They're placed as warnings to other drivers, much the same as the Jesus Fish, a hat / box of tissues on the parcel shelf or the inscriptions "Audi A2" or "ARC Courtesy Car".

It basically means there's a fair chance the driver is going to be barely capable of making the vehicle move, let alone controlling it whilst observing the outside world.

You could change the spacing on the hub, but you'd have to do it all on the driveside, not the brakeside.

A lot of frames are spaced at 132.5, allowing you to run either road or mountain hubs. I reckon that means 2.5mm of stretch is reasonably sane, so if you can knock 2.5mm off the hub, you should get away with a Mountain hub in a 130 frame.

It's all a bit academic without knowing what the frame spacing is…

If it has disc mounts, then I'd suspect that it's MTB spaced – measure it!

Another option would be to see if some bits (ie, spacers, lock nuts) can be removed from a rear MTB hub to alter the spacing without trying to cold set the frame.

Not as bad as I could imagine to be honest. I was expecting Nitromors to be involved at least.

I assume you're talking about an Uncle John frame? I don't think they have disc mounts at the back. According to Sheldon Brown, Mountain bike hubs are 135mm, road hubs are 130. You'd probably squeeze one in, but it's not a brilliant idea – I think they're Alloy frames?

Dell Vostro or similar, go to DMX Dimension to find the models that are on sale.

So long as you only ever buy sale models, Dells are good value, and the support is pretty decent.

Personally, I reckon so long as you can afford it, replacing computers every 2 years or so is the way to go. The amount of time spent keeping older machines working well seems to increase hugely, and the performance of the new kit keeps moving on.

MTB hubs and road rims will work fine.

On-one are doing Pompetamine forks with disc tabs for £40…

I was once discussing the relative merits of various cakes in the supermarket with a mate. An old bloke overheard and went "Get coffee and walnut, it's what I use!".

4 minutes in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a__o45b0Vuo

Can someone remind me why it is traditional to torment Surf-Mat in this fashion?

A lot of people still haven't forgiven him for the time he beat Chuck Norris up.

The man with the digital watch probably does have objectively the best watch. Anyone remember the Secret Life of Machines?

I love skellington. "What I like" is another of my favourites.

I also like "similarity pack" to specify a multipack which isn't a variety pack.

The American have some crackers. Visitation is a good one. It means to visit as far as I can tell 😆

You cant expect CRC to replace the part if they have no prrof it doesn't work!

Think about it from a seller's point of view. It's a £4 bit of bar tape – probably costs them £2-3 to buy, stock and ship to you. If you post it back, and they receive it, they have to match it up to the problem on their system, get a pair of road bars out of stock and ask someone to fit brake levers and try wrapping the bars. Easily half an hour to an hour's work for someone in picking, assembling and repacking the bars and levers. Employee time will be easily worth more than £10 an hour to CRC, even if paying £6 an hour.

Therefore, it's cheaper for them to just send the guy some bar tape that does fit. They've already inconvenienced the guy by screwing up his bar wrap, perhaps stopping him riding his road bike, and now they want him to mess about posting stuff so they can be 100% sure he's not a liar?

I used to work dealing with customers, some of whom did lie in order to get what they wanted. Part of the job is working out when people are lying or pushing things, but an equal part is knowing when you should give people the benefit of the doubt.

Everyone working in retail should have one fact burned into their brain – people tell twice as many people about bad service than they do about good service.

FWIW, I can recommend SJS for their service – I ordered some shifters for an old racer, it arrived without the mounting hardware. No need to send it back, they sent out a complete new shifter assembly. No third degree either.

people like you who complain and stamp their feet at the slightest little thing really grind my gears.

Eh? CRC are in the business of selling bike parts. Doesn't matter if it's a £4 part or a £40 part, it should do the job. As far as I can see, the OP doesn't want anyone sacked – he just wants some bar tape that works!

The banks?

Not just simple lending. The government has shares in the banks, which creates a very different situation. And there are clauses in the recapitalisation scheme that make taking the money very painful.

Forgemasters? Governments lending cash to businesses has a history of ending badly.

You can recell them, or have them recelled. I imagine there'll be tool shops that do it, and if not, the radio controlled hobby shops will.

Yorkshire tea.

I reckon after a while in China, I'd just get fully hacked off with eating Chinese food.

Brand X, not Planet X!

NSFW, someone seems to have had this problem before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX5h9Cp-Uu8

It's a clear cut case of not fit for purpose in my opinion. Road bar tape should be long enough to fit commonly sized road bars. The purpose of the tape is to wrap bars. The dimensions of road bars are fairly uniform – they seem to vary from 38 to 44cm wide in the whole, which is nowhere near as much variation as you get in the mountain bike world.

Assuming your bars fit in the range of what's considered normal for road bars, I can't see how CRC can refuse to take it back.

The guy's argument of "I wouldn't have bought the car" doesn't hold water – you don't have the opportunity to see the goods before purchase, and it's not reasonable to expect you to test fit bar tape. Even if you did, there's the potential for stretching and damage as you do so.

In a press up, you life the roughly 65% of your weight, which is one of the major reasons why you can't bench your own weight just because you can do a press up.

Yep. Zetec originally described an engine range, but became a spec level a few years after it was introduced.

I personally don't get the idea of congratulating everyone on their purchases, but I can see that it is a bike forum and some people are interested in seeing what other people have, and there is some variation in how bikes are put together. Two people could come up with very different types of bike with the same frame, so something novel can be created.

You can see this in the threads that generate a bit of interest – the first person on here to get a new model, or an unusual build. We don't see huge numbers of "Here's my new Stumpjumper" threads, even though they're probably pretty common bikes.

To me, posting this is about as relevant as posting about your new fancy pair of shoes, your new boiler or your new dinner service. It's an off the shelf item, which I can see any time I want.

Hang on. You have a grand's worth of broken keys and you still have the car?

If the car had blown it's head gasket 2 or 3 times, you'd be looking to get rid, as it's clearly a recurring problem.

Just sell the thing as soon as you get it fixed.

Grum, what is buying a top of the line iMac, then telling everyone on a bike forum, other than conspicuous consumption?

Not day to day work, but:

Where I used to work, one of the top level managers sent another top level manager an email about his holidays. Having a good time, had a private jet to such and such a hotel, food and drink good, weather nice, but one of the cases got lost, been doing this that and the other etc.

The guy who received the email thought it would be a good idea to print this out and stick it on the noticeboard.

At the time, they were making approx 50% of the bottom two rungs of the firm redundant. That didn't go down well 😯

If this were any other bit of expensive kit, the hate on here would be legendary.

See also:
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/little-things-in-daily-working-life-that-just-make-your-spirit-sink

The AK in the face was one thing.

The Englishwoman queueing to board the same flight as us, carrying a clear polythene bag, into which she was puking the previous night's ale, topped things off. 😯

I found Egypt to be a bit of a dump. We also had the experience of having Kalishnikovs pointed in our faces. Which is not in the least bit funny. The locals, as others have said, are a pain in the arse. Your wife may have to do a fair bit of shopping, as even in very touristy Sharm, a vest top will have the occasional local's eyes out on stalks.

Sharm is not somewhere I would ever choose to go again – all you can do is sit on the beach, the place looks like it was all built in the last 20 years or so etc. Food and drink costs about the same as it does here, and isn't particularly good.

The beaches are a huge distance from the pyramids – day tripping from one to the other isn't really practical.

Personally, I'd go somewhere in Europe. France, Croatia, Italy, Greece etc. Croatia's recent history is very interesting, and if you go to Dubrovnik you can still see a lot of it. Greece and Italy both obviously have massive remnants of their ancient civilisations. And of course, the French had 2 world wars fought there, a revolution, and Paris is full of incredible buildings.

Beyond that, there's the simple fact is that if something's worth having, a European country either made it, or nicked it. And in Europe, the police tend not to point guns at you without a very good reason, you don't spend half your time worrying about food poisoning, and the shopkeepers tend to leave you alone.

I suspect every time someone rings the RSPCA with that type of question, the standard reply is "ahh, well, if there were N+1 dead whatevers, we'd come out"

What nick said. They're mostly used for holding brake calipers together. Draper do them.

The jumps at Sherwood Pines are ridiculous. Space raider & monster munch wrappers everywhere. Despite there being a bin installed!

You do know how these sorts of thread normally end, don't you?

What tricks could she pull on you?

Your name would be on the mortgage. If you stop paying up, you would have to go bankrupt and the house would go from under the lot of you.

She could kick you out, separating you from your kids. You would be pretty much obliged to keep paying the mortgage in order to not go bankrupt, and to keep a roof over your kids heads. If you stopped paying out, in the divorce her Lawyer would present this as what git you are. If you carry on paying out, you can guarantee that she'll get the lions share of it.

In a situation like this, she holds a lot of power. All she has to do is hint that you're violent towards her or the kids, or even that she's afraid you might be, and you're in big trouble. Or she could move another bloke in, and get friendly with him. That wouldn't be a situation you're likely to be able to stick out.

Ultimately, for a lot of people, money can be the be all and end all. I know of siblings who have become bitter enemies following disagreements about money. If she's willing to screw you over once, she'll be willing to do it again, and this time she could really screw your life up. If she were so minded, you could end up bankrupt and with naff all access to the kids.

These are what I have been looking at actually but the newer ones (upto 3 years) are nearer 7k and are quite rare as I was looking for an estate too (im picky.)

Diesel estates always carry a fair premium. Even when they're complete rats, they still seem to ask around £1k. 3K tends to pick up a 5yo example.

What IP said above. Pre-top up fees, even receiving maximum loan & the 1k grant, my rent was just about covered. You needed to find another 3-4k a year for living expenses, books, transport etc.

If you're fortunate, you could find reasonably well paid & career relevant summer work. It's certainly harder now – the people who employed me over summers in the past would expect voluntary work now.

Just cover it in WD40 / Plus Gas / DERV, ride it a bit, strip the whatever off and relube. The rusty wears away pretty quickly.

If you really need a car for work, get them to give you a company car.

If you just need transport, drop £2-£3k on something OK. Don't take out a 10K loan at 17% interest to buy something that will lose most of its value before the loan's paid.

Putting big miles on your personal transport for work is a mug's game in my book. Yes, you do get expenses, and you can make a bit on them if you get good economy and aren't hit by too many repair bills. But all the stuff you have to do to a car has to be done twice as often, and it's a pain in the arse.

Whereas if it were a company car, you'd just stick it into their dealer every time something needed doing. And generally you'd be doing that on their time, not on your saturdays.

Cor blimey. Why don't you all go the whole hog and start praying for the poor chap to get cancer of the arse whilst you're at it?