Am just about to start building a single speed on my early 90s Kona Cindercone, the frame has seen a huge amount of action but, being steel, I am expecting at least 10 years more life out of it which is about 5 more than my legs. :D

In the dim recesses of my age befuddled brain I seem to remember Reynolds 501 being in vogue when it was built – frame has long since lost it’s stickers and been repainted but if anyone knows if they stamped ID numbers for the steel used anywhere I can check at lunchtime and report back.

Cheers, Paul.

Back to the original thread – have been paddle surfing in Scarborough this weekend and I would argue that gravity plays a large part in making couples, there were a large number of large bodies that seemed to have been attracted to each other, the collision of these two masses seem to have also created smaller versions of the larger bodies that orbited around them aggregating mass as they went. I am sure that at some point in time they will also be affected by a mutual attraction to some other similar sized mass and so the process is propogated.

Tazzymtb – cheers fella will take you up on that offer – will drop you an email :D

ticks all the boxes, looks, brains, rides an MTB and drives a VW T3 Syncro like mine :D

Ok, they are a bit useless most of the time but your local Business Link will be able to give you info re starting up a business – use their planning documents as they will help you identify all the things people are posting on here.
You are dead in the water if you don’t have customers, identify who you are targeting – MTBers, roadies, commuters, family pootlers – you will struggle to serve all of them straight off and some will be put off by the others.

You can get easy in easy out lease agreements that don’t involve 12 months up front so ask B Link they will know all the landlords offering this type of premises.

Either get a book, friend or pay a small local accountant to spend half a day with you working out a cashflow forecast – it will be worth paying for the help up front.

Remember, stock kills your working capital and a lack of cash flow will kill your business, retail is all about turning stock.

Can you offer services that others don’t – what about pick up service and drop for commuters whilst they are in the office? Check out your competition see what they are doing and see what works.

Write lists, and stick them on a wall, stare at them, check them write on them – when you pull all this together you should have the start of a hands on business plan and you should by now have a pretty good idea if it will fly.

DO NOT listen to MBA qualified advisors, the MBA will be the death of the entrepreneur as the successful ones do not fit the models they are used to working with, ie Branson, Stellios, Dyson – not suggesting you will hit those heights but they think too radically for the average B Link MBA advisor.

Started 4 businesses, sold 2 and still run 2 so have been through the mill, happy to offer any help if you need it just email me.

Good luck, starting your own business is bloody scary, long hours, hard work but if you structure it correctly it can be the most satisfying thing you can ever do.

Just seen a squirrel blown from a tree, getting bright sunshine, downpours, and a hoolie of a wind. Typical British summer, consistently inconsistent. :D

Olly – top response fella, plenty to think about. I like the hand me down route.
Chela – as I don’t have a spare chainring (the ones on the old bike have as many teeth left as my 86 year old dad!) I think I will invest in a kit and start from there.
So shopping list now includes: used front wheel, aheadset, street tyres, anyone got any bits they want to part with?

Sherwood is ok – nice tracks around Sherwood Forest and over to Clumber – a bit too “organised” for my liking but had a good weekend there with my lad a couple of weeks ago.

If you do decide on the Peaks (Dark Peak) couple of us would be happy for you to come along with us – stick a post up if you do.

1 – didn’t get out on the hills, homework trouble to sort out

Joanna Loveley…………hmmmmmmmm

pupils in heights according to scores, may need to hack a bit off some if the scores are really low

DrJ. NUFC might let them in

Take your boots and you might get a game!

Go check with the VAT office, they will help.
They are pretty good with this stuff.

In the meantime.

In a business to business transaction I would assume a price of £500 would be exclusive of VAT, whereas a quotation of £500 to a private individual I would assume that it is VAT inclusive.

When I buy anything from a shop VAT is inclusive but shown as a line item on the receipt (works the other way in the US, you get a price then they stick you with Sales Tax!)

Do you have any paperwork at all before the invoice?

Clinging on to a 4 but if I can get out on the hills in the next couple of hours I’ll make it to 11

SC – love the links these two paras made me laugh so much tea came out of my nose!!

A study of the most and least safe places to cycle in Britain, released today, shows that where there are more riders on the roads there is generally a lower accident rate, while in areas less popular for bikes, cycling can be notably more risky.

– Making where I live on a nice Sunday the safest place to cycle in the world (ignoring the regular ambulances and air ambulance!!)

And then, of course, there is the factor that no government directive can change: topography. Like Holland, the areas of England favoured by cyclists also tend to be the flatter ones.

Not round here you clot, the only flat bits we have are at the very bottom of the hills and at the very top, either side of them it is all up or down and you cant move for bikes!!!

No Helmets, let Dariwnism rule. :D

well I was a 10, but it is sliding inevitably towards a 1

would not employ one of them, none, nada, niente I have a 12 year old with better business sense.

Linux has it’s place, and that is in a server room.

Absolute tosh!
I run a businesses which is wholly Linux based with the exception of one Windows box for testing.
We have 5 laptops, 3 desktops, 2 servers all running Suse sweet as a nut and and 2 Asus EEE pcs running a modified version of Linux.

Love Macs but cross compatibility was a pain as was hooooge cost of everything.
Moved over to a PC but hate everything about MS
So ended up with a PC running Linux – love it, absolutely love it, loads of opensource software – office application, photo editing, video editing, email, browsers, etc, etc.
Quick to boot, reliable and virus free – if you have a little know how it makes heaps of sense. Also, no illegal software, all free.

Lyn Peninsular nice hills, very few people and sea all round you.
Rhosneigr on Angelsey to learn to windsurf/kitesurf.

Grew up in Rotherham, so I can empathise!
If you don’t know it, it’s the town they use to demonstrate how fat/ugly/stupid/crime riddled/thick people are – Jamie Oliver/Go ****/Clarkson (James May can’t comment as he was in my year at school but he hides it well)
Now live in the hills which is just as bad – we had a sheep in our garden a month ago – thieving bastard ate everything it could see.

Water with a splash of ribena.
Malt loaf, tracker bars, fig rolls and a bag pf top secret home made trail mix.
All interspersed with tea and toasted teacakes.

It’s quite big, White Peak or Dark?

I do know this, however, your statement was a sweeping generalisation the type of which encourages some idiots to snap windscreen wipers and let tyres down on 4WDs owned by “people who actually need a practical 4WD”. I am sure that you would be pretty pissed off if Jane’s car tyres had been let down in Sheffield (as they have) with a nice note saying it is clogging up the cities roads, when your partner went into labour – “sorry will be there in an hour or so when I have pumped up the tyres!!”. The irony is we seldom go into Sheff but they seldom target the public school run mums because they fight back.

Think you need to check your topography – East Anglia, Lincolnshire most of the South East are all well under 1200ft above sea level.

Spongebob – Member
Actually, let’s take a pop at the people who really do buy a car to pose: 4WD owners.
Gas guzzling polluting cars, way too big for our roads, considerably more dangerous to other road users. All in the name of vanity!!
I see no place for such vehicles unless you genuinely have a towing need, or need very regular offroad access.

What about if you live 1200ft above sea level and get snow every year, I have a VW T3 Syncro and the resident midwife has a 4×4 because some inconsiderate folk want her to attend when their missus drops a sprog on crappy winter nights out back of beyond. They do more than tow caravans and drive on green lanes!!

I would sooner focus attention on the 1.1 dickmobiles driven by the acne riddled yoofs with their baseball caps on at 40deg and with their right arm over the other side of the steering wheel cos “it looks kool” and who insist that their Nova/Clio/Saxo mum’s shopping trolley, which will still handle like aforementioned shopping trolley despite the LEDs and baked bean tin exhaust, can corner like a Lamborghini Murcielago so they test it on every corner in sight.

even better when you are cycling home and they come round a blind bend at 60 only to find themselves on your side of the road, a bike in front of them and nowhere to go – wakners the lot of them.

Going out for a ride to calm down.

Don’t ride of footpaths, just don’t.

hmmm….roger being a verb rather than a noun may sounds a little suspect, but it was adopted after a few nasty gloveless gardening accidents!!

Brilliant, couple of hours only with my 12 year old on his birthday and with a mate who was home before heading for London.
First real outing of the new bike – first real ride of full suspension – oh what have I been missing and disc brakes!! The make you stop!
Bit concerned my 12 yr old is starting to out climb me, he has lungs like Lance Armstrong.

Do adjust your 12 year old son’s brakes so they are always slightly “on”
Don’t answer his question about that scraping sound.

Here ya go fella:
Woodbine Cafe

Sherwood Forest – there last weekend – nice singletrack foresty type stuff, some chances to nip off the main track to lumpy bits as Adey said. And, try to get over towards the nature reserve – nicer riding than on the tarmac woodland trails!
Take the kids to see the Major Oak, bit cheesy but if they are young it’s still fun.

Work a quick trip into Clumber Park if you have time – lots of nice trails – stay away from the visitor centre and you’ll be fine, the long route round the outer edge of the park is a pleasant ride.

My new bike that landed yesterday – RRP£700, paid £180 after discount and via company Cycle Scheme :D

teddies and prams everywhere, it’s utter carnage

1988!! :(

Sorry misread this:

Garden fence needs painting!

Thought it said:

Garden face, needs painting!

8O

use several forum (fora, forii – collective noun please) for work and other “interests” – like this the best – quick clean simple. Leave it alone. :D

As a design exercise I like this:

And just for sheer silliness I like this:

London’s all right. Just think, without it, all the cockneys would be living amongst the rest of us. [:wink:]

Was there last week and didn’t see any, it was full of Aussies and Kiwis explaining how great Oz adn NZ were and how bad the UK was.

AIDS, Ebola, Avian Flu and now Swine Flu – it is likely that human numbers may be controlled by an viral pandemic, but we seem pretty clueless on how to deal with a virus (other than treat the symptoms) so there is little point in worrying.

Having had a friend die of breast cancer 2 weeks ago and another unlikely to see Xmas for the same reason, I have explained to my 2 young boys that there are a whole load more deadly things much closer to home than Swine Flu and they should take care on their bikes, eat sensibly and enjoy every day for what it is.