Tomm

This sounds like a terrible idea, by the way. Banks only make their money when you're overdrawn. I'm sure they don't mind at all if you're in the red, they get to charge you more.

It's just my taste though - spend your money on what you want. I'd put my money in something understated and simple. The Aquaracer is nice, I'd go for a Rolex GMT, personally. I just don't imagine the Formula 1 to be a timeless classic. Can you get a used Carrera for a grand? Maybe, and it'll never lose much of its value. It's a bit more work sourcing the right one, but it might make sense in the long run.

When I was about 12, I had an Animal watch on a velcro strap (as was the style at the time), cost about £40. A smooth suited up business friend of my Dad's asked me if it was a Tag or Rolex, I lol'd. I doubt you'll see it online for any less. Certainly with Rolexes, any official stockists are tied into a contract and if they advertise at less than RRP they'll lose their rights to sell the watches so you won't see huge discounts online. On the other hand, the watches allegedly have a huge markup on them so there's room for price flexibility if they want to sell. I presume Tag have a similar business model. Best option is to ask around a few jewellers. Some independent places might do a deal. I can't help thinking that the formula 1 is a bit... Chavspirational. That's a word I thought of today to describe the Audi Q7, although I may not be the first person to have come up with it.

I've had double + bash on my mtb for years. Basically I never really used the little ring that much and though I'd give 1x10 a try. The chainline thing doesn't really seem to be an issue, but I think I will struggle on some of the steeper hills without a granny ring. It saves a bit of weight and maybe looks a bit better, but I don't think there's any great performance increase. My main reason was to try and make myself a bit fitter and force myself to go faster on the ups.

There is loads of talk on the mountain bike forums about this - basically you won't get away with no device unless you're only riding on smooth stuff. However a top-only device is probably fine. I'm riding 1x10 and so far my top-only device (e13 xcx) is fine. The other thing that supposedly helps is using a non-ramped chainring. I.e. get a specific single-ring chainring, not just your old middle ring. http://www.chainreac...x?ModelID=87855 or http://superstar.tib...products_id=362 or just keep your front mech. However this probably isn't quite the right shape to work in a single position.

Fortunately, you can predict major illnesses and accidents so you're OK. I suggest you take out that insurance policy the day before you crash your car

Yeah it's not related to the actual cost of the medication. A pack of Amoxicillin costs next to nothing from the manufacturer (<checks> 95p), but it's the cost of administering it, running the pharmacy etc. Also, some drugs are far more expensive than this, chemotherapy can run into thousands of pounds per month. The prescription charge was brought in to stop people abusing the system - asking to see their GP for a prescription of paracetamol because they were too tight to pay the 50p themselves. This wastes everyone's time, and the cost of the GP's time, surgery opening, the pharmacy etc was more the issue. Simps - most people with long term conditions are covered by the exemptions, I'm assuming you've checked this as it's uncommon to need to pay for lifelong medication.

The worrying thing about all of this is that Jardo still thinks he's doing Lou a favour. I don't even know you guys at all but unless I'm very mistaken, it's obvious this whole thing is about what you want, not what she wants.

318d though? Tell your mum she needs more power in her life. I actually really like how those new 3 series look. Although despite being a new shape I've already seen hundreds of them. Exclusive they are not... What's good about the inside? In a staggering feat of Jardo-economics, I worked out that to lease a brand new 318d for 3 years would probably be cheaper than running my Civic.

I want to meet Lou. Just to see what kind of person puts up with Jardo.

Genuine

The frame's probably the one part of that bike that's actually alright - with a decent shock it's not a million miles off a Heckler or Orange five. Who knows what the geometry is like but hopefully Decathlon would get it at least ballpark-correct. The rest of it is just way too budget to actually work offroad though. I know it's not a huge amount of money, but when it all falls apart in a year of riding, you'll wish you spent twice that on something decent second hand. On the other hand, if you never use it then the money saved is good. But that's why buying something second hand is good - at least if you don't use it much, the value stays more or less the same. I'm selling my girlfriend's Giant trance for £400 - it's a really nice spec and definitely up to abuse. It's a tiny frame so unless you're 5 foot 4 or something it'll be too small. But I just mention it by way of comparison.

Well, it is, but whatever

Exactly. That's the cost argument out the window then. The cheapest argument would be to be a reasonably economical £500 hatch with an MOT and run it into the ground. The reason you're not doing this is because she wants a nicer motor and I can totally appreciate why you/Lou would want that. But you're still wrong about it being the cheapest option

Yeah, it doesn't make much sense to me either. My car is 4 years old now and it's losing around £100 / month in value, and I still have to buy new tyres / brake pads / MOTs / Services on top of that. Add it all up and it's way more expensive than running an old car. But then it's newer (with all the added modern features) and probably more reliable. I don't mind paying extra for that, but don't kid yourself that a new car is cheaper.

I doubt you can to be honest. You can try angled card etc but the infra-red beams bounce around everywhere so I doubt it'd make much difference. On the Apple TV there's an option to 'lock' the TV to a single remote, so unless your TV has that option buried in the settings (unlikely), you're out of luck.

Depends what you're using it for (and how spazzy your feet are). Painted cranks (home-sprayed or otherwise) are stupid for MTB IMHO - the coating rubs off in no time thanks to abrasive grit etc. I bought a set of cranks which had been professionally coated with some hardened paint, they looked shit after a couple of months (I took them back to silver and now they look fine again). Similarly, one of my friends has some 2012 XT cranks and the black paint has worn off making them look years old. On the other hand, my road bike has black cranks and they're still all black. They don't get dirty / gritty and I'm usually spinning smooth circles so they don't get rubbed so much.

Those look like one of those magic eye pictures. In the first picture, I was convinced the front wheel was bigger than the back (not the other way round). They look stupid, by the way. One of my friends used to have an old school track bike that was a bit like that. Had a really small front wheel (like 20" or something). Was really uncomfortable to ride - you felt like you were craning your neck the whole time. So now hipsters won't be looking at oncoming traffic. Awesome. Also - how is that first bike standing up?!

That's what I mean, the number of cupcake-baking businesses that have started up in the past 3 years is crazy and not sustainable. It also strikes me as one of those slightly ill-thought-through plans. "I like cake! I like baking! Maybe I'll do that for a living!" When actually, most people like baking cakes for themselves. Baking thousands of cupcakes and refining recipes etc is just going to be massively tedious. Like being a veterinary assistant because you like cats, or a beautician. IMHO of course.

That's a terrible idea for a job. If she can make money, I'll be amazed. They look like nice cakes though.

That's awesome Rob. Love the dust off the lip. Flash on the right is very distracting though - I definitely think it needs cropping out.

They're never going to pass a law like that. Modifying / racing cars has got to be a billion pound industry in the UK, which would effectively be wiped out.

Those 1st gen subarus aren't heavy - Wikipedia says 1220kg, a bit less for the WRX/STI versions. Pretty sure a WRX would have the legs on all those cars you mentioned. Certainly the Civics are (only slightly) heavier with less power. Obviously they're massively chavvy though. Can't you get an old beemer like an e36 328i for that sort of money? Might drive nicely as well as being reasonably quick. No turbo though. EDIT: If it's just for I-has-more-powers-than-you one-upmanship then I guess you'll have to look elsewhere.

7 Speed is really old - are you sure that's what it's got? Has the freehub body got a plastic spacer on it? If so, you might be able to take that off and stick a normal 8 or 9 speed (or 10 spd) cassette on there, that would be the best plan. Alternatively, buy a 9 speed cassette and take one or two rings off so it fits on the freehub body. Cheaper cassettes (E.g. SRAM 970 or Deore rather than SLX/XT) will allow this as the bigger sprockets are separate, not on an aluminum carrier. You may have to drill out the connecting bolts but that's easy enough. 7 and 8 speed both have the same distance between sprockets and same chain width/pitch, so an 8 speed shifter simply has an extra 'click'. If you set up an 8 speed shifter properly and do the limit screws, you should be able to make it work perfectly with a 7 speed cassette. I'm not sure on cable pull ratios, but all Shimano 7/8/9 shifters will all pull the same amount of cable for a given movement in the rear mech. 10 speed has a different cable pull ratio. To answer your questions: 1. Yes, or as above you could get an 8 speed shifter (might be easier to find a decent one) 2. The chain skipping will be a problem of the chain + cassette mismatch. Depending on how knackered the cassette is, they *might* end up working together properly once you've run them in a bit. However, instead of spending a decent amount of money on really outdated 7 speed stuff, I'd recommend spending £20-30 on a back wheel that can take an 8/9/10 speed cassette and bring the bike into the 21st century This is not quite right. The 9 speed shifter will move the derailleur fully across a 7 speed cassette, no issues there. Obviously the indexing will be off, although that makes less difference than you might imagine. On my DH bike I've been running a 9 speed shifter with 8 speed cassette and chain for ages and there's (surprisingly) never any skipping/etc. The indexing is useless but I can use all the gears. This would probably annoy me on my XC bike, but on the DH bike it's not an issue.