the Mega?

I wouldn’t compare us with the Americans! We love to buy property more than anyone else in the world. Plus we haven’t got enough homes on this overcrowded little island. My bet is the UK will recover before the US.

I’ve still got my first down sleeping bag from 1978 when I did D.of E. Cost £15 and has never been washed!! – they told me it wasn’t washable in the shop.

It’s absolutely mingin, but i just can’t part with it.

So which TheSwede are you then?

Coz it’s ufcked!

Myself sometimes

SteveTheBarbarian – Member

We just love unnecessary laws in the country. Who’s it gonna bother, who’s out with a wattage detector, how they gonna catch you?

I thought that until i discovered that frequencies outside the PMR446 band are used for all kinds of important services. Look it up on the web. I even found that certain heart pacemakers operate within the frequency range of some of the chinese radios available on ebay (400-470Mhz).

I’ve been using various PMR446s for skiing and biking for ten years now. They can give good range depending on conditions; line of sight 3 miles no problem. In a forest: as little as 50ft!

Higher output won’t make a proportionate difference in range, but it helps when there are lots of others sharing one channel. Get a radio that has CCTSS filtering or you will hear everyone else on each of the 8 channels. CCTSS gives you 38 audio filters, so unless your group’s sets are all on the same CCTSS channel, you won’t hear anything. CCTSS is designed to allow multiple groups to share a channel. These days in ski resorts you’ll find things get very crowded.

You can get Midland G7’s which have an additional 70 LPD channels that are legal in France and Italy (maybe other countries too, but not here in the UK). The UK versions have the LPD disabled, so if you are off to Europe, you have to mod. them by soldering/desoldering links. Takes about 10 mins a radio. You can also mod these radios for a 1w and 3w output on all channels instead of the 0.5w. The downside is that they are quite chunky, but i get round this with lapelle speaker/mics. http://www.thunderpole.co.uk/midland_g7.htm

GMRS and FRS are for the US and Canada only and operate on different frequencies. GMRS strictly speaking require a license because they are a higher output. I mention this coz ebay often lists these when you type in pmr446. PMR446 is illeagal in the US.

Motorola make good quality radios, as do Cobra. There are loads of makes out there. Entel are very good; http://www.zorg.org/radio/pmr446.php
I prefer drop in rechargeable sets so i don’t have to faff about with batteries. Most should be NIMH or LiIon these days, so no worries on battery life – 2 days between charges with reasonable use.

I must be the biggest PMR annorak on here!

Halfords started selling them!

I want a Santacruz Heckler!! Does that make me a bike frame tart?

LOL! Random video Mat!

Is that bike ever ridden?

ATB Sales will supply them via a Marin dealer. You will need the bike’s purchase receipt and to be the original owner for warranty claims to be honoured.

Once saw a video of an angry badger that had chased a few people. The Police arrived to try and sort it, but the copper ended up taking refuge on the roof of his car. It was quite a funny scene!

Yeah colnagokid!

Adverts that list a string of product benefits and end it with the line “and much much more” when there is nothing more!

Gordon Brown’s tongue habit that makes him look like he’s chewing gum.

Horse riders on a public highway that don’t thank you when you slow to a crawl to go past them.

Get an appointment later in the day, say around 4pm. Get ther early and chill for a while.

Yes! £17k in three days on a credit card that had never been used, or even taken out of the house! Plus £1200 went from my business account to pay a credit card bill for an account which I didn’t have.

The feckers bought a load of stuff in S. E. London, £15k on computer equipment, a bed, two big drinks tabs in a night club two nights on the trot. Apparently they had my PIN and also confirmed the security questions over the phone when the card company initially rejected the transaction. Nobody called me however. How lame!

The credit card company told me that the fraudster had also called them after I had reported the matter to see why the account had been suspended!! The fecker apparently knew all my secret details, but couldn’t answer when the last transaction was – he then hung up! The audacity of it!

I’d never recorded these details on a PC, or elsewhere and had never given them out. The card was kept safely put away at home – unused. I’m pretty sure it was an inside job – a bad call centre worker perhaps. Credit card security checks are often handled by a 3rd party too – so the card company had to have given these security check details out to these 3rd party operators. I’ll never know because the banks and card companies will never tell you what happened.

It was pretty stressful not knowing if there would be further fraud, but i had all my cards changed and terminated all my dormant accounts. I am now never tempted to take up these offers you get to take out another credit card.

Enjoy what you have already got! Ride the bike, don’t abuse it and keep it in good condition.

If you want some cash, get some local jobs; cut grass, clean cars, a paper round.

If you get a pimped up ride, will it be that much better? Will it become more of a target for thieves? Will your mates get jealous and give you hassle?

Be patient. If you love biking you will have many years ahead to buy fancy stuff and when you have got the income to buy this without having to struggle too much.

Enjoy what you have, the road ahead is long!

There’s the upside of property values falling;

1) Cheaper to move up the ladder.
2) Smaller mortgages mean less of a financial impact on living standards and a more manageable debt.
3) Auctions have some great bargains with less competition until the market turns.
4) You’ll pay less stamp duty
5) People who had no chance of buying will find they suddenly have the opportunity.
6) If maximum LTV’s are reduced and lending is prudent, price inflation won’t run out of control.

The market has been overcooking for way too long and this readjustment will bring prices back inline with the natural equilibrium the market would have found if there hadn’t been this irresponsible phase of lending way too much to people – many of which who were not really credit worthy.

It’s tough on those who bought at the top of the market, especially those who are first time buyers with little equity.

There will eventually be a recovery, probably nothing like the last decade, but i reckon more like a steady consolidation. The greedy developers, lenders and estate agents won’t be able to pump the prices up so easily next time.

I wish everybody the best of luck until we come out of this mess.

I hate Sky!

Skim it! It’ll be dry in no time.

Photoshop perhaps.

Only 2 years!

The answer to your question thisisnotaspoon is yes!

Good! He may not have realised the noise was travelling. It always pays to try and amicably resolve neighbourly issues. I hope that’s the end of it, but make sure you write it all down, just in case.

I love stiring it up. Sorry, yes, you are all right. I will shut up!

“”I liked the comment about hurting yourself – ‘I’m already in a wheelchair, how much worse can it get!”” – paraplegia?

Anything will work in average scenarios. You might notice a difference on a 1.5hr decsent in the Alps. My advice is go for it. Worst case scenario is you waste £15. Try Woollyhatshop.co.uk

Try it and see.

Would XO gripshift be compatible with Shimano XTR? The way to find out is to check how much cable gets pulled on each gear shift. But there could well be other compatibility factors.

Personally I would never go for combined shifters and brake levers. Too expensive when they need to be replaced, more likely to go wrong, limits your flexibility on swaping things around. Use the K.I.S.S. principle for reliable and cheaper biking.

I bought online. The deal came up in a google search. The company was run by an English bloke, but I can’t remember the name. I will see if I can find the invoice.

Set your browser to clear the cache when yo close it. Your PC will be more secure and will run faster.

Sod the trained British professional builder, who has a tangible interest in our country, who contributes, has contributed so much more in taxes.

People always say that Poles have a good attitude. I have no doubt about this. Think of pitching up somewhere else in Europe for a few years to earn 5 times what you did back home? Easy!

Why are we so ready to undermine our own people?

I wonder how many people on here are out of work, or on reduced pay because of migrant workers being allowed to flood in here unchecked!

Protectionism works, stuff the EU bureacrats and the idiots that let this lot in!

Award winning Rossignol Bandit B2 skis, Rossignol bindings and poles cost me £385 delivered to the UK from Andorra. Look for end of season discounts. I’m sure you can get a good pair of skis for a lot less than £600.

Edge and wax takes less than 30 mins. I had an old iron so just needed wax, a scraper, edge file and scotchbrite pads. I got everything for pennies on Ebay.

When I bought these skis, airlines didn’t charge carriage. All the budget airlines charge now, which is why I often chose BA. Check the baggage weight allowances – you often get 15-20kg allowance – skis weigh around 6-7kg. If you travel with someone else who has their own skis, put them in one bag. When driving, carriage is no issue.

If decent ski’s cost now £600-£800, that is why rental costs £100+ per 6 days. I frequently ski 8 days when we drive so if I was to rent I would be paying even more to rent.

You can easily loose half a day queuing up for skis on a first day. The hire skis I have had generally had poor edges and chunks take out of them. I’d balk at paying £100+ for rubbish like that – regardless if they are top end skis!

I have taken my MTB to the alps for the past 9 years. My mate has rented in the past few years. Last time he complained that the rental price had rocketted. The shop’s repsonse was that they were renting £1500 bikes whereas before they were renting stuff at less than half that value. The early rental bikes were a joke – cheap x-country bikes with spindly cheap tyres, but still £100 for 5 days. The Alpine shops always charge way too much. Last summer we rented a £15000 car for less than the £1500 full sus. mtb!

Be polite!

Tell them you expect noise after 11pm to stop immediately.

Keep a record of all the disturbances.

If they ignore you, send them a letter detailing your previous conversation and listing the times they disturbed you and tell them that you will pass this letter to your local envirnmental health officer if the noise continues.

If they ignore this call envionmental health.

Good luck!

The missus has a very nice ass, but complains that it hurts when riding a bike. I’m currently looking at buying a DD Wings saddle so I can enjoy the scenery.

I’d go and get it seen by a dentist and see what he says. I had a filling come out when i was in France, but despite emergency dental cover on my holiday insurance, left it until i got home.

It needed a white filling as part of the tooth wall had broken away. Cost me over £200! Now wish I’d legitimately claimed on my holiday insurance whilst away (especially as it was a zero excess policy).

Just add lager!

allyharp. tell me about the name..