Get yourself registered with Competitive Cyclist, Pricepoint, JensonUSA and a couple of other sites. Look for their deals and pounce when they have a sale. Complete bikes like Santa Cruz, Turner etc are well worth it.
I live in the US and found a Reverb seatpost and Saint pedals to be cheaper at CRC than anywhere in the US.

Radio 4 podcasts. I couldn’t live without TIMC in my life.
As said up there – Rollins – but be prepared for some dark times with him. Well worth it tho.

Some dry cleaners will do them. They use the same process as a down duvet cleaning.

Right! He’s had half an hour and nobody commented on this. Standards are getting dropped around here.

I need to get a pump for my girlfriend

Montane Extreme. I’ve used both and the Montane is superior (and usually cheaper) in every way. Better details, better price and I have not managed to kill mine in 15 years.

Anyone who has ever been to or wants to visit Moab should read ‘Desert Solitaire’ by Edward Abbey. He was a park ranger there before proper roads were put in. You get a real idea of what life out there was like.

Word has it

Ah yes. A good unfounded rumour. That’ll keep things moving along in a positive direction.

I was wondering when we would get to that.

I only threw it in to break up the mithering over people not being as awesome in life as the posters on the thread. All those ‘free delivery’ offers mean delivery is cheap. Cheap means low wages and slim margins and ultimately a less than 100% service.

I was doing quite a lot more miles hence that helped to justify it!

There isn’t a mileage that means ‘3 series coupe’.

Most modern cars will comfortably do 100k miles. If you bought a Focus with 40k on the clock, it would take you 10 years to take it to 100k and it wouldn’t cost that much in maintenance over that time.

I was going to suggest that you support local businesses rather than ordering on line.

Your mileage is very low. That means your insurance could be on a declared mileage and that could help keep the premium down. That low mileage also keeps the maintenance down – less wear and tear etc.

350 a month could be worth it if you were doing lots of miles. Do you need more than a Mondeo estate with 40k on the clock? Do some proper sums rather than getting drawn into shiny shiny. Kids cost more than cars.

Just seen you drive a 3 series with only 2 years of driving.

You’re a dad. Hand the shiny toys back and stop thinking like a teenager. Cars like that are not a status symbol with a kid seat in the back and jammy smears on the window. Also – do some proper car ownership sums rather than accepting the ‘all in’ HP price from work.

I recently bought a Casio VL Tone which I will give to my daughter along with the CD Walkman I still have.
These totems of my youth will baffle her entire generation.

Through Pucklechurch and Hinton and you’ll see Dyrham Park on the ridge in front of you. There are a few trails between there and Toghill at the South end of that ridge that can take a while to wind up.

I thought Thomson were liked because their stuff just worked? My black Thomson seatpost and black Thomson stem are just black with their logo. They do a good job.
Is there a Thomson range I’ve not seen that is all glitter and hip 80s logos and colours?

http://www.classicshell.net/%5B/url%5D

I went from XP to 8 to 8.1 and Classic Shell has been a lifesaver for me. 8 was designed for a touch screen. I don’t use a touch screen. Try this free download for him and save both of you a load of hassle.

why do many Americans apparently feel the need to carry a gun about as part of their normal day to day activity?

because for them, it’s normal. A bit like it’s normal for British people to see unarmed policemen, only a different normal.

Most Americans do not wander around carrying weapons. Different parts of the US have different laws and different cultural norms. I don’t agree with the whole carrying guns thing, but I do accept that ‘normal’ is different for everyone.
I’ve lived in the US for over a year now. I have a pretty normal life and interact with a fair number of people. Of all I’ve met, 5 admit to owning guns, one commented on how he felt it was normal to carry it and everyone else just has a life without guns.

It may well be a minority but it is still legal and still happens

You talked of ‘normal’. I know plenty of British kids who shoot with their parents. It’s quite ‘normal’ and even ‘legal’ in parts of the British countryside.
I do think that automatic weapons in the hands of the civilian population are a bad idea, but regardless of legal situation, normal for the USA is boringly similar to normal for the UK.

This weekend my 9 year old daughter will mostly be going to ballet and swimming lessons, riding her bike, building lego, watching telly and fighting with her brother and sister. For this country, that is normal and i am grateful for that.

That’s what most American kids will do. If you judge a nation of 314 million people spread over 3.8 million square miles by the actions of vocal minorities then you’ll get a rather skewed view of things.

By which I assume you mean that in common with pretty much all other crime, rich white people are less likely to be victims and, if the press is anything to go by, likley to be able to kill a poor black person with apparent imputnity?

Partially, yes. Also, young black urban males shot young black urban males and old white rural males shoot themselves. Broadly, but that’s what the gun death statistics show.

Before anybody asks, no, these do not take into account justifiable homicide and other “acceptable shootings”, nor do murders for that matter:

Nor race, color or geographic location.

Anyone trying to make a point about guns and America is probably ignoring the race and poverty aspects, but don’t worry about that. Most stw-frequenting detractors of other countries have probably not been too far from their IT support desk to worry about it.

I’m pretty sure you were a STW hall monitor once.

You, sir, have me confused with a grown up. I’ve never had a position of responsibility here.

ive travelled all over and never suffered from this and im sure its a myth

You’ve been lucky, or never had to travel in a way that hits you.

Melotonin can help. Unfortunately, eastabout is the worst for this and you just have to work at getting tired at the proper time and doing everything you can to promote your regular sleep.

What they said. Sparky plus armoured cable plus separate consumer unit in the garage.

How about some insulation in the garage to help with the heating? Freezers tend to be designed for domestic temperatures as well.

I do like the way we’re told it isn’t a form of bullying. Through the medium of a forum moderator repeatedly telling us it isn’t bullying.

I agree with Big n Daft on this. Even at the risk of a virtual wedgie from the stw hall monitor.

I don’t understand why why I can’t go to the docs and get steroid injections in a properly controlled monitored way

‘want’ and ‘need’ are two different things. If you need them, you can.

obviously they are a Muslim state

They are not.

Amazing. Proper waste management and disposal has a cost. Who’d have thunk it?

Factoid for you. The UK didn’t get into recycling in such a big way a few years ago because it wanted to ‘do the right thing’. It was calculated that the UK was 6 years off capacity for landfill at the pre-recycling rate. 6 years off topping out the landfill sites.

It’s a small island and you keep buying more and more crap and disposing of a lot of it. It costs more to deal with that crap. You pay. That’s how it is.

I’ve had enough of the American craft brews. Mostly over-hopped and mostly too high ABV. I pine for a pint of Tetley’s or most any other Best Bitter.

unscrew and move them all around

Just do this.

Do the disabled spots have any legal protection? Putting their company signs on disabled parking spots does smack of tiny-mindedness.

If you look at me in the sunlight and squint a little, you can see my aura of AWESOME twinkling around me.

That is my status symbol.

Is the whinging because you haven’t got a chainsaw, or that trees should manage themselves?

Before every ride.

Probably better to do it in between.

Any stretches in particular?

How are your hamstrings? A bit tight? Just sit on the floor in front of the telly with your legs out in front of you. Bring one leg up so your foot is on it’s side by the other knee. Keep the straight leg flat on the floor and run both hands down that leg as far as you can go. Hold it for 5-10 seconds, then push a little further down. Repeat a couple of times on each leg, do that most evenings. See how you feel after a week.
Cyclists suffer with short hamstrings and that can manifest itself as tension in your lower back. This stretch will do nothing but improve your flexibility. It works for me.

Any other suggestions for relieving the back pain?

How about stretching and core strengthening and non-cycling exercise?

I was unaware that ‘light’ was measured as a percentage.

I’m confused by this science that Molgrips brings to the forum.

Yup. Be careful and make sure she is a keeper when you do. I proposed when we were out mountain biking and it worked!

Aaaannnddd pics, clearly we need pics

No. No we don’t, because what is seen cannot become unseen.

You have the chance to build something a little bit different, a little bit more efficient, a little bit reflecting your personality.
Please don’t build ‘something average’. The world is full of average because mass builders get away with it. Please put some thought into it.

I hear those ‘water-bottle-in-a-bag’ thingys are getting quite popular these days.

I have Nukeproof risers and a load of spacers on mine. It has yet to explode.

Do whatever you want. Blindly following others is for fools.