Well the M62 was always pretty dangerous!

I am on the M62 all along the managed bit every day. When it was first put in it was great as it managed the speeds really well and kept the traffic moving without the ususal bunching up. However now everyone knows where the cameras are and just slows down for them, which has reduced their effectiveness a fair bit. I also haven’t seen anyone flashed for a very long time now even though I’ve seen a fair few people going through the cameras at well above the posted limits.

I wish they’d put a camera on every gantry, not every 3rd one, and make sure they were flashing everyone who exceeded the limits. It has made a big difference to how safe the M62 is so far and I wouldn’t want that to be reduced just cos the cameras aren’t switched on!

If you lot keep getting rid of your CD’s then it makes them cheaper for me to snap up and enjoy proper quality music in good definition rather than that compressed crap. I can tell the different even in the car!
Main reason people tend to do all this streaming stuff is to have constant music on in the background no matter they are. I worked in shops a long time and am sick of background music. When I listen to music I slip a CD in, and LISTEN to it, not just hear it…….

Biscuit Powered – they are Pace forks and they are meant to be like that! :facepalm:

The midges really put me off Scotland. I love the place but it’s a real problem for me as I am allergic to insect bites. Not dangerously so but even after taking antihistamines a bite will always result in an angry itching spot. Being as I seem to be a fine delicacy to the damn things you can guarantee they will be all over me the second I am out of the car.

2 STEAK BAKES FOR 75P????

:runs to the car and sets sat nav for South Shields:

You laugh. I went in there only yesterday and picked up a large bottle of head & shoulders for a pound. Admittedly it was all in Russian but who cares? For how short my hair is, it would last me a year!
This morning it just squirted out a large blob of conditioner.
Cock.

LOL!
Funniest thing I’ve read today!!

Pound shops and their ilk are like Harrods compared to the retail choices in Withernsea in East Yorkshire.
The indoor market is the only place I have witnessed someone selling second hand toothbrushes.

I still shudder when I think of the place.

I was hoping a clutch mech would enable me to lose the chain device too, didn’t work that well and dropped the chain a couple of times each ride. Ok it’s rocky round here but I have a front mech which I thought would help. Oh well, put the chain device back on!

I think they are good mechs but not the miracle some people say they are.

That “Terrible Tractor” is a joke. Volvo engine.

You clearly don’t know what is possible with one of the 940 turbo red block engines. £500 940 can be made to go very very fast very cheaply, get the right one and 300bhp easily possible with mostly standard internals, even more for relatively not much money.

Bump for the AM.

Saw this place and they do a range of batteries http://www.laptopsandspares.com/batteries/acer-batteries/acer-aspire-batteries/acer-aspire-5500-series-batteries/acer-aspire-5500-series-5535-batteries

But these guys are a bit cheaper for a much higher capacity: http://www.laptop-battery-shop.com/acer-as09a61-as09a71-111v-8800mah-replacement-batteries-p-3590.html

I don’t think you can get original batteries now, laptop is a bit older.
Plus last time I saw one it was £70+ and it’s not worth spending that much on I don’t think. £30 or so seems ok.

….but anyway
You’re leading the world championship and all you probably have to do is keep it clean and finish behind Hamilton. He’s coming after you and he’s faster than you.
Going straight at the first chicane if you think you won’t make it, is the safe thing to do there. The sausage kerbs mid chicane are a serious risk for the underside of the car and a DNF.
He didn’t need to defend hard, so he didn’t – end of.

+1

You only had to see what those kerbs did to Max Chiltons car to see why they want to avoid them!

There isn’t any secret deal that was done to let Hamilton pass – Rosberg cracks under pressure and has done before. Hamilton is an amazing driver and all the drivers know it, he does appear to have a way of making other drivers panic and lose focus when he hunting them down. It’s nice when he’s ahead of course, that makes it easier for him, but he does love the chase and the others know that. Thankfully he can now manage his car better than before and keep it running fast until the end without shredding the tyres – maybe this is what the Mercedes car is allowing him to do now.

Riccardio was fantastic, wasn’t he? The way he was saying “yeah that was fun” cracked me up during his interview! He’s making Vettel look a little amateurish now, isn’t he? I can see him being world champ one day and I hope he manages it.

Bottas – is he actually even calmer and chilled than Raikonnen? He did a great job yesterday.

Was nice to see Massa getting a podium. Always liked him and think he could have been a world champ contender if he hadn’t gone to Ferrari. Hopefully he has enough time to make it still – he looked very happy which never was the case with Ferrari.

Great to see Williams doing well too.

Ourmaninthenorth now schooled!

That isn’t a lot of bike bits. There is no problem there.

I am looking to move house soon and I am dismayed about the newer houses you can buy. The “cookie cutter” houses from the 80/90/00/10’s are just so depressing, using bits of features pinched from other eras.

What will people think of as the “90’s style” in a few decades. Everyone knows what a Georgian/Victorian/Art Deco/Brutalist/1940’s/60’s house looks like, but you can’t tell an 80’s semi apart from a 2010’s one now.

We could have had funky new designs making new areas of towns into distinct styles, like periods of building in the past did. With my Victorian terrace you can look back and see the reason why they were built – there’s history there even though the houses are a bit compromised for modern living in some ways – and appreciate them for what they are. What are going to be the excuses for building the houses we do now?

I want a cosy house with lots of light, that is warm and dry and makes me feel at home. Modern materials can be cheap and energy efficient but we are still stuck with crappy houses using outdated materials built badly, squeezing too many onto plots of land to ensure maximum profit, by people who couldn’t give a crap about what they are building as long as their bank balance is increased.

This country has a rich history of great architecture and people think it will be ruined by “modern” architecture – IT WON’T if you let people get on with it and promote new ideas. The only thing that will happen in the future is that people will discuss the merits of each period of housebuilding with the same fervour we have discussed Brutalism here – some good points, some bad, but improving all the time.

As it stands, all people will be saying about the houses of the last 30 years is that “yeah, from the 90’s they couldn’t be bothered anymore and they are all crap”. So eventually everyone will agree but for the worst reasons.

Glad you guys have the money to buy houses with interesting architecture.

I live in a Victorian terrace house – only £100k now, but more interesting architecture than 95% of all the houses built nowadays.

Robdob, your always fastest going down but couldn’t jump or corner despite being one of the most natural riders ever seen on a bike !

People will blow smoke up your arse if you pay them enough money,
Where were you riding that was straight down with no corners or jumps and were your fellow riders shit ?

Maybe you should read my post properly first.

those who rave and rant about his greatness (if this is you, you might want to stop reading now) were pretty damn useless at riding a bicycle.
I’ve often wondered if that’s the case

You couldn’t be more wrong.

I did a 8 hour round trip to see him with my brother Peterpoddy. I’m pretty good downhill, generally always fastest going down, and love my technical uphills too. However I wasn’t confident in my cornering and couldn’t jump very well on an MTB. I’d even riding 20 years plus.

I got a great 4 hour lesson which built up from the basics to check where we were up to linking lots of smaller bits together to make a full run down the hill on his special course. He also taught me how to jump doubles pretty successfully.

As far as the cornering went he said it had one of the most natural body positions he had seen but quickly realised I wasn’t judging my speed properly and leaving it too late to make corrections. I also wasn’t looking far enough ahead of myself.

He offered back up later and was interested in how my riding developed afterwards.

Obviously the day was more complex than I can explain on here but that’s the gist.

I think there are a lot of people doing skills courses who haven’t got a clue. I met one at Stainburn and I ended up giving at couple of the riders some hints and tips on how to ride a technical section as I had watched them being instructed (I had stopped for lunch) and they weren’t getting any proper instruction and worse – no feedback. Basically the instruction they had for a steep chute with rocks and roots was to keep your weight back and that’s it. There didn’t seem to be any encouraging words or analysis or demonstrations at all. If I could remember who it was who was teaching them I’d name and shame them straight away.

There was a similar situation in one of the Welsh trail centres which also looked as disappointing.

I am not saying I am a riding god (wouldn’t have gone on a course otherwise!!) but I can tell decent tuition apart from bad tuition.

I used to sell them in the big DIY chain I was a manager in and we never got any returned faulty. Always known as a quality product to me.

seatpost is terrible, looks like a 90’s kalloy job

Kalloy ones work well, last FOREVER and are a nice simple design. If Thomson have made one similar but a bit lighter that’s a win for me!

I’d agree that buying art might be a bad idea if you don’t know much about it and don’t really have much interest in it. Same might go for a watch – would it be something you just put in a drawer and look at occasionally or wear? Not sure if want to wear a £1k watch!

How about a custom made frame? I would love a custom made audax/touring bike made by one of the classic UK frambuilders, or a new guy like Ricky Feather. Something you would enjoy for a long time and never sell – maybe have a paint job that was in the relatives favourite colour or one that reminded you of them? I seem to remember lavendar was a colour I seemed to see a lot round my grandparents house so that’s what colour I would use.

iolo – all the bike shops round me are rushed off their feet with business, cycling hasn’t been as popular as it is now maybe ever. If the shops round you are closing they must be doing something serously wrong and don’t deserve to stay open. New shops, existing ones expanding etc.

Ta very much!

I am also needing to park next week for the very same reason but I won’t be staying in Workinton – any ideas?

I just timed how long it too to load the forum page up – iPhone 5, 50mb fibre wi-fi connection at full strength. 17 seconds to load the whole page and the ads.

Errrr that’s not great really, or is that normal for a modern website?

I don’t mind adverts but having multiple ones all changing images/playing video does make the site look cheap and unprofessional. In order for people to pay for a subscription they need to be hooked and engaged first to the point they are willing to pay. If I was a first time/casual visitor I’d stop using the site before I even considered paying.

+1
Exactly what I’ve said before.

Of course the subscribers will whine and get on their high horses and post pictures of stuff that costs £1.49 (really are you that childish and Coke doesn’t even cost that much unless you do your weekly shop in a motorway service station) but the fact is that if people are put off the site when they first come to it cos it looks so tacky and slow to load they won’t hang around – new subscribers dry up, visits to site go down, everything goes pear shape. Then your precious £1.49 won’t get you diddly squat.

I’m going at end of September too.
Never visited a country that didn’t speak English – is it widely spoken in the City?
Want to book flights and hotel seperately – is it pretty easy to travel from the airport?

I got an amazing disconnection deal with orange. They didn’t offer me anything much when I asked for my PAC Code but I didn’t use it straight away when I got it – nice lady phoned me up and asked why I hadn’t used it. I was honest about the t-mobile deal I was about to sign up to which was way better than they could offer. She matched it and added more minutes (which I didn’t need) and sold me the iPhone for £80 rather than the cheapest deal elsewhere which was £180 at the time (2 years ago) for the 32gb model. Even with the cash back I was hoping for with t mobile the offer was amazing so I went for it.

Or if she’s happy with it just leave it as it is?

Nothing wrong with sorting out issues in this forum – it’s a good way of sorting out problems which may have been missed in the normal channels. It may also promote a positive view of the company as one who is really keen to make all their customers 100% happy no matter what happens.

However, and this is a big one, you’ve got to do it right. No point in just saying “I’ll look into it” then never sorting it, or promising things that you can’t deliver. That person who comes on the forum needs to know the systems at work inside out and have the power to send stuff out, add bonuses for apologies, issue refund etc or else they just won’t be able to help in any meaningful way and it’ll make the situation even worse.

Don’t mean to be harsh, it is sad to see such a long established close, but they must be doing something wrong. Bike shops popping up even more round here and the established shops are expanding they have so much trade. Ok the TDF may have helped (W yorks) but the growth has been happening for 3/4 years and the positive business news is the same in all the shops.

A lot of people undertake middle land idiots on the M621/M62 now. It’s safer than joining the queue of traffic nose to tail in the outside lane at 70-75mph.

I never go above 30mph in a 30mph zone now after doing my speed awareness course (which was excellent) and finding out that you are 3 times more likely to kill someone at 35mph than 30mph. It’s all to do with the physics when a body hits a car. It’s not nice driving to the law in that way – morons inches away from your back end getting insanely infuriated.

Well I went on a road ride last weekend and did 40 miles and felt like crap – I’ve got problems with my legs/feet which are making me very concerned about doing 85 miles.

Soooooooo… I am going to do the C2C route instead which will be 130 miles total in 2 days. I’ll do it on my tourer rather than my road bike. Much happier with that sort of distance to be honest.

V8’s filled with grease when you take them out of the box are buttery smooth, and stay that way a long time!

Right, PX, here’s my experience and view on what’s going wrong with the issues raised on STW.

Olly, I’m not sure why we haven’t contacted you, the jacket is showing as out of stock everywhere except in the Sheffield showroom. We have one here, I’ve put it to one side for you. I need to transfer it to the warehouse, assigned to your order, and it will go out to you tomorrow. Sorry for the delay
Simon

Firstly, don’t do this. Own the problem – you have the jacket in your hand, package it and post it out yourself with a letter apologising. The short time it will take to do this will be paid back many times over because many people will read these threads and see a very positive outcome. Don’t say you can’t do this as “it has to go through the warehouse”, that’s putting your systems ahead of the customer and giving them another excuse. The customer doesn’t care about what your systems are, they just want what they paid for.

Flange, I can see your order is ready to ship, do you want to cancel it still? Might be worthwhile speaking to customer services and seeing what they are prepared to do to make it right? Shouting might make you feel better but it’s unlikely to get you your stuff and an apology credit note.

So you are threatening not to do the right thing if this person has a rant at you? Bad move. In retail you get people shouting at you, it happens. People have all sorts of temperaments and some can get shouty. You just deal with it and treat them the same way. If someone is especially nice and helpful and patient with an issue you may want to find some way to reward them above and beyond what you should do, but your veiled threat in the above paragraph, on a public website, is extraordinarily daft.

Danny, I agree, the majority of complaints on singletrack are from people who get the wrong item, or who don’t get an item at all. I haven’t done an accurate historical search but I’m guessing the number of STW complaints is actually very small, Way less than 1 per day, which in itself would only equate to 0.1% of daily transactions.

The thing is these customers don’t just make one post, they make many, and people cross post on these threads dredging up the same points multiple times on different threads. So the picture appears worse than it is. It would be great if there were none of course.

Unfortunately that 0.1% of transactions are losing you 100’s of extra transactions. You don’t know that, because there isn’t an easy way to measure something that isn’t there. But these threads will be on the internet for a very long time. Try Googling “Planet X problem”, something a lot of people do, and you’ll see the extent of the problem you have from those minority of issues.

You need to get someone on these issues full time, sorting out each problem quickly and efficiently. A log should be made of all these problems and have regular meetings with the right people in the organisation who can change things to make sure they reduce FAST.

I’ll leave it at that – just so you know I have 14 years retail management experience in companies whose success was based on great customer service. So been there, done that, many thousands of times!

Some early Shimano Deore DX cranks I did:

Just using Autosol or brasso on its own won’t work. You need to strip the remaining anodising and/or paint off to get to bare metal. Then as said, use all the grades of wet and dry up to 2000 then Autosol or Peek (my favourite). Waxing afterwards helps keep the shine.

It’s a lot of work but very rewarding and a mirror finish looks awesome.

They’ll need a quick going over with the Peek every so often but it only takes a couple of minutes.

Thanks for the tip about House Network, seem pretty good and online reviews favourable. Any issues with them that have been reported online (there aren’t many, you have to look hard) are ones I would expect to get with an EA anyway so not a worry for me!

I would much prefer to show someone round my own house, I could market it a lot better than an estate agent could while I was in the house with them.