet shops or supermarkets are generally ineffective, you need the stronger stuff from the specialists or vets.

I quite like Microsoft Family Safety – it sends you an email listing the sites they’ve been visiting so you can check them for suitability. It won’t stop them watching porn, but if they find something good at least you can enjoy it as well.

Should we therefore feel sorry for the processors?

27% margin still seems pretty good to me so I don’t have much sympathy for them, although my view is clouded by the fact that one of them is building a giant processing plant on formerly open countryside near me thanks to some dodgy planning decisions!

If we don’t pay decent prices for British milk the supermarkets will just bring it in from other countries

There is suspicion in some quarters that the processors will be doing this, not the supermarkets.

So who’s the culprit here and who’s the victim? This implies that supermarkets base their prices on the cost of production and it’s the big processors that are doing the squeezing.

Incidentally I bought 24 pints of milk in Tesco yesterday and I didn’t even look at the price – is it really a loss leader for the supermarkets?

Edit: E_L – you beat me to it.

Are iPhones pretty tough

Ultimately anything with a large glass screen is going to be fragile, but I’ve dropped my 3GS on a concrete floor (twice) with nothing to show except a scratch on the case and a tiny chip on one corner of the screen, got it soaking wet, subjected it to extremely cold temperatures, fallen on it, sat on it and generally abused it and it’s survived. YMMV though depending on how fussy you are about appearance.

if you look through EBay you will be amazed at the number of broken Ipones up for auction

Probably more to do with the sheer number of the phones in existence rather than their fragility.

We’ve had several good holidays in Egypt both to the Nile Valley and to the Red Sea coast but I’ve heard various reports that it’s got a bit “interesting” since their revolution. If you’re going somewhere like Egypt then I think there are 2 approaches you can take:

1) Just go for the weather, pick a good hotel and stay there;

2) Accept that it’s a developing country with a lot of poverty, engage with the people and treat the hassle as part of the experience whilst trying to feed some cash into their economy in the best way you can.

Looks like you’re veering towards the first category but picked a bad hotel – moral: don’t believe what you read on tripadvisor! Branding can be your friend here, if you go for something like a Hilton or Sheraton you can be reasonably sure of what you’re going to get and for a real chillout with excellent food the 4 Seasons in Sharm is superb and has a good house reef. The Moevenpick in Naama Bay on the other hand is too big for its own good.

As for the snorkelling and diving, much of the easily accessible stuff has been ruined by careless divers and you may have to go on a longish boat trip but there’s a good reason why Red Sea diving is renowned worldwide, get to somewhere unspoiled and it’s amazing! Sailing and windsurfing can also be outstanding if you go somewhere like Dahab with predictable winds.

Not tried these myself but Mrs R tells me that Achica (sort of sportspursuit for household goods) have Under Armour sports sunglasses for £35 at the moment, if you get someone to sign you up to them you’ll get a £10 off voucher.

old one was a Hitachi and made in 2010 so not lasted very well

Never had any trouble with Hitachi myself. Nothing to add on what to buy but I’m guessing it’s a desktop so given the short lifetime I’d say it’s worth just having a quick check that the disk is getting enough cooling before you put a new one in – they can fry themselves if the fans or vents are blocked.

Questions seem quite well defined until

9. What is the heaviest noble gas?

hmmm… doesn’t that depend how much of it you’re weighing?

As a pedant I gave up at that point.

This isn’t a new theory – see e.g. http://www.goldnewswire.net/did-gordon-brown-sell-uks-gold-to-keep-aig-and-rothschild-solvent-more-disclosures-on-how-the-ny-fed-manipulates-gold-prices. But I also don’t buy it – where Brown et al are concerned I always go for incompetency as the most likely cause. Does anyone know if anything came of the FoI request that was put in to find out the truth of this? Last I heard the treasury had still blocked it.

the HSF will be cold but the CPU will be overheating

Running coretemp or similar would tell you this, or just leave it to cool for a bit and see if that improves things, although if you’ve been running Intel burn with a dodgy heatsink that may take a while!

What’s the maximum processor state set to in the advanced settings under power options? Needs to be at 100% to max the cores.