SUV is the vehicle most in the wrong here though

It’s impossible to know for certain whether it was the van or SUV driver (or both) that was in the wrong. Even the OP could not know without a rear pointing video camera on his bike.

Assuming that the SUV could not see the OP, the big question is whether or not the van driver indicated to overtake the OP. If he/she did (and did so early enough), then the SUV driver was at fault. If the van driver didn’t indicate (and the SUV driver did), then the van driver was at fault (especially if they failed to check their mirror and see the SUV behind indicating to overtake them).

On balance, the van driver failing to check the mirror or to indicate before pulling out to overtake the OP, is probably a more likely scenario than the SUV driver seeing the van indicate right and deciding to just go for it anyway and squeeze in whatever gap might be available to overtake.

jag61, what will be the general nature of occupation or use of the building?

Slowster – ain’t no-one going to put there name to a pile bearing in or using skin friction within made ground. If some one builds on a pile bearing in some who-knows-what made ground the. I would suggest that getting insurance is the least of their worries.

A particular case I was involved with probably is probably costing the company millions, but I know that getting insurance was definitely not the least of their worries, since if the movement increases it might cost tens of millions, potentially in the worst case upwards of £100M.

I realise that not getting subsidence insurance for such premises may seem minor, but it is potentially a huge issue, and something which could kill a project dead when a board realises the uninsured financial risk that will hang over the company for most of the projected lifespan.

Re: insurance as above, the ground stuff is built on these days if that was a real issue nothing would be built or nothing would be insured.

Subsidence is a standard insured peril in commercial insurance policies, but equally subsidence of made up ground, e.g. former landfill sites, is a standard exclusion in every insurance policy.

I suspect that this is only not a ‘real issue’ most of the time, because businesses don’t realise that their premises are on made up ground and so don’t realise (i.e. insufficient due diligence) that the exclusion will mean that any claim for subsidence may well be declined. Even if they do know it’s made up ground, they would need to appreciate that could affect their cover and they would need to communicate that to their broker and ask for the exclusion to be removed. I don’t think it’s unusual for that not to happen, and I also think that the chances of getting the exclusion removed are slim if the asset value/revenue generation/criticality is high and the pilings do not extend below the depth of the made up ground.

jag61, what is the nature of your project? Crucially what will be the value of the structure and value/revenue/criticality of the operations/activities it will accommodate/undertake?

What would be the impact of ground movement on the structure/contents/machinery/operations?

Even if you have had reports by geo-techical engineers, be extremely wary of placing reliance on any assurances that future movement would be limited to a given maximum: I would expect any expert to limit their potential liability if they are proved wrong by careful caveats in the report, and even if they were liable, the amount of any Professional Indemnity insurance cover they may have may be only a fraction of the potential losses.

Lastly, if the above is not enough to make you think again and deter you, I would add that you should not be surprised if you/your employer/client finds it impossible to get insurance cover for subsidence. Even if they were lucky and found that their insurer would give cover this year, the annual nature of insurance contracts means that that could easily change at renewal.

TL;DR

Don’t do it unless it’s very low asset value/revenue generation/criticality.

The Spanish Consitution was written shortly after the end of a repressive right wing dictatorship which had itself come to power through a bloody and divisive civil war. A majority of the Catalans and Basques supported the (losing) left wing side in the civil war, and Franco punished them for it, including suppressing their languages and cultures.

It’s not suprising that after the death of Franco, and given the uncertainty surrounding the future and the risk of another civil war or right wing coup by the military like this one or this one, that a majority voted for the new constitution to commit Spain to being a democracy and to bind the country together.

However, with the passage of time the situation changes. In the aftermath of dictatorships there is often an amnesty for the criminal actions of those who were in power (or a tacit acceptance by many people not to prosecute them), in order not to threaten a fragile democracy, but later when the democracy and its insitutions are stronger those criminals are often finally arrested and prosecuted, e.g. Serbia, Chile and Argentina.

In the same way, it’s not surprising that a significant percentage of Catalonians now feel the time is right to assert a desire for independence, or at least a referendum on the issue. If their political representatives win a majority in their regional parliament, it is undemocratic for the central government to use the constitution as a trump card to permanently block that, and effectively insist that the constitution means that everything is set in stone for time immemorial and can never be revisited. That itself is just another dictatorship; only this time it’s the democratic form: a dictatorship of the minority by the majority.

Moreover, Rajoy and his right wing government, which has been mired in a major corruption scandal and which is the inheritor of the support that did exist in Spain for Franco, are probably the worst people to have in power in this situation. The issue has given them an opportunity to exploit the situation for narrow party and individual political gain, since they can use it to drum up support from the majority of Spanish who do not want the country split.

this sounds like a good option. give the old man a smile.

Agreed.

I think you need to consider how much cash you might get for the bike now (and the value of that money to you depending on your current financial position) vs. the value either to you and your dad of having the bike at your parents’ house and both of you being able to derive enjoyment from it, and/or the value to you and your family of your wife/children being able to use it in future.

Are you likely to want to go to a trail centre in future with your children? If so, what would be the cost of a hire bike for them compared with the money you would get for the Kona? If you go to somewhere with uplift, then the weight would not matter much.

We previously had…brake levers too small to comfortably support your hands, so it was more comfortable to ride on the drops

That is simply not true. 30 odd years ago riding on the hoods was the norm, and there was only one person in our club who rode on the drops most of the time.

we also had adjustable height quill stems and saddle to bar drop wasn’t as big.

It is not as simple as that. For many pros the levers themselves were lower by virtue of typically being mounted furthest forward on the curve, which meant that the top and the ramps were higher (giving a wider – arguably better – range of different positions than modern bars with the hoods, ramps and tops all at the same level). Non racers tended to rotate the levers up closer to the ramps.

Certainly the shape of bars has evolved in conjunction with other changes to the ergonomics of the bike and STI/Ergolever shape, and deep drop bars like Cinelli Model 66 used by Lemond and (I think) Merckx have virtually disappeared, as has the use on the road (as opposed to the track) of the type like Cinelli Model 65 used by Sean Kelly which was supposed to be preferred by sprinters because the curve started further in on the tops, resulting in the ramps being less in the way of the forearms when sprinting with hands on the drops. The fact that modern sprinters don’t require similar bars probably just goes to show that a lot of this was convention and fashion, and that’s probably just as true today (except where a change has been driven by rigorous scientific tests, such as in a wind tunnel).

Assuming a similar price point to the Specialized, how about the Kalkhoff Durban.

– Nexus 7 speed hub gear and Hebie chainglider should mean minimal maintenance and long lifespan for the transmission.

– Schwalbe 700×42 tyres

– Dynamo hub, lights include standlight function

– Mudguards, rack and stand

It’s got V brakes rather than discs, but given the likely style of riding on a flat barred commuter with panniers (and ordinary clothes?), I don’t think that should be a dealbreaker.

If anything I imagine Dr Tony Hockley’s ridiculous comments will only serve to undermine the credibility of the Commoners Defence Association with the public and other organisations. I suspect that many in the Forestry Commission and the New Forest District Council welcome the CDA making such patently over the top statements for publication in the media, because it shows everyone what a blinkered, narrow minded and selfish special interest group they are.

In particular, my experience of riding in the Forest in daylight and hours of darkness is that this statement is completely untrue:

The risk of animals being spooked is higher at night

The ponies are most likely to be spooked if they are ‘surprised’, i.e. they’ve got their heads down grazing by the roadside and only notice a cyclist, runner etc. when they draw level with the horse. At night, cycle lights and runners’ head torches mean that the horses are aware of their presence from a distance and so are not spooked by them when they get closer.

they could run across a road or accidentally run into barbed wire.

This is an even more ridiculous statement. Logically the event would use the gravel tracks in the Forest, which are generally well segregated from the roads by fences and gates. The Forestry Commission fences are not barbed wire (I suspect the only barbed wire in the Forest is around private farmland, which the event is unlikely to go anywhere near).

For an academic, Dr Tony Hockley seems remarkably incapable of sensible reasoned critical thinking. The more silly statements like this he and the CDA put out, the more people will cease to pay them any regard.

the expanding section will dig in between the two layers of plaster board

For that to happen, there would need to be quite a large gap between the two sheets of plasterboard. If there is an insufficient gap such that a good part of the expanding section of the bolt is inside the hole drilled in the inner sheet of plasterboard, then I suspect it may not work (the plasterboard around the expanding section will prevent it expanding properly).

geetee1972, there is something genuinely disturbing in the lengths which you have gone to on this thread to justify your statements and by implication your own attitudes to women. Normal self-doubt means that most people, when they find they are so out of step with what people around them are saying, will usually stop and think and ask themselves whether they are wrong, and there will be a period of reflection and introspection. They might ask questions to clarify what others are saying, but they are otherwise fairly quiet.

Your response to being told by pretty much every other person on this thread that you are wrong, has been to seek evidence and and construct arguments to justify your views, going to quite obsessive lengths with some of your ‘analysis’, statistical and otherwise.

But, and I mean this sincerely since I almost certainly have a blind spot somewhere, can we do this.

Your desire to keep this thread running and discussing you/your views and beliefs, itself seems to me to be unhealthy. Rather than persisting in posting on this thread, I suggest you read the Mumsnet thread linked to earlier on, and then read it again. There are probably other similar threads on Mumsnet that you can find detailing women’s experience of rape and sexual abuse – read them. While you are reading, try to imagine what it must be like for them. Take some time to think about that. Until you have done so, I would suggest you don’t post any more on this thread.

johnpeopleman, you are close to the bottom of Kinesis’ (new) suggested height for a 54cm, and I suspect you probably could get a 51cm to fit you. As to which is likely to be the better fit, I think that really depends on the rider, their own personal preferences, and the use/style of riding. I think if you were looking for a bike to match an aggressive road racing set up on the road, then smaller might be better, but for touring/bikepacking etc. I suspect the 54cm may be the better bet.

the front end will be significantly higher than my Yukon

In my case, despite being at the top of the new suggested heights for my V1 54cm frame, I found that the bars with supplied stem were still significantly higher than my other bikes. I ended up switching to a 17 degree stem (Bontrager Elite 17 degree) flipped over (so it is virtually horizontal) to get the bars at the height I wanted. So that might be an option for you, if after building it up and riding it for a while you do find that the front end is too high on the 54cm. I used this website to work out what the effect would be of different stem lengths, rises and amount of spacers, in order to determine which stem to buy.

If you ride mostly on the hoods, changing the position of the levers on the bars can also have a significant impact on the effective height of the front end as it were, so you could just use electrical tape to secure the cables to the bars to begin with, and experiment with moving the levers before taping the bars

Without knowing the insurer and their pricing structure/model, it’s impossible to say definitively that this is wrong, but this statement is likely to be completely uninformed bollocks.

So you don’t know then, neither do I which is why I said ‘likely’ and is certainly something to bear in mind.[/quote]

I caveated my comments carefully, whereas you made a fairly sweeping unsubstantiated assertion that her premium would be ‘likely’ to increase, which implies a greater than 50% probability, which is not the case. Unless you have worked in the industry, I do know better than you because of my background and experience. So

– No, it isn’t ‘likely’ that her premium would increase as a consequence of making a claim for this incident.

– Yes, it is ‘likely’ that your statement is completely uninformed bollocks.

Your plumber should have public liability insurance for this. Don’t use yours why on earth should you?

For the same reason that it’s best to claim against your own insurance policy when some someone damages your vehicle. Namely you are the customer of your insurer. You have a contract with your insurer and have paid them money. A third party’s insurer owes you nothing, and is much more likely to play hardball in negotiations, e.g. “that’s our offer, if you don’t like it, you’ll have to take us (or more correctly our customer) to court”. A third party’s liability insurer will not be bothered if you are unhappy about their slowness, their delay in replying to emails or returning telephone calls etc.

Moreover, liability insurance is limited to legal liability. If an item is damaged, the liability insurer may well seek to limit any payment by deducting for wear and tear. So if a 10 year old carpet with a likely lifespan of 20 years is damaged, they will probably offer only 50% of the cost of a new carpet. In contrast, household insurance policies are typically ‘new for old’ cover, so the policyholder would expect to get an equivalent brand new replacement carpet.

I am self employed accidents happen and that’s why we have insurance.

You have liability insurance to protect YOU, not your customers.

Just be aware that going through your insurer will mean losing your no claims discount

No claims discount is a feature of motor insurance. I imagine that a small minority of household insurers might advertise a no claims discount, but any discount will be minor (unlike with motor insurance), and you would probably be able to find another insurer that didn’t offer a so called no claims discount whose base price was cheaper anyway, i.e. it’s likely just to be marketing.

your policy cost will likely go up at renewal due to having made a claim.

Without knowing the insurer and their pricing structure/model, it’s impossible to say definitively that this is wrong, but this statement is likely to be completely uninformed bollocks.

As a general rule of thumb, insurers will tend to penalise claims histories that are indicative of a higher risk of further claims. So they are more likely to increase the price at renewal if there have been multiple small claims (especially if they are indicative of carelessness where cover is for ‘accidental damage’) as opposed to a single large claim for a clearly fortuitous event (e.g. fire). The length of time for which you have been insured by that company can also be a factor: two claims in ten years is a better claims experience than two claims (or even a single claim) when you have only been insured with that company for one year.

Lastly, where the damage is the result of someone else’s negligence, as here, and the insurance company makes a recovery, I would be amazed if they then used the incident to justify increasing the premium (and would expect any insurer to back down very quickly if they tried than and were challenged).

Edit: thanks for more replies. I really want to settle this amicably but would get heavy handed if necessary.

I would advise you to go via your own insurers. This incident is exactly what you have paid for to insure against. You are their customer, and they will be far more prompt and responsive to you, than if you try to deal direct with your plumber’s public liability insurer.

A word of warning – if your plumber says don’t bother going through insurance, he will fix it and pay for things to be replaced or dried, you could have problems later on if you are unhappy with what the plumber proposes, e.g. he wants to replace the carpet with one that is a bit cheaper, or persuade you to accept cleaning a damaged item when something really needs to be replaced instead. It may be difficult to change your mind and then make a claim against your household insurance: the delay will have ‘prejudiced’ their position (harder to establish the validity of the claim if items thrown away and repairs made, and making a recovery from the plumber/his insurer will be more problematic if you have already been negotiating with him direct). Worst case scenario is that your insurers might even turn down such a late claim notification. If you are determined to deal direct with your plumber, I would at the very least suggest you call your insurers and tell them about it: they might be more amenable to accepting a claim later on if (when) your negotiations with the plumber break down.

Contact your house insurer (buildings insurer for the building fabric like plasterboard and decorations, contents insurer for carpet and loose items, obviously life is simpler if they are the same company). They will probably appoint a loss adjuster, but either they or the adjuster will be able to give advice over the phone (or direct you to a website giving advice) about temporary emergency action etc.

Their experts should be able to tell what can be repaired/salvaged vs. what will need to be replaced. Keep any damaged items, like carpet etc., for them to inspect: don’t throw them away until they have been inspected.

Edit to add – leave it to your insurers to pursue your plumber (or rather his own public liability insurer) to get their money back.

TiRed, part of the reason for my interest in your planned build is because I am also planning a custom steel fixed, albeit with mudguards and a steel fork.

However, I think my component choices may be a lot more straightforward than yours if you plan to have rear spacing to allow conversion from fixed to derailleur, even more so if you also plan to swap between single and double chainsets (unless you would change the bottom bracket each time you convert to/from gears). It sounds like it could be a very interesting project.

end of April…None of us are mountaineers/climbers – just like walking in hilly areas.

Have you checked what the typical weather/temperatures and snowline are at that time of year in the places you have shortlisted?

Without checking myself, I would have thought that the southern Medditerranean would be a better bet for the weather and conditions at that time of year, e.g. Sicily as per Alpin’s suggestion, Corsica or Greece. For me, the food would make Sicily the most attractive option.

TiRed, that sounds very nice. I presume you’ve seen the fixed frames/bikes on Rourke’s gallery – I especially like the polished rear ends on the 953 frames.

Drivetrain…will be shiny

Sugino, Dura Ace or Campag Record (like the blue singlespeed on Rourke’s gallery)? Bottom bracket choice might not be entirely straightforward to get both the chainline right and get reasonable quality sealing on the bearings for road use. SKF would be perfect, but they only do 111mm in ISO taper, not the 109mm required for square taper Sugino or Dura Ace. Royce maybe, or possibly Phil Wood?

Wheels handbuilt probably with the new open pros.

I like Mavic, but I’m not so sure about the aesthetic of the the new rims and the change of the rim depth around the spoke holes, other possibilities might be HED Belgium or H Plus Son TB14 in the grey anodising. More importantly however, shiny drivetrain and brakes calls for shiny hubs – again Royce maybe? (Harry Rowland likes building with Royce hubs). That said, Royce hubs (and Phil Wood for that matter) apparently are not compatible with the best EAI sprockets, although you could always get a Royce sprocket.

Incidentally, there’s no need to go for a track hub for the front, a Royce Ultralite front hub with a Royce QR skewer would be perfect, and I’m sure Cliff will be willing to sell me you a single skewer.

vickypea, I presume that your counselling sessions will be trying to identify the root cause(s) of why you feel extremely depressed at times. I suspect that your very driven approach to work, cycling and life of always giving it 100% may itself be a symptom, e.g. maybe focusing very hard on whatever you are doing at the time to shut out other thoughts, or possibly seeking to be the best at whatever you are doing to compensate for feelings of extreme dissatisfaction with some other aspect of life, or possibly seeking approval from some notional third party.

Unfortunately, that driven approach to everything doesn’t work. By that I mean it may make you very good at your job, it may mean you live a very full life, and it may make you an extremely fit cyclist, but it doesn’t fix the underlying cause of why you may be unhappy or depressed.

Instead, I suspect that after a period of going so hard and flat out, the resulting burn out (as you describe it) leaves you more vulnerable to being depressed, both because you are then physically, mentally and emotionally run down, but also because of the disappointment that going so hard for so long has still not/yet again failed to fix the underlying problem.

I have hesitated about posting the above comments (internet diagnosis, cod psychology and all that), and I may be completely wide of the mark and if so I can only apologise, but I have done so because I have two concerns, and I felt it necessary to post those comments to explain why.

Firstly, some of us have been suggesting you re-evaluate your life and consider making some very major changes. My concern is that unless you are confident that you know what the underlying root cause(s) are of why you feel and act as you do, then you are not yet in a position to make such a re-evaluation of your life, and it would be premature at such a stage to make a major life change like quitting your job. Before you start to even consider any major life changes, I would strongly recommend you discuss the subject with your counsellor first.

Secondly, from what you have written, it seems that you have a strong tendency to apply the same all out 100% approach to everything in your life, including those activities like cycling, which you use as an escape or a coping mechanism. My concern is that you need to be careful to preserve any coping activity as just that, and not allow yourself to start applying the same driven approach to the coping activity as the rest of your life, otherwise it will only be yet another thing to make you dissatisfied and unhappy.

Still waiting for that custom fixed wheel road frame, which was the other option.

TiRed, that sounds interesting, care to tell more? (which framebuilder, steel or titanium etc.?)

Mr Overshoot’s comments were in response to the suggestion

Switch off phone and email the second you finish work. Work mobile comms are a tool for YOU to do YOUR job when away from your desk, not a 24/7 callout lifeline for others.

He was merely noting that for some jobs and some sectors, you simply cannot do that, and being available 24/365 goes with the territory, and I was merely confirming that this is not necessarily symptomatic of poor management and poor organisation.

As to there always being someone worse off, well yes of course there is. Ultimately, it is as much about the individual and how they respond to the stresses of their job and their life generally. We are all different and have our own ways of coping. Someone working in a library may get more stressed than another person working in the most high pressure field imaginable. Nevertheless, for what little it is worth, having seen engineers in various sectors, including heavy and high hazard industries, I would say that the food industry is particularly bad, because of the commercial and operational pressures, the rate of change in the industry (frequent new product lines) and it’s much worse if you make a commodity product that your supermarket customer can just as easily buy from a competitor at very short notice (there are generally no long term contracts).

Getting back on track – with regard to the advice to vickypea to just get out and ride her bike, having read her previous posts, I think she tends to take the same all out, driven approach to riding as to other areas of her life, so she needs not to make her burn out worse by going out for 4 hours and physically battering herself on the bike.

Vickypea, I apologise for the thread going off at a tangent, but I would hope that you are chilling out, whether by sitting in a coffee shop, going out on your bike for a pootle (if you can force yourself to do just that and no more), or by practising being a lady of leisure and lying on a sofa eating chocolates and browsing through some winter sun holiday brochures.

tjagain, I appreciate it may be difficult to understand what it may be like working in a role and sector like Mr Overshoot’s (I had to have it spelt out to me very bluntly by people like Mr Overshoot).

Perhaps an analogy that might help is farming. The problems that dairy farmers have had with extremely tight margins (again, all part of the same bigger picture that affects food manufacturers, with supermarkets using their dominant bargaining power to force down the prices they pay, so that all of us in turn can pay less for our food and drink) – even to the extent of being paid less than the cost of production of their milk – have been in the news for some years. Those farmers are in a similar situation to Mr Overshoot’s company, and whilst they may be self-employed, many of them will also have employees whose livelihoods may also disappear if the farm goes under. Unsurprisingly, farming is a high stress industry, with high numbers of suicides. Commercial pressures and competition mean that the farmers cannot have the level of resources that would allow them to manage an organisation where they could switch the phone off at 5.00pm. They are always on call, and that extends right through the food and drink industry supply chain at senior management level.

Imagine you have a piece of specialist medical equipment in a hospital that is absolutely essential to the hospital, but it is no longer manufactured, the manufacturer no longer exists to provide spares and support, and only you know how to fix it. That would never happen in a hospital because the money would be found to replace the equipment and/or train extra staff to be able to fix it. In the private sector, the cost of replacing such legacy equipment with a new machine may be the tipping point between a factory staying open or it being closed and production being transferred to another factory in the group, or a competitor taking the business off you.

We are talking about cost savings and losses which would account for a fraction of a penny of the cost of a litre of milk, a ready-meal or a supermarket sandwich, but which can make or break a factory when you are talking about millions of units output. For many of these companies, a £2M difference in turnover is negligible – their turnovers are in the order of billions.

I don’t want to sidetrack this thread, but I cannot resist commenting on the pressures to which Mr Overshoot has referred in his industry, and tjagain’s assertion that this is poor management, no one is indispensible, and that “You are talking to someone who has had real 24/7 responsibility for peoples lives but I didn’t get called on my days off or holidays”:

On the face of it it seems obvious that NHS front line work etc. will be potentially far more critical/high stress and food manufacturing is ‘trivial’ compared with ‘real 24/7 responsibility for peoples lives’, but that is a rather dismissive attitude and reflects not only a lack of awareness of what life can be like for others (true of all of us and quite normal) but also a failure to try to imagine how things might be different for others (which is regrettable).

The NHS is a public sector funded organisation. It is so essential that in general its continuing existence (and the jobs of the people who work in it) is relatively well assured. When medical decisions are made, I believe that there are clear established guidelines, rules and protocols. So although someone may have responsibility for a person’s life, they almost invariably will know what they must do in a given set of circumstances.

Food manufacturing is probably a good example of how different the private sector can be. If you are the senior engineer for a food factory and something goes seriously wrong, there may be no established fix and no one else’s expertise you can call on. Commercial/financial pressures in the sector can be extremely high, with no room for frequent breakdowns or shutdowns, which would either start causing the factory to be loss making, or will simply prompt the supermarket customer to go elsewhere.

Get it wrong in the NHS, and it’s unlikely that the hospital would be closed and everyone lose their job. Get it wrong in the food industry, and factory closures with loss of jobs can and do happen. Moreover the nature of problems that someone in Mr Overshoot’s position can face can vary immensely (akin to patients with completely new and unrecognisable illnesses with no established treatment protocol turning up every month). You don’t even have to make a mistake for a food factory to close and everyone to lose their job – just bad luck or circumstances can be enough. Food used to cost something like a third of the average household income, and it’s now much much less. The commercial and operational pressures to deliver food so cheaply are immense, and very competitive prices for the food we buy come at a cost to the people who work in the industry, both in terms of pressures and wages. That means there is often simply not enough money for the likes of Mr Overshoot to have a large enough team working for him so skilled, competent and reliable that he can confidently switch his phone off for two weeks while on holiday.

The climb and long descent West to East across the bottom of the island from Propriano via the Col de Bavella is a nice ride.

The coastal road between Calvi and Ajaccio is scenic (e.g. Calanques de Piana) and may be a good choice if you want to avoid riding in the centre of the island when there is the potential for thunderstorms and mountain weather. Also on the western side, ride inland from Porto to the Col de Vergio (lunch at hotel at the top of the col) and return the way you came back to Porto (when I did it, I descended inland to the station at (I think) Francardo and caught a train to Bastia, but using the railway probably would not suit a day ride, and I don’t know if they still take bikes).

Whatever you do, I would recommend a trip on the railway from/to Ajaccio (whether you stop/start at Calvi or Bastia), since the scenery is stunning and it’s a great way to see it.

Vickypea, when you posted last winter about how you were feeling, it seemed to me from some of the things that you said, that you are a very driven person who seeks to keep busy all the time, achieve goals and generally ‘do’ things.

i normally “treat” my anxiety by riding my bike really hard but that’s not good when I’m not sleeping.
I love drawing and painting so I think I’ll treat myself to doing some of that over the weekend.

Drawing and painting sound good, but what about also spending some time just doing nothing – no activity or pastime, just chill out and do nothing for a morning, afternoon or even the whole day/weekend. Go to a nice coffee shop for a couple of hours and sit by the window and watch the world go by.

I did try the hammer approach although it seemed high risk given size of target and proximity to spokes

Tap it lightly and repeatedly, rather than whacking it. If you don’t have someone who can hold the wheel for you while you do it, it might be easier if you have the wheel on the bike and the bike on a turbo trainer.

Wrap the chainwhip’s chain all the way around the sprocket, and tape the remaining dangling/unused chain to the chainwhip’s handle. That will ensure maximum grip on the sprocket, while freeing up your hands to allow you to use a hammer.

Tried to the point where I was pushing down on the chainwhip with my foot and it would not budge.

If you can get a secure enough wrap around the sprocket with the chainwhip, I would try repeatedly (lightly) tapping the end of the chainwhip handle with a hammer to see if that would break the seal.

Always liked the look of them. But the Paddy Wagon nor the Pompino will fit me. I’m long legged so need something like a 58cm in height and a 56cm for length (78cm bb centre to top of saddle and 56cm saddle tip to bars with dropped bars).

So the decisive measurements are top tube length and the saddle to bars drop. In that case, I think a key question is whether the bike will (or must) have a carbon fork, since then the maximum permitted amount of spacers is usually 30mm. With a steel fork and steel steerer there may be no such limitation. Therefore the Paddy Wagon might still be suitable, providing there is enough (uncut) steerer for sufficient spacers.

I can appreciate that a taller head tube looks nicer than a large amount of spacers, but it would probably greatly limit your choice and increase the cost, e.g. I think that Condor’s Tempo frame has a tall head tube, but it is more expensive, although they do have some 2015 framesets on sale for £449.

Buy a Kona Paddy Wagon. Alternatively, if you must have 32mm or wider tyres, then a Pompino. However, unless you absolutely need wider tyres because you plan to ride it off road, the Paddy Wagon is a better choice.

Ten second response delay when in the company of wife’s religious pharisee friends.

Come on now, epicyclo, you can’t just leave it at that and leave us all wondering how you might have put your foot in your mouth. Fess up. What did you say to them?

Give the guys a break

Do any premier subscribers have the problems referred to throughout this thread?

frankconway, I suspect that you might be missing the bigger picture. STW needs – and I am sure wants – to know about these issues and also the extent to which they are affecting users, and how users are reacting. Nothing would be worse for STW than for users and ad hits to disappear or fall off a cliff and not to know the reason why and so not know how to fix the problem. Many other types of businesses, e.g. manufacturing or retail, would consider the sort of user feedback that threads like this provide to STW to be priceless.

With regard to Premier vs non-Premier users, I suspect it’s far more complicated. It was stated on a previous thread (by Cougar I think) that the STW website attracts a very large number of visitors, presumably very many more than the number who have accounts. That is presumably because of the content that forum users provide, which I’ve occasionally noted can appear surprisingly high up in google searches about subjects not directly related to cycling. STW has to strike what is probably an extremely difficult balance between the nature and amount of ads it accepts vs. making the forum user friendly, given that it is the users themselves who create the content which brings people to the forum.

STW is a commercial endeavour.

Is the key. I use other forums and they don’t have this issue – but they are only trying to cover forum costs not pay staff wages [/quote]

There’s nothing wrong with this: it’s a business. On that note, I would have thought that the so called backfill class of ads in which the redirects etc. are hidden would be ideal for groups of fora and websites to combine together when selling ad space, since they are presumably fairly generic and unrelated to the nature of the forum. In other words STW sells primary ad space to CRC, Merlin etc. and Pistonheads to BMW etc., but I imagine both sell space to the same or similar ‘backfill’ ad space purchasers.

If so, even if it is impossible to get those ad space purchasers to weed out the redirects themselves, it would make sense for multiple fora to combine together when selling space to those purchasers, since the greater collective bargaining power should enable them to drive a harder bargain and get more money for the same amount of ads (or the same amount of money as currently but for fewer ads). Moreover, if multiple fora have sold space to the same provider, then their combined IT staff being able to compare notes with each other about problem ads will collectively give them all much greater resources when it comes to identifying those problem ads.

I suspect that a key underlying cause/enabler of this problem is a market where website advertising space buyers are able to get away without doing sufficient due diligence and their own active monitoring to weed out and block those who pay them to deliver ads containing malware etc. Presumably they can get away without doing this because their customer base, i.e. forum owners like STW, are numerous, fragmented and individually so small that they have fairly weak bargaining power.

I would have expected it to make sense for forum owners to talk to one another and form a trade body, to help each other both to identify the sources of problems like this, and also to give themselves more clout when dealing with those who buy the ad space from them (i.e. ‘if you don’t do more to stop delivering these ads/malware to our users, then we [STW, pistonheads, Mumsnet etc. etc. will collectively stop using you]’)

If STW does not already talk to other forum and website owners, then it should start doing so.

Road.cc has similar problems currently and is now showing the code on its webpages to help users help them to identify the source. I found that link by looking on the Pistonheads website, where, surprise surprise, they too evidently have similar problems.

Perditus, do you realise that the model you have linked to has a plastic strap? Maybe it would last longer than the plastic straps on cheap Casio watches, but I would certainly not choose that model if it was to be a present for a ‘milestone’ birthday.

Is he riding with others, or is he likely to join friends or a club doing those types of rides? If so, then it will probably be best if he gets a bike similar to the others in the group.

You can tour and ride light off road on almost any bike, but if you are riding with others it’s best not to be significantly ‘overbiked’ or ‘underbiked’ compared with the group.

So if you ride with people who are doing 80 mile day rides on road with a bit a roughstuff on relatively light traditional touring bikes, he may be handicapped (even if very fit) if he rides with them on a MTB. Conversely, if the group ride MTBs or fairly beefy wide tyred gravel bikes like the Genesis Vagabond, a lightweight tourer may not be up to the task for the off road bits the group is likely to choose.

If you ride solo, then you can ride whatever you like, including bikes that others might consider unsuitable: if you are happy and enjoying yourself nothing else matters, including whether or not others think you are riding the right bike.

I would suggest you consider professional counselling for yourself, in order to help yourself come to terms with your relationship with your father and his poor parenting. Once you are in a more secure and settled frame of mind about the past and your relationship with him, it will be much easier for you to decide how you want to deal with your father in future, including whether to have any relationship at all.

If you can come to terms with the fact that he will never be the father that you wanted (and that we all of us deserve), it will be much easier for you to deal with it when he acts badly in future.

Trying instead to fix your relationship with him, instead of fixing yourself as it were, while you are still vulnerable to being manipulated and disappointed, is only going to continue to give him more opportunity to hurt and damage you.