YGM Wozza :D

So sad to hear your news, as many have said above be strong for your family but don’t forget to give yourself time and opportunity to talk about your loss. Can’t begin to imagine what you are feeling, hugs for you all from the tiboy clan though…

Good to see the STw spririt of ill informed comments isn’t dead!

The gravel in question was put down by the previous owners and is very coarse, thus preventing any sort of compaction, thus being very easy to bed into. Its not an issue of sterring on it, as we just reverse onto the area off the road.

The other consideration when moving away from gravel is the local cats and I suspect dog walkers, leave presents ha;f buried in the gravel, not pleasant with a 2 year old!

And yes, I am assuming it is the dog that is doing the business, not the dog walkers themselves…

Won’t be doing a sideways deal, happy to buy materials direct if that helps though.

Worth trying the thermal cut out, check it hasn’t pooped, usually a quick press to reset…

if you’re anywhere near hereford I’d be happy to come have a look, not a pro but spend lots of time replumbing ch systems and fault finding rented property stuff :D

GJP, thanks for posting the other side, really useful to be awatre of the potential issues for colleagues. As far as I am concerned it would be a fixed day off unless work needed me to swap it, and I would come into work if there was a reason that meant it couldnt be avoided, we are lucky with inlaws close so can always get cover.
I guess I am also lucky that it’s rare that I have stuff that needs to be handled immediately as I don’t have much customer facing responsibility.
As I say though, tahnks for the other point of view.

ro be fair I only manage it 1/2 times a week as it is, so not a massive sacrifice and gives me and incentive to make sure I go out with the boy on my day off

Thanks all, some really goood ideas and things to think about. First stop is an informal chat with HR to see how they will respond, I know there is a legal requirement to consider applications to do this sort of thing, but as some have pointed out it depends a lot on the HR team and their experiences/opinions of how it can work, or not.
As far as the culture goes, it’s a veryy good place to work, but tends on the side of expecting a lot without rewarding that much, which is why after a very long year I’d like to make some changes so that I get more time with family.
Thinking about working hours, I’m lucky to only have a 20min commute, so could do 8-6 and still have breakfast at home with boy/wife and be home in time for storytime. Would mean sacrificing cycling to work as that is a 45minute ride, but the extra day would more than make up for it in my mind.
THANKS EVERYONE!

unfortunately taking a pay cut isn’t an option, though part of the plan would be for her to look for something part time once we settle into the routine, so may become an option.

last year was very busy, though this year’s plan is less demanding, so I would hope it would work out, I was happy to do lots of (unpaid) overtime last year, but over Christmas we spent a lot of time talking about 2012 and decided I want to change from a live-to-work attitude to a work-to-live one, so something has to give…

Thanks so far guys, I’m an engineer in product concepting and development, working in a small team, with one lady who already does 4 days. I guess I’m concerned what effect it would have on career and being considered for promotion. It’s an office based job on the whole, and around 10-20% of my time is spent in meetings so I wouldnt think it’d be hard to fit stuff into 4 days… keep the thoughts coming please :D

Hi, I am almost certain that the liner would have been installed for a gas stove, is this not compatible with a woodburning stove?

just had a new focus as a hire car back from heathrow last night, and was really impressed, not a massive ford fan but it was great to drive for that type of car. 1.6tdci engine was nippy and sounded quite good for a diesel, good chassis so was nice to drive on the back roads home from the motorway. good seats, lots of support and USB/line-in which is nice
tbh go and drive them both, and if possible take them for a longer drive to test seats etc.

Other one to consider is the new kia cee’d, really good for the money and much better warranty, I would have one over the focus for commuting in.

for what it’s worth I didn’t like the new golf when I tried one, not worth the premium over the ford.

No problem, where did you end up moving to? min interest for me is having to commute over the Malverns in the snow/ice! and always fancied one…

Scamper, if hora passes I might be interested, sounds like a fun change from a diesel almera… email in profile :D

How about my 2.2D Almera? utterly reliable, not exciting, not fast, but 55mpg! In all seriousness, they are a great reliable car and I’d recommend one to anyone needing a workhorse, sailed through MOT and has had nothing except an oil change in the last year…

We had a Nav for a year and it drove very well for it’s size, we did 3k round europe over a few weeks and I didn’t even have a twinge in my back.

We had a 2005 truck, so the euro 3 engine which is better on fuel, and we blanked the EGR, got 37 on average over 12k miles.

We did try an L200 animal and the hilux but prefered the nav for toys and comfort, we had an aventura model. the other seemed dated in comparison and too work-like for personal use.

My parents have this issue with their house, they are with NFU mutual who are very reasonable and will pay out for future subsidence which is pretty rare from what I understand. Worth a call.

we also looked at the ST220, but opted for the 330i touring. So far we are averaging 31.3MPG, so pretty happy with that, but must say the boot is pretty cramped compared to the mondeo (used them a lot for work).
Musts in the BMW are the sport seats in my opinion, mainly for the adjustable leg support, I find most seats too short.
Having maintained my own cars for years now the BMW is by far the best built in terms of quality of bolts, etc, but parts are a bit more expensive. Even on on 2000 model it still feels very tight and well put together, not something I would say for the 2004 mondeo we demo’d.

Having just bought an e46 330i touring I can honestly say it is a cut above in terms of built quality. I’ve had alfas, renaults and porsches in the apst, and by far and away the quality is better on the BMW. Small things like use of good fasteners makes working on it a much ncier experiance. And having had a laguna, the BMW and a boxster up on ramps in quick succession the BMW was by far and away in the best condition underneath (all similar age/mileage).
Can’t disagree with Offroading’s experience working on them, but every car has it’s weak points, use google and you’ll hear horror stories for every make/model. Suspension is known weak point on the e46 as it front wings rusting, neither is insurmountable. And as you say, fuel economy isn’t much between the 320 and the 330, so get the 330! last 3k miles we’ve averaged 32.4, so not bad for a 12 year old car with a NA straight 6 engine!

+1 to druidh, not worth the risk

Typically blue and black would be neutral, the brown would be live and green/yellow the earth

not sure why you’d have two neutral wires though, are you sure there’s not a red wire up there somewhere too?

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=56&products_id=363

includes adaptor to mount onto the BB by my reckoning… :-)

fair enough, I stand corrected, do know that you have to have a plumbed in sink for them to classify it as a camper as I had a long conversation with the operators on the subject, which is why we went espace to save arguments. Also had a pickup for a while, which even though it was a personal vehicle we had to pay double for the toll.

Not sure where you are, but we had an espace rather than a van when we lived in bristol as the M4 bridge toll was double in a van, which added up when we were crossing every weekend! and it had loads of built in tie-down point where the seats mounted, and the build in blinds meant it was nigh impossible to look in from more than a metre away

+1 for the stealth
2 winters now down to minus 2 commuting, and reproofs well with nikwax when necessary.

couple of things to check, are the cable ferrules correctly seated in the shifter? and is the cable correctly routed at the hub end? it can get a bit mis-aligned and make a hash of shifting!

Might have been caused by someone messing with your bike whilst you were at work, had this once and found my front QR was undone!!!

Worked with Alex a couple of years ago, a great guy and so sad to hear this.

Please support of you can.

can’t imagine you’ll need tool steel for a drift for interference fit bearings on a bike hub, aluminium alloy would be sufficient, that’s what the proII ones are made from (I think, off to shed to check…)

I found the razors on the narrow side for me, but I have got wide feet, so kind of figures! I wear mine to commute in and find them a good compromise between comfy and stiff, look good too which helps :D

The board man with carbon forks is very nice too, saw one in store the other day, was surprised how good a finish it had, the fork also looked very well made and finished.

We went round this loop with our son, now 10months. We had a silver cross to start with but frankly it was completely useless, as you say they go where they want! But we had to have it because it was what my wife imagined a pram looked like….. :roll:
We’ve now got an Out’n’about 360 nipper and it’s fantastic, will happily go across a ploughed field, we live on a farm and can vouch for it!
Similar to a Phil and Teds, but 1/3 of the price and very lightweight.
Best advice I can give is go to a real shop (not the magical interweb) and look at some :D

hiya, have had both, and totally agree the cyclops head is useless! Now have the sumo, and it’s not a fantastic design, but no worse than similar on bontrager/joplin posts. Highly recommend some carbon grip paste on the mating surfaces to prevent you having to torque the bolt up too tight, which makes it a right pig to adjust!

If you have a lot of issues with slipping I’d highly recommend a Raceface post, easy to adjust, and really good clamping mechanism, never had one slip!

Had one for the summer last year, was fantastic fun for the money, all in cost less than a mediocre weeks holiday in spain to run it for 12 months. I’d highly recommend having a nose around here:

http://www.boxa.net

absolute wealth of info, and a very helpful bunch of guys/girls on there.

Best advice I can give if find a decent indy nearby and pay them to look over the car before you buy it, I’m pretty handy with cars but it’s great to have someone knowledgable to chat to about the car, however nice the seller may be (and maybe even a porsche enthusiast) but they’re still out to sell the car.

If you do get on don’t even dream of posting a pic on here, I’ll be dead jealous, I miss mine a lot, and if the reason we chopped it in wasn’t my first born son I’d be resenting selling it, but he just about makes up for it!

From experience I’d say service history is more important than mileage to a certain extent, though clearly go for the lowest mileage you can reasonably afford, as it will make reselling easier. Depending on the engine you are looking at, bear in mind things like DPF on diesels which can be an issue on cars driven around town on short journeys and are very expensive to fix. The v50 is a focus underneath so should be reasonably reliable, and maybe even share some parts, so might be cheaper to maintain than alternatives.

Ta!

Ok, definitely interested if it’s a medium, drop me an email

What size is it? or alternatively how tall are you? My brother in law is after a road bike and I’m trying to persuade him to buy something 2nd hand and decent rather than a halfords special!

Price wise I’d say you’re way too high…. :wink:

but seriously I think it’d depend on condition and how much life’s left in the drivetrain.

Drop me a PM with some details? :-)

I’d take the chain off the chainrings and see how the cranks feel then, the back-pedal issue suggests the bearings are well gone!

edit: too slow!

I’ve got a Sharp 42″ LCD for sale if that’s any good? not the best screen in the world, but then again it’s only £320. lots of inputs, including VGA and HDMI, full 1080p, etc, with freeview digital built in

Would be collection only though from herefordshire. :?

And no, it’s not from croydon last night! 8O

Sorry to hear about the theft, best bet is to get in touch with Southmead police station, they used to have a dedicated bike theft PC.

And get it on here:

stolen bikes bristol[/url]

The chap who runs it is really clued up on the Bristol scene

All the best