My BMW 320d drives just like a petrol engine

Have a look at the dyno plots for the 2l BMW Diesel and compare with a 2l Petrol engine. They're very different. Petrol engines tend to have a usable rev range of 5-7000 revs, with power and torque increasing almost all of the way up the range. Diesels are lucky to have a useful range of 3000 revs, with torque reaching its maximum very early.

If anything, a big old non-turbo diesel is closer in feel to a petrol engine than the current common rail lumps.

But with either, the throttle response and weight distribution is considerably worse.

To be fair, remember when mail order meant unto 28 days?

So? An order from SJS recently had problems, and they only just stopped short of sending their prettiest employees up to compensate me for my inconvenience. On-one are behind that at the moment – I don't think they're not trying, I just get the feeling that they're incredibly busy.

When the industry standard is what it is, you can't start banging on about the time you ordered a Princess Di plate from Franklin Mint and it took ages to come despite the P&P charges.

If you actually think about it you probably lose say 10 minutes on a long run due to a bit less acceleration?

I doubt it very much. Averaging 80 instead of 75 doesn't make that much of a difference, even over what most people would consider a long run.

Similarly, driving flat out on twisty roads doesn't seem to make up that much time – normally because someone will always be in your way.

Ultimately it's an irritation. A car where every control responds quickly and properly to your inputs is a pleasure to drive, even if it's a slow one.

Turbo lag in diesels doesn't tend to be that bad – my old 110 HDI 406 had a bit of lag, but it wasn't terrible.

They do tend to do absolutely nothing below 1500 rpm, and have pretty narrow powerbands. Keeping things above 1500rpm is the answer. And not trying to rev round to the redline.

The only time you really noticed it in the 406 was pulling out of T junctions on fast roads – you'd get nothing nothing nothing followed by the front end scrabbling for grip.

Perhaps the shop doesn't want to do it, and are blaming Madison? Some folks, like Spesh, do appear to put serious effort into supporting IBDs. I'm not sure if Madison are that bothered or not – but I'm not in the bike biz.

How can you avoid the use of grammar? I think the best I could manage is to use the word order from another language, but you're still using someone's grammar.

It's not hard to have accurate stock figures on your website really, is it? You should have a pretty decent idea of how much stock you have, and what orders you have taken. Not a difficult thing for a computer to work out.

I've found On-one to be a bit variable lately, some stuff arriving very quickly, and other stuff being slower. I've no worries about using them in the way that there are with some firms, but I'm no longer keen on ordering anything I need quickly.

I think the guy who made the vid posted it up on here. Try googling for that link on singletrackworld.com

I like Dell, so long as they're on sale.

Shop your nan, mum and kids if you can. It's what Jack Straw would have wanted.

Genius. The apprentice one is also excellent.

Generally councils operate on the "are they taking the urine" basis. I would tell them, explain it's a genuine mistake and offer to plant another tree.

Search on youtube for his monologue "Storm".

He pretty much reveals there that he thinks he's brighter than he is. I'm no philosopher, but I know logical empiricism isn't the be all and end all.

Dara O'Briain does a much better job of taking the mickey out of quacks without being so teeth gratingly earnest.

i would encourage him to try and do some private contracts in his hols

I would say this is the key thing at uni. If you can get some relevant work during summer holidays, you've got a HUGE advantage over everyone else when you're trying to get a proper job.

The hands free soap dispenser is completely and utterly pointless.

I saw that and wondered how long it would be until people were trying to sell foot / knee bar operated taps to the home market. Then it'll be UV baths on door handles 😆

Don't fit a 13kw shower unless you have the proper sized cable for it.

Surely that goes without saying! IIRC the 13.5kw shower never actually are – they work out the rating for 240V, and we run on 230. At the end of the day, the amount of water you get out of an electric shower is almost always limited by the power rating of the shower. So get a big one!

A proper thermostatic mixer shower running off a decent combi will make any electric look like a bad joke in comparison.

The ambulance chaser ones don't bother me.

Halifax and the older WeBuyAnyCar ads. And Go Compare. The old money supermarket ones were horrendous as well – Bloke: "We want a flight" Girlfriend: "And as soon as possible!". The Halifax one is cringeworthy mainly for the woman rapping along to Vanilla Ice and bopping along in her seat.

Thanks for the warning. I can't stand the ****.

What everyone else said. Mira. Highest rating you can get – I think that's around 13kw.

"Can you get a suntan at night?"

Moonlight is just reflected sunlight, so I'd not be surprised if you could get a tiny bit of one, sitting out long enough.

He's being disingenuous.

Decathlon do an alright looking road bike for £269.

It doesn't seem inconceivable – as spoon said, warranty returns quickly start wiping out your profits, so it really pays to get things right.

Not a Sheff resident at the moment, but I'm with Podge. I know SWT is reliant on donations, and part of that is trying to attract visitors, who you hope will enjoy the site and pay towards the upkeep, and also make funding applications easier.

When I saw "ancient woodland" on the same page as "mountain biking" I had a bit of a WTF moment. Build trails somewhere else. The dog walkers who aren't interested in leads and picking up their shit are bad enough.

I have the guide downloaded. There's a grub screw holding the cap on the driveside apparently, but the rest is simple. If you can find instructions for the DMR revolver, I believe they're very similar.

It would really depend on what your package is. Some are very good – I was chatting to some people a while ago and they were saying how they were coming in but the total pay you could get was going to be restricted to 2 years salary…

If it's 6 months or so's pay, I'd think about it.

I've thought about it as a potential business in the past. There are huge problems in packaging and powering the device.

In particular, there are very few places where you could actually hide a transmitter or transponder on a metal bike (tyres, bar tape, saddle). Carbon frames open up more possibilities but then you're restricting the market even further. What's possible at the moment is more or less equivalent to an electronic frame number – a dog style microchip. Scan it, your address comes up. It's a complicated way of going about it, and easily foiled by a thief if it were commonplace.

TBH it's utterly amazing more of this doesn't go on. Fairly decent chunks of money change hands every day on this forum. It's astonishing that there aren't more people taking the mickey. That said, I've had a couple and that's my fill.

That well known paragon of wisdom, Jeremy Clarkson, once said that we drink like Northern Europeans and the French and Italians drink like Southern Europeans, because that's what we are. I think he might have a point.

Also a lot of it gets lost whilst melting it down through evaporation etc.

Really? I'd be amazed if the process wasn't incredibly low waste, due to the value of gold.

I could of course have this completely arse over ****.

You've forgotten that gold is very rarely pure Gold. Price will vary hugely by carat.

a month before they are going to even get the thing in that they are selling you?

Nice way of supplementing their cashflow. I would ring up and give them death.

A quick google gets you the price per gram, then you need to work out what purity it is – obviously 7ct and 18ct are going to have massively different amounts of gold in for the weight.

Then take a bit off for messing about weighing it. A quick check on any of the online gold sites suggests that's about £100 light for 7ct gold…

Do you think anyone has ever said the following phrase about you?

"He's not one to suffer fools gladly"

If the answer is yes, put your ticket on eBay now 😆

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, one with buttons.

It's got the point now where I avoid replying to texts on my Hero because it's too much of a pain in the neck. And a Hero has a reasonable sized capacitive screen, not a poxy resistive one.

Him allegedly having an affair – not on. It reveals duplicity and immorality.

I see your point, but Tony Blair managed to be a right **** despite the help of God, the hand of history and a squeaky clean private life.

Aye. Have a look at something like Bobbins Bikes for ideas. There are plenty of pretty ladies 3 speeds about at the moment for under £300.

If you want something a bit faster and less pretty, go for a Ridgeback – they do a good range of hybrids. Or EBC.

Decathlon do a fair range of hybrids and cheapy MTBs too.

Never noticed any cycle couriers when I was there.

Which faculty of SHU?

It's so short now I can barely be called that.

I seem to remember that the TG producers view it as a series broken into two parts – some broadcast during the Summer, and then some more during the Autumn.

My favourite roundabouts are the ones where mini roundabouts have replaced x-roads and T junctions.

You get half way round making a U-turn round one, and find out that the roundabout is considerably smaller than the turning circle of your car 😆