What's made you grumpy today?

[bugsymike]

If I had a bike and he had a bike that's fine cos I've got mechanical advantage on my side, he'd have to pedal far faster I could gear down.

Both on foot he's getting tall these days, has endless energy and when he runs has a proper stride. Yes, I travel further per stride...but other than that he's got all the cards .

It's also the power to weight ratio, he is probably half your weight???

 

[StevenRB45]

More like a 1/3rd...so yes he can change direction like a housefly..

 

[bugsymike]

More like a 1/3rd...so yes he can change direction like a housefly..

I once pulled the ligaments in my ankle chasing my son in the garden.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

So a few months back I built a bespoke bike for my boy out of parts I acquired from all over.

An alloy frame, I custom built some straight spoke wheels, new light cranks and fitted new Vbrakes front and back. It looked pretty smart. He liked it, however, only being used to balance bikes he did not appreciate the added complexity of pedalling and so whacked his shins a few times trying to push it along with his feet, this put him off it completely and so he wouldn’t even try it because he kept “falling off” and he’d made comments about wanting “little wheels” on the side.

So I spent last night making some custom stabilisers from some Amazon scooter wheels, and some flat bar I had, also a few bolts and a coat of black paint. The problem with making a bespoke bike with quick release wheels is that normal stabilisers won’t fit.

I drilled and tapped the frame, shaped the bars and welded them, drilled and tapped holes for the wheel bolts and then gave the whole thing a coat of metallic black. I even put a set of aldi £5 bike lights on there.

The whole thing looked quite smart
View attachment 470344



This morning he came down to find it in the kitchen. And found it, rather than being pleased he complained it was “wobbly” because the wheels don’t always touch the ground so if he goes into a rut the back wheels doesn’t come off the ground, and then proceeded to tell me he was going to “smash it” and went and found a hammer which was promptly taken off him.
Later in the day he did try sitting on and pedalling it but I don’t think he was convinced.
So that was time and money well spent.

Ffs

Many years ago when all our kids were young there was a craze for "Carties" (think soap box) and I built a "super Carty" for my youngest. It had a tubular steel chassis with decent wheels and steering similar to what you see on a go cart, and, the biggest feature, it had a steering wheel when all the others were rope steering. On the second day after I gave it to him he left it outside the front door while he came in to the toilet and by the time he went back out it had gone. I kept an eye out for it when out and about in the car for weeks but never saw any sign of it, asked about too but no one had seem it. I was pretty gutted as I'd put a lot of effort and used some "treasure" bits and pieced - the steering wheel was an old wood faced Moto Lita from my Mini.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Grumpy but, more than anything, sad.

Heard yesterday, from his wife, that my very good neighbour from across the road, who's been in supported accommodation for several years now, is on the "last laps" with Parkinson's and not expected to be with us much longer. He worked in engineering procurement (stores) and was a man who had a similar outlook on life to me. He'll be much missed.

Then, this morning, I was just getting out of the car, when "Bob the welder" who I've been friends with for years and lives just a few hundred yards up the road, stopped his car and wound his window down. He often does this if he sees me and it's very nice to catch up with what he's doing. Unfortunately this time it was not good. He's been burgled! In broad daylight at about 2.15 pm yesterday. They got in through his side window - smashed it right out of the frame - and stole their holiday money and his Mrs jewelry which was on the bed waiting to be packed. They've got an alarm, which went off, but the low life scum just ignored it, went about their business and ran past neighbours outside to escape - He thinks they were dressed in black with balaclavas and gloves etc. They were long gone before the police got there and have left no finger prints or other usable evidence. Sickening.

Edit. Which reminds me, my policeman friend took a look at my security a wee while ago and was actually very impressed - which was nice - but he did highlight one weakness. Needless to say, I've done nothing about it yet I really must "extricate the digit" and get that done asap.

 

[ZaphodB]

Paying nearly 2K to HMRC

Barstewards

Done now 'til January

 

[bugsymike]

Paying nearly 2K to HMRC

Barstewards

Done now 'til January

Someone has to pay for the hotels. Of course I mean the ones the Politicians get to stay in when "working"abroad.

 

[portland_bill]

Paying nearly 2K to HMRC

Barstewards

Done now 'til January

Thank you very much for your contribution to my pension. It is much appreciated.

When I became self-employed, in 2004, I opened an ISA. I have since, put into it every month, approximately what I think I would owe in tax. Now it is showing a healthy excess, but from the start it meant no surprises when tax return time came.
I also like the feeling of tax-free interest, on what is effectively my tax payment.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Paying nearly 2K to HMRC

Barstewards

Done now 'til January

Try paying that every month

 

[portland_bill]

Try paying that every month

You have to be earning to have that amount due.

 

[Roadpro]

hi.went to pick up my new to me panda cross, payed my life savings over, drove for 5 miles away from dealer ,rear diff blew up.
hey ho .did get back to dealer ,and yes he will repair. wonder whats involved ?

 

[ZaphodB]

Sounds bad that after 5 miles lol

You can formally reject it and find another if you want to ...

Was it brand new or used?

 

[The Panda Nut]

Well, they're not great quality wise - think modern MG. Offers you so much more on the spec list, copies most of the looks from bits and pieces of the first-world manufacturers and mixes them all together into something the non-car person would think looks good or blends in well with other new cars. So people buy them.

Though what we've seen in the past five years (especially with smartphones and electronics) is that the Chinese are making some quite good, feature packed, decent quality products and still selling them way under the cost of the lowest, most basic first-world brands offering. They're doing this in all countries that'll let them (think the US and Australia are amongst the few that are forward thinking enough to see the fall out from this in the near future, so have stopped it).

The plan is... win over all the customers, ensure the other companies can't compete, let them wind up or fail to compete (most of them are already bending over backwards to sell in the China market anyway, where much of the tooling and manufacturing kit / processes are being stolen and re-used domestically). Use their own innovation against the others.

My issue is how they do it... child labour, forced labour, slave labour, disregard for the environment / ethics in pretty much every way. Not just crafty private companies abusing workers / exploiting them for money, but actually the government itself forcing people into it and subsidising the price of the products sold around the world. Literally spending money to destroy the competition around the world. Being okay with making a loss because it's a long term investment for them.

They're not the only government to be at this. They're just the biggest, the smartest and the most successful. And with no counter-weights such as high courts, or economic or UN like bodies having any say or intervention, they can quite literally do what they want and get away with it. Indefinite dictators can overcome the limits of the four year at a time tenures (although to be fair, 14 years of the conservatives didn't really do much good overall lol). You can get a lot more done when you can think 150 years ahead, unopposed! Even take down the global electronics or car or <insert other> industries :-(

There will be piles of these causing an environmental disaster when just a few years old and no spares are available. Too many spurious makes of cheap cars. Buy in haste etc etc

 

[bugsymike]

You have to be earning to have that amount due.

When asking my old boss for a pay rise he said he wasn't making any money, with his next breath he was moaning about his tax bill , until I pointed out you only pay that on profits so he went quiet.
In his presence a customer inquired about my wages, I said I got paid weekly.....Very Weakly.
When I went self employed with my own business, I became Vat registered as reached threshold. At the time VAT was 8% I think and I didn't object as it was paid on the profit element, although nowadays at 20% I would have felt less happy.

 

[ZaphodB]

When asking my old boss for a pay rise he said he wasn't making any money, with his next breath he was moaning about his tax bill , until I pointed out you only pay that on profits so he went quiet.
In his presence a customer inquired about my wages, I said I got paid weekly.....Very Weakly.

So weakly it's almost a fortnight


.....I'll get me coat