What's made you grumpy today?

[SB1500]

Yes, I remember being absolutely terrified when the Cuban Missile Crisis was playing out - I'd have been about 16/17 years old then and away from home in boarding school (my dad was in the forces and mum packed us all off to boarding schools with military leanings - didn't work on me though, all I wanted to do was be a hippy in San Francisco, Fancied myself as a Dennis Hopper type character, but that didn't happen either! Actually, now I think about it I had a bit of a personal identity crisis as I also thought I could be a Steve McQueen - the one from "The Great Escape"/"Le Mans" not the film director)



or how about The Byrds "Wasn't born to follow" or almost anything by the "Mamas and the Papas"

Oh dear, C'mon Jock, snap out of it my boy!

Ah you grew up hearing all the music I love now as it was fresh off the press. Hard to beat the 60s, the prominence in modern movies and ads and how universally loved some of the classics can be by every generation since only proves it.

The Byrds are great, folk rock is the combination of genres I never knew I needed so much, favourite one by them is “Have You Seen Her Face”, not sure if that’s a niche one or not. Mamas & Papas too, absolute legends. Quite big on The Hollies and came across a really niche one called ‘Love’ lately as well, early psychedelic stuff. I can only imagine the extra edge hearing that stuff back then felt with those headlines spinning around your head.

 

[bugsymike]

Yes, I remember being absolutely terrified when the Cuban Missile Crisis was playing out - I'd have been about 16/17 years old then and away from home in boarding school (my dad was in the forces and mum packed us all off to boarding schools with military leanings - didn't work on me though, all I wanted to do was be a hippy in San Francisco, Fancied myself as a Dennis Hopper type character, but that didn't happen either! Actually, now I think about it I had a bit of a personal identity crisis as I also thought I could be a Steve McQueen - the one from "The Great Escape"/"Le Mans" not the film director)



or how about The Byrds "Wasn't born to follow" or almost anything by the "Mamas and the Papas"

Oh dear, C'mon Jock, snap out of it my boy!

I always liked the Harley in Easyrider.
Re Steve McQueen it was always the car chase films for me, plus On Any Sunday with the motorbikes.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Ah you grew up hearing all the music I love now as it was fresh off the press. Hard to beat the 60s, the prominence in modern movies and ads and how universally loved some of the classics can be by every generation since only proves it.

The Byrds are great, folk rock is the combination of genres I never knew I needed so much, favourite one by them is “Have You Seen Her Face”, not sure if that’s a niche one or not. Mamas & Papas too, absolute legends. Quite big on The Hollies and came across a really niche one called ‘Love’ lately as well, early psychedelic stuff. I can only imagine the extra edge hearing that stuff back then felt with those headlines spinning around your head.

My older boy is a very accomplished guitar player. When younger he was founder member of a metal band - they were quite big in Finland/Scandinavia. It's not really my thing but, in quieter moments he can play some really beautiful stuff. We exchange notification of music we think might interest each other. Just lately he told me to listen to David Gilmour's "Comfortably Numb" at high volume on my headphones - so as not to annoy mum! I felt transported to another planet! It's funny really because, of course, I've been aware of Pink Floyd for years but was never a big fan. That track changed it all for me. Got to play it loud though!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I always liked the Harley in Easyrider.
Re Steve McQueen it was always the car chase films for me, plus On Any Sunday with the motorbikes.

When at college - learning the motor trade - I rode mopeds (the old type with pedals, like a bike. Mostly they were Mobylettes I always had a few lying about as you could pick them up for peanuts and were a great way to get around London - my daily journey was from my digs in Chiswick to Chelsea where the college was. I learned a great deal about tuning two strokes - grinding the ports, stuffing pistons and fitting volume reducing plates in the crankcase, to say nothing of experimenting with expansion chamber design on the exhausts. After watching Easy Rider a few times I spent quite a long time turning one of them into a chopper. The forks were quite easy to do as they were just pressed steel with all the moving parts right at the bottom where the hub is. I also constructed a high back seat with exhaust pipes up either side exiting at more or less shoulder height. - being a two stroke, that actually wasn't a very good idea because of the smoke! It attracted a lot of comment, most of it highly derisory, but I rode it around most days until I fell off it in front of a policeman one day. He couldn't see the funny side and made me promise to scrap it.

I love movies which involve cars and have quite a number on blu ray and DVD - Vanishing point, Bullitt, French Connection, Easy rider, Ronin (some nice 6 cyl BMW noises), Two Lane Blacktop (because I'm very into drag racing), Transporter, and more. Maybe two lane blacktop might be my favourite?) although American Graffiti takes me back to lots of memories of juvenile "silliness" and weekends spent at Santa Pod in it's early days.

 

[SB1500]

David Gilmour's "Comfortably Numb"

ah you've got to hear the alternative versions / lyrics, the final version apparently is a mash up between Gilmour's ship on the water lyrics and Waters' side of detaching from reality that people associated to be about drugs. won't be content with this laws in this country until they make it a legal requirement to turn up Comfortably Numb's guitar solo - until then, we are not civilised. haha Oh, also a funny early version called "The Doctor" which is good to hear if you're a fan of the final.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

ah you've got to hear the alternative versions / lyrics, the final version apparently is a mash up between Gilmour's ship on the water lyrics and Waters' side of detaching from reality that people associated to be about drugs. won't be content with this laws in this country until they make it a legal requirement to turn up Comfortably Numb's guitar solo - until then, we are not civilised. haha Oh, also a funny early version called "The Doctor" which is good to hear if you're a fan of the final.

Thanks, that was interesting but the final version is so much better in my opinion. A decent pair of cans - mine are Sennheisers - volume turned well up and eyes closed, maybe even in a darkened room, Wonderful!

 

[The Panda Nut]

Finding myself in the unusual position of agreeing with some unnamed Chinese official who suggested that it was a bad idea to be making an undignified scramble to beg Washington for a trade deal - this got me a bit miffed as it seems so obviously the wrong thing for historically "friendly" countries to have to do, but I didn't expect that we would need the Chinese to point it out to us.

And then seeing some orange git crowing about all of the countries which were "coming here to kiss my ass to make a trade deal".
This took me way past miffed. (Even without the thought of a saggy orange ass, which also made me queezy.)

Realising that as a country we have lost all dignity by pushing to be at the head of the orange-ass-kissing queue in an effort to appease someone to overcome a problem that they created, like making friends with the bully who stole your lunch money in the hope that they only steal half of it tomorrow...
That made me grumpy.

And I don't "do" politics.

An official government reponse to this idiot will make things worse. Its up to us individually to blank them. Until he is gone nothing from the US will knowingly enter my house. I tend to spenf my money with people I generally like and hopefully strike a relationship. Mr Trump has wrecked his countiry's standing with the rest of the world. I feel for the sensible half of the US. No denying some of what he says is indeed correct and some of the actions may be justified. But the way he behaves is indeed infantile in teh extreme. Trust him and indeed the USA at the moment. No way Im afraid. Very sad.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Thanks, that was interesting but the final version is so much better in my opinion. A decent pair of cans - mine are Sennheisers - volume turned well up and eyes closed, maybe even in a darkened room, Wonderful!

Did you ever get your amplifier sorted out?

I have been doing a lot of audio recording, editing and production recently, and was introduced to a company called Audio-Technica. Never heard of them, sounded like some dodgy brand you find on Amazon, but on further investigation they are being used by some of the top recording studios around the world and top recording artists, so I stumped up the £80 for a set of "studio monitor" earphones and OMG the sound is good.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Did you ever get your amplifier sorted out?

I have been doing a lot of audio recording, editing and production recently, and was introduced to a company called Audio-Technica. Never heard of them, sounded like some dodgy brand you find on Amazon, but on further investigation they are being used by some of the top recording studios around the world and top recording artists, so I stumped up the £80 for a set of "studio monitor" earphones and OMG the sound is good.

The acquisition of a replacement for my "trusty" old Yamaha has had to take a bit of a back seat due to the complexity of sorting out my deceased brother's affairs. He died a year ago last November and we've only just got "confirmation" (you call it "probate" in England) from HMRC. I'm feeling quite stressed out with it all and how much it's costing me keeping the "boat" afloat during the process. Two separate lawyers involved now so goodness only knows what that's all going to cost - better not to think about it!

Anyway. I'm definitely decided to replace the old Yamaha because it is pretty old and lacks many of the features of the newer models. I have a very nice 5.1 speaker setup - Monitor audio speakers and MJ Acoustics ref 100 MK2 sub - and don't have any ambition to expand on this other than it might be nice to go with some height speakers at some time in the future, wife permitting. So, a 7.1 amp will do just fine.

Because I've had such a good experience with the Yamaha - the only "serious" amp I've ever owned - I'm very much inclined to go with a Yamaha RX-A2A: https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/yamaha-rx-a2a However it's a bit of an "oddball" in that, although from their top tier Avantage range, it seems to lack a lot of the features of it's considerably more expensive siblings being more like the top of their more budget range, the RX-V6A but with better quality and some larger capacity components. I've read several reviews which say they were expecting it to sound very like the V6A but were very pleasantly surprised to find it was noticeably "better". Most of the criticism seems to be leveled against how it handles top end gaming due to data compression via HDMI. However, as I won't be doing that, I'm very encouraged to read of how well it works with film and music. I'm also used to Yamaha's Ypao setup for speaker configuration which I find very good but also easy to modify once the initial setup is done.

Several others are also in the frame but one seems to stand out at my price point. The Denon AVR-X2800H: https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/denon-avr-x2800h It has a lot of the gaming features which are missing from the Yam - but then I will never benefit from them and, the reviews seem to say it's somewhat lacking in bass, which I would miss with my love of Sci-Fi films. Also Denon AV Amps seem to have a bit of a reputation for running quite hot which I'd rather avoid. Actually this "criticism" is leveled at a number of them, but not the Yam. My existing Yam never got more than "pleasantly warm" even at quite high levels of volume.

Another factor is that both of these would fit into my custom made stand and still have adequate room around them for air circulation, whereas the more expensive offerings have larger, taller cases which might be problematic. I use the amp as a switching box with one HDMI lead to the TV via ARC HDMI (eARC on the new ones) and the other sources each via HDMI to the amp so the amp sits in standby when using the TV (and it's speakers) to watch stuff like the news from the set top box. Standby consumption seems to be pretty good on both these amps but there are others which seem to be quite "electrically hungry" in standby.

So, I think it's probably going to be the Yamaha, which seems to have undergone quite a bit of modification during it's life - it was introduced in 2021, I think, and there are rumours of new product soon so I may just hold off until it's replacement arrives and either buy one of those if it's worth the extra or grab a bargain on the run out model. The manager at our local Richer Sounds knows I'm in the market and has emailed me with discount offers a couple of times, so I'm sure he'll be straight on to me as soon as anything is known about the replacement.

 

[The Panda Nut]

The acquisition of a replacement for my "trusty" old Yamaha has had to take a bit of a back seat due to the complexity of sorting out my deceased brother's affairs. He died a year ago last November and we've only just got "confirmation" (you call it "probate" in England) from HMRC. I'm feeling quite stressed out with it all and how much it's costing me keeping the "boat" afloat during the process. Two separate lawyers involved now so goodness only knows what that's all going to cost - better not to think about it!

Anyway. I'm definitely decided to replace the old Yamaha because it is pretty old and lacks many of the features of the newer models. I have a very nice 5.1 speaker setup - Monitor audio speakers and MJ Acoustics ref 100 MK2 sub - and don't have any ambition to expand on this other than it might be nice to go with some height speakers at some time in the future, wife permitting. So, a 7.1 amp will do just fine.

Because I've had such a good experience with the Yamaha - the only "serious" amp I've ever owned - I'm very much inclined to go with a Yamaha RX-A2A: https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/yamaha-rx-a2a However it's a bit of an "oddball" in that, although from their top tier Avantage range, it seems to lack a lot of the features of it's considerably more expensive siblings being more like the top of their more budget range, the RX-V6A but with better quality and some larger capacity components. I've read several reviews which say they were expecting it to sound very like the V6A but were very pleasantly surprised to find it was noticeably "better". Most of the criticism seems to be leveled against how it handles top end gaming due to data compression via HDMI. However, as I won't be doing that, I'm very encouraged to read of how well it works with film and music. I'm also used to Yamaha's Ypao setup for speaker configuration which I find very good but also easy to modify once the initial setup is done.

Several others are also in the frame but one seems to stand out at my price point. The Denon AVR-X2800H: https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/denon-avr-x2800h It has a lot of the gaming features which are missing from the Yam - but then I will never benefit from them and, the reviews seem to say it's somewhat lacking in bass, which I would miss with my love of Sci-Fi films. Also Denon AV Amps seem to have a bit of a reputation for running quite hot which I'd rather avoid. Actually this "criticism" is leveled at a number of them, but not the Yam. My existing Yam never got more than "pleasantly warm" even at quite high levels of volume.

Another factor is that both of these would fit into my custom made stand and still have adequate room around them for air circulation, whereas the more expensive offerings have larger, taller cases which might be problematic. I use the amp as a switching box with one HDMI lead to the TV via ARC HDMI (eARC on the new ones) and the other sources each via HDMI to the amp so the amp sits in standby when using the TV (and it's speakers) to watch stuff like the news from the set top box. Standby consumption seems to be pretty good on both these amps but there are others which seem to be quite "electrically hungry" in standby.

So, I think it's probably going to be the Yamaha, which seems to have undergone quite a bit of modification during it's life - it was introduced in 2021, I think, and there are rumours of new product soon so I may just hold off until it's replacement arrives and either buy one of those if it's worth the extra or grab a bargain on the run out model. The manager at our local Richer Sounds knows I'm in the market and has emailed me with discount offers a couple of times, so I'm sure he'll be straight on to me as soon as anything is known about the replacement.

Sorry to hear about the probate stress. It SHOULD be sorted soon. I had to wait oer a year for HMRC to shift theiry tardy rear end when buying my daughters bungalow. THat was bad enough, but as soon as they got probate it was quick,and all the expenses should be deductable direct from the estate in the end. I think actually dying will be easier than dealing with legal people.

Secondly, wait for the new one! What are you thinking man?
OLD IS BEST!!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Sorry to hear about the probate stress. It SHOULD be sorted soon. I had to wait oer a year for HMRC to shift theiry tardy rear end when buying my daughters bungalow. THat was bad enough, but as soon as they got probate it was quick,and all the expenses should be deductable direct from the estate in the end. I think actually dying will be easier than dealing with legal people.

Secondly, wait for the new one! What are you thinking man?
OLD IS BEST!!

I definitely subscribe to OLD IS BEST - and should be cheaper too?

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I think actually dying will be easier than dealing with legal people.

At my age, dying before it's all sorted out is a distinct possibility.

 

[bugsymike]

At my age, dying before it's all sorted out is a distinct possibility.

Maybe you should have asked the solicitors the total cost at the beginning and then suggested a 10% bonus if early completion, my daughters are trying to sell one and buy another, half the time the solicitor is not available to ask questions as they only work part time!
When you are talking about £2-300 plus an hour it makes me wish I had studied harder at school!!!!

 

[The Panda Nut]

I definitely subscribe to OLD IS BEST - and should be cheaper too?

Yep. Im cheap!

 

[SB1500]

Cheap little CCP produced dust caps. The kind that need an allen key to tighten / loosen. Security right? That's what I had thought / hoped for. Got a set for a few £ off eBay. Already was aware of the risks of rounding them, carried a few sizes bigger of allen key tucked in the owners book folder.

Multi-story car park on Saturday afternoon... hear a slapping sound, sounded like a flip-flop attached to the wheel. Checked, it was a screw, shiny silver round as new head lodged fully into the flat centre part of the tyre. Drove about 2 miles across town and had intended to change it to the spare to be safe. Somehow in that time, the screw was malformed and the rubber around it all appeared melted. Changed the tyre then and there. Lexus have the absolutely ugliest spare steel I've ever seen, but it did the job.

Only place open to fix the puncture was about 15 miles in the next town down at that time. Had long trips to make yesterday, thought better with the proper tyre. Went to get it fixed.

Couldn't get the dust cap off with either allen key, rounded immediately. Told the guy if he has to destroy the cap or stem to get it off that this is fine. Said he'd need to ruin the stem, no issues. Except when he had the tyre off, Toyota's genius little over-priced, over-fragile stupid TPMS sensor is the stem. So it can't be cut off. They even handed me the pliers to have a go, I thought a good enough grip and it'd surely loosen. Nope. This was around 3.45 , they were closing at 4.30. Had to admit defeat it seemed.

Headed to Asda, got a £2 junior hack saw and cut it off myself, and a cheap set of tiny little screwdrivers (for the flat heads). Managed to cut through finely and then put pressure on the cap to snap off in a series of fragments. Then I could screw out the TPMS sensor unharmed.

Drove right back to the tyre centre, they were happy enough to fix the puncture then. Just in time. Thankfully.

Yesterday washing the car decided to sort the other three, each one would not budge so had to be cut off. Some minor scratches on the first alloy which took the longest to get it off.

Lesson learnt. Don't buy cheap, crappy CCP-spew parts. Those are probably the only non-genuine part (other than the tyre rubber itself) on the car and they've bloody caused a hassle. And the most ironic thing about this to me was, in the pursuit of loosening these with any of the allen keys, I'd slightly pushed them in too far and guess what - the air releases from the tyre. So what's the bloody point in these 'security lock' dust caps. If bad actors can potentially, just as easy, let your air out... at least that's what I thought these 'security' ones were for.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Cheap little CCP produced dust caps. The kind that need an allen key to tighten / loosen. Security right? That's what I had thought / hoped for. Got a set for a few £ off eBay. Already was aware of the risks of rounding them, carried a few sizes bigger of allen key tucked in the owners book folder.

Multi-story car park on Saturday afternoon... hear a slapping sound, sounded like a flip-flop attached to the wheel. Checked, it was a screw, shiny silver round as new head lodged fully into the flat centre part of the tyre. Drove about 2 miles across town and had intended to change it to the spare to be safe. Somehow in that time, the screw was malformed and the rubber around it all appeared melted. Changed the tyre then and there. Lexus have the absolutely ugliest spare steel I've ever seen, but it did the job.

Only place open to fix the puncture was about 15 miles in the next town down at that time. Had long trips to make yesterday, thought better with the proper tyre. Went to get it fixed.

Couldn't get the dust cap off with either allen key, rounded immediately. Told the guy if he has to destroy the cap or stem to get it off that this is fine. Said he'd need to ruin the stem, no issues. Except when he had the tyre off, Toyota's genius little over-priced, over-fragile stupid TPMS sensor is the stem. So it can't be cut off. They even handed me the pliers to have a go, I thought a good enough grip and it'd surely loosen. Nope. This was around 3.45 , they were closing at 4.30. Had to admit defeat it seemed.

Headed to Asda, got a £2 junior hack saw and cut it off myself, and a cheap set of tiny little screwdrivers (for the flat heads). Managed to cut through finely and then put pressure on the cap to snap off in a series of fragments. Then I could screw out the TPMS sensor unharmed.

Drove right back to the tyre centre, they were happy enough to fix the puncture then. Just in time. Thankfully.

Yesterday washing the car decided to sort the other three, each one would not budge so had to be cut off. Some minor scratches on the first alloy which took the longest to get it off.

Lesson learnt. Don't buy cheap, crappy CCP-spew parts. Those are probably the only non-genuine part (other than the tyre rubber itself) on the car and they've bloody caused a hassle. And the most ironic thing about this to me was, in the pursuit of loosening these with any of the allen keys, I'd slightly pushed them in too far and guess what - the air releases from the tyre. So what's the bloody point in these 'security lock' dust caps. If bad actors can potentially, just as easy, let your air out... at least that's what I thought these 'security' ones were for.

I totally get the point about security but I've seen a number of "cheap but fancy" aftermarket valve caps which just won't unscrew. I think it's because they are aluminium and corrode electrolyticaly to the brass of the valve stem. Not such a problem for us with elderly FIATs - or even new VAG products - because they have ordinary valves so cheap to just renew the valve. It was one of the things about the Suzuki Ignis I was looking at which put me off. I believe around £60 to £70 to buy these radio sender type monitors. It was one of the things on my question sheet I asked about when researching the Scala.

 

[SB1500]

I totally get the point about security but I've seen a number of "cheap but fancy" aftermarket valve caps which just won't unscrew. I think it's because they are aluminium and corrode electrolyticaly to the brass of the valve stem. Not such a problem for us with elderly FIATs - or even new VAG products - because they have ordinary valves so cheap to just renew the valve. It was one of the things about the Suzuki Ignis I was looking at which put me off. I believe around £60 to £70 to buy these radio sender type monitors. It was one of the things on my question sheet I asked about when researching the Scala.

Japanese definitely guilty of doing a bit of ‘German engineering’ on that one for definite. I think if the basic way even the Panda Pop models do works, why not do that?! I think after 2018 they at least don’t need dealer or mechanic programming and they auto attach to the other three after some miles, which is my main hang up with them as otherwise you could buy and nip to the tyre shop and have it installed. Definitely a down side of what are supposed to be DIY friendly hassle free cars!

 

[PuntoHowTo]

I totally get the point about security but I've seen a number of "cheap but fancy" aftermarket valve caps which just won't unscrew. I think it's because they are aluminium and corrode electrolyticaly to the brass of the valve stem. Not such a problem for us with elderly FIATs - or even new VAG products - because they have ordinary valves so cheap to just renew the valve. It was one of the things about the Suzuki Ignis I was looking at which put me off. I believe around £60 to £70 to buy these radio sender type monitors. It was one of the things on my question sheet I asked about when researching the Scala.

I think if you have upset people to the extent that you need to lock your tire valve caps then you probably need to rethink some life choices.

But as you point out galvanic corrosion occurs between the metals, and I believe alloy reacts and corrodes in the presence of brass even faster than if it were just steel/iron which means it doesn't take long for the cheap nasty valve caps to glue themselves on for all prosperity. That being said our mini has tire pressure monitoring valves and the barrel is alloy so alloy caps technically would not react, but I suspect the lower quality metal in cheap after market caps would probably still contain metals capable of causing a reaction.

Weirdly I have never had a problem with black plastic valve caps, nor have I had issues with people interfering with my tires. Then again if you check your tire pressures regularly then its probably not going to be so much of an issue for valve caps to weld themselves on.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Cheap little CCP produced dust caps. The kind that need an allen key to tighten / loosen. Security right? That's what I had thought / hoped for. Got a set for a few £ off eBay. Already was aware of the risks of rounding them, carried a few sizes bigger of allen key tucked in the owners book folder.

Multi-story car park on Saturday afternoon... hear a slapping sound, sounded like a flip-flop attached to the wheel. Checked, it was a screw, shiny silver round as new head lodged fully into the flat centre part of the tyre. Drove about 2 miles across town and had intended to change it to the spare to be safe. Somehow in that time, the screw was malformed and the rubber around it all appeared melted. Changed the tyre then and there. Lexus have the absolutely ugliest spare steel I've ever seen, but it did the job.

Only place open to fix the puncture was about 15 miles in the next town down at that time. Had long trips to make yesterday, thought better with the proper tyre. Went to get it fixed.

Couldn't get the dust cap off with either allen key, rounded immediately. Told the guy if he has to destroy the cap or stem to get it off that this is fine. Said he'd need to ruin the stem, no issues. Except when he had the tyre off, Toyota's genius little over-priced, over-fragile stupid TPMS sensor is the stem. So it can't be cut off. They even handed me the pliers to have a go, I thought a good enough grip and it'd surely loosen. Nope. This was around 3.45 , they were closing at 4.30. Had to admit defeat it seemed.

Headed to Asda, got a £2 junior hack saw and cut it off myself, and a cheap set of tiny little screwdrivers (for the flat heads). Managed to cut through finely and then put pressure on the cap to snap off in a series of fragments. Then I could screw out the TPMS sensor unharmed.

Drove right back to the tyre centre, they were happy enough to fix the puncture then. Just in time. Thankfully.

Yesterday washing the car decided to sort the other three, each one would not budge so had to be cut off. Some minor scratches on the first alloy which took the longest to get it off.

Lesson learnt. Don't buy cheap, crappy CCP-spew parts. Those are probably the only non-genuine part (other than the tyre rubber itself) on the car and they've bloody caused a hassle. And the most ironic thing about this to me was, in the pursuit of loosening these with any of the allen keys, I'd slightly pushed them in too far and guess what - the air releases from the tyre. So what's the bloody point in these 'security lock' dust caps. If bad actors can potentially, just as easy, let your air out... at least that's what I thought these 'security' ones were for.

You and me both knobbled by these rubbish things. I was lucky enough to be at home and had access to my Dremel and a little cutting disc. Please everyone, take note and just buy the brass based caps or plastic ones. You can get car logo's ones made of brass and this does not happen. The way these things seize to the valve is quite staggering and it does not take very long at all a month may be.

 

[StevenRB45]

I think the first time I remember hearing about these ruining someones day was in Max Power magazine.

This dates it to a period when I wasn't actually old enough to own a car...so they've been crap for a very long time.