Same thing happened to me this year (similar pricing in fact) with a user of this forum no less..

I convinced myself that it was the perfect bike (obvs) so extremely begrudgingly continued with the purchase after making an offer higher than the final auction price. Transaction went fairly well after that, still not sure I made the right choice though..

eBay are a bunch of thieving charlatans however. Pray to god you never get caught up in the infinite loop of overseas customer ‘services’ and the downright lies they will peddle you when trying to get a refund you are entitled to.
They’ve earned literally thousands off me over the years, but I never saw the £20 back that they owed me.

Bingo.
Thanks, i think i’ll give that a try

Does the 105 RD work with the 11-34 cassette though? It’s stated as max 32

So, i may have possibly potentially accidentally bought the exact same bike..

Can’t wait to get my hands on it. Talk to me about ratio’s jonnyboi..

I’m planning on an 11-32 cassette swap with Mid cage mech – is 105 the only/best option here?
And chainrings, how low can you go, and how close do both rings need to be in size?

Main bug bear is seeming lack of MTB drive-train compatibility with the 105 shifters.

C’mon STW, let’s see yours then

Wait, tortoise tables?

When i changed from a Truvativ stem to an Easton Haven 6 years ago, i noticed a massive difference in stiffness.

I get excited when I look at my Easton stem too.

GRR!! Which one was that? Winter? Spring? It’s an English comedy SERIES!

Perseasonally, I prefer to use the moniker ‘season’ now, as British TV largely churns out tripe – and i’ve become accustomed to watching Season after Season of US shows.
I love nothing more than to munch on a packed of lightly seasoned snacks whilst devouring each SEASON.

SEASON.

Season.

Malvern Rider – that vid is great.

Grrrin and bear it. You don’t want to be a party pooper scooper. Fetch the courage to follow the leads above, and em-bark on a brave new you.

They’ll probably think you’re a good dog-egg for asking.

First season was best.

feeling mislead

Occasional humorous quips, some decent comedy acting from the chubby faced fella – but the whole things feels a bit ‘Dr Who’ in production value.
Funny that.
(or not).

I’m a firm believer that one should have no fear when it comes to moving around/relocating. In your situation, with similar wages on offer and strong existing ties to the north then its a no-brainer. Give it a go!

You’ll likely have a higher LTV ratio on your next purchase so the only financial ‘concern’, as such, would be seeing houses in Sussex potentially rising in price at a faster rate than the equivalent up north. I fear that Brexit is already eroding some of that difference. And besides, what would make you think you’d be desperate to come back to Sussex/down south at any point?

Quality of life wins every time. I hope it works out for you, good luck.

Padhraig

I like the cut of this fellas jib. A good tail told well.

I love Sussex. What’s not doing it for you?

Where do the seemingly more sensitive folk draw the mandatory other-people’s-pet-welfare-responsibility line? Rabbit? Gerbil? Spider?

I thought furball warning deserved better tbh.

am hopeful that someday very soon we’ll see a female F1 driver competing in actual races

and Shemales!

Unfortunately its the main risk of cat ownership, and in the modern fast paced world its largely unavoidable.

For whom the Tinkerbell tolls.

A to own.
B for top trumps.

It’s a bit like 911’s, the superfast/GT3 ones take the accolades – but i’d have a 60s/70s brown or green & chrome trimmed beauty all day long.

instantly recognisable as a Jag

If I’d not laid eyes on one before i’d probably have said Toyota or Mazda. Lotus at a push.

Was it Coogan, Elton or Mr Bean that interfaced one with a tree?

How are they fixed in place? If you remove them does it leave useless mounting points behind?

All for them in principle, but a hidden fixing would be my preference

Purrfect apology there Burchill, no need to have kittens over it – consider the critical responses above a furball warning.

Hope the OP is feline better after what is a bad stroke of lucky – I hope you are able to get on with your 9 lives.
Lets also paws for a moment to consider the paw owners feelings too, it’s a shame there was no collar/ID markings on the cat as you would’ve at least been able to pop an apologetic note through their litter box.

If you need any further support feel free to PM meow.

I haven’t really set a budget as i’m scared to check pricing.
I’ll google your pair whilst im sitting comfortably..

It was going so well…

Dodge Viper engined, was ‘treated’ to 150mph experience in that one.

Love the history of the F40. But yeah, the romance and daftness of the Countach wins it for me.
My dream car is ‘slightly’ more humble though, I’d pick the bag o’shite DeLorean. Like Stumpy says, it’s about fulfilling your kid dreams. Flux capacitors and all.

that gif of the woman getting smashed on the face by a watermelon. bloody hell, that could have killed her!

Its so wrong to laugh at it, but I can’t stop watching it!

She cantaloupted herself in the face.

Right in the smacker! OOSHH!

I’m sorry, you’ve what now??

The benefits of a wealthy former car dealing uncle. Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of trying out his Countach, Diablo SV, Continental GT, 358, Phantom, Chrysler 300 SRT8.. shall I go on? :)

All great experiences (despite barely being able to squeeze into the GT cockpit), although, one that I possibly enjoyed most was the JCW Mini (!) – that thing was a real world ballistic go-kart, utterly driveable and totally grin inducing.

I’ve got a Lambo/Ferarri track day coming up next summer – can’t wait to to thrash one in open space!

And even just these few responses have highlighted my dilemma …

I think you may possibly be overthinking it. I ride the SDW area and am aiming to pick up a gravel bike mainly because I want one/N+1 etc.
The idea is to link up the easier trails/BWs with longer stretches of pot holed roads in order to create fast’ish 20-30mile loops – then pull out the hardtail for pure trail riding.
I also intend to ride to the footie more often, which is a 40mile roundtrip, but made more direct with the ability to cross a couple of off-road sections rather than keep purely to the busy roads on my road bike.

I could do all of the above on my current bikes, but I wants a gravel bike.
YOLO. etc.

OP – do you leave the ‘gift aid’ box un-ticked to help prevent the scourge of tax dodging charities?

I’ve driven a Countach. Horrid horrid thing to manoeuvre at slow speed, and so loud in the cabin that you have to wear earplugs at all times.

Still an absolutely bonkers brilliant car. Modern day manufacturers must wish they could have half an iota of the Countach impact when they release their new designs.

Where are these horror stories? I’ve not come across any.

Have been riding carbon bars for best part of 15 years and never had any issue – and i’m a lard-ass. I’d imagine that Alu bars aren’t impervious to over tightening either.

No damage either, which annoys me.

Have to agree there.

I got married in Guildford.

I’m divorced now. Just saying.

I genuinely don’t get the nay-sayers. Have they actually tried the stuff? Lovely salty savoury flavour and a good texture. I like it at room temp as well as ‘fridge-cold’.
Lashings of brown sauce for me, or piccalilli if feeling posh.

I used to make a student spag-bol using big square chunks of the stuff gently stirred into a herby tomato base sauce, keep heating till the chunks begin to brake down and tuck in.
Divine. As are the gaseous emissions post-gluttony.

Was in a very similar boat to OP until recently.

Luckily picked up a cheap PS4 Pro as I wanted to try out HDR gaming on a new huge telly – then thanks to STW hive managed to pick up a new copy of Gran Turismo for £18.

I was hugely disappointed by the last PS3 GT offering, I feared the worst when GT was reduced so quickly on the PS4.

Fear not, its excellent. It looks amazing on a big screen, and I’ve been hooked since starting playing.
Do you need to go online to play? – No. But it will expand your fun by at least 100%. The standard single player mode is great, albeit on a smaller scale then previous GT titles – but very easy to get into.

Going online is brilliant. Only downside is I sometimes have to wait up to 10mins for a match-up to be confirmed due to the seemingly pedestrian game lobby, but its worth the wait. Nothing compares to a frantic 25minute full on race in which you pip Pedro or Hanz to 3rd place on a final corner apex of perfection.

I have an old PS3 and on the very rare occassion that id fire it up I found that the online support and gameplay was no longer there (on my old titles at least).
On PS3, CoD Modern Warfare was hands down my favourite title, and I also enjoyed CoD World at War very much, so I have high hopes for CoD WWII on PS4.
I’ll eventually pick up a cheap copy of GTA too – but I have plenty of time to continue to get into Gran Turismo (and its pending expansion pack) and CoD first.

No doubt I’ll get bored and stop using it in about 6 months time, but for now at least, im finding it a great bit of kit.

In summary, your main question of ‘is the PS4 so much better?’
No, I think the gap between them is much smaller than I had hoped – but I think thats down to my Nintendo-Sega-8-bit origins and expecting a sea change on overy new console release.
The gaps are smaller now on new releases, but the difference is concentrated on home hub/media playback.
You are future proofing to a degree with a PS4, its not backwards compatible with PS3 titles though (unless playing online via PlayNow) – plus the online gaming content is going to be much better on a PS4.

I’ll have a Brand-X lever available new within the next 24hrs or so – I ordered an Ascend XL in the sale and will be using my Easton lever with it.

PM me if you’d be interested in it.

no worries! I’ll be keeping an eye out for a sub £1500 price either way. Would happily take a lower spec version for £1200!

I’ve been following the Space Chicken and there’s no way it ever went to £1199

I think you’re right, it was possibly a Force/Rival/spec mix up.
I’m still keen, I think I’ll wait to see what happens with pricing/models on offer in the new year and possibly treat myself for my 40th.

Or I might do something I enjoy instead

The internet told me I’d enjoy it.
I want my money back.

Complaining about it is the best way to address the balance. If something really is below par and over-hyped, it deserves slander.