What's made you smile today?

[bugsymike]

They seem to have extensive coverage in England and Wales but are conspicuously absent up here. Wonder why?

I tried them for a set of rear discs on Skoda Scout 4x4 , price on line seemed good, on collection they said that was each, even though I had the paperwork, so left them there and ordered a pair of Mintex from eBay cheaper and delivered.
Strange really as they have been good for other stuff.

 

[porta]

I tried them for a set of rear discs on Skoda Scout 4x4 , price on line seemed good, on collection they said that was each, even though I had the paperwork, so left them there and ordered a pair of Mintex from eBay cheaper and delivered.
Strange really as they have been good for other stuff.

I got caught out with that at Pages with punto discs, they delivered one disc. needless to say, I wasn’t impressed, so he took it away

 

[portland_bill]

A marketing email from AO.com. Before opening it, the headline said "Oral B toothbrush, £105 off". How the hell can it be so much that they can take £105 off. Apparently, normal price £160, now special at £55. I'd still expect 10 for that much.

 

[porta]

A marketing email from AO.com. Before opening it, the headline said "Oral B toothbrush, £105 off". How the hell can it be so much that they can take £105 off. Apparently, normal price £160, now special at £55. I'd still expect 10 for that much.

It’s also probably a spam email

 

[PuntoHowTo]

A marketing email from AO.com. Before opening it, the headline said "Oral B toothbrush, £105 off". How the hell can it be so much that they can take £105 off. Apparently, normal price £160, now special at £55. I'd still expect 10 for that much.

Because the mark up on those tooth brushes is massive and with us now coming up to Christmas, they do massive discounts to try and encourage people to buy them as presents, at what is normally a reasonable price for what they're selling.

I am guessing it's this one ?
https://ao.com/product/oraio3pk-oral-b-io-3-electric-toothbrushe-pink-103271-409.aspx

actually it looks like they have some reasonable deals on kids tooth brushes so I might see If I can get one for our little-un

 

[varesecrazy]

Boing said Zebedee..
{Child of the 70's here}

After a little tinkering I am greeted with this

 

[portland_bill]

It’s also probably a spam email

Nope, real email, from a real company.

Because the mark up on those tooth brushes is massive and with us now coming up to Christmas, they do massive discounts to try and encourage people to buy them as presents, at what is normally a reasonable price for what they're selling.

I am guessing it's this one ?
https://ao.com/product/oraio3pk-oral-b-io-3-electric-toothbrushe-pink-103271-409.aspx

actually it looks like they have some reasonable deals on kids tooth brushes so I might see If I can get one for our little-un

I don't understand why anyone would pay £55 for a toothbrush, let alone £160. Pink also has a limited market, perhaps that's why they need to shift the stock.

 

[portland_bill]

Boing said Zebedee..
{Child of the 70's here}

After a little tinkering I am greeted with thisView attachment 455335

So were you trying to remove the knob, or just fiddling and broke it?
How far did the knob fly? Will you ever see it again?
Lastly, the correct modification now is to attach a Mole grip to it.

 

[bugsymike]

So were you trying to remove the knob, or just fiddling and broke it?
How far did the knob fly? Will you ever see it again?
Lastly, the correct modification now is to attach a Mole grip to it.

Reminds me of a silly trick we used to do when adjusting cigarette lighters in cars where we would set it to grip and get really hot then adjust the side grips back so when it released it shot right out red hot in the guys lap
By the way I am not so lazy as you guys re electric toothbrushes, but I change them every three of four days as I tend to bend them.
Note they are the firm ones also.
My dentist advised against this practice, but I still have most of my teeth at 71.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Nope, real email, from a real company.

I don't understand why anyone would pay £55 for a toothbrush, let alone £160. Pink also has a limited market, perhaps that's why they need to shift the stock.

I think the last one I bought was about £40 but they do last for years, just change the heads which can be bought cheaply.
And I agree there is probably a limited number of people buying pink tooth brushes.

 

[StevenRB45]

Looked out of the window at the correct/incorrect moment...

Local Go company has taken on some Ex-london double deckers (they've been destickered but you can see the voids where they were).

There was one crawling up the hill to the village at 4mph.

Because sometimes a de-specced diesel engine with a tonne of emissions gear on it for town centre use probably not your best bet.

Although strangely enough it's not uncommon to see buses here with steam streaming from under the rear end.

Unfortunately for the driver...it's got another 200ft (altitude not distance) to go before it reaches the top of its route..

 

[varesecrazy]

Local Go company has taken on some Ex-london double deckers (they've been destickered but you can see the voids where they were).

There was one crawling up the hill to the village at 4mph.

Because sometimes a de-specced diesel engine with a tonne of emissions gear on it for town centre use probably not your best bet.

Emissions regs..
A real can of worms

Unfortunately for the driver...it's got another 200ft (altitude not distance) to go before it reaches the top of its route..

So approx 1/2 a mile of road then..

 

[StevenRB45]

Emissions regs..
A real can of worms


So approx 1/2 a mile of road then..

Nah he's got about a mile to the top of the golf course...of varying gradients (it flattens where my house is a for abit) but all up hill until he's over the Tyne valley and dropping into the Derwent where the route ends.

Queue of cars behind him suggested it's been struggling a while...wasn't even more than half full.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Nah he's got about a mile to the top of the golf course...of varying gradients (it flattens where my house is a for abit) but all up hill until he's over the Tyne valley and dropping into the Derwent where the route ends.

Queue of cars behind him suggested it's been struggling a while...wasn't even more than half full.

A previously heavily used bus which probably has an auto transmission + hills is never going to be a good mix.

 

[StevenRB45]

They do very much send them up here to die...we killed the bendy buses in short order.

We did get some new ones that were specced for here and while I'm sure they are euro 6 as well...I'd bet both the gearing and the engine specification is somewhat different.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

They do very much send them up here to die...we killed the bendy buses in short order.

We did get some new ones that were specced for here and while I'm sure they are euro 6 as well...I'd bet both the gearing and the engine specification is somewhat different.

I wouldn’t say there are obvious north south divides but we’ve just had a brand new fleet of electric buses paid for by the government around here, the old ones are not that old so probably got sold and sent off else where, they paid out about £1Bn for new trains a few years back and the old ones were sold off else where in the country also. It’s pretty obvious the divide is real and all the crap makes its way up north once we are done with it down here.

In london the average speed of those buses over their lifetime is probably only 2-3 mph they’re probably not as you say geared for your neck of the woods

 

[StevenRB45]

Well up here you get to hear them scream given you take a bus that's probably never been over 40mph more than a handful of times..and put it on roads that are either national limit or steep up or down hill.

They are either riding the brakes down hill or flat out..

We don't have these trains...what are they?

 

[porta]

Nope, real email, from a real company.

I don't understand why anyone would pay £55 for a toothbrush, let alone £160. Pink also has a limited market, perhaps that's why they need to shift the stock.

There’s a lot that imitating real companies, I’ve got the Which Spam Tracker
As for pink, I buy lots of pink stuff as it was the colour of all The Clash’ equipment, speaker cabs, touring crates etc…I’ve even, what remains, of my pink Mohican!

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Well up here you get to hear them scream given you take a bus that's probably never been over 40mph more than a handful of times..and put it on roads that are either national limit or steep up or down hill.

They are either riding the brakes down hill or flat out..

We don't have these trains...what are they?

Here we have a lot of rural routes so its not uncommon to see a double decker doing 60 on its way to great Yarmouth up the A47. on its way from Norwich.
They also operate them to a lot of the larger towns and villages out in the countryside.

I suspect the ones that go the longer distances at the higher speeds are geared or tuned differently as they never use the "local" ie in city buses for these longer distance services and they seem to have their own dedicated fleet.

I just now tried to look into the trains, they began the roll out of the brand new trains just before Covid. The old ones being retired off as the new ones came in. I seem to remember at the time the articles said a lot of the trains would go off to Transport for Wales to replace a lot of their "Pacer" trains which were trains made from the body of a 1970s Bus.

I read recently that a lot of old UK trains are being sold off to developing countries, so the intercity 125 that I use to travel back and forth from Iondon to Cardiff on, can now be found in Mexico, and often still in the operator colours of the UK companies because they just put them to work and didn't bother replacing them.
There is also talk that the old 90 Class trains that used to operate between Norwich and london (basically an electric version of the 125) may also soon be retired off and sent abroad.

Ironically if you drive to Great Yarmouth there is a growing number of very old train carriages just out side the main station, from these older trains, that I suspect are their due to their proximity to the Port in Yarmouth, so they can easily move them to the dock, load them on a ship and shift them abroad without taking up space at a more important or busy port.

 

[StevenRB45]

Without going full bus nerd...there's X lines which tend have purpose built buses on them being the high frequency relatively high speed routes these run up to Consett. These are quite nice leather seats, WiFi, AC etc.

Then you have the little village routes...which take 2 hours to travel 8 miles as the crow flies. They aren't particularly profitable I'd imagine hence the old London buses. But the issue with that is they break down so often and are so slow they're not viable method of transport unless you're retired and have literally all day to watch the world go by.

We only got rid of Pacers recently although their slightly fatter cousins (sprinter class 155) are still very much in evidence.

There are actually some old railway wagons I walk past daily..as a child I wondered why they'd dragged these old vans up here to be sheds..surely it's not economic.

Of course they are 40s/50s vintage and where the sit is actually 1/4 from what was the colliery goods yard.

Seem to remember the class 91 being the 225 rather than the 125...but I might be thinking of the electric freight loco was the 90.