I would personally ask someone like dovebiker nicely to help me out and buy direct from China.

I approached the chinese manufacturers with what I thought I wanted, and got some great prices. However there is a massive number of choices to make and little details, the manufacturers don’t really guide you through them and sometime behave a little erratically when pestered with questions.

Ideally you would point at one of their efforts (ideally hook up with someone who bought one and try it) and say “make one like that” but with your preferred angles. They are not going to help you out with choosing angles – you need to do that by copying from a bike you like / guidance from someone in the know – being able to stitch tubes together is only half the job.

I ended up finding my perfect ti frame “off the peg” in a Charge Plug 5 ti frameset ex demo. It has the angles I was looking for, discs, clearance for big tyres, full mounts, double butted tubing for a lively ride. OK the dropouts aren’t as nice as I would have specced but I knew the bike would work – and it turned up cheaper than a custom frame and with a UK warranty.

OMG after spending £66 I just noticed there is a second page of bargains to be had!!!!

I challenged the finance guy asking how do they make money? If i were to buy the Yeti it’s about £28k. There’s no way I’d sell it after 2 years for more than £23k, so I’m ‘quids in’ that way.

Its because the £28k RRP is artificially inflated to make finance seem an attractive option.

Its been going on for years – the car manufacturers have colluded to make it so.

If you want VFM motoring, buy something unfashionable at 3 years old for peanuts and run into the ground. Take their PCP incentives and pay the finance off straight away.

2013 1.2 tsi bluemotion stop start Golf

Does 52mpg ont he computer without trying on the 18 mile daily B road and country road commute – hardly any “stops”

Nothing to add except….

Go in as a “cash” buyer of a “used” car. They will offer you incentives to take PCP, at least £500 and a couple of free services.

Um and Ah and say something like “didn’t really want to take finance but that will free up the cash for the extension we will need”. Negotiate some more and take the PCP. Once you have the car on your drive, the next day ring the finance company and pay it off completely.

Keep the incentives.

On a crowded Pacific Beach (San Diego) about 10 years ago a dolphin swam through the crowd with its fin out of the water, everyone screamed and madly paddled for the shore thinking it was a shark.

Surely at 8pm you gave your neighbour a ring or a text message, and got them to contact whoever has a key (children? parent?) to come and turn it off?

Do people not have their neighbours phone number? Stalk them on Facebook or something.

Width?

I run these, 435g:
http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Halo-Aerotrack-700c-Aero-Road-Track-Rim_37080.htm

Same rim with machined brake surface, cheaper:
http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Halo-Aerorage-700c-Aero-Road-Rim_18723.htm

what did it look like before?

Plug 5 ti owner and 5’11” and a bit, 34 inseam I ride a medium.

Just run the biggest tyres you can fit.

Works do a conventional 1 1/8 slackeriser headset but its only 1 degree.

I use a bog basic garmin 200.

Just plot a route online, copy to device and it gives you a bread crumb trail to follow.

Dead easy as you know which way to turn and it bleeps at you if you go off piste or make a wrong turn.

I pair it with mmtracker on my phone (airplane mode) if I ever need a real map or change routes.

Best thing I ever bought.

I went 1×11 cos I wanted more range than 11-42 gives.

I got an 11-46 XT cassette on the MTB and a 10-42 xd driver on the CX

Sounds like you could just go 1×10 with an 11-40 sunrace casette. Shame you just missed black friday at uberbike for the cassette.

Uber is more for quick short journeys where you jump in and jump out. The more quick short journeys the driver makes the more money they earn. You won’t be ripped off as you pay through the app – no need to exchange money or even conversation with the driver.

Ideal for mooching around san francisco as a tourist or a lift home from the pub. I’ve used Uber a lot in the USA, Vienna, Lisbon, London etc. Its fantastic because you don’t need to know where you are or where you are going – you set it in the app using gps and on a map – this is downloaded to the driver. You don’t need to negotiate payment, all done through app, and it shows you the driver approaching their car make and model and reg number.

Its not really appropriate for airport runs where you spend 10 minutes loading up massive suitcases. The driver will not like this, and if they spot you with massive suitcases might even drive on by without picking you up.

If the stuff you are carrying is in your hand and ill sit on your knee then use Uber. Otherwise you need a taxi.

The xd driver cassettes and hubs are the same fitment road and mtb.

Shimano fitment 11spd hubs are different road vs mtb.

No

They have different cable pulls.

You can use a 10spd mtb rear mech with 11spd road shifters, but they sometimes can’t deal with the width of an 11spd cassette

I have 11spd rival hydro shifters with 10-42 11spd cassette. I tried a 10sp X7 mtb mech – worked but didn’t make it to the lowest gear (physically wouldn’t go that far with the limit screw backed off). I tried a an NX 11 mtb rear mech – didn’t work anywhere (different cable pull). I tried a short cage rival one rear mech, didn’t get on with the bigger cogs (can’t get enough b tension at the top, and resulted in poor chain wrap on the 10).

I caved in and bought an apex one longer cage rear mech and it works flawlessly.

mother of god

Look great! Whats the bike – I’ll guess at an ’89 diamond back?

Its wet + windchill thats bad.

I wear neoprene sailing / surfing gloves in these conditions. For all others I have the aldi gloves.

wet neoprene is OK for an hour or so but you end up with wrinkly fingers much longer.

Whatever you do, do not take neoprene gloves off when out. They don’t warm back up easily.

If you have to put them on wet, run them under the hot tap first.

Thats a beauty. Love the biplane fork.

Make sure you keep the original parts when you “modernise” it.

In fact I’d be tempted to store all the original parts safely – they really aren’t great and won’t last long if you use it. Grab a more common drivetrain (as you’ve done with the chainset) and wheels for use….

Might file down an m5 counter sunk bolt like this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sFDEQUsCL4

To close this I just filed down a counter sunk bolt like in this video.

A little fiddly to assemble but works great.

For days too cold for a couple of base layers and a windproof I have a paramo velez pull over

1x makes loads of sense on road bikes.

I went from 12-27 9spd with 50:34 up front and 25mm tyres. That gave me max ratio 4.21 and min 1.27. I probably used 12 of those gears (top/bottom 6).

I went to 38mm tyres and could have gone with a 11-36 11spd cassette and 44T front, that would have given max 4.2 min 1.28 to effectively match the original road bike gearing.

However I built it as an allroad bike with 10-42 11 spd sram XD and a 40T upfront and 38mm tyres. This gives me max 4.20 and min 1.00. I like it as the bike is way more versatile for off days, touring or offroad.

Have a play: http://gears.mtbcrosscountry.com/#700c/25I1163I1004X700c/38I1851I1479 only you candecide whats right for your riding!

One day it will be resurrected… look at the number of early range rovers now emerging from rebuilds….

They look to still be selling them online….

we have a liner our neighbours don’t we share a divided chimney stack we can occasionally smell their fire they never smell ours

Assuming you’ve made the neighbour aware and they are still lighting fires, next port of call your council’s environmental health dept?

Oh and https://www.amazon.co.uk/KINGLAKE®-Monoxide-Detector-Poisoning-Warning/dp/B00GANAI6W

Having said that, I went for this:

http://www.portwaystoves.com/products/portway-1-gas-stove

It honestly the best thing I ever bought for the house. No faff with wood, loads of instant head and it has lovely flames.

It would be dead easy to drop a liner in a nice clean ex-gas 90’s chimney.

For the sake of £100 I would just get the liner for peace of mind.
http://www.snhtradecentre.co.uk/flues-fittings/flexible-flue-liner-316l-stainless-steel-125mm.html

Dead easy to drop it in if your chimney is straight and clean.

In 20 years time you can just replace the liner for a new clean one if you need to.

As said: better draw, another line of defence against fires and peace of mind. Don’t burn crap wood.

Drying room… washing machine?

Surely they are just selling off loads of damaged stock or warranty returns? Some businesses would just weigh them in….. but why not get a few quid for them on a no comeback basis? Personally I wouldn’t touch one of these auctions myself without seeing the items I was bidding on to check for damage etc.

Also the old clothing must be worthless, probably costs more in staff time to pick pack and process orders than they will make.

Boxes and boxes of low value stuff they probably paid next to nothing for, why not shift it out (probably at some small profit) to make room for decent new product lines with better margin?

Most of this stuff would cost money to dispose of, so why not shift it if someone wants it?

This is not really helping with their “brand image” on STW, but I’m sure they thought about the impact of that – they aren’t Specialized …..

Had a look at direct line and with both parents on the policy and a black box fitted it’s just over £500 for a 1.2 suzuki swift.

Bear in mind its still monitoring when the parent is driving…..

Hmm. would mounting the telematics box in one of those camera gimbals (steady cam type thing) keep the costs down?

Sounds like insurance fraud to me

Neoprene sailing gloves.

Your hands won’t stay dry but will be warm.

If not dry by home time, run under the hot tap before sticking them on. Hands will stay warm.

I run 1×11 10-42 and 40T on winter bike

Its the same top gear as my summer road bike….

Just get a 10-42 cassette on there and a 40T upfront.

Or how about a double and an 11-32?

Do the dual thing. I wish I did – planning to retrofit an element in spring.

Put a rad and a towel rail in, towel rails aren’t rads.

You could look up how your fabric performs in an ISO 11092 test.

http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=65962

“is this an independent test?”

Of course they weren’t. But they do explain why the air bubbles aren’t a great test.

As said in the first vid, the best test is to go run up a mountain. Good luck finding a shop that will let you do that!

I thought it was pretty rubbish TBH. Its effectively the same as the BBC ones but without a star to interview.

The “lads” ragging expensive cars sideways format was exhausted long ago. At least in that episode there was no tenuous “lets modify our own cars” silliness, but it looks like thats coming.

So you pay £240 for a coat and then you have to wax it yourself?