Totally agree with oldnpastit, there is no excuse for not voting if you really don;t agree wit any party then at least spoil the paper as that will be recorded. There is always a comical candidate so vote for them as a protest vote.

The other thing to remember is that is you don’t like something complain to your MP. I complained to my local MP about how crap the tax credits system is and got a reply from them that they would bring it up with the minister and also a direct response from HMRC. They might not make any changes but at least they then directly know people are unhappy.

Try doing a phone reset by holding the power button and home button at the same time until the Apple logo appears.

Have you installed the latest OS, should tell you under settings

Try sticking in a sim card from another phone and see what happens

Should we raise one of those online petition things to ask the government to not spend £20 billion on trident but to invest it in research to sort out our weather once and for all. I know what would make the population happier!! Scientist are amazing people and I wonder what they could achieve with £20 billion

The whole thing was stupid. How many kids are born each year, say 500K. If you stick a empty needle into all of them then statically you will always get some that start to get a severe condition. Doesn’t mean it is linked to the injection. In the same way you will always get some kids that do badly respond to MMR but from a government point of view they have to look at public health as a whole and whats best for the country. We might not like getting dictated to from government but sometimes it is needed as it’s for the good of everyone.
Personally I have always thought you have to be an idiot not to give your kid the MMR. If you hate it so much get the single injections done privately.

imnotamused – yes there is the Bikespy which is a GPS tracker. Just got one that I am going to test.

The judges summing up as it is an interesting read to really understand the story and sentencing. I am amazed he only got 7 years for attempted murder of an old girlfriend. seems like a self obsessed nutter.

http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgments/r-v-philpott-philpott-and-mosley-sentencing-remarks.pdf

Have you got any photos as riding around Bristol all the time so will keep my eyes open. Can’t be that many Nicolai AM’s in Bristol.

As a resident Bristol biker we really need to club together and do something about all these thefts. Not sure what but it is getting a joke now

As everyone else has said it’s all down to ram. I’m running adobe photoshop, illustrator and parallels all at once on a Mac mini and it is fine as I dropped in 16gb of ram. Cheap as chips and makes a massive difference, buy fom Crucial and they have an app that tells you what you can upgrade to.

Have a look at HiFx we use them all the time to pay suppliers in dollars and to get paid in dollars. Rates are far better than the banks.

Yes my current Canon is quite a few years old and doesn’t have video. WOuld prefer to have something less bulky than an SLR but want image quality to still be really good. I’ll look at the SOny RX100

Personally I have found HMRC not to bad to deal with when moving from employed to self employed and setting up a Limited company. Its always amazes me how quickly they return VAT that they owe me, usually within 2 weeks of a VAT return.

Anyway my advice would to to copy what you wrote into a letter and actually contact HMRC. Nearly every institution and company has processes to deal with people who can not afford to pay. So worst case if after explaining your personal circumstances they still insist the fine stays they should work out a long term payback plan. I also find that writing is much better than ringing as the quality of answer is better and more thought out.

Now don’t get me started on tax credits, now that is a bureaucratic joke.

I was working in IT from 21 to 35 and got more and more sick of it even though I was getting promotion worked for a bank so pay and benefits were very good. In the end I jumped as I just hated going to work and it bored me so much as I just new I wasn’t doing the best I could offer. I now run my own business and love it. Lots of work and pressure and on half the salary but life is just so more relaxed and happier. My wife has been brilliant and has supported me loads and I think that is key. Even though my income if half she doesn’t moan about it. Yes the plan is to have a better income but I now actually enjoy going to work.

My advice is that you only have one chance at life and as work takes up so much of it you should at least enjoy it. If not work should be paying for you to have an amazing time on your days off. The classic “work to live” or “live to work”

First off well done.

I think I would have gone with route option 2 as most kids are sensible at crossing roads. My idea of a cycle path is that it is hidden out of the way and more sinister things could happen. however that is how I am visualising it.

Are they old enough, well I used to walk to school on my own and back when I was 7. Probably a good 30min each way and that was in the time of all the government adverts about strangers. So was it actually more dangerous then? In my mind maybe it was or why the adverts then and not now!

Do we over think things now compared to years ago when kids were booted out at an early age? I think we do, but with a 2 yr old girl I’ll probably be thinking like you in 8 years.

Is Finland or Denmark any more dangerous than the UK? They let babies sleep outside cafes, see link. Can you ever imagine this happening in the UK. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21537988

Personally I think we have become a nation of worriers and neurotics regarding child safety. Its now engrained and very hard to break out of. Not criticising as I find myself thinking like this even though I believe it is the wrong attitude as we have a nation of young people who have little common sense.

This discussion has been really interesting as it shows that there is interest but only up to a certain price point. It is also great as just from the number of replies people are interested one way or another. We are certainly going to progress with this especially if the economics keep going they way they are. Lots more work to do but hopefully you will hear a lot more in the future.

Thanks everyone

The idea is to build a range of frames MTB, Road, Cross, Fixie using the best materials for the job and design. So yes we are looking at steel and aluminium.

I agree with what people say about pricing and the far east but however you want to do it you can not have customisation from frames being made in Taiwan. They spend at least 6 weeks on a boat to get here so therefore need to be identical. What we are trying to do is to offer a more personal service and individual frame but reducing the cost by removing the full customisation of ever part of the frame and all the discussions and manufacturing changes that are needed. These individual discussions that custom frame builders do take time and costs money along with the setup and manufacture when every frame is different. We are looking at changing the manufacturing process so that parts can be mass machined and assembled with specific customer customisation added at the end. Bit of a hybrid way of manufacturing. We could possibly get some of this done in the far east but would much prefer to keep things local as you then have faster turn around times and not a whole bucket load of investment sitting on a boat.

Shand. Sorry I think you miss understand where I am coming from. I totally agree with you that it is all about volume and it is never going to work with 20 frames made in shed. You have to be churning out frames at a fair rate and using processes that allow you to speed up production and part selection that can be used across a range so you can increase volumes when buying say drop outs and overall help to reduce prices.

What I meant by the loss of capacity is that competition is not there and there are not companies falling over backwards to supply you. If you say came up with a new dropout design then you would have to fully fund all the development and manufacture. In the far east companies would be willing to do the development work as part of getting the job, they might even do reduced tooling costs. Similar to what you get in this country with plastic injection moulding. As there is decent competition companies are willing to add value or take on risk to get you as a customer.

Forgot the link

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/bikes-made-in-britain-double-in-2011/013763

I totally agree with what 18BikesMatt is saying about getting things made in this country, it is a complete bitch to get something simple made here when in the far east it is just a quick call. Also the Chinese are far more setup and willing to produce a product for you and not just a component or process as is the case here. The cost of manufacturing and wages in the far east is growing at a very fast rate, wage increases seems to be jumping every 6 months and not just by a few %. Coupled with the fact that shipping costs are going up and up and the drive or incentive to bring manufacturing back to the UK certainly increases.

Manufacturing in the UK also allows you to react to the market far quicker and keep stock constantly flowing. It always amazes me if you go to buy a bike in late summer autumn, shops just have no stock and you have to wait to really late in the year before new models start flowing through. This has got to be partly due to the batch production and the very long shipping times.

This story is also interesting as it shows large numbers of bikes can be made in Europe. I wonder if the reason the UK numbers are so small is due to the point that 18BikeMatt made that we have just lost capacity and supporting industries in the UK.

We certainly would not just be offering a british made version of what is already on the market we would be offering frames that are different and allow you the consumer to spec what you want.

I also agree that just because it is made in Britain doesn’t mean it is good quality. Most stuff made here is either high tech aerospace or railway girders, not much in between. We would be looking at build high quality frames where we could control the quality and finish at source as they are made and not when it is too late after they come out of container ship. Finish would be key like what many of the US builders used to do, little design tweaks that make your bike one of a kind.

What we are looking at in no way detracts from the full custom builders as these guys are real artist. This is just to fill the middle ground where you have a fair idea of what you want and how you like things but cant get it either from the main players or at a reasonable cost. For instance how hard would it have been to get a road bike with disc mounts 12 months ago. By building in the UK we can bring this to market very quickly and by building to order is no one orders then there is no loss to the company of unsold stock.

We would also be looking to offer second to none customer service as we all at some time must have been stung with the poor service that often is shown in the bike market. A bike is for life not just the 12 month warranty.

Thanks everyone for all your comments

Its an idea we are kicking around to see what we can offer that adds value but still gives a well priced frame. The key thing is that we would be able to offer lots of customisations by changing a few of the manufacturing procedures and processes.

Stoner, give or take what you ask is all the type of stuff we would be looking to offer

953 tubing was just an example of the types of frame level we would be looking at. We won’t be making British made frames out of cheap steel or scaffolding!!

Basically we know you can get frames from the likes of Cotic, Singular, One one, Pipedream, etc that are all designed here and made in the Far East or there are all the small boutique full custom builders where you are paying at least £1000 for a frame. We are looking at frames similar to say Cotic, Singular type or 26 and 29er frames but fully built in the UK and with custom options that the others just can’t provide. These would be drop out style, disk/canti, BB type, paint colour, graphics colour, etc.

Proces would be well under £1000

Quality wise they would be equal to the custom builders. However we would not be offering fully sized custom frames.

Personally I would go for an iPad as they just work. With things like the Samsung galaxy I just feel like a geriatric trying to do things. Last night I was trying to get photos of my wife Galaxy phone but as you cant just plug it into a USB it took 4 hours to get 200 photos. They have lots a lots of fancy functions but just don’t do the basics well.

Ferry trip to Manly across the harbour and the views is just great. Ferry tour is also good. Instead of going on the Bridge walk which is expensive you can go to the bridge museum which is free and then there is a viewing platform up one of the towers that again is free or very very cheap. You get all the great views and history at a fraction of the price.

Bats in the botanic gardens are great.

Bus tour is pretty handy to see the history and learn more about the city in only a few hours. You can easily do this with jet lag and then work out what you want to see more of

The fault of the ability for companies to avoid tax as compared to dodging tax sits completely with government. It is their job to monitor society and then change the laws. When international trade direct to consumers started to increase the tax laws should have changed. It is their slow response that is shameful. Why would any US company want to pay tax in the UK.

European and US countries have banned internet gambling so why not ban or restrict cross boarder internet sales or insist that a company must have a UK arm that the sale actually goes through.

We have tried loads over the years including a dyson to pick up cat hairs, all crap and seem to have spend loads on vacuums that just don’t work well. Recently bought an own brand Argos upright for £50 and it is awesome. I have never seen anything with such power. Yes it basic and small and cheaply made but god does it pick up hair. One of my best ever buys

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4067829.htm

Our carpets are truly transformed. The first few sessions were just grim at the amount it picked up!!!

The only problem like all over bagless vacuums except the dyson is that the filter needs to be cleaned regularly. To be fair that is where dyson’s are excellent.

Lots of chains and a bloody loud alarm. You can get some alarms that are just so loud you cant stay in the shed. I’ve also gone for a CCTV flood light as in reality if they want your bike they will get it, but at least with cctv the police might catch the bastards.

Sorry been offline for a few days, thanks for all your comments. Seems like Montane is the fella

Just got some Craft Lobster gloves and they seem very good. Not really any padding on the palms but so far warm

Guess what you would always find on the Porno trail in 50 Acre, Bristol? Loads of the things and it seemed frequently updated.

Bloke with a parrot on this shoulder in Leigh Woods.

Years back night riding in Leigh Woods came across a tramp camping in the woods. Scared the shit out of me as he glared through the trees. I made a very fast exit.

Make sure you get something that is bloody bright and good for car drivers to see. I know that sounds obvious but driving home last week the majority of bikes I passed had rear lights that you could hardly see in the drizzle let alone stand out. There are too many of these stylish lights that are mini sized and are form over function. I think you want something that every driver going past you says “christ thats bright” They might not like it but at least they will see you

Remember these guys are just brokers to get you a cheap price. They don’t actually do the delivery.

Try Interparcel as they are always cheap and good customer service. Others are Pharos Parcels and Transglobal express. We use all three on a weekly basis.
You do get what you pay for so we always use UPS or DHL as service is so much better and only a couple of £ more.

The self storage place might be forwarding his post to him. Loads of them offer various other options as the staff sit around all day so they offer services to keep them busy.

I would check with Paypal and once you have the money move it out f PayPal before shipping

Cheap CCTV as the police always know the scrouts in an area but they need evidence. Signs saying CCTV, alarm, bloody big locks, don’t store your bikes next to all your tools (especially angle grinders, etc) and get your bike details of immobilise.co.uk

Years and years back I was in a similar situation and went for it. She got a bit freaked out about the whole thing and started acting like a bitch. What I learnt was bloody hell I had a close shave as god knows what she would have been like in the future and secondly I should have got on with it years earlier to save all the hassle and wasted energy/emotion.

At the end of the day if she is a decent person / friend then it won’t have any effect on your friendship what ever her answer.

Ive just bought a couple as they work out about £5.60 and perfect to stick under the saddle for those days when you get caught out in the rain out on the trail. Nothing worse than a soaking wet arse whilst riding, especially in the winter.

I would not be an A hole about it and not let them in if they turn up. They will just come back with the Police. My understanding is that they just look at the database of houses with out a licence and then come a knocking. Why not just write to them and tell them what you are doing and that you will have no way of receiving live TV and say they can pop around to check at any time. Clearly state that if you do not receive a reply in 14 days then you will proceed with your plan. Its then on them to explain the legal position. Pack away the arial and see what happens. The problem you have is if you watch live tv through the iPlayer. When we got caught years ago when I was a student they just said go and get a licence, send us the details, we will check at our end and if it all matches up then we will call is quits. Not really in their interest to prosecute.

He should have known better than anyone that your not allowed to keep guns at home. Whats with the loads of ammunition as well. Irrelevant if he is war hero or not he is a professional solider so should know the rules. To be fair he probably doesn’t deserve to go to prison, should have just been demote.

Im on the hunt for something good as well for my road bike. I want something if possible to mount on the stem so that it is out of the way. Found these

http://www.rokform.com/cart/v3-Bikemount.html
http://www.scosche.com/consumer-tech/product/2629

Kindle £69. Cheap and easy to buy books. Does what you need it to do. If you need to read in bed with the wife nagging you to turn the light off then may be the Kindle paperwhite. I am just about to upgrade so I can actually do some reading at night. Don’t get any type of tablet as they are all crap for reading normal paperback books, including all the Kindle Fire’s

I have tested most of them for work and to start with don’t worry about the screen quality. They are all good enough and you really don’t notice the difference. Its just a talking point for geeks. A bit like megapixels with digital cameras.

You wont have any compatibility problems with iPads or any of the devices.

Microsoft surface is a great idea but it runs slowly, takes 5 seconds every time you want to open an app which doesn’t sound much but gets really annoying. The keyboard however is amazing.

Kindle and Nexus are great but seem quite basic and there isn’t the range of apps for them. This might not be a problem for you but worth checking what portfolio apps there are for showing off pictures.

Personally if you are using it for business I would go with a iPad. iPad mini is great but g for an iPad 2 if showing off pictures. Hardly any difference between the iPad 2/3 and now 4.

Best idea is to order all of them over the internet, give them all a try and then send back for a refund the ones you don’t get on with. Remember with mail order you have 7 days to return an order. Most companies however give you 14days to notify them.