Probably rather late to things now, but an easy way to check out if an old steel frame's any cop is to weigh it.

A 23" 531 frame will generally weigh around 5.5-6lbs with fork and headset. If it's around that weight or lighter, it'll be something decent.

Steel frames don't go wrong – I've got a 1950s frame in the shed that the LBS assure me is still fine to ride. The LBS is run by a framebuilder, so I trust his judgement.

If you have any rust coming through the chrome, WD40 and a pan scourer or wire wool does a good job.

I need 5 people all at once (email addresses have to be entered into the O-O website), will do it once I've got that.

The traffic jam one should have "Put Radio 2 on for Sally Traffic, check the traffic on google maps, decide whether or not to get the sat-nav to take you round it".

They didn't give me that option so I drove up the hard shoulder. Hope I didn't kill too many AA men.

Am i missing something?

The weekly discount e-mither? You buy as normal, then use a discount code.

I bought a set a couple of weeks ago and I'm very happy with them.

Adam receives a text saying "From now on, my arse is a one way street."

I don't get the whole "quality frame" thing. People like on-one have proven that you can make a decent frame for very little money.

All that's needed is decent geometry, decent tubing and a decent build. At worst, you might carry an extra half pound on the frame, but you can afford much better kit.

Nuke from orbit.

To be honest, I'm mostly upset that he's tainting my memory of a wonderful television programme.

Must be a hell of a rough shift from 12 to 36…

Have you swallowed a copy of the Daily Mail or something? There is not some terrible "PC/Human Rights/Liberal/Elf'n'safety" agenda that must be taken as a whole or rejected entirely. It's a false dichotomy.

To my mind, there's no reason why the police should be shoving anyone over for dawdling along in front of them. If he's committing a crime, then they can nick him. If not, leave him alone. I think most people feel that way about the Police. They want people who aren't committing crimes to be left alone.

On the other hand, the police would be perfectly within their rights to use physical force in the event of a violent attack against a person, as would you or I. These eventualities are covered under our existing law.

It's not an either / or situation where we can have efficient policing or we can have human rights. There is a trade off, much as there is between surveillance and security. Anyone presenting the argument that we can only have one or the other is very wide of the mark.

10 speed is still 3/32" internally, but it's externally narrower.

get a suit that fits

I find it's best to take a woman with you for this. I'm firmly of the "If it's big enough, it fits" school, and I've lost patience after 15 minutes in the shop.

Single breasted – double breasted is for old tubby men to get around the girth.

Eh? Eh? EH?

Double breasted makes you look bigger, and should only be worn if you're a bit of a racing snake. And you're a lawyer in a 1980s/90s film.

Single breasted jacket, 2 or 3 button depends on fit – In my view, I look better in a 2 button. 3 Button to me is for skinny blokes with two button collars. Who arrive by moped.

As others have said, Navy or Charcoal Grey are decent colours to go for. Some people will question the wisdom of black shoes with a navy suit, but I feel that you need black shoes for an interview, so grey would be a safe route to go down. Interview clothes need to be safe and dark coloured for most industries.

I agree with everyone else about a black tie with a black suit for interviews. Not good. Get a decent but fairly sombre tie – stripes or paisley if you like, but in a sane colour.

M&S do some of the best suits on the high street according to one of the Saville row boys who has his own blog. Sales are fairly regular, so if you can, try and time your purchase well.

In my view, the way we go about policing demonstrations is completely wrong. The police seem to act illegally at demonstrations on a fairly regular basis, and get away with it. Considering the restrictions we have on the right to demonstrate, that's pretty impressive.

MILTON KEYNES?

I'm in two minds on the Ford Ka.

I know what you mean. They corner like a housefly, and are real laugh for what they are. It's just completely unacceptable for a modern car to rust like they do.

If you see him in a moat, just run. And keep your dog on the lead!

German; cars are too expensive to run and contrary to suburban myth, have been overtaken by Ford in the independantly generated reliablity reports.

I know that VW parts can be very cheap. Merc apparently also have a policy of discounting parts on older models.

Servicing at either's dealers is likely to be pricey though.

But I guess if bikes, for you, are about wheel rates and damper construction

Bikes are for riding. No question about it. I view fettling as a necessary evil, much the same as I do working on the car. That's one of the reasons I like to have some technical knowledge.

As an example, I've got bought some pretty basic second hand forks. I took them out for their first ride, and they bottomed out pretty heavily at one point. Now, even with a very basic fork, I have rebound speed to adjust, oil weight, oil height and air pressure. I could mess about with all four in a trial and error way until I had the work working reasonably well, or a bit of technical knowledge would provide me with a massive shortcut to getting the fork working properly.

Or on the other hand, if you're looking for new forks, wouldn't it be better to know what technology each company is using, rather than their "brand" names for the technology? That way you could have some hope of an objective comparison rather than working from reviews and a test ride if you're lucky. Even the non-technical car mags manage some of this – BMW's Z-axle is a multilink, V-tec is a variable cam setup etc.

Almost every industry has this – an attempt to brand stuff as unique and proprietary, but most don't swallow the marketing department's guff whole.

Aye. Even with somewhere like Sherwood Pines, when riding rigid I find myself thinking "I can see why helicopters fly into powerlines now".

Even with a big soft tyre, as soon as you hit loose rocks your bike is flying all over the shop.

In the meantime, yes it is a bit thirsty and won't win drag races but it fits 2 bikes in the back dismantled and has been on several 200+ mile excursions with no bother as of yet*

They work fine – bad, as in unreliable, engines are very rare. They're mainly restricted to Alfa Romeo and Mazda Rotaries these days 😆

The shortage of decent second hand cars is pretty much down to scrappage as far as I can see. I used to find usable second hand cars for under £400. Now you're looking at spending double that to have a decent chance.

Oh, and find out when tax changed over. I think it's 2001 – we're running an old 1.6 Golf at the moment, not quick, does 40mpg, but it costs the far side of £200 a year to tax! £125 a year for pre changeover cars with small engines…

Hogweed sap causes a photosensitive reaction (ie, if you have it on you, but it's not in the light, it's far less of a problem). My advice would be to wash well and not to wear shorts for a few days!

I've posted umpteen times on this subject.

The Ka rots badly, and the 1.3 engine is very poor. Economy is nowhere near what it should be for the size of car & performance. Some claim to have had 49mpg out of them, I could never get more than 38, even when deliberately trying for economy.

Corollas should be reliable, but oddly aren't brilliant for carrying passengers – you can either have legroom in the front or in the back, but not both at the same time.

I'd avoid any recent PSA (Pug, Citroen), car simply due to horrific parts availability & possibility of the BSI (multiplexed computer job) going bang. I had a Pug off the road for the far side of a month waiting for parts. The earlier non-multiplexed cars are a safer bet.

Personally, I'd go for whatever's available in good nick and you can insure – condition is everything in a second hand car. Do a load of Confused.com searches for a big variety of cars. As others have said, size of car and insurance group really are no indicator of premium. The premium is mostly based on how likely someone of your demographic is to crash that kind of car, and it's very difficult to guess.

Having run a few different cars, here's my views on some of the manufacturers:

Ford – will need bits now and then (suspension wishbones due to dead bushes mainly – evident on test drive by noise as you go over bumps, eventually leads to MOT fail), they're mostly cheap, and the newer models are pretty good – Mondeo 3, Focus, late Fiesta (the one that looks like a mini Focus) onwards. Ford basically bought in a load of engineers and technology in the late 90s – Peugeot chassis engineers, Yamaha helping with engine designs. Rust proofing improved dramatically around that time. Original Ka and previous Fiestas are based on a very old Fiesta design, and Ford managed to carry all the rust traps over to each model. Ka and some Fiestas come with the 1.3 Kent / Valencia / Endura-E, which is a bit of a joke – originally fitted to the Anglia! The Mondeo is fine, but the clutch can be a very expensive job.

VW – need less bits than Ford in my experience, interiors are very tough (easily clocked!), engines are generally low power for their size but with good torque making for a relaxed drive. The engine technology is generally reasonable as they started with a clean sheet due to previous reliance on aircooled engines. Genuine VW parts can be astonishingly cheap on older models. Same goes for SEAT, Audi and Skoda as they all share the same parts and platforms, although you tend to get more powerful engines in SEATs and Audis.

Peugeot / Citroen – don't seem to need many parts, interior build is poor (lots of rattles), repairs can be very difficult as they seem to be fond of making things nigh on inaccessible. Even basic stuff like Glowplugs can be very difficult to get at. The old 306 / ZX with the diesel engine will run forever and is galvanised, but they're pretty basic. As I said above, you can be waiting a long time for parts. Peugeot seem to have suffered particularly with rubbish electrical components – indicator stalks, brake light switches and ignition key switches have all be fairly widespread problems. A new indicator stalk for a 406 is the far side of £200. 406s warp their brake discs fairly easily. Peugeots tend to handle nicely, Citroens tend to have a fantastic soft ride, and still handle well.

Toyota / Nissan / Honda – reliable, don't need many bits, but when you do need a part, you can guarantee it will be expensive. The old bubble shape Micras are one of the most overrated cars around in my view. Engines are a strong point – V-tec in the Hondas, Toyota lifted a few Cosworth ideas for their MR2 engine etc. Insurance might be surprising for Civics as they're becoming a bit of a boy racer car.

It won't be a 1.8, unless someone's been engine swapping.

The biggest they fitted was the 1.7, as also used in the Volvo 340 (can't remember if it was the 1.4 or the 1.7 in the Volvo, but much the same engine).

Personally, I wouldn't bother. You'll have carburettors to contend with, so there'll be short service intervals (6000 miles?) and relatively poor fuel economy for the size and performance. I've not driven a 5, but the 205 which was perhaps a size up and from a similar time feels like it's made of foil.

The missus will also be using it and she was used to a fiesta

Get her to drive a couple on test drives. Big cars are rarely anywhere near as difficult to drive as people expect them to be. Some are easier – in old Jags, you can see all 4 corners and have really good visibility, whilst most small cars have fairly small windows.

The new Ragley bars look like they'll be very light for their size – Brant reckoned around 250g for the alloy ones the other day. I think they're 720mm…

Pro (Shimano) bars are also surprisingly light for the price.

Protapers (XC ones) are about 275g, as are the XC On-one Reetards, but they're only 680mm as far as I know.

Why are you people so determined to make riding bikes seem so ridiculously complicated?

For me, understanding how stuff works is about two things. The first is getting the most out of the cash I spend on bike bits. The second is not having to rely on marketing bull and reviewer's opinions too heavily.

You see threads on here where people don't know basics like the difference between progressive & linear springing, how oil heights & weights affect a fork etc. Any adjustments then become trial and error, whereas a bit of knowledge means you can make educated guesses and get to a good result much more quickly and easily. Nobody ever (publicly) seems to look at things like wheel rate on bikes, whilst it's pretty key to how the suspension works.

And, as others have said, the kit that's being sold to us as super duper high tech, just invented at our secret hollowed out mountain lair, is very often motorbike or car technology from 30 years ago with a fancy name. It's generally not complex. It just becomes complex when the only info that's commonly available is third hand and mixed up with marketing gibberish.

I use Nikwax's proofing stuff. Purely because you can buy it reasonably cheaply at Go Outdoors & Sports Direct. I picked up a litre of tech wash and reproofer for around a tenner a bottle.

I looked at Graingers kit, have read good reviews, but their range is huge, and my simple mind was confused 😀

Pretty much all goretex type materials will need to be reproofed – even if you never wash them, the water repellent coating gets rubbed off, and the gaps in the weave that make it breatheable can be blocked with muck.

We had a survey in the mag just a couple of months ago.. Would you be upset to learn that the general consensus was to NOT include more tech features?

You survey your readers, and you find out what your readers think they want. People can be very bad at knowing what they want, and you don't find out anything about the people who aren't currently reading the mag.

There are plenty of case studies of businesses who had loads of info on what their customers wanted, and were suddenly blown away by someone providing a product the customers didn't know they wanted until they saw it.

As for not needing to know how your car works to drive it, as a rule, they arrive ready to drive. Bikes tend to have a lot of adjustments to make, and the owner often changes large components.

Maplin had some on 2 for 1 a while back. Think £3 or £4 for a DMM nowadays!

Book and film is hardly surprising. The GTA Rothbury cover is a mickey take…

Your assumption being that everyone spends all their spare time glued to the TV?

Nope, but the vast majority of people have a TV, and watch it on occasion.

Seriously, for a great many consumers, the website is the first point of contact with you. It's worth spending a few quid or time on making it look decent, having the domain name etc.

A dodgy business website is the equivalent of sending out your CV as a list of everything you've ever done, in size 10 Times Roman.

I'd say Brant with Shedfire & Ragley is a good example of how to do online marketing – there's a buzz around his products and an astonishing amount of customer generated content created at very little cost to him.

Obviously, how much of what he does can be applied to your business would depend on what you do – if you're offering B2B consultancy, you're not going to be able to get the same kind of customer created content as if you were selling consumer products / services.

£3 a month sounds cheap enough to me. Normally the free website hosts will have some catch – usually ads – which make your website look unprofessional.

In my view, the biggest danger is that instead of turning your work into a hobby, you turn your hobby into work.

Camping Gaz bottle if you plan very long jaunts to the continent, Calor if you're going to stay mainly in the UK or go to the continent for less than 4 weeks.

CG is pricier (for the bottle and the gas), the bottles are a bit smaller, and therefore need to be refilled more often. The small Calor bottles will last you several seasons of camping without needing a refill. Calor is pretty much UK specific, CG is supported across much of Europe.

And a reg, as suggested above.

Nobody raves about the physics and engineering that much, but people do rave about the results. Without a decent understanding of the technical side of things, you are very much in the writer & marketing department's hands, particularly with things like suspension, where various technologies (often fairly well known in motorised circles) are given daft acronyms.

At £90 for that lot, I'd be amazed if any of it is any cop. As others have said, the hydrostatic head figure is poor.

Decathlon and Go Outdoors are the places you want to go to for cheap and good tents. The Decathlon tents tend to have doors that can be guyed out, giving a bit of shade / shelter to cook.

I recently bought al load of mags to look at how the mountain bike brands are marketed.

MBR was fairly dull, but the route guides seemed pretty good. Never ridden them, but they almost make the mag worth buying on their own.

Singletrack was in danger of disappearing up its own hoop. The editorial column seemed to be heading almost into advertorial territory. I do like the Evo style "long termer" reviews though.

Dirt was pretty good, but focussed on types of riding I don't really do.

MBUK seemed to be by far the best general riding about mag. I'd previously thought of it as kiddified, and it surprised me. Good bits and pieces on technique

MBA is very light, but the articles on training seemed pretty good.

If I were stuck in the newsagents looking for something bike related to read, it would be MBUK every time. Though I'd be far more likely to pick up Evo or PPC to be honest… There's a real technical side missing from the bike mags in my view – PPC will run articles on things like suspension geometry and tuning, how to tune X engine. The thing is, they're written in such a way that even if you don't own X engine, it's still a pretty interesting read. And for all the bike mags blather on about frame geometry and adjustability on forks, I best most of us have very vague ideas about what it all means.