*****This Volume is now closed. Please see Volume 69, which can be found here*****
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In this thread you may ask any question for which you need help, advice, suggestions or whatever.
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I am looking at reducing my hours at my salaried job so i can free up some much needed time during the week. I have discussed this with my boss, who has agreed in principle. I am un-decided yet as to the amount of cut, and whether it would be less hours per day or less days per week. I will have to be guided by the needs of the business.
There may be an obvious answer, but how would you caclulate salary? Assuming £30,000 annual salary (because it divides nicely!) and a 37.5 hour contract, i assume that a 30 hour week would attract a £24,000 salary. And a 22.5 week £18,000. And so on. This sounds most logical to me.
Is there anything else that i should take into account? I would be grateful for comments from the wordly wise people on here.
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I have never been near those issues myself, but I'd guess that there might also be an issue about perks such as company car/allowance, health insurance, etc -- if you drop a fifth of your hours do they take a chainsaw to 1/5 of your car? Also, what happens to pension contributions -- will they be cut pro-rata?
It probably depends partly on how valued you are. A cheeky friend got lip from her boss about length of breaks, to which she replied that she had conpleted all projects in the last year way ahead of schedule when nobody else even met their deadlines, so she was cutting her hours by 20% and taking a pay-rise. She got both, but many employees would have been shown the door.
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The usual way is to work out your total package, pay benefits etc and reduce pro rata to the new hours.
You will also need to look at holiday. Add up your leave entitlement add on bank holidays and again pro rata to your new hours, then deduct bank holidays, the balance will be your remaining holiday.
For pensions any employer contribution to a MPS will usually be reduced in line with your salary, and any credit our years of service in respect of a final salary scheme will usually be reduced in line with working hours.
Finally it rarely works to reduce hours without reducing days, it is far too easy to spend more extra time and effectively doing the same job as before.
Another issue can be the work you do. Part timers often only lose the unimportant menial work to others so are effectively still putting in full value but being paid less.
What ever you do talk to your employer in detail, agree something, ask for the right to go back to full time if it doesn't work out, and negotiate well.
Finally take a whole day off if you can. Or if you can do it suggest say three 10 hour days rather than four 7.5 hour days, gives you very nice weekends.
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Thanks for comments so far.
I receive a car allowance, and in my sums to work out what i can afford to drop to, i have assumed a prorata chop on the allowance. Obviously i'll try to to leave this alone, if i had a company car, they wouldn't be able to reduce it, at least until renewal time.
I have settled on a drop to 27.5 hours having done the sums and discussing with Mrs Mare this morning. What will work best for us will be a 5.5 hour day, to fit school hours. The main reason for dropping hours is to spend time with the kids after all. I did want to take a full day off, and i can see the advantage, but that is phase 2. Also, holiday is easy to work out - a day off is a day off.
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Still spending 5 days a week (albeit only short ones) at work avoids the issues of statutory holiday (bank holidays) that occurr mainly on Mondays. I have heard countless stories of part time workers who lose out because of this ie Monday is a non work day so they don't get the benefit of most of the bank holidays.
One other issue you may need to watch out for is the fixed holiday periods that your company insists you take ie Christmas etc. Make sure that these are deducted from your holiday entitlement on the basis of 5.5 hours per full day.
In addition, watch out for the overtime trap. If you are regularly called to work the extra hour etc at the end of the day (especially if its unpaid) you may be worse off than you are now. - ie extra work for the same holiday entitlement and part time basic salary etc.
H
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Try and negociate a zero hours contract ie, your contract states you work 0 hours not say 40 then work as much or as little as you can and be hourly paid. To do this you need a very understanding boss though.
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Zero hours is a good option. We do this with some of our staff due to peaks and troughs and the unpredicatble nature of the work. A lot of these people have family issues and they wrok around their home life. As employers it provides good value for money some employees have a free reign as long as they log the hours and do the work expected of them. Staff retention issues are less of a burden. The reson we came up with was simple, we nearly lost a most valued employee following maternity leave.
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This can get very tricky you need to be very careful around employment rights such as annual holidays, sick pay, and redundancy.
What do you do when the employer rings up and says, "sorry mate don't need you this week, so that's no pay for you then."
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Perhaps it depends on your managment ! We value our staff and want to keep them !
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I have no doubt that you do and when they work such arrangements are really good for all parties. Trouble is not all do work properly and then then can be a nightmare.
I presume that a lawyer actually read your contracts before they were signed ;-)
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I ordered flowers for mother's day last week from a website claiming to deliver to the town in Devon where my mum lives. It'll remain nameless, but it wasn't Interflora.
Anyway, after coughing up 40 quid for the flowers and a fiver for delivery by credit card, I got an email telling me they'd be delivered either Saturday or Sunday. Roll round Sunday night, the flowers haven't turned up, and my mum is understandably annoyed that I seem to have forgotton here.
I've tried to get hold of the company in question today, and in fact sent an email on Sunday night. No one answers their order line number, and the customer support number is permanently engaged. (even now, 2 hours after their "offices" closed - can you say "off the hook"?)
I'm inclined to believe that either they've taken on way more orders than they could handle, or they were a get-rich-quick scammer. The website was registered only in December last year, but looked legit.
Should I keep trying to get hold of them, or just pass the matter straight on to my credit card company? Do I just ring them up and explain the situation, or do I have to obtain forms etc?
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I would suggest notifying the card company and continuing to try and contact the company. You may find that there was some small print to the effect that efforts are made to deliver on the specified day, but that it can't be guaranteed.
Is your Mum's place hard to find? Could be another angle.
Not that it helps now, but I can recommend NEXT flowers and M&S flower delivery too.
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How old's the company? Look on the companies' house website at wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/ and look them up. If you still have no joy then as long as you've paid by credit card you'll get your money back.
Often a scammer will register similar company names for different towns, such as Jim'll Fixit (Woking) Ltd, then 6 months later when he's got everyone's money he'll move to Jim'll Fitit (Leamington) Ltd, etc. But this is slightly easier with Internet :-)
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Hmm... they were registered 3 years ago so must be legit. Perhaps they're just overwhelmed. Rebecca - it's out of the way, but it's not hard to find. No other couriers have problems, and in this age of GPS...
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Something strange has happened to me twice now in a week. Have visited the same local fast food drive-thru outlet and on both occasions the products bought came to £xx.99. the first time the guy in window said we have no 1 pence coins for change. With other cars waiting I was in no mood to argue so I just said 'don't worry about it' and drove off. I'm sure guys in there are onto some sort of scam even though they'd have to do this thousands of times to make any money.
My question is what should I do about it? I feel like i've been ripped off even though it's only a penny.
It's the principle.
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The shop in the Union here at Leeds has the assistants constantly yelling out "More change please!" to the supervisor... you wonder why until you buy something priced at 51p.
Perhaps it's just a case of the 99p for food thing.
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The last time this happened to me I had loads of change in my wallet so asked "Have you got any 2ps?", answer "No". "have you got any 5ps?", answer "yes". I could have gone all the way up to 20p I think, I wasn't going to leave without it!
It could be a case of "No pennies in here and I can't be asked to tell the manager or go to the safe and find a bag" or that they really haven't got any penny pieces (unlikely), or it's the end of the day, till's going to be cashed up soon, so who wants to count a bag of pennies before they leave work that night?
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One of the reasons that itms were billed a £1 19s 6d was to force the assistant to ring it up and offer change, the other reason was for it two appear to be under £2 0s 0d. Posibly a scam, where they are pocketing the £20.00 and not ringing it up. I'd ask for a receipt if you feel that strongly.
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I've never had a problem of an assistant saying that they hadn't got any change.
On the contrary, my problem is getting rid of the large amount of small change that I've been given. What I have to do is save up pennies and tuppences until I've got a spendable amount, and then I sweetly ask the assistant whether they'd mind if I got rid of some change. They always say "yes". I know some regret it when I show them how much I propose to give them in pennies and tuppences! Never had anyone refuse to take a large amount of small change though. Presumably they just pass it on to the next unsuspecting punter.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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save up pennies and tuppences until I've got a spendable amount, and then I sweetly ask the assistant whether they'd mind if I got rid of some change. They always say "yes". I know some regret it when I show them how much I propose to give them in pennies and tuppences!
I was taught years ago that there is a maximum amount of various coins which is legal tender. Does anyone know if that is still the case? For example, I seem to remember that the maximum was 50p in 1p coins or something like that. In my defence, university was a long time ago (1p coins were fairly new then!)
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A rhetorical question really; but I wonder why we still bother with 'copper' coinage - surely they are all now worth less than the smallest 'silver' coin was in 1971. maximum legal tender for 1p coins is 20p; from www.royalmint.com/RoyalMint/web/site/Corporate/Cor...p
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I am constantly amazed by the facts and references people come up with on the backroom, thanks SC
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I usually find several 5p coins over the course of a week - keeps the price of my Guinness down slightly...
People don't seem to bother picking them up or haven't noticed they've been dropped.
But I've topped that when discovering a piece of blue paper was, in fact, a fiver whilst on the golf course walking the dog, plus finding one of those pound coin holders, complete with all five slots housing a coin.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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In the 'old' days, they used to have R1 coins the size of the old 2 shilling bit.
But it was discovered that the nickle and zinc content was worth more that R1!
So enterprising fellows who ran electroplating shops would send a fellow off to town with R1000, and he'd go to town and change it all to R1 coins, and into the smelter we go!
Nowadays, the R1 coin is a tiny little thing... and pretty damn worthless.
On an aside, on 1 february, the reserve bank issued a whole new set of 'forgery-proof' banknotes.
on 8th february, the first fakes turned up!
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www.royalmint.com/RoyalMint/web/site/Corporate/Cor...p
Now that is an amazing link!
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Here's a little bit of useless information on the subject of decimal coinage. After the government proudly launched decimal currency, it was surprised (and not a little disappointed) when the hoi polloi started irreverently calling the New Pence unit peas (or is it pees?). After all, us oldies didn't refer to Old Pence (d) as deas ~ they were simply known as pence.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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It used to grind when people referred to a penny as a "one pence piece"
SWMBO bought me a coin sorter (from one of those eteral work based bok club things) for Christmas - wht joy being able to empty my shrapnel into it and get it "sorted"
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Can anyone help with the identities of the Man & Band shown on the following links (Held on my own web space!)
tinyurl.com/4ooqt
tinyurl.com/4yvzl
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Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
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Malteser my little chocolate, you are always asking these questions on here, you running a pub quiz down there on the costa?
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Trying to answer an on-line quiz on our (very)local English language web site.
As we will be moving (D.V.) soon & will be bereft of a telephone line I want to go out on a blaze of glory!
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Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
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And I've found 20 out of the 22 in the first half !
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Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
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Family consultation on the group suggests
Simple Minds
Foreigner
Rush
Journey.
Sorry, no closer that that!
The bloke, no idea except a family feeling that he looks "Russian".
Let us know how you get on!
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Thanks for trying, mjm!
I think the band has some reference to water in its name! The other two in the series were "Aqua" and "Wet,Wet,Wet"
The second half of our quiz has been published & there are some stinkers in that too!
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Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
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According to son and heir, there was a group called, believe it or not, The Water Boys. It seems a bit obvious for a quiz, but you never know. He also said that he thought they looked a bit "wierder" than the photo!
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I need to replace my boiler. The alpha combi I have had has been rubbish. I have had only 2 years of fault free service and the last 2.5 years it has broken down 3 times (it's just stopped doing hot water for the second time, last time it needed an entire main board at over £100) I was thinking Potterton as they're supposed to be reasonable. Anyone else had trouble with this brand of boiler or have I just got a Friday afternoon special? A friend has a worcester Bosch which has been even worse than my alpha and has broken down several times a year from new!
The alpha cost me £500 to buy and frankly I expect a glorified water heater to last much longer than 4 years without going wrong!
teabelly
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If it's any help Teabelly, in the last house, we had a Potterton boiler for I think, 10 years and was completely fault free. However, we were going to get a combi and were told that Worcester was the "BMW of Boilers". Glad we decided against one!
Happy Boiling.
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Adam
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The WB was a top of the range one with lots of features. I suspect a bottom of the range no frills one of theirs might be ok. I just don't want to risk finding out! I think they're more the citroen of boilers. Lots of advanced features but without the reliability.....
teabelly
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I think its called progress TB. From what friends in the trade tell me combi boilers are unreliable.
In contrast my old cast iron Glow Worm Majorca is 29 years old and has never gone wrong. Not even a thermocouple.
They are to complicated for my liking. One of my daughters had one and when it stopped working called me to have a look. Opened it up and there were micro switches, vacuum servo (by the look of it) and various gubbins which I didn't have a clue what they were.
Vaillant kindly sent me a manual but still couldnt follow it and she got in a Vaillant engineer.
My friend who worked for Glow Worm all his life confirmed they were a problem and that without going on a service training course nothing could be done.
Older boilers simply have a gas valve and a thermocouple but these modern ones now have circuit boards and a host of new gadgetry which can only be diagnosed by someone with training.
These combis certainly seem to be efficient but it comes with a price.
Your best bet would be to find a heating Engineers web site and ask what they reccomend as the most reliable.
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That was my fear.... I know the regs are changing so from next month you can only fit condensing boilers so they're more complicated still. I can't see it is very environmentally friendly to have throwaway boilers, it must use more energy making replacements than you save from the extra efficiency in gas usage. The friend with the WB did talk to a friend of his who fitted boilers. He said he'd had trouble with all makes equally so my friend plumbed for the WB as it had loads of whizzy features. My plumber recommended the alpha and said he had fitted lots of them and never had much trouble so I've got the lemon...
teabelly
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TB. I do not have any connection with Halstead but have had one of their Finest boilers for six years now. I bought it because it seemed to be the only British manufactured boiler on the market. Came with a very comprehensive manual. A visit to their Website will give you the picture. If I were in the market for another Combi I would certainly buy one of theirs again.
>www.halsteadboilers.co.uk/html/default.asp
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bought it because it seemed to be the only British manufactured boiler on the market
Bosch-Worcester is made in er.....Worcester.
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Don't know about condensing boilers. But in regard to Potterton, I have a cast iron boiler of theirs fitted at the end of 1962 and it is still going well!
The pilot light on my neighbours one failed and the boiler was changed on plummer advice that said 'the parts were no longer available'.
Yet a few years later I rang Potterton, (sort of 1995) and asked "is it possible to buy a new pilot light?" and the answer was yes, how many do you want?
So far, £60 for one of these and a new gasket for a back plate is the total parts service cost in 42 years.
However, I have updated the controller with an electronic one and a few Buzbee extras like a tank thermostat etc.
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I agree with buzbee re. Potterton, we've had one for 20 years and have had no trouble with it (conventional boiler).
If you feel like going all green, I think Powergen will sell you a DCHP (Domestic Combined Heat and Power) boiler for £3000. Generates electricity (Stirling engine) at the same time as heating water.
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I think you will find there is little of their boilers actually manufactured in Worcester since the takeover by Bosch.
Like a lot of English names one can mention, no longer with us in real terms.
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Yes its sad to see the demise of all these famous boiler makers. Robin Hood Beeston boilers used to literally last a lifetime. Potterton one of the best names in the trade probably don?t manufacture nowadays.
Glow Worm only assemble parts bought in from as far as India and at this very moment in time their foundry is in the process of becoming an housing development.
Many of these companies such as Hartley Sugden were manufacturing over a 100 years with reputations second to none in the world.
Baxi are still in the field and have always had a good reputation. They still make cast iron boilers and combi boilers and my SILs firm always recommend Baxi to customers.
If I was in the process of changing boilers I think these would be first I would look at.
www.baxi.co.uk/
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Phil
I know what you said about Halstead. I had a Halstead finest fitted in my last house to replace the conventional boiler that just kept rolling over!
I originally bought it for another property after placing a wanted ad. It turned out it had been bought for a project that never got off the ground so it became available. Brand new in its stapled box for £300!
Wickes do them under their own brand name (or used to) prices are round about the £5-600 mark IIRC.
The Halstead never let us down when we were there but the new owner has had problems with the system, though I suspect she may have introduced them herself - turning the system pressure up to 4 bar doesn't help. The higher pressure of the combi system did expose a poor joint underneath our kitchen floor - which lead to a new kitchen on the insurance - but that's another story ;)
We currently have the following in properties; a Vallient, which is around 10 years old, as a Chaffataux Britony 80,000 btu which was fitted in 2002 (ish), and a Potterton kingfisher (not a combi) fitted in 2003. Non of these have caused us any problems and we're so pleased with the Chaffataux Britony I picked up a clearence stock unit from my builders merchant for our next project.
My plumber friend tells me to avoid Biasi (which B and Q sell for less than £400 each. The Chaffataux were apparently not brilliant until recently when they started improving the quality of their output. You should be able to get the Chaffataux through the trade for around the £380+ vat mark with the flu, and poss the clock. Prices may have risen in the last few months though, as other lines in the building trade have.
Hugo
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turning the system pressure up to 4 bar
What was she hoping to achieve by that I wonder. (Apart from exposing the weak joint of course) Plumber who installed mine told me to run at 1.5 to 2 at most.
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I paraphrase. I don't know that's what she did.
All I know is that the boiler was in there for a good 2 years whilst we were in there. We had no problems with the boiler itself.
I strongly suspect she fiddled with the combi flow loop and overpressurised the system (if you knew her you would understand). She asked us if we had had problems with leaks in other places, which we hadn't. According to her the boiler 'blew up'!
A year after she moved in there she mentioned that she had leaks in other places on the ground floor. The screed had to be dug up and all the pipes under replaced, then the screed was re layed, which I thought was excessive.
Oh well, it wasn't my house anymore. I know we handed it over in fine fettle. We had a British Gas Service Contract on the whole system.
I know she got new floor coverings downstaiers out of it.
H
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Bought and fitted a condensing indirect Halstead boiler (bought from wickes) in the last house. Seemed a bit lightweight, but seemed deliberately non high tech. Worked well for two years before we sold the house.
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I have one of these DAB radios. It sits in our kitchen on our metal bread bin and replaces a Sony radio which had a good tone.
The Evoke has no tone control and I find that there is too much bass and not enough treble for me to hear Radio 4 properly. (I know, I know, I'm getting old!). I have to have the volume up much higher to be able to hear speech programs properly and I have lost numerous plots in The Archers because of it. I keep having to ask my wife what was just said. I'm only 40 and otherwise I think my hearing is fine, unless my head is in a paper, in which case I am as deaf as the proverbial coot.
There does not seem to be any way to adjust the tone on these radios. The Sony had a mellow sound with just enough treble to hear Charlotte Green without any tininess.
Any ideas - and no, I don't really want to move the radio or the breadbin?
--
Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Charlotte Green......sorry, well with you on this, PU towers' dabble with DAB has ground to a halt. I have yet to find a DAB radio that matches my bedside Bose FM for tone. The only radio that comes close is a Murphy valve powered set that takes far too long to warm up these days. The next cunning plan is to link a DAB tuner to the Bose which will give the best of both worlds. (By the way there is no tone control on the Bose either). Swap the Breadbin for a wooden one is the only thing I can think of.
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I recently went to a technical lecture on DAB radio. What I got from it was, do not expect to get an equal or better quality from DAB to that obtainable from FM.
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DAB radio? fabulous idea right for its time, but.....
It has been implemented in the UK in the most appaling way. The digital bandwidth stream has been so compressed in size that it is physically unable to match the frequency (sound) response of traditional FM.
Do not buy a DAB radio expecting better sound quality, it cant happen.
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As RF said, the issue with DAB is the compression. You will, however, find that the DTT transmission is excellent quality and does not suffer the same restriction.
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The digital bandwidth stream has been so compressed in size that it is physically unable to match the frequency (sound) response of traditional FM.
I don't know what the position is now, but I think a couple of years ago the BBC lowered the bandwidth of some of its services from 192kbps to 128kbps, which surely makes it sound as bad a MP3?
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Mike Farrow
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Really, use the DTT signal that your digibox receives - you'll be impressed.
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Have you tried putting the radio on a few blobs of bluetak and attaching it to the bread bin? It might be resonating through the bin and giving you that boominess.
teabelly
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Argument tonight, on how to pronounce the Artist's name.
is it Van Gof ?
not Van Go (Americanism)
or Van Goch (i.e. deep guterral Germanic sound at the end)?
I am with option 3.
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I am with option 3.
ear, ear
(no typo)
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Man was Dutch so really need to ask the nexxt Dutchman passing by for a definitive answer.
Long past my bedtime.
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Booooo!!!
My art teacher would have agreed with you both.
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Adam
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And Phil ( I meant this reply to tag in just after NW's post!)
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Adam
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And Phil ( I meant this reply to tag in just after NW's post!)
It does if you change the view to threaded.
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Ahhh. Don't like that view though ;p
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Adam
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My dentist is 'leaving' the NHS and will be allowing me to pay for an insurance based scheme , Denplan.
Virtually all the dentists in our area have gone this route.
What monthly fee can I reasonably expect to pay?
Does the dentist still receive any payments from the NHS? If not where does the money go?
--
I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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What monthly fee can I reasonably expect to pay?
That's a how long is a piece of string question !
The our dentist went this route a few years ago, he explained that there was some formula taking into account number of fillings, state of teeth etc, so what it costs is very much personal to you.
FWIW, for two of us, with a fair few fillings between us, I think we pay about £28 per month. If it means that when I get to the age of my elder sister (a) my teeth aren't in the state hers are (b) i'm not facing a quote of two and a half grand to fix them then I think it money well spent
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Thanks Borasport20. Gives me an idea how hard it will be on the wallet.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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£16.90 pm - so not too bad. I have fillings on most teeth but am otherwise OK.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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After 3 (4?) yrs we have decided to bin it. Last time I required dentist I was told could not claim as was a problem identified during entry check up (root canal 200.0+ pounds) same situation happened with SWMBO recently. Better find dentist and pay for private work as and when required. If you keep your teeth relativly well should be no problem, if they are not good you will have to pay to get all fixed, either before start plan or as happened to us as plan goes on.
Jim
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I guess it depends on how long it is until you get to your elder sister's age!
£28 per month =£336 per annum. £2500/336 = more or less seven and a half years, not counting your compounding interest.
Of course you must be careful not to eat Thornton's toffee or chew nuts or take beer bottle tops off with your teeth, otherwise all bets are off!
--
Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
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Denplan - it has good benefits, but very expensive IMO.
Found an excellent NHS dentist nearby and pay approx £15 twice a year for a check up and polish. This has been going on for 7 years now so I have saved £££. If something did crop up the NHS would pay their part and I would pay the balance out of all the savings I have made not giving Denplan a monthly drip of at least £15 per month = £180 a year.
Therefore £30 a year v £180 in a straightforward year is a no brainer IMO.
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I'm going to be taking a couple of weeks holiday soon and need to take some music with me. Previously I've taken CDs but I think it's time to get an iPod or similar. Any recommendations or pro/con comments before I go out and buy?
Kevin...
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My two offspring, who were users of Ipods very soon after they came out, have both upgraded to the latest high capacity variants.
They are using them to store not just music but vast numbers of digital photos.
They certainly rate them very highly.
My comments to them, from the beginning, was to change the destinctive white earpieces and cables that shout that an expensive bit of kit is being carried.
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Agree with the above. A 4GBMini iPOD is £130.00 in Argos. Can't go wrong. Can also be used as a back up HDD. Change the headset though
too difficult for an oldie. I have a very nice Sony recordable MiniDisc player for sale..
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I now carry a 40 gig LaCie (Porsche designed) I got a "geek" to partitian (?) so now got 2 x 20 approx drives.
I carry music (enough to drive my engieers crazy), manuals, and records still got lots and lots of room. This is all backed up at home and office. Sorry a bit off topic. I understand from my young collegues that there is a small unit available that plugs into an i pod that allows transmission from i pod to car radio - no wires etc and can keep in secure place.
Jeez it's hard work keeping up with technology these days - at least I am ahead of my boys with Skype !!
Jim
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Kevin,
They're good - but not as durable as some would have you believe. My uncle's has packed up and he's having trouble with Apple to get it sorted.
He had a Samsung something or other beforehand and reckoned that was better but I'm sure if the iPod was still working he wouldn't be saying that.
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Adam
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Just entered the world of MP3s myself and after reading a few reviews from users have avoided the ipod which seems to be overhyped and more of a fashion statement than a decent product. Went for a Sony HD3 instead - not the HD1 as this has problems i.e. it can only be charged off a USB port of a computer and it won't transfer files to MP3 format (HD3 can be charged anywhere and does transfer to MP3 if required). Half the physical size of an Ipod, has a 20gig hard drive which can hold up to 30,000 tracks (more than a 40 gig ipod) and battery life is up to thirty hours - ipod 10 hours if you are lucky. I have about 3,000 tracks on mine and about 15% of HD used. Just been to London and used it on the trip down there and back (over six hours) and for a good few hours whilst going round London on Sunday - battery indicator is at halfway and this is using random mode so hard disc is being driven to find tracks.
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I just bought one of those wee cycle computer things from Halfords for my new bike. (A bit more sophisticated than the wee mileometer things I used to have on my bikes when I was younger).
Anyway, it has various codes that you enter depending on your wheel size. My wheels are 700x38 however the listing doesn't have this particular size. Plenty of 700s but no 700x38.
My question is surely the 38 refers to width of the tyre? And if so what difference should that make as surely it works with the number of revolutions?
Or am I being stupid here?
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I've had two of these and usually the "code" you enter is just the outer circumference of the wheel with tyre (in mm?).
I've programmed mine by sitting on the bike and moving forward one wheel revolution, then measuring the distance travelled. An assistant to mark start/stop position is useful.
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Mike Farrow
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Mike, so if i just measure the circumference of my wheel then see what code that corresponds to?
Still don't know what they need the width for!
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Bobby, I used to do a lot od cycling so I think I can helkp here.
The rims will be a size known as 700c -- its actually a bit less than 700mm, but it's kinda about that size.
However, 700c rims come in various widths, depending on whether you want little skinny racing tyes or fatter chunky things. But whichever width, the rim diameter is always the same, so that you can (at a pinch, not recommended) fit a wide tyre to a narrow rim.
But the type when inflated is vaguely circular in cross-section -- so a 38mm tyre sticks out further than a 25mm one. So the tyre-size does matter.
But not by much -- it's less than 1% difference, so your cycle computer will only be weensy bit out if you just use the closest 700Xwhatever size shown on the list.
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No Wheels is quite right, though I'm surprised that the difference in circumference between a slick 25 racing tyre and that on a tandem tourer is as little as 1%. The best way is to follow mfarrow's suggestion and measure the actual distance covered for each rotation, don't forget to sit on the bike so the tyre is under load.
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In the days when I was fit and used to ride in and organize long distance touring rides (Audax) there was often some argument over the actual length of the course. With distances involved being anything from 50Km to 600Km. and with the number of competitors in the order of 50 / 120 actual individual distances recorded on the day were very similiar, often less than 0.02%
Happy Motoring (and cycling) Phil I
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How does one safely remove lime scale from a "plastic" sink?
I can only assume that the previous owners had the cooker and the sink professionally cleaned before we moved in.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Sounds to me like you need to install a water softener system which will stop the problem dead in its tracks and also save you money on detergents and soap.
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Cillit Bang claims to do it.
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Vinegar and elbow grease will do it. Knowing this site, I am sure a plumber will be along with a better "solution" for de-scaling soon!
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Citric acid or more specific Citric Acid Monohydrate will shift it. A pot containing 110gms cost me £1.00. It is commonly available in most, not all, chemists. You will probably need to ask for it as these days, if stocked, it is kept under the counter. They may well give you the once over before they decide if they will supply it because it has another use which I will not disclose.
It is white crystals that are not dangerous it normal use.
It is also used for cleaning bottles for home made wine. We use it to make lemon squash, clean stainless steel and glass of water stains. I ofter find it will clean other things around the house.
Just sprinkle a few crystals on a a damp / wet surface and when done just rinse off. It works better, quicker with hotter water.
If you use it to de-fur a kettle it works well but has a tendency to erode the plating on the element.
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Citric acid or more specific Citric Acid Monohydrate will shift it.
Thanks henry k, I'll give it a try.
<< They may well give you the once over beforethey decide if they will supply it because it has another use which I will not disclose.
Now you've got me all agog wondering what the other use is! I suppose that if I got out more I would probably know already.
--
L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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can anybody help with the name of the song used in the matalan ad , the one that goes 369 the goose drank wine. wife wants it to play in the car so it's slightly motoring related ..TIA ...cheers...keo.
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I think it was called....Rubber Dolly.Forget the artist..Good singalong while driving.As my Dad used to say back in the 70`s.Got on my nerves
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Steve
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"The Clapping Song"
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amazing both of you are correct a search using both titles supplied come up with the same correct song.. the wife thanks you...cheers...keo.
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Cheers RF was it by Shirley Ellis?.
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Steve
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Not sure, but it sounds right
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yes shirley elliss circa 1965.. once again thanks guys...keo.
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