Someone’ll bite your arm off on the Retro Orange Bike Owners page on FB. And they won’t lowball you either.

They’re not especially rare but they have a following so there’s some value. Parting out is hassle but you’ll get more for all the individual bits, so it’s up to you if you want to do that. Plus all the helmets asking if you knock 50% off…

Mine was originally that silver/ blue but has been through a few repaints to the current grey. No photos to hand. :-/

Jeez, I’ve not posted on here for ages!

Ebay’s not as good as it used to be, but it’s still more good than bad IMO. The bargains get rarer and the n0bs get less so, but as people have already said, you usually get a feel for what’s right or not.

I’ve not done so much of the blocking as someone’s said, but I do have a mental list of stuff I’ll never sell on there (electrical goods being my main one but musical instruments are a close second).

If you list “free returns” ebay will automatically refund you 50% of your sale price once the item gets back to you, which is worth knowing. I only found out after I sold a cymbal which was disputed as cracked despite it not being when I shipped it (dented, yes, but well described…). The buyer was an Ebayer of cymbals so I think he bought it to try and bend the dent out, cracked it and as ebay tends to side with the buyer I got stuffed. I disputed it but it was a lot of hassle but talking to the ebay staff I learned a lot.

This is an interesting post for me as I’m chopping my company car in later in the year. Doing the sums like-for-like with what I have now at 25000 miles a year (split evenly between business and personal) including tax, tyres, insurance, servicing and work fuel it would leave me £40 a month better with a car allowance, assuming a lease of £500/month and the same in pre tax allowance. You really need to stick the numbers in a spreadsheet and see if the figures work for you, and be honest about what you’ll get, all the running costs etc.

Our vehicle list is weird and changes regularly but I got the car I wanted last time. I’d like an EV or PHEV this time but I’m not sure if that’ll be allowed (12-16% BIK is enticing!). The other fly in the ointment for me is that I’ve already been told that there is no option to take a car allowance: it’s lease vehicle only…

We’re 18 months into ownership of an old house. could be mid 1800s, could be older, could be slighter younger. It’s certainly had bits added over time, the roof raised and various other bits done. We’ve done a lot of work to it (the majority before we moved in) and it had been empty for nearly 2 years before we bought it, We moved in with no heating, only half the rewire done, no kitchen and water to one bathroom. Washing up in the shower gets tedious very quickly.

It’s a long list what we’ve done, and what we want to do (as others have said above, a new roof would be nice) but taking it a job at a time makes it manageable.

Would we do it again? YES, no question! It’s in a lovely location and its weirdness just makes us love it more. 🙂

Thanks for the replies.

I suspected there’d be Apple Pencil comments, which I’m sort of interested in, but also in the Wacom offerings, Windows Ink and the limited amount of smartpens (Neo, Livescribe, Equil  are the main ones I’ve seen).

I can and do touch type, but find it distracting in meetings and it’s often inappropriate if there aren’t dozens of you in the room.

Most of my notes are text, and automatically converting handwriting appeals, which I already use with 7Notes on my phone (and it works really well without a stylus), but do sometimes screengrab. I rarely draw or sketch things (for work anyway).

By the sounds of it I’m not fully exploiting my existing use of OneNote.

All of Kasabian

Peter bloody Hook

George Ezra, whose voice sounds like someone blowing over the top of an empty milk bottle

Turboferret likes his running as well. So he may be able to advise.

^^^what he said^^^

(IANAR, and IANAS)

What’s all this obsession with Celotex anyway?!

Indeed I do!

Not a roofer, but we do see a lot of projects where the boards are laid directly over the existing roof and a waterproofing system goes straight on top.

So Dabaldie has it as I would imagine that it’d be quicker to do it that way than faffing with removing the ceiling. You can get tapered boards to give the fall that he’s talking about as well although not sure if you can as a punter, perhaps contact your builder’s merchant.

Assume you’ll not be walking on it other than to lay it? Also, what’s the roof area?

I have a Yamaha YSP-800 for sale at a very reasonable price 🙂

Not made a huge amount of effort to sell it, but it’s just sitting in the spare room gathering dust at the moment.

You said hipster Dick, not me. The original question was is it cheaper anywhere that I might have overlooked, and the general consensus is “not really”.

Don’t know why you’re so interested if you don’t drink coffee. Are you starting a coffee shop?

No, you’re right, cost is just a nuisance and should in no way inform or influence anything that anyone buys, ever. Sheesh. Or did I misread that? As has been mentioned by multiple posters supermarket coffee is hit and miss when it comes to quality, and IME most of it is over-roasted (to my taste) or old.

And yes, hipster to the end Dick, that’s me. No interest in the flavor at all, just what looks cool in my instagram posts.

I perhaps should have mentioned that a) I’m tight and b) I’m not in the habit of drinking much coffee at home during the week so this is generally a weekend indulgence and the Catholic guilt I feel for spending £7 a bag/ 42p a cup isn’t worth the tightening of my Cilice.

Nowt in Lidl this weekend. Got a couple of Sainsbury’s bags and a bag od Lavazza Rosso instead.

I’ll just have to make the effort with James Gourmet whenever I’m in Ross.

Reading the debate has been excellent though, as have some people’s assumptions that I don’t know what I like/ dislike. Bravo!

James Gourmet is just down the road in Ross, but aren’t open on a Saturday.

I do buy in Waitrose and Aldi, not tried Lidl. Tesco I’ve not been to for a while, but I tend to find supermarket beans are over roasted for my taste especially “espresso” blends which seems to be code for black-and-oily-as-****.

I’ll have a look at Ouseborn and Dusty Ape, nip in to Lidl and also see who’s local to me (Method, Hunters and not much else near Hereford it seems).

The only ones I’ve ever used have been Yamaha YSP ones which bounce the sound off the walls and give you “proper” surround. Their technology is patented.

The one’s I’ve had don’t have Bluetooth or fancy stuff, just solid processing and good sound. There are phono inputs so you can connect multiroom receiver if you like, and a subwoofer out too.

As it happens, I have one for sale… 🙂

B&R are nice watches, but… are expensive for what they are, as many have already said.

Have you looked at their Space collection from a few years ago? These were all Sinn-made but had some nice, unusual touches which set them apart IMO (not square cases though). You can pick one up on Chrono24 for under the £2000 mark. There are a few different models to choose from too.

My current obsession is to find something interesting from 1980 (a watch I mean, not just generally).

I have a set of Deore dual controls languishing in a spares box somewhere if you want to try them out…

SNES Classic is now sold out after about 2 days. 😥

And the only game you need on Xbox is World Of Tanks. 8)

Why the Mazda Inbred?

The weird list and seemingly random collection of hatchbacks and estates is because it’s a company lease and I only get a list, not an unlimited choice. For example, I was all set for the Superb estate (not mentioned before) but it’s a 1.6 TDI which I’m a bit concerned will be underpowered. The Mondeo estate on the list is a lower spec than the hatch.

The boot on the Superb hatch is huge so I’m not that worried about losing the space versus an estate.

I’ve had a look at a few of them. And I got a similar experience with the Skoda salesman yesterday, plus the dealership is 25 miles away.

I’ve had an Octavia before and it was reliable enough, same for the Focus I used to have. I’ve never really had a dog of a car from any make (just to jinx that run of luck).

I’ve had a look at the Skoda and VW but not at the Mondeo in any depth yet.

Servicing and any **** ups are not a financial issue as it’ll be a lease. But I do a lot of miles, so inconvenience is a factor!

You lost me at “left-wing hand-wringers” and “lefty-liberals”.

One of these car seats?

Errm, Dickyboy, when did UKIP sneak their MP in?

Most of the wagons with our haulier are automatic, so they could have 1000 gears and it wouldn’t matter, and negates the excuse that it’s a pain to change speed.

+1 to what Mikertroid says above.

I’m factual, boring and to the point. 😐

Due to their current production status (i.e. not) I doubt I’ll get to ride one any time soon, coupled with the fact that I’m a tightarse and have only ever bought 4 brand new bikes.

Me too. I had the brush and the soap before I had the shavette. The shavette causes much less irritation than the cartridge I used to use.

I concede that the closeless feeling may be in the prep, but it *feels* closer.

Don’t know why you’re getting bent out of shape about it councilor, especially when the OP asked specifically about shavettes. He’s gone quiet though – maybe he’s still shaving with it, or has slit his throat by mistake.

Councilof10 – I bet it’s not as close as a DE or SE razor. You’re not doing it right with the Merkur if you’re getting razor burn. IME the advantage of a safety razor over a multiblade is that one doesn’t get razor burn, or ingrown hairs. I can shave in under 10 minutes with the shavette; not cut myself; do 2 passes and get very close. A multiblade is quicker but not by much once you’ve run water and applied soap, and is nowhere near as close.

Surely if you do it without a mirror you’ll miss some bit of your face, and why would you even want to do it in the dark?

A Parker shavette can be had from Ebay for under £20.

Been using one for around a year now and it’s much better than the old cartridge I used.

There’s a lot of nonsense (IMO) talked about shavettes on forums etc but I’ve got on with it and have had minimal slicing trauma. It’s not a tool to get distracted while using. Learn to use it both left handed and right handed.

I can thoroughly unrecommend Lord blades. Currently trying out Treet (good) Astra platinum (also good) and Feather (very good). You can get half blades but usually only in larger quantities, so it makes sense to buy DE and break them if you want to try different brands.

ps it’s good for beard trimming.

I disagree that surveys are pointless – the right surveys are priceless.

In my bitter experience, from recently buying an old property, a full survey is a waste of money, however a survey from a qualified electrician, structural engineer, plumber etc that you know or trust is much better, and what I’d do next time (there won’t be one – we’re NEVER MOVING AGAIN). For perhaps an hour or two of each tradesman’s time you’ll get some actual realism rather than some bullshit “the sky is falling in” doom-mongering.

I’d concur with the parking thing, and checking out your neighbours, but would also say that depending on the area, you won’t get the chance to look at loads if it’s a fast moving market and you find one you like.

Once we’ve done all the horrendously expensive work to our new house I want to put a zoned heating system in and having been looking at this. The Hive and Nest components are individual and don’t mesh in the way the Evohome or Heatgenius systems do.

I’m going to go for the Heatgenius and have 3 downstairs zones and 1 or 2 upstairs zones. I’m also considering switching to manifolds for the floors so I can control the flow from there rather than at the radiator.

There’s sense on this thread!

We sold our house over the summer and the buyer got a pretty poor report. IME what the surveyor is doing is, as said above, covering their arse. They tend not to look very deeply at things so see superficial issues and assume the worst. Our greatest hits were: old boiler (but we had a service contract on it), old consumer unit (new legislation came in in 2015!), all the windows needed to be replaced (some had blown units, which cost me £200 to do before the sale), and the best one – the gas fire is in an unknown condition… well, it was an electric fire, which the flex quite clearly points to! We were also told that it needed a “general roof overhaul”. Our buyer used it as a negotiating tool, which we moved slightly on.

Conversely, the house we’re buying we had a full survey done on and it’s turned up some useful information. We still took it with a hefty pinch of salt though.

70 ish.

Don’t know how you managed to get such shit mpg. Mine were both better mpg on the motorway than my 1.8t Octavia, by a couple of mpg at least. Over 85 the Saabs drank fuel.

My last one was Noobtuned.

Yes.

550 – 600 miles on a tank.

38ish motorway if you don’t go mental. Low to mid 20s round town.

They do 70-90 very quickly. Overtaking is never a problem in an Aero.

*edit* As it’s an auto you won’t be able to check the turbo seals as described above as easily.

(If anyone has a 99 Turbo with the velour interior that they’re selling, drop me a line. :-))

Yes, as long as it has a full service history, or has been owned by an enthusiast, or you intend to drop the sump, get it cleaned and take the rocker cover off and clean in there too.

The 2.3 engine needs fully synthetic oil as it runs hot. Semi synthetic breaks down too easily, causing sludging. I always changed my oil every 5000 miles. 5 litres of synthetic is under £25, and a filter is less than a tenner. It’s an easy job.

Joolsburger is partly right – the oil breather is the problem rather than the sump itself, but with a 2004 it should have the revised breather already fitted. The sludging of the sump actually ends up blocking the pickup tube and starves the top of the engine (and turbo) of oil, eventually killing it.

A sump drop and clean is under £200 at a garage that knows what it’s doing. Not worth doing yourself (IMO) as it’s a pain to get at all the bolts.

Rear tyres worn in “steps” points to the bushes.

Um, what else… They’re a heavy car so do wear suspension parts, but front bushes are not too expensive. Check that there’s no excessive rattle from the chain. Check that it’s not hard to start from cold, and that there’s not lots of smoke from cold (often valve stem seals). As it’s the Aero, give it a razz in 3rd, 4th and 5th, and check on lifting off that there’s no smoke (worn turbo, and a few hours to fit a replacement, excl. parts costs). Anything else is just usual checks on a 13 year old car – check the gadgets work, bodywork for rust, usual stuff.

I disagree that parts are expensive. Some engine parts are, but wear items are not, especially compared to BMW, Merc and Audi.

They’re a reliable and long-living car if looked after (isn’t everything?) and the only real quirk is keeping the engine fed with synthetic oil every 3-6000 miles.

I’ve had 3 Saabs (2 9-5 Aeros) and would have kept my last one had my circumstances not changed. Email me if you fancy a chat.

Jewellery perhaps, but miniature feats of incredible engineering and creativity certainly.

FWIW, I’d go for the grey, but I’d support LeeW’s comment and go for the Zenith. I like their history and the company.

I’m looking for a 2010 “something” that I can wear for the next 12 years then give to one of my kids for their birthday. And run the risk of them turning their nose up at it because it’s not their style. 🙂