As said above, stay as active as possible. Alternate hot and cold. Try not to lie on your back. Lying on your side with a pillow between your knees much better for spinal alignment.

If it really hurts and you don’t get on with codeine then diclofenac (Volterol) is good. If all else fails tramadol or gabapentin of it’s long term.

Good luck!

TMIET is £137 pa, my employer pays for 2/3.
CIS is £450 pa, my employer pays all. Not really a professional membership, more a certification.

1999 – 1990 H Citroen AX 1.4 GT
2001 – 1996 P Peugeot 306 2.0 XSi
2002 – 1996 P Peugeot 306 1.9 D Turbo
2004 – 1994 L Subaru Impreza 1.8 AWD
2006 – 1999 V Peugeot 306 1.6 Meridian
2009 – 2001 Y Ford Mondeo 2.0 Zetec
2012 – 2006 06 Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi Zetec
2014 – 2009 09 Ford Mondeo 2.0 Titanium

Is your daughter just tall for her age? Ours is, she was in her 0+ seat, a Be Safe iZi Go, for 10 months before we had to get her a 0+/1 one We went ERF (extended rear facing) for safety, a Be Safe iZi Kid X3 Isofix. Beware that they take up a lot of legroom. In our Focus the front passenger seat was almost fully forward. Had to change cars anyway so got a Mondeo for the extra legroom!

Ooh! Just down the road from my parents. I’ll have to check that out when we’re in those parts next month.

They’ve not necessarily got pitted races, that’s an assumption, unless you’ve stripped them down to check?

As you can strip them down, being good old cup and cone, you could find there’s just not enough good grease in them, maybe a little bit of dirt or that the axle is slightly bent? Cup and cone bearings (in pedals, hubs or headsets) very rarely come well greased and optimally tensioned from the factory.

You just need to ensure the stated free flow rate of the compressor is 20% or so higher than the flow rate that the tools/things you plan to use require. A lot of air tools use lots of air, high flow rates, so if you buy a compressor that has a low capacity it will always be recharging the receiver. If you but one with low free flow rate it won’t be able to supply the tool with enough air to work properly. If all you need it for is inflating tyres and blowing out dirt and dust a lower capacity (50 litres or less) receiver will be fine, as will a lower flow rate.

A 50 litre receiver should be fine for most single user home/garage/shed needs. It’s not just the capacity but the flow rate and rated duty cycle of the compressor that matters.

I’ve seen pellets of ice being fired at high velocity out of receiver bleed valves before. If the receiver is drained of air and water at the same time the decompressing air can cool the water leaving the receiver so much it freezes.

I prefer to use compressors with pre-receiver driers now, which eliminates the water in the receiver and provides dry air around the system. The systems I spec/buy/install are relatively expensive lab systems though!

Why do you need to be careful mrovershoot? Aren’t the little valves on the bottom pressure rated for the tank anyway so you just creep it open at any psi and it drains / empties its self?

No, water draining should always be done once the air has been exhausted from the output side of the receiver (tank). Cheap compressors in particular have bleed valves that just open the receiver to atmosphere, with no flow limitation other than their inner diameter. This can lead to the water and air escaping from the valve very quickly, which is very dangerous, most of all to the operator’s hearing.

A “mounting bike” frame prototype and they don’t know what size shock it needs? Really? Did they get the work experience slave to put that on eBay for them?

+several for Triptans. There are a few different sorts, I take Naratriptan. I find they stop the pain but some of the other symptoms, nausea and visual disturbances are reduced. They at least leave me able to function. Sleep is the only real cure for mine though.

The Skyne looks like an old Rocky Mountain with a nasty rattle can spray job to me.

I think that’s what I like about it! 😀

Ah well done. Typo in the article sending be on a wild goose chase!

Skyde bikes

No mention of that steel beauty though…

Not exactly but I used to have a 2001 MK3 2.0 Zetec and have just got a 2009 MK4 2.0 Titanium. The engine is pretty much the same, as is MPG, mine both average(d) 34-36. The 2.0 has a bit more poke than the 1.8, you should feel a difference. The MK4 does feel bigger and is bigger inside and out. The MK4 is a much nicer place to be and drives superbly. I looked at a few different ones before buying. Definitely go for a Titanium over a Zetec, much more comfy and a lot less bright silver trim on the dash. A lot of people don’t find the seats as comfy in the MK4s. I ended up paying £6750 for mine, having only done 40k miles, with a full main dealer history.

Yes the Minx speakers I linked to do require an amplifier. I think they do an active version, designed mainly for use with computers but if could be plugged into a TV, given the right connectors/adapters.

The Cambridge Audio Minx 2.1 system is very good. They are a bit above your budget new but you might be able to get some second hand?

Well, I’ve just had an email form Dirt and it turns out I’ve not won the STW mini-league after all! I’m only second and 12th overall. Seems the stats have been tweaked since the other day. 😆

Maximimum respect to all of them.

Another ER20S user here, for playing and listening. Many years of going without has left me with pretty bad tinnitus. Gigs are much better with decent plugs.

Sorry, L5/S1 is right at the bottom, not L1. Also, steroid injection in epidural space did FA.

I herniated my L1 (the one right at the bottom of your spine) about 4 years ago. I had a fairly constant ache in the centre of my left buttock until one day when clearing snow away from the car. I dug into the snow and pulled up and away from the car. The shovel didn’t move because it was stuck under a layer of ice. The pain down my leg was like lightning. It took months to get a definitive diagnosis on the NHS. In total it took 18 months to recover with about a year off my bikes. I couldn’t sit for most of that year. The sciatica was terrible. Constant numbness, pins and needles and all sorts of pain in my left leg. Driving for more than 10-15 minutes was agony. Luckily I only worked 10 minutes drive away and work built me a standing desk.

Definitely agree with remaining as active as possible. You must avoid anything that can exacerbate it. Remaining careful, taking ibuprofen, nightly hot water bottles and ice packs and just letting it heal was really hard. It felt never ending but now I’m back on my bike and have an 11 month old daughter that keeps testing how well it’s healed! I just have to be careful lifting and twisting.
Good luck. It will get better.

Can’t believe no-one’s said Conti Vert Pros yet…

Seriously, I’m a big fan of WTB tyres, in their DNA compound. Also Geax tyres are very underrated. Saguaros are great in everything but deepest winter and AKAs are much better than I expected but dry weather only really. Well made and good value.

26″ wheels, 2.1″ tyres, 1 1/8″ steerer, 25.4mm bars and stem, hex key seat post clamp, skinny Tange Prestige, flat but sweepy bars, QR hubs, but 1×9:

IMG_20140613_190006 by will jenkins[/url], on Flickr

My boyhood favourite:

Harrier GR3

There are 18″ C456 Evos for £249 too. If only I didn’t have to buy my daughter a new car seat!

Ideally it would be milled out but using a sharp jigsaw is fine as long as the piece it’s well clamped down and you don’t go too hard and fast! Avoid heating up the acrylic, use a vacuum cleaner or better still a jet or jets of compressed air to clear the swarf from the blade and cool the blade and workpiece. Smooth the cut edges with a file then scrape with a sharp Stanley knife or scalpel to eliminate any stress raisers.

This is a good read for anyone working with acrylic.

First: 1988 Raleigh Marauder
Inbetweeners: 14 (12 MTBs and 2 roadies)
Now: 2012 Charge Duster

Of those only 4 have been bought as complete bikes. The last 12 have all been custom builds, one morphing into another to a greater or lesser degree. At most I’ve had 5 at a time, now only the one which I don’t ride enough!

I’ve used Pneus Online for my last two sets of tyres and had them fitted by a local (8 miles away) fitter. I do this mainly because you can easily get the tyres you want, not just what the fitter had got at the time.

Not the same but I’ve also used etyres before, they’re fairly cheap and you get the convenience of them coming to you to fit them.

My dualit 4 slice toaster was bought in 1998
Perfect toast every day for 16 years so far

We bought our two slice in 2003, persevered with it being the most unreliable piece of electrical tat for 11 years because I spent £100 of our wedding vouchers on it. We bought numerous sets of new elements and eventually replaced it. They must make a fortune on each one they sell, judging by the design and build standard of them.

They might be quoting 32mm maximum with the possibility of still fitting mudguards?

Dualit toasters.

Our Dyson DC03 has provided 12 years of faultless service.

I got a new 2012 Prestige tubed Duster for £135 last year. Not had all that much time on it yet but it is certainly a very nice ride. Much more refined than a MK1 456 and similar to my old OX Platinum Explosif. The only thing I don’t like about it is the lack of room for anything bigger than a 2.1″ tyre.

The only thing that worked for us was my very own urine sprinkled liberally around the garden. Might give those twirly things a go though.

Bit of a thread resurrection but can someone tell me if the £1000 limit is the retail price or the voucher price, plus VAT but minus tax and NI? If it’s the latter the maximum retail price would be around £1400?

I’ve heard of a family called King that had a daughter named Jo and a son called Wayne.

Also knew a guy who’s drag act name was Etta Goodcock.

We named our daughter Lyra Emma Zakis Jenkins.
Lyra is Greek for harp, a constellation and the name of a character in my wife’s favourite books. Emma was the name of my late sister and Zakis is my wife’s Latvian maiden name, which means Hare.

We’re in bed by 23:00 most nights. I fall asleep almost instantly, to my wife’s annoyance. On weekdays I get up at 06:40 for work, or 5:40 if I have to go in early. Most nights are punctuated by our now 9 month old daughter waking for around an hour, any time between 03:00 and 05:30 so on average I probably get 6 hours, but usually in two chunks. My wife gets 2 or 3 hours less because she has so much trouble falling asleep.

Anyone that thinks they’re tired but hasn’t got any children, insomnia or both needs to MTFU.

I’ve had no problems with the GU10s I bought from simplyled.co.uk.

As a rule the impedance of the speakers should be equal to or greater than the output impedance of the amp, never less than.
If speakers of lower impedance are used the amp will be forced to work harder, will get hot and could fail. If speakers of a greater impedance are used the output power will decrease but the amp will not be damaged. The greater the speaker’s impedance the easier it is for the amp to drive but the lower the output power will be.

YGM, Catvet.