How many people have actually been scammed/ripped off on the classifieds?

I've had a set of brakes turn up and be a completely different and inferior model to what was advertised. Eventually tracked the seller's phone number down from ads on another site and he wasn't interested in helping me out. They went on ebay and I got my cash back, but it was a load of hassle.

Had another item arrive significantly not as described (made it work approx 50% of what I'd paid for it), was resolved with the seller after putting a bit of pressure on him. From a guy who's a regular poster, isn't shoving 5 classifieds ads up a week etc.

I've yet to end up seriously out of pocket, but it's enough hassle to put me off using the classifieds unless it's someone like Ton, who is known for being a good bloke.

Seems to be a popular game amoung the "life's so unfair" brigade.

Good point Mat. You could end all this aggro now by selling up, and sharing your hard earned with the rest of STW 😆

Of course, you'd have to suppress the natural urge to get to work and make it all again, if you want to remain stalker free.

Organisations that use Connaught as a contractor have been making contingency plans for this for months.

They haven't died because of a lack of work, just too much debt, and an inability to service it due to the fact they were bidding on work at near zero profit levels.

There are plenty of people who are obviously doing it as a cottage industry, breaking a lot of bikes. I'd love to know how and where someone sources that many bikes in their free time 😆

Nevertheless, the big issue for me is the number of people who are taking the mickey – I don't buy that much on the classifieds, but I've had 3 problems with things from the classifieds – 2 items not as described, one taking weeks to be posted. I reckon that's easily a 10% problem rate, and it's put me off using the classifieds – the price saving doesn't outweigh the extra risk.

The only thing I can see sorting it out is some kind of feedback system. Even a reply of "yep, I've got it" from purchasers is better than nothing, but it needs to be policy (and therefore universal) to be of any use.

Insisting on payment for ads, subscriber only (and therefore having address data) etc. is of little impact. The kind of sums people get ripped off for on here are pretty immaterial from a legal point of view, so holding addresses on file is of little use.

I'm amused to see that Keith Vaz is in chairing the committee investigating this. Does nobody actually resign and bugger off once they've been tripped up these days?

2.4 RQ will fit a standard Inbred easily, if that's any bearing on things.

Hmm…

I'd rather you tried to explain that lot to them than me 😆

And there was me trying to impress folks I have never met.

I'd bet the EDL are on a strict anglo-saxon diet of chips, beans, pies, fry ups, battered fish and fried eggs. No curries or sweet and sour for them!

Given there's not that much variation in price with old Bombers, I'd hold out for something with top of line damping.

What that was called seems to have varied a lot from year to year 😀

There's also a guide to upgrading one of those Bombers (I think the AM) to shim stack damping, which would give a fancy damping setup at a low price.

If that's your idea of a nice tea, I doubt you'll go down well at the local EDL meeting.

Did you get any joy with Ornage?

Print "Entire Workbook" rather than "Active sheets". Little toggle button on the dialog box that comes up after you click File and then Print.

I'd take any forged hub over a CNC one to be honest…

then I'll save up 30 grand

It could work better if you can get a debenture on the property, given the way interest rates are, and property prices tend to go… Unless you need 30K as a deposit on a one bed place down there 🙄

Be part of it or leave!

I've explained above why it's not sensible for any professional to give advice on here. There's no Association of Chartered Shed Bike Fettlers that's going to come down on us an affect our ability to make a living if we tell someone to do their comes up too tight.

Tron – you need to drive a fast diesel (6 pot or 8 pot) at high speed

That's not really my point. In my view, diesels are best suited to big cars going motorway miles – the extra weight has less effect, and there's more room for sound deadening. And the increased range is a massive advantage. When I borrowed an XJ8 for a while, I felt like I was putting fuel in every 15 minutes…

My point was more that any oldish big capacity petrol car is going to be faster, quieter than a newish car with the same running costs. But of course, it does all depend on miles and type of driving – do loads of city miles and a new small car will come out top, do an average 10k a year and you're probably even, do a lot of high speed motorway miles and you'll go deaf and have backache in the small car 😀

Chelsea boots, anything made by Tricker…

and it still sucked like a new baby.

There's now a load of flashing lights and sirens going off at CEOP. 😆

Have the entire presentation appear in that letter by letter style accompanied by the "gunshot" sound effect.

Edit: Surely that's easy. Google image Shipment of Fail, Train Fail etc.

Drop of fairy liquid in spray bottle full of water. Spray the water on, lay the tape on, squeegee the water out. You can reposition it, and it should go on with no bubbles. Pop bubbles with a pin / stanley knife if you do get any.

Best to do it on a good warm day / heat things up a little with a hair-drier to make the tape more flexible

Molgrips, you seem to be a little confused about what accountants can and can't do.

Pretty much every profession out there fairly heavily regulated – accountants, lawyers, architects etc. This makes it extremely unwise to give any advice or statement without the full information, even unpaid or "off the record", as it can come back and bite you in the arse.

As a result, at best, anyone asking questions of this sort of nature is going to get advice from laymen. Ask about IR35 and you'll get a few other contractors piping up. You'll very rarely see anyone with ACA or ACCA on their business card posting.

If I were you, I'd look for another accountant who has the time to give you proper advice. He's right to palm you off if he hasn't got the time to do the job properly, but it's not a good situation for you. As for accountants having bad attitudes, you're paying them! Most professionals understand that, and will explain everything in one syllable words if that's what the client wants.

I don't count total depreciation of cars when I look at running costs.

Then you aren't looking at total running costs 😆

You really should speak to your accountant 😉

How would this be dodgy?

I think from a tax perspective it would be fine, but from the clients point of view it could look odd. An alternative would be rolling the cost of accommodation into the day rate and owning the place yourself, but I believe expenses have different tax rules, so it could make you uncompetitive.

I would suspect that you are close to the mark – you would need a separate LTD owned by yourself owning the property, with it charging you for its use. You'd then be able to claim it as an expense. But I'm not an accountant!

that's a bit harsh tron

I was joking! Hence the faux quote and reference to usual STW advice, Jeremy Kyle etc.

The guy's Dad does it full time as far as I'm aware, but I don't know enough about them to say if it's a good living or not (he's old enough to potentially have made his cash elsewhere etc.).

Can I be the first to offer the usual STW advice?

Why on earth should somebody who's already in the business give advice to a potential competitor? If it were that easy everyone would already be making musical instruments. You terribly naive cretin, how dare you waste our collective time with such inane questions? Get a grip on reality, and get a job in IT, where you'll be grateful of the opportunity to lick the soles of the MD's shoes!

The father of someone I went to school with makes guitars for a living, he links to this site on his webpage, which looks like the instrument making version of STW:
http://www.mimf.com/%5B/url%5D

Actually, looking back at the above paragraph, I'm beginning to wonder if Jeremy Kyle picked up his unique presenting style from STW 😆

So you're saying I should go with a crappy old V8 instead of a nice new small car? Umm.. not quite sure I follow!

Factor in depreciation, cost of capital and all that jazz and a small new car can work out quite pricey.

Anything with a V8 is going to be from a good way up the motoring food chain. XJ8, 540i etc. You get all the toys, safety features etc. plus comfy seats, RWD, good stereos and the ability to drive at high speed without going deaf. Nothing crappy about the experience, unless you are one of those odd bods who must have a new car on the drive.

Which Civic are we talking? The older model or the rocket door handle model?

Starting before 8am? Stuff that!

I honestly cannot understand what sort of sociopath watches breakfast TV.

Given that watching it means sacrificing sleep or arriving at work late, and we're talking about what is more or less theOne Show… I just cannot comprehend. The one show is something any sane person will try to avoid. If you're making extra time in your morning schedule to watch this dross, you really should just remove yourself from the gene pool for the sake of humanity.

I love how people quote other unknown posters on other internet forums

Even if the guy were some loon in his mum's attic, it doesn't negate that carbon fibre is rarely used in such a hostile environment as mountain biking.

I suspect the nature of carbon makes providing a lifetime warranty fairly low cost. Damage to carbon can often be invisible, and failures sudden, so very often the advice given is replace any carbon bits as soon as there's visible damage or after a big stack. That leaves a lot of carbon bits that are damaged to the point of uselessness, without being a warranty issue.

http://www.southerndownhill.com/index2.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=0&topic=112251.msg1005526

Reply #21.

I love how people will post "Oh yeah, they use it in X environment, so it'll be fine", normally something not even vaguely comparable to bike handlebar use due to completely different environmental, service and inspection factors. Then a person who actually who knows about it is instantly dismissed as probably being 14, and even if he isn't, not an expert in handlebars 😆

Easily. We sold our old van for £1300 quid or so, it had plenty of miles on the clock but was mechanically solid and rust free.

It was a Citroen Dispatch. Same as a Peugeot something and a Fiat Scudo.

I have one that came from the local motor factors. Laser, came with all the parts for VW calipers and cost about £15-£20. The full kit that will do every car ever is better value over your life though.

Perfect CV by Eggert has a good section on covering letters. It runs something like this:

1) Blow smoke up their arse – have a look at their website and make note of the fact that they've won pipe-fitting manufacturer of the year 7 times in the disposable weevil flange category. Refer to this fact.

2) Show that you understand their business, and note the stuff you can do that matches the role.

3) Blow smoke up their arse again, ending with something like "I would be grateful of the opportunity to discuss this further in person".

"Invested in" does my nut in. Normally as in "I've invested in a chicken sandwich", or any other object from which you cannot expect any return…

I also used to work with a woman who used the term "pre-warning" when she actually meant warning – "I'm just ringing to give you a pre-warning that your appointment is booked for half 2 on Wednesday".

My point is, that whilst I accept there is a tiny element of danger in such stupid activity, the level of hysteria it generates is disproportionate, as was the ridiculous banning of all fluids from hand luggage (so the airlines can sell you expensive drinks…).

I'm all for people making informed decisions. I remember at the time, a professor of chemistry or some such explaining why creating an explosive by mixing two liquid was near impossible to do on a moving aircraft.

I understand the concept of moral panic, and how it's applied by the media and by politicians.

However, you're taking a stance that's just as illogical as the bloke who believes everything he reads. You seem to think that just because the media is making a fuss about something, it cannot be a problem.

Several people have provided explanation of how this could be very dangerous, and you're just not listening. To go any further in explaining the issue would probably breach anti terror law…

Specialized riders always look incredibly serious. That makes them uncool as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure the bikes are lovely though.

Nicolai make by far the coolest looking mountain bikes.

Kona make the coolest looking road bikes.

Think what you like, and bear in mind that you're quoting from the FAA, who don't control UK airport legislation – the document you quote from mentions laser free zones of several miles surrounding the airport. Not something that's going to happen in somewhere with the UK's population density.

I hope you aren't responsible for risk assessments in your line of work 😆

I found it boring as hell to watch in real life. Gears and Tears is oddly interesting, given that the racing isn't great.