I'm wrong and so is everyone else who thinks it'll make a difference:

http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible_pg3.html

Those vices are fine, got one in my shed. You move the bench before the vice gives up.

I like the idea of 2×10. Should make front mechs easier to set up, which is a job I loathe, whilst providing a decent range of gears.

That said, I'll have to wear out my entire 9 speed drivetrain before I think about swapping!

The sharpening stones are ace for kitchen knives. And chisels.

The digital calipers are much of a muchness – once you know how they work, it'd be damned difficult to make a bad set!

Cheers all!

Try Cardiotrainer.

Anyone?

If 7800 Kcal = 7800000 cal then… exercise exercise exercise
20 x 7800 Kcals all the best.

Kcals are always colloquially referred to as "calories". No need for the x1000.

As others have alluded to, it's not the gas that matters as much as the dryness of it. If there's moisture in the air that's in your tyres, it will alter the pressure as temperatures increase, even well below boiling point.

I don't understand the science of it much, beyond knowing that the warmer air is, the more water vapour it will hold. I have seen it happen when I've finished a drink that comes in a lucozade sport type bag, closed it back up and left it in the car on a warm day. When I got back the bag had inflated itself!

As for sizes across the periodic table, look at the numbers. Less protons & neutrons = smaller. And helium diffuses through rubber at a daft rate, so I doubt we'll ever see it in bike tyres unless we start running mylar inner tubes.

I learned to jump the other day, with the aid of the speed humps up the road and a howto article on Bikeradar. I've always been one for pulling up on the bars, getting the front wheel up, twisting it, landing in bit of a mess etc.

As soon as I realised that I needed to push down into the ramp and practiced somewhere without trees to crash into and lots of repeatable ramps, I got it sorted very quickly. I'd recommend it over trying to learn on the trai, where there are lots of hard things to crash into, your mates watching and the jumps aren't uniform and don't always have nice easy landings.

CO2 cartridges + one of those screw on cartridge piercers. Available dirt cheap from decathlon, as are the cartridges. Get the right size and they blow a tyre up to the right pressure in one go.

I'm just down the road. It's been dry lately so I'd be surprised if it isn't.

I'd be amazed if an Inbred or any bike made out of decent steel managed to rust through. Where the paint's chipped off mine, it's gone black and corroded very very slowly. Nothing like the bright orange mess you get instantly on mild steel bar bodywork.

In fact, I've got a 1953 frame made of 531 in the shed, it's obviously spent some time in a hedgerow, got loads of paint missing, and that's the same. Turned black rather than rusty. It does have a sticker saying that it was "Bonderized" though.

Warning triangle, high vis vests (in the car, within the reach of the driver), set of bulbs are required (the bulbs aren't technically legally required, but if you have a blown bulb and get pulled over, you can't go anywhere until you've replaced it, so you need a set).

A fire extinguisher is also a nice thing to have. And confidence in your radiator & water pump. It got to 39 degrees when I was there last summer.

And yes, speak to your insurers. Not all standard policies cover use in Europe. There's also a firm listed on the MSE website that does europe wide breakdown cover for £70 or so, but they do state that the car should be inspected before you go out – ie, service it or MOT it.

When I used to commute in Sheffield, the drivers weren't too bad, as you could easily keep up with traffic on a bike. The bus drivers, on the other hand…

She wears flip flops on a regular basis. Next it'll be crocs. Time for her to go!

Oh, I also ride with a chap who repairs and deals in expensive watches: Rolex, Cartier, real top end £70,000+++ watches.

I asked him once if he wore one himself. –
"Good god no!"
**takes off watch, bashes it on the table**
"Cheap Casio. Unbreakable!"

Very true! One of my old uni lecturers went on an expedition to the Amazon, back when it was still a big deal. They were sponsored by anyone and everyone – two dozen pairs of M&S underpants, and about 4 fancy watches each. One by one all the precision made Swiss watches packed up. The only stuff still working were the (at the time) brand new japanese digital sports watches.

I suspect there's more to it than marketing talk, even if it's not hugely deliberate (ie, a UK based designer isn't going to make something with very little mud clearance). We have national preferences for a lot of things, even stuff as well developed as cars, so I can't see why we wouldn't have national preferences in bikes.

I like to have a watch. If you're worried about looking flash, just get a basic one.

I'm not a fan of getting my phone out to check the time as a) it's impossible to do discreetly (and therefore you look rude) and b) once in a while a smackhead seems to spot my phone tries to engage me in conversation so as to liberate it from me.

How high is the ceiling? I've got a couple of pulleys that let me get bikes up in the air above workbenches etc.

What Mitch said. The fact is that you have people who are incapable of looking after themselves having kids. I think a curriculum with some proper home economics (cleaning as well as cooking), competitive sports in PE & a beefed up version of PSE (ie, budgeting, how the political system works, etc) could do wonders for the state of the country.

There a few kinds:

The bowl goes in the freezer before you use it, and basically works like a coolbox ice brick and freezes the ingredients as they're mixed.

The machine has a built in freezing element.

The machine goes in the freezer.

I'd buy the cheapest one as I can see it being the sort of thing that gets used very rarely…

What the other bloke said. Either your sums are wrong or you drive in spectacular fashion everyday.

My experience is that cars vary a fair bit from the manufacturer's figures when I drive. There's a definite sweet spot as far as I'm concerned – a 1.6 or 1.8 Golf / Focus sized car will do decent MPG with me driving. Anything with a smaller engine and I thrash it to bits to make it move, anything with a lot of performance and I can't resist using it :lol:

Is the Rock Lobster for sale?

Selle San Marco Rolls.

Once in a blue moon I'll have the chain off, do some stone chips etc. and make it all look nice again.

Most of the time it gets a hose down and some oil.

Do you live in Derbyshire? :lol:

It's not too unlikely. One of my relatives used to repair motocrossers and the like in his garage in his spare time. He packed it in after one of his mates had a break in, and one of the thieves dropped their phone as they were legging it. When his mate went through the phone, there were the phone numbers of various people who have stuff to do with motorbikes, including my relatives. The implication is that the thieves were almost certainly bikers themselves.

Nope, it's got one of those horrible mech hangers. The hallmark of cheap bikes everywhere…

I'm not in London, so LFGSS may be out, but jesus wept, there's one on ebay's completed listings that went for £117! I paid £20 for mine. The jerseys are selling for good money too, and the bloke who sold me mine offered me one as a freeby, but I though "Who on earth wants a 20 year old bike jersey?".

I may well whip the nice Campag cranks off, stick the Raleigh "custom" ones back on and get it photographed. Get rid of that and the folder and I'd have enough money for a reasonable second hand bike or a bottom of the range decathlon.

A very light one. I have a cheap folder, and it's fine for putting into a car boot or whatever, but an absolute pain in the neck when putting it into its bag or lugging it around a station.

I've had a google this morning, but it's useful to know if what looks like it should work, will actually work in the real world. Or if there's a completely different way of solving the problem.

There are loads and loads of 6 and 7 speed freewheels knocking about on cheap bikes. I don't think it'll be a big problem for me to lay my hands on one.

I reckon cheap steel clamp thumbies will be easily bodgeable, bar ends are fairly dear second hand. That said, I can live with downtube shifters if need be. The key thing to get some range in the gearing so I can actually get up the hills around here!

Got upgraded to the Meliá Royal Alma in Paris. Was very plush and well located for the golden triangle etc.

3000 words in one week is easy. 5000 words in a week is stressful. No reason why you shouldn't get into the 60s at least.

Easiest way to straighten a rotor is when it's still attached to the hub.

You can apparently straighten them but I've never managed to get one just so, and you can pick them up cheaply…

An oiled one will always outlive an oil free one. The oil free will need no maintenance, but it'll pack up sooner. If you do very intensive work (ie, spray painting large objects, or anything else that uses a reasonable amount of air) then the oil free will pack up much sooner.

If you're sure that you'll only be pumping up the odd tyre and blowing stuff down, then you buy whichever is cheapest. Normally, that means oil free. If you think you may go down the route of using it for longer jobs and with air tools, then get an oiled one.

The key thing is to think about the duty cycle – most home compressors will throw out 7CFM or so. Most air tools consume air at at least that rate – a spraygun needs 14CFM, a rattle gun needs 5CFM). So you end up with a compressor that is running most, or even 100% of the time, rather than running for 30 seconds, then cutting out for 30 seconds on a 50% cycle. An oiled compressor will bear that kind of work a lot better than an oil free one will.

The old Arcam 3s change hands for £30 a pop on ebay…

Anyone who makes up brake lines for rally cars. Rally designs or DemonTweeks?

Arcam Alpha 3 off ebay.

I suspect analogue circuit design isn't moving at a great pace, so all you'll gain with a brand new amp is remote control.

No.