Hmm, CRC parcel going to be sent back tomorrow, Order placed with Evans instead!

Based on the analogy “If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is”, I’d hold your horses before returning your CRC parcel. At least until you know whether they will honour your orders or not.

FWIW – I’ve ordered some 105 pedals, a 105 cassette, a Charge Knife, a Garmin mount set, a tube, some lube and some road shoes. So I’m hoping Evans do honour the orders 😉 fingers crossed.

Promotional Code:
Promo code: JAN20, £20 off your next purchase of £40 or more. Enter code online or present in store. Excludes gift vouchers, events and memberships, cannot be used in conjunction with any other voucher offer. Offer valid until 8th January 2013

I’m guessing it should be 20% off rather than £20. How long before Evans react?

Anyway excellent PSA thread. Thanks OP.

That’s not stolen, the picture was taken inside a shed.

Unless the picture was taken before he made off with it 😉

Rate my brickie

When I left my parental home, I started going commando. All was fine for 15 years but when my eldest daughter was 5, my wife told me that it was time to start wearing PJ’s.

Apparently it’s not cool to walk to the toilet in the buff with 2 daughters. And I thought my wife was quite liberal!

Have been wearing them for about 18 months now.

I bought my first cycle helmet in 1997 or 1998 but for some reason, I didn’t use a helmet on the slopes. That all changed in Austria (Zell am Zee) in 2004. Whilst boarding I caught a heel edge and flipped myself backwards. I landed on my head and spent 2 days in hospital in Kaprun. When I went boarding the following year, I bought myself a helmet and I have worn one ever since.

Unfortunately the Zell am Zee accident, caused me other long term problems, which a helmet wouldn’t have protected me from. I damaged my C6 vertebrae, so the disc now pushes on my nerves and from time to time I get intense neck, shoulder and upper arm pains on my right side. Physio every couple of months. Luckily I had no long term damage from the head injury though but it could have been worse.

My choice is always to wear a helmet and everybody is entitled to make their own choices. Although I’m sure that in some resorts/countries it is compulsory that children wear helmets?

Dunno why anyone would want to wear skinnies, they look stupid. I remember them back around 1982-83 they looked cool then but there again I was about 13.

Didn’t we call them drainpipes back in the 80’s?

Hi tops here too dd, a couple of pairs of g-star, or some nice brown Firetrap leather boots. Diesel, Firetrap, or g star jeans (not all skinny) and some nice very skinny Voi chinos. Worn with a nice slim fit tee, check shirt, or close fitting jumper

Now that Mike Ashley owns the Firetrap brand, you can pick up Firetrap jeans for about £15 in Sport Direct. Mike Ashley also owns the retailer USC, but at the moment the Firetrap prices haven’t reduced there.

Looks like I’m not the only one let down by Citylink

They will need to clear Brodie fairly quickly in series 3, otherwise he will only play a bit part. It’s not like he will be able to walk down the street, after-all he is now on the “most wanted” list for killing all those people. How much will be be able to do at the log cabin? Fishing, hunting & mountain biking.

Somebody mentioned earlier up the thread, as to why the President wasn’t at the VP’s memorial? I don’t ever remember seeing the President in any episode?

I am still awaiting a delivery from shittylink. The tracking number still shows an expected delivery date of the Wednesday the 19th. I’ve phoned the automated service this morning and the good news is that my parcel will be delivered tomorrow (yup – on Christmas Day). I’ve now been in the queue to speak to a person for 45 minutes. I don’t expect anybody to answer soon.

What is the point in a tracking numbers if the data isn’t accurate?

Just after I posted, they answered my call. I spoke to a lady who seemed totalled f***ed of. I was about to give her the bomber treatment but as she seemed pretty down and as it’s Christmas, I decided that it wouldn’t be in the spirit to go off on one.

FWIW – the package hasn’t even turned up at the local depot, so who knows when I’ll receive it?.

From memory the Limited Edition was a 2000 model. Brochure can be found below, but it does not list the specs. Although the image may help you.

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/v/Manufacturer+Archive/Orange+Archive/Orange+Catalogues/orange_2000_brochure.pdf.html

I had a 1999 Evo2 in slime green and from memory the following spec was standard. I’m guessing some of these would have carried over onto the 2000 model. It gives you a starting point anyway.

Manitou Spyder Forks
WTB rims (WTB Speed rims??? – possibly) with Ritchey Hubs
WTB Velociraptor Tyres
Ritchey Stem
Orange Supercross Bars
Orange Grips
Avid Digit brake levers and calipers (Can’t remember the Digit Number)
Shimano LX shifters
Shimano XT rear mech
Shimano LX front mech
Shimano XT crank
Orange branded seat
Ritchey seatpost

The Golf 7 goes on sale in January. The motoring press are saying lots of favourable things about the car.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/volkswagen/golf/61510/volkswagen-golf-mk7
http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/volkswagen/golf/first-drives/first-drive-review-volkswagen-golf-14tsi-act-140-5dr

Should I buy one?
If it isn’t on your shortlist, then it could be that you’ve got something against Volkswagens, because this is one of the standout cars of this or any other year.

Whist nobody else was looking, they snuck in and made that market their own. That’s why resale values are so high

Surely the secondhand pricing is only going to hold up as long as used bikes are in short supply, and Islabikes’ prices keep increasing steeply?

I totally agree! As Islabikes corner the market and as there are very little other alternatives, that artificially pushes up the resale values. Once other manufacturers start making quality/premium bikes for kids and there is more availability and choice, the Islabikes resale values could drop significantly.

The Early Rider looks to be a decent bike. Unfortunately they only seem to do 16″. Islabikes really have cornered the market for premium kids bikes and I can’t see that changing for the foreseeable future. Whist nobody else was looking, they snuck in and made that market their own. That’s why resale values are so high. Although long term I’m sure the other manufacturers will attempt to get a footing in that market.

Evans and because of their mass coverage and because they are becoming a household name/brand may start to make inroads!

Although looking at the sales speal, they are indicating that all other kids bikes are toys.

Pinnacle Ash 20 Inch Children’s Bike.
Pinnacle children’s bikes are for all-round use and maximising fun. Theyre light and simple, ideal for parents who want small proper bikes[/u] that help children get the most out of cycling at an early age.

So in other words the other bikes they sell are rubbish???

My mates next door neighbour, gave my mate a photo of himself for Christmas a couple of years ago!

The Internet has changed and will continue to change the way we shop. In the 1980’s when I started visiting my LBS, they had what you wanted/needed or didn’t but you had to visit or phone to find out the availability. Google now does this quickly and with prices, so consumers can make quick informed decisions. If fact you had to speak to them to find out if the said part would fit, where as now we can do online research (tech docs, ask other forum members etc).

LBS’s need to change their thinking from that of a bicycle retailer to that of a service provider. You have to give your customers reasons to need or want to come back to you. Rather than discount bikes, why not offer an own brand service plan. For example the customer buys the bike and gets a free 2 or 3 year service plan. Once a year the customer books the bike in for or a once over/safety check, although in all likelihood most customers will forget, so you would need to remind the customers. The service could be a basic safety check and adjustment. All parts that need replacing would have to be paid for by the customer.

Whilst the customer is dropping off/picking up his or her pride of joy they may browse the shop stock and could potentially purchase. You would also make money from the parts you replace. The customer is loyal, through the service plan and if they never come back, you haven’t lost anything as the bike was originally sold with little or no discount.

Halfords offer a 1 year service plan and I’m amazed at the number of my daughters friends parents who buy these plans. I think they cost £20 but if does guarantee that Halfords get plenty of loyal/repeat customers.

This is exactly what the motor industry now does. Customers started to filter off to the independents to get their vehicles serviced, so they needed to think of a way to combat it. So now they sell service plans cheaply or for free and this guarantees loyalty. These service plans include oil and filters but that’s it really. Customers come back and the likelihood of them repurchasing another vehicle from them in the future is also far greater than those customers without service plans. However the service plans give the dealer the chance of upselling additional work, which could be discovered at the free service.

Surpised that courier firms have not realised that folk are generally not in during the day, must cost them going back n forwards redelivering and re-sorting etc. Must be a market for a courier to provide an evening only service employing these owner driver types between say 1700-2230 i reckon the successful delivery rate would go up and many more positive customers.

Isn’t this what Dominos already do?

Thanks for the advice

I would sell them separately. The board length and boot sizes might not be suitable for one person.

The 2011 Ridley Orion 1105B 105[/url] looks good value at Wiggle, as long as they have your size. They only have XS, S and M. Only £932 for a carbon frame with 105 looks a good buy.

I’ll throw another car into the mix. Last month I spent a couple of days in Spain trying the Golf 7. This car will potentially up the anti in that segment and in my opinion the Golf 7 is a better car than the New Mercedes A Class and BMW 1 series. The quality of the materials and the build quality is 1st class.

Although the Golf 7 looks similar to the 6 it is a car is a brand new vehicle. New engines (2 of the cylinders switch off when at cruising speed, which will save loads of fuel – petrol only). New safety features and the interior is well laid out and everything is where it should be. The top of the range infotainment system is fantastic (standard on the GT, I think). The screen works like smart phones. You can scroll, enlarge etc. it also reads geotags, so if you uploaded a photo with a geotag, the Sat Nav will be able to take you straight there.

I drove the GT with DSG and I was very impressed with the car. Volkswagen are so confident that if people test drive the new Golf they will probably buy one.

The car will also have class leading residuals with 47% after 3 years. The current Golf is at 40%, the New A Class 46% and the 1 series is about 43% (from memory). The new car will only be a couple of hundred pounds more than the outgoing 6.

The motoring press seem to love it as well and in one magazine last week (Autocar or Autoexpress) the only fault they could find was that the air con temperature display was a little on the small side.

The dealers will have their demonstrators before the end of the year and the car is due to go on sale in early January, so before the OP does anything, I would suggest getting a test drive in one of these.

I am a Golf fan but this new car is really very good. . I’ll certainly be looking to get a GTI or GTD when they arrive later in 2013.

Edited bit: this may not be important to some people but I thought it was an excellent idea – when you need more room in the boot and need to remove the parcel shelf, you will be able to store it under the floor in the boot rather than in your garage. Just a really simple idea

29er colour here (2011)

Although looking at the new price for the 26er (£6199) is must be stolen! If you were selling that you would make it really personal. How long you’ve had it, where you bought it, how you looked after it. You wouldn’t just copy and paste. Not on a £6000 bike!

That’s not a 29r.

Good spot! Even more reason to think it’s dodgy!

The Office of Government Commerce.

Probably spend a fortune on this logo a few years ago and yet nobody every turned it through 90 degrees! Or the designers were having the last laugh?

PS – The school kids will probably love this one.

The Government had to backtrack quickly after the logo was launched

The OGC Website No Longer Exists
Please Use The Links Below For Further Information

New information can be found on the Cabinet office website: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/
Archived OGC information

folks can do what the hell they like with their own money and health in the case of smoking as far as I’m concerned

in the cases of both smoking and drinking though it isn’t just their own health that’s being affected is it? Also health conditions caused by enjoying both these pastimes affect all tax-payers financially.

I remember a story about this on BBC Breakfast about 5 years ago and the story seemed to indicate otherwise.

The story was about the effects on the economy of banning smoking altogether. If the government banned smoking it would cost us more as taxpayers and from memory they said that smokers paid significant amounts of tax, which helps top up the governments coffers. Yes they do cost more in health care but these health care costs tend to be short term. The government also benefit as smokers tend to die earlier and therefore the government pay less out in pension payments.

The story basically mentioned that if smoking was banned,everybody would end up paying more tax. The tax income from cigarettes would dry up immediately but it would take 50 years for all smoking related illnesses to reduce/disappear.

Is that an S-Works Venge? If so £259 is an absolute bargain.

Swearing is just a bad habit, lazy use of language, displays a lack of self-control and an inability to express yourself intelligently

Is it? Or could it be that society (Governments/law makers/religious bodies) tells us that certain words are unacceptable and some more than others. For example in the UK swearing in public can be seen as an offense against section 5(1) and (6) of the Public Order Act 1986.

When we were growing up, we learn’t various words and because society told us they are wrong, we used these words in front of mates! I guess an element of this was us trying to show how big and clever we were in front of friends!

Now why doesn’t society just de-classify swear words and allow their full integration into the English language and dictionaries. I’m sure if swear words were seen as acceptable, then their use may also reduce. After all these swear words are just made from the vowels and consonants in our language. How can “piss” be classed as offensive?

Although if that were to happen, I guess people would just create new words that would be seen as offensive!

Whenever I sync my “iPhone” I seem to get the same songs staying on my playlist, Is there a way of changing the playlist apart from clicking on the songs I want.

Create a Smart Playlist. You decide on the Smart parameters and whenever you sync it should change the songs.

For example – I’ve created a Smart playlist which includes songs that haven’t been played in the last 6 months. When I listen it to this playlist, the song then is recently played and when I next sync the playlist is updated.

You can create Smart with numerous parameters. Ie artist, year, least often played, genre, etc etc etc

I also found this:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/verenti-insight-105-2013/

After hiring a Trek 1.1 for 2 weeks in Spain earlier this year, my head has been turned. I’m also considering my 1st road bike (I never saw this coming!). Whilst I don’t know too much about road bikes, I have been considering the Ridley Orion with 105 components. Wiggle are selling these off at £985 ish.

However today I received an email from Wiggle about the Verenti Insight 105. After a bit of googling it looks like the Verenti is basically Wiggles own brand but the frame (and bike) appear to be made by Ridley.

So for £1056 I can have the Verenti with a FSA chain set rather than the Ridley with either a 105 or Shimano R565 chain set. Other than that their doesn’t seem to be much different between the bikes. Even the geometry is the same.

I guess the difference would be in resale values in the future!

With regard to Sally Bercow and her twitter account. She apparently released the name of the school girl, who ran off with her teacher to France and she could now be fined £5000 for a contempt of court!

Now I remember when it was on the news about 2 months ago and the school girl was named everyday whilst she was missing. So why the secret now? Or was the name used not her real name?

Insurance company therefore has right to shaft you for whatever they lost gambling in stocks and shares

I remember reading somewhere recently that Direct Line lose or lost money on their insurance business and the only reason they make a profit is because of their investments.

Edited: it wasn’t Direct Line but Admiral

Elsewhere, Admiral, another insurer which posted results yesterday, said revenue dropped 2pc to £570m.
Soaring claims from personal injuries such as whiplash has meant the UK motor insurance market hasn’t made an underwriting profit for about 15 years and relies on other income, such as investment returns, according to the Association of British Insurers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/insurance/9651515/Direct-Line-profits-hurt-amid-competitive-market.html

Sold for £62. Now for a carbon S-Works BSO that really is a bargain. 😉

Although looking at the components that the seller bought for the bike on eBay, he seems to be out of pocket. Shame!

Crank Set £17.90
Chain £6.79
Carbon Fibre Vinyl Wrap £2.89
Grips £5.95
BB Bearing £2.95
Jagwire Outer £1.58
Lacquer Aerosol £6.25
Rockshox stickers £1.62
S Works stickers £5.40
V Brake Pads £3.99
Shimano Shifters £22.79
Total £78.11

And that’s before eBay take their cut. I guess he was really hoping that some unsuspecting buyer would pay big for a S-Works.

The insurance group says its statistics show that drivers who have attended a course, pose a higher risk.

Strange as the whole principle behind speed awareness is that enforcements doesn’t work, whilst education does!

Parked up on my way to work and strode with a certain amount of anticipation. Went to open the door and… closed. Opening hours 9 to 5.

Obviously a lifestyle/hobby business for the owner (Who is probably a yummy mummy herself).

A coffee shop that doesn’t open until 9am – I can’t see it succeeding long term with those hours. It is probably closed at weekends as well?

OH is a regional manager for car dealers and has worked for several major car manufacturers – it’s a piss poor business model, you’d make more selling the dealership and putting the money in a post office savings account.

As a Volkswagen UK employee, I often wonder why the investors and business owners actually invest in the retail motor trade because as the poster above mentioned, you could sometimes get a better return by putting your money elsewhere.

Volkswagen want and need profitable retailers because if they are not profitable they won’t stay in business and therefore wont be able to sell new cars and that would impact on Volkswagen’s ambition to have a 10% market share in the UK.

Volkswagen expect and want the network to make a 2.5% Return on Sales. Unfortunately the network are only averaging about half of that!

The front end margin on new cars varies but is averages around 10% but this quickly disappears as the market is so competitive and therefore RRP discounting is fairly common. They also over allow on part exchanges (paying more than they are really worth) and in truth most retailers make nothing on new vehicles. However as other posters have mentioned, the retailers can earn back end bonuses for achieving certain sales and satisfaction levels.

The back end bonus that the network can earn is currently 14.5%, although in truth most retailer don’t earn all of this. They would get a certain % for sales satisfaction, another % for service satisfaction, another % for hitting the new car sales target (this will only apply from 2013), another % for renewals customers etc

However in truth nearly all retailer make ZERO from selling new cars and the only reason they probably stay in business is because their used car operations and after sales departments are profitable. However if they didn’t have a new car sales operation the general public would only see them as a “Used Car Dealer”.

With regard to the poster whose neighbour claims they are getting Insignia’s with a 50% margin, I suspect that is complete BS. After all because the market is competitive their dealers would very quickly end up selling the vehicles at a little over cost. That would effect their used car stock values and the overall market value of Insignia’s and very quickly customers would realise that these vehicles deprecate like stones. Why would anybody continue to buy a vehicle that depreciates so quickly? I suspect all the cheap 6 month old Insignia’s are probably ex hire cars, as the hire companies get massive discounts with guaranteed buy back prices. These end up on forecourts at massive discounts over new vehicles.

Finally and FWIW, I can buy new cars directly from Volkswagen at a staff discount. I get these vehicles at the landing cost and this is typically between 20-25% off the RRP.

And the down tube and top tube seem tobe made from Carbon 😉

Upon closer inspection, I can confirm that the saddle is Specialized. That’s about it though!

the frame number was checked on the specialized site and it came back as being a 2002 model d/h

Strange as I can’t find that part of the Specialized website!

This is a 2002 Specialized Hardrock FSR and it certainly doesn’t look like the one for sale.

2002 Bighit……again a miss!

Shame some unsuspecting person will buy the BSO thinking its a Specialized.

I would say the suspension forks are probably a bit of unnecessary extra weight, especially as they are a bit stiff for her weight and barely move.

I would say most forks on kids bikes are there for cosmetic reasons rather than functional reasons